Chapter 36: Mud and Blood

Chapter 36: Mud and Blood



How exactly did Bruno find himself in this situation, despite holding the rank of Generalmajor? Well, if he had to reflect on his actions that led to this point. He would say that he made an error when calculating human nature versus the societal conditioning.

For years in his past life, he had learned that the Empire of Japan and its soldiers were fanatically loyal to their Emperor, so much so that they were willing to charge through machine gun fire with swords in hands in order to achieve victory.

And while that may be true for the individual soldiers that are composed of the Army. The same level of zeal and bravery evidently could not be found in the Japanese leadership who were not compelled by Bruno's challenge and instead used him as a scapegoat to mask their repeated failures.

There was just one problem with this scheme.... Bruno emerged victorious in his charge up 203 Meter Hill and somehow managed to survive the conflict completely unscathed. Currently Bruno was standing within a trench line, having secured the entire hill, he was covered in blood. Just as the blade of his bayonet was.

But it was not his blood. No, it was the blood of the many Russians he had killed, either by shooting them in close quarters, or by stabbing them through their vitals with his bayonet. In fact, Bruno wasn't just covered in blood, but mud as well.

After all, trench warfare was incredibly dirty business, and he had slipped and fallen on his ass during one of his melee encounters. How he managed to survive, well perhaps the Lord God almighty really existed and had sent a guardian angel to protect him.

Even now Bruno struggled to comprehend how he managed to escape from a dangerous position, and instead kill the man who had tried to take his life. Heinrich and Erich had boldly followed Bruno into the field. They were no doubt pissed at the man for so recklessly charging through machine gun fire.

But even so, they followed after him, and survived somehow or another. Albeit, they weren't nearly as lucky as Bruno was. Heinrich had a glancing blow from a bayonet to his forearm. While Erich had been shot in the calf by a Nagant Revolver.

Neither of which was anything more than flesh wounds. Which were currently being treated by the Japanese medics, along with all the others who had been wounded in the fighting. At the same time, the two men were speaking to Bruno. What exactly they were saying, Bruno didn't know. He was, after all out of sorts, so to speak.

Instead, after his focus shifted from the sea of corpses which laid lifeless in the trenches to that of his subordinates, Bruno could finally hear what they were saying.

"As we speak the 11 pound guns are being moved up the hill into position to attack the Russian Fleet. Despite losing this battle, the Russians have made no attempts to move their ships.

Even so, Bruno had claimed a body count of well over two dozen in this battle. And the Japanese soldiers respected him not only as a commander, but as a warrior as well. By now, the officers beneath the Japanese general command had already reported the situation back to the Japanese mainland.

And because of this, the Japanese generals could not try to hide what really happened here on this day. As for Bruno, he approached the Japanese generals, seemingly without any indignation towards them. As he saluted the men and reported his success.

"Victory is ours. Today, September 1st 1904, Port Arthur has fallen. If I may be so bold, now is not the time to celebrate. Rather, we should gather all our forces in the region and march on Mukden where the Russian relief army is no doubt falling back to at this moment.

If we defeat the Russians at Mukden, the Tsar will be forced to surrender. And the war will officially be over. Now, would you gentlemen like the pleasure of properly leading your forces, or are you going to insist that I, your foreign advisor do so again?"

The Japanese generals looked at each other and instantly began clamoring amongst themselves for the right to lead their forces at Mukden. As for Bruno, he began making the proper preparations on behalf of whoever ended up in charge.

He did not know it yet, but the Japanese Emperor would have the battle of 203 Meter Hill properly investigated. And upon finding out that the rumors were true, that the German Military Advisor had taken command of the Third Army and led them to victory at Port Arthur, would reward Bruno with one of the highest honors the Emperor of Japan could bestow

upon military officers, whether domestic or foreign.

But that was a story for another time. For the rest of the evening, after making his preparations Bruno spent it properly cleaning himself up. After all, it was not exactly befitting of a German General to be covered in mud and blood.

Because of this, he would have a long and silent time to reflect on what happened today, and how in the future he could prevent such another dangerous scenario from occurring. Either way, Bruno had tasted real trench warfare. And though it might not be the same as what existed during the Great War.

His experience at 203 Meter Hill would stick with him for the rest of his life. No doubt, the next generation would have an extremely difficult time engaging in such battles across the

Western Front.

But that was not his concern as by then he would likely have risen to the highest rank in the German Army and would never need to personally step foot in the Trenches. Or so he hoped.