I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 676 Burning Eastern Europe III

"You should be afraid of war." The burly curly-haired man in front of Yanik turned his head sideways, "Russians are not weak."

"What's that?" The blond young man puffed up his chest, "I am a glorious Crusader, and I will destroy all heretics and invaders under the light of God!"

The burly man shook his head and said disdainfully:

"God will not help you block cannonballs..."

Drasovitz immediately interrupted him loudly:

"Krzysztof, you will affect morale!"

He turned to Yannick and whispered:

"He was a Livonian, you know...his family was dead."

Livonia was originally a province in northeastern Poland and was occupied by Russia during the "One Melon War". After that, the Catholics there were repeatedly persecuted. Krzysztof's family was executed for "supporting the anti-Russian resistance", and he was only able to escape execution as a child.

Drasovitz pointed to a nearby farmhouse with rubble and wood piled at the door - indicating that no soldiers lived there - and said:

"Let's go there."

The most indispensable thing here is empty houses, and as long as they don't leave too far from the east parapet, they can choose "temporary barracks" at will.

When Drasovitz pulled away the garbage outside the door and pushed open the door, he immediately smelled a stench, and then saw a teenage boy, covered in filth, huddled in the corner of the room, looking timidly. Hold yourself.

Yannick followed in, glanced at the child, frowned and said:

"Why are you still in the village? The Russians are coming."

When the child heard Polish, he immediately said cautiously: "Old... Master, do you have anything to eat?"

The voice turned out to be a girl.

Krzysztof squeezed over, took out a piece of black bread from his backpack, and handed it to her:

"Eat."

The child grabbed the bread, took a bite, then turned around and shouted:

"Kaqi, there is food, come out quickly!"

After a moment, a little boy about six or seven years old, who was dirtier than her, came out of the fireplace, took half of the bread, and started to gnaw on it.

Drasovitz looked at the two children:

"Didn't you leave with the adults?"

The girl chewed the bread hard and said calmly:

"Auntie didn't take us away..."

It took a while for Drasovitz to understand that the father of the two children had died of illness last month, and their relatives had left them here.

The corporal hesitated for a moment, took out his food, and signaled to Yannick:

"Give me yours too."

He gave the girl a few large pieces of brown bread and a bit of bacon, and pointed to the west:

"Take your brother and walk straight this way. You will see the supply station in two or three days. The baggage train there may be able to take you to Slutsk."

Looking at the food in her hand that was enough for her and her brother to last for four or five days, the girl knelt down to thank the soldiers, and then amidst the rumble of cannons, she picked up the little boy and ran out of the village.

Yannick watched them go away and made the sign of the cross on his chest:

"May God bless them."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard the "chirping" sound of artillery shells piercing the air past his ears. Immediately, a black iron ball hit the ground hard, raising mud all over the sky.

Under the influence of huge inertia, the cannonball bounced off the ground, fell, bounced up again, and then passed gently over the backs of the siblings.

"No!"

Drasowitz roared angrily, dropped his gun, and ran over like crazy.

On that piece of hay, there was only blood spattered far away, and fragments of the girl's dirty clothes.

There is no trace of the person.

The corporal felt a tightness in his chest, lowered his head and yelled at the top of his lungs:

"Ah - ah -"

Several other soldiers also gathered around, staring blankly at the ground without saying a word.

Suddenly, Krzysztof raised his gun with red eyes, pointed in the direction of the cannonball and pulled the trigger hard.

The sound of "pop" gunshots was heard.

Breathing heavily, he took out the gunpowder bag and poured it into the barrel of the gun tremblingly.

A sergeant heard the gunshot and ran out from a hut not far away, pointing at Krzysztof and shouting:

"Henrik, what are you doing? Don't shoot without orders!"

"These bastards!" Krzysztof gritted his teeth and made a dull sound in his throat.

Drasovitz hurriedly took away his gun and said to the sergeant:

"Monitor, please forgive him. Two children were killed just now, so..."

He suddenly paused, quickly ran to the haystack beside the squad leader, pulled hard a few times, and took little Kaqi out of it.

"He's alive!" he shouted over his shoulder.

Half an hour later.

The little boy woke up slowly in the smelly farmhouse and looked around blankly.

Those kind-hearted soldiers were all here, but his sister was missing.

The Russian bombardment continued throughout the day.

Drasovitz no longer said that "the shells will not hit us" because the density of the Russian army's artillery far exceeded any battle he had seen before.

Half of the houses in the village were destroyed by artillery shells. The soldiers no longer dared to stay in the houses, but gathered in groups under the parapet.

At 10 a.m. the next day, trumpets sounded almost simultaneously along the Polish defense line, which was more than ten kilometers long.

Without needing to be reminded by the company commander, Drasovitz loudly greeted the recruits:

"Get up, hurry up! The Russians are coming, prepare to form a formation!"

He had just joined the horizontal team behind the breastwork with a few new recruits when he vaguely saw a large number of Russian soldiers in gray uniforms emerging from the bushes in the distance.

The gray color became more and more visible in their field of vision. More than ten minutes later, the gray crowd had covered the open space in front of the breastwork, like a dark cloud with no end in sight, slowly surging towards the Polish defense line.

Soon, Drasovitz and others could vaguely hear the drums from the Russian side.

Krzysztof swallowed his saliva and said hoarsely:

"Damn, how many people are there?"

Drasovitz glanced at the company commander and whispered:

"Don't be nervous, there are less than 800 people. They should just be the scattered soldiers they use to test."

The company commander rode past them on horseback and shouted loudly:

"Keep calm, don't move!"

Soon, the dark cloud had pressed more than a hundred steps away.

The only two cannons in Zagazyk Village were pushed out of the haystack and began to fire at the Russians.

The shells left a few bright red spots in the Russian army, but they did not slow down their pace at all. When the nearest Russian soldier approached 60 steps in front of the breastwork, they stopped and started shooting.

"Ready--"

The company commander's voice finally came, and Drasovitz immediately raised his gun and signaled to the recruits beside him:

"Did you hear that? Hold up your guns, but don't shoot!"

Yannick excitedly aimed at the tallest Russian in his field of vision, and heard the officer's order, "Aim--"

"Shoot--"

As soon as his finger touched the trigger, he heard a muffled "puff" sound, and when he looked sideways, he saw that the teammate standing on the left had lost half of his head, and a pungent smell of blood immediately enveloped him.