dying man

"What should we do? General?" The major turned pale.

"What else can I do? Of course, it is to evacuate the base to preserve the strength..." Ciger smiled bitterly, "Go to the command room to make arrangements. I will announce the news in person with all the officers and soldiers of the base later."

"Understood." The major nodded.

"God bless..." Seeing the back of the major leaving, Ziger covered his eyes with his hands in pain.

Base, Navy Officers Club.

Seeing Lange pushing open the door and running in, Becker and the other officers and soldiers quickly stood up and looked at Lange with concern.

"Have you figured it out? Why was the alarm raised outside?" Becker asked.

"It's clear, it's the British fleet coming." Lange panted.

"British guy? They really picked a good time!" a soldier said through gritted teeth.

"How many warships have they come?" Someone caught the point.

"I don't know, some people say it's five battleships and two aircraft carriers, and some people say it's four battleships and one aircraft carrier." Lange shook his head, "It's a mess outside, and I can't get any exact information at all. ."

"Damn it!" Becker's face was solemn. Even the news with the fewest warships was not something that the base's current troop strength could compete with. "What about General Tsig? Did he issue any orders?"

"I don't know yet..."

"Good afternoon, gentlemen." Just as Lange finished speaking, a thick and steady voice came from the broadcast on the wall of the bureau, "I am the commander of the base, Vice Admiral of the German Admiral Erich Erich. Tsig, I want to announce bad news to you - a British fleet is coming towards us at high speed from dozens of kilometers away. Their purpose is self-evident, and with the existing strength of our base, There is no way to stop them. In order to avoid unnecessary losses, I weighed it again and again and decided to order everyone to give up your position, leave the base and go to a safer place, repeat, everyone evacuate the base and go to a safer place ."

"What? Everyone evacuated the base?" Hearing this, everyone in the base was stunned, and Lieutenant General Zig's order to abandon the base and flee without a fight was beyond everyone's expectations.

"It's an honor to work with you for such a long time, and I'm also very grateful that you can follow me to leave the motherland and come to the Netherlands to build the base of Den Helder together, but everything and everyone has to leave one day..." The voice of Ritzger on the radio was a little stunted, "I will stay and do my duty as the commander of the base, and accompany the base to complete the final journey... I hope you can maintain the military appearance of the Imperial Navy after leaving the base, and don't cause trouble to the Netherlands, The Führer will soon be rebuilding a base with the Dutch military and assigning you a new commander. Remember, we lost this base, but the Empire is still here; we lost the High Seas Fleet, but the Führer still exists! exist!"

Hearing Zig's decision, everyone in the base fell silent, but only for a moment, and then they continued their work in unison.

They chose to disobey the order!

"Then what should we do? Evacuate the base?" In the club, a group of soldiers looked at Becker, the first mate.

"Of course I have to leave the base." Becker picked up the glass of wine he had previously drank on the table and drank it, "I don't want to stay in the port, and I can't move if I stay here and the British can't move - this is not our priority. What a cruiser should do!"

After listening to the first officer's words, the sailors were stunned, and then burst into cheers.

"Let's go! Let's meet the Brits!" Becker threw the glass back on the table and took the lead out of the club to walk towards the third ship Frankfurt, the Rune-class heavy cruiser moored in the port.

Base, headquarters.

Ciger changed into a brand new uniform in his office. Originally, he wanted to wait until the Fuhrer inspected the base, but he obviously couldn't wait for that day.

After getting dressed, Ziger pushed open the door and walked out, calling to the deputy who was commanding the officer to burn the documents not far away, "Winter, come here."

Winter heard Ziger's call and hurried over.

"General."

"How are the soldiers evacuating?" Zig asked with a smile.

"They... uh..." Winter stuttered a little. "They are all unwilling to leave the base..."

"What?" Zig's smile froze, "Why?"

"They all want to live with the base and with you!"

"What are they doing? What are they doing?" Ziger yelled angrily, "They are disobeying my order!"

"General... or..."

"Why not?!" Zig said angrily, "Winter, go and lead the guard battalion and drive them all away!"

"General..." Winter looked embarrassed.

"You..." Tsig pointed at Winter with trembling fingers. After a long time, he sighed, "Ah... Do you think so too?"

"Yes, General." Winter looked directly at Zig, "We all think so, we all want to stay and fight with you and the base to the end!"

"Confused..." Tsig smiled bitterly, "What can you do when you stay? Can you repel the British fleet? It's just an increase in casualties!"

"It doesn't matter if you add casualties, we are soldiers of the German Empire!" Winter said solemnly.

"Have you forgotten what the Führer often said?" Zig shook his head, "A living person is far more valuable than a hundred corpses! We must retain our vitality, because we are familiar with the Netherlands and how to operate an overseas base! You guys If you survive, the base is still alive, if you die, the base is really dead, understand?"

"I..." Winter wanted to say something else, but reason told him that what Zig said was right.

"Go! Carry out my orders, if you still recognize me as the commander." Zig said solemnly.

"Understood..." Winter lowered his head, turned and walked outside the headquarters.

"Wait!" Zig suddenly thought of something, he stopped Winter and said, "What about the three heavy cruisers moored in the port? Did they leave?"

"Not yet, they are refilling fuel supplies."

"Send someone to talk to their chief mate and see if they can help us transfer some of our people. I'm afraid there aren't enough cars at the base to move all of our people away."

"OK."

More than ten minutes later, the base port.

"Hurry up guys, the Lorraine is honking its horns and preparing to leave the port, we can't be much slower than them!"

"Lieutenant Colonel Berger?" A naval officer with the rank of major walked up to Berger, who was instructing the sailors to carry supplies and pump oil, and called tentatively.

"I am." Berger heard someone call him, and looked over suspiciously, "You are?"

"I'm Major Martin, from the base logistics department." Martin briefly introduced himself.

"Uh, what's the matter with you?" Fogel was a little confused when he heard a logistics officer looking for him.

"That's right, General Zig wants you to do me a favor." Martin said and pointed to a square not far behind him, where there were more than two hundred soldiers with luggage, "He wants you to Take us to evacuate, because there are not enough cars at the base..."

"Evacuate?" Berger smiled. "Then I'm afraid I won't be able to help you. We're going to leave at all."

"Then why are your soldiers carrying supplies..." The later officer looked at the busy sailors behind Berger.

Suddenly his eyes widened, because he found that the sailors of the Frankfurt were indeed carrying supplies, but they were removing supplies from the ship!