Chapter 17: "Vanguard" Armored Brigade

The engine of the satellite car that was discovered had been placed inside a box adorned with the emblem of the Ernst Thälmann Vanguard Organization. Some wooden boards had been used to secure it in place.

Clearly, this wasn't very normal, as these types of engines are usually transported in standardized crates.

Upon realizing that although the box wasn't original, it was a matching fit for the engine, the three individuals present immediately drew a connection to some possibilities based on the flags they had found earlier.

"Open all the boxes with the same markings around here." Liang En was the first to react and spoke up. "The tanks of the Vanguard Brigade might be hidden in this building."

In the following minutes, the three individuals used pry bars to open nearly all the wooden crates stored behind shelves. As expected, they found components made of steel and plastic inside some of the crates.

"Guns, turrets, tracks—" as the crates were opened one by one, the items within them began to make the eyes of everyone present shine brighter.

Taking a little over an hour, they sorted through all tank-related items inside those crates. The result was the discovery that a total of 15 wooden crates were filled with parts that appeared to belong to mini tanks.

"The parts inside have been very well preserved, they were almost processed before storage, and apart from some minor paint chips and wear, they look almost new," Liang En, who had thoroughly examined these spare parts, stated.

Similar to the flags and wooden boards they had found before, these tank parts had also been meticulously treated, allowing them to remain intact after over twenty years.

"I've found five engines and five chassis in total," Old Piers continued. "It aligns with the information we've seen before. While these tanks have different exteriors, all of the chassis and engines share the same model."

"But I've only seen three turrets," Piers added at this point, "This could be because the chassis and engines are the mobile components, prone to quicker wear, so they prepared more spares."

"No, those extra chassis aren't spares. Or rather, there aren't any extras at all." Liang En pointed at an open crate.

"You see, this front armor is different from the others, noticeably larger, and with an opening on top. If I'm not mistaken, the other two chassis likely belong to turretless assault guns."

"Back then, they had five types of mini tanks, namely T-34-76, T-34-85, T-54, SU-100, and SU-122." Old Piers read from his phone screen, then lifted his head and pointed at the crates.

"If I'm not mistaken, the five tanks in these crates are probably all the models of tanks that the Vanguard Tank Brigade was equipped with back then."

"But how did these things escape planned destruction during the merger of the two countries back then?" Piers' face showed confusion.

"You're right, things like flags are small enough that they could be easily taken away if someone intended. But it's not possible to smuggle a tank of this size under your clothes."

"If it was during a chaotic time, preserving these items would have been difficult, but not impossible." Liang En gestured to the parts inside the crates.

"For instance, they could have assembled spare parts into an empty tank shell and sent it for destruction, while secretly disassembling the original tanks into parts and smuggling them out."

"But why would those people do this—"

"After all, in such a large country, there will always be those who want to remember," Old Piers sighed softly.

"Although I don't know why those who left these things here never came back to retrieve them, they must have held some hope when they hid them back then."

Upon hearing Old Piers' words, Liang En nodded in agreement. All the items here had been carefully preserved, giving the impression that the original owners might return at any moment.

Evidently, if these things had been treated as garbage, they wouldn't have received such meticulous attention during preservation.

"Let's see what else is around here—" Liang En proposed at this point. After Old Piers' remarks, he felt that the joy of discovering treasures had diminished somewhat.

Especially when thinking about how these seemingly new items originated from a country that had vanished over twenty years ago, a sense of inexplicable emotion wrapped around his heart.

Fortunately, he wasn't the type to be overly sentimental, so this feeling came and went quickly.

Soon, using a small cart and long wooden boards they found in a corner of the warehouse, Liang En and the Murphy father and son loaded the crates onto the truck using the ropes and pulleys Liang En had brought with him.

Fortunately, although these items were called tanks, the main materials were just sheets of metal and plastic. Therefore, apart from the engines, the overall weight wasn't too heavy, making the transport quite manageable.

After moving these crates, the warehouse appeared much emptier. Perhaps these tanks had used up all their luck for this trip, as the things they found after that were not as impressive.

For instance, they found an entire box of film rolls and negatives, but all of them had been deliberately exposed, so they were now nothing more than flammable trash.

Similarly, they found several boxes of the once-popular Riedberg beer. However, after enduring the passage of time, these beers had reduced to empty bottles and rusty caps.

"While whiskey or brandy might have survived till today, beer turns into a heap of trash." Looking at the completely dried-out beers, Old Piers shook his head somewhat helplessly.

Deeper inside the warehouse, they found ammunition boxes with green iron exteriors. But just like the situation in the neighboring warehouse, these boxes were all empty.

Fortunately, compared to the empty ammunition boxes next door, the mini tanks and flags they had acquired earlier meant that this time they could be considered successful, so these empty boxes didn't bring them much disappointment.

Finally, when the evening was turning dark, they had cleared out everything from the entire warehouse. It was at this moment that the Three of Spades, Three of Clubs, Four of Hearts, and Four of Diamonds cards appeared in Liang En's mind.

However, he didn't have time to inspect these cards yet, as Old Piers instructed him and Piers to stay in the warehouse and keep an eye on it and the truck, while he went to a nearby restaurant to get some food.

In reality, both Liang En and Piers had volunteered to go get food, especially Liang En, who spoke the best German here. However, their requests were ultimately denied.

Because this warehouse and the surrounding buildings were all marked with symbols associated with far-right ideologies, Old Piers believed that, compared to his less experienced son or Liang En, who had an Asian appearance, he, as an experienced "driver," was better suited for this task.

Since this warehouse had been abandoned, apart from the light sources brought by those who had bought the warehouse, almost everything around was plunged into darkness.

"Father's good in many ways, but he can be quite stubborn in some aspects." Over twenty minutes later, as he held a steel pipe and gazed at the darkness outside the warehouse, Piers' face showed a look of anxiety.

"Don't worry. Although this place is a bit remote, those scum from the far-right won't come here. They won't find their targets for causing trouble." Liang En reassured his friend. "Because there's no target here they want to mess with."

As he was speaking, the sound of hurried footsteps approached. It turned out to be Old Piers returning with dinner.

"Quick, eat up, and as soon as you're done, we need to leave." Putting two plastic bags in front of Liang En and Piers, Old Piers lowered his voice and spoke quickly, "We might be in trouble."