When there was one week left before the official start of the exercise, a sense of tension like “a great war is imminent” began to permeate the entire garrison of the Imperial Guard Instruction Assault Unit.
In several large vehicle depots where Radiant Crystal Trucks were concentrated, the roar of engines resounded all day long.
Stein, leading all the maintenance technicians and drivers of the Supply Company, as well as the “enthusiastic youth” Guderian who occasionally came to help, was conducting the final testing and debugging of every vehicle.
They almost dismantled half of every vehicle, checked all key components, and then reassembled them.
And those vehicles that completed maintenance were also parked in the warehouses and open spaces in front of the barracks of each company.
Soldiers were queuing up to carry various supplies and equipment onto the vehicles piece by piece according to the standards in the plan.
From ammunition and rations to entrenching tools and various consumables, everything must be strictly counted according to the list and then fixed in designated positions inside the carriage.
The daily training subjects of the infantry also underwent slight adjustments.
The proportion of original physical and tactical training was reduced, replaced by repeated combat readiness sorties and various emergency handling drills.
For example, how to complete boarding in the shortest time, how to quickly disembark and evacuate when encountering “enemy artillery fire” while the vehicle is moving, or how to carry key equipment and proceed on foot after “vehicle damage.”
During this period, Morin also specially organized a short-distance “maneuver inspection” of about fifteen to twenty kilometers in batches.
He randomly selected a few companies to pull out for a run in turn, euphemistically calling it a warm-up.
In fact, it was to help the Supply Company further discover and solve those hidden equipment problems before the real long-distance raid began.
Facts proved that Morin’s decision was extremely correct.
Just this short distance exposed quite a few problems.
Although these small problems weren’t big, if they broke out centrally on the day of the exercise, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Stein followed the convoy almost the entire way. This time he even proactively brought Guderian along. As soon as a problem was discovered, he immediately recorded it and then led technicians to solve it on the spot.
After a few days, he and the soldiers of the maintenance detachment were covered in oil, but their eyes grew brighter and brighter.
“Lieutenant Colonel, you are truly divine!”
After an inspection ended, Stein found Morin and sighed sincerely: “If you hadn’t done this, when the exercise day really comes, I estimate my maintenance detachment would have run their legs off!”
Guderian also followed beside him and nodded vigorously: “Exactly, Lieutenant Colonel… Through these short-distance tests, we have basically figured out several common failure points of this batch of new trucks and have prepared corresponding spare parts and repair plans in advance! Now, I finally have a little confidence in completing this 120-kilometer maneuver.”
Morin smiled and patted their shoulders: “Confidence cannot rely solely on words. The final preparatory work cannot be slackened at all.”
He knew in his heart that these small problems were just appetizers.
The real test was still to come.
At this time, the Regimental Headquarters office was brightly lit every night.
Kleist, responsible for the overall planning of the entire exercise, hadn’t closed his eyes for two consecutive days.
His desk was piled with various charts, lists, and reports.
He was like a taut string, eyes full of bloodshot veins, yet still repeatedly deducing the march route and the connection of each stage on the map.
Manstein and Paulus were no better off.
The former was responsible for coordinating specific actions between battalions and companies, while the latter was responsible for the allocation and data statistics of all logistical supplies.
The Regimental Medical Officer and Veterinary Officer were also busy spinning around for the upcoming joint practice.
Especially the latter; after all, letting mules and draft horses conduct a 120-kilometer march wasn’t a simple job.
“Sir, this is the final march sequence and schedule.”
Kleist, with two huge dark circles under his eyes, handed the just-completed plan to Morin just in time on the day before the joint practice began.
“Based on the inspection results of these few days, we made some fine-tuning to the original plan, mainly strengthening the echelon configuration of maintenance forces and reserving several emergency stop points on the route.”
Morin took the plan and read it carefully.
It had to be said that Kleist and the others really put in hard work.
This new plan was more detailed than before, considering almost all foreseeable emergencies and formulating corresponding contingency plans.
“Very good.”
Morin nodded and looked at everyone in the headquarters.
“Execute according to this… In addition, notify everyone to rest well tonight and act on time at 4:30 tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, sir!”
In the early morning of November 1st, the entire camp of the instruction unit was silent, but under this silence surged a huge energy about to erupt.
Morin stood in front of his office window, overlooking the sleeping camp outside.
He knew that in a few hours, this place would be thoroughly awakened.
This exercise was not only an inspection of this unit but also a practice of his own philosophy.
Through this exercise, he wanted everyone… including the generals of the Army Department and the General Staff, to see with their own eyes the huge potential of motorized troops… and the real challenges they faced.
He took a deep breath of cold air and chanted in his heart: “Come on, let’s see what kind of answer sheet we can hand in.”
At 4:30 AM, a sharp whistle pierced the tranquility of the camp area.
This whistle sound was like a signal.
Immediately after, the entire camp seemed to come alive instantly.
There were no loud slogans, nor orderly formation shouts. The entire huge camp still implemented strict blackout control, pitch black, as if still sleeping.
But in this darkness, countless figures had already jumped up from camp cots.
Amidst the low urging of squad and platoon leaders, soldiers put on their prepared uniforms in the dark, then put on chest rigs.
The metal clashing sound of weapons and gear colliding, mixed with lowered voice commands and messy footsteps of boots stepping on the ground, composed a tense and orderly tune.
Outside the barracks of each company, rows of Radiant Crystal Trucks lay quietly in the darkness.
Soldiers ran quickly to designated vehicles in platoons, then skillfully climbed onto the carriages.
The whole process was silent, with only the faint light of oil lamps in the hands of officers occasionally flickering, guiding the direction in the dark.
“Quick! Quick! Move your asses faster! Don’t act like women who haven’t woken up!” A non-commissioned officer lowered his voice and roared almost against a recruit’s ear.
The recruit shuddered, threw his backpack onto the truck in a flurry, and then climbed up using both hands and feet.
The carriage was already crowded with people. Everyone helped each other stack weapons and personal equipment neatly, then hugged their guns, waiting quietly for the order to depart.
In the darkness, no one spoke, only each other’s somewhat heavy breathing could be heard.
Tension, excitement, and a trace of expectation for the unknown permeated the cramped carriage…
At the same time, Supply Company Commander Stein was leading his maintenance technicians shuttling through the huge vehicle formation like a group of ghosts.
Carrying a tool bag each, with the help of faint moonlight and oil lamps, they made the final check on the tires, engines, and key connection parts of every vehicle.
“Are all vehicles of the 1st Battalion checked?” Stein walked to a truck and asked a Supply Company soldier who was checking the chassis in a low voice.
“Report Captain, all checked, no problem!”
“Good, go to the next battalion!”
Stein nodded and hurriedly led people to another vehicle depot.
He knew that these more than three hundred Radiant Crystal Trucks were the legs of the entire instruction unit.
Once these “legs” had problems halfway, the entire exercise would become a joke.
His responsibility was to ensure these “legs” could run and run far.
Time passed minute by minute. With all officers completing time synchronization in advance, at 5:30 AM, an order spread quickly throughout the convoy through messengers and flashing signal lights.
“Start engines!”
The next second, the silent camp area was instantly swallowed by deafening roars.
More than three hundred Radiant Crystal Internal Combustion Engines were awakened at the same time. The huge sounds they made converged together, like a sleeping dragon letting out the first low roar after waking up at this moment.
The earth trembled violently, and the air was filled with a strong smell of burnt Radiant Crystal Fuel.
Black thick smoke spewed out from more than three hundred exhaust pipes. Even the sun just peeking out from the horizon was obscured by this rising smoke, the light becoming dim yellow and strange.
Beside the wireless radio transport truck of the Regimental Communications Company, Guderian was choked by the pungent thick smoke until tears flowed, his eardrums buzzing from the powerful to near-violent engine roar.
But his heart was filled with an unprecedented excitement.
“This—this is called power—” He muttered to himself, fanatical light flashing in his eyes.
The neighing of horses and the loudness of bugles could not be mentioned in the same breath as this roar of steel before his eyes.
This was a pure power composed of machinery and energy, representing a brand-new era of warfare.
He seemed to have seen that in the near future, countless such steel beasts would form an unstoppable torrent, crushing all enemies blocking the Empire.
“Attention all units, depart in predetermined order!”
As the lead vehicle of the 1st Battalion’s advance guard detachment slowly drove out of the camp gate, this long steel dragon composed of more than three hundred trucks and more than four thousand soldiers finally began to wriggle.
The 120-kilometer long-distance maneuver officially kicked off.
The convoy was like a huge python, advancing slowly on the winding rural dirt road.
Morin sat in the passenger seat of the temporary command truck, watching the scenery continuously retreating outside the window. His mood was actually not as calm as he appeared on the surface…
About twenty minutes later, Stein, who was still at the tail of the queue in the camp area and hadn’t departed, finally heard the news he least wanted to hear.
A messenger riding a horse, rolling up a trail of dust, rushed to his truck like lightning. While reining in the horse, he said to him: “Lieutenant Stein! Not good! A truck broke down ahead!”
Stein immediately felt his vision go dark.
“Damn it, what should come still came.”
He cursed in a low voice, grabbed the tool bag prepared beside him, and then pulled over a military horse assigned to the Supply Company.
Before the military horse stopped, he mounted it neatly, then controlled the horse to the messenger’s side and pulled his sleeve.
“I’ll go there directly! You lead the way ahead!”
He shouted to the somewhat dazed messenger.
“Quick! Don’t just stand there!”
Soon, the two galloped out of the camp area. The flying hooves kicked up bursts of mud on the uneven dirt road, and Stein’s mood was even worse than this road surface.
Following behind the messenger’s horse, he greeted the ancestors of the engineers who designed this batch of trucks in his heart.
“It’s only been twenty minutes! Twenty minutes!” While dodging potholes on the road, he roared in his heart, “Even a mule is more reliable than this thing!”
When he rode the horse and followed the messenger to the breakdown location, he found the situation was better than he imagined…
But it was headache-inducing enough.
A 2.5-ton Radiant Crystal Truck was stopped crookedly by the roadside, occupying half the road surface.
The driver and a squad of soldiers on the vehicle were sweating profusely surrounding the front of the car. A non-commissioned officer was holding a pry bar, trying to pry something off.
The trucks behind could only queue up and carefully detour from the other half of the road.
Although the road wasn’t completely blocked, the marching speed of the entire convoy was obviously dragged down.
The long dragon of vehicles, like an injured snake, stopped and went, stretching out of sight.
“What’s the situation?” Stein dismounted, walked over with large strides, his tone aggressive.
Seeing him come, the sweating driver looked as if he had seen a savior and hurriedly stood at attention to report: “Report Captain! It’s—it’s a connector of the delivery pipe broken, fuel leaked all over the ground!”
Stein leaned over to look. Sure enough, a large area under the engine was wet, and the air was filled with a pungent smell of Radiant Crystal Fuel.
He frowned. The damage to such wearing parts was hard to discover during prior inspection; it was pure bad luck.
“Did you bring spare parts?” He asked in a deep voice.
“Yes! yes!”
The driver hurriedly rummaged out an oil paper package from the cab. Opening it, inside was a brand-new connector.
“Then what are you standing there for? Change it quickly!” Stein shouted unhappily, “Forget it… I’ll give a hand. Everyone hurry up, don’t delay the main force’s march!”
Fortunately, this kind of fault was relatively common, and drivers had specially practiced how to replace it in previous training.
Under Stein’s help and urging, several people scrambled and finally replaced the new connector within the specified time.
Watching the truck start again and merge into the traffic flow, Stein breathed a slight sigh of relief.
But he knew clearly in his heart that this was absolutely just the beginning.
And the Supply Company Commander’s worry soon became reality.
As the entire convoy completely drove onto the road, various strange situations began to emerge one after another.