Chapter 12: The Horrors of War Part I

Two weeks came and went in the blink of an eye, and before Bruno knew it he was out the door and being shipped off to China. As he had already suspected, the war, for the most part was already over by the time he actually arrived.

When he landed ashore in Northern China, the Qing Dynasty had already been forced to submit to the Eight-Nation Alliance. Despite this, 15,000 German soldiers from the East Asian Expeditionary Corps were still deployed to China to help stabilize the war-torn region, and in doing so, put down the remnants of the Boxer Rebellion.

Counter-Insurgency was the one thing that Bruno had actual combat experience with. Having been deployed to Afghanistan in his previous life for this very purpose. And he was confident in his ability to perform the role as needed.

Bruno had been assigned to the East Asian Expeditionary Corps as an Infantry Officer. And naturally, his uniform reflected this. Current issued uniforms were still of the Prussian Blue Variety, as the Field Grey variants had yet to come into existence, and would not become a standard issue until years later.

Normally, an infantry officer of this era would be equipped with a sword and a pistol as his standard issue weapons. But considering Bruno's father had achieved his goal of getting on the Bundesrat Land Army and Fortifications committee. Bruno had used his family connections to get himself a rifle.

The Gewehr 98 was the standard issue rifle to the Imperial German Army at this time. And it was an excellent firearm at that. Fed via stripper clips into an internal five round magazine. The Gewehr 98 could deal death to an opponent at 1,000m via its potent 7.92x57mm Mauser cartridge.

Of course, one would have to have impeccable eyesight and expert marksmanship to pull off such a feat. Which Bruno just so happened to have both of. In addition to his Gewehr 98, Bruno had also gotten his hands on a Modell 1900 Parabellum pistol. More commonly known as the 9mm Luger.

Because of this, he was unusually well equipped for an infantry officer as he marched through the Chinese countryside at the head of his platoon. It had been two weeks since he had stepped foot in Northern China, and until now, all he had been able to do was to perform the duties of a glorified sentry.

Without expressed permission, he was not allowed to step foot outside of the base. And after two weeks of this, he had grown rather bored with his lot in life. Luckily for him, the Company commander announced the night before that their unit would be going on a Punitive Expedition early in the morning into a region that was well known for Boxer activity.

Aside from Bruno, the other platoon commander in his company was his old friend Heinrich from the Academy. The two of them marched side by side, while smoking, as they chatted about their takes on the ongoing conflict, and the wasteland of a countryside they marched through.

"There's no doubt about it… This place has been thoroughly ransacked by the Eight-Nation Alliance and its forces."

Heinrich nodded his head in agreement with Bruno's assessment of the situation. Whether it was another German unit before them, or one of the other Great Powers, the village in the distance that they were walking towards had clear signs of smoke in the air. The man took a puff from his cigarette before expressing his thoughts on the matter.

"How much you want to bet it was the Russians? I've heard rumors from Erich. He has been sent out on patrol twice now, and both times he came across a town looted by the Russians. We're talking dead bodies in the streets, homes plundered for their wealth. And well, the women… It makes my heart bleed hearing what happens to them…"

Bruno took a long drag on his cigarette before exhaling a plume of smoke. It had only been a year since the first of the Hague Conventions were signed. It was an era where War Crimes were a recent concept.

However, while all the Great Powers had signed and ratified this convention and the stipulations within it that would protect prisoners of war and civilians. Along with various other regulations on how to conduct warfare. China had not done so.

And as far as the Great Powers were concerned, those who did not sign or ratify the Hague Conventions were not protected by its rules. It was because of this that Bruno had a more callous attitude when discussing the alleged atrocities of the Russian Army.

"Unfortunate as it is. The Chinese really only have themselves to blame. Had they ratified the Hague Conventions like the rest of us, such actions would be considered War Crimes and the men responsible would be held accountable for their actions.

As much as I hate to say it, the most we can do is abide by the Rules of War ourselves, even if our allies choose not to. We're neither generals nor heads of state. Like it or not, we simply don't have the power or authority to hold our allies to the same standards that we ourselves adhere to. "

Though Heinrich could understand the man's sentiment, he was a lot more empathetic towards the victims of the war than Bruno was. Bruno however was not the type to care about civilian casualties on a battlefield.

In his past life, he had seen the effects that occurred when high command prioritized the mitigation of collateral damage at the expense of total victory. And the results were not great. If it meant ending the Boxer rebellion once and for all, then by all means he would give the command to shell an entire village if the insurgents were using it as their base of operations.

From Bruno's perspective, such determination was needed to win a war. Anything else was just asking for operational failure. This was a perspective on warfare that Heinrich clearly did not understand, seeing as how he knew the man had no practical combat experience to speak of, despite being a commissioned officer. At least not at this time.

While Bruno and Heinrich were casually chatting, an echo of gunfire rang throughout the distance. Causing them and all their men to immediately become alert. Not a second after the shots had fired, the company commander issued the command for Bruno and his men to scout the area, and see what exactly what was happening in the village.

"Lieutenant, take your platoon and establish a vantage point. I want to know what is happening in the village before we march into it! Report back to me after you have confirmed the situation!"

Bruno nodded his head, and threw up a salute to the Captain, responding in the affirmative before taking the forty or so men under his command to do as they were told.

"Yes, sir!"

After saying this, Bruno ran off, with his rifle in hand towards the hill above the town. Where he and his men took defensive positions under his orders. Even though the boxers were primarily equipped with swords and spears, a few of them had firearms, and one could never be too careful when fighting a war.

But when Bruno gazed upon the plundered village and the ongoing atrocities within it. Even he had second thoughts about his more callous outlook towards warfare and the civilians affected by it.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Zentmeister

The chapters are shorter today than normal because it's the weekend. And because I for some reason spent three hours writing these two chapters, going through repeated edits, and in between said edits doing research on the Boxer Rebellion and the German Units send to it. By now it's 7:30 at night, and I still have to write a chapter for one of my other novels. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy and have a great weekend!

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