Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 296 Investigations in Progress

“I salute you, General Welster, and welcome you.” Captain Claude and Captain Duriolo stood at the entrance to the mountain road that led to Squirrel Village, paying their respects and welcoming to the Ministry of Military Justice fact-finding mission that came a long way.

General Welst, with some white hair on his face, sat faceless at the horse and handed him a gift, then turned around and waved his hand, and a captain's deputy next to him drank aloud: "Everybody off the horse. ”

The long horse squad stopped on the hillside and the officers and soldiers riding the horses fell from the horses.

“General, you can ride the mountain.” Captain Duriolo spoke one step further.

“No, I was in a hurry all morning and I was able to get off my horse and move my body.” General Welst looked up at the mountain road and said in the same tone: "Take us to the camp first. ”

“Yes, General Welster, please follow me.” Captain Duriolo wanted to take General Welster's ride, but the general threw his horse rope at his deputy, which left Captain Duriolo empty and could only turn to lead General Welster in front of him.

The vacant area east of Squirrel Village has been leveled to the ground by soldiers from the local guard battalion, on which four platoons of military camp tents have been erected, which is the accommodation camp for members of the Ministry of Military Justice Mission. In addition to the food and household items provided to them, the security of this accommodation camp is also the responsibility of the Mission's gendarmerie squadron itself. In the Royal Army, there are regulations governing the reception of any mission. Whether it is accommodation, food, or expense reimbursement, it needs to be enforced in accordance with the regulations, which also avoid human disturbances in the military for hospitality reasons.

From the Upper Mountain Junction to Squirrel Village, just over 200 metres away, many pedestrians arrived at the Mission's accommodation area.

“General Welst, this is the quarters of the people, behind the stables, on the left are the public toilets and warehouses, we have enough hay and horsemanship and firewood. On the right is the canteen and bath area, the big tent in the middle is your office and conference room, inside is a map of this area of Squirrel Village, the green area above is a few hillside grasses in front of Squirrel Village, where you can graze horses..."

Captain Duriolo was very kind enough to introduce General Welster, who had spent three days with his guard battalion soldiers, and even to free up enough space, he demolished a large cache set up by Claude, a large group of soldiers who had been living in these cachets, and moved them to a row of wooden houses behind Squirrel Village to squeeze them together. The aim was to make the entire accommodation camp as normative as possible, so that the Mission's personnel could feel comfortable and satisfied at first sight.

Claude was also left to captain Duriolo, who was not as knowledgeable as Captain Duriolo when it came to receiving goods, or who was arguably a complete rookie in that regard, and he did not know how to receive a fact-finding mission headed by a general.

Obviously, Captain Duriolo's pains and hardships were not in vain, and General Welst nodded with great satisfaction at the accommodation camp: "Captain Duriolo, you are bothered. ”

The lieutenant captain next to General Welst was a wise man, and after hearing what the general had said, he greeted the followers to take the horses to the stables with him, and then ordered the gendarmerie squadron to set posts, set guard lines, and he himself took a few of the attendants to the big tent in the middle to tidy up the general's accommodation at night.

More than 30 individuals, eight of them school officers, have two silver or three silver bends on their shoulder badges, and the rest are all lieutenant officers, many of whom, like Claude, have captain ranks.

One of the lieutenants stepped out, paid tribute to Captain Duriolo and Claude, and then introduced himself as Lieutenant Ronald of the Liaison Office of the Logistics Department of the Corps of the Guardians, who was in charge of logistics supplies for the mission. During the investigation, he needed the assistance of Captain Claude and Captain Duriolo to help him complete matters such as logistical procurement for the Mission.

It is true that the liaison office of the Department of Field Support has nothing to say. Soon Claude and I will look very familiar, like good friends for many years. That's when he took Captain Duriolo and Claude to the front of those captain officers and started introducing them one by one: "This is Colonel Valeria, head of the military justice department of the Raston Karen Legion. This is Colonel Krumbit, head of the Military Justice Department of the Legion of Cooklia. This is Colonel Maguire, head of the Military Justice Department of the Krusger Legion. This is Colonel Edberman, head of the Military Justice Department of the Dodsus Legion..."

The Second Line Corps of the Kingdom of Ovillas is essentially expanded by conscription within a county. In peacetime, only one division is generally retained. After the war, the compulsory conscription in the county is expanded to full size. After a brief training, it goes to the front line to be put into the war. So basically the name of the regiment represents a county, but in the Royal Ministry of the Army, such regiments are called second-line regiments.

Claude, that's why this Lieutenant Ronald first came out and greeted himself, mainly to introduce himself to the eight second-line corps heads of military justice, school officers, so that everyone would naturally meet without embarrassment. Otherwise, Claude and I can't let the two of us walk in front of those officers at school.

Naturally, General Welster, so many people, he's the general, with a golden sun on his shoulder, you can recognize it at a glance. But the heads of the military justice departments of the eight second-line regiments were all school-level officers, mixed together, and it was impossible for General West to introduce the two Claudes himself because they were too low-ranking. And Claude was playing drums in his heart, and I don't know how to get to know these eight school officers. That's when Lieutenant Ronald jumped out, and it was a big help to both of us. With his introduction, everything seemed very plain and natural.

“Captain Claude, Captain of the 1st Battalion of the 1st Battalion of the Rangers of Front Line Command, salutes you, sir. ”

“Captain Duriolo, Commander of the Royal Guard Serial 0378 Cross Mountain Lane Local Guard Battalion, salutes you, sir. ”

Both Captain Claude and Captain Duriolo paid tribute to the eight school-level officers, while presenting themselves to the troops, positions and ranks. Each time Lieutenant Ronald introduces a school-level officer, Captain Claude and Captain Duriolo need to re-present themselves and pay tribute immediately. Until the officer returns the salute, he can turn to the next one. After saluting all eight school officers, it was the remaining lieutenants.

It was troublesome to meet so many officers at once. Claude, the eight school officers, felt that he could barely remember their names, but the next 30 lieutenant officers, Claude, estimated that when they finished introducing him, the first half would be forgotten by himself.

Lieutenant Ronald is now introducing Captain Duriolo alone. Royal military regulations are met by superior and subordinate officers, who must first give the superior officer a self-service number, position, rank and name. Poor Captain Duriolo, although in the ranks of captains, belongs to the guard force and is, by default, lower than the regular army, almost equal to those of lieutenants, so he needs Lt. Ronald to introduce him first and salute him first.

And Claude was different: although he was also a captain rank, he was awarded the Knight's Medal, which was naturally half the rank of these captains, so all these captains came to him first to pay tribute, self-reported origin and name, then the lieutenant officers, and finally the lieutenants. Claude saluted him with a one-off salute. After a moment of kung fu, he discovered that several of these more than 20 lieutenant officers were hiding malice from himself...

Half an hour later, I finally met these lieutenants. Unexpectedly, these lieutenants and captains are the military law enforcement officers of the Guardian Corps and the eight second-line corps, while the seven or eight second-line corps officers are close deputies to the school officers in charge of the Military Justice Department of the eight second-line corps.

Captain Duriolo had previously told General Welst that he had rented the only tavern in the village to clean the wind for members of the mission who had come a long way. Of course, the reception at noon was for officers above the rank of lieutenant, while the gendarmerie and other attendants of a squadron were catering in the canteen of the local guard battalion. As for dinner, the Mission obtained its own food from the logistics component of the local guard battalion.

Squirrel Village taverns are small, but the flavors of these mountain vegetable farmers are also appreciated by the members of the Mission. This is not a very festive feast, and I thank Captain Duriolo for his hard work. Claude was silent, and apart from saying hello to him, there was no such thing as Captain Duriolo, who greeted the guests well.

After the banquet, the members of the Mission returned to their accommodation camp for more than an hour. Captain Reinkell, General Welst's deputy, informed Captain Claude and Captain Duriolo that the first investigation meeting would be held at 3 p.m. in the General's large tent. The issue is the investigation of the cause of death of Enforcement Officer Lieutenant Becky Milo and Staff Officer Lieutenant Geprick of the Military Justice Division of the Front Line Command, and all relevant evidence of personnel and goods, as well as the remains of the two officers, will be brought to the scene for inspection by the Mission's military law enforcement officers…

Captain Duriolo did not expect General West to be so thrilled that he enjoyed the banquet he had hosted in less than two hours and was about to investigate. However, he and Claude, among others, had been prepared for nothing and had ordered the persons concerned to go to the Mission's accommodation camp with evidence of their belongings and two bodies.

This time, Captain Claude and Captain Duriolo are no longer the hosts of the guests, but the investigators. First Captain Duriolo described the incident: two military judges from the Front Line Command demanded that the prisoner be taken away be rejected by him, and then the two military judges trapped him in the office. His deputy, Sergeant Siegfried, went to Claude, who arrived at the office with Lieutenant Muriel, his squadron leader.

With the support of both Claude, Captain Duriolo was more than willing to reject the unwarranted demands of the two military judges. Only when he presented a secret letter instruction from the Royal Ministry of the Army, which stated that he would first imprison the four criminals who impersonated the official officers of the Kingdom, awaiting a visit from the Ministry of the Army for review. As a result, the two military judges became angry and Ensign Becky Milo blatantly pulled a short slice out of his uniform, igniting a flaming rope that threatened the three men with immediate release.

Lieutenant Muried rushed forward while he wasn't paying attention, and Claude rushed up to help. All they wanted to do was remove Ensign Becky Milo's shorthand, but Ensign Becky Milo grabbed it dead and even bent over to block the shortage he had in his hand from being robbed. Shortly after the wrestling, Claude and Lieutenant Muriel suddenly caught fire and thought the other party had been injured. It turned out that Lieutenant Becky Milo had fallen on the ground, waiting to be turned over before he was found shot in the face and killed instantly.

The evidence of the item is the short one, with Ensign Becky Milo's initials engraved on the short handle. Anyone familiar with him will surely recognize this as his item. Shortness also retains the state after the fire, it can be seen that this short fire rope clamp has been modified, it is sensitive, a little vibration will easily shove the fire rope into the medicine box to start the fire...

Witnesses were also numerous, and the gendarmerie squad that had been disarmed were witnesses, proving that Ensign Becky Milo had always carried the short bag with him and heard the gunshots, except that they had been disarmed by a squadron with Ensign Diaved and were squatting downstairs in the lobby.

Claude and Muried's assertions were similar to Captain Duriolo's, which made it easy for the Mission to conclude that Ensign Becky Milo had indeed died in a short fire. The corpse test also proved this, with a bullet hole in the face and a bullet with a short caliber, rather than a firewire gun that is common in the military. This suggests that Ensign Becky Milo's death was due to no one else's fault and that no one liked the fact that he suddenly threatened himself with shortcomings during the official talks, indicating that he was ill-intentioned and well prepared.

The only question for the Mission is: when Claude received a letter from Captain Duriolo's deputy, Sergeant Siegfried, why did Ensign Diaved order his squadron to disarm the gendarmerie unit while taking Ensign Muried to the office?

Claude responded clearly that he and soldiers from the 1st Battalion of Rangers had returned from the enemy and immediately after the battalion commander's death Major Cree was arrested by the Military Division of Front Line Command. Then four impersonating the Kingdom's official officers said they were the Military Justice Division of the Front Line Command to find themselves in trouble and were apprehended by themselves and Captain Duriolo.

It is now not right to hear that two more military judges have arrived with a small unit of gendarmerie and have trapped Captain Duriolo in his office. Because even military judges were not justified in imposing such a siege on magistrates for no reason, and there were doubts in their minds, Ensign Diaved was ordered to take them to arms.

The law-enforcement officers here face to face, and they have to admit that Claude's suspicions are valid. Because Captain Duriolo is not a criminal, he is the chief of the local guard, and whoever carries out his duties cannot be groundless in locking him up in the office. Claude was right to order this gendarmerie unit to be disarmed, because the orders he received were to help protect Squirrel Village, which, after all, was the front line and had to be cautious.

So the page on Ensign Becky Milo's death just flipped.