"General, we have arrived." Hans' voice pulled Xu Jun back from his contemplation to the real world.
"Oh? Have we already arrived so soon?" Xu Jun lifted his head and looked out the window.
"You were lost in thought General, I called you several times before you responded."
"Oh, is that so? I was thinking about all these things we've gone through in the past few days and what we should do down here."
"General, you are too tired these days, you have to take care of your health, I don't want to see you exhaust yourself," Hans said with concern.
"Yeah, when things here are over, I think I really need to take a good rest." Xu Jun looked out of the car window at the group of guards saluting him and sighed darkly, "If this thing can end safely."
After passing through the checkpoint that had been reinforced more than ten times, Xu Jun's convoy slowly drove into the Warsaw Jewish Compulsory Ghetto.
Xu Jun's luxury Mercedes Benz slowly marched through the old streets, two military trucks full of SS soldiers followed closely behind him, while two Gestapo cars drove at the front of the convoy.
The momentum emanating from the convoy made all those who saw it feel a heavy sense of oppression, especially the serious look on the faces of the Waffen SS men on the trucks and the cold, piercing eyes brought a feeling of fear from the bottom of their hearts.
This familiar street makes Xu Jun's heart feel a tingling, five days ago that evening, he led his men from this road to that horrible slaughterhouse, and the faces of those who were slaughtered began to emerge clearly in his mind as if Xu Jun heard the desperate cries and screams of those who died before.
Xu Jun looked with a heavy heart at the scenes on both sides of the street, where Jews from other areas had moved in. Because he can't let these apartments remain empty, while the Jews in other areas are crammed into a pile in the small houses, they were moved over to ease their cramped living environment. Now there was no sign of the Shoah, the Jewish residents had rearranged the apartments, they had carefully cleaned the streets, they had even polished the brass signs set in front of the apartments, and the whole neighborhood was back to a vibrant scene, at least on the surface.
When Xu Jun's convoy appeared on the street, a deep atmosphere of terror began to hang over the neighborhood. The Jews looked with horror and suspicion at the ominous convoy slowly passing in front of them, they all knew what had happened here that afternoon five days ago, because the bloodstains that could not be washed away in the square were still visible and luggage was discarded everywhere inside and outside the apartment, allowing them to clearly deduce the answer to that horror. So when another group of Nazi troops now entered the neighborhood, it was impossible for anyone to take it for granted. What were these Germans doing here, what was their purpose, these questions instantly filled the minds of every Jewish resident living here.
From the beautiful and luxurious huge Mercedes car and the notorious symbol on the hood, the person sitting in this car must be a great person, and the heavily armed guards made their suspicions even more certain, even the Polish governor Frank did not have such strict protection and such a magnificent appearance when he visited this place. The pedestrians who were hurrying along the street saw the caravan coming slowly in the distance and stood against the street wall, they all took off their hats and lowered their heads to the caravan. They were not like the Poles, who could turn around and duck when they saw the convoy.
Polish citizens could turn around and dodge, but Jews could not. If any of them dared to do that, it would be considered defiance to these German rulers. The result would be catastrophic, a light beating, or the loss of life, and from the current level of that convoy, if you take the risk of panicking and running, then the end would definitely be the result.
Xu Jun looked out of the car window at the Jews standing with their heads hanging in the street and felt a sense of sadness from the bottom of his heart. Those German rulers must be able to get a lot of pleasure in the suffering of the Jews, they must feel immense pride and satisfaction for the scene they saw before them. There is nothing more ugly in human history than people gaining pleasure in the pain of others.
The reaction of those Jews also made Xu Jun feel painful, this nation seems to be oppressed, their strong ability to adapt to let them, in such a short time, understand how to please those Nazi thugs' perverted psychology, they have learned in this dangerous environment what to do to keep themselves out of harm's way. This was a people who were so resilient that their shrewdness enabled them to avoid crisis after crisis, but in the end, it was their excessive shrewdness that brought them disaster.
The shrewd and ruthless financial practices of the wealthy Jewish merchants made them synonymous with vampirism in the minds of all Europeans. Especially during the Great Depression after the end of World War I, the Jewish businessmen were in some cases very despicable, and their exploitation of the unemployed German civilians and their employees was truly outrageous. They were partly responsible for the economic chaos in Europe during the Great Depression, and their high-interest credit practices made life even worse for ordinary Germans, who were already struggling on the poverty line.
At that time, the German common people were full of hatred and disgust towards the Jewish merchants and industrial and commercial giants who were exploiting them. In addition, the Nazi Party, with its ulterior motives, blamed the Jewish people for the defeat of the army, claiming that the Jewish capitalists were behind the defeat of Germany in the war. Hitler even thought that the German communist ideas were spread by the Jews from Russia, Xu Jun didn't know what Hitler was thinking at that time, maybe because he thought the founder of communism was a Jew. But the anti-Semitic tendencies in Russia were far greater than in Germany at that time, so Jews coming to Germany to spread communism was nonsense.
As a result, when these several contradictions were linked together, the German's feelings toward the Jews changed from disgust to hatred. Fueled by the Nazi Party's propaganda offensive, the whole of Germany fell into an anti-Semitic frenzy. The people took out their suffering and oppression for decades on the Jewish people, not knowing that the truly wealthy Jews had already fled abroad with their fortunes when they saw that things were going badly. Now in Germany are those who have lived here for generations and have long been integrated into German society, the ordinary Jewish people, who are innocent victims, most of them are also the elite of various industries. The crazy behavior of the ordinary German people not only hurt others but also hurt themselves and their beloved homeland.
Xu Jun knew clearly in his heart that he absolutely could not do anything to help them now, and that any mistake at this critical time would send himself and his loyal men into a bottomless abyss. In this period of the most serious tendency to exclude Jews, any mistake in his actions may be used by their enemies as a weapon to attack him.
In the current situation, if he expressed any dislike for the Jewish policy, it would affect his image in the eyes of the common people and the German soldiers.
Fortunately, at least so far, he had not revealed to anyone that he had such thoughts. Although he expressed his disgust at the massacre of Jews to his officers, he did so for the sake of German national honor, so his men have not resented it so far. From this point of view, he made the right move, and now he can only use the deep-rooted sense of honor of the officers and soldiers as an entry point to make them stop the systematic massacre of Jews. And this is the only thing he can do for these poor Jews now, he has no other way to help them now.
Changing the ideological aversion of the Germans and Europe as a whole to the Jews will be a difficult task, which will require a lot of time and power, neither of which he has now. So Xu Jun wants to put this problem behind him first until he can get through this critical time and then think of a way, then he can find an opportunity to completely end this problem that makes him have a headache. He believes that by then with his ability, he should be able to find a more appropriate way to deal with this matter, but now he still needs to endure, because now there are more important issues than this to solve, he cannot have this affect this next plan.
The convoy passed through two similar blocks and turned around several intersections before finally stopping in front of a tall apartment building. The Waffen SS men jumped out of the truck quickly, then half of them rushed into the apartment building, while the remaining half flew into a standard defensive formation and blocked the whole street, those commandos with submachine guns vigilantly observing the surrounding area. The Gestapo officers sitting in the two cars that opened the way also got out of their cars, laying their hands on the pistol in their holsters as they carefully surveyed every open window of the surrounding tall buildings and the corners where snipers might be hiding, and when they felt that the area around them was indeed safe, two of them went to Xu Jun's car and opened the door.
"Your Excellency the Vice Führer, this is the building you are looking for." A Gestapo officer respectfully reported to Xu Jun who got out of the car.
"Yes, this is the building." Xu Jun recognized the building from Jack's memory, and he raised his head to look upstairs. The building was in the standard Renaissance style, but the designers at that time might have designed it with a bit of pragmatism, so outside of those fine decorations, the lines of the whole building were mainly simple and bright. The building's construction age is too old, from those cracked carved door decorations and brick walls on those peeling off the outer layer of paint can be seen that the building has not been well maintained, and now the whole building gives a decrepit melancholy feeling.
"You guys just stay downstairs, Hans and I will go up." Xu Jun turned his head to the Gestapo officers and instructed them.
"But Vice Führer, protecting you are our most important responsibility, not to mention that this house is inhabited by those dirty and despicable Jews, in case…"
"There is no eventuality, do you think that neither I nor Colonel Hans is capable of defending ourselves? Besides, there are already two squads of Waffen SS inside, so how could anything happen." Xu Jun replied with a smile, but his eyes conveyed the meaning of "I dare you to stop me again".
"That's right, Vice Fuhrer."
Seeing Xu Jun's appearance, the Gestapo had no choice but to obey the order and stay where they were. Xu Jun and Hans swaggered into the building.
"What is this smell?" Just after walking into the building Hans couldn't help but cover his nose.
"There are four or five Jews living in every room of this building, so it's not strange to have this strange smell." Xu Jun replied.
Then the two men climbed down the creaking stairs toward the upper floors. Each of the upper floors was now guarded by four Waffen SS soldiers, who stood at the top of the corridor filled with debris, staring intently at the doors of every room in the corridor, their task being to seal off the whole building and drive any Jews who came out of the doors back to their rooms. Xu Jun took Hans and climbed painstakingly up to the fourth floor and arrived at the door of a suite.
The occupants of that suite had all been driven out of their rooms by the Waffen SS soldiers, and there were more than twenty people, young and old, living in such a small place. Now the Jews were standing in a row against the wall of the corridor with their heads in their hands, and from their trembling bodies, it seemed that the SS had really frightened them, and a few of the old men had begun to pray softly to God in Hebrew. The commandos looked at these people with their submachine guns in disgust. It seemed that if not for Xu Jun's previous order that they were not allowed to use violence at will during the operation, they would have hit them with the butt of a gun. If it had been a few days earlier, they would have shot the old men who were muttering on the spot.
"This is it." Xu Jun walked into the room.
"You two come in, the others continue to guard outside." Hans, who was behind Xu Jun, ordered the two highest-ranking non-commissioned officers.
"Yes, Colonel." The two non-commissioned officers put their submachine guns behind their backs and followed Hans into the room.
There was barely any furniture in the room, only some simple cabinets, and some ordinary tables and chairs. Stacked against the wall were a large variety of suitcases and other miscellaneous items of daily use. These things are neatly stacked, the room was clean, and there are even a few small flowers in the vase on the table that Xu Jun does not know the name of. The whole room felt very neat, so much so that people probably would not believe that more than twenty people used to live in such a place.
As Xu Jun walked around the room, two non-commissioned officers stood in the foyer looking at the deputy head of state, curious to know what the German deputy head of state wanted to do in an apartment where Jews lived.
"You two, come here for a moment." Xu Jun stood in front of the fireplace in the room and beckoned to the two non-commissioned officers.
"Yes, Vice Führer." The two non-commissioned officers hurriedly ran over.
"Pry this place open for me." Xu Jun pointed to a decorative wooden panel on the side of the fireplace.
"Pry it open?" The two soldiers looked at their supreme leader in confusion.
"Yes, pry it open." Xu Jun nodded.
"As ordered, Vice Führer." The two non-commissioned officers hastily saluted, then drew their bayonets from their belts and began to work hard to pry open the plank of wood.
"General, what's inside there? Is that the thing you told me earlier on the road that you wanted to destroy?" Hans asked Xu Jun in a whisper at the side.
"Yes, it is this thing, it is to destroy it that I have come to Warsaw, I did not expect so many things to happen, and as a result, this matter was delayed."
"So, what is in there, anyway?"
"An electronic instrument, don't ask about it, if it is not destroyed, the security of Germany and even the whole world will be threatened." Xu Jun said seriously to Hans.
"I understand, General. I shouldn't have asked you these questions." Hans lowered his head and asked for Xu Jun's forgiveness.
"Vice Führer, we pried it open, there is a small box in there." A sergeant suddenly shouted.
"Good, get it out quickly." Xu Jun heard the soldier's report and ordered happily.
The box taken out from the fireplace compartment was very small, only a dozen centimeters square, the outside was wrapped in good cowhide, inside was a delicate aluminum alloy box, and on the lid of the box, there was a small flat hole. Xu Jun pulled out the necklace hanging on his neck from his collar, and then gently inserted the memory chip hanging on the necklace into the flat hole on the lid of the box. The lid of the box popped open automatically, and what appeared in front of Xu Jun was the culprit that brought him to this point in time, the space-time beacon.
Xu Jun took the beacon, looking at the precise circuitry and beautiful design of the exterior in awe, he really want to study the working principle of this thing, he was wondering what in the end this thing is relied on in energy to operate as he did not find any batteries or anything similar in this machine. But Xu Jun clearly knows that he does not have the time now, the future of the world is at threat of space-time resonance caused by this thing at any time, no matter what, he must destroy it, and this thing contains a level of advanced technology in this world's level of technology, maybe this overly advanced technology will also bring bad effects to this era.
Thinking of this, Xu Jun gritted his teeth, carried up the beacon towards the fireplace, threw the small electronic instrument into the fireplace, and then pulled out a small glass bottle from his pocket, which is a small bottle of gasoline that he had prepared long ago.
Xu Jun carefully sprinkled the gasoline onto the machine's casing and then lit the fire. When the device that did not belong in this era slowly turned into burnt metal in front of Xu Jun, he felt indescribable relief.
His most important task in this time and space has finally been completed, the rest, it is time to fight for himself.
As the flame in front of Xu Jun's eyes slowly extinguished, the fire in his heart burned even more fiercely.