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.