Chapter 352: Shooting Pigeons

Labor Day, also known as the "Lily of the Valley Festival" in France, is a day where people send "lily of the valley" flowers to relatives and friends to express good luck.

(Note: France’s tradition of sending lilies of the valley on May Day began in 1561, when King Charles IX of France received a lily of the valley as a symbol of good luck. Since then, this tradition has become popular in France)

Holidays were only a fantasy for soldiers during the Great War.

All holidays during the war have nothing to do with soldiers. Not only will there be no rest, but there will be more intense and cruel combat missions.

This is the aftermath of the "Christmas Truce Incident".

After that, high-level officials on both sides of the enemy and our side are worried that this scene will happen again during the holidays, so they will deliberately carry out violent bombardments or launch attacks to make the soldiers "maintain their fighting spirit" and hate each other!

The 105th Infantry Regiment escaped disaster because they were in Paris.

Although they also did not have a holiday, they received countless lily-of-the-valley flowers.

There are various colors, white, purple, blue, etc. "Little bells" are hung everywhere in the training base, and the air is filled with a light fragrance.

The lilies of the valley that Charles received were particularly exaggerated. Others picked them up one by one, but Charles received them one by one.

The reason was that the signal troops and orderlies couldn't handle it, so they could only ask Laurent to drive out in a car and shout: "Gentlemen, please put the lily of the valley given to the brigadier general on the car, and we will hand it over to the brigadier general. "

Then one truck could not be finished, then another truck, and another truck...

Adrian initially planned to move the flowers into the living room, but soon discovered that the living room would be impossible to move around if he did so, and he ended up having to arrange them on both sides of the walkway in front of the office building.

Charles looked helplessly at the flowers. There were many blessing notes hanging on them. If he had read every one of them, it might take him a whole day.

Compared to these, Ciel would rather face the telegram or count the supply list.

But this morning, Charles did not stay in the office as usual. He walked to the training ground with the guards.

Charles felt that this was also a kind of enjoyment, wearing a neat military uniform, walking in the warm sunshine with his chest held high, without having to worry about being hit by enemy bullets and artillery shells...

"Bang!"

The sound of the gunshot startled Charles, and he ducked down in response. The guard quickly rushed to Charles and raised his gun.

During this period, the 105th Infantry Regiment taught frontline troops how to use gas masks in rounds, and there was basically no target practice.

Besides, target shooting wouldn't involve one or two gunshots like this.

"Bang bang!"

Gunfire rang out again, accompanied by cheers and applause from the soldiers.

So Charles knew that this might be some kind of shooting competition between the soldiers.

Sure enough, Adrian stepped forward to take a look at the situation, and hurriedly ran back and shouted: "General, they are shooting pigeons, and the people competing are the instructor and Billy Shen!"

"Shooting pigeons?" Charles was puzzled.

However, his focus soon turned to his opponent.

The instructor Adrian was talking about was Dominic. His marksmanship was comparable to that of Shen Billy. Charles also wanted to know who of them was better.

Leading the guards forward, the open shooting range was already crowded with people. Dominic and Billy Shen lined up in two places, holding their rifles and pointing quietly into the void of the shooting range.

Suddenly two pigeons were released. They flapped their wings and tried to fly into the blue sky.

"Bang bang!"

Two gunshots rang out almost simultaneously, and the two pigeons fell down in response.

The soldiers once again burst into cheers. Some clenched their fists excitedly and shouted in support, while others waved their fists like gamblers to demonstrate to the opposite side.

Later, Charles learned that this was not an ordinary game, but a bet.

In this era, this kind of "pigeon shooting" gambling was popular in Europe and the United States, both in the countryside and in the cities. Just like horse racing, they bet their money on the gunman they thought would win.

(The real picture may not be found because it is not suitable for publicity. Pigeon shooting was originally a shooting event in the Olympic Games. In the first few games, live pigeons were used, and later it was changed to Frisbee)

"Bang bang!"

"Bang!"

Gunshots were fired, and the final result was that Dominic lost 8 pigeons to Shen Billy with 9 pigeons.

Both of them were very good. Using rifles at a distance of more than 200 meters, they could only hit 8 or 9 out of 10. Only sharpshooters could do this.

The crowd dispersed, and Dominic shook hands with Billy Shen. He slumped back to the resting chair on the side of the shooting range with his gun in his arms, staring blankly in the direction of the target.

"What's wrong?" Charles came up and sat next to Dominic.

Dominic turned around and found that it was Charles. He sighed and shook his head: "I could have done better, but..."

"I know." Ciel nodded.

"I don't understand why." Dominic looked a little frustrated.

"I know." Charles said the same thing.

"You know?" Dominic looked at Charles doubtfully.

"Psychological quality, Dominic." Charles said: "Your marksmanship is no worse than Shen Billy. The problem is that Shen Billy is a hunter. His marksmanship was honed by hunting kangaroos, and he even faced enemies on the battlefield."

Dominic understood instantly: "As for me, I mostly face gun targets that don't move. I rarely even train with pigeons. I'm not used to this kind of blood and killing!"

Ciel said "Yeah", he raised his head and glanced around: "And here."

Dominic nodded slightly in understanding.

The environment is also one of the factors that affect his performance. Dominic tests his gun more often at the indoor shooting range, but this is a military camp, and all he sees are rough soldiers with murderous eyes. This is Shen Billy's home field.

Dominic murmured to himself: "So, I should go to the battlefield to train."

"Do you think so?" Charles asked.

Charles was not surprised at all. Last time in the restaurant of the Ritz Hotel, when Dominic asked Charles what the battlefield felt like, Charles knew that he had the mentality to try the battlefield.

A person who is obsessed with guns and gun skills, if he cannot really play the role of guns throughout his life, and even his gun skills are stopped due to lack of actual combat training, he will naturally think of going to the battlefield if he wants to take another step forward, even if he knows it is dangerous.

"Yes!" Dominic nodded, but there was always hesitation in his eyes.

"You are not suitable for the battlefield." Charles concluded.

"No, you can't be sure." Dominic denied.

Charles said the same thing: "I'm sure."

Dominic's gun can't kill people. Even if he shot a few pigeons, he would still show reluctance in his eyes. When checking the results of the battle, he shot a pigeon that was injured but not dead, and the muscles in his mouth were tense because of gritting his teeth.

For such a person, when he faced a living person on the battlefield, he couldn't even pull the trigger.