While Qin Weijie was trying to fall asleep, on the European continent, fifty miles east of Amiens in France, an acquaintance fell into an embarrassing situation.
Fifty miles east of Amiens is a section of the Somme River in France with a slower flow and a narrower river surface. It is the battlefield site of the famous Battle of the Somme during World War I and is also the starting point of the Battle of the Somme.
Although a full 23 years have passed since the war, the place is still in depression. Although the ruins of the early war have been cleared away, the chilling atmosphere left by the heroic spirits still envelopes this land.
23 years ago, this place was turned into a hell on earth under the baptism of artillery fire and war. The Battle of the Somme lasted for nearly five months between the British and French allied forces and the German army, causing a total of 1.3 million casualties, making it the deadliest battle in human history. A positional battle (in the eyes of the day).
This battle demonstrated the horror of the lethality of modern war weapons. Although human flesh and blood created these war machines, they were unable to use their flesh and blood to resist the advancement of the war machines. Everywhere they passed was scorched earth and piles of bones. It writes about the cruelty of war.
However, even after experiencing such a purgatory scene, mankind still failed to learn from it, just as people always try to learn from history, but "the only lesson that mankind has learned from history is that mankind has not learned any lessons from history." "This sentence changes the word history into war, which is the same reason.
It was late at night, and on the banks of the bleak Somme, several loud sounds suddenly rang out. A group of weirdly dressed guys seemed to appear out of thin air on the river bank, gathering together to chat with each other.
"What exactly happened? You sent an emergency owl letter saying that all seven members of the joint investigation team were missing? How did they disappear? Where did they disappear?"
A tough man with a ferocious scar on his face was followed by three people. He revealed himself and walked quickly towards the group of people in front.
"Captain Pierce, I'm sorry... We don't know much about the specific situation..." A tall woman with heavy makeup said: "Let me introduce myself first. I am the deputy director of the Intelligence Section of the Auror Office of the French Ministry of Magic. Maysanne Therost.”
As Meishan Selost gracefully stretched out her left hand, the scarred man frowned slightly, took Meishan's hand in a gentlemanly manner, kissed the back of it gently, and then responded coldly: "Piers, Chief of Operations, Auror Office, British Ministry of Magic."
Pierce is an old acquaintance. After Qin Weijie came to the UK, the captain has been around Qin Weijie almost all the time, working hard and without complaint. Sometimes Pierce feels that his captain is just like a nanny.
Fortunately, Qin Weijie had a falling out with the old Marquis of Foley this summer, so Pierce began to perform other, relatively important tasks.
But perhaps because he had been protecting Qin Weijie, the God of Plague, for a long time, and had a lot of bad luck unique to Master Qin, something went wrong on Comrade Lao Pi's first serious mission this year.
The specific situation is this. Since Grindelwald and the Muggle government launched a night attack on Poland and wiped out the newly established Polish Department of Magical Enforcement overnight, this incident was almost equivalent to announcing that the prelude to a full-scale war had begun.
Under such a situation, the French Ministry of Magic also felt that it was in danger. Grindelwald's next target was likely to be the French Ministry of Magic, so the French Minister of Magic had to put aside his pride and ask for help from his old friend, the British Ministry of Magic.
The British Ministry of Magic has also been experiencing a troubled period recently. Hector Foley is on the verge of being impeached and basically has no real power in his hands. The British Ministry of Magic is leaderless and in chaos. Although each department is still performing its duties, it is basically operating independently. , it was difficult to lend a helping hand for a while.
Under such circumstances, standard political methods could not be responded to, and the French Minister of Magic had no choice but to find another way.
Isn't the British Ministry of Magic leaderless and doing their own thing at this time? Then simply go directly to the Auror Office of the British Ministry of Magic and ask them for assistance. First, form a joint investigation team to do some simple investigation tasks that do not involve in the war. Let the team get used to the investigation first. For some mysterious incidents that have recently occurred in France, we will wait until the "impeachment incident" of the British Ministry of Magic has settled before formally filing a request to legalize the joint investigation team.
By then, with the foundation of early cooperation, coupled with some political lobbying and some cold-blooded remarks, the British Ministry of Magic will inevitably be brought in. With the help of the British Ministry of Magic, the situation on the mainland should be much more relaxed, and there may even be some Ability to launch a counterattack against Grindelwald and reverse the situation.
I have to say that although this move of killing first and reporting later was against the rules, it did solve an urgent need under the recent shortage of personnel.
However, the person who contacted the French Minister of Magic and completed this 'cut first and then pay later' plan was our "golden nanny" Captain Pierce.
Originally, in Pierce's opinion, this matter went smoothly. After all, the Aurors from the British Ministry of Magic did not officially intervene in the war and were only doing some simple investigation tasks.
In fact, it doesn't matter if it goes on smoothly, just like the plan. At most, it can be reported to the police after the dust of the 'impeachment incident' has settled. But at this time, a team member of the 'joint investigation team' disappeared inexplicably. .
This is a serious operational accident. Even if it is in compliance with the rules, if Pierce had not intervened first, the matter would have caused quite a stir. The authorization to form a joint investigation team is entirely at Pierce's discretion. When something goes wrong, Pierce becomes... The first responsible person.
No matter how this matter develops now, as long as the missing small team of Aurors are not found, Pierce will be punished accordingly when the chaos in the British Ministry of Magic is settled, and the punishment will not be light, and it may even involve the Wizengamot Parliament, to judge him according to the laws of the magical world.
Maybe I’ll have to wash my anus in Azkaban for the rest of my life~
Pierce was also very desperate at this time!
"Who are I messing with!? Why am I always the unlucky one!!"
This must be Pierce's inner monologue at this time.
"Miss Meishan, please give me an explanation? How could a team of people disappear out of thin air? What mission did they go on?"
Pierce temporarily suppressed his uneasiness and turned to question the head of the French Ministry of Magic, Messanne Selost.
Mei Shan frowned in embarrassment and took out a roll of parchment from the attendant's briefcase, which contained the record of this operation.
"We are very sorry that something like this happened... We didn't expect something like this to happen!" Mei Shan said apologetically, and then introduced the detailed tasks performed by members of this joint investigation team.
"Recently, there have been inexplicable magic fluctuations near the Somme River, so we sent this small team of Aurors to investigate. Originally, this kind of mission was not difficult or dangerous, but for some reason the team that carried out the investigation mission earlier today They lost contact with us, and we sent three groups of investigators to look for them, but no trace of them was found, so we informed you with an emergency owl letter."
"That's it?" Pierce asked
Meishan smiled bitterly and nodded: "We only know so much. Normally, this investigation mission does not involve Grindelwald and there will be no danger. However, the disappearance of the seven members of the team is extremely strange. We are now We can only continue to send investigators to investigate. We can only say that we are very sorry for this incident... We will also try our best to allocate manpower to search for missing persons!"
At this time, Pierce was two heads tall and too lazy to talk anymore. He had to take out a pipe and take a puff of tobacco, looking around at the ruins.
"This is... the ruins of the Battle of the Somme?" Pierce asked for a long time.
Mei Shan nodded and said nothing more.
At this moment, a dark wind blew by the Somme River, and a cold and cold atmosphere filled the entire land. Suddenly, Pierce noticed a warmth in the pocket in his arms, and subconsciously reached into his pocket and took out a folded yellow paper. Triangular piece of paper.
This was given to me by the evil young master when he was protecting the young master of the Welfare family during the summer vacation. At that time, the young master of the Welfare family said it was an amulet and asked Pierce to carry it with him.
Pierce didn't care much about it. He just thought it was a child's trick and just put it in his pocket and stopped asking.
But for some unknown reason, just as a gust of wind blew past, this amulet actually experienced a slight change.
A warm and comfortable golden halo circulated on the amulet, as if it had resisted the inexplicable wind. Pierce felt that the biting cold feeling just now disappeared in an instant.
The next second, a shrill scream sounded in everyone's ears, and a gray-black shadow appeared in front of everyone.
The group of people turned to look at the inexplicable shadow that had appeared. The shadow was dressed in the French army's standard military uniform from the First World War. Its face was ulcerated, and dark black viscous blood soaked its entire face and clothes. A turbulent black mist flowed over its body. The entire shadow was suspended in mid-air, looking extremely terrifying and gloomy.
"What is this!!" Someone in the crowd exclaimed, and quickly took out his wand and cast magic on the shadow.
But after the magic was released, it actually passed through the shadow and hit the rock without causing any damage to the shadow.
Pierce was also startled by the sudden change at this time. He hurriedly took a step back, but bumped into a big man behind him, and was immediately pushed towards the terrifying shadow by the reaction force.
Damn it~ Why am I always the unlucky one! !
However, the next second, when Pierce collided with the shadow, the shadow actually let out a shrill scream, and then struggled painfully, but was finally suppressed by the amulet emitting a golden halo in Pierce's hand. In an instant, Turn into ashes.
"What is that black monster?" Mei Shan looked at the dissipated shadow in shock, and then looked at the amulet in Pierce's hand: "What is this?"
Pierce was also in shock at this time. He stared blankly at the slightly dim amulet on his palm, and murmured: "A... an amulet... an amulet made of Chinese mysterious magic.
