Battlefield Priest's Diary

Chapter 2 The Scent of 1914

The sense of smell is the first to awaken.

It was a smell different from the cow dung smell unique to the countryside, a smell I hadn't encountered in a long time.

Qin Hao only had similar memories when he watched pigs being slaughtered in the countryside when he was a child.

What is it?

Oh, it's the smell of blood.

The smell of blood?!

Qin Hao suddenly opened his eyes, and the scene before him made his heart pound wildly.

Thump thump thump thump! !!! !!!

Corpses! They were all human corpses!

As far as the eye could see, white corpses in various poses lay haphazardly within a ten-meter radius.

They were wearing old-fashioned woolen uniforms from the Russian army during World War I, with leggings, some with tattered felt hats on their heads, and most of them were bald. The vast majority of them were lying on the ground with their backs to Qin Hao.

The air was filled with the mixed smells of dirt, gunpowder, and blood, which constantly filled his nostrils, while he could hear a constant sound like popping beans.

*Puff puff puff puff!* *Bang bang!* *Bang!*
That's...gunshots?! How could there be gunshots?!

Terrorist attack?!
What the hell is going on?!
"Hurrah!!!" A voice, already out of tune, rang out beside me as dozens of figures howled and ran past, charging towards the area where the gunfire was most intense.

"Idiot! Why aren't you charging! The supervisory team is already looking this way!" Before he could even process what was happening, a heavily accented Russian voice rang in his ears, and a pair of muddy boots kicked Qin Hao hard in the buttocks.

The person shouting was so strong that Qin Hao fell headfirst into the mud!

Whoosh! !

puff!
A bullet flew past Qin Hao's head!
Face to face with the ground, Qin Hao realized that he had fallen on a small mound, with muddy trenches in the distance and smoke rising all around him.

Is this a battlefield?!

How did I end up on the battlefield?!

"You pig! Are you scared out of your wits by the German artillery?! Charge forward now!" A man with a double-headed eagle emblem on his leather hat roughly dragged Qin Hao up and shoved him so he staggered and started running.

thump!
Qin Hao hadn't run two steps before he fell to the ground again. The whooshing sound of bullets in his ears made his legs weak, and his nose made intimate contact with the black mud on the ground once more.

The next second, the officer-looking guy completely lost his patience. He pulled out a revolver from his waist and pointed it directly at Qin Hao's back.

"Run! Either charge at us, or I'll kill you right now!"

The sound of a pistol's hammer striking behind him reminded Qin Hao that no one was joking.

Violence is always the best approach. He instinctively spurred his legs on, running unsteadily behind the charging men, bare-handed.

"Hurrah!!!" The people around him roared hysterically. As they approached the battlefield, Qin Hao felt all his organs working overtime under the influence of adrenaline.

The opposing positions were far away, and the men around me rushed forward with weapons in hand, as if their boots would touch solid ground and end the charge in the next second.

Until something appeared before their eyes.

Several areas that had just been covered by branches and planks were uncovered, revealing cold, hard gun barrels. The dark water tanks and ammunition belts reflected the sunlight, sending chills down one's spine.

The enemy soldier, wearing a helmet that looked like a lightning rod, gripped the trigger, and Qin Hao even felt as if he and the soldier made eye contact.

At least four Maxim heavy machine guns were positioned in front of the charging column. The trigger was pulled!

Bang bang bang bang bang! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Bang bang bang bang bang! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Bang bang bang bang bang! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
A sound like popping beans rang out from the opposite side, and the charging crowd instantly shortened. The sounds of bullets piercing through human bodies, "pfft, pfft, pfft," rang out continuously.

Most people were stunned, watching their companions fall like wheat being harvested. Some were at a loss, and started circling around like donkeys pulling a millstone.

Some people wanted to turn back and run away, some wanted to scatter to the sides, and a very small number wanted to continue moving forward.

The crowd, blocked by heavy machine guns, descended into complete chaos.

Qin Hao was bumped by the chaotic crowd, his foot slipped, and he fell to the ground, rolling behind a small rock.

Two bullets swept right past the spot where he had just been standing.

At this moment, the soldiers went from chaos to complete collapse. Hundreds and thousands of them turned and ran away under the fire of heavy machine guns, a sight reminiscent of wildebeest herds being chased by lions in Africa.

This time, Qin Hao reacted quickly; he got up and ran with the crowd.

Although they hadn't figured out what was going on, the human instinct to avoid danger spurred Qin Hao's legs on, and he and several other figures whose faces were obscured ran swiftly back the way they came.

Behind me, I could hear indistinct shouts in a language that I couldn't understand, and the gunshots were getting closer and closer.

puff!puff!
A strange sound rang in his ears. A hapless man next to him suddenly froze while running, then collapsed to the ground and never got up again. One of them was the officer who had just shouted at him.

He ran even faster.

Or perhaps he never imagined he could run so fast.

He didn't know how fast Bolt was, but he could clearly feel the guy next to him being left behind.

The wind whistled past his ears, and fueled by adrenaline, Qin Hao rushed to the front of the column. Soon, a winding trench appeared ahead of him.

Just as he was about to jump in, he suddenly felt a warmth on his shoulder, as if he had been pecked by something. But before he could think, he used the momentum of his forward charge to roll into the trench.

His gaze paused, and he was enveloped in dark mud, which gave him a sense of security. But the next second, his nerves were sent with a burning sensation—something had pierced through his clothes and was embedded in his shoulder, with blood seeping out.

Sweat covered his forehead almost instantly.

"Damn it! What the hell is going on?!"

Qin Hao, panting heavily, looked back and saw several soldiers jumping in one after another, then cowering there in a panic.

Qin Hao tried to pull someone aside to talk to them.

"Where am I?! Who are those people on the other side?!" He had to shout at the top of his lungs because of the gunfire.

The soldier opposite him shook his head as if he were stunned, his eyes filled with terror.

"Damn it! This is fucking idiot!" Qin Hao cursed under his breath, only then realizing that he was speaking his mother tongue in the tense situation.

Qin Hao grabbed the soldier and asked him in both Russian and English.

"German, German..." The soldier, clearly still in shock, could only utter this one word.

"German?"

Qin Hao turned his head to look at the soldiers' uniforms beside him, and then recalled the lightning rod-like helmets of the "enemy" opposite him, and an ominous premonition rose in his heart.

He wanted to pick up something for self-defense, but then he realized that, probably because they were in a rout, the soldiers around him were almost all empty-handed. There were only four old-fashioned rifles among seven or eight men, with the inscription "Винтовкаобр. 1891" on the grip.

(End of this chapter)