Battlefield Priest's Diary

Chapter 45 A Telegram

fire!!!
Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!!
After two salvos from more than a dozen mortars, smoke billowed from the village several hundred meters away, and no soldiers could be seen moving about.

"Hurry! Hurry! Keep up!" A German lieutenant waved his pistol, directing his soldiers to place oversized wooden planks on the swamp.

This "simple pontoon bridge," made of birch bark, is 3 meters wide, making it perfectly suitable for soldiers to use for charging.

The pontoon bridge stretched closer and closer toward the village.

Suddenly, several small black dots flew out from the smoke and dust.

boom! boom! boom!
In order to destroy the birch pontoon bridge, the defending troops risked being shelled by the German army and forcibly opened fire in this direction.

Both sides attacked each other at the same time, and there was a tendency for an artillery battle to break out.

In the small village, Pavka spat onto the cannon barrel, and a plume of white smoke rose up with a hiss.

"Hurry up! We're out of water! Does anyone have any left?" the veteran shouted as he started unzipping his pants.

Soldiers from both sides ran over and did the same thing. Soon, a dark yellow liquid gushed into the water-cooling sleeve.

A pungent, foul odor instantly filled the air.

"Damn it! Pavka, you damned thing! Giving the priest such an idea!" the artilleryman shouted, unable to even cover his nose with his hands because he had to hold the shells.

"Anyway, this is the only way. You can choose whether to get bombed by the Germans or just endure the taste," the veteran retorted with a grin, pulling up his pants as he did so.

"And I'm probably out of stock too."

First they destroyed the water source, and then the Germans, using some unknown method, even cut off the water supply altogether.

Fortunately, they had made preparations beforehand, and the soldiers of the Siberian battalion brought their stored horse brushing water and artillery cooling water to solve the immediate problem.

It's really not worth it to send people to risk their lives to fetch water from the swamp just to cool the cannons.

So the soldiers had no choice but to follow Pavka's advice and temporarily use urine as a refrigerant.

"What's the big deal? We used this trick when we were short of water back when we were dealing with the Japanese," the veteran said nonchalantly.

In fact, using urine as cooling water would severely corrode the cannon body, and while cooling it down, it would also greatly reduce the cannon's service life. However, at this point, this issue was no longer a consideration.

The German attacks intensified, and the Siberian battalion began to suffer casualties, while weapons and supplies became scarce.

The number of artillery shells began to run out, and in order to save ammunition, the salvo from four cannons was reduced to two. The soldiers' food rations were also reduced, and even the medic Sasha, who had been living lavishly for a while, picked up his bandage-washing skills again.

The soldiers initially handled the battle with relative ease, but now morale has begun to waver.

Although it wasn't explicitly stated, the word "retreat" was written all over everyone's faces.

Click!

Qin Hao put away the cross in his hand and calculated the date again.

According to the diary, if he could hold out for another 48 hours, he would complete the "mission" and receive a reward of two chess pieces.

Rubbing the bandage wrapped around his head, Qin Hao felt a wave of lingering fear. If he had been any slower to dodge, that shell would have taken him away.

It now appears that the several hundred people in the Siberian regiment have basically reached their limit.

They forcibly boosted their morale with one "miracle" after another, but they did not have a death wish. The fact that they have lasted this long is already an extraordinary performance. If they continue fighting, they may collapse at any time.

It's time to withdraw.

The priest is about to give a speech! During a lull in the German offensive, in the village's threshing ground, the black-haired priest stood on a platform and addressed the people below.

"Guys! Have you had enough of canned green beans?" Qin Hao's first words made the soldiers below burst into laughter. The fact that the priest was in the mood to joke meant that the problem wasn't too serious, which eased the tense atmosphere among the soldiers quite a bit.

The canned green peas were the worst-tasting item in the supplies, so they were saved for last—that's all that's left in the village now.

"Two weeks ago, I told you all to hold off the Germans here together, and then I would take you all home."

"Today I am very proud to say that you have done it. Under our cover, more than 100,000 people have been successfully evacuated. Now there are only two days left."

"What I want to tell everyone here is that we have successfully completed our mission. We'll head back together in two days! That's all!"

The brief speech ended quickly, but it excited all the soldiers.

"Hurrah!!!" The soldiers raised their arms and shouted, their excited cries momentarily drowning out the sound of exploding shells.

Amid the excited crowd, Qin Hao quietly approached Ivanovich and said, "Turn on the radio, at maximum power. I need to send a message to report on the battle situation."

“Father, the army group headquarters should still be on the march and may not receive our message.”

“It doesn’t matter, or rather, it’s better this way,” the priest in black said.

“Father, I don’t know what you mean…” The telephone operator was completely confused.

"Ivanovich, did you ever get into fights in the streets when you were a child?" the priest in black suddenly asked a seemingly unrelated question.

"Um, yes, I used to fight with the kids from my village a lot when I was a kid."

"Very good, then you should know that the more you run, the more you need to make your opponent feel that you are really going all out, so that your success rate will be higher."

“Father, now that you mention it, I understand a little better,” the telephone operator said thoughtfully.

"Go ahead, I'll give you the draft telegram in a bit. Send it during the day." Qin Hao waved his hand and returned to his bedroom to draft the battle manifesto.

Qin Hao did this because the purpose of the telegram was not for the Russians, but for the German army on the other side.

According to historical records, during this period, the Russian army's radio stations had been completely cracked by the German army, and major military decisions would appear on Ludendorff and Hindenburg's desks almost immediately after being issued.

Therefore, this war was essentially a battle between the Russian army, shrouded in the fog of war, and the German army, which had a complete map, which was the main reason for the Russians' crushing defeat.

Qin Hao wanted to use this to send a message to the other party—I'm about to die, but I'll take a few people down with me, so you'd better think it over.

Soon after, a highly emotional telegram, polished by Qin Hao, was sent out.

[The newly formed 1st Siberian Battalion of the East Prussian Dreventz River garrison, reporting to the First Army Headquarters and then to the Supreme Commander:]
Our troops have constructed a defensive line three miles east of the Drevents River and have held their ground for more than ten days. No reinforcements have been seen yet, and the enemy outnumbers us ten or even a hundred times.

The current ammunition supply is only enough to last for 3 days, and nearly half of the soldiers have been killed or wounded.

However, the entire newly formed Siberian 1st Battalion should carry forward the Slavic tradition of courageous fighting and fight the enemy head-on to the last man.

The entire defensive line has been buried with explosives. If the enemy breaks through, our troops will detonate the explosives and perish together with the enemy.

Even if enemy artillery fire rages across the sky, we will forge an iron wall for Your Majesty's crown with our flesh and blood! Our bodies may perish, but the spirit of the Empire will never be extinguished!

[All soldiers of the newly formed 1st Siberian Battalion, September 21, 1914]

What Qin Hao didn't know was that the impact of this telegram was far greater than he had anticipated.

(End of this chapter)