Battlefield Priest's Diary

Chapter 8 A Slightly Changed Future

click!
He pulled back the bolt with his right hand, ejected the bullet, checked the chamber, and then closed the magazine again.

Qin Hao gripped the Mosin-Nagant rifle, still recalling the feeling of firing it just now.

I had never trained in shooting before, but it was like muscle memory that I was able to hit the target 100 meters away smoothly.

Although hitting the target at 100 meters is only considered acceptable by infantry standards, it is already a good result in the case of a sudden encounter on the battlefield. The fact that I was able to control it out of thin air shows that the diary and the chess pieces are really remarkable things.

Then he remembered the German officer he had hit. Although he was quite far away, he could tell that the officer was very young, not much older than the medic.

He had hit the man's shoulder, which shouldn't be fatal. As for whether it would leave him with a disability, that was not his concern.

Qin Hao didn't achieve his "first kill" on the battlefield, but for some reason, he felt a sense of relief.

Taking a deep breath, Qin Hao began to assess his current condition.

He carried a poorly maintained Mosin-Nagant rifle and four bullets. He checked his pockets and found only a pack of compressed biscuits; he hadn't brought a pistol or most of his other medications.

Qin Hao thought back carefully and realized that the compressed biscuits were in his hand before he "transmigrated" into this space. In other words, only things in his hand could truly travel with him in and out of this space.

The limited number of items that can be carried is not good news.

He returned, in the early stages of the Battle of Tannenberg in East Prussia, to a unit that was about to be annihilated.

The Russian army is still on the offensive. The Second Army, from top to bottom, still dreams of breaking through the German defenses and occupying the entire East Prussia in one fell swoop. They are completely unaware that under the command of Hindenburg and Ludendorff, the German army is carrying out extreme infiltration, intending to encircle the Second Army and devour it in one go.

The diary entry states the requirement is to "escape Tannenberg," meaning that at least I need to leave this battlefield for it to truly end.

But how can this be achieved?

Running away now is definitely a bad idea. The area within a 50-kilometer radius is basically a battlefield. If you leave rashly, you will either encounter German soldiers and be killed as an enemy or a spy, or be shot dead by Russian soldiers as a deserter.

He needed an opportune moment, when the Germans had just launched their attack and the Russians had not yet completely collapsed.

At that time, a total of 40 people from both sides were locked in a fierce battle, and that's when I had the chance to escape in the chaos.

However, this plan still faces great difficulties, but there is still a chance, since the German encirclement was not perfect to begin with.

First of all, the German encirclement plan was actually very risky.

Excluding the security forces, the German mobile forces in East Prussia at the time numbered only 15, yet they had to encircle 23 Russian troops within a 40-kilometer radius. This was like a dumpling with a thin skin and a large filling.

Secondly, the Russian army wasn't just the Second Army; their First Army was only 70 kilometers to their northeast, a distance a cavalry could reach in just 24 hours. If the First Army commander, Nynkampf, ordered a full-scale rescue, even if they didn't defeat the Germans, they could certainly break through the encirclement and free most of the Second Army.

Of course, history has no "what ifs," and Nymkampf did not deploy a single soldier, watching the Second Army be completely annihilated. Some later generations say he misjudged the situation, suspecting the Germans used a tactic similar to encircling a stronghold to lure reinforcements into a trap; others say it was due to Nymkampf's poor personal relationship with the Second Army commander that he ultimately chose to stand by. (The two men had once slapped each other on a train platform.)

Regardless, it's certain that the Germans were short-handed in this battle, with 15 men dividing and encircling 23 others. It was impossible for the entire encirclement to cover every aspect.

Because he had read relevant historical materials, he happened to know several weak points in the German encirclement at that time.

But is it possible for him to do it himself?
If I could bring some people along, maybe... *click*
The strange noise behind him interrupted Qin Hao's train of thought.

Qin Hao suddenly raised his rifle and aimed it behind him, but when he turned around, he realized that he had already removed the bullet.

"Hey! Man! Watch out for an accidental discharge!" A familiar Russian voice entered his ears, and the guy with the yellow teeth appeared in front of him again.

Pavka, the guy who once fed him sugar water and had his neck pierced right before his eyes, was now standing fully alive in front of him.

Qin Hao felt inexplicably complicated.

"A newcomer? He escaped from the front?"

"Don't worry, everyone's in the same boat. I won't report this to my superiors."

"Hey, did you bring any food? Cigarettes will do too."

After being asked the same question, Pavka revealed his signature corn-kernel-yellow teeth.

Qin Hao patted his pocket and tossed him a compressed biscuit.

"What is this? A wheat cake?" Pavka took the compressed biscuit with some doubt, then smelled it, broke off a small piece and licked it on his tongue, and then his eyes widened.

"Great stuff! Absolutely fantastic! It's top-quality wheat, mixed with oil and salt! I've never tasted anything this good before, brother, you..."

"Shh! Come with me." Qin Hao naturally put his arm around the soldier's shoulder and walked towards the other end of the trench.

At the same time, a military officer's shout came from afar.

"Three in a group! Hurry! Gather together! Follow the armed men and prepare to fight back!"

"Hey, buddy, what's going on... If you go too far, you'll be considered a deserter..." The veteran soldier didn't understand what was going on. Hearing the officer's voice, he instinctively tried to struggle.

"Don't speak yet," Qin Hao said, quickening his pace.

The next second they saw a horse-drawn carriage lying on the side of the road. Qin Hao practically dragged the old soldier to the wheels.

Five minutes later, the two of them successfully avoided the fate of being sent to the battlefield as cannon fodder.

Pavka's eyes nearly popped out of his head in surprise. As he pushed the wheel, he asked, "Dude, you're really good at this. Where did you come from?"

Qin Hao was silent for a moment, then said, "It was thrown here by some random bastard."

“Of course, many people here were inexplicably thrown onto the battlefield, scattered, and then inexplicably escaped here.” Pavka curled his lip, unconcerned, unaware that the other person did not mean that at all.

He then glanced at Qin Hao's pocket, rubbed his hands together, and said cautiously, "Buddy, do you still have any of that good stuff? I have connections to get other things in exchange, and I can even keep you off the battlefield."

"I'll think about it," Qin Hao said, watching the young man in the medic uniform walking towards them in a panic.

(End of this chapter)