Battlefield Priest's Diary

Chapter 126 The Last Letter in the World

The body of a German soldier in a gray uniform was dragged out, and Pierre raised his hand and quickly rummaged inside the uniform.

Perhaps due to his previous experience, he was much faster than others at looting corpses on the battlefield.

A pack of cigarettes, a lighter, loose candy, spare bullets…

He quickly gathered up valuable supplies, as resources were becoming scarce on the battlefield, and even items from corpses were being recycled.

Just as he was about to flip to the next one, he touched something that looked like metal—a small makeup mirror.

This doesn't seem like something a man should have.

Pierre pondered for a moment, then stuffed the mirror into his pocket, and with a forceful push, shoved the German soldier's body out of the trench.

Under the influence of gravity, the body tumbled downwards and finally came to rest in front of a barbed wire fence in a low-lying area, while there were already 7 or 8 similar creatures around it.

He was unwilling to collect the German corpses, but he couldn't leave them in the trenches either, so he simply let them die on their own in this way.

The sound of flapping wings rang in my ears, and several crows flew to the top of a nearby dead tree branch. The next moment, footsteps appeared behind me.

The French youth was taken aback, bowed slightly, and said, "Father, please wait a moment, it will be ready soon."

The priest in the black robe shook his head, not responding to the young man before him. He simply removed the cross from his neck and bent down to approach the corpse on the ground.

The cross touches each person's forehead lightly, and after two prayers, a very simplified farewell ceremony for the deceased is complete.

People came up from behind and dragged away the bodies on the ground. Whether they were German or French soldiers, they were all loaded onto wooden carts.

As the other side fell silent, the young man began to feel uneasy. His previous orders were to quickly bury the bodies of "both sides," but he had taken it upon himself to dispose of the enemy's corpse.

The priest in the black robe showed no emotion, slowly walking towards the French soldiers who had just stepped onto the battlefield. When he put his hand inside his black robe, Pierre tensed up immediately.

They looked like they were about to shoot him.

The next second, a potato was placed in his hand.

"Eat something first."

A dozen minutes later, under a dead tree, the priest in black robes casually sat on a wooden box. He took out another potato from his pocket and waved to the young soldier.

The two of them sat on the ground and shared the food in their hands.

Looking at the anxious young man in front of him, Qin Hao felt a little annoyed. The trench in front of him was specially designed to attract the German army and deplete their forces.

To maintain secrecy, he did not want any information that could potentially deduce the battlefield situation to fall into the hands of the Germans, including corpses.

But the person in front of me didn't follow my orders.

It seems that some things are better left unsaid.

"Pierre, what do you think the corpses are?" the black-robed priest asked, sitting there with his eyes on the ravaged battlefield.

“Father, I…I don’t understand what you mean…” Pierre thought for a long time, unable to figure out what the priest was thinking, and didn’t know how to answer.

Qin Hao reached into his pocket with one hand, took out a letter with writing on it, and handed it to the French youth.

This letter was found on the body and contained some trivial information about the deceased's military camp before his death. However, it was possible to deduce a series of intelligence from it, such as the current morale of the German army, its supplies, and even the frequency of air force flights.

Qin Hao wanted to use this method to tell him that a carelessly discarded corpse could pose a significant intelligence risk, and then advise the young man to follow orders next time.

However, things seem to have taken a slight turn for the worse.

Pierre unfolded the letter. His background as a humanities student gave him a good command of German. He read it carefully and found that the letter was filled with the longing of a child away from home, a father for his hometown, and a subtle aversion to the war...

Pierre folded the letter in his hand and tried to express the answer in his heart.

"Father, are you angry that I handled the enemy's corpses this way, showing such a lack of compassion?"
Is that what I meant?!
Seeing the serious expression on the young soldier's face, the priest in the black robe barely managed to control his own expression. He then took out a potato from his pocket and placed it in the soldier's hand.

"You're a smart lad, go and get some rest."

The priest in the black robe stopped talking and stood up to leave.

"Please wait a moment!"

The priest in black robes stopped and slowly turned around, a mysterious smile on his face.

“Father! I haven’t been able to fully understand your teachings yet, but I will try my best!” The young man held the potato in his hand and bowed deeply.

That evening, Pierre wrote the following in his diary:

"A corpse is the last message that mortals leave to the world."
-
On the other side, the German positions.

"Sir, I'm very sorry! The soldiers I've been withdrawing from are all concentrated on the outer perimeter of the position, and we're not entirely clear on what's happening inside the trenches." The sergeant leading the team looked at the captain with a troubled expression.

"Doesn't anyone know what's going on inside?" Manstein asked, frowning.

"I'm sorry, that's exactly the case. It seemed like we were surrounded by enemies on all sides. We were driven out before we could even figure out where we were."

"I see..." the captain said after a moment's hesitation, turning to his colleagues.
"Go find a body collector, and I also need to see the remains of the most recently fallen soldier."

"Captain, what's going on..." the staff officer beside him asked uncertainly.

Manstein shook his head. "We have too little information to support an analysis of the occupation."

“A mysterious figure often appears when we achieve a stage victory, and then a commander or key figure is sniped by him.”

"A strange fortification, easy to capture but quickly recaptured by the enemy. We not only don't know the enemy's numbers and tactics, but we also have no idea about their firepower."

"This is very strange, it's not normal."

The fallen soldiers were quickly brought in on stretchers.

The young Junker nobleman personally examined the soldier's body, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Most of the people were shot in the back, but I didn't see any soldiers running away at that time... Was it some kind of secret passage or inconspicuous trench?"

"There are no signs of heavy firepower. The wounds are mainly from grenade shrapnel and small-caliber weapons. It seems that the enemy also used highly mobile elite troops to fight and retreat quickly."

I understand!

Amidst the puzzled gazes of the crowd, Manstein slammed his fist into his palm.

"The enemy is a trench warfare expert who deliberately lured us into their pre-planned battlefield in an attempt to deplete our forces."

The captain turned to his colleague, "Yosel, I need your help. Give me a squad of soldiers."

"That's too risky. This isn't 1914 anymore. Our artillery can't completely suppress the enemy. It's hard to say whether something unexpected might happen."

“Josel, I learned a lesson from my dealings with the Russians.” Manstein patted his companion on the shoulder.
"Sometimes, the courage to take a gamble is the key to breaking through a dead end, rather than a foolproof plan!"

That evening, after speaking with the lieutenant general, Manstein even made such a bold statement as threatening the honor of German soldiers, and ultimately obtained an elite assault team.

They even assigned the most advanced flamethrowers to Hindenburg's nephew.

Surprisingly, Manstein rejected this new type of terrifying weapon.

“Thank you, sir! But I have something even better prepared.” With that, the captain showed his superior a large pile of glass bottles behind him.

(End of this chapter)