Battlefield Priest's Diary

Chapter 136 Curtain Call
Baldeco, the command center of the French Second Army, is now in complete chaos.

In front of the large map, the staff officer kept modifying the markings on it. Almost every short period of time, the situation on the Verdun battlefield was changing.

The Germans deployed approximately 30 infantrymen and thousands of artillery pieces in this Easter offensive.

A week ago, poison gas was used across the board to bombard French positions.

The 420mm caliber super cannon, the "Big Bertha," was used for the first time as a fortress-class offensive weapon, and some even spotted Zeppelin airships at the rear base.

Hindenburg gathered his strength and unleashed a powerful left hook at Pétain, the defensive mastermind.

Boom!
Staff officer Bernard practically rammed into General Pétain's office.

"What happened, Bernard?" Pétain turned around, not bothering to reprimand his assistant for his rudeness. Bernard, usually so calm and collected, was acting like this; something serious must have happened.

"Your Excellency! I have something very important to report!"

"We just received a report from Foxburg that Belleville's soldiers abandoned their positions and retreated here!"

hum! !

Pétain felt as if his head had been hit by something. Belleville Heights was an absolute strategic location, and losing it now would be tantamount to Hindenburg holding a knife to his heart.

"Have the Germans already occupied Belleville? How many are there?! What troops are nearby?!" Pétain quickly threw out three questions. The situation was urgent, and he didn't even have time to investigate the responsibility for the troops' unauthorized desertion.

His current thought is that he will take back Bellville Heights, even if it means using sheer numbers.

“That’s the problem.” The staff officer paused and reported, “We just received a report from the air force that the pilots said there was fierce fighting on the Belleville Heights today. At least three waves of German attacks were repelled by the defenders, and there were heavy casualties.”

? ? ? ! ! !
How is this going? !
"What are the specific details? Has the air force reported anything?"

“No.” The staff officer shook his head. “The enemy has deployed more than a squadron of fighters in this direction. Our planes cannot get too close, but the pilots are certain that the fortress has been under fire all day.”

This is strange!

One said the defending troops had already retreated, while the other said fierce fighting was still raging in the area.

Who lied?!
"Where is Potan Al?"

"Your Excellency, you are still locked up."

"I mean the one on Bellville's position."

“We’ve lost contact with him. I even suspect that the root of this incident lies with him.”

Then the adjutant lowered his voice and said, "I heard that the soldiers who withdrew from the fortress said that Father El seemed to not want them to die in vain, and ordered everyone to leave the position without authorization, leaving only himself behind."

"Himself?! That means a fake priest who joined the army halfway through his career single-handedly held off the elite German troops for at least 18 hours?!"

Pétain spoke as if he were telling a fairy tale.

“I also find this incredible, but look at this, this was taken by the Air Force from a distance.” The adjutant took out a photo and placed it on the table.

The photo is blurry, but one can vaguely make out a lone figure holding a machine gun on the French position amidst the smoke, facing the densely packed Germans in front of the bunker.

huh~~
Pétain put the photo down, exhaled a breath of stale air, and regained his composure.

"Let's put aside what exactly happened for now."

"Have the nearest troops contact Bellville as soon as possible, and have surrounding troops assemble. At all costs, we must hold the fortress! Even if we've already lost it, we must take it back!"

Staff Officer Bernard sighed, “Sir, it’s difficult. The garrison that was withdrawn earlier has no will to fight, and now our mobile forces have basically been dispersed. There are simply no organized units that can reach Belleville in the short term.”

"How long will it take at the fastest?"

"Twenty hours, that's assuming troops from other units are drawn from the schedule. Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless someone can conjure soldiers out of thin air."
-
At the Second Army's forward supply base, Lieutenant Colonel Eugen stopped a truck with a pistol in hand!
"Wait! The people in the truck are going to Belleville Fortress with me, it's fate..."

Before he could finish speaking, the lieutenant colonel's throat tightened, because the back of the truck was filled with speechless corpses.

These people were all seriously injured, and many of them had already died on the way.

As I jumped off the truck, a sense of despair rose in my heart. The place was in complete chaos, and there was simply no way to find suitable recruits.

Thinking of this, the lieutenant colonel gritted his teeth and directly violated hospital rules by rushing into the wounded soldiers' tent.

"I need volunteers to go to Belleville Fortress! Are there any people who can still handle guns?!" the lieutenant colonel shouted at the gate.

Without any reaction, the wounded soldiers looked at the person in front of them with indifference.

“Sir, this is going too far! How can we allow wounded soldiers to return to the battlefield? Please leave!” Dean Henry Wilson came out to stop him, trying to drive the lieutenant colonel out of the wounded soldiers’ area.

The two sides started to pull at each other.

"Lieutenant Colonel?! What are you doing here?!" A woman's surprised voice came from behind.

“Miss Chanel?!” Lieutenant Colonel Eugen still remembered the woman in front of him.

"Please leave quickly. I'm preparing to lead my men back to the fortress. The fighting is fierce, and it's becoming increasingly unsafe here," the lieutenant colonel said.

“Return to the fortress? But you…” The woman pointed to the few soldiers around the lieutenant colonel, probably less than ten in total.

"There's no other way, there are no recruits here." The lieutenant colonel shook his head, but then his expression became firm again.

"But don't worry, even if I'm alone, I'll go back. I won't leave that guy alone on the front lines."

The woman's eyes flickered; she knew who the lieutenant colonel was referring to as "that guy."

With a surge of thoughts, Chanel gripped the newly developed photograph in her hand.

"I might be able to help."
-
boom! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Like a tidal wave, explosions erupted at the last line of defense. Explosions from unidentified metal barrels engulfed hundreds of German soldiers.

Manstein stared at the scene before him, his fingers clenched so tightly they turned white.

The blast wave cleared some of the fog on the position, allowing everyone to clearly see what was on the other side. There was only one person.

One man held off his thousands of troops for nearly 36 hours, burying more than a battalion of soldiers on the ground in front of him by various means.

"Has that guy been bathed in dragon blood?" someone muttered to themselves in a low voice.

He was standing right there, practically a sitting duck for the artillery, but no one on the entire German position made a move.

A red triplane flew across the sky, its swaying shape seemingly expressing its respect.

A sudden change occurred!

The terrifying figure suddenly collapsed to the ground, right before everyone's eyes.

Qin Hao was panting heavily, feeling like he had reached his limit in every part of his body.

Shrapnel from who-knows-where left a mark on his forehead, and sweat mixed with blood dripped down his face.

He wanted to raise his hand to wipe it, but Qin Hao found that his hand was already shaking uncontrollably.

That's probably where we end it.

Although he was not seriously injured, the intense fighting that lasted for more than a day left his body in a state of extreme exhaustion, and now he has to rely on willpower to even stand up.

The sound of pages turning filled the air, and the numbers before them were still far higher than the standard for leaving.

It's the limit!
He himself hadn't expected to hold on this long.

They fought with the mindset of certain death, but unexpectedly, so many Germans survived.

Unfortunately, no one listened to his boasting.

Unfortunately, he has to start all over again.

It's a pity that even though I've done so well, I still feel unsatisfied.

in case……

The sound of pages turning filled the air, and the numbers on the diary began to drop rapidly in his eyes, quickly reaching a certain critical value.

How is this going? !
Dozens of kilometers away, Chanel waved that photograph as she walked among the wounded soldiers.

She recounted an almost bizarre story: at the edge of the battlefield, at the crossroads of life and death, there was such a person…

She pleaded for everyone's help.

Unlike the lieutenant colonel's orders, the woman received a quick response.

Some of the lightly wounded stepped forward, and many of them had witnessed the priest in black robes pulling lives back from the brink of death.

Truck drivers stepped forward, all of whom had once been proud to follow the Fox of Baldick.

The wounded foreign legion members stepped forward, preferring to help a friend who didn't discriminate against them.

The wounded soldiers who had left the fortress returned, hoping to rescue a saint who could share potatoes with them.

Countless people emerged from the wounded soldiers' quarters, weapons in hand, and surged onto the trucks.

The entire team swelled up like an inflating balloon.

More than half of the wounded soldiers' camp has been emptied!
These people began to flash before Qin Hao's eyes like a movie.

Hey, like I said, warm sunshine always seems to blow people's coats off more easily than a harsh north wind; true redemption always happens unexpectedly.

Alright, your mission is complete. Shall we leave?

The messy handwriting on the diary reappeared.

Hey, that really was an accident.

However, at this point, there should be a perfect ending.

Kragg stared in horror at what he saw before him; the black-robed man, who should have been unable to stand, was actually laughing.

He was laughing so happily, as if the death before him had nothing to do with him.

The man propped himself up, climbed onto the truck, and slammed the door shut.

A light flashed from the driver's seat—the cross hanging around his neck shone brightly.

The next second, the cross was hanging around a bird's neck, and it flew high into the sky!
With engines roaring, the Renault truck charged toward the German positions.

The Renault truck rushed down the hillside, the cross on its front like a knight's lance, pointing straight at the German phalanx.

This is an attack launched by one person against eight thousand people!
"Damn it! Has he gone mad?!" an officer shouted in a panic!
"Fire! Fire! Take him down!"

Boom! ...

The German artillery seemed to be stunned, and the shells didn't fall from the sky until the enemy had covered a third of the distance.

A beam of light guided the way in the air, and it was as if a barrier had been erected around the Renault truck, preventing any shells from hitting it.

After two rounds of shelling missed, the Renault truck broke through the enemy lines!

when!!!!!!!!

The truck crashed through the roadblock and drove directly into the German gas bomb position.

The sound of pages turning filled the air, and Qin Hao's vision began to blur. Odin in the sky turned and flew toward him.

The sound of the fuse burning rang out.

boom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A massive explosion turned the sky red, and the man in the black robe disappeared from everyone's sight amidst the rolling flames.

(End of this chapter)