Battlefield Priest's Diary

Chapter 49 Beneath the Stormy Waves (Bonus Chapter, Please Vote!)
water!
So much water!

A boundless flood surged in from the horizon!

Vasily and his men were carrying high explosives in their wagon. The map Qin Hao gave them showed the location where the German army later flooded and blew up the dam. The previous torrential rains had raised the water level of the nearby rivers, turning the flood's power from three parts to ten parts.

The earth trembled, warhorses neighed, and the German soldiers at the foot of the mountain were dumbfounded.

Some people were so frightened that they stood there motionless.

Some reacted quickly, mounted their horses and galloped in the opposite direction, but were soon swept away by the surging waves.

Hoffman and the soldiers around him were swept into the flood. He reached out and barely managed to grab onto a small tree. Water splashed all around him as the young lieutenant struggled in front of him, and the lieutenant colonel tried to reach out his hand.

Click!

The sapling snapped in two. Lieutenant Colonel Hoffman was swept away by the raging flood like a leaf.

Halfway up the mountain, Panasenko looked at the breathtaking view before him, and his knees gave way, causing him to kneel down.

“I knew it…” The cavalry captain kept repeating this phrase.

Amidst the roar of heaven and earth, he vaguely heard someone chanting:
"When the abyss opened its gaping maw, the sluice gates of heaven collapsed with a roar, and for forty days and nights, torrential rains lashed the earth like the scourge of God. The boundary between the sea and the sky was shattered at that moment... The mountains were turned into islands in the raging waves and then swallowed up; the most arrogant trees were uprooted and torn to pieces in the whirlpools..." (Genesis)
In a daze, someone pulled him up.

"Don't get distracted! Are you out of your mind?!" The priest in black stretched out his hand to him, and only then did the cavalry captain realize that the floodwaters had already reached his feet.

The group pulled each other up to the top of the mountain. The priest in black leaned against a big tree, looking completely exhausted.

"Huff...huff...looks like we're in luck..." Qin Hao said, panting.

“Father, I have something I want to ask you.” Panasenko sat cross-legged in front of the priest.

"At this point, what is there that you can't ask? Ask away."

"Were the prophecies you made before true?"

"What prophecy?"

"That's what you said the day you handed me the holy water."

"Uh, I guess so. Sorry, I'm a little sleepy..." The priest in black patted his mouth, then leaned against the big tree and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

The floodwaters roared all around, and the faint light of dawn shone through the clouds, illuminating the sleeping priest in black.

He lay on his side in front of the tree, breathing evenly, one hand touching the cross on his chest. Sunlight swept across his face, as if it were edged with silver.

Panasenko sat with his gun, quietly standing guard to the side.
-
In September 1914, during the East Prussian campaign, the German Eighth Army, after receiving reinforcements, continued its northward attack in an attempt to expand its gains.

After leaving behind a rearguard of 50,000 men, the Russian First Army withdrew eastward and reorganized its defenses away from the Masurian Lake area.

On September 14, German troops broke through the Russian western defense line.

On September 15, heavy rains hampered the advance of the German eastern attacking forces.

On September 21, most of the rearguard of the Russian First Army withdrew to the Drevents River crossing. The Siberian battalion of the Russian garrison sent a telegram stating that they would fight to the last man.

On September 23, the German army broke through the western defense line of Russia and launched a pursuit. That same night, a dam on a tributary of the Drevants River suddenly broke, and the floodwaters roared and submerged the German vanguard.

In this battle, the Russian army suffered approximately 1.2 casualties (killed or captured), while the German army suffered approximately 2800 casualties (most of whom were swallowed by the flood in their sleep), with another 143 missing. A large amount of equipment was destroyed, and the Germans were temporarily unable to continue their offensive. The Battle of Lake Masuria became an imperfect conclusion to the Hindenburg campaign in East Prussia.

What saddened him even more was that his assistant, the brilliant adjutant Max Hoffman, known as "the fox of the General Staff," was killed in action during the pursuit.

Thus ended the Battle of Tannenberg. The German army gained a comprehensive battlefield advantage, but failed to annihilate all Russian forces. The two sides were locked in a protracted stalemate on the Eastern Front. Germany held the advantage, but was unable to achieve a decisive victory.

Meanwhile, the Western Front was locked in a protracted war, and the Schlieffen Plan, devised by the German General Staff to quickly defeat France in 6-7 months and then turn its full attention to Russia, failed. Germany was forced into a prolonged two-front war, which sowed the seeds for future defeats.

Two weeks later, the floodwaters had receded, and the German army had fully occupied the Masurian Lakes region.

A mule-drawn carriage traveled along the road, splashing mud everywhere from the wheels.

"Wait! Wait a minute!" someone shouted from the side of the road.

Several German soldiers, their trousers rolled up and covered in mud, walked to the roadside.

"Please help us, use your livestock, our cannon is stuck in the mud."

“This…” the coachman said with some difficulty, “But this is a carriage going to the military headquarters, and it is full of recovered officers.”

“It’s alright, we can wait.” A voice rang out from behind the carriage.

A pair of military boots trod on the muddy ground of the countryside, his handsome yet thin face, his straight-pressed trousers and broad-shouldered military uniform, and a Hohenzollern sword knight's medal gleaming on his chest.

Several soldiers hurriedly stood at attention and saluted!
"Excuse me, sir!"

“It’s alright, I can help too!” The officer rolled up his sleeves, took off his military boots, carefully removed his medals and put them away, then jumped into the mud without hesitation and helped the soldiers push the wheels of the artillery vehicle.

Under his leadership, the people quickly pulled the cannon up.

"Thank you so much, sir! Look at your uniform, we really are..." The soldiers, covered in mud, were both grateful and ashamed.

"It's alright, I'll have a change of clothes when we reach our destination." The officer saluted the soldiers, helped the driver re-hitch the animals, and then jumped onto the mule cart to continue the journey.

"He's a really good officer. If it weren't for him, we probably wouldn't have been able to finish tonight," a soldier muttered softly outside the car window.

"Those damn Slavic barbarians, they caused me so much trouble before they left. This place is flooded like this, I don't know when it will recover." Someone chimed in from the side.

"I heard that many people died here back then, including high-ranking officers, including the general's confidant, named Max... Max... Damn it! What was that again?"

"It's Max Hoffmann!" The mule cart window opened, and the young officer leaned out, his face displeased. "Soldiers, you should respect the names of fallen soldiers! They are heroes of the motherland!"

"Yes, sir!" The soldier by the roadside hurriedly apologized.

The curtain was lowered, the mule cart moved forward slowly, and Lieutenant Manstein took two things out of his pocket.

They were also glass shards from a Molotov cocktail.

It was the same notebook that had been soaked in water.

Pressing his hand against the blurred handwriting, the lieutenant practically spat out a name through clenched teeth:
"Rasputin"

"Rasputin"

(End of this chapter)