Battlefield Priest's Diary

Chapter 78 Blessing
"Stop the bleeding from the wounded, find a rope to tie up the remaining thugs, and lock them all in the basement!"

Once the mob had completely given up resistance, the priest in black robes regained control of the situation and directed the servants in the house to clean up the traces at the scene.

Lyudmila stood there, and no matter how many times she had trained, this was the first time she, as a woman, had fired a gun at a real person.

She could even clearly feel her body trembling slightly.

Half of me was excited, and the other half was slightly scared.

The small-caliber Browning pistol only had six bullets in it. She was so excited at the time that she fired them all at once, and only injured two people—the 6.35mm bullets are not very lethal. One guy was hit in the thigh, and the other unlucky guy was shot in the stomach.

Fortunately, the bandits were in a state of chaos at the time, otherwise, if they had charged at me recklessly as they were yelling, I wouldn't have had time to reload.

Looking at the several corpses lying on the ground and the thugs being led to the basement, the housekeeper realized for the first time that the black-clad priest's battlefield record might not be a lie.

Especially the way the black bird stood on his shoulder; for some reason, the housekeeper felt a unique kind of beauty in it.

That was a kind of beauty, unlike the immaculate saint, filled with bloodshed and violence.

"Hey, Liuda!" someone called her from behind. When the housekeeper turned around, a shotgun was tossed to her.

"Take this, it was just seized. On nights like this, something rougher is more useful."

The housekeeper took the shotgun and subconsciously inspected the gun, but two seconds later she suddenly realized a problem.

"What did you call me?" The housekeeper thought she had misheard.

"Liu Da, once you've fired together on the battlefield, you're on the same side. You'll call each other by our abbreviations. Is there a problem?" The black-robed priest seemed to be talking about a completely unimportant little thing.

The tall housekeeper didn't argue further; she simply picked up her shotgun and turned away.

Liu Da was a name her parents used to call her.

The night was not yet over. After dealing with the situation outside the door, the priest in black robes led his men back inside.

The house seemed to have returned to calm. The maids went back to the living room and hid. Only the suppressed groans of the wounded bandits could be heard from time to time in the room.

"Aren't you going to bandage them? Even His Majesty said your medical skills are excellent, so this shouldn't be too difficult." The housekeeper stood next to the priest in black robes and asked somewhat deliberately.

"We're short-handed right now, and it's hard to say whether a second wave of bandits will come from outside. We don't have time to deal with them." The man speaking used his pistol to pry open a corner of the curtain to observe outside, showing no concern whatsoever for the lives of those inside.

"Isn't God supposed to love all people? Seeing how you were the other day, I thought you wouldn't abandon these guys," the housekeeper said with a hint of sarcasm.

"You abandon your own people to heal the enemy's wounds, is that how you see me?" The priest in black robes turned his head.

"Of course, aren't you a saint? The way you shoved someone's head into the bathtub earlier didn't look like one at all," the housekeeper said, half teasing and half sarcastic.

"Hey, Liu Da, did I ever say that the way you shot someone through the thigh didn't look very womanly?"

"You rascal..." The housekeeper frowned slightly, unaware that the other party could easily provoke her emotions.

"Speaking of which, I didn't expect you to be so perceptive, actually able to predict that there would be trouble in the city tonight," the black-robed priest praised from the side. If he hadn't known the course of history beforehand, he might not have been as alert as this woman.

"Because this isn't the first time I've experienced something like this," the housekeeper replied with a snort.

"Oh? When?"

"Six years ago, in the Transcaucasus, my home was there." Lyudmila seemed lost in some kind of memory, and the smile on her face gradually faded.

"1908, the Transcaucasus? The ethnic riots in Baku at that time?" the black-robed priest asked after a moment's thought.

"you know?"

"I know a little." Qin Hao then fell silent. The incident Lyudmila was referring to should have occurred during the 1908 racial conflict riots in the Caucasus region.

Armenia and Azerbaijan, two different local ethnic groups, had deep historical conflicts at the time, almost to the point of being irreconcilable enemies.

On February 10th of that year, the massacre of an Azerbaijani caravan became the trigger for large-scale bloody conflict in the region.

The conflict eventually escalated into a serious bloodshed in which both sides massacred each other's civilians, with guns and knives aimed at the other side's women, the elderly, and children.

The official death toll is 600, but the actual number is likely several times, or even ten times, higher.

If her home had been there at the time, it's very likely...

A silence fell over the room, neither of them speaking for a moment. Just as Qin Hao was about to break the silence, the situation outside interrupted their conversation.

Shh! Someone's coming!

Peeking through the gap in the curtains, I could see shadowy figures moving erratically around the fence in the darkness.

The person seemed to be observing the situation inside, but was undecided. Finally, after hesitating for a few minutes, the person began to climb the fence with their bare hands.

Are they petty thieves who came on their own?
Thinking of this, the housekeeper poked her hunting rifle out of the window crack and aimed it at the intruder. With her marksmanship, she had a 90% chance of hitting him at this distance with just a flick of her finger.

But just as he was about to pull the trigger, someone next to him pressed it down.

"Let's see," the priest in black said.

A minute later, the young apprentice Morineev took the bag of pies from his pocket with his hands, which were red from the cold.

“Father Pugin, this is what my grandmother asked me to bring, but it broke a bit on the way.”

Qin Hao took the small package, still warm from the other man's body, and then looked the young man over. He noticed that the man's clothes were covered in mud and snow, his palms were scratched, and the large wrench he carried seemed to have been hammered. "Morinyeev, you got into a fight?" the black-robed priest asked.

"Yes, there were many robbers on the street, and I gave them a good whack!" The apprentice craftsman said this with a hint of pride.

"In that case, don't go back yet. Stay with our people and go back after everything has calmed down."

“Yes, Father Putin, I’m glad to be of help. You can stay here and leave those petty thieves to the men of Minsk…” Morineev was about to raise his wrench and boast when he saw a man with a broken leg being dragged down into the basement like a stray dog.

"Um, I mean, I'm sure I can help."

Surprisingly, Moliniev was not the only one who came late at night.

Within an hour, several more groups of people arrived at the building. Many of them were Fabergé's apprentices who had received his favor and came together to check on the priest's safety. Almost all of them carried weapons, and they had a full range of long and short weapons.

In addition, two groups of poor people who had received favors from the black-robed priest also came with axes, and two more hunting rifles were added to the crowd.

The once somewhat empty building suddenly became lively, with over twenty burly men, armed and shouting, now standing there, protecting the priest. Each man was armed, with more than five guns of varying lengths mixed together.

As Lyudmila looked at everything before her, the scene from six years ago involuntarily surfaced in her mind. If her father had been respected like this back then, would the subsequent events have never happened?

Is it possible that I won't be taken away by the secret police and end up here?

boom! ! ! !

A gunshot rang out, pulling her thoughts from her memories.

A house on the street had its windows shattered, and rioters rushed in through the door, yelling. Flames and shadows flickered, and someone escaped through a side window. From a distance, it looked like a man pulling a woman as they ran away.

Thugs chased after them from behind, while the husband supported his wife as the two stumbled and ran toward them.

Lyudmila gripped the gun tightly, memories flashing through her mind. The muzzle of the gun slowly rose in her hand, but she did not pull the trigger.

boom! ! ! !

Gunshots rang out; someone had fired before she could.

The black-robed priest dropped his still-smoking spear and waved to the men behind him, "Men, grab your weapons! Come with me and drive these bandits out!!"

Oh oh oh!!!

Led by the priest, the hot-blooded young apprentices grabbed their tools and charged out with shouts!

The thugs who were chasing them were clearly cowards who bullied the weak and feared the strong. Seeing this situation, they didn't dare to fight at all, dropped what they were holding, and turned to run away!
The couple who had fled earlier were rescued and taken into the villa.

"Liu Da, all the girls in the living room, come out, boil some water, and get some food! Also, give the injured person some basic first aid!"

"Turn on all the lights! Turn on every single light!"

"Leave the entrance on the first floor clear so that newcomers can have a place to rest!"

The series of commands left the housekeeper somewhat bewildered, so much so that she didn't even have time to worry about the way the man addressed her. "Father, didn't you tell us before to be careful and not to make any noise? Why are you doing this now..."

“Before, we didn’t have enough manpower and weapons, and we had to be careful for the girls’ safety. Now the situation is different, and we can help others,” the priest in black said righteously.

Actually, there's one more thing he didn't mention: historically, this riot didn't last until the next day; it was completely suppressed once the army entered.

Isn't this the perfect opportunity to boost your reputation?!
The room was full of young people, who suddenly became energetic under the priest's guidance.

The maids took out bandages and medicine to bandage the injured, while others went to boil water and prepare food.

Inside the room, nearly thirty men grabbed their weapons, ready to deal with any unexpected situation.

All the lights in the rooms were turned on, making it look like a giant, burning candle on the streets of St. Petersburg at night.

To the citizens who were being threatened by thugs, that glowing house was so eye-catching.

People subconsciously gathered there, and more and more people gathered.

The house was already overflowing, so some citizens gathered in the courtyard. The maids set up a shed to shelter the newcomers from the snow, and a large pot was brought out, filled with steaming hot wheat porridge.

However, at this point, someone discovered that there wasn't a large enough tarpaulin to block the snow.

Just as the housekeeper was about to order that bed sheets be used instead, the two youngest maids came running out excitedly, carrying things in their arms.

“Father! We’ve found this.”

When the item was unfolded, people discovered it was a huge cross flag, as big as five or six tables put together.

"Nonsense! How can such a sacred object be used as a roof!" the housekeeper scolded, and the two maids instinctively shrank back.

“No, let’s use this one! Or rather, this one is even better!” The black-robed priest’s eyes lit up, and he immediately agreed to the plan.

The flags were unfurled and stretched out above the heads of the refugees, forming a long curtain.

In the night in St. Petersburg, a giant cross symbol shelters the citizens beneath it.

The snow was kept outside.

(End of this chapter)