Chapter 125: Chapter 108: A Farmer’s Son Killed Another Farmer’s Son (3k)

Upon hearing this.

Huang Hao was also left speechless.

As the battlefield was cleared, everyone gathered the collected supplies together. After distributing the ammunition, they took the usable guns and some food, and then poured gasoline over the remaining looted supplies and ammunition, setting them ablaze.

The items definitely couldn’t be left for the Imperial side.

Out of the more than a hundred people brought out from Moscow, only just over thirty remained.

No one knows when they might die.

Carrying too many items would become a burden, except for the ammunition, everyone only carried two days’ worth of food because they might not even finish eating it....

As the flames rose behind them, everyone quickly left that area.

Nighttime.

In the village ravaged by artillery fire, remnants of bombed-out walls were scattered everywhere.

A sparse few stood within a few houses that hadn’t completely collapsed. A flicker of firelight emerged in one of the houses, where Huang Hao and over thirty others crowded into this drafty room, lighting a fire to keep warm.

The Imperial forces had already broken through the first line of defense.

And the second line of defense was the Mozyrsky Line, mostly dug out by women and children, stretching about 260 kilometers, and further beyond.... is Moscow.

At this moment, they were in front of the Mozyrsky Line.

Behind them were the women, children, and Moscow.... Huang Hao seemed to understand why, in the beginning CG of the game, the Soviet soldiers said, "Behind us is Moscow, we have nowhere to retreat."

Retreat?

Behind them were only women, children, and the capital of the motherland.

No way to retreat.

Inside the dilapidated house, the wet cold October wind blew in through the walls torn apart by bombs. Many people huddled together, unable to sleep, and even with the fire to keep warm, it was too cold.

At this moment.

The commissar, Aleksey, somehow procured a bottle of vodka, took a sip, and handed it to Huang Hao:

"Warm your body a bit."

Huang Hao looked at the vodka and couldn’t hold back, quickly waved his hand to refuse, clearly remembering its strong aftereffects.

Seeing Huang Hao not drink, Aleksey passed the bottle down:

"One sip each, warm up your bodies."

"Don’t get drunk, we still have to fight those Imperial guys tomorrow."

"Don’t trip during the charge."

Upon hearing this, everyone laughed heartily, and a soldier jeered:

"Don’t worry, Commissar."

"Our alcohol tolerance isn’t that bad!"

Huang Hao’s mouth twitched; the livestream audience was laughing hysterically.

Huang Hao looked at Aleksey, recalling the scene of clearing the battlefield at night, curiously asking:

"I remember you said 1918 at dusk?"

"That was when the First World War had just ended, right?"

"Did you participate in the First World War too?"

"Doesn’t seem like it."

Listening to Huang Hao’s inquiry, the livestream audience paid close attention.

With more understanding of the game, from information gathered from those in Blue Star, players learned that the game’s ’Earth’ setting also included the First World War.

Moreover, the name "First World War" was designated on the day the war ended.

However, the information was limited, and documentation was almost nonexistent, likely hidden by Polestar Company. The gathered information came primarily from npcs.

But, aside from some veteran or official npcs.

Players mostly interacted with ordinary npcs, learning little useful information.

Currently, a Soviet Political Commissar who seemingly participated in the ’First World War’ was the best subject for inquiry.

Upon hearing Huang Hao’s question.

Aleksey looked up at Huang Hao, his face illuminated by the fire, then smiled and asked:

"Why doesn’t it seem like?"

Huang Hao responded:

"Your age."

"You look only about thirty-something."

"It’s been 23 years since the end of the First World War."

"Well.... it nearly matches my age."

"So you only look about thirty-something; could it be you joined the military at ten?"

Aleksey shook his head upon hearing this:

"Then you guessed wrong."

"I’m already 42 this year."

"Maybe.... because I’m thin, that’s why I appear younger?"

Sighing, Aleksey turned to look at the firelight, lost in reminiscence:

"Where should I start.... hmm...."

"My father was a veteran of the Tsarist Russia Empire, perhaps you don’t know why it’s called the Tsarist Russia Empire... because at that time our current Soviet Union hadn’t been established yet."

"Since I can remember, he never had the demeanor of a father, drinking, fighting, with erratic moods, often solving problems with violence."

"No matter how good my grades were, I never received a word of praise from him."

"Finally, one day, I couldn’t bear it anymore and rose in rebellion!"

"And then..."

Aleksey paused, and Huang Hao widened his eyes, couldn’t help but ask:

"And then what?"

Aleksey suddenly chuckled:

"Then of course, I got a good beating."

"Did you really expect a teenage boy to knock down a burly Soviety man in his forties with a bushy beard?"

"Hahahahaha."

"That was the harshest beating I ever got in my life, laying in bed for half a month."

Speaking of this, Aleksey couldn’t help but laugh.

But there was no regret in his laughter, only a faint smile filled with memories.

"But the more he acted this way, the more it fueled my spirit of resistance."

"I confronted him like this for several years until one day, when leaflets were scattered all over the small town."

"The war had come."

"Unfortunately, we knew nothing back then, only mesmerized by the propaganda, as if just by joining the army and going to war, we could gain supreme glory, wealth, position, and become admired heroes."

"That year was 1916, I was only 17, and I joined the army without telling my family."

"I fantasized about bravely killing enemies on the battlefield, dreaming of single-handedly reversing the course of the war, and imagining returning home full of glory, wearing a chest full of medals, standing on a car, arrogantly looking at my drunken father."

"Fantasizing about him meeting my gaze, gradually becoming ashamed, and finally disgraced, to prove that I was better than him."

Huang Hao couldn’t help but blush a little, and the barrage from the Blue Star viewers in the livestream diminished because they felt like it was talking about them... And this talk of glory, wealth, and status seemed similar to the propaganda of those fanatics on the Blue Star.

Aleksey paused for a while and continued:

"Of course... these were all beautiful fantasies."

"The reality was... on the first day on the battlefield, even before our convoy reached its designated position, a round of enemy artillery came over, and one shell fell right into the carriage where I was."

Saying this, Aleksey took off the leather gloves he had been wearing, revealing his left hand missing half a pinky finger:

"This is what happened then."

"Fortunately, I was sitting at the back of the carriage, and there were a few burly soldiers on the right to take the impact for me."

"The blast impact hit, and I was directly blown out of the carriage."

"I watched the convoy engulfed in flames in mid-air, then hit the ground and lost consciousness."

"When I woke up again, I was already in the hospital, my left pinky finger was gone."

"There were many other wounded, and when I asked the nurse about my unit, they told me that most of the people sent here didn’t make it, and suggested I check the morgue."

"When I got there, I saw one corpse after another."

"My mind still lingered on the image of us in the carriage, singing the Tsarist Russia Empire’s military songs, fantasizing about bravely killing enemies to gain merits and reaching the peak."

"In the blink of an eye."

"They were all lying there; they hadn’t even seen the enemy."

"Can you imagine?"

"A carriage of 17-18, 20-year-olds, having their lives ended by a single shell."

"Behind them were their fathers, their mothers, and all those who had painstakingly raised their children, only to lose their lives just like that."

"Back then, hatred filled my heart, and avenging them became a part of my goal."

"Once my wounds healed and my fingers didn’t hinder my actions, I chose to immediately join the fight, holding a gun on the battlefield, trying to kill as many enemies as I could to seek honor."

"But unfortunately... most of the credits were taken by my superior at the time."

An expression of gritted teeth naturally appeared on Aleksey’s face:

"Even now, thinking of him, I wish I could shoot him myself."

Then Aleksey continued speaking:

"War is brutal; I went through squad after squad of comrades, gradually getting used to the feeling of killing, like those ’beasts of the Empire’ without realizing it at the time."

"Until one day, we encountered a unit from Austria-Hungary head-on."

"Suddenly meeting each other, both sides were stunned."

"But then quickly reacted, starting a rushed battle that slowly turned into the most primitive hand-to-hand combat."

"As we fought, what impressed me the most was a youth from Austria-Hungary who stabbed me, looking about the same age as me, but I could tell from his calloused hands, it was formed from years of farm work."

"Because the calluses on my mother’s hands were even thicker than his."

"At that moment, I suddenly felt it was absurd, but the blade in my hand still pierced him, without much time to think, until the battle ended, and we emerged victorious."

"I slumped down, crawled over to the side of that Austria-Hungary youth, and looked at the calluses on his hands."

"A farmer’s son, traveling a long way to come here to kill another farmer’s son."

Aleksey looked at Huang Hao:

"What do you think he was thinking at that time?"

Aleksey’s words brought another moment of silence in Huang Hao’s livestream, and after thinking for a moment, Huang Hao spoke:

"Probably glory, wealth, status?"

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com