Arc of Fire

On Wang Zhong’s side, once it was confirmed that the enemy had fully retreated, he hurried to clean up the battlefield, seizing weapons and tallying losses.

He first found Tank 430’s crew.

The four men were being bandaged and immediately stood up and shouted when they saw Wang Zhong come over, “General Sir!”

This roar, reminiscent of Zhang Fei bellowing at the Changban Bridge, made Wang Zhong’s head buzz.

The nurse said, “Their hearing has suffered irreversible damage, and they may also have concussions; they can no longer fight, and they might never be able to again.”

So all the injuries the four of them had were from a 500KG aerial bomb—and their own side’s 152 and 203?

Wang Zhong nodded, took out a notepad, and wrote with a pencil, “Thank you for your sacrifice and bravery.”

He then handed the paper to the tank commander, gesturing for him to pass it to the others.

After the commander handed the note to the loader, he shouted loudly, “We can still fight! Just fix up the tank, no, we can join another crew as reserves!”

Wang Zhong took out another note and wrote: “The Empire needs you elsewhere, please heal and then train new tank operators.”

He tore off the note and stuffed it into the commander’s hand.

The commander stared at the note for a long time before finally handing the piece of paper to the loader. He said nothing and just sat down to let the nurse continue bandaging until the bandage covered his entire ear.

At that moment, the battalion commander of the armored battalion ran over and saluted, “Report, General, the inspection of the damaged vehicles is complete: four totally destroyed, four can possibly be repaired, and one is recoverable but the entire crew was sacrificed, with no damage to the tank.”

Wang Zhong said, “Recruit volunteers from the survivors of the destroyed tanks to form new crews.”

Right then, the previously bowed head of Tank 430’s commander shouted, “I’ll join!”

Wang Zhong looked at the nurse.

The nurse said, “He can’t fight anymore! I suspect he may have a minor brain bleed and must receive treatment! The other members of his crew are the same! They can recover if they get treated now, at least enough to lead normal lives! Without treatment, they’ll completely lose their hearing!”

So Wang Zhong placed his hand on the commander’s shoulder and gently shook his head.

“Your war is over. Leave the rest to us.”

Wang Zhong turned to look toward the west, where the land had been lost and the setting sun was descending.

Behind him, on Antenna 422, the red flag fluttered in the wind.

Just as Wang Zhong had predicted, the enemy lacked the capability to organize an offensive with the remaining daylight.

At 2030 hours, the 2nd Battalion of the 31st Guards Regiment took position on the battlefield, replacing the 1st Battalion that had fought all day, assuming the night defense – it would not be good if the painstakingly held defensive position were to be lost to a night raid by the enemy.

In addition, a volunteer repair squad made up of 200 workers from the tractor factory arrived on the battlefield to start repairing the four damaged tanks.

After inspecting the tanks, the masters reported that two of them could be easily repaired, while the other two would be better used for parts.

The first day of fighting resulted in the loss of six T34s. And these losses came in a defensive ambush position.

The enemy was indeed elite.

Wang Zhong was solemn throughout the ride back to the third ambush position in Tank 422.

The armored battalion would be spending the night at the third ambush position, mainly to reduce the chance of mechanical failures in the tanks.

The 3rd Battalion of the 31st Regiment, stationed at the third ambush position, served as the reserve during the day’s fighting and was nearly at its breaking point.

When they saw the tank unit led by Wang Zhong approaching, everyone from the battalion rushed out of the trenches, shouting to Wang Zhong, “General, let us enter the fight!”

Wang Zhong said, “Rest assured! There will be a time for you to fight! Don’t rush it!”

Today, they had encountered just one armored division of the enemy. Southbound, the second armored group had seven such divisions – it was originally six, but it had now been reinforced with two especially powerful Asgard Knights divisions.

Wang Zhong was not worried at all that his troops would have no battles to fight.

In fact, the real question was how many people would remain after this war.

Just as the tank unit drove into the tank shelters, the field cooking team’s girls – both young women and older ladies – arrived in horse-drawn carts.

The carts carried large pots filled with thick soup, whose aroma wafted from a great distance.

Wang Zhong had originally planned to return to Orachi to check on the front-line situation, but the sight of the arriving carts made him hungry.

He shouted to the lead cart, “I wonder if you’ve cooked a portion for this division commander!”

The woman driving the cart shouted back, “Yes! We’ve cooked enough for three battalions!”

As she spoke, she pulled the reins taut: “Whoa!”

The cart slowly came to a halt.

A girl holding a basket of bread jumped down from the cart and called out to Wang Zhong, “Major General, did you destroy many enemies today?”

“Yes, we destroyed a lot of enemies!” Wang Zhong said with certainty.

This was the truth; just in the morning ambush, they had almost completely wiped out an enemy armored battalion.

Although the afternoon battle had many unexpected developments, they still destroyed 27 of the enemy’s Mark III and IV tanks.

In terms of combat results, it already exceeded the armored charge at Loktov – most of Loktov’s success in destroying over a hundred units was due to the infantry’s efforts.

The infantry troops mainly were responsible for battlefield cleanup and final clearance of remaining enemies on the positions, the major battle achievements were accomplished by the Armored Division and anti-tank gun units.

At that moment, a veteran from the third battalion who had participated in Loktov shouted, “The generals had their fun; we didn’t even get started!”

Soldiers from the first battalion immediately echoed, “Yeah, all the meat went to the tank units and the artillery, we didn’t catch a break!”

The driver lady and a few girls together placed the soup pot on the ground, turned their heads to those complaining, and shouted, “Be content, you’re standing here intact, there will be plenty of opportunities to kill the enemy later! Come on, eat the meat!”

“We’ve been waiting!” the soldiers revealed their mess tins one after another.

Some even started to clang the bottoms of their mess tins with their spoons.

“Stop knocking!” the Military Chaplain shouted, “For heaven’s sake!”

Wang Zhong: “Alright, they’ve just fought a battle, let them relax a bit.”

It was as if the soldiers received a decree from His Majesty the Tsar, they became noisy, “The Major said we can relax a bit!”

“Third Battalion Commander, where’s your balalaika, strike it up!”

The Chaplain of the third battalion came over to Wang Zhong, complaining, “Is this alright, Major? Being lax could cost them their lives.”

Wang Zhong: “Look on the bright side, Chaplain, it’s good that the morale is high. Things are going to get tougher from now on, and you might wish they’d sing and dance.”

The Chaplain thought for a moment: “You’re an experienced War General, I’ll follow your lead.”

At that time, Wang Zhong noticed the reluctance of the Third Battalion Commander, so he shouted loudly, “Third Battalion Commander! Where’s your balalaika!”

The Third Battalion Commander, with a resigned look on his face, fished a balalaika out of his backpack and began to assemble it.

Wang Zhong: “Let’s all enjoy the music!”

…

The second battalion of the 31st Guard Regiment of the Ante Army, late at night.

Because of the blackout, fires were not allowed, so Private Ivan and Sergey sat in the trench in the dark, drinking tea that had gone cold.

“Did you hear?” Sergey spoke up, “Someone from the first battalion discovered something, that peeing on the enemy’s trousers gives you endless courage. That’s the general’s secret to bravery!”

Ivan frowned, “Really? You’re pulling my leg, aren’t you?”

“True story! Remember the coward from the first battalion, the drummer’s squad? He was about to piss himself when the drummer told him to do it on the enemy. Suddenly his legs weren’t shaking anymore, and he was brave!”

Filippov was good at drumming, so he was nicknamed the drummer among the soldiers.

Ivan, still frowning, expressed disbelief.

Sergey: “I saw it, the bodies of the Prussians around us haven’t been cleaned up yet, let’s go pee on one!”

At that moment, Stepan, who had been napping in the nearby artillery bunker, crawled out and said to them, “You know what? It only works if you pee on an enemy you’ve shot yourself. Didn’t you see the first battalion arguing when we were changing guard? They were fighting over who killed the enemy.

“Those who haven’t peed are worried they’ll die in the next battle.”

Ivan frowned, “Does being brave or not have to do with whether you’ll die?”

“Haven’t you heard the old soldiers say? The more cowardly you are, the faster you die, whereas the bold are hard to kill.” Stepan said mysteriously, “That’s why the general can never die. I’ve heard it from the veterans of the third line of the Amur Group, a 381 shell! Do you know the 381 shell? A shell as thick as your waist, when one falls, Duke Vladimir and hundreds of staff died! But the general survived!”

“That doesn’t sound right,” Ivan countered again, “It was the general and the Duchess’s favorite who survived. I’ve heard that guy isn’t brave?”

Stepan sighed, “You’re no fun at all, don’t you know how to chat?”

With that, he lay back down in the artillery bunker.

A second later, he spoke again, “You watch, tomorrow I’ll kill one, no one better compete with me!”

Just then, the three of them heard a sharp challenge in the darkness: “Who’s there? Identify yourself!”

Then a gunshot rang out.

The three were bewildered, as they were all new soldiers who had never seen combat before and didn’t understand what was happening.

Just then the platoon leader came rushing, “Prepare for battle, the enemy is attacking at night!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the company commander began to blow his whistle.

Simultaneously with the whistle, machine guns fired, spraying tracer bullets into the darkness.

The platoon leader grabbed Ivan’s shoulder, hauled him up, and threw him to the firing slot, “Prepare for battle! Hurry, get into firing position, don’t worry about whether you can see anyone, fire at anything that looks human!”

Ivan looked blankly at the darkness outside the trench; although having stayed in the dark environment allowed him to faintly see the contours of things—but—

Suddenly, Ivan saw something move, and he immediately fired in that direction, a burst from the Tokarev!

Next to him, others also fired their weapons, the sound of gunfire was constant.

After emptying a magazine, Ivan heard the platoon leader shout, “Ceasefire! All ceasefire!”

The sound of shooting gradually quieted down.

Sergey poked Ivan’s side: “Did you hit anyone? I feel like I hit one, let’s check when it gets light.”

Ivan: “I don’t know, I feel like I hit one too.”

“Let’s check together tomorrow.”