Arc of Fire

Wang Zhong finished responding to the 13th Armored Battalion and refocused his attention on the enemy in front.

Because the artillery preparation wasn’t done yet, the enemy remained at the edge of Wang Zhong’s sight. From a bird’s-eye view, he could only see a few tanks and not the large troops that were assembling.

Through naked-eye vision, one could blurily make out the distribution of the large troops, but since Wang Zhong actually didn’t know how to calculate distances and coordinates, he couldn’t guide the artillery to attack.

Damn it, once the spring mud period arrives next year and everyone is immobilized, I must find an opportunity to properly learn how to calculate distances and coordinates.

At this moment, Wang Zhong heard Yegorov’s voice and turned his head to see his number one infantry tough guy standing outside the regimental headquarters shelter, shouting, “The artillery fire has started to extend. Are we preparing to enter the position?”

Wang Zhong quickly glanced at the aerial view and indeed the point of artillery impact was extending backward.

He was about to answer when the enemy’s smoke bombs arrived.

The first and second ambush positions were completely enveloped in smoke, making it impossible to fire even if one went there.

At the same time, the enemy began to advance.

To the north were the enemy’s Armored Grenadiers, and to the northwest were two of the enemy’s armored battalions, nearly a hundred Mark III and Panzer IV.

Wang Zhong looked at Yegorov, pointed to the ground, meaning to stay put.

The position was all smoke, and going back wouldn’t allow for effective firepower to be used, plus there would be a meat grinder with the infantry. Their rivals were elite infantry, who had fought through Bohemia and the Carolingian.

Ever since the last close-quarters combat with the enemy’s elite infantry at Loktov, Wang Zhong never wanted to engage in close combat with these veteran Prosen soldiers again. Damn it, they were even scarier than tanks.

Yegorov gave a thumbs up and turned back into the regimental headquarters shelter.

Wang Zhong turned to find the signal soldier waiting on the tank engine hood with a telephone and telephone wire, picked up the phone, “Connect to 152… 155 battalion.”

Under Wang Zhong’s command, this heavy artillery battalion was numbered 155, but he always called it 152 because the caliber of the guns in the battalion was 152 millimeters.

The phone quickly connected: “155 battalion here, please speak.”

Wang Zhong: “I am Rocossov, aim at the coordinates…”

After he reported the coordinates, the artillery battalion responded, “We need about five minutes to reset the firing parameters.”

“I know, I know, you need five minutes.”

Last time the artillery battalion also said five minutes, but they opened fire in two minutes.

Wang Zhong: “After settings are done, wait for my orders before firing.”

“Understood, but this time aren’t we targeting the positions that we have pre-set?”

“Right, targeting the positions would only blow up the infantry, and our fortifications would still allow many infantrymen to survive the blast. We’ll bomb the columns in transit.”

Phone communications generally aren’t eavesdropped on by the enemy because the battlefield is chaotic, and the signal soldiers laying the phone lines often can’t even find where they are laid. So, detailed information can be communicated over the phone.

There was silence from the artillery battalion, and Wang Zhong placed the receiver on his shoulder and continued to observe the enemy forces.

The enemy truly had no idea that the 151st Division’s troops were stationed in the third position behind them. They were pressing forward from three directions.

Wang Zhong kept the phone on his shoulder while speaking to Alexandria through the vehicle’s internal line: “Aim at the enemy tanks advancing from the flank. You can hit them, right?”

“Leave it to me,” Alexandria replied confidently, beginning to turn the turret.

At this time, the tank engine wasn’t started, so the turret could only be turned using electricity from the batteries, and the batteries of the Ante Empire were terrible, so Alexandria could only turn slowly.

The reason for not starting the tank, of course, was that the engine sound was too loud and could be heard by the enemy.

The electromechanical engineer of tank 422 stood beside the tank with a crank, just waiting to help turn it over when Beliyakov ignited it.

As the enemy finally advanced to the point pre-aimed by Wang Zhong, he shouted, “Fire!”

Soon Wang Zhong heard a whistling sound in the sky, and then the shells landed right in the middle of the enemy’s attack formation.

When advancing, the Prussians liked to use a relatively dense formation; if a heavy artillery shell could hit between two tanks, there was a chance of simultaneously blasting off the tracks of both.

A broken track on the battlefield isn’t like in games where it gets fixed in just ten seconds. On the battlefield, a broken track means the tank should be temporarily abandoned until afterwards, when the battlefield is retaken, to come back for repairs.

Additionally, heavy artillery might even concuss tank crews if it could hit accurately.

After the first round of 24 shells landed, all the infantry in the enemy’s attack formation lay down. In Wang Zhong’s aerial view, at least 30 infantry were visible as killed by this salvo.

Five tanks also stopped their advance, and this rate of casualties was actually acceptable.

Wang Zhong: “Adjust the firing parameters, correct for elevation and traverse…”

Through parameter adjustment, it was possible to finely tune the impact point of the artillery. Wang Zhong had specifically learned a bit about this from Dietrich. Dietrich was now at a gunner observation post on Hill 153. If enemy tanks entered the range of Hill 153’s observation post, they were likely to face even more precise attacks.

After the second round of high explosive shells came down, another four tanks halted their advance. The enemy tanks all stopped and began releasing smoke.

The infantry also got up and threw smoke bombs.

It seemed the enemy had judged that they were currently within the view of the artillery observer and chose to obscure the sight lines before continuing to advance.

Was it any use, Wang Zhong wondered.

That’s when he heard the roar of engines in the sky.

He immediately used the aerial view to observe the sky.

Recon plane 215!

This was to observe our artillery positions!

Loktov and Wang Zhong had three B4 howitzers knocked out by this thing.

Wang Zhong, “Cease fire, artillery battalion cease fire, prepare to move to the backup position.”

As an experienced commander, Wang Zhong naturally had a backup position prepared for the artillery battalion.

After all, they had been outmaneuvered by the enemy once before.

In addition to ordering the artillery battalion to prepare to move, Wang Zhong issued another order, “Have the covering troops prepare to burn the tires.”

Whether the artillery battalion moved or not, the gunners dared not open fire at will while this thing was overhead.

Soon, if the enemy occupied the position, they couldn’t even use it to cover themselves.

Now it was time to see the true strength of the infantry and armored troops.

Wang Zhong patiently waited for the enemy to enter the firing range of the armored unit.

He was waiting when Alexander said, “This distance is about right. Any closer and the enemy might rush us and take advantage of the better view. Fire!”

Wang Zhong checked the distance, 600 meters, indeed already within the effective firing range of ordinary members of the armored unit, so he said to Alexander, “Fire!”

The cannons roared to life immediately.

Beliyakov also roared, “Crank the handle! Start it up!”

The mechanical operator put all his strength into cranking the handle furiously.

The next moment, the iconic rear exhaust of the T34 belched black smoke, and the engine’s roar came to life.

Just then, Alexander fired his second shot, accurately hitting a Panzer IV.

It was then that the other tanks began their first volley of fire.

Six enemy tanks were immediately hit.

At that moment, a Panzer IV stopped, and its turret turned towards the position of Wang Zhong’s third ambush.

Wang Zhong, “That Panzer IV turning its turret! See it? It’s going to fire a smoke bomb at us! Definitely!”

Loader, “Armor-piercing shell, ready!”

Alexander immediately fired, but the enemy also fired at the same time.

Alexander’s armor-piercing shell hit the Panzer IV’s vertical side armor, and the next moment, the surviving Prussian tank operators jumped out of the tank and ran, with great skill, without delay.

It seems Prussian regulations are to protect experienced tank operators, demanding they abandon the tank immediately if they can no longer fight.

But the Panzer IV’s shell flew slowly, taking two seconds before Wang Zhong heard the explosion and saw the colored smoke from the smoke bomb.

Wang Zhong, “The Stukas are coming! Evacuate the shelter, infantry release smoke!”

With the previous hands-on experience, the reaction of both the armored and infantry units was very swift.

Wang Zhong had already spotted the Stukas, and it would be painful if the Prussians coordinated their bomb drop with artillery fire.

The Death Scream came from the sky.

The next moment, three Divine Arrows rose from the ground, meeting the diving Stukas!

All three Divine Arrows hit their target, and before the Stukas crashed, a second volley of Divine Arrows ascended.

The pilots were clearly flustered; they only knew the White General would shoot down reconnaissance planes to block scouting, not that he would use Divine Arrows like fireworks.

Struck, the Stukas spiraled down towards the ground.

Wang Zhong turned and shouted to Grigori on horseback, “Go, capture the pilots!”

Grigori nodded, mounted his horse, and with the cavalry previously guarding Wang Zhong, galloped towards the crash site of the Stukas.

As Wang Zhong expected, the enemy’s aircraft scattered like monkeys, all flying low to make it harder for the Divine Arrows to find their mark.

The aimlessly dropped bombs landed about fifty meters in front of the third ambush spot, a distance that was no cause for concern for the carefully constructed site.

The shock wave and shrapnel couldn’t harm anyone.

Wang Zhong thought to himself that it was fair; if you jam my heavy artillery, I jam your air support. And when we catch the pilots, we can interrogate them properly and pull out some intelligence.

—-

While fierce battles erupted in Orachi, at Saint Ye Katerina Fortress, the Summer Palace.

Olga Nikolayevna Antonovna was shouting at the guards at the door, “I’m the princess! How dare you forbid me from entering my own home’s rooms?”

The guard was unmoved, “This is the command center, not a salon, Your Highness. Moreover, His Imperial Majesty has personally ordered not to let you in to disturb their meeting.”

Olga angrily said, “What meeting? Discussing how to send nearly a million troops to their doom? We need to retreat now!”

Guard, “Your Highness, shouting at me is futile. Even if I concede you are right, I still can’t let you in.”

Olga took a deep breath, shook her head, and walked away.

Once she got some distance, in a corridor with no guards, Olga quietly took out an exquisite sachet and from it, pulled out a gold ring.

The ring was identical to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince’s ring.

“Though I don’t like to use the fake ring I cast in secret, the situation is urgent, brother, you will forgive me.”