Chapter 76
July 6, 914, in the early morning of the Jule calendar.
Wang Zhong rolled out of his makeshift camp bed and saw Yegorov sitting on the bed next to him, polishing his boots.
Yegorov: "How did you get back to the forward command last night? We all thought you'd definitely find a car or something to spend the night in."
Wang Zhong: "It wasn't convenient for her."
"How could she come looking for you if it wasn't convenient?" Yegorov countered, "No, no, she just came to sleep with you. That Natalia is the same. If you don't believe me, have B4 fire a shot. The moment the cannon roars, you'll see another Alyosha pulling up his pants and crawling out from some hidden corner."
Wang Zhong clicked his tongue. Are Westerners really this open?
Yegorov waited a few seconds for a reply but got none. He looked up at Wang Zhong and asked again: "So, what's the deal? Why not let the girl have her way?"
Wang Zhong could only tell the truth.
Yegorov was shocked, his hand pausing mid-polish: "This... So if the war drags on for three or five years, you're just not going to touch a woman for three or five years? What if you can't hold it in? Oh, I get it, you'll find a prostitute, right?"
Wang Zhong was dumbfounded. How did the conversation veer there?
"This shows my determination!" He wanted to recite a few frontier poems to Yegorov, to express his heroic resolve of 'not returning until Loulan is broken,' but suddenly realized he couldn't translate the poetry in his mind into the Ant language.
Damn it, no way to show off by plagiarizing poetry.
At that moment, Popov rolled over and got up.
The three of them slept on camp beds set up in a large room next to the forward command, each bed spaced three meters apart.
Popov looked at Wang Zhong suspiciously: "Alexei Konstantinovich, this doesn't seem like something you'd do. Though I've heard you haven't touched Lyudmila Vasilyevna, you're infamous for not being able to control your urges."
As he spoke, Popov glanced at Wang Zhong's crotch: "Could it be... you're injured?"
Wang Zhong: "Is this something a Bishop should say?"
Popov: "I'm with the secular faction, remember?"
So secular? I think you're more like the speed faction! Driving at full throttle!
Wang Zhong decided not to dwell on this topic. If he kept at it, Popov might start thinking he was possessed-which, in fact, he was.
He looked at Yegorov: "I think the enemy will definitely try to clear mines today. They'll use smoke to obscure our vision and cover their mine-clearing operations."
"They definitely will." Yegorov applied fresh polish to his boots, carefully spreading it evenly across the surface with a cloth, "Even before the war, I heard Prossenians liked using smoke. I didn't expect them to love it this much."
Whenever the Prossenians attacked, there was smoke everywhere. They wielded smoke with masterful skill.
Yegorov continued: "In comparison, we severely neglect the use of smoke. Frontline infantry don't even have smoke shells; we have to capture them from the Prossenians."
Wang Zhong: "There's a lot we need to capture from the Prossenians, like walkie-talkies! Why are there so few radios?"
"Because the marshals still prefer using messengers." Yegorov shrugged.
Wang Zhong shook his head and stood up to stretch his aching body, sore from the hard camp bed. In the process, he accidentally tugged at the wound on his shoulder, grimacing in pain.
It's been almost two weeks; why hasn't a mere gunshot wound healed yet?
Yegorov didn't care about Wang Zhong's pain. He asked: "Aren't you going to polish your boots? Don't want to?"
Wang Zhong thought to himself, 'It's not that I don't want to; I don't know how!' He'd hardly seen anyone polish boots in his entire life. Without even seeing 'the pig run,' how was he supposed to do it?
He could only change the subject: "Today, we need to find a way to stop the enemy from clearing mines under the cover of smoke. Any ideas?"
Yegorov looked at Wang Zhong: "You're the White Horse General, and I'm just an ordinary Regiment Commander, as ordinary as they come. You should be telling me what to do!"
Wang Zhong: "Let's practice some military democracy! Brainstorming, you know?"
Yegorov: "Then go ask that quirky Vasily. He might have some wild ideas. Isn't that why you value him so much?"
Wang Zhong didn't reply because he was already thinking of a strategy.
Since he had no formal military education, he could only draw from games.
In games, the way to counter smoke was simple: use large-caliber cannons to bombard the ground with high-explosive shells.
When playing 'Preemptive Command,' if the enemy deployed smoke, a salvo of BM21 'Hail' rocket artillery would rain down, usually delaying the enemy's advance effectively and even taking out a fair number of attackers.
Referencing the approach in the game-
Wang Zhong asked Yegorov: "What do you think about using the 76mm cannons for blind shots at the enemy? The firing data for several preset positions was calculated on the day we set up defenses, ensuring accurate hits on enemy tanks at various distances."
"Switching to high-explosive shells will make the trajectory more curved than with armor-piercing shells. Gunners familiar with the cannon's performance can use the armor-piercing data to land high-explosive shells in roughly the same spot."
Yegorov nodded: "We don't have many 76mm cannons, but we've got plenty of shells."
"Plenty of pickled cucumbers too." Popov chimed in.
At the same time, they all recalled some unpleasant memories and frowned.
At that moment, the morning duty rookie pushed the door open: "Report! Monk Petro called, saying enemy reconnaissance planes are flying toward us from the southwest."
Wang Zhong: "Has the monk already notified the Divine Arrow company?"
"Yes."
"Then there's no need to worry."
Yegorov added: "I hope the Prayer Hand lady doesn't mess up her prayers because her beloved General doesn't understand emotions."
Wang Zhong: "She won't."
He didn't know why he was so certain.
Moments later, the sound of aircraft engines could be heard. Wang Zhong went to the window to look out, shifted his perspective, and spotted the enemy aircraft-just like yesterday, it was a Focke-Wulf 189 reconnaissance plane.
The plane had just entered the city when it was shot down by Divine Arrow, crashing into a residential area in the northern part of the city.
As Wang Zhong shifted his perspective back, Yegorov said: "Looks like it was shot down, so the Prayer Hand lady isn't that eager to sleep with you."
Wang Zhong shrugged: "Speaking of which, the two reconnaissance planes shot down yesterday-are the pilots still alive?"
Popov answered: "One of them, a Captain in charge of reconnaissance, is alive. He's been sent to the Tribunal. We'll be notified if they get any information out of him."
Wang Zhong nodded, deciding to go out and inspect the position.
He left the large room where they slept and entered the forward command next door, where he saw Vasily sitting by the walkie-talkie with a furrowed brow, constantly jotting something down in a notebook.
Wang Zhong: "How's it going?"
Vasily took off his headset, stood up, and saluted: "General, sir!"
"Alright, alright." Wang Zhong waved his hand, "What's the situation?"
Vasily handed over the notebook he'd just been writing in to Wang Zhong.
The notebook was filled with translated enemy communications.
Wang Zhong looked through it while saying: "Just now, I noticed you didn't need to check the captured codebook for call signs?"
"Yeah, I've basically memorized them."
Wang Zhong: "Then why did you look so serious and focused just now?"
"Because I find it strange. Yesterday, the Prossenians rarely mentioned their unit call signs or positions, even in code. But today, take a look-since early morning, I've heard so much."
Wang Zhong nodded. He also felt something was off-perhaps the enemy was deliberately leaking false intelligence.
But he didn't say it outright. Instead, he encouraged Vasily: "Why do you think that is?"
"I think they're deliberately leaking false intelligence. The Prossenians are very rigid; they wouldn't change their approach so drastically without someone ordering them to do so."
Wang Zhong: "You're right. I feel the same way."
At that moment, Dimitri entered the forward command and saluted Wang Zhong.
Wang Zhong: "Dimitri, don't take over the artillery theodolite just yet. I have a question. How much difference is there between the trajectories of 76mm high-explosive shells and armor-piercing shells? How can we adjust using the already calculated armor-piercing data to make the high-explosive shells land in roughly the same spot?"
Dimitri: "That depends on how far the target is. Are you hoping the trajectory ends with the shell hitting the ground to detonate the high-explosive?"
"Yes, I expect the enemy will use smoke today to cover their engineers clearing mines. Our response is to use the data calculated yesterday to fire high-explosive shells and disrupt the engineers' operations."
"It's simple. I'll work out a new set of data right away."
At that moment, the phone rang.
Wang Zhong picked up the receiver himself: "This is Rokosov. What's up?"
"You'd better come to the brigade headquarters. We've received orders from the Front Command." Pavlov said from the other end of the line.
----
Brigade Headquarters.
"Your unit is to hold position until 8 PM on July 11 to allow the Front to form a new defensive line." Wang Zhong read the orders, then looked up at Pavlov, "So the Front finally realizes Bogdanovka has fallen?"
Pavlov shook his head: "It hasn't fallen yet. We've received numerous telegraphs from Bogdanovka. But the 23rd Tank Corps tasked with breaking the encirclement is finished. The remnants are said to have retreated to Dolgi, north of us."
Pavlov tapped the map, his fingertip landing on a symbol for armored units.
Wang Zhong: "Was the map updated this morning?"
"Yes. The Front's intelligence department believes the forces facing us are part of the 15th Armored Division, reinforced with auxiliary units. They think we can hold perfectly with our fortifications."
Wang Zhong frowned: "An enemy armored division has at least 15,000 men. Even counting the local garrison and the absorbed Fifth Beshensk Infantry Regiment, we've only got about 2,000 people. We're severely lacking in technical equipment, with just three anti-tank cannons! The enemy might have over a hundred tanks!"
Pavlov looked troubled: "The Front insists that we're only facing a portion of the 15th Armored Division."
Wang Zhong was about to curse when an explosion sounded outside.
But the sound was faint, like distant rolling thunder.
Wang Zhong: "What's going on? Are other areas under artillery fire?"
Grigori rushed into the brigade headquarters: "It's mortars. Sounds like 120mm heavy mortars."
Wang Zhong: "Then it must be the division artillery of the 15th Armored Division."
He had commanded the 15th Armored Division in the game 'Steel Division' and knew it well.
He placed his hand over the phone, waiting for it to ring.
He didn't have to wait long.
"This is Rokosov. Speak."
Yegorov's voice came through from the forward command: "The enemy has deployed smoke. Likely their engineers are about to clear mines. Before the smoke went up, we saw one of their engineer tanks moving along the highway through the artillery theodolite. They're probably planning to clear mines on the highway first-though we didn't plant any there."
Wang Zhong: "Open fire first. Remember to use smoke to obscure the front of the 76mm cannon positions."
Since they were blind-firing based on preset data anyway, they might as well block the front of their own cannon positions to prevent the enemy from spotting them.
"I'll head back right away."
After hanging up the phone, Wang Zhong said to Pavlov: "Keep pleading poverty to the higher-ups. With just the troops we have now, there's no way we can hold off an entire armored division. I'm counting on you!"
(End of Chapter)