Chapter 127
Jule 914, August 3rd, 0100 hours, Prossenian forces, Asgard Knights' Amplar Armored Division headquarters.
Major General Wilhelm Dietrich, the division commander, scrutinized the disheveled corporal from the armored reconnaissance battalion and asked, "What was that artillery fire just now?"
At the time, we had entered Kiliyev village and were preparing to spend the night there. The company leader discovered a sentry missing and was looking for him when the shelling suddenly started-it came fast and fierce.
"Then, before we could even react, we heard the sound of hoofbeats!"
"Hoofbeats?" Major General Wilhelm Dietrich repeated in surprise.
"Yes, hoofbeats! Cavalry charged at us, firing submachine guns and semi-automatic pistols, and even throwing grenades and Molotov cocktails. We were completely caught off guard."
"The platoon leader planned to charge to Vehicle 2 and counterattack with the autocannon, but the tank got hit by a Molotov and was finished. In the end, I jumped on a motorcycle and rode it back."
Wilhelm Dietrich nodded. "It's not your fault. It's good that you made it back-at least now we know what happened to the recon unit. Did you hear any enemy unit numbers or the like?"
"I don't understand the Ant language," said the corporal, "but I think the enemy uniforms didn't look like the standalone cavalry units described in the identification manual-they didn't have those capes."
"Alright. Anything else to report? If not, go get something to eat."
The corporal saluted Wilhelm Dietrich and turned to leave the armored command vehicle.
Wilhelm Dietrich walked over to the map table and drew a circle around Kiliyev village with a pencil.
"The enemy artillery must be stationed somewhere within firing range of here. Where could that be?"
The Chief of Staff said, "Where else? Olachi! It guards a key highway, and there are woods nearby. It's probably the most defensible place in this whole area."
"We can advance there tomorrow and deploy."
As he spoke, the Chief of Staff picked up a compass and used the pencil end to draw a line on the map.
Major General Dietrich nodded and said, "We'll depart early tomorrow morning. The reconnaissance battalion will lead the way, followed closely by the main force's First Armored Battalion. Once in position, the recon battalion will advance forward, and the First Battalion will deploy into an assault formation."
"Makes sense. The Ants will likely be hiding in fortified positions near the city, same as before," replied the Chief of Staff. "Also, our division has direct command over the 117th Aerial Reconnaissance Squadron of the air force. We can request a recon plane to fly low along the road. The FW189 is quite reliable in this kind of bushy terrain."
"Alright, no problem," Dietrich nodded.
----
Jule 914, August 3rd, 0410 hours.
Wang Zhong rode Bucephalus to the first ambush position.
Grigori followed behind him, holding a red flag.
Upon seeing the red flag, many soldiers got excited and came out of their emplacements.
"General! Can we strike the enemy hard today?"
"We can!" Wang Zhong said confidently. "Today we'll crush them hard!"
Popov, who had come with Wang Zhong, shouted, "Get back in your emplacements! Stay hidden! Today is about patience! If we're more patient than the enemy, we'll win!"
As he spoke, Wang Zhong arrived beside the emplacement where his beloved Vehicle 422 was stationed.
Vehicle 422 was parked at the bottom of the emplacement, covered with camouflage nets. Even the radio antenna with the red flag was blocked from view.
Later, with just one reverse motion, the turret of Vehicle 422 would be visible above ground-along with the red flag.
The enemy would surely be shocked.
One battalion of the 31st Regiment's Guards was hiding in the W-shaped trench ahead of the ambush position. They would be responsible for blocking enemy infantry and releasing smoke cover when tanks and anti-tank guns needed to retreat.
On the flank of the tank ambush site, a four-gun anti-tank gun company was concealed, tasked with striking at the enemy's flanks if their tanks attempted to charge in for close combat.
Wang Zhong asked his gunner Alexander, "How's the tank?"
"It's fantastic," said the driver Belyakov. "It's never been in better condition."
Wang Zhong said, "Then I'll go check on the other crews."
This time, Wang Zhong didn't just dig tank emplacements-he also assigned each vehicle a designated sector of interest, based on Soviet Cold War tactical manuals from Earth.
That was crucial for the T34s, which lacked battlefield situational awareness. Watching specific sectors prevented them from aimlessly turning their turrets using the gunner's sight.
Wang Zhong strongly suspected the reason Cold War-era Soviets did this was because poor visibility had severely penalized them in major battles.
After making a circuit around the ambush position and inspecting the condition of each vehicle, Wang Zhong rode Bucephalus to the frontmost edge of the position.
The Battalion Commander of the 1st Battalion, 31st Regiment, proactively left his emplacement and came up to him. "General! We're fully prepared!"
Wang Zhong said, "Relax. The first engagement will be a pleasant ambush. Ideally, we'll be shooting at them while they're still in marching formation."
That would be great," said the battalion commander
Wang Zhong continued, "Your job is to lead the troops forward after the ambush ends to capture enemy equipment and ensure every tank is destroyed. Also, go ahead and plant some grenade-based booby traps."
The battalion commander grinned. "Those corpse booby traps, huh? Just thinking about more Prossenian devils getting killed by those makes me happy."
Wang Zhong laughed too. "Hahaha, absolutely! These damned invaders-we'll wipe them all out sooner or later."
Just then, Wang Zhong suddenly heard an engine overhead. He quickly dismounted and pulled Bucephalus under a nearby tree to hide.
Grigori also placed the red flag on the ground and covered it with fallen leaves.
In an instant, all human figures vanished from the bushland.
An FW189 flew across the sky.
----
Second Lieutenant pilot Fuchs of the Prossenian Air Force's 117th Reconnaissance Squadron was flying his recon aircraft along the Ants' rough road.
The Captain intelligence officer in the back seat kept scanning the ground with binoculars. "Good, there's nothing."
Just then, a voice came through the radio: "Owl, Owl, do you see anything?"
"Wolf, Wolf, everything's normal-no signs of the enemy," the Captain intelligence officer paused. "Repeat, no signs of the enemy. We're approaching Olachi and still haven't seen them!"
There was five seconds of silence on the radio before the next message came: "Continue reconnaissance. Wolf out!"
----
"Wolf out!" Vasily finished translating and looked back at Pavlov. "I think this 'Wolf' is probably a ground unit, and 'Owl' should be the reconnaissance plane."
Pavlov said, "Your deduction is truly brilliant!"
Just then, the phone rang. Pavlov picked it up. "This is Pavlov-speak. Hmm? Has Divine Arrow company been notified? Good, keep watching. Monk Petro, over."
Pavlov hung up the phone and looked at Vasily. "This 'Owl' seems to be an FW189 reconnaissance plane. It's about to be taken down by Divine Arrow company. As for 'Wolf'..."
Pavlov walked to the table, looked at the map they had taken from a captured Prossenian recon officer yesterday, and pointed at a shield emblem drawn on it. "I asked the old academic in the village-this rune is called the Wolf's Hook. 'Wolf' must be this division's radio call sign."
"Now everything connects. We're not facing some ragtag armored division that got rid of the 5th Tank Corps-but the elite Asgard Knights just recently deployed. We should inform the division commander."
----
Wang Zhong held the receiver. "You're saying we're up against the Knights?"
"Yes, so be careful."
Wang Zhong stroked his chin and asked, "That prisoner from yesterday-is he okay? No signs of supernatural stuff like glowing red eyes, a sudden thirst for blood, or turning into a werewolf under the moon?"
"No. Why do you ask?"
"No reason."
In truth, Wang Zhong was a bit worried the enemy might suddenly produce something unscientific too. After all, they had Divine Arrow, the hymn choir, and even human-ear radar on this side.
So if the enemy from another world-the Third Reich-had vampires, that would make sense, right?
If the enemy suddenly started singing "Devil's Stockings" with glowing red eyes, then-then it'd be time to unleash the cleric, Popov.
But so far, the enemy still seemed human-at most, just religious zealots.
Pavlov said, "There's nothing else to report. The enemy recon plane was already shot down by Divine Arrow. Your fiancée was the one who did it."
Wang Zhong smiled. "She's got it down to a science now."
Lyudmila, the nemesis of Prossenian recon planes. Since the FW189 had the nickname "Owl," then Lyudmila should be called the Owl Hunter, or the Owl Terminator.
Just as Wang Zhong hung up the phone, another one rang.
These phones in the front-line command bunkers were all direct lines-no operators, just one-to-one connections.
This call was linked to the forward observation sentry.
So when Wang Zhong heard the phone ring, he immediately ordered, "Prepare for battle! The enemy is coming!"
After giving the order, he picked up the phone. Sure enough, the voice on the other end whispered, "Enemy passed the sentry, enemy passed the sentry. Marching formation, no signs of alertness."
"Understood. Withdraw when you get the chance."
The sentry's job was to give early warning. Once that was done, they were free to slip away.
As Wang Zhong put down the receiver, the walls of the bunker began to tremble.
The enemy was approaching.
Wang Zhong dashed out of the bunker and ran toward his beloved tank.
Bucephalus wanted to follow but got shouted at, "Don't come! Stay back!"
The white horse shook its head but didn't follow.
Wang Zhong had just climbed into the tank when the enemy appeared.
Leading the enemy were a three-wheeled motorcycle and two wheeled reconnaissance vehicles, followed by a long column of tanks.
There were no filler tanks like Type 1s or Type 2s-only Type 3 G-models.
The biggest difference between the G model and the earlier ones Wang Zhong had faced was increased weight. By the G variant, the Type 3 tank had become a true 20-ton medium tank.
The most obvious effect of the increased tonnage was enhanced protection.
Additionally, the G model had a dedicated commander's cupola, further improving situational awareness.
Seeing that cupola made Wang Zhong's teeth ache with envy-after all, all his tanks were practically blind and deaf.
The lead enemy tank passed a tree marked with white paint-that was the sign that the enemy had fully entered the ambush zone.
Wang Zhong: "All vehicles, take firing positions!"
The order was transmitted via radio, then each platoon leader's tank commander relayed the command orally to the messenger beside them.
Finally, the messengers would run through the communication trenches to each bunker and relay the order to the tank crews.
That's how it worked without radios-just more troublesome.
The entire ambush position roared with engine noise.
Wang Zhong's Vehicle 422 had already started reversing, so with his head poking out of the turret, he looked like he had sprouted from the ground.
With his vision cleared, Wang Zhong clearly saw that the enemy tank commander had also heard the engine sounds and was looking this way, confused.
At that moment, gunner Alexander opened fire--even though the tank hadn't yet come to a complete stop.
The armor-piercing round struck the lead enemy tank from the side, setting its engine ablaze.
The burning Prossenian tankers scrambled out of the tank and rolled on the ground.
The tank at the northernmost part of the ambush position also fired, precisely hitting the enemy's rear tank.
Now, all 44 Type 3s and 19 Type 4s in the entire tank battalion were completely blocked on the road!
The 30 T34s under Wang Zhong's command opened fire furiously, armor-piercing rounds constantly punching through the trees toward the enemy.
The machine guns of the 1st Battalion, 31st Regiment also roared to life, mowing down the accompanying infantry like cutting grass.
The enemy began releasing smoke and reversing toward the west side of the road, trying to disengage.
In doing so, they exposed their sides to the 45mm anti-tank guns hidden on the flanks of the ambush position.
The four anti-tank guns opened fire wildly.
The enemy released even more smoke.
But the smoke had no effect on Wang Zhong's overhead vantage point-he clearly saw the remaining 18 enemy tanks retreating, completely demoralized.
The first ambush completely wiped out an entire enemy tank battalion!
The enemy left behind 45 tank wrecks alone!
Wang Zhong couldn't help but burst into laughter-this truly was the signature tactic of the Guards Tank 1st Brigade from another timeline, and it was damn effective!
(End of Chapter)