Chapter 137
On the Prossenian side.
Kluze, who was on the road returning to his division headquarters, suddenly saw flames in the distance.
He had almost fallen asleep, but the sight of fire gave him a jolt, completely shaking off his drowsiness.
"Stop!" he shouted, and the driver slammed on the brakes, bringing the bucket car to a halt on the broken dirt road.
Kluze stood up in his seat-these convertible bucket cars allowed you to stand like this.
However, it was too dark; even standing up, he could only see three civilian houses burning, unable to make out any details.
So Kluze shouted to the Prossenian soldiers smoking by the roadside: "Which unit are you from?"
One soldier glanced at Kluze, and perhaps seeing no red collar tabs, didn't pay much attention and casually replied, "We're from the 16th Armored Division, about to join the Crusader Knights!"
"Not Crusader Knights," said another sergeant wearing a veteran exemption armband. "It's the Asgard Knights, a new unit His Majesty set up."
Kluze: "What's going on with the fire up ahead?"
"Up ahead... who are you?" the speaking soldier asked again, trying to confirm Kluze's rank, but upon realizing he didn't recognize it, added, "Spying on military secrets? Careful I report you to the military police!"
Kluze took out his credentials and unfolded them to show the soldiers.
A few soldiers gathered around, one of them pulled out a flashlight and turned it on, and in the next second, all of them snapped to attention like being electrocuted, backs straight: "Brigadier General, sir!"
Kluze: "What's going on up ahead?"
"Reporting to the Brigadier General, our unit had just entered the village up ahead when enemy artillery suddenly hit. The logistics team that entered earlier just finished setting up a fuel depot, and it got hit!"
Kluze frowned: "All your fuel gone?"
"No, the logistics trucks hadn't fully unloaded. They ran out after the shelling. Only the fuel barrels already moved into the depot were hit."
Kluze cursed and muttered to himself: "Looks like when facing that White Horse General, we can't enter towns. Even if there are houses, we have to stay in the open. Damn, doesn't he care about killing his own civilians?"
Kluze shook his head: "What a cold-blooded bastard!"
----
At 0430 hours, Wang Zhong set out from Olachi with a small team on horseback.
His idea was simple: use his ability to highlight enemies within his vision range to scout ahead before the enemy main force moved.
He brought Vasily and the division's only walkie-talkie, planning to call in artillery in plain language-didn't matter if the enemy heard it, it was all about deterrence; how many enemies it actually killed wasn't the point.
Just as the cavalry left Olachi, they encountered the Divine Arrow company, which was on the move in trucks.
Yekaterina Andropovna was leaning over the back of a truck vomiting, but from afar she saw Wang Zhong riding his white horse over and quickly straightened up, wiping her mouth with her sleeve.
Wang Zhong: "You get carsick?"
"Yeah, so what?" Yekaterina raised her eyebrow.
The way she looked made Wang Zhong really want to flick her forehead with his finger.
He barely suppressed the urge and said, "You good to go? You're important today. If you can successfully deter enemy pilots, we'll suffer far fewer losses."
"Hmph, I'll make sure every Divine Arrow I guide hits the target!"
Wang Zhong: "Good."
With that, he kicked Bucephalus's belly to speed up-they still had recon to do. Once the enemy started deploying for an attack, it would be too dangerous to scout and they might end up being chased by enemy motorcycles.
The motorcycle sidecars all had machine guns. Wang Zhong didn't want to test the enemy gunners' aim.
Just then, Yekaterina's voice came from behind: "You're just leaving?"
Yeah, what else?
Wang Zhong glanced back but didn't stop, urging the cavalry into a trot.
----
Wang Zhong directly passed the first ambush position and was about to advance further when he saw several of their own soldiers peeing on Prossenian corpses by the roadside.
"What are you doing? Which unit are you from?" Wang Zhong pulled the reins tight, bringing Bucephalus to an abrupt stop and questioned them.
The few men didn't even have time to pull up their pants and stood at attention to salute.
Wang Zhong frowned: "What's wrong with you? Pull up your pants first! So undisciplined-where's the priest? Go get the 2nd Battalion's priest over here!"
One guard immediately rode off toward the first ambush position.
The soldiers pulled up their pants, faces looking as if their doom had arrived-it seemed their priest was a strict one.
Wang Zhong didn't care and asked, "What were you just doing?"
Soldier: "Collecting enemy weapons!"
"Then why weren't your pants on?"
"Had to pee!"
"Peeing on the enemy?"
"To vent our hatred!"
"Yeah, we got ambushed last night-lost several brothers!"
Wang Zhong clicked his tongue. At that moment, the regimental chaplain arrived, saluted Wang Zhong, and said, "General! I will discipline them strictly!"
"Alright. I leave it to you."
With that, he turned his horse and continued north.
His guard followed, and as they passed the three privates, all of them smiled at the soldiers.
As Vasily passed by, he said, "Get ready to shovel shit!"
After that little incident, Wang Zhong rode all the way to the edge of the woods north of the city, standing under a birch tree and raising his binoculars.
The enemy showed no signs of preparing to attack. In Wang Zhong's vision, he only saw scattered sentries hiding in foxholes on the grassland.
Any further and he'd be spotted by sentries. He could only stand here and strain his eyes, barely spotting scattered Prossenian tanks on the edge of his view.
That's strange.
Wang Zhong had left at 4:30. It was now 5:30 and fully bright out, but the enemy still hadn't organized an assault.
He originally thought that by the time he reached the point where sentries blocked further progress, he'd see tanks forming up in attack formation-then he could call in artillery.
But there was no enemy. The Prossenians seemed to be sleeping in.
Or maybe last night's "lucky draw" messed them up?
To put it in terms any Paradox player would understand, last night's bombardment reduced their organization to zero? So now they needed to recover?
Wang Zhong strained to see. It did look like there was smoke from the direction of the village-maybe the fires from last night's shelling had just gone out.
Was artillery really that effective? Then for future defense battles, they should develop a habit of midnight bombardments.
While Wang Zhong was pondering, Vasily, carrying the walkie-talkie next to him, said, "Aren't Prossenians supposed to be really disciplined? My dad's friend said they get up at 4 a.m. to study. The university library in Prossen is packed by 4 a.m.!"
Wang Zhong looked at Vasily: "What's your dad's friend's name? I'll have the Tribunal pay him a visit."
"Oh, he was arrested by the Tribunal last year for espionage."
Good. Well done!
Vasily, unaware of Wang Zhong's thoughts, continued looking at the empty plains. "Looks like the Prossenians aren't as diligent as he said. Or maybe it was the 203s we fired on each village last night. What do you think, General?"
"I think it was my 203s doing the job."
"That's what I thought too. How about another round?"
Wang Zhong shook his head: "No, I see a few Type 3 tanks over there. Even if it's just a few, we've got plenty of shells. A mosquito's leg is still meat. Let's hit them. Give me the receiver. Set the frequency!"
Before setting out this morning, Wang Zhong had pulled a radio-equipped T26 from the remnants of the 5th Tank Corps, which was the division's reserve, and sent it to the artillery.
Thanks to the tank's radio, he could finally establish wireless contact with the artillery.
Vasily immediately adjusted the frequency, called twice, and got a reply, then handed the receiver to Wang Zhong: "All set!"
Wang Zhong picked up the receiver: "White Horse calling Rhino, White Horse calling Rhino."
"Rhino here, loud and clear."
"Fire on the following coordinates. I repeat, fire on the following coordinates--"
"White Horse, Rhino received. Over."
Wang Zhong handed the receiver back to Vasily and looked at the tanks again.
And then he realized-the tanks were empty! The tank crew had just entered his field of vision, picking their teeth.
No wonder there was no highlight. Wang Zhong had thought they were out of range and that's why he saw tanks but no glowing crew-turns out there was no one inside!
Suddenly, a Prossenian officer appeared and shouted a few orders to the tank crew.
The crew, previously lounging around, hurriedly jumped onto the tanks and pulled out the cranks to start them up--
Yes, both cars and tanks at this time needed to be hand-cranked to start, unlike future ones that start with a turn of the key.
Just as the Prossenian tank crew managed to crank up the tanks, the shells landed.
A single salvo was enough-the massive cloud of explosions completely engulfed the tanks.
Wang Zhong laughed heartily as he watched the enemy consumed by destruction.
Just then, the roar of engines came from the sky.
Wang Zhong quickly switched to the overhead view and easily located the enemy aircraft.
This time it was a formation of level bombers. Judging by their flight path and altitude, they were clearly heading for Olachi.
Looking at the formation flying overhead, Wang Zhong sincerely hoped the field laundry team, field cooking team, and other logistics personnel living in Olachi would all be safe.
----
At the Asgard Knights' Amplar Division headquarters, Kluze was explaining his operation plan to the commander of the 16th Armored Division:
"We will deploy northwest of Olachi. Your division should deploy to the west of mine and flank toward the western side of Olachi.
"According to the map, there's a Hill 153 here. We predict the enemy has heavy forces there. You don't need to capture the hill. Just have your Type 3 and Type 4 tanks stay outside enemy anti-tank gun range and apply suppression.
"Your division has quite a few Type 1 and Type 2 tanks. These units are fast and can quickly sweep in to seize the highway and cut off enemy supplies.
"We suspect the enemy artillery is in these woods. Once your Type 1 and Type 2 units secure the highway, your motorcycle reconnaissance battalion should decisively advance, scout the woods, and be ready to call in divisional artillery strikes at any time."
Kluze finished speaking and looked up at the commander of the 16th Armored Division.
The 16th Armored Division commander was a regular National Defense Army general, wearing a red collar tab on his officer's standing collar. He raised his chin and questioned, "And what glorious task is the Asgard Knights undertaking?"
Kluze: "We will launch a frontal assault to draw the attention of Rokosov--that is, the White Horse General."
Just as he finished speaking, the sound of an explosion came from outside.
The 16th Division commander was shocked: "What's going on? Is the enemy launching a counterattack?"
"Calm down," Kluze said through gritted teeth, "Our opponent likes to fire sneaky shots like this. The damage is minimal, but it's infuriating. Today, he'll learn his lesson!"
Alliance leader Egil's massive extra update
(End of Chapter)