Arc of Fire

“`

On July 30th, at 1130 hours, in the northern shrubbery of Orachi.

Tactical number 427 T34 was slowly reversing from the lowest layer of the tank shelter to the middle platform, so the turret emerged above the ground.

“Good!” the platoon leader of the tank waved the flag in his hand, “Stop, don’t reverse anymore!”

The gunner and commander of Tank 427 poked his head out of the open hatch and looked around: “Not bad, apart from the grass in front obstructing the view, this shelter is nearly perfect!”

Wang Zhong put down his binoculars, glanced at the commander, and said, “Cut the chatter, hit the target!”

He stood next to the shelter of Tank 427, having just been observing an officer from the Anti-tank Artillery Battalion set up the targets through his binoculars.

These specially set up targets were used by the anti-tank guns to quickly determine the distance to their targets, usually disguised as various conventional objects so they would know approximately the distance once an enemy tank passed nearby.

Wang Zhong made a gesture to the staff officer beside him, who then raised his hand and fired a flare.

The people setting up targets in the distance immediately left the target area and mounted their horses to pull away.

Wang Zhong said to the crew of Tank 427, “Set the range to 700, aim at the ground, use armor-piercing shells, quick.”

The commander of 427 immediately returned to the tank, while the gun’s elevation mechanism began to adjust, and the tank gun slowly lowered.

The next moment, the tank fired.

The blast from the muzzle made the camouflage net covering the tank shelter ripple like waves on water, and the grass that originally blocked the front of the shelter was instantly knocked down.

Indeed, the smoke from firing was much less than it would have been on open ground due to this post-war designed tank shelter. It was indeed advanced.

Wang Zhong paid attention to the firing and only turned his focus to the armor-piercing shell when it hit the ground and bounced like a ping-pong ball, flying farther away.

The point of impact seemed quite far from the target.

Wang Zhong: “Tank 427, your sights are seriously misaligned; adjust them at once! Fire again in twenty minutes.”

The T34 tanks assigned to the temporary 151st Infantry Division had many inaccuracies with their gun sights. Previously at Argesukov, there hadn’t been such a large area to conduct live firing, so this issue hadn’t been uncovered until now with each test fire.

Wang Zhong: “Next, Tank 428!”

“Right!” the commander of Tank 428 raised his right hand, “I’ve already made adjustments, it should hit close to the range mark!”

“Then fire.”

A minute later, the armor-piercing shell hit the target and shattered it.

Wang Zhong: “Who the hell told you to shatter the target! The artillerymen have to set up a new one now!”

“I swear I didn’t aim for the target!” Tank 428’s commander poked his head out, “The shell drifted over there! The error margin of this gun is definitely greater than what the factory manual states!” ꞦＡΝՕ฿Ёš

Wang Zhong frowned, unsure if it was because Ante’s craftsmanship was poor in this timeline, or whether Earth’s T34s were also this roughly made.

Through the detailed testing over these days, Wang Zhong realized that when he led the parade troops out to the armored confrontation with the Prosen people at Loktov, the first round of shots hit only a few times, which might not be the tank drivers’ fault.

Perhaps the vehicle that Wang Zhong rode in was a spoiled observation vehicle, therefore it was finely crafted and strictly quality controlled, which allowed it to hit wherever it was aimed.

Wang Zhong continued to supervise the tank troop’s main gun and sight testing, when Yegorov came over.

“It doesn’t seem to be looking good,” he said from a distance.

Wang Zhong: “Luckily we tested early. After these adjustments, it should be a lot more accurate. How are things on your side?”

“The trenches have been mostly dug. I’ve reassigned some of the lads to help the Labor Camp with road construction.”

Upon hearing this, Wang Zhong turned to look at the road being busily laid behind the positions, where a large number of civilians were shouting chants, pulling stone rollers taken off millstones, and compacting the road surface.

This road was built for the anti-tank guns; with mules pulling the guns and ammunition carts, they could move faster on the road, enabling quick evacuation from positions.

Of course, tanks could use this road too. Although the T34 tank had good off-road capability, constantly driving through wild terrain was likely to cause breakdowns.

Yegorov: “We’ve been here a week, building so many fortifications and still going. The troops are getting tired.”

Wang Zhong: “Hmm… I also feel that we have enough fortifications. Let’s leave the rest to the Labor Camp. They don’t have to go to the front lines and can work until the enemy attacks.”

Yegorov: “My suggestion is not just to give time off but also to organize some activities, like throwing a dance party with the nurses from the division’s medical unit, something like that.”

Wang Zhong: “A dance party?”

“Not the sort of noble-style dance party you’re thinking of. Our commoner’s dance party only needs a campfire, a Bayan, a balalaika, and then we can enjoy the music.”

Wang Zhong raised his eyebrows: “The dance you’re talking about isn’t a waltz, but the Cossack War Dance, right?”

“Right!” Yegorov immediately squatted down and began doing the famous “Cossack squat dance,” also known as the “knee destroyer dance.”

The soldiers around, who had nothing else to do, had their attention all drawn over, and some began cheering.

After about thirty seconds of dancing, Yegorov stood up, struck a pose, and said, “That’s the dance, understand?”

Before Wang Zhong could reply, someone in the ranks shouted, “Come on, regiment commander, your turn!”

“Yeah, yeah, the general’s turn!”

Wang Zhong, who actually didn’t have much of a dignified air—nor could he really afford to—are now well-acquainted by the soldiers, so jokes were thrown directly at him.

Of course, Vasily, the “shit-stirring king,” played a part in this, preferring talking trash even while hauling manure, and so incidentally, Vasily had helped demolish Wang Zhong’s authority.

Pavlov had serious objections to this, repeatedly telling Wang Zhong, “As a commander, you need to maintain authority so the soldiers will follow you into the charge.”

However, Wang Zhong himself didn’t mind.

At this moment, faced with the soldiers’ egging on, Wang Zhong laughed and said, “Do you want to see me paralyze myself from the waist down? Everyone has things they’re not good at, and dancing is something I’m not good at.”

Actually, the original owner of the body might have been quite good at it, judging by his love for partying, but Wang Zhong was genuinely not capable. If forced to “do a number,” he could only show the soldiers a bit of the “Call of the Times” dance.

“`

The soldiers clamored for quite a while, watching Wang Zhong completely unmoved, then suddenly someone said, “Why not have the General give us a motivational speech! People from the 31st Regiment all say the General is powerful, they were moved to tears listening to him, and we haven’t heard it since we joined!”

This suggestion immediately received everyone’s endorsement, even the staff officers following Wang Zhong looked up with interested expressions.

Wang Zhong, “Speeches are for boosting morale, and I see your spirits are already high. When we engage the Prosen forces and suffer heavy casualties, even if you don’t want to listen, I’ll give a speech then, but for now, let’s not.”

The atmosphere that had just heated up suddenly quieted down.

Wang Zhong looked at everyone and laughed, “Don’t worry, look at these defense works we’ve made, I have confidence that we’ll inflict heavy casualties on the enemy here!”

“But you can’t guarantee we’ll all survive, can you?” someone asked.

“Yes, this is war. Even the ‘Magician of the Battlefield’ can’t guarantee there won’t be casualties,” Wang Zhong answered.

Originally, he thought the soldiers would be silent after hearing this response, but someone carelessly said, “Then we’ll just become the colors on the banner!”

The others laughed as well.

Another said, “Hey, let’s not scare ourselves. Maybe it won’t even be our turn to take action. There are three armored divisions to the north. I heard one division is all T34s, which is six or seven times our equipment number! Maybe if that division launches an attack, it will directly crush the enemy’s armored cluster!”

Wang Zhong, “If that’s the case, it would be the best.”

That was his genuine thought, if it could be that way, then the war would end soon, and there would be no need for so many sacrifices.

But… Wang Zhong knew, it wouldn’t be so.

————

That night, Wang Zhong returned to the division headquarters from the front line and immediately checked the updated situation map at 1830 hours, then pointed at the two newly appeared armored units and asked, “What units are these?”

Pavlov, “The new units discovered by aerial reconnaissance and cavalry scouts, the unit identification marks on the armored vehicles are different from all the ones from the Second Armored Group.

Wang Zhong, “How are they different?”

“The marks of other armored units are more casual, some are simple symbols, others are animals, and there’s a variety of deformed letters. But these two divisions both adopted shield crests.”

Wang Zhong immediately felt that the situation was not good, “Shield crests?”

“Yes.”

Wang Zhong, “Is there a notch in the upper right corner of the shield?”

“Right, how did you know?”

“A guess. What’s on the shields of these two divisions?”

“One has a key, and the other seems to be some kind of ancient Scandinavian rune.”

Wang Zhong tutted, “This is not going to be easy…”

“Additionally,” Pavlov paused, “The Tribunal discovered that the enemy’s call signs have included a unit called the ‘Asgard Knights.’ Asgard is the mythical realm in the creation myth that the Prosen Empire is endeavoring to propagate…”

Wang Zhong, “The Asgard Knights, huh? I have a feeling these units are going to be tough to deal with.”

“We still don’t know if these call signs are associated with the two new divisions,” Pavlov said.

At that moment, Nelly came in, pushing a cart loaded with food, “I’ve made skewered meat and walnut jam pies in the kitchen, you can take and eat them while you work.”

The staff officers immediately exclaimed in admiration, “Amazing.”

“Nelly, you really are an angel!”

Nelly parked the cart next to the map table and left it there, turning around to stare at Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong blinked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Nothing, just curious. I didn’t believe what Miss Liu Da told me, about how Alyosha is now an outstanding soldier and stuff. I didn’t buy it.”

Wang Zhong, “Do you believe it now?”

Nelly shook her head, “Still no. I think you might not be that bastard anymore.”

“Then who am I?” Wang Zhong countered.

Nelly, “Who knows? Maybe Saint Andrew descended using that bastard’s body, I don’t know. Liu Da certainly likes you though.”

Wang Zhong, “And you?”

“I need to observe a little longer,” Nelly answered.

Wang Zhong shrugged, stood up, squeezed through the staff officers, took a plate, and helped himself to a big serving of walnut jam, wiping it up with the pies.

“Oh,” he exclaimed, “Delicious! Sweet but not greasy, fantastic job Nelly!”

Nelly was just about to reply when suddenly, music was heard from outside.

Pavlov immediately started cursing, “What’s going on? At such a critical time for war preparations!”

Wang Zhong, “The soldiers’ work is almost done; I approved Yegorov to hold a dance event to boost morale, and I even approved leave for tomorrow.”

Pavlov, “Such matters don’t just require your approval; the bishop’s consent is needed too. Popov is going to be furious!”

Just as he was speaking, Popov came in, “Me? No, I think the troops are too tense and should relax a bit. Holding the dance is a good idea. It’s just a shame we have so few female soldiers.”

Wang Zhong, “We can let the girls from the field laundry and cooking teams join in.”

Popov, “That still won’t be enough. We might as well get all the local girls to join in too, for a good relaxation before the battle starts.”

Wang Zhong gave a thumbs up.

Just then, Nelly suddenly asked, “Are you going to dance too?”

“Ah? Me? No, no, I’d rather not. I prefer watching others have fun over dancing.”

“Eh~” Nelly drew out the sound but didn’t say much more.

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