Arc of Fire

Prussian Army, Amphra Armored Division headquarters, 2030 hrs.

Kluge saw the tank readiness report from the troops, and his brows twisted into knots, “You’re telling me we lost 146 tanks just in front of this damned city today?”

“A significant number of those were model ones and twos from the sixteenth,” the reporting staff officer even smiled, as if the loss of model one and two tanks was no big deal.

Kluge glared at the staff officer, “The tank operators driving models one and two, once they switch to new tanks, will become combat-effective forces! Moreover, the survival rate of tank operators is even lower when these two types of tanks are destroyed. How can you laugh about it?”

The staff officer closed his mouth and put on a straight face.

Kluge paced back and forth with frustration. It was then that the commander of the sixteenth said, “Actually, quite a few tanks might be repairable. If we reorganize the surviving crews, we can also put together quite a number of new crews. The loss isn’t as great as it seems on paper.”

“But we haven’t taken the battlefield, and we can’t repair those tanks that are paralyzed on the plains. Although I have no doubt that we will eventually take this city, the problem is that we have so few tanks left to put into the attack tomorrow!”

As Kluge spoke, he vigorously shook the tank readiness report in his hand—the readiness meant they could be immediately deployed into combat.

Kluge: “The enemy has strong fortifications, heavy artillery, and at least one infantry regiment that hasn’t been committed to the fight! Plus, there are tanks. Before, we thought the enemy only had one battalion’s worth of T34s, but now another battalion has popped up. And then there’s a battalion’s worth of T26s that have appeared from who knows where!”

Kluge sighed, “It looks like we can’t do without asking for reinforcements now. Last night, General Moochi seemed ready to shift the entire focus of the armored group’s breakthrough to our location…”

Just then, the door of the armored command vehicle opened, and the guard who opened it reported, “The brigade commander of the artillery brigade attached to the group has arrived,” and then stepped back to make way.

The artillery brigade commander entered the command vehicle, brought his heels together, and saluted, “Your Excellency!”

Kluge returned the salute, eager to ask, “Where have you reached? Can you start firing now?”

“Anytime. Our 21CM and 17CM heavy guns are all fully deployed.”

Kluge nodded, then suddenly remembered something and eagerly asked, “You didn’t stop in the villages, did you? Nor near the farms, threshing floors, or barns? The enemy likes to shell those places! By the time, it’s about to start!”

The brigade commander: “We have deployed alongside the highway, avoiding any buildings.”

Kluge breathed a sigh of relief, “That’s good then. The enemy has forced us to the point where we dare not stay in buildings; the whole army is bivouacking. Welcome to joining the ranks of bivouacking.”

The brigade commander: “We are already used to it.”

Kluge: “Now that you’re here, tonight we’ll give the enemy a taste of their own medicine. They don’t let us stay in buildings, but they do, let’s make sure they don’t sleep well tonight! Come here!”

The artillery brigade commander immediately approached the map table.

Kluge, pointing to the map, explained, “The enemy is at Hill 153 and has deployed heavy forces in this forest. Then there’s the city of Orachi, the enemy’s rear logistics center. Tonight, conduct fire coverage on these three locations, bombard for an hour, and then continue the bombardment with a fire density of one shot per minute to disturb the enemy.”

The artillery brigade commander frowned, “Is it necessary to go to that extent? Continuous bombardment means our soldiers also won’t be able to rest tonight, or at least not adequately, which will affect tomorrow’s firepower density.”

“That’s the point! This is a retaliation against the cunning and deceitful General White Horse! That bastard stirred us up like this yesterday! We are simply applying what we learned!”

————

In the city of Orachi, headquarters of the 151st Temporary Infantry Division of the Ante Army.

Wang Zhong: “Besides mortars, we’ve got to find a way to deal with the enemy’s high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft. Is there a way to combine two Divine Arrows into one to attack the reconnaissance aircraft?”

Popov: “I don’t understand the technical stuff. Call Yeca Neiko to ask.”

Just then, Nelly pushed the door open, “Supper is ready.”

The staff officers in the map room seemed to have been waiting for that call, and immediately relaxed.

Wang Zhong looked at Nelly, “What are we eating today? And why are you wearing a sailor cap?”

He looked puzzled at the sailor cap on Nelly’s head, feeling it looked somewhat familiar.

Nelly: “Someone suggested I wear a sailor cap since it makes me look more like a duty soldier. Doesn’t it look good?”

Wang Zhong stepped back to take a better look at Nelly.

The combination of a maid outfit and a sailor cap seemed oddly fitting!

Of course, the key was that Nelly was quite attractive.

Wang Zhong nodded seriously, “From an academic standpoint, I think the combination is quite nice.”

“Academic?” Nelly blinked, “When you used to say ‘from an academic standpoint,’ it meant you were about to hit on that girl.”

Hey? Did I used to have that habit?

Nelly: “Are you trying to hit on me?”

“No, you misunderstood. Just now I was simply expressing my academic opinion, or rather, my aesthetic opinion!” Wang Zhong took a step back as if Nelly were some kind of ferocious beast, “Aesthetic!”

Nelly was about to say something when a whistle came from the sky, and this time the shells fell quickly, so quickly that the people in the room hardly had time to react.

The ground shook violently, the building seemed to shudder, and dust and pebbles rained down on Wang Zhong’s head.

Nelly screamed, covering her ears with her hands.

Shell after shell fell, and the officers at headquarters scurried to hit the floor.

Wang Zhong stepped forward, grabbed Nelly’s hand, and led her to a corner of the room.

“Hold on like this! Like this!” He showed Nelly the standard protective posture against shelling, “Otherwise, you’ll get concussion injuries!”

Nelly nodded, mimicking Wang Zhong’s position and crouching in the corner, her sailor cap falling directly to the ground.

“`

A shell could fall nearby, and in an instant, the blast wave shattered the map room’s windows, spraying glass shards into the room and first cutting through the curtains.

The candles in the room were snuffed out by the storm, and the entire room was plunged into darkness.

Nelly screamed.

The enemy’s heavy artillery had made her drop all her defenses and revert to the little girl she originally was.

Wang Zhong was still making light of the situation, “Screaming is right, it can balance the internal and external air pressure, especially the pressure in the brain! You should scream! Ah ah ooh ooh ooh!”

When Wang Zhong started yelling, Nelly calmed down instead and looked at him with contempt.

Wang Zhong, “Yell, it really can balance the pressure inside and outside your brain! Ah ah ah ah ah!”

The others in the room exchanged glances and also started shouting, “Ah ah ah ah!”

Nelly looked at them, seemed finally convinced, and also started shouting loudly, “Ah ah ah!”

————-

Hill 153 was also covered.

Colonel Eugene assured confidently, “As long as we get into the artillery shelter, we’re fine against this kind of shelling! I swear the one I dug is strong enough!”

Commander Olof of the 13th Armored Division was shocked, “Artillery shelter?”

Colonel Eugene, “Yes, there’s one next to the tanks as well, you can just do as we practiced before!”

Olof, “Our battalion just joined you today, we haven’t practiced.”

Colonel Eugene, with his mouth half open, “What?”

Olof, “Bad news, they don’t know about the artillery shelter, they’ll definitely try to take cover under the tanks!”

He threw down his cup of coffee, ready to rush out of the shelter.

Colonel Eugene grabbed him, “Don’t go! You don’t know where the shelter is either! I’ll go!”

With that, the colonel charged out of the shelter first, running and yelling, “Quick, get to the artillery shelter, tank operators, get to the artillery shelter!”

Messenger Misha also dashed out, following the colonel and shouting together, “The shelter is on the left! The small path on the left!”

The enemy’s shells kept falling, like gigantic raindrops, each one creating splashes of mud on the ground.

The colonel and Misha, like ants scurrying in a storm, could be flipped by the giant raindrops at any moment and vanish without a trace.

Olof stood at the entrance of the shelter, just about to go out, when Captain Andrei dragged him back and pinned him to the ground, “Don’t go! Two people are already in danger! The colonel is very familiar with the position, he’ll be fine!”

Olof got up, maintaining an anti-shell posture, while cursing, “Damned Prussians! I’m not done with you! I’m not done with you!”

————-

The bombardment lasted for over an hour, and when it finally quieted down outside, Wang Zhong lifted his head.

Somewhere outside a fire had started, and the light from the fire shone through the window, casting a red glow on everything in the room.

Wang Zhong checked on Nelly, noticing the girl shivering—shivering was good, it meant she was still alive.

The next moment, Wang Zhong’s flippant words came out, “Weren’t you pretty calm during the bombardment?”

Nelly, “It went by so quickly during the bombing, I didn’t even react!”

Wang Zhong stood up, pulled Nelly to her feet, and then picked up a boat-shaped cap from the ground and placed it on her head, “You’re wearing a boat-shaped cap now, which means you’re a soldier in our army. How can you be afraid of bombardment?”

After speaking, Wang Zhong took off his own large cap and slapped the dust off it.

The others also began to stand up one after another, and Pavlov said, “Anyone who’s dead, speak up.”

A faint laughter sounded in the room.

Popov, “I feel like this shell is more powerful than the one that hit us during the day. Has the artillery from the Armored Division arrived?”

No sooner had he spoken than another shell fell in the city, causing more dust to fall from the ceiling.

Nelly swiftly ducked down again, very quickly.

The others didn’t rush to take cover but instead looked up, listening for the next shell.

“It’s not coming, they’re just firing single shots to harass us,” Wang Zhong said.

Nelly stood up awkwardly, picking up her boat-shaped cap herself.

Wang Zhong, “The enemy’s heavy artillery group has certainly arrived.”

He went to the table, struck a match to light the candles, and examined the map, “Where will they deploy their heavy artillery group? And how much ammunition do we have left?”

Pavlov, “We used up one base number today. The good news is we still have two base numbers left. The bad news is that both are stored in separate ammunition shelters, and right now the artillery is working hard to transport the ammunition to the positions.”

The enemy’s second cold shot fell.

Everyone in the room showed no intention of taking cover, as if the sound of the shelling were just ordinary thunder.

Nelly stood to the side, carefully observing the calm and collected Wang Zhong—Count Rocossov—in front of the map table.

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