Arc of Fire

Chapter 62

Loktov City isn't large; walking from the northernmost end to the southernmost takes just half an hour, or maybe a little over twenty minutes if you walk quickly.

With a bicycle, you could ride from any point in the city to anywhere else in fifteen minutes.

Wang Zhong, riding in a jeep and leading the third company on foot, took less than fifteen minutes to reach the repair shop, including the time to assemble.

Before even arriving at the repair shop, Wang Zhong spotted another group blocking the entrance from a distance.

This group was led by a priest, who was shouting at the entrance: "Why aren't we allowed to go in!"

"First come, first served for the cannons!"

"These cannons were meant to be allocated to us in the first place!"

Pavlov's driver, a survivor of Upper Peniye, wasn't intimidated at all, shouting with a pistol in hand: "No one is allowed to touch the cannons! Chief of Staff Pavlov has already requisitioned them!"

The other side shouted back: "I don't know what this Pavlov of yours is! Is it the one who raises dogs?"

Wang Zhong was shocked. What, there's a dog-raising Pavlov in this world too?

But it's not surprising; the surname Pavlov is quite common.

Sergeant Major Grigori was very adept, driving the jeep right up to the point of nearly hitting the priest leading the group before braking, even doing a tailspin, almost crashing into someone.

The dust kicked up covered the group's faces.

Wang Zhong adjusted his uniform, intending to get out of the jeep, but Vasily got out first and opened the door for him.

Vasily: "General, sir!"

The noisy crowd suddenly fell silent, all eyes turning toward the jeep.

Upon seeing the general's star on Wang Zhong's epaulet, everyone hurriedly stood at attention and saluted.

Wang Zhong got out of the jeep under everyone's gaze, casually returning a salute: "At ease. What's all this commotion about?"

Pavlov got out from the other side, quickly walked around the jeep to stand behind Wang Zhong, and gave his driver a meaningful look.

The driver immediately reported: "Reporting to the General, these people are trying to steal our artillery!"

The priest on the other side immediately said: "Where's the order assigning these cannons to you? Show it to us!"

Wang Zhong glanced at the priest.

Although Wang Zhong's general uniform was brand new, it couldn't hide the aura of authority forged on the battlefield.

The priest immediately toned down the arrogance on his face.

Wang Zhong: "Which unit are you from?"

In fact, Wang Zhong's external view could display the unit numbers of friendly forces, but asking at this moment seemed more reasonable. Besides, the external view only showed unit numbers, not other detailed information.

The priest replied: "We are from the Fifth Beshensk Infantry Regiment, retreating from Anlisovka."

Anlisovka, northwest of Bogdanovka. It seems the Prossenian offensive line has fully advanced to the Bogdanovka-Voznesen front.

Wang Zhong suddenly realized, when did he become so familiar with the map?

It seems that pondering over the map these past few days has paid off!

No, he couldn't get distracted; he had to deal with the matter at hand first.

Wang Zhong glanced at the soldiers of the Fifth Beshensk Regiment and asked: "Where's your military commanding officer? Why is only a priest leading you here?"

In the Ante Empire, regiments don't have bishops at the regimental level; there's one military commanding officer and one chief of staff at headquarters. Now, with only a priest leading, it's highly likely that both the regiment commander and chief of staff have been killed.

But Wang Zhong still had to ask, just in case their commander and chief of staff were simply indisposed when they heard about the cannons, and could only send a priest to lead for now.

The priest's expression darkened: "All of them were killed. I'm now the highest-ranking officer in our regiment. According to the chain of command, I've taken over."

Wang Zhong: "I'm sorry. How many men do you have left?"

The priest answered: "There are still three hundred and seventy uninjured soldiers."

Pavlov interjected: "So, you're retreating soldiers..."

The priest immediately got angry, raising his voice: "We did not retreat in defeat! We withdrew in an organized manner after completing our blocking mission! If given orders again, we can build fortifications anywhere and continue to resist!"

Wang Zhong: "By the higher-ups' definition, that's still retreating soldiers. We've been labeled as retreating soldiers too."

"General, sir!" The priest stared at Wang Zhong seriously, "I cannot accept such an assessment! We fought as bravely as the Third Amur Regiment did at Upper Peniye! It's just that we didn't have tanks or Divine Arrow, so we couldn't destroy as many enemy tanks! We need these cannons. In the next battle, we will surely achieve better results!"

Wang Zhong nodded with a stern face: "Yes, I believe you can do it. But my troops can do even better."

The priest and his soldiers all looked unconvinced.

The priest: "General, sir, what unit are you from?"

Wang Zhong: "The Thirty-First Guards Infantry Regiment."

"Hmph, the Guards always have their signature capes, you... which regiment?" The priest suddenly paused, looking puzzled at the neatly lined-up soldiers behind Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong: "The Thirty-First Guards Infantry Regiment."

The priest raised an eyebrow: "Is it the Upper Peniye Hero Regiment that destroyed sixty tanks at Upper Peniye?"

Wang Zhong felt awkward for a moment; that number probably included destroyed half-tracks counted as tanks.

But at this moment, debunking the church's propaganda office would be detrimental to the bigger picture-right now, with the army collapsing like a landslide, heroic deeds are needed to boost morale.

So Wang Zhong nodded seriously: "Yes, that's us."

The priest took a step back, scrutinizing Wang Zhong: "Then you must be the White Horse General, Count Alexei Konstantinovich Rokosov?"

White Horse General, what's that about?

Wang Zhong glanced at Pavlov, who whispered: "It was in yesterday's newspaper, and also intelligence from Eastern Holy Church followers in Prossen, passed back through enemy communications."

Intelligence from Eastern Holy Church followers in Prossen?

Over the past few days, Wang Zhong had learned a bit about the situation here. Prossen doesn't believe in the Eastern Holy Church, and this war carries a bit of a crusader-like undertone.

Perhaps because of the existence of bizarre things like Divine Arrow, the church's influence here is far stronger than on Earth.

Wang Zhong: "The enemy calls me the White Horse General?"

"Yes, they say you specifically ride a horse to provoke the Prossenian armored units, arrogant and overbearing!"

Wang Zhong chuckled. He had only ridden a horse for reconnaissance and gone too far; he originally planned to stop at the smoke, but the overhead perspective made it hard to control the horse, and Bucephalus ran fast, rushing out of the smoke.

So, in the enemy's eyes, it looked like he was deliberately going out to taunt them.

Wang Zhong: "Actually, I was just doing reconnaissance on horseback. At the time, the driver of Vehicle 422, which I was riding in, got injured and couldn't drive, so I had to ride a horse for reconnaissance."

This was the truth, the absolute truth.

But to others, it might sound like modesty.

At this point, the attitude of the people from the Fifth Beshensk Infantry Regiment completely changed, their gazes toward Wang Zhong carrying a bit more respect.

Wang Zhong seized the opportunity: "Now that you know I'm the White Horse General, do you still want to compete for these cannons?"

The priest gritted his teeth, still seeming to want the cannons. After all, having been through bloody battles, he knew how important cannons were for the next fight, knew that one more cannon might mean a lot less bloodshed, and couldn't easily give up.

At this moment, Wang Zhong had a sudden idea and asked: "Which division do you belong to?"

"The Eighty-First Infantry Division," the priest answered.

Wang Zhong: "So where is this division now?"

"I don't know. The division headquarters has been out of contact for a long time," the priest said in a low voice.

Pavlov said: "Although there's no notice of disbanding this division's designation, there's no longer any supply allocation for this division in the logistics transport plan. This regiment's supplies are likely being arranged separately."

"This is a precursor to disbanding the designation."

Wang Zhong: "Then the situation is simple. You no longer have a division above you. My Rokosov Battle Group is short of regiments. Pavlov, prepare the documents to request their integration into our battle group."

"This way, if we take the cannons, it counts as you taking them too!"

The priest scratched the back of his head: "This... doesn't seem to follow standard procedure, does it?"

Wang Zhong: "During wartime, special circumstances call for special measures. Besides, my orders are to reorganize retreating soldiers here. You may not count as retreating soldiers, but with your division wiped out, the Eighty-First Division counts as retreating soldiers!"

A division whose structure has been destroyed is, of course, considered retreating soldiers. That's reasonable.

Pavlov looked up at the sky with a tired expression, muttering under his breath: "Damn it, do you know how much paperwork this will take?"

Wang Zhong pretended not to hear and continued looking at the priest: "So, what do you say?"

The priest slapped his thigh: "Alright, let's do it. We'll go back and wait for orders!"

----

After the Fifth Beshensk Regiment left, Pavlov's driver finally opened the door.

An old master craftsman was already waiting inside, and as soon as he saw Wang Zhong enter, he immediately came forward to greet him.

"Finally, you're here! We've oiled up the cannons, just waiting for you to take them and keep fighting those Prossenian devils!"

Saying this, the old master made a welcoming gesture, leading Wang Zhong toward the workshop while continuing to speak:

We, well, don't actually know how to repair cannons.

But look, with so many cannons-some broken here, others broken there-by comparing them, we figured out the general structure and managed to assemble three cannons.

"The two 45mm ones are made of original parts. For the 76mm, we were short on parts, so we machined some ourselves on a lathe. It's passable."

Wang Zhong wanted to inspect the cannon closely but quickly realized he knew nothing about cannons and couldn't tell anything, so it was better to leave it to someone who did.

So he turned back to the young men of the third company and said: "You're from the Artillery School, right?"

The young man in the lead glanced sideways at the sergeant leading the team.

The sergeant: "The Brigadier General is asking you a question. Answer him, don't look at me."

"Yes! Brigadier General, sir!"

Wang Zhong: "Send out the two with the best grades to inspect this cannon."

All the rookies turned their heads together to look at a curly-haired boy.

The boy stepped out of the line and saluted Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong nodded: "Dimitri Ivanovich, tell me right away if this cannon can fire properly."

Hearing his name suddenly, the boy looked slightly surprised: "You really remembered our names?"

"Of course. Now, quickly inspect the cannon."

Wang Zhong did indeed try to memorize everyone's names yesterday, but he hasn't succeeded yet and can only rely on external view for help.

However, now he knows there's a young man who's exceptional at firing cannons named Dimitri Ivanovich.

(End of Chapter)