Arc of Fire

Chapter 66

Wang Zhong: "Good! Bring me your inventory list!"

A moment later, a list as thick as a dictionary was delivered to Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong frowned upon seeing the list-how long would it take to go through this! So he asked directly: "Do you have any landmines?"

In the upcoming defensive battle, he definitely wouldn't have an advantage in manpower or equipment. Destroying the enemy wasn't realistic; he could only delay them.

And when it came to delaying the enemy's advance, nothing was more suitable than landmines.

Wang Zhong was quite fond of using landmines. Before crossing over, while playing a WWII RTS competitive game called 'Company of Heroes 2,' he habitually planted mines during 1v1 ranked matches. As soon as the time was right, he'd have his engineers lay mines at positions where enemy light armor might appear, regardless of whether he'd scouted the enemy's light armor or not.

His impression of landmines was: low cost, plant them anywhere, and if you catch someone off guard, it's a jackpot.

So now, the first thing he asked about was whether there were any landmines.

"I don't think we have any left," the supply depot commander shook his head. "These things are taken away the moment they arrive. You can ask the local garrison; they received a batch of landmines earlier when setting up the defensive line. They laid a minefield in the southwest of the city, so there might be some leftovers."

Damn it, Wang Zhong thought, why is it that everything I ask for is out of stock! There's plenty of canned pickled cucumbers, though!

At that moment, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Vasily sneaking into the room, standing behind Sergeant Major Grigori.

Wang Zhong: "Vasily Alexandrovich!"

Vasily snapped to attention with a sharp "Here!"

Wang Zhong: "Do you know why I called you?"

"To make me carry manure again tonight!" the young man answered clearly and confidently.

Wang Zhong: "Not bad, you're pretty clever. You're doing this on purpose!"

He was about to reprimand him when Popov stepped between him and Vasily, saying seriously: "Did you falsely relay an order and assemble the troops?"

"I thought we might need more manpower to transport the equipment, Bishop sir!"

Popov: "Go back and write a self-reflection report, no less than five hundred words, and by the way, carry today's share of manure."

"Yes, sir!"

Wang Zhong: "But right now, I have a glorious task for you! Do you speak Prossenian?"

Vasily: "Yes, I do."

"You actually do?" Popov was astonished. "What does your family do?"

"My father is a university music professor, Bishop sir! He speaks both Prossenian and Carolingian, so I do too."

Wang Zhong nodded: "Good. I want you to find two familiar classmates, go to the supply depot's motor pool to requisition a jeep, and then get some wooden signs."

Vasily looked puzzled: "What's this for, General, sir?"

"The three of you will drive the jeep around the southwest of the city. Whenever you see a suitable spot for mines, plant a sign there, and write 'Caution: Minefield' in Prossenian on it."

Vasily grinned upon hearing this: "Great, I like this job!"

This guy really does enjoy this kind of work!

Vasily added: "I request to requisition some explosives and detonators as well. We can set up tripwire explosives under the signs to give the Prossenians a little surprise!"

Wang Zhong thought this suggestion was excellent and got excited, saying: "Then I suggest you also get some firecrackers and white phosphorus. If the enemy knocks over the signs, the white phosphorus will ignite the firecrackers, giving the Prossenians a little entertainment!"

Vasily laughed even harder: "Great, great, great! General, you've got the best ideas!"

Wang Zhong put on a stern face: "Go on, then."

Vasily turned and ran off.

Popov shouted after him: "Come back and remember to write the report and carry the manure!"

Wang Zhong looked at the Bishop, hesitating to speak.

Popov: "What? This is my job. I don't interfere with military command, so don't interfere with me."

At this moment, the supply depot commander spoke up: "Will this be effective?"

Wang Zhong: "I don't know. But it's better than doing nothing."

The supply depot commander asked again: "Then why write it in Prossenian?"

Wang Zhong: "Because the Ant people can't read it, so they won't pay attention to the signs."

"Makes sense."

Wang Zhong: "Let's not talk about this. If there are no landmines, what about cannons? I'm guessing you don't have those either, right?"

Correct." The supply depot commander spread his hands. "Right now, everyone's hyping up the Prossenian tanks like they're invincible. Everyone's going crazy asking for anti-tank cannons. Of course, if transportation were smooth, we'd have plenty of 45mm cannons, but transportation isn't smooth right now.

"As for the ZIS-3, that thing is rare to begin with."

The 76mm anti-tank cannon ZIS-3, at this point in time, is a rarity.

Wang Zhong suddenly remembered something and said: "I just recalled, the 76mm shells you sent me were canned pickled cucumbers! Hurry up and give me the real 76mm shells!"

The supply depot commander, however, remained calm: "This was a mistake made during packing at the rear. There was even a case where boxes labeled for 82mm mortar shells contained 60mm mortar shells. I don't know how they managed to pack the wrong caliber."

"So where are the real 76mm shells?"

"We have them. There are quite a few in the supplies for Bogdanovka."

Immediately after, Wang Zhong started listing off items: "I also need submachine guns, flamethrowers, anti-tank grenades, empty bottles, and alcohol..."

The supply depot commander: "How about this? I'll open the warehouse doors, and you can issue an IOU for each warehouse. Your men can go in and take what they need. Since your people are already here."

"That works."

----

While Wang Zhong had his soldiers load up the trucks, Yegorov drove into the supply depot headquarters' courtyard in a jeep. Before the vehicle even stopped, he shouted: "What's going on?"

Wang Zhong: "Bogdanovka..."

He suddenly realized this kind of news shouldn't be shouted out loud, so he stopped mid-sentence and waited until Yegorov approached before whispering: "The enemy is coming soon."

Yegorov: "I figured as much. I saw a large number of villagers fleeing with their families at the southwest entrance."

Wang Zhong: "Today, we need to move into position and start building fortifications. The defensive strongpoint will be that fertilizer plant we inspected."

"Alright, I'll arrange it."

Wang Zhong asked again: "Based on your experience, after the enemy is stalled in their attack on Loktov, where might the headquarters of their frontline troops, like a division command, be located?"

Yegorov: "That's hard to say. In theory, a headquarters could be anywhere. As long as the communications company sets up phone lines, that's a headquarters. But the assembly points for soldiers are easier to guess-after all, if there are houses, there's no reason not to use them, right?"

Wang Zhong: "So where would it be?"

"Kalinnovka, Novorosk, both are possible."

Wang Zhong turned to Grigori and said: "Bring the car over. I want to personally scout these villages."

Grigori: "Just the two of us? If the Prossenians have already encircled Bogdanovka, their reconnaissance units might have infiltrated our southwest. We could encounter them at any time."

Wang Zhong: "Then we'll bring a squad, plus a machine gun, and have a truck follow us."

Yegorov: "I'll come along too..."

Wang Zhong stopped him: "You stay and command the setup of the defensive line. You're good at this."

After all, Wang Zhong had only played games. Though out of interest, he had skimmed through some military manuals available online, like translated German infantry tactics handbooks published by certain presses, it was all superficial.

Setting up a defensive line was Yegorov's expertise, far more professional.

But when it came to reconnaissance, Wang Zhong was definitely better, especially with his "eagle eye," right?

Moreover, his external view also necessitated that Wang Zhong personally scout. The visibility of his subordinate troops couldn't even highlight enemies, and their overall "line of sight" was shorter. Only by going to the front line himself could he maximize the effect of this external view.

By the way, in all the memoirs Wang Zhong had read, as long as they were written by mid- or low-ranking officers, they always emphasized the importance of personally inspecting the front line.

Wang Zhong was ready to put this into practice.

Yegorov gave him a look that said, "You truly are the capable superior I've been looking for," and saluted Wang Zhong: "Leave it to me. Be careful out there."

Wang Zhong: "I've got Sergeant Major Grigori with me."

The Slavic Superman, who could knock back seven or eight grenades with an entrenching tool, was incredibly reliable.

Sergeant Major Grigori looked into the distance, seeming a bit embarrassed.

----

And so, Wang Zhong set off in a jeep to survey the terrain.

In the jeep, besides Wang Zhong in the back seat and Sergeant Major Grigori in the front passenger seat, there was Dimitri temporarily driving-the same Dimitri who was exceptional at artillery.

Behind the jeep followed a GAZ truck, with a DP28 light machine gun, commonly known as "Big Plate Chicken," mounted on the roof of the driver's cab.

A squad of Guards soldiers, armed with brand-new Tokarev semi-automatic rifles, sat in the truck bed.

Not long after the vehicles left the city, Wang Zhong shouted: "Dimitri, stop!"

The jeep immediately braked and stopped on the dirt road.

Wang Zhong got out of the car, stepped off the road shoulder, and stomped on the fertile black soil with his foot.

He turned to Grigori, who had followed him down, and asked: "Are you a farmer, Sergeant Major?"

"Yes, General, sir."

Wang Zhong continued: "Then, in this season, how fast can mules and horses travel on this kind of black soil?"

Grigori shook his head: "Not fast, and it wears out their horseshoes. The village blacksmiths would curse. Only in winter, when the ground is completely frozen, can mules and horses move more easily on this terrain. But then, the snow is usually very thick."

Wang Zhong nodded.

Trucks moving off the highway would definitely slow down and might even get stuck. If mules and horses also couldn't leave the highway, then the enemy's offensive would have to follow the roads.

Tactics like outflanking could only be pulled off by light infantry with low supply demands.

In Upper Peniye Village, the enemy troops attempting to detour were not only few in number, but the detour distance was also short, so their half-tracks wouldn't run out of fuel and get stranded.

To encircle a city like Loktov, which has numerous factories, the difficulty would increase dramatically.

Additionally, Loktov wasn't an isolated island in the middle of the ocean. There were many units like the Rokosov Battle Group around the city, currently resting and reorganizing. These units occupied the surrounding villages and would likely set up defenses on the spot.

From this perspective, there was no need to worry about being encircled for the time being.

Wang Zhong climbed back into the vehicle, and after Grigori got in as well, he waved his hand grandly: "Keep going!"

----

Kalinnovka is a village that reminds Wang Zhong of Upper Peniye.

Standing on a hill to the north of the village, this impression became even clearer to Wang Zhong.

Of course, this village seems much smaller than Upper Peniye; at the very least, through his binoculars, Wang Zhong couldn't spot a distillery or Lord Boye's grand estate.

However, that church looks exactly the same as the one in Upper Peniye.

That bell tower looks just like the kind that could be knocked down with a single shot from a Prossenian tank.

Through an overhead perspective, Wang Zhong noticed that there were Ant Army troops in this village.

So, he decided to enter the village and take a look.

After entering the village, Wang Zhong soon met a lieutenant commanding a small unit at the village post office.

"General, sir!" the lieutenant saluted, his expression tense.

After all, the team Wang Zhong brought with him was all draped in Guards' capes.

Wang Zhong raised his hand in a casual return salute, then got straight to the point: "What unit are you with?"

"Reporting, General, we are the 133rd Air Defense Observation Post. Our mission here is to inform Loktov by phone as soon as we hear the engine noise of enemy aircraft."

Wang Zhong let out an "Oh," then asked, "Judging by your uniforms, are you priests?"

Lieutenant: "No, sir, we are the Protectorate Army."

Protectorate Army? Do you also have slave laborers and servitors in your ranks, commanded by a mechanical priest with eight octopus-like prosthetic limbs?

No, that's impossible. It must just be a coincidence in naming. After all, the lore of Warhammer 40K was pieced together by the British from various historical archetypes.

Wang Zhong: "Then where are your priests?"

Lieutenant: "They're upstairs, listening for enemy aircraft."

"Listening?" Wang Zhong raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, sir."

"Take me up to see." Wang Zhong realized after speaking that his tone might be too forceful, especially since they weren't under his command, so he added, "May I go up and take a look?"

"Please, follow me."

Wang Zhong followed the lieutenant and ascended to the third-floor platform of the post office.

The platform was equipped with numerous large loudspeakers.

Wang Zhong had seen this kind of equipment in photo collections related to World War I; the British used similar devices to listen for Zeppelin airships attacking their homeland.

Later, when radar was invented, such steampunk-esque equipment was abandoned.

A male priest was sitting beneath the massive array of loudspeakers, wearing a headset.

Wang Zhong quietly asked the lieutenant: "Could it be that this priest also possesses the power to guide the Divine Arrow?"

"Probably not," the lieutenant replied. "Monks who can guide the Divine Arrow have angel wings decorating their holy emblem. Monk Petro can only operate this sound array."

It seems the technical name for this device is a sound array.

Wang Zhong was about to ask more questions when Monk Petro suddenly frowned and began operating the panel in front of him, causing the mechanical device to turn the loudspeakers aimed at the sky toward the ground.

Wang Zhong realized something and asked, "Monk, did you hear something unusual on the ground?"

Though the monk didn't remove his headset, he still answered, "Yes, and it's very close. Be quiet! I'm identifying the sound signature!"

He picked up a leather-bound book and flipped through it quickly, finally stopping at a particular page.

"It's Prossenian motorcycles! There are at least three motorcycles approaching this village!"

(End of Chapter)