Arc of Fire

Chapter 67

Wang Zhong immediately rushed to the railing on the rooftop, raising his binoculars.

"I can't see anything!"

Monk Petro: "Of course, this thing can hear much farther than you can see! The problem is that sound transmission has a delay, and the terrain might distort the sound."

"There might be more than three motorcycles."

Widening his eyes, he once again examined the sound array.

--A millimeter-wave radar that can detect ground units?

Or is it purely passive, not emitting any electromagnetic waves?

He circled around the sound array, pointing at the wires and asking: "What are these wires powering, a sound amplifier?"

"No, they're for the base motor." Petro pointed at his own ears, "And identifying sounds relies on my blessed ears."

Wang Zhong: "Oh. I thought Prayer Hands and hymn monks were all girls--I mean, young ladies, women."

He changed his wording three times before settling on a more formal term.

Petro frowned: "You... how can you lack such basic knowledge, Brigadier General? Monks who receive blessings are roughly half male and half female."

Wang Zhong: "The ones I've happened to meet were all women, my apologies. When will the enemy arrive?"

Monk Petro took out his watch, noted the time on the writing board in front of him, then pulled out a slide rule, aligned the numbers on it, and scribbled on the board.

Wang Zhong leaned in to look at the logarithmic slide rule and noticed it was specially designed for Doppler calculations, a kind of mechanical computer.

At this point, the monk finished calculating: "According to my calculations, we should have about ten minutes."

Wang Zhong snapped his fingers and said to Grigori: "Prepare to ambush them. The enemy consists of three motorcycles, likely six to nine people, arriving within ten minutes!"

Grigori turned and left, and soon Wang Zhong saw him downstairs, starting to assign tasks.

The terrain of Kalinnovka was much simpler than Upper Peniye, with just one village road in the middle, no lanes on either side, the whole village as straight as a gut.

Grigori directed the guards to hide the vehicles in a yard by the road, covering them with horse feed, and positioned the machine gun on the church bell tower to cover the entire road.

Wang Zhong also went downstairs to personally check on the condition of the rookies he had brought along.

The rookies were all excited, eager to jump into action.

Dimitri, who was skilled with cannons, looked worried. Upon seeing Wang Zhong, he complained: "Brigadier General, why am I stuck guarding the vehicle? I want to join the fight. It's not like the vehicle can run off on its own!"

Wang Zhong: "Idiot, I'm having you guard the vehicle and keep the engine running so we can escape immediately if something goes wrong."

Dimitri: "Escape? Three motorcycles, at most nine enemies, and we outnumber them, plus it's an ambush!"

Wang Zhong: "On the battlefield, you always need to be prepared for the unexpected and keep an escape route open."

After saying this, Wang Zhong thought to himself, damn, I sound like an experienced, battle-hardened veteran. My tone makes it seem like I've been in the military for fifty years!

However, whether it was Wang Zhong from Earth or the original owner of this body, Alexei Konstantinovich Rokosov, neither was much older than Dimitri.

But Dimitri didn't think about any of this and instead nodded seriously: "I'll remember that, General, sir."

Being responded to so earnestly made Wang Zhong feel a bit embarrassed, and he quickly turned around to shout at Grigori: "Just defeating the enemy isn't enough! I want captives, Grigori, Sergeant Major!"

The Sergeant Major nodded: "Understood."

Then he turned to the young soldiers and said: "When the time comes, shoot at the first and third vehicles. Leave the second one to me. I'll capture someone alive."

"Are you sure you can handle it alone?" one of the young soldiers asked.

Grigori gave a slight smile but didn't answer.

At that moment, a lieutenant from the Protectorate Army at the 133 listening station rushed out of the post office door, stood at attention before Wang Zhong, and reported: "General, sir, Monk Petro says the enemy has entered line of sight!"

"Got it." Wang Zhong immediately switched to an Overhead Perspective. At this moment, his personal field of view was limited to the village road since he was on the ground, but the machine gunners on the bell tower, as troops under his direct command, shared their vision with him.

The two machine gunners took cover, lying near the edge of the bell tower window to look out, just able to see the three motorcycles in the fields.

These motorcycle riders were all wearing black leather jackets. On Earth, such jackets were exclusive to the Third Reich's motorcycle units; non-motorcycle troops had to custom-order them to wear something like this.

One rider, whose rank couldn't be discerned, dismounted and stood at the front of the group, using binoculars to observe Kalinnovka.

Wang Zhong also shifted his perspective to confirm whether his own men were well hidden.

Then he noticed the massive sound array on top of the post office.

Alright, they probably can't be hidden.

Damn it, just now, neither Wang Zhong nor Sergeant Major Grigori had considered that the enemy might not directly enter the village.

Thinking about it carefully, they were a reconnaissance unit after all. Upon arriving at an unfamiliar village, they would definitely take a distant look first.

The observing officer lowered his binoculars and turned back to say a few words. The enemies, who had been on standby on their motorcycles, all dismounted and pushed the bikes off the road, hiding them among the wheat in the fields.

The nine-man reconnaissance team formed a small formation. One soldier, carrying a backpack with an antenna, approached the officer and handed him a receiver.

A walkie-talkie!

Wang Zhong couldn't help but smack his lips when he saw the walkie-talkie.

I want it!

I'm desperately short of radio equipment!

Even if I only capture one walkie-talkie without another to pair it with, I'll still take it. At the very least, I can use it to listen in on enemy communications!

But the enemy isn't entering the village...

How can I lure them into the village?

Suddenly, Wang Zhong had an idea.

He switched back to normal vision and said to the Protectorate Army soldiers in the post office: "Hurry, start a fire. Burn something, anything, just don't burn important documents. Make sure there's a lot of smoke!"

The Protectorate Army lieutenant: "This..."

Just then, Grigori came over, crouching low, to report: "The machine gunners say the enemy isn't entering the village. It seems they've spotted the sound array on the roof."

Wang Zhong was puzzled: "How did you get that information?"

"The machine gunner ran down from the bell tower to tell me."

Wang Zhong looked toward the small door at the base of the bell tower. A soldier was leaning against the wall, panting, apparently having run too fast.

The Protectorate Army lieutenant: "What does this have to do with starting a fire?"

"We're pretending to burn documents and look like we're fleeing." Wang Zhong turned to Dimitri, "Once the smoke rises, drive the jeep, drag a broom behind you, and speed off, kicking up as much dust as possible. Come back when you hear machine gun fire!"

Dimitri: "Alright, I'll tie the broom on first!"

"Hurry up! Don't let the enemy call in more troops, or it'll be much harder to deal with!"

Who knows what kind of monsters are following behind this group of reconnaissance scouts.

Ten minutes later, thick smoke began rising from the yard of the post office.

Wang Zhong, using his Overhead Perspective, confirmed that the enemy had noticed the smoke, then forcefully slapped the jeep's door: "Go! Now!"

Dimitri floored the gas pedal, and the jeep, dragging the broom, rushed out the gate, kicking up a huge cloud of dust as it sped along the highway to the northeast.

Luckily, most highways in Kosalia were leveled dirt roads like this. If it were asphalt, there wouldn't be nearly as much dust!

Wang Zhong switched perspectives, nervously watching the enemy.

He wasn't very confident, as this plan was quite rudimentary.

He could only hope the enemy would be blinded by the prospect of victory and fall for the bait of an overconfident foe.

But at least he had tried.

Just as Wang Zhong consoled himself with this thought, the enemy commander started shouting. The scattered soldiers regrouped, and the motorcycles were pushed back onto the road.

The officer climbed onto the first motorcycle, sitting in the sidecar.

The communications soldier with the walkie-talkie straddled the back seat.

Wang Zhong immediately shouted: "Grigori, the officer is in the sidecar of the first vehicle! Don't hit the wrong one!"

Grigori: "Hear that? Target the second and third vehicles. Leave the first one to me!"

The enemy's three vehicles charged toward the village, either eager to chase the fleeing jeep or desperate to save the documents being burned.

Maybe they wanted both?

Well, once the captives are taken, they can be questioned to find out.

While Wang Zhong kept an eye on the enemy, Grigori was signaling to the men on the bell tower, likely instructing them to target the second and third vehicles.

The first motorcycle took the lead, charging into the village.

Grigori hid by the roadside, raising one hand.

All three motorcycles entered the village, but Grigori's hand hadn't yet dropped.

The first vehicle was about to reach the yard where Grigori was hiding!

The Sergeant Major swung his hand forward.

The machine gun on the bell tower immediately opened fire. The driver of the second vehicle was hit instantly, slumping to the left and twisting the handlebars, causing the bike to veer off course and crash into a nearby low wall, the rear wheel lifting high into the air.

The Prossenian soldier in the back seat was thrown into the air, flying over the low wall and smashing through the wooden roof of a firewood shed, landing in a neatly stacked pile of firewood.

The machine gunner in the sidecar wasn't injured and grabbed his weapon to resist, but a grenade was tossed into the sidecar.

The next moment, the machine gun was blasted into the air.

The third vehicle was met with a barrage of Tokarevs. All three leather-clad Prossenians were hit multiple times, and the bike crashed into a pile of compost by the road.

In an instant, only the first vehicle, carrying the officer and the walkie-talkie, remained.

Grigori stepped onto a pile of firewood by the wall, leaped over the low wall, and landed in the sidecar. With a knee strike, he knocked the officer unconscious, followed by a solid punch to knock the driver off the bike. Then, dragging the officer, he jumped off into a pile of horse feed by the road.

The remaining communications soldier tried to raise his submachine gun, but the out-of-control motorcycle collided with a parked carriage by the road. The soldier was thrown forward by inertia onto the carriage, landing dazed and disoriented.

Several Guardsmen immediately rushed out, pointing their Tokarevs at the communications soldier.

Wang Zhong panicked: "Don't shoot! Don't damage my walkie-talkie! My walkie-talkie!"

......

One minute later, Wang Zhong looked at the captives in front of him with satisfaction.

A total of four alive, exceeding the mission's expectations.

The walkie-talkie was successfully captured, and from the officer's personal document bag, they also retrieved a map and numerous orders.

The young Guardsmen escorting the captives were delighted, holding the seized general-purpose machine gun and even showing off by draping the ammo belt over themselves, cosplaying as Rambo from another timeline.

Wang Zhong was also very satisfied, pacing back and forth in front of the captives with his hands behind his back, putting on airs.

The enemy officer's face was swollen on one side, with several teeth missing, looking utterly miserable.

Wang Zhong: "Does anyone here speak Prossenian?"

Dimitri, who had just driven back, raised his hand: "I do! I participated in military technical exchanges with Prossen and studied it specifically."

It seems quite a few military academy students know Prossenian, after all, before the war, the two countries were once "friendly nations."

Wang Zhong: "Good, Dimitri, come here. Let's properly interrogate this esteemed officer-"

At that moment, from the rooftop of the post office, Monk Petro shouted: "Enemy aircraft incoming!"

The enemy officer burst into laughter, saying in Ant language: "Before we chased after you, we called for air support. They're here now! You're all going to die!"

(End of Chapter)