Cannon Fire Arc

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November 4, God's Arrow Company of the First Mechanized Infantry Division of the Imperial Guard.

Company commander Koshkin rode the chestnut horse he had brought from home, leading his small reconnaissance squad up to the hilltops.

On the plains near Ye Fort, although the terrain remained flat, more hills began to appear, unlike the mere mounds seen on the grasslands of Kazarlia.

Some of these hills rose hundreds of meters above the plain, but their slopes were gentle, allowing even tanks to ascend.

Koshkin reached the crest of the hill and lifted his binoculars to observe the west.

At that moment, one of his subordinates suddenly rode down the hillside, aiming his submachine gun toward the bushes and shouting, "Who's there! Come out!"

After shouting twice, several men wearing military caps askew timidly stood up in the bushes.

"Which unit are you from?" The scout tried to control his restless horse, keeping his submachine gun trained on the men.

The leading sergeant straightened his cap, saying loudly, "We're from the 180th temporary Infantry Division. Our division has been routed, everyone's running back. We couldn't find division headquarters or any battalion commanders, so we could only keep walking east hoping to bump into our troops."

Scout: "Your identification!"

"Look at my pocket," the sergeant showed his autumn military uniform pocket, "it was blasted by shrapnel, but they should have their IDs."

No sooner had he spoken than a corporal produced an ID: "I have it."

Then two privates: "I've got mine, too."

"I don't know where my ID went."

"My jacket was stolen by the Prosen devils during a fight! My ID and my fiancée's picture were taken too, damn it!"

The sergeant made a "quiet" gesture and said gravely to the scout, "We haven't betrayed anyone, we're willing to keep fighting the devils! Please don't execute our families! We just couldn't find any officers and don't know what to do!"

By then, Koshkin had come down from the hill on horseback: "How do I know you're not enemy spies?"

"My family is in Yelmsk! I'm a genuine Ante person! There are five people in my family!" the sergeant said loudly, "You can check!"

The corporal who claimed to have his ID said in a low voice, "Now that you've mentioned your family, the Judge will go look for them!"

The sergeant glared at the corporal: "You showed your ID, doesn't that amount to the same thing? No, whether we can live or not, whether our families can live, depends on whether we can find a compassionate commander!"

"Alright," Koshkin said, "you're lucky this time! Because we are Rokossov's troops, the general will ensure you're treated fairly!"

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"Regarding the issue of deserters – and routing soldiers," Wang Zhong looked towards the others in the bunker, "I think we can hold a general meeting where everyone can identify those who led the retreat. We execute those who led, and the rest form a penal battalion to undertake the most dangerous tasks to prove their determination to fight the enemy."

Popov shook his head, "No, no, we're the Imperial Guard, we can't use the name penal battalion, it would make it seem as if we've also supplemented our ranks with convicts and death row inmates."

Wang Zhong thought for a moment, "Then call it assault battalion. Let them get trained to use the new anti-tank grenades, and during battle, their specific task will be to destroy enemy tanks."

Pavlov: "If they only have anti-tank grenades, even if they mutiny on the battlefield, they won't cause much damage. I support this idea. Just yesterday, we caught 700 routing soldiers. Such manpower needs to be utilized."

Wang Zhong slightly raised his eyebrows: "700? That many?"

"Yes, the troops that have been in contact with the enemy lately are inexperienced, even the officers are green. Once the officers are killed, the troops retreat," Pavlov shook his head, "We've recently added some recovered veterans, overall the situation isn't too bad. But the units that receive these veteran reinforcements are few and far between."

Wang Zhong: "The wounded have begun rejoining the ranks?"

"Yes, the war has been going on for four months now, Your Excellency the General," Pavlov looked at Wang Zhong, "Four months."

Then the command post fell silent.

A moment later, Popov stood up: "I'll organize the penal battalion – the assault battalion, and let the Judge carry out the executions as per the soldiers' identifications."

After Popov left, Pavlov asked Wang Zhong, "The enemy's advance is faster now, maybe even before General Winter arrives, we'll be broken through."

Wang Zhong looked at the enemy's breakthrough arrow on the map; judging only by the map, the arrow was just three compass draws away from Ekaterinburg Fortress.

At that moment, a communications staff entered, saluting, "Urgent communique from the Western Front Army Headquarters."

Pavlov read the telegram and looked up at Wang Zhong, "Markikov has been captured. The enemy is now less than 100 kilometers from Ye Fort."

Wang Zhong went to the front line map, examining it for a few seconds before asking, "What about the weather forecast?"

Pavlov: "There won't be snow in the coming week, and the probability of snow in the next two weeks is only forty percent. But the temperature is nearing zero now, it's going to freeze."

Wang Zhong furrowed his brows, it would be at least another two weeks before General Winter arrived.

And the enemy had already advanced within 100 kilometers of Ye Fort.

The real hard fight was coming.

Wang Zhong: "Continue the surveillance."

At that moment another staff with a telegram entered: "Report, telegram from the Western Front Army Headquarters."

Pavlov took it and glanced over: "The Western Front Army is preparing a counterattack. Strange, why send this to us? We're just a division headquarter."

He looked up at the communications officer, "Are you sure this was for us?"

"Yes, the top of the telegram has the identification code; it was indeed sent directly to us."

Pavlov looked at Wang Zhong, "Is this... they really treat you like a prince, wanting you to look it over?"

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Wang Zhong took the telegram, scanned it, and sighed, "Nonsense, there's no word in here about asking for our opinion. Reply that we got the message."

After the communications staff officer left, Pavlov said, "Now the Commander of the Western Front Army, Marshal Semyon, is a general trusted by the Tsar. Although he's not the favorite, he generally maintains consistency with His Majesty. I guess the princess staying overnight here might have been over-interpreted by them."

Wang Zhong frowned deeply, "What's the matter with these people? The enemy is advancing within 100 kilometers of the capital, and they're still engaging in these court intrigues? All these vermin together—forget it."

Wang Zhong thought to himself that he had no plan to exterminate pests right now, so there was no point in saying this.

Suddenly, Vasily burst in, holding a radio, "Everyone, come and listen!"

As he said this, he turned on the radio, only to find there was no sound, so he slapped the back of the radio hard.

Pavlov took the radio, placed it on the table, then delivered a karate chop to it, nearly splitting the radio in half.

Then the sound came through—it was "Devouring Sands," no, "The Last Courage."

Really, the addition of the radio's unique static interference noise gave the song a different flavor.

Vasily said, "I just sent it back a week ago! Now it's being played on the radio!"

Pavlov, looking at the radio, said, "Too bad I'm already sick of it, even the people going to the bathroom outside are singing 'I still have one last grenade, you beasts will taste its power'."

Wang Zhong laughed, "Isn't that a good thing? If just one song can inspire the soldiers to fight until the end, that would make things much simpler."

At that moment, the song on the radio ended, and the announcer came on, "This song was inspired by General Rokossovsky during the battle over Peniye, where he was surrounded by enemies. With only a few hundred troops left, he destroyed two hundred enemy tanks!"

Wang Zhong snorted, "Bullshit! Most of those 200 tanks were destroyed by the KV crew! I only took out eight, just eight!"

Just as he was seething with anger, an air raid siren wailed from outside.

Hurriedly, Wang Zhong went to the observation port in the bunker, switching to a skyward view.

From a bird's eye view, he heard a telephone ringing inside the bunker, probably Brother Peter calling.

After Pavlov answered the call, he reported, "Brother Peter says he heard two heavy bombers escorted by eight 109s heading our way."

Wang Zhong switched back to the bunker's view, "What's going on? Only two bombers?"

"Yes."

Wang Zhong had a vaguely bad feeling.

Observing from the bird's eye view again, he finally spotted the enemy formation.

Two heavy bombers—with Fritz X slung under their bellies!

Wang Zhong shouted, "God's Arrow Company, move! Don't fire!"

Pavlov immediately picked up the receiver, "Connect to God's Arrow Company! Cease air defense readiness, move quickly!"

Wang Zhong's view moved back to his own troops' positions, located the God's Arrow Company, watching the figures run out from under the camouflaged nets and hop onto motorcycles to make their escape.

Great, the motorcycles seized during the Shostka surprise attack were still being used!

After confirming the entire God's Arrow Company had moved, Wang Zhong focused again on the enemy formation.

Strange, the enemy formation was flying at high altitude. At that height, God's Arrow Company wouldn't fire, out of range.

So what was this all about—

Then Wang Zhong saw the Fritz X bombs being dropped.

Startled, his gaze followed the bombs.

Then he saw the bombs plunge into Boye's brick house.

Yes, the one the princess had nearly stayed in before.

It was an empty house now; after all, when one's own artillery fires too often, one must also guard against retaliation.

There was a massive explosion—that Wang Zhong's real body heard, diminished by the bunker, but his eyes—Heavenly Eye saw the huge mushroom cloud.

Seeing that mushroom cloud, his heart skipped a beat, but then he realized there were no exaggerated shockwaves or radiation, just the explosion from the excess TNT.

Boye's brick house had been flattened.

The second Fritz X fell, striking the church in the village—also a brick building, but with a wooden roof.

Following the colossal noise, the church was gone too.

After dropping those two Fritz X bombs, the enemy squadrons turned away.

It seemed that the Fritz X under the belly of the other bomber wasn't intended for the Imperial Guard's first machine gun platoon.

Wang Zhong switched back to the bunker's view, telling Pavlov, "Figure out a way to deploy some smoke units. When the enemy planes come, use smoke to obscure the view of the sky."

The accuracy of the Fritz X depended on the radio operator aboard the plane, who targeted visually.

Wang Zhong added, "Also, inspect the bomb craters to see if we can find any remaining parts of the enemy's bombs."

Pavlov confirmed, "Yes."