artillery arc

Chapter 351 Major General Witte's Confusion

In the early morning of July 7, Wang Zhong was brushing his teeth when he heard the faint roar of cannons outside.

The artillery position was west of Trinca, closer to the enemy, so the sound of the artillery came from the opposite direction of the sun.

Wang Zhong stopped and felt a little uncomfortable.

Nellie looked at Wang Zhong who had stopped in confusion, and looked in the direction of his gaze blankly, only to see an ordinary corner of the wall.

Finally, Wang Zhong discovered the reason for his discomfort: "Before, the artillery was always behind me, but now the artillery is closer to the front line than me."

Nellie: "What are you talking about when you were on the front line yesterday, facing the enemy tanks?"

Wang Zhong looked surprised: "Did you know that I was facing the muzzle of a tank?"

"Everyone says that if you do something brave on the battlefield, the whole army will know about it immediately. When I was fetching water yesterday, a corporal from the reconnaissance battalion sat on the hood of the jeep and described your behavior in vivid detail.

"He also said that it was your bravery that gave him the courage to drive a jeep in front of the enemy tank's gun barrel."

Wang Zhong keenly noticed a detail: "That's not right. The reconnaissance battalion shouldn't have seen me trying to persuade the enemy to surrender today. This corporal is just talking nonsense!"

Nellie: "Maybe he didn't see it with his own eyes, but you really faced the gun, didn't you? Think about the children in the lady's belly! They can't live without a father!"

"Compared to whether there is a father or not," Wang Zhong took out his toothbrush and said solemnly, "whether there is a slave or not is more important! I am fighting for my child not to be a slave."

Nellie hesitated and put the cup of water into Wang Zhong's hand: "Rinse your mouth! Rinse it thoroughly! Rinse off the tooth powder!"

There is no spare capacity to produce toothpaste now, especially the soft tubes that hold toothpaste. There is simply no time to produce them, so the tooth powder distributed to the front line, when you dip a toothbrush in it and brush your teeth, feels like you are smearing lime on your teeth.

Wang Zhong rinsed his mouth carefully, and just as he put down the cup, Nellie handed him a towel. This towel had actually been washed with warm water and smelled slightly fragrant.

Seeing Wang Zhong sniffing into the towel, Nellie said, "This is the perfume our landlord Aunt Xie Na gave me. She said that during the civil war, her husband always came back smelling bad, so she has been preparing perfume for all these years."

Wang Zhong raised his eyebrows: "What about her husband? As far as I remember, the landlord doesn't have a spouse?"

Nellie: "I don't know, and I didn't dare to ask."

Wang Zhong shook his head. "Why should I be afraid to ask? We haven't mobilized all the old men in remote villages to join the active service. I have contributed a lot to this."

It is true. Wang Zhong's efforts saved Ant from losing at least two million men. If we count the fact that he persuaded Ant's generals not to attack rashly but to launch a defensive counterattack, the number of people might be even higher.

After washing up, the sound of artillery fire outside continued, which was to disguise the appearance of fire preparation.

Wang Zhong glanced at Nellie and said, "Go catch up on your sleep. You fanned me all night last night, didn't you?"

"I also chased away mosquitoes all night," said Nellie.

Wang Zhong: "There are mosquitoes in such a northern place?"

Last summer, the war was intense and Wang Zhong was still a grassroots commander. When it was time to sleep, he basically fell asleep and didn't pay any attention to the problem of mosquitoes.

So he was quite surprised.

After I said it, I realized that I had let the cat out of the bag. How could anyone not know if there was a mosquito Ant?

So he quickly made up for it: "I mean, what is a mosquito?"

Now that things have come to this, I can only pretend to be a dissolute young master who is ignorant of the sufferings of the world. I don’t even know Mosquito!

Nellie said with an expression that showed concern for her silly son: "It's a flying insect that sucks human blood."

Wang Zhong had a vague suspicion that the people around him had already guessed that he was a time traveler. They behaved so normally, maybe someone had been here before.

For example, Andrew looked like a fellow villager, but he might not be from Seris, so he did not "climb Mount Naroda" - or he might be from the Yuan Dynasty and was frightened by the divine wind.

If St. Andrew is a fellow villager, then many things can be explained, such as why the church respects and trusts him so much.

For example, how could St. Andrew, a man who lived more than 100 years ago, foresee that quantum mechanics might be able to explain various "miracles".

When Wang Zhong was distracted, Popov's bald head came into his sight, and the angle was just right to reflect the light of the rising sun, dazzling Wang Zhong's eyes.

Popov said loudly: "Luckily I went to the 204th Heavy Howitzer Regiment last night. This regiment has a lot of new recruits and the commander is inexperienced. He even planned to leave this morning! I scolded them and forced them to come overnight, so that they could catch up with the shelling this morning!"

Wang Zhong: "Thank you for your hard work. In fact, a 197-barrel heavy howitzer regiment is enough. A 152-barrel cannon is enough to fool the Prosen people."

"That's definitely not as effective as the 204th Regiment. This regiment has the B4 heavy artillery, our old friend! 203mm! It will definitely give the enemy a hard time!"

Wang Zhong raised his eyebrows. "So good? When I was organizing the mobile army, I didn't include them because the B4 howitzers were too heavy and inconvenient to maneuver."

Popov: "It is indeed too heavy. Five guns had their tracks broken on the way here. Fortunately, part of the army's support brigade has arrived and sent out tractors. In three hours, these guns will be able to join the bombardment."

Wang Zhong: "The shelling ended three hours later."

Popov was a little surprised: "Such a short bombing time? What if the enemy doesn't wait to attack and sees that we have fewer people?"

Wang Zhong shook his head: "The Prosen people won't do that. They will send reconnaissance planes to investigate and confirm the situation first. Sometimes they are quite rigid in fighting.

"Even if the enemy attacks, we are ready to block them. The enemy does not understand the performance of our vortex, and they will act more cautiously when they are blocked." As soon as Wang Zhong finished speaking, Vasily pushed the door open and immediately said, "And the enemy is afraid of the name Rokossov, so they will be extra cautious!"

"Don't talk nonsense. As a commander, you can't exaggerate the enemy's fear of us. This is wrong." Wang Zhong glared at Vasily, then pointed at Popov and said, "The bishop is here, let the bishop teach you a lesson!"

Popov cleared his throat and said, "We should be lenient with the enemy. Perhaps the Prosons are somewhat afraid of Rokossov, but our commanders must not take this fear into consideration. We should consider the situation on the premise that the Prosons do not know who our commander is."

"Yes, yes." Wang Zhong nodded repeatedly, and then he realized, "Isn't that right? Why do you also think that the enemy will be afraid of me? What should I be afraid of?"

----

"Did you hear that? There's a 203 heavy artillery! According to the report from the High Command, this is Rokossov's favorite heavy firepower!" Colonel Busey lay on the ground, posing a standard anti-artillery posture, and said with certainty.

As he was speaking, a 203mm heavy artillery piece happened to land nearby, and a lot of dust was shaken off the ceiling.

In order to avoid swallowing dust, Colonel Bushe closed his mouth and swallowed the rest of his words.

Heavy artillery shells continued to fall, and powder kept falling from the ceiling, so everyone in the room kept their mouths shut and silently endured the shaking.

I don't know how long it took, but the fire preparation was over.

Colonel Busey got up and said, "Quick! Move into the defensive position we set up yesterday! The enemy is about to attack, and the infantry may already be 50 meters in front of the position!"

Captain John Christopher also climbed up: "I'm going to reunite with my tank company."

He came to the headquarters this morning to get the city defense map so that he could know how the tanks should support the defense line.

Colonel Busey: "Go! It all depends on your tanks. If it is true as the fleeing soldiers of the vanguard said yesterday, only your new tanks can face those assault guns!"

Captain John saluted, turned and ran out of the headquarters.

Colonel Busey glanced at his adjutant and said, "If I die for my country, you must survive and deliver my letter to my wife."

The adjutant's eyes were moist: "Yes, I will do it, Colonel."

Suddenly, there was a burst of gunfire in the west of the city.

The adjutant cursed, "Damn Rokosov, he's really cunning, attacking from the west of the city! It's a pity that our defensive position last night was omnidirectional!"

Colonel Busey frowned: "West of the city..."

Suddenly, he pressed the chief of staff's shoulder and asked, "Will the follow-up troops of the Sai De Division come up today?"

"Yes." The chief of staff of the battle group checked the time. "Oh my god, it's already this late! The shelling made us not notice the passage of time."

As he spoke, he rushed to the phone and picked up the receiver: "Hello! Connecting to the defense force in the west of the city! Is the line disconnected? Why don't you pick it up quickly!"

He dropped the phone, ran to the radio, and put his hand on the radio operator's shoulder: "Call the troops in the west of the city and ask them to confirm whether the enemy is coming! Confirm whether the enemy is coming! It will be terrible if we accidentally hit our friendly forces!"

Radio operator: "In plain text?"

"Just use the plain code! It's already late, the key is to stop the accidental attacks!"

----

An hour later, Major General Witte, the commander of the Set Division, walked into the Buse battle group headquarters in Yeisk with a dusty face, and said to Colonel Buse: "Of course, my division headquarters was almost wiped out by you, Mr. Colonel!"

Colonel Busey: "The troops have just been bombarded by heavy enemy artillery, so they are quite nervous."

Major General Witte: "I heard that you were under heavy artillery fire, so I rushed forward at full speed. My division headquarters could at least stabilize the morale of the troops! But you almost killed me!
"My command vehicle was destroyed by your attack, and the division chief of staff went to the sky with the vehicle! Fortunately, I was sitting in the division tank, otherwise I would have to go on the road with the chief of staff!
"Can't you recognize the Iron Cross on the command vehicle?"

Colonel Busey dared not speak.

But Captain John of the heavy tank company said: "It's normal that the divisional column can't be seen clearly in such a thick smoke and dust."

Major General Witte turned to John and said, "Humph, commander of the new tank company, the emperor had high hopes for you and your tank company, but you were beaten up by Ant?"

John: "It was the enemy air force that blew off the tracks of one of our tank platoons. It was normal that the tanks were unable to move and lost the battle with the assault guns.

"We still have two platoons of eight tanks intact. We can still fight the enemy's assault guns. I have confidence.

"There is no invincible armored vehicle in this world. This is true for our Type 6 tanks, and the enemy's new assault guns must be the same."

Major General Witt looked at John's face carefully. "Very good, very good. If I hadn't just walked through a near-death experience set by my own people, I would commend you, Captain."

After saying that, Major General Witte turned to the map in the room and said, "Report! How many times have you repelled the enemy's attacks?"

"Zero times," Colonel Busey said.

Commander Witt: "What?"

"Zero. The enemy made such a fierce fire preparation, but did not attack." Colonel Busey said, looking very confused.

The confusion was also passed on to Major General Witte.

(End of this chapter)