artillery arc

Chapter 359 The Silence Before the Storm

Wang Zhong spent twenty minutes carefully recounting all the information he had just received.

Tadeusz nodded. "I see. In short, just treat it as smoke covering the entire battlefield and conduct close-range combat in the smoke."

Wang Zhong: "That's right. We all have silent weapons, which means that if there is a gunshot, it is definitely not one of us, and there will be no accidental shooting."

Tadeusz: "On the other hand, if an accidental attack occurs, friendly troops may die without a sound. The sectors of the assault must be allocated well to avoid accidental injuries."

Wang Zhong: "It's useless. I've been a demon in the smoke myself, and I know how chaotic that situation would be. Accidental injuries are inevitable. The good news is that we have far fewer people than the Prosons, so the possibility of hitting our own people is greatly reduced."

Tadeusz smiled and said, "We are like little fog monsters, destroying them silently."

Wang Zhong couldn't help but raise his eyebrows when he heard this familiar term: "Little Mist Demon?"

"Ah, it's the monster in our Melania's legend. It comes with thick fog, hurts people in the fog, and uses illusions to cover its whereabouts." Tadeusz shrugged. "Typical superstition with self-consistent logic. Because the little fog monsters always come with thick fog, no one has ever seen them, but when they leave, they use illusions to cover their tracks, so no one will find the traces they left behind."

Wang Zhong nodded: "I understand. So the little fog monster doesn't exist?"

"At least no one I know has seen it. Not when they are sober, I mean."

You've seen it after eating mushrooms, right?

Vasily slapped his thigh and said, "We can pretend to be little fog monsters and scare the Prosen people away!"

Wang Zhong: "Don't be silly. The Prosen people once used penicillin to deal with witches' magic. If they really encounter a little fog demon, they will just shoot and then send the corpse to the Imperial Academy of Sciences for a reward. That must be the case."

Tadeusz: "Melania said only children were afraid of the fog spirit. I always felt that this was made up to scare children and prevent them from going out to play in foggy weather. There are many real dangers in the fog."

Tadeusz put away the simple map and photos and said, "I'm going to have a meeting with the company and platoon leaders to explain the situation."

Yegorov: "It's almost time for us to leave. We have a lot of things to arrange. I'm sure we won't be able to sleep tonight."

Wang Zhong: "Okay, let's go here and check the watches."

He lowered his head and looked at his watch: "It is now 7 hours on July 15th, just in time."

The others lowered their heads, pulled up the small knob on their watches to stop the hands, then turned the knob to set the time to 0030, waiting for Wang Zhong's command.

Wang Zhong: "Okay!"

Everyone pressed the knob at the same time to restart the watch.

"Good luck to you. See you tomorrow in Yeisk."

"See you in the city."

"See you in the city!"

Everyone stood up and walked downstairs.

Wang Zhong noticed that Lieutenant Colonel Xie Miao looked nervous, so he patted him on the shoulder and said, "It's okay. The Prosons are indeed skilled in fighting, but what's important in the fog is courage. Be courageous."

After saying that, Wang Zhong patted Xie Miao on the back and pushed him out of the headquarters.

----

After that, Wang Zhong took a nap until he was awakened by the sound of cannon fire.

He sat up and looked out the window.

The birds hiding in the grass were awakened by the sound of the cannons and flew into the sky, making noisy noises.

The steppe was still dark, with the occasional flash of heavy artillery fire.

Wang Zhong was shocked. This was the first time his artillery had tried simultaneous attack in actual combat. Previously, in the Kubinka training ground, this project often went wrong. The mathematicians' calculations were very accurate, but Ante's artillery could not always perfectly execute the mathematicians' intentions, so the density of simultaneous firepower was also erratic.

I hope they can perform above their level this time.

----

Division Commander Witte lay on the ground and exclaimed: "This density of firepower! It feels like ten artillery regiments are firing at us!"

Simultaneous firing would cause inexperienced generals to misjudge the artillery force firing at them. Prosom has not yet sent generals to confront the United States head-on, so this is an area they are unaware of.

If Raberville was more capable, he might be able to steal information about the United States' tactical habits, but unfortunately Raberville was not that capable.

Now all the Proson officers in the room were lying on the ground, maintaining an anti-artillery posture, and some of them even held their heads with their hands.

The earth-shaking bombardment lasted for who knows how long before it finally stopped.

Division Commander Witte got up and said, "It's not even daybreak yet, why did you stop? Attack at this time?"

Night combat is a problem for most armies, and only a few armies are good at and actively seek night combat.

For example, the United Kingdom's Commander special forces often attacked Plossen facilities on the Western Front at night.

Colonel Busey also got up: "I'm afraid it's not an attack. This is Rokossov's habit. He bombards us while we sleep and tries to kill us."

Major General Witte came to the headquarters window and looked out: "...That's not right. With the intensity of the firepower I just heard, there shouldn't be only this much damage to the houses near the headquarters."

The chief of staff came to the window. This person, who had replaced the deceased chief of staff less than 24 hours ago, was a little hesitant when speaking: "Indeed, indeed, the number of shells is definitely more than this. Isn't the focus of the shelling in the urban area?"

Colonel Busey also moved closer to the window to observe: "But the density of the shell explosion just now was definitely not my illusion."

Major General Witte thought for a few seconds and said, "This is fire preparation. The main goal is to destroy the barbed wire and mines outside our defense zone. It is night time now, and the engineering troops cannot repair these in the dark. The enemy is about to attack, so let the troops be prepared."

"Now?" the chief of staff confirmed.

"Yes, now. Get the troops ready for battle," said Major General Witte.

----

Wang Zhong paced in the headquarters, looking outside every time he walked to the window.

"The moon is bright and the stars are sparse. It doesn't look like there's going to be fog." He exclaimed.

Popov: "Didn't Filippov say yesterday that fog in the morning is caused by the heat from clear weather dissipating to the high altitude, which then causes the water vapor in the low altitude to condense. There are a lot of scientific words here, and as a theology student, I only half understand them. But you should understand, General."

Wang Zhong: "I understand, I just forgot." Popov: "This is not your first time commanding an attack, why are you acting like a new soldier on the battlefield?"

"Because he had always been the one charging ahead, driving his little tank."

Wang Zhong turned his head and saw Pavlov enter the room.

"You're finally here!" He stepped forward and gave Pavlov a hug. "I thought you would come with the last troops on the 16th."

"I left behind a few trusted staff officers and clerks. They will make good arrangements for the final troops." Pavlov punched Wang Zhong on the shoulder. "I heard that you have already engaged the enemy. Really, why are you waiting for the entire army to arrive? Why are you in such a hurry?"

Wang Zhong distanced himself and said, "We can't help but be anxious. Look, we can only put our headquarters in a village like this. If we don't meet the enemy, we will have to fight them by the river."

Pavlov: "It's not like we haven't fought urban battles before."

Wang Zhong: "That's different. The vortex has taken key protection measures. The sides are unreliable and cannot fight in urban warfare. This vast grassland is where the vortex can be used. We have already dealt a heavy blow to the enemy on the grassland."

"I already know." Pavlov patted Wang Zhong on the shoulder, "Calm down now. You are the commander of the army group, not the regiment commander who used to charge in a small tank."

Wang Zhong nodded.

In fact, he really thought about participating in the attack himself. After all, he had a cheat and knew the enemy's position in the smoke. Moreover, the enemy was within a range of 2.5 kilometers. The commando team he led would definitely be able to go straight to the enemy and capture the enemy commander alive.

But then he thought again, there was no telling how many enemies there were within these 2.5 kilometers, and he didn't know how long it would take him to check them one by one. Moreover, it was a surprise attack in the fog, so it was not certain that it would be of much use.

Moreover, this plug-in is equivalent to marking people on the minimap, but it does not really have a frame that can be used to hit people directly, nor is it a big gyroscope.

How much of a role he can play as an infantryman remains to be discussed.

Moreover, the enemy is now organized and motivated, and if they shoot randomly in the fog, they might hit Wang Zhong with one of their bullets.

Reality is not a game. If you are hit by a bullet and don’t die, you will have to lie in the rear for half a year.

Wang Zhong was reluctant to abandon the troops he had worked so hard to build.

Therefore, let the soldiers under his command to carry out the attack. He has raised them for more than half a year, equipped them with equipment and trained them, and even opened night schools for them to learn knowledge and understand why they are fighting every day. It's time for them to play their role.

Wang Zhong can definitely be said to love his soldiers like his own sons, and now it’s time to “use his soldiers like mud.”

After crushing the enemy's morale, he could use the cheating ability to capture high-ranking enemy officers from the chaotic army. At that time, Wang Zhong could leisurely check who the enemies were one by one without having to worry about stray bullets and grenades.

He thought about this and came to the window again: "Why is it not fogging up yet? We have stopped firing for so long."

----

"Why haven't the enemies come yet?" said the new recruit Andreas, yawning.

Corporal Koslake was very calm and smoked silently.

Andreas turned his head and looked at the corporal, curiously asking, "Why do you hide like this when you smoke, corporal?"

"The light from the cigarette butt." The corporal said, "If you don't want to be shot by a sniper, just hide and smoke."

Andreas: "I heard that many of the Ants' snipers are women. Have you seen any?"

"No." The corporal shook his head. "I would rather never see them in my life, these damned nuns of death."

Andreas sighed, "I'd like to see it. It's so novel to see women on the battlefield. Fighting in wars and working in factories should be men's jobs."

Obviously he was still curious about the battlefield. Although he had seen several carts of corpses, a new recruit could not become a veteran just by looking at corpses.

Corporal Koslake continued to smoke in silence.

Andreas hesitated for a moment and asked, "Corporal Kosrek, you are not nervous, are you? Can veterans get nervous too?"

"No, I won't be nervous just when a war starts. But I have a bad feeling today. When you come back from a battlefield like hell, you will gain this ability. You can sense danger, even future danger." Corporal Koslake suddenly opened up. "I have experienced this before. When I was marching, I suddenly didn't want to take a step, so I turned to the side. Guess what happened? When I stepped on it, I found that the enemy's pressure mine was right next to my feet."

Andreas: "Then pick up a leg!"

"One leg?" Corporal Koslake shook his head. "Ant's mines will take more than just my leg. If I or someone else steps on it, the marching machine gun platoon will be gone."

"Is it so powerful?"

"It's really that powerful. The mines we dug out later were this big." The corporal gestured.

Andreas was so surprised that his mouth opened wide.

At this time, the machine gun platoon leader appeared: "Is there anything going on?"

"No." The corporal replied, "Even if there was a situation, we were not the first to discover it. The machine gun crew discovered the enemy first, which means that the infantry covering us is doomed."

"Is, is that so?" The platoon leader was obviously a rookie who had just graduated from the military academy. He was a little timid in front of the senior non-commissioned officers.

Corporal: "Sir, are you a Junker noble?"

"I guess so." The platoon leader replied.

"That won't work. You have to act like a Junker noble and yell at us, 'Stop talking nonsense, you pigs,'" said the corporal.

Platoon leader: "Stop talking nonsense, you pig! Like this?"

"No, no." The corporal shook his head.

Andreas said: "The quartermaster's voice is more authentic. It's the style of a Junker nobleman."

The platoon leader was about to speak when he suddenly stopped and looked outside.

The two men in the machine gun crew also turned around and looked outside the bunker through the ivy.

"The fog is very thick," said Andreas. "In my hometown, there is always such fog in the valley every morning in the summer. When I was a child, my mother scared me, saying that there would be a little fog monster in the fog that would eat children."

Corporal Koslake frowned, put out his cigarette, came out from his hiding place, lay down in the shooter's position, opened the compression plate and checked to make sure the ammunition belt was normal.

After closing the trigger, he pulled the bolt to ready the machine gun.

(End of this chapter)