artillery arc

Chapter 385: Conspiracy (12000 monthly tickets plus more)

Over the next half day, troops from the 33rd Cavalry Division arrived one after another, and suddenly the village was filled with cavalry.

Wang Zhong said to the commander of the 33rd Division: "Eat what you need to eat, and replenish what you need quickly. After replenishing, go out of the city to set up tents and prepare to spend the night. The city is within the enemy's artillery range, so don't put too many people in the city."

The division commander saluted: "Yes. No wonder I saw so many infantry and armored troops outside the city. It turns out it was to prevent artillery bombardment."

Wang Zhong: "That's right. If there wasn't a possibility of enemy bombardment, I wouldn't have left my troops outside in the hot sun."

Division Commander: "Let's send out a small team to explore the enemy's artillery position."

Wang Zhong: “The Air Force’s reconnaissance did find the map square where the enemy’s artillery position was located, but according to the photos, the enemy had deployed heavy troops around the artillery, including a battalion of anti-aircraft guns and a considerable number of infantry.

"I suggest you just send a death squad, but don't sacrifice too many people. The real target is this vast grassland, and the enemy certainly doesn't have the strength to set up defenses on such a vast grassland."

As Wang Zhong spoke, he drew a big circle on the map with a long stick.

Pavlov: "The air force's reconnaissance has not found many strong fortified positions on the grassland. Even if there are, they cannot be supplied. The more mechanized and synthetic the army is, the more it will suffer on the grassland, but your cavalry can come and go freely."

Wang Zhong: "That's why I asked the headquarters to equip me with cavalry. You two armies, one on the left and one on the right, will ride horses on the grassland. I know you have been issued incendiary grenades, but I ask you not to engage the enemy's armored forces head-on. Even if they are half-track vehicles, you should bypass them.

"Your only mission is the enemy's logistics."

“Only logistics?”

"Yes."

At this time Pavlov said: "The cavalry soldiers have not all arrived yet. You only tell one division commander and tell him again tomorrow."

At this time, the commander of the 33rd Division said: "In fact, our army only has two divisions, and the 21st Cavalry Army has only one division. Even the military headquarters have been streamlined."

Wang Zhong frowned slightly: "Why?"

"Because there are no cavalry." The division commander shrugged, "Most cavalry divisions have been converted into tank divisions, and the cavalry division commander and corps commander have also become the commander of the tank division and tank corps."

Wang Zhong's eyebrows twisted into knots: "Even if cavalry is not adapted to modern warfare, it can't be done this way. Cavalry and tanks have nothing in common! Only laymen would treat them the same."

The division commander said awkwardly: "Maybe the idea is that tanks will break through the enemy's defenses and then move deep into the enemy's territory, and the same is true for cavalry."

"Nonsense!" Wang Zhong cursed. "There is a huge difference between the use of cavalry and tanks. I'm going to call General Turgenev and ask him to stop reorganizing the troops like this."

At this time, Pavlov said: "There is nothing wrong with changing the cavalry into tank soldiers. We have maintained such a large-scale cavalry organization. What should we do if we don't change it? We can use cavalry troops on the steppes of South Antwerp, but can we use them on the black soil of Khazaria? Can we use them in the woods and swamps of Livonia?
"The key is to give the cavalry officers and soldiers enough training! Let them understand how to use tank troops, right?"

Wang Zhong thought about it and felt that what Pavlov said made sense, so he stopped talking about this issue and asked the cavalry division commander in front of him: "Does that mean that the strengths of your two armies are different? Then our original idea of ​​one army being responsible for one side will not work."

Division Commander: "We can split off a part of another division of our army and reinforce the 21st Army."

"Won't the soldiers have any objections?" Wang Zhong asked.

"How could there be any objections? We are comrades who have shared weal and woe." The commander smiled slightly.

"Very good," Wang Zhong turned to Pavlov, "start the splitting work immediately."

"give it to me."

Then Wang Zhong patted the division commander on the shoulder and said, "I'm sorry that you have to sleep in the tent tonight. When all the cavalry troops arrive tomorrow, we will launch an attack overnight. We can rush into the grassland under the cover of night and catch the enemy off guard."

----

At the headquarters of the 10th Army in Plossen, a barrel truck carrying the Air Force liaison officer drove up to the headquarters tent.

It was already nine o'clock in the evening, but it was not yet dark.

The Air Force colonel got out of the car and strode into the tent.

In the tent, Admiral Pok was cursing and hitting mosquitoes: "Damn it! Rokossov must want mosquitoes to bite us to death! Mosquitoes and lice!"

When the Air Force colonel heard the word lice, he stopped decisively and kept his distance from the admiral.

The general glared at him and said, "I don't have any lice on my body. My clothes have been ironed with hot water! But if we stay in the grassland for a few more days, that may not be the case! Many soldiers are already covered in lice! So, I hope there will be good news from the Air Force!"

The Air Force colonel took out a document bag and said, "Of course there is good news. We destroyed Rokossov's artillery positions. These positions were defended by divine arrows. In order to destroy the positions, we lost four Stukas. Four experienced crews never came back! This means that these positions are real. Rokossov's artillery has suffered heavy losses!"

The admiral made a gesture, and his adjutant immediately stepped forward, took the document bag, opened it and took out the contents: "It's a photo."

Admiral: "Is that a picture of the enemy's artillery position being destroyed?"

"Yes, and there are photos of the bombing of Rokossov's headquarters."

"Humph." The admiral snatched the photo from the adjutant, flipped through it quickly, and then cursed, "Asshole! Does this artillery position look like it has been destroyed? Where are the remains of the cannons and vehicles?"

"Our intelligence experts determined that they were moved," said the colonel.

"The wreckage is also being moved?" the admiral questioned, "This doesn't make sense!"

The colonel answered calmly: "Maybe it's to interfere with our judgment. Rokossov is very cunning..."

"Rokosov is very cunning, so these may be fake positions! There were such reports during the Battle of Orachi! So did Loktov!" Colonel: "But these positions are protected by divine arrows. The Ante divine arrow prayer hands suffered heavy losses, so it is unlikely that they would use them to protect fake positions."

Admiral Poke stopped, because he was also a Plossan and had the same rigor as the Plossans. This rigor now told him that it was indeed unlikely to use the already precious Praying Hands to defend the fake position.

But he felt something was not right, so he said to the chief of staff, "Call the 190th Division and ask them if they were bombarded today."

The Chief of Staff nodded.

Soon the report came: "The 190th Division was not bombarded today."

In fact, Wang Zhong had not conducted any front-line reconnaissance and did not know where to bomb. But Admiral Bock had no way of knowing this.

He looked at the Air Force colonel, who held his head high with pride, his nose pointed to the sky.

Admiral Polk: "Well, let's assume that the Air Force accomplished its objective. Anything else of note?"

The colonel immediately replied, "Yes, please turn to photos 110 to 143."

Admiral Poke lowered his head and flipped through the photos, but after only a few pages, his adjutant found the photos with the corresponding numbers and handed them to him.

The admiral quickly flipped through a few pages and asked, "What's on this? An armored force moving in?"

"No, with so much dust, it looks like a large-scale cavalry unit is moving on the road. In addition, the following photos also captured the cavalry resting on the grassland, and their horses were scattered on the grassland eating grass."

Admiral Poker frowned, "Cavalry?"

His adjutant laughed and said, "Are you planning to replicate Melania's folly?"

Admiral Poke glared at his adjutant. "Don't be like that. That's propaganda from the Imperial Propaganda Minister! The reality is that Melania's cavalry almost broke through our infantry's defense line, but then half-tracks and assault guns came up. At that time, our infantry units didn't have so many armored units. They were real infantry divisions. The situation was actually very dangerous."

Admiral Poke said, carefully examining the photo in his hand.

The entire headquarters fell silent.

But then a katydid outside began to chirp loudly.

The admiral cursed, "Shut it up!"

"What? Grasshopper?" the adjutant was shocked.

"Yes, whatever method you use, shut it up!"

The adjutant walked out of the tent with a helpless look on his face.

As soon as he left, Admiral Pok slapped his thigh and said, "I know. This Rokossov is planning to use cavalry to rush into the grassland and disrupt our logistics deployment!"

Chief of Staff: "Use cavalry? Isn't this a bit unrealistic? How can cavalry deal with our armored vehicles?"

"Don't respond!" Admiral Pok said, "If you encounter armored vehicles and tanks, just run! We only have one rear mobile brigade and one National Guard Brigade responsible for rear defense. We can only guarantee key nodes. We can't handle a large number of cavalry at all!"

Chief of Staff: "But cavalry is already an outdated branch of the military. We don't have any cavalry divisions in our organization. As far as I know, there are none in the United Kingdom either. Only the Commonwealth of the United Kingdom has them."

"The key is not the backwardness of the military, but the environment, the vast land and sparse population! The armored forces are restricted by logistics and cannot be fully utilized, but the cavalry can gallop on the grassland! Rokossov discovered this, so he mobilized the cavalry to prepare for a raid on us!"

Air Force Colonel: "This is a naval term..."

"Never mind where the word comes from! The most accurate description is a raiding war, or a liaison war! The cavalry will attack our supply lines everywhere like the navy's cruisers, bypassing all our defenses.

"Soon, our truck convoy will not dare to set out without a troop escort, and the armored vehicles of the escorting troops will be quickly consumed by the grassland. Do you understand? Just think about how many tanks and vehicles we have lost in non-combat situations since we entered the grassland!"

Admiral Poke finished speaking and began to pace back and forth in the headquarters.

At this time, his adjutant came in with an iron lunch box in his hand: "Report! The katydid has been caught!"

Admiral Poker was shocked: "What katydid?"

"Eh?"

"You still have time to care about the katydid? Throw it away!"

"But what if it starts to make noise again?" said the adjutant.

"Then let it make noise!"

"Eh?"

The chief of staff desperately gestured to his adjutant, using his lips to signal: "It's time to kill him, hurry up."

At this time, the katydid in the lunch box chirped with full energy.

The scene was very awkward for a moment.

Admiral Poker couldn't stand it any longer: "Shut it up!"

(End of this chapter)