artillery arc

Chapter 562: Thank you Emperor Proson for the cake

When Wang Zhong came out of the tunnel, the first umbrella flower had just appeared in the sky.

"It looks like the throw was a little more accurate this time?" he asked Pavlov.

In fact, after he switched to a bird's-eye view, he could immediately see that most of the airdropped supplies had floated outside the encirclement and landed in the area controlled by the Ant Army.

But you still have to pretend.

Pavlov: "I don't know. Anyway, the parachute drifted at least 500 meters away from us... meters, right?"

He turned around and asked the staff officer: "How far is the enemy from us now?"

"The enemy troops stationed in the auditorium surrendered to us last night," the staff officer replied. "The nearest enemy stronghold is currently 950 meters away."

Pavlov: "Well, the Great Hall finally surrendered. I thought the enemy there would be the last to surrender."

General Frederick - The General personally went to the auditorium to inspect it, looked at the captured red flags, and took photos.

This distance was already within Wang Zhong's lighting distance, so he could see it clearly. However, he was worried that if he killed the general, the enemy would run away.

After all, the purpose of making fake flags and so on was to stop the enemy's Sixth Army, so Wang Zhong strictly ordered all units not to open fire at will and not to kill the general.

Now that the Sixth Army was surrounded, if Frederick dared to appear in Wang Zhong's highlighted area, he would either be captured or die. In any case, he would be able to undermine the morale of the enemy forces in the encirclement.

Unfortunately, General Frederick never entered the city of Abawahan.

At this time, a parachute floated directly to the top of the tunnel exit, causing a large piece of ice and snow to slide down and hit the ground.

The guards around Wang Zhong immediately became nervous and surrounded him tightly.

"It's just the accumulated snow sliding down." said Wang Zhong.

After all, he had Gao Liang and knew that there were no hostile people around.

The guard said sternly: "We can't take this risk!"

Pavlov ordered the soldiers guarding the gate: "Drive the tanks over and take a look at what is so big. It doesn't look like ammunition because there is no buffering equipment."

Wang Zhong: "Will the enemy use cushions for air-dropped ammunition?"

"Yes, there must be a cushion, but even so, there are still accidents after the ammunition hits the ground. In addition, their shells and fuses are airdropped separately, and the fuses may be too light, so they all floated to our position, while only half of the shells landed on our position."

After Pavlov finished speaking, Wang Zhong frowned and said, "Will that allow the Prosen people in the encirclement to have too much gunpowder and make a lot of homemade explosives, causing trouble for us?"

"Don't worry," Pavlov spread his hands, "the food is also very light, so most of it was blown over our heads by the north wind, or flew over us and fell into the sea."

Most of the inland sea does not freeze in winter, so all this food floats into the sea to feed the fish.

Wang Zhong: "No wonder the fish in the inland sea are so fat recently."

At this time, the person who climbed to the roof of the tunnel opened the airdrop and held up the cake: "General! It's a cake, and I can't understand the Prosom language on it!"

Pavlov: "Find a Plossen prisoner to try the cake and have the translator identify what's written on it."

Wang Zhong: "There's no need to be so cautious. They don't have the ability to make precise airdrops. The troops below are all starving. If they throw the right amount of food and one of our own eats it and dies, who would dare to eat airdropped food in the future?"

Pavlov: "It won't hurt to be cautious. We have a lot of prisoners in Proson anyway."

What a lot of prisoners...

A few minutes later, a bruised Major Plossen was brought in. He looked hesitant when he saw the cake stuffed into his hand.

Wang Zhong: "Eat it."

The major looked at him in confusion, but after being captured for several days, he still understood the Ant language "eat".

Then, his expression became extremely pessimistic, as if this was the last piece of cake he would eat in his life.

Although Wang Zhong did not understand Prosin, he always felt that the major had a big misunderstanding of him.

At this time, the major saw the cake itself.

His expression changed shockingly.

This made Wang Zhong curious about what was written on the cake.

Translation: "Happy 47th birthday to General Wilhelm von Frederick, the cake reads."

Wang Zhong: "Ah? It's our opponent's birthday! Why didn't you tell me?"

Pavlov: "Do I need to tell you this specifically? Besides, when I gave you the enemy general's information, I wrote down his birthday. Do you blame me for not seeing it?"

Wang Zhong: "Oh, look at what has happened. Emperor Plosson's cake has not been delivered, and they asked us to cut it and give it to this major. Really, this is a good thing."

As he spoke, Wang Zhong walked forward, cut a piece of cake with a knife, and put it into his mouth with a fork.

"Yeah." He nodded slightly. "Although Plosson's food has always been terrible, this cake is good, almost up to the level of their sausages and roasted pork elbows! We can't leave it unrewarded. Messenger, tell the kitchen to bake a cake immediately, and make a big one!"

Pavlov looked at Wang Zhong and blinked his eyes: "What are you going to do? If you don't give me a reason, I can't accept you wasting resources on this kind of thing."

Wang Zhong: "We are now fighting a psychological warfare, which is also a part of psychological warfare. First, we have to send a formal telegram, using Plossen's encryption method, but we have to use the code table from a week ago to show that we have not cracked Plossen's code." In fact, it has been cracked, and the United Kingdom has been sharing the cracked Plossen secret telegrams.

Pavlov: "We did capture the Enigma machine that was set up a week ago."

In order for the Enigma machine to successfully decipher the secret message, it is necessary to know the initial position of the machine gear on the sending side. This initial position is the key to deciphering. The Prosen people generally change the initial position every ten days, which is consistent with the habit of their armored divisions to report their combat readiness to the headquarters every ten days.

(The daily combat readiness situation will still be reported to the army group level and kept on file)

Wang Zhong: "Just use that to send the message. I believe that with the rigor of the Proson people, they must have archives recording the initial position of the Enigma machine last week.

"The wording of the telegram should be more solemn. The title of the book should be... just the name of His Majesty the Tsar! I just called Olga."

----

Olga put down the phone and smiled at Turgenev: "My brother asked me to draft a telegram in my name to congratulate General Frederick, the commander of the besieged Sixth Army."

Turgenev: "Congratulations on what?"

"Today is his 47th birthday."

Turgenev frowned and thought for a second before he suddenly realized: "Oh, that's it! Is this part of the psychological warfare against the Sixth Army?"

"That's right." Olga, "Where's the Lady of State, Mrs. Melina? It would be better if she could help me polish it."

Turgenev: "Then in what form should it be sent?"

"It seems that they are going to use the enemy's code book captured last week to send it..."

"The Enigma machine, well, it's very clever. It doesn't reveal that we have cracked the Enigma code, and it also gives the enemy enough deterrence." Turgenev nodded, "It's just that this trick is a bit tasteless."

Olga laughed out loud, evidently liking Rokossov's behavior very much.

----

Plossen's Sixth Army Headquarters - located in the center of the encirclement.

"General, the enemy is sending messages using our code. They are using the starting position of the Enigma machine from last week." said the Chief of Staff of the Sixth Army.

General Wilhelm von Frederick has lost a lot of weight, and his once round cheeks have now become "like a real Junker aristocrat."

The real Junker nobles guarded their poor estates in East Prussia, doing a lot of farm work every year and undergoing military training, so they really couldn't get fat.

However, these skinny Junker nobles have almost disappeared in the empire now.

General Frederick: "Have you finished the translation?"

"Not yet. The messages are still being sent."

The general nodded and asked, "How long can the diesel in the generator last?"

"We sent out a suicide squad last night and recovered 100 kg of diesel from the middle area between the two sides." The chief of staff said in a serious tone.

General: "How many people died for this little diesel?"

"Seven people," replied the chief of staff.

The general nodded.

Chief of Staff: "If we really don't have any diesel, we can use hand-cranked generators, but the voltage is not enough to maintain high-power radio stations and radios. Reception is probably not a problem, but transmission..."

At this time, the messenger came in with a telegram: "Decoding completed! It is a gorgeously worded congratulatory letter, wishing you a happy 47th birthday, General."

General: "Fuck it!"

Correspondent: "It is signed by Tsarina Olga Nikolaevna."

General: "Rokossov didn't sign his name?"

The communicator shrugged.

At this time, another communicator rushed in: "General! The Ants are broadcasting on all radio channels."

General Frederick: "Bring a radio with batteries to the headquarters so I can hear what Rokossov has to say."

The radio was brought over quickly, and the earphones were thoughtfully warmed by the fire, so they were very warm.

The general put on his headphones and just heard the other end of the radio say: "Dear General Frederick, I, Rokossov, am very sorry because I just ate the cake that Emperor Proshen gave you.

"The picture of me eating the cake should appear on the front page of tomorrow's Ante Daily. As an alternative, I asked my chef to prepare a more delicious cake for you. I propose that our entire army temporarily cease fire today to collect and bury the bodies of our comrades on both sides, so that I can also give you the cake in person.

"If you disagree, we will send a death squad to place the cake in the Cinco de Mayo street garden, and we promise not to attack anyone who goes to pick up the cake.

“In addition, considering the current situation of your army, we agree to accept your seriously injured soldiers on humanitarian grounds.

"Also based on humanitarianism, we will provide vodka and cigarettes for free to ensure that every soldier can get them..."

The general threw his headphones on the table and said, "Rokossov is going too far!"

(End of this chapter)