artillery arc

Chapter 763 A small test of one’s skills
Kashuh: "On January 7, if we start the offensive now, it will be less than two months. We are still about 70 kilometers away from the center of Plosenia, and one-third of the distance is a highly urbanized area.

"The staff of my headquarters have been idle these days, so I asked the chief of staff to organize them to do a war simulation. The conclusion is that we will have to linger in this forest of steel and concrete for at least 30 days."

Wang Zhong: "Your staff calculated it based on the intensity of our resistance in Abawahan."

Kashuh: "From the enemy data we have seized, they are prepared to resist with this intensity."

Wang Zhong: "This requires extremely high morale, and our campaign to strike at the enemy's morale begins today."

Everyone looked at each other.

Marshal Gorky looked the most surprised: "There is such a plan? I haven't seen any plan?"

Wang Zhong: "Because we submitted it under the name of 'Enemy Territory Propaganda Plan', it looks like an ordinary propaganda plan."

Marshal Gorky: "Oh... I do have an impression of this plan. I remember it was aimed at the general public in Proshen, exposing their atrocities in occupied countries such as Ante, and emphasizing that the Allied forces are waging a just war? Can this destroy the enemy's will to resist?"

Wang Zhong: "Of course we can't just talk about it, but it would be nice to add all kinds of weird and supernatural things. For example, behind every Ante soldier there is a relative who has gone to heaven to protect them."

Marshal Gorky opened his mouth wide: "Will this work for the Prosen people? Don't they advocate atheism? Why replace the grace of God with the light of technology?"

"This is a concept that we have been promoting with all our strength in the past decade. The target audience is mainly young adult men in Proshen, and our target this time is children, the elderly and women in Proshen," said Wang Zhong, "as well as veterans who have seen all kinds of weird things on the battlefield. We found that the enemy's morale support point is the veterans. As long as these veterans collapse, they will collapse."

Kirinenko nodded. “Just like what happened in Melania’s capital debacle.”

This is the name given to the Proshen collapse after the Ante official raid on Wang Zhong himself.

Marshal Gorky: "Will it really work?"

"I don't know. But it's worth a try. We will do it on two fronts. The progress we make in infiltration tactics will complement the effect of the propaganda war.

"In order to further support the propaganda war, I require that when you launch local attacks, you wear medals and add decorations to your weapons. Units with heroic titles must hold high their flags."

Wang Zhong stopped, walked to the chest of drawers next to the map, and took out a few decorative items from the top drawer.

"This is a shoulder armor we hastily made, which has no use except for decoration - of course, you can do shoulder collisions in melee combat, but we don't encourage it.

“The angel wings on the shoulder armor represent the blessing you have received, and the words of Saint Andrew are engraved on the shoulder armor with the seal of the rose.

“Generally speaking, we need to cover our tracks as much as possible on the battlefield, so our uniforms have always been khaki, and the Prosen people have also changed their gray uniforms into camouflage uniforms.

"But sometimes, not using camouflage has its value. It can shock the other party! Especially shocking young children and superstitious old people.

"And the frightened veterans."

Kashuh looked at the shoulder armor in Wang Zhong's hand and commented: "It doesn't look like something that should be equipped to regular field troops. It's very suitable for Christmas parades."

Wang Zhong: "That's right. We need to turn the attack into a grand parade to scare the enemy away."

Kirinenko: "Even if we succeed in eroding the enemy's position, defending it will consume manpower and resources."

Wang Zhong: "No, given the enemy's current situation, we don't think they can launch an attack to retake the position. Their main force is the People's Self-Defense Force, and this mob is simply not going to be able to organize an attack.

"Their armored forces have been depleted. Half a year ago, our armored troops reported that the enemy's quality had dropped drastically.

"It is impossible for them to recapture the ground we have taken away. We will prove it today."

Marshal Gorky: "I didn't know we were going to attack today?"

Wang Zhong: "It's just a regimental-level infiltration operation. It doesn't need to be reported to the headquarters and the military command office, but this operation will prove that the enemy is now a lamb to be slaughtered. Let's wait and see."

----

Filippov looked at his men in formation and said, "Damn, it feels like we're heading to a victory parade."

Vasily: "That's about it. If my assumption is correct, once the bombardment begins, your troops will just march across the river.

"The enemy's indirect fire on the other side of the river that could blast through the ice has been eliminated by the infiltration troops. In order to save ammunition, our artillery bombardment will only continue until your troops reach the enemy's position.

"The rocket launcher will open fire when you are two-thirds of the way there, giving the enemy maximum suppression before you rush to the position."

Filippov: "Damn it, your plan is too fantastic. I want to charge with my soldiers."

Vasily: "No, you are already the head of the group. You and I will watch the execution of the plan here. Don't worry, I feel it will work this time."

Filippov: "Is it okay for you to stay here? Don't you have a plan to start implementing? You said so."

"Well, at this stage, we can just drop leaflets and leave it to the Air Force's Pe 8 bombers."

As Vasily finished his words, a shell flew over their heads.

"Let's begin!" Vasily patted Filippov on the shoulder.

Filippov: Let’s go!

The "special vehicle" assigned to the Filippov Regiment immediately activated the loudspeaker on board and began playing Beethoven's Symphony No. 5.

Filippov: “Why Beethoven?”

“I chose a magnificent piece of music. In addition to Beethoven, there is also Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries”, but the latter easily reminded the Prosen people of their Asgard Knights, so I gave up.

"I was originally planning to put it on a tank, but not every infiltration attack can use a tank, so it's just right to put it on a truck. The truck's engine drives the generator to support the playback."

Filippov watched the infantry regiments begin to march to the music, each soldier wearing a brand new shoulder decoration.

"Look at them," Filippov said. "Everyone is rushing forward, as if if they slow down a little the war will end and they will run away. But just three years ago, we went to the battlefield with the determination to die."

Vasily: "Yes, at that time the priest who led the group even shouted: Filippov, sing one. Now the priest has been dead for two years, and only about ten of the students who came out at the same time are left alive."

Filippov: “Finally it’s fucking over. I’ve wanted to lead the night infiltration myself so many times just to put my boots on enemy territory, but the regimental chaplain and the staff officer stopped me.

"If your plan really comes true this time, I will move the regiment headquarters to the other side of the river immediately!"

Vasily: "Of course you can go, we will all go."

As they were talking, the skirmish line had advanced to one-third of the surface of the Oder River, and trucks carrying loudspeakers also began to move forward, following the infantry.

The enemy's position across the river was filled with huge trees of smoke and dust from the artillery shells.

Filippov picked up the telescope and observed the other side: "It seems that no one is active at all, and there is no artillery fire to stop our attack. The enemy has been learning from us to play counter-fire preparation since the second year of the war, but this time there is no such thing."

Vasily was full of confidence: "I told you, this is an armed parade, and the rocket launchers will start speaking soon."

As soon as he finished speaking, the unique whistling sound of the rocket launcher came from behind the two of them.

Although both of them were veterans, they still shrank their necks together.

The other side of the river became even more lively.

Among the skirmishers advancing on the ice, some of them clearly quickened their pace.

When the rocket launcher's bombardment ended, Vasily picked up the telescope and looked across together with Filippov.

Vasily: "No one entered the position."

"Yes," Filippov adjusted the knob of the telescope. "Could it be that the trenches were so badly dug that they were almost destroyed by one round of bombardment?"

At this time, the skirmish lines had all climbed up the river bank, and our army's artillery bombardment had almost completely stopped, and the Prosen position was still quiet.

Vasily held up the telescope, almost pressing the eyepiece into his eye socket: "There's not even a firing machine gun?"

The grassroots squads of the Plossen Army were organized around machine guns. The core of a squad was the machine gun. The squad leader had to stay with the machine gun and command it all the time. As for the other nine riflemen, they were just free.

So it was very strange that no machine gun opened fire at the Plossen position under attack.

Filippov: "Everyone was knocked unconscious by the explosion?"

As soon as he finished speaking, a machine gun opened fire.

The sound of tearing canvas could not be heard across the river, but the tracer bullets were clearly visible. The skirmishers who had crossed the river also responded immediately. The moment the machine guns sounded, the skirmishers started running. Those who saw that they were the target of the strafing fell down in unison.

But then, the person lying down stood up.

Filippov also discovered this: "The machine gun's sights were set too high. This thing can't hit anyone. The shooter doesn't seem to have noticed it yet."

However, Sagittarius had no chance to correct his mistake.

The recoilless rifle team opened fire, and the machine gun bunker was blown away along with the camouflage cover on top.

Vasily: "Only one machine gun was firing, and no PAK38 anti-tank gun was seen."

The Prosens have long been equipped with PAK40 anti-tank guns, but the number has never been enough to cover the entire army, so they still produce a large number of small and low-power PAK38s.

Even the Studebaker trucks with their big speakers had driven across the river and onto the beach.

Some Ante infantry had already rushed to the trench, and only then did the enemy infantry begin to fire sporadically.

But the veteran Ant's accurate grenades kept being thrown into the trenches, and the resistance was dissipating like dewdrops under the sun.

Vasily even saw a squad of Prosen's infantry surrender directly to the first Ante infantry to reach the trench.

Filippov suddenly put down his binoculars and cursed: "Damn it, how did the Proson troops become like this? Where is the strong army that we fought so hard to defeat?"

Vasily: "Maybe around Coburg."

Filippov: "I want to go over and see the situation myself. Are you coming?"

"Of course, I want to confirm my guess!"

----

At 11 on November 10, Luki, a small town on the Oder River, was 1630 kilometers away from the center of Plosynia.

Outside the town, an old lady named Proson, who was nearly 90 years old, was struggling to cut up a dead cow on the roadside with a knife.

Her three-year-old grandson was playing with cow dung on the road nearby - it was probably the last dung the cow excreted before it was blown to death.

Suddenly, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 came from afar.

The old man stopped fighting with the beef fascia and looked up in the direction where the music came from.

She saw the Ante's skirmish line appear.

The three-year-old grandson stood up, used the shit-stained stick in his hand as a gun, and "fired" at the scattered lines of the Ant people in the distance.

The old man snatched the stick, broke it and threw it aside, then pulled the child behind his body.

The child burst into tears.

The old lady shouted, "See those people in the distance? They are Rokossov's troops!"

The child immediately closed his mouth, clenched his teeth, and cried, but he didn't dare to make a sound.

The symphony of fate grew louder and louder as the Ant soldiers passed by the carcass of the cow, and everyone looked at the cow's fascia that had been cut in half.

Suddenly, an Ante soldier pulled a can out of his pocket, opened it with a bayonet, and placed it at the old lady's feet.

The old lady quickly thanked them in Proson language: "Thank you... Thank you!"

At this time, a jeep stopped in front of the old lady, and the high-ranking Ante officer in the car asked in Plossan: "Madam, are there any Plossan regular troops in the town?"

The old lady: "Yes! In the mayor's mansion and the town government office building, and maybe a little bit in the post office."

The officer asked curiously again: "Is it okay to give us directions like this? We are the enemy, aren't we?"

The old lady said: "Look at my grandson, he is so hungry. I have a younger grandson, who is just breastfeeding age, but they forced his mother to join the People's Self-Defense Force.

"I couldn't find milk and milk powder, and my little grandson starved to death. While you're fighting them, can you please be kind enough to let my daughter-in-law come back? At least she can feed other people's children..."

The officer nodded, took out a sausage from his pocket and stuffed it into the old lady's hand: "Don't eat the dead cow. After we liberate this place, the church will follow up soon and distribute food to you."

----

After Vasily returned to the jeep, Filippov asked, "Is it true that the church is following up with the food distribution?"

"Really? This is a conciliatory plan to end the war as soon as possible. It just so happens that we have a bumper harvest in our country, and sausage production has reached a new high."

Filippov asked again: "Are you really going to find the old lady's daughter-in-law?"

Vasily: "I don't know. Maybe she tried to resist and was killed by us."

At this time, the sound of machine guns was heard in the town.

There were explosions and then machine guns went silent. There were also sporadic rifle shots, but no sound of counterattack.

Perhaps it was because the Filippov Regiment was equipped with thread cutting machines, so the noise was very low when they counterattacked.

Filippov: "Go into the city and see what's going on!"

The driver stepped on the accelerator in response, and the jeep followed the infantry running into the city.

The town is not big, and the jeep reached the central square in no time.

Vasily: "Well, it looks like the town hall, the mayor's house, and the post office are all here."

He picked up the DShK anti-aircraft machine gun on the jeep and fired a series of shots at the second floor of the town government where they were resisting, and the battlefield immediately became quiet.

Soon, a pot-bellied clerk from Proson opened the door of the town hall with a white flag and walked out cautiously.

"We surrender!" he said in broken Antese.

Vasily: "Yes, let them lay down their weapons and come out with their hands raised. Don't play tricks. If even one person plays tricks, we will kill everyone.

"This is an order from Marshal Rokossov."

Clerk Proson turned around and shouted a few words into the room, and the Self-Defense Force members and the Proson National Defense Force walked out of the room one after another with their hands raised.

Vasily asked the clerk: "Who are the people who forced children and women to join the self-defense army?"

Clerk: "I'll identify them one by one! Leave it to me!"

He didn't even ask Vasily what he was going to do with these people.

Soon, the clerk pointed at Colonel Plosson who had just left the house and said, "Him! He brought people to capture my wife and my father!"

Vasily: "Catch him! Yes, the colonel!"

Two Guards soldiers immediately pulled the colonel out from the surrendering people and took him to the open space in front of the post office.

The clerk shouted again: "And him! He is the head of the military police! He organized the Boy Scouts!"

This time Vasily just snapped his fingers, and the gendarmerie chief was pulled out to stand with the colonel.

In this way, six or seven more people were pulled out one after another and stood in a row in front of the post office.

Clerk: “That’s them!”

Vasily: "You have committed crimes against humanity. I sentence you to death, to be executed immediately."

The Guards soldiers, who had been prepared, opened fire one after another, and the bullets turned these bastards into sieves.

Vasily then picked up the walkie-talkie and shouted to the other end: "White Wolf, White Wolf, the sausage-cutting tactic is going well, repeat, everything is going well!"

(End of this chapter)