artillery arc

Chapter 771 "Rising from the Ruins"

Early morning of November 11, Skana village, 23 km from the center of Plosenia.

Filippov got up early, washed up, and sat at his desk to eat breakfast.

At this moment he suddenly saw the landlord's daughter peeping inside through the crack in the door.

Filippov picked up a pickle and shook it at the little girl: "Do you want some?"

The girl immediately nodded like a chicken pecking at rice.

Filippov tore a page from the notebook, wrapped some pickles and a piece of black bread in it and handed it to the little girl.

The little girl immediately started to eat voraciously.

Filippov asked: "How long has it been since you had bread?"

Little girl: “Several days.”

At this time, the little girl's grandmother pushed the door open, scolded the child in Proson language, pulled her behind her, and then apologized to Filippov tremblingly: "The child is ignorant..."

Filippov: "The church hasn't come up yet. When it comes up, they will give you bread, sausages and - I don't know, maybe canned fish."

"Can they?" the old lady looked puzzled.

"of course."

"Aren't we an enemy country?" the old lady asked again.

Filippov: "Yes, but I heard that as early as three years ago, secular believers among the prisoners of war established the Proson General Church. They are now responsible for taking over the occupied areas and will establish a secular Proson State in the future."

As soon as he finished speaking, the guards of the regiment came upstairs and saluted Filippov: "Regimental Master Davarich, the people from the church are here."

Filippov put down the bread in his hand and said, "So soon? Auntie, these are all for you. Let your granddaughter eat as much as she wants."

After saying that, he led his men out of the room.

When I was going down the stairs, the guard who came to deliver the message said, "It's so pitiful. There are only old people and children everywhere. I thought the child soldiers stationed here were all from the village, but it turns out that none of them have returned home. Their children and husbands are guarding somewhere else.

"That's too much. We didn't do this even at the most critical moment!"

Filippov turned around and said, "You see, this is what the priests often say, the simple feelings for class comrades, understand?"

Guard: "Are you also in charge of the priest's work?"

Filippov: "I learned this from the Marshal. The Marshal is also often responsible for ideological mobilization."

As he spoke, he left the house and came to the village square, where he saw a large group of people wearing priest robes, but half of them were wearing robes of a different style from the ones Filippov was used to seeing.

Two men with bishop's insignia saw Filippov and came over together.

The bishop, who was wearing ordinary clerical clothes, introduced: "This is Bishop Franz of the Plossen Church."

Filippov glanced at the symbol on the man in the dark priest's robe and read the Prosen text on the symbol: "Stas?"

Prosom People: "The abbreviation of the organization. In fact, the full name is the Prosom People of St. Andrew's Secular Branch. It's a bit long, so I abbreviated it.

"We all have this problem with naming things. Look at those half-track vehicles. Their full name looks scary, so everyone from researchers to soldiers calls them sdkfz."

Filippov: "You...were officers of Plosson?"

"Yes, but I accept the truth of St. Andrew. To be honest, we strongly suggested arming us and letting us join the battle to liberate our own capital, but your marshal said that if we shoot at our compatriots, it will be difficult to gain their trust in the future, so he refused to use us."

The bishop sounded regretful.

"We could have killed these criminals who delayed Proson ourselves!"

Filippov: "You seem a bit of a convert."

Bishop: "Really? Maybe it seems so, but it's because I am so sincere about the truth of St. Andrew."

Filippov was about to speak when he heard someone shout behind him, "Dad!"

He turned around and saw the little girl who had just taken her bread and pickles rushing towards a black-robed priest while shouting.

The priest looked shocked: "Marianne! Why are you here? Where is your mother?"

Little girl: "My mother hid me in the carriage coming here, and then I was captured by the conscripts! It was Grandma Flora who took me in! I had been hungry for several days, and the kind officer over there gave me bread!"

The priest tried hard to hold back his tears and took out some chocolate from his pocket: "Here, have some chocolate."

"Dad, have you committed treason?" the girl asked.

Priest: "No, I came back to save my lost motherland."

The girl ate the chocolate and asked, "Will you save your mother?"

The priest was silent.

Filippov said: "As long as your mother lays down her weapons, we will not shoot at women and children. At least not the Marshal's Guards."

The surrounding guards soldiers could not understand Proson's language and looked confused.

The priest carefully picked up the girl, as if he was picking up the whole world.

Just then the flash went off.

When the spotlight exploded, the girl was frightened and pulled her father's collar hard.

Robert Capa said in Ansari: "Don't be afraid, child. When you grow up, you will know the value of this picture."

Reporter Mike stood beside his partner and smiled, "I've already thought of a name for this photo, 'Rising from the Ruins', which has the same name as the song that His Excellency the Marshal personally composed for the Proson Church!"

Priest Stas in front of Filippov obviously also understood Ansa language, and said in surprise: "You already know the name of the song? It has not been officially released yet. We plan to perform it for the first time after occupying the center of Prothenia!"

Reporter Mike smiled and said, "I am an old friend of the Marshal. I was there when the Marshal composed this song."

Filippov: "Isn't it Vasily who composed the music based on the melody the marshal hummed?"

"Yes."

At this moment, the messenger ran out of the regimental headquarters building and shouted to Filippov: "The lookout saw smoke! Coming from the southwest!"

Filippov said in a serious tone, "Got it. Reporter Mike, and everyone in the church, please retreat. This is going to become a battlefield!"

The Bishop of Stas shook his head: "No, this is our country, we will fight with you. We are also well-trained soldiers, and we also have weapons to deal with the lurking Imperial Household Ministry spies and the Asgard Knights. We will fight with you."

Reporter Mike: "We have never been afraid of the front line, and my partner's famous saying is -"

Robert: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough!”

Filippov sighed: "Okay, then take care of yourselves and don't die."

After saying that, he jumped into the jeep that was coming and headed for the edge of the village.

----

Because the first battalion was responsible for occupying the village, the second battalion is now defending the village while the first battalion is resting in the village.

Filippov went straight into the Second Battalion's headquarters and asked the Second Battalion Commander: "What is the size of the enemy?" The Second Battalion Commander said: "Looking at the smoke and dust, they are only at the level of an armored battalion, which is terribly small. A volley of divine arrows may wipe them all out."

Filippov came to the gunner's telescope and patted the observer on the shoulder.

The observer immediately gave up his position.

Filippov observed for a few seconds and was shocked: "Indeed, the front of this impact is too narrow. But the piece of smoke in the middle is too big, which is a bit strange. Has the hidden sentry returned?"

Second Battalion Commander: “Not yet.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of a BMW motorcycle was heard outside. Since entering the territory of Plossen, this motorcycle has become the favorite of the scouts.

Not long after the sound of the motorcycle engine disappeared, a scout wearing a Proson-style leather jacket came in: "Report! We have slipped back from under the enemy's nose!"

Filippov: "Be careful. Someone has been beaten by his own people for wearing this leather jacket."

"Yes."

Filippov: "What's with that big cloud of dust among the enemies?"

The scout rubbed his nose. "We saw a huge tank!"

Filippov: "It's big again? Can you report some useful information?"

Scout: "But it's really big! And the protection is very strong. The skirt almost covers the tracks. You can't see the road wheels unless you look carefully! And there are two barrels on the gun, one thick and one thin!"

Filippov took a deep breath and said, "Two gun barrels?"

Scout: "Yes! And the main gun is very thick. I don't think any of our armored vehicles can withstand a single shot from it."

Filippov thought for a moment and picked up the phone: "Connect the artillery company!"

Soon, the voice of the commander of the SU76 company accompanying their regiment came from the receiver: "What's the matter? Are we finally going to fire horizontally? Watch out, make sure to destroy their guide wheels with the first shot, and directly destroy their mobility!"

Filippov: "No, I want you to prepare the smoke bombs. Load them when I tell you to. We might be going to catch a big one."

"Are you asking us to do these sissy things again?" The company commander was unhappy. "Although we are classified as self-propelled artillery, we are all good at fighting tanks! There are two golden kill rings on my car! The staff at the back have already told me that after the war, this car will belong to their museum!"

Filippov: "I obey your orders, comrade commander."

"All right. Each gun has a smoke bomb ready."

After hanging up the phone, Filippov turned to the second battalion commander and said, "Get the jeeps and anti-tank mines ready, and have your best grenadiers get ready. We'll race against that big guy later, using smoke bombs to cover our approach, and blow up their tracks!"

The scout was excited when he heard this: "I've observed that tank up close. Let me find someone who's not afraid of death, and we can take it down!"

Second Battalion Commander: "Don't be so cocky, maybe we can kill him with a single volley of divine arrows."

Filippov continued to ask: "Are the enemy accompanied by infantry?"

Scout: "Yes, we saw twenty-four half-tracks."

Filippov: “That’s a bit much…”

He picked up the receiver again: "Division headquarters. Hello, this is Filippov, the enemy is counterattacking us! We need short-term artillery support. Yes, yes! Observer, coordinates!"

The observer immediately reported a series of coordinates.

After repeating the coordinates, Filippov continued, "Let's fight now. The enemy may have a grenadier regiment. Yes, good."

After hanging up the phone, Filippov said to the people around him: "The shelling will arrive in three minutes. Let the soldiers go into the bunkers. There may be shells that miss the target."

Second Battalion Commander: "We have entered the position. Anyway, the enemy's current attack does not even have a combination of infantry and artillery. How did Proson become like this?"

Filippov shrugged and went to the gun scope again to observe the smoke in the distance.

This time he saw enemy tanks.

"It's really big," he exclaimed, "and ugly. Our Rokossov I is much better looking than it."

Scout: "Not only is this thing ugly, it's also very noisy. When we were running away, the enemy didn't hear us in the first place."

Filippov hummed and continued to stare at the huge monster.

At this time, the second battalion commander said: "Commander, the priest is running up!"

"What?" Filippov looked up.

The second battalion commander pointed to the window on the other side.

Filippov ran over and looked down, and saw a propaganda vehicle equipped with a loudspeaker driving out of the village, operated by Stas members wearing black clerical robes.

Filippov: “What are you doing?”

The priest leading the team looked up: "The bishop said we can try to convince them to surrender!"

Filippov: "It's useless. We have already called for an artillery attack. Soon they will suffer heavy casualties--"

Before he finished speaking, a whistling sound was heard in the sky, obviously the heavy artillery arrived from the rear.

Filippov turned his head and saw the shells falling into the enemy's attack formation.

Too far away all you could see was the huge dust cloud caused by the exploding shells.

Filippov: “Look!”

The priest shook his head, picked up the microphone stubbornly, and shouted: "(Plossen language) Plossen warriors! You have been deceived by the bastard sitting on the throne!"

Filippov shook his head and returned to the artillery scope to observe the effect of the shelling.

The shells landed accurately in the middle of the enemy group. Because there was no direct hit, the damage to the armored unit seemed limited, but it was certain that the accompanying infantry suffered greatly.

The half-track vehicle also stopped, and the infantry on it hurriedly got off and dispersed.

But the enemy's armored units are still advancing.

Filippov: "Very good, the enemy is out of touch with the infantry. Tell the Arrow Troops to destroy the accompanying small tanks first."

Scout: "It's not a mini tank, it's a Jagdpanzer."

Filippov: "Really? I thought it was number one and number two... Let the arrows kill the accompanying hunters. Then we will attack the smoke."

Before he finished speaking, the first wave of divine arrows was launched.

Apparently Filippov's order had not yet been conveyed, but the arrows were still flying towards the group of hunters.

The accompanying hunters were all killed in a short while.

Filippov picked up the phone: "Connect the SU76 company! Fire your smoke bombs! We are coming!"

In a few seconds, the huge heavy tank was surrounded by smoke.

Filippov: "Let's go! Let's paralyze the enemy and take the Venus first! We don't have many chances to take the Venus now! Let's work hard!"

A few dozen seconds later, a large number of Willys jeeps and captured BMW motorcycles rushed out of the village, running happily across the fields towards the enemy surrounded by smoke.

(End of this chapter)