artillery arc

Chapter 775 Rokossov's Advancement
Prime Minister's residence, United Kingdom.

Leonard was pacing back and forth in his office when his confidential secretary opened the door and came in:

"Emperor Plosson has just issued a telegram."

Leonard shuddered: "He won't surrender, will he?"

"No. He invited Rokossov to a fair one-on-one duel."

Leonard opened his mouth wide, staring at the confidential secretary, unable to speak for a long time.

Confidential Secretary: "He really said so in his telegram."

Leonard held his pipe in his mouth and walked around the room for a few times before asking the director of MI6 in the room, "Is Emperor Plosson crazy?"

Sir Cumming of the Sixth Division nodded. "It's possible. Considering some recent suspicious reports, Emperor Plossom may have been provoked."

Leonard: "Suspicious reports?"

"A number of troops in Plossen have mutinied, abandoned their positions, and headed to the place designated by the Ants to hand in their weapons."

Leonard's eyes widened. "How is that possible? Didn't we analyze before that the Prosen people were afraid of Ant's equal retaliation and would fight back desperately?"

"We did speculate this, but now more and more Proson troops are leaving their positions. As a result, the Ante troops are advancing much faster.

"Now only the armed forces of the Asgard Knights are still resisting stubbornly. It may be because these people have committed many evil deeds in Ant."

Leonard: "How could this happen? What happened?"

Sir Cumming: "It is said that the Antes released some captured Plossom officers, who formed a secular church, promoted secular doctrines in Plossom, and prepared to establish a secular country in Plossom."

"That's it?" Leonard looked incredulous. "Can Proson's troops mutiny just like that? No, this isn't mutiny, this is treason!"

Lord Cumming spread his hands.

Leonard: "This is not right! I don't believe that this alone can make the Proson troops betray the country. There must be something - by the way, could it be that the Ants have finally mastered the brainwashing technology? Brainwash all the Proson troops!"

General Mago couldn't help but say, "You are really crazy. How could there be such a thing? If there is, why would it be used on such a small scale?"

"But is there any other explanation?" Leonard asked.

Margo: "Then how do you explain that we all met Rokossov but were not brainwashed by him?"

"Don't answer a rhetorical question with a rhetorical question!"

"No, I am reminding you to pay attention to logic, Prime Minister. We, Ike, and President Luo have all met that marshal and had close contact with him, but we have not been brainwashed."

Leonard: "Maybe it requires some complicated conditions or a lot of processes!"

"Then they couldn't have brainwashed so many Plosson troops so quickly." General Mago continued, "Admit it, the Holy Book of Saint Andrew is so persuasive. Maybe there are also people in key positions in the United Kingdom who secretly pray with the Holy Book of Saint Andrew every night."

Leonard's eyes widened: "If this is true, it's terrible."

Mago: "Why should we be afraid? We are on the same side. If Rokossov can get Prosen to surrender as soon as possible, we will save many lives. They are all good guys!"

Leonard did not answer, but paced around the room with his pipe.

----

November 11, Halloween, Melania Territory Third Prisoner of War Distribution Center, 30 kilometers from the center of Prothenia.

Sergeant Hans looked at the priest in the blue hat, hesitated for a moment and asked, "Will my crime affect my family?"

"No. Tell the truth."

Sergeant Hans sighed and began to recall: "Attack - on the first day of the invasion, I killed a ..."

"Was he killed on the battlefield?" the man in the blue hat interrupted him.

"Yes, on the battlefield."

Blue Hat: "Then you don't have to explain. Tell me whether you killed civilians, shot or robbed prisoners."

Sergeant Hans: "Don't we have to explain on the battlefield?"

"Yes, this is Marshal Rokossov's instruction. You just need to confess your crimes outside the battlefield. Remember, if you don't confess now and someone reports you later, you'll be finished."

Sergeant Hans nodded, thought for a moment and began to speak: "It was near Roniezh, we occupied a farm, and we received an order to clear the farm because the logistics troops wanted to transform the farm into a military station.

"I ordered the entire family from the farm to be brought out and shot."

Blue Hat: "You tortured them to death?"

"Yes, I have been having nightmares for years, dreaming about-"

Blue Hat: "How many people are there in total? Are there any children?"

"I don't remember clearly. There were children, two children."

The man in the blue hat picked up the clipboard on the table and looked through the documents clipped on it: "You tortured and killed children. You killed an entire family in a non-combat situation... I'm sorry, Sergeant Hans, we have to shoot you."

The sergeant breathed a sigh of relief, but then asked nervously, "It won't affect my family, right?"

"No. In addition, if you can point out serious crimes committed by others, we can change it to life imprisonment. You will be in Siberia for labor reform forever, but you can communicate with your family."

Sergeant: "I want to identify. When I was about to execute him, Lieutenant Krausa showed up and took the women and boys to the second floor. We waited for a long time before he came down and ordered us to change the execution by shooting to pushing into the pit."

Blue Hat: "Klauser? His full name, the unit he belongs to."

The sergeant told him everything he remembered.

Blue Hat: "We will verify it. Before that, you must go to the labor camp. If we can't find this lieutenant, or he has died in the battle, you will be executed. We guarantee that your belongings and the verdict will be sent to your family, provided they are still alive."

After saying that, the man in the blue hat took the interrogation record from the clerk next to him, stamped it, and pushed it in front of Sergeant Hans: "Press your fingerprints!"

The sergeant pressed his fingerprints and was then grabbed by two burly men in blue hats and dragged out of the room.

"Next!"

A new prisoner was brought in, a corporal.

Blue Hat: "Name!"

Corporal: "Gruz Fernando, corporal. He joined the army a year before the invasion. He once shot Colonel Ant while escorting prisoners outside Agsukov."

Blue Hat: "Corporal Gruz, do you know the name of the colonel who was shot?"

Corporal: "I don't know. I didn't search him. He kept looking at us defiantly, so I untied him and said, 'If you don't accept it, go back to your side and we'll catch you again later.'

"I didn't expect that he would kick me in the crotch as soon as he got free, and also took away the gun of my subordinate. I pulled out my pistol and shot him in the back.

"I left the body where it was and left with my men."

Blue Hat: "What else? Did you kill anyone else?"

"No."

"You're lying!" The man in the blue hat slammed the table and stood up. "Gruz Fernando, someone has already reported you! You've committed many evil deeds! Tell the truth!"

Corporal: "I don't have any." The blue hat walked around the table between the two of them and punched the corporal in the face: "It seems that you need memory restoration! Maybe this can help you wake up!"

After a 30-minute memory recovery operation, the corporal still said firmly: "I didn't torture prisoners anymore, nor did I kill civilians! At most, I just took the gold jewelry from the empty house!"

The man in the blue hat glanced at his companions and returned to his position: "The beating just now was for the colonel you killed."

Corporal: "Who reported me?"

"No one is reporting you, they are just making sure you haven't committed any other crimes." The man in the blue hat picked up the writing board and flipped through it. "According to the sentencing rules issued by the church, you will be sent to a labor camp for 15 years of reform. You can communicate with your family members - if they are still alive, they can be given a reduced sentence or amnesty if they behave well."

The corporal breathed a sigh of relief.

After signing the interrogation record, he was pulled up by two sturdy men in blue hats.

Interrogator: "By the way, if you have anything else to confess, you can always go to the priest in Stas. And this is our parting gift to you."

As he spoke, the interrogator pulled out a copy of St. Andrew's Code from the table behind him and handed it to the corporal.

The corporal was led out of the room and stood outside in the sunlight.

Although it was almost December, Corporal Gruz still felt somewhat warm. One of the Plossen Uprising soldiers gathered nearby asked, "Gruz, how many years?"

Gruz looked in the direction of the voice and saw that it was his subordinate, Private Schweik, and replied, "Fifteen years!"

Schweik: "For a veteran who has been fighting since the beginning of the invasion, it's pretty short!"

Gruz: "What about you?"

"I'm free! After all, when I joined the war, the army was already in retreat, and there were veterans like you who taught us not to do bad things all day long.

"I now have two choices. One is to help them carry the goods until my hometown is liberated. They will give me food and shelter. The second is to attend Stas's preaching meeting and learn St. Andrew's theory! Which one do you think I should go to?"

Gruz: "Go to Stas. Maybe you can help take care of my family in the future. I mean, if they are still alive."

"I'm listening to you, corporal. I've been fighting for two years, and it's always right to listen to you!" Private Schweik saluted Gruz.

Around him, there should be young soldiers who were found not guilty, and all of them had smiles on their faces.

Gruz waved to Schweik and said, "Let's go. See you in fifteen years!"

"Don't lose heart. Maybe he'll be back in a few years!" Schweik shouted.

Gruz smiled and walked forward into the sunshine.

At this time, someone started singing the Stassian song in the Prosen language:

Rise from the ruins, look to the future and look forward.

Let us fight for you, the father of the united motherland, Prosom...

----

On December 12, the Asgard Knights' position was 2 kilometers away from the center of Prothenia.

Andreas: "Change the barrel!"

The assistant gunner immediately grabbed the barrel of the gun with his hands covered with asbestos gloves, pulled out the fixing device with force, and threw it into the sink next to him.

There was a layer of ice on the sink. The moment the hot gun barrel was thrown into the sink, it pierced through the ice and stirred up a large amount of water vapor.

The assistant gunner took the new barrel and inserted it into the machine gun.

Andreas grabbed the deputy shooter's arm and threw him to the ground.

The tank shells came and instantly blew the machine gun with a tripod into the sky.

Ant's grenade was so explosive that it directly took away Andreas' hearing and made his head buzz.

In a trance, Andreas saw the deputy shooter talking to him, but he couldn't hear what he was saying.

The only sound he could hear was the ringing in his ears.

Suddenly, he realized that he was bleeding from the nose.

While wiping the blood from his nose, the assistant shooter pointed at Andreas' ear.

Andreas touched it and caught another handful of blood.

At this time, his hearing partially recovered and he heard the deputy gunner yelling, "What should we do?"

Andreas grabbed the deputy shooter and ran along the communication trench.

The tank's machine gun fire continued to hit the wall of the communication trench behind them.

Deputy Shooter: "Where else can we run to? We are surrounded from all sides!"

Andreas: "We are not going anywhere. We are standing firm here. This is the duty we have been given! The Knights of Asgard will never retreat!"

As they were talking, the two men arrived at the reserve machine gun position.

Andreas checked the machine guns on the position and grinned: "If the enemy attacks again, we will use this guy to teach them a lesson!"

But the Ants fell silent.

At this time, a sound came from a distance, which sounded like the propaganda loudspeaker from Ant's side.

The loud speaker was playing Prosom nursery rhymes.

When the song ended, the announcer said: "This column is dedicated to playing nursery rhymes for children on the battlefield, hoping that they can also have a relatively normal childhood."

The deputy shooter suddenly became hysterical: "Isn't this just an obvious taunt?"

Andreas: "It's the enemy's power, they defeated us."

The deputy shooter was silent.

After a moment he asked, "Do we still have a chance of winning?"

Before Andreas could speak, Kosrek's voice came: "Of course we have a chance of winning in theory, but as you can see, we don't have much supplies. So this chance of winning should always remain in theory.

"I will fight here till the very end, but you all must follow Andreas."

Andreas looked at Kosrek and saw that he was holding an unlit cigarette.

So Andreas took out his matchbox, pulled out a well-lit match, struck it, and a bright flame appeared in his hand.

Koslake stared at the match and watched Andreas use the flame to light his cigarette.

"Where did you get the matches?" asked Koslake.

Andreas replied: "I don't know, maybe I got it in a dream."

Kosrek stared at Andreas for a long time before saying, "That's good. At least it can ensure more people survive. I'll leave them to you!"

Andreas nodded: "Leave it to me."

(End of this chapter)