Arc of Gunfire

When Buscephalas saw Wang Zhong coming, he immediately broke away from the soldiers holding the horse and came straight to Wang Zhong, opening his mouth to bite his hair.

But the horse suddenly stopped, sniffed in front of Wang Zhong, and then began to nudge his shoulder with its nose.

Wang Zhong patted the horse's neck: "Don't be like this, you make me very uncomfortable."

Ma blew her nose hard.

————

Five minutes later, Wang Zhong set off with a dozen riders.

Shostka looks like a city across the Duwa River on the city map. In fact, when you look at it, the buildings on the west bank are concentrated near the railway bridge, and there are basically only a row of houses on the west side of the riverside street. To the west are the fields.

In addition to the train tracks, the railway bridge only has a one-person-wide path on the edge, which is impossible to walk on by horse.

To repair the damaged railway bridge, engineering ships were dispatched from the docks on the east bank for emergency repairs.

The pier on the east bank is quite large, and there is a Navy river gunboat parked in the berth.

There was a regiment of naval infantry stationed at the dock. The black military uniforms and sea soul shirts made Wang Zhong feel at ease inexplicably.

He stopped in front of the entrance to the pier and asked the naval infantry lieutenant guarding the door: "Where do you take command?"

The lieutenant saluted, and then pointed to the four-story building on the shore of the pier: "General, that is the headquarters of the river fleet. The entire river fleet of the Duwa River is under command there, and we are also commanded there."

Wang Zhong said "Oh" and turned around to ask Popov: "Have you established a good relationship with the River Fleet?"

Popov: "I wrote a letter to the commander of the River Fleet, saying that General Rokossov's 151st Division is about to move here, and the general will arrive today."

"A letter?" Wang Zhong raised his eyebrows.

"Yes, this is a safer approach. The navy and naval infantry are generally under the command of the front army headquarters. It is better for us as a division to pay attention to some etiquette."

Wang Zhong nodded, dismounted, and tied the reins to the hitching post at the door.

After he finished, he turned to the doorman and said, "I want to go in and visit the Commander of the Navy's River Fleet. Can you let me in?"

"Your papers," said the lieutenant guarding the door.

Wang Zhong took out his ID and handed it over.

"Major General Alexey Konstantinovich Rokosov...is that Major General Rokossov?"

Wang Zhong: "Yes."

The lieutenant immediately returned the certificate to Wang Zhong, and then shouted: "Everyone has it, salute!"

The two naval infantrymen standing guard took off the rifles they were carrying with a click and switched to a gun salute.

The lieutenant saluted and said solemnly: "Salute to you, general."

Wang Zhong saluted back: "Does the Navy also know about my deeds?"

"Of course, General. Please come in."

Wang Zhong nodded and walked into the dock.

As he walked to the headquarters, he saw two sailors on the gunboat scrubbing the deck, and another sailor was applying new paint to the gunboat.

The weaponry of this inland river gunboat reminded Wang Zhong of the famous "Yellow Water Battleship". However, this gunboat was not equipped with the twin 57mm guns on the Huangshui Battleship. Instead, it was equipped with an 85mm naval gun on the front deck. , the rear deck is equipped with two twin 37mm machine guns.

Looking at this firepower configuration, it seems that it is quite good to use against Prosen tanks?

It's a pity that there is only one.

If we go to the capital...how many more ships will we bring?

If there are larger inland river gunboats, they can be built a little bigger, but I don't know how big the Duwa River's navigation capacity can support the ship.

Wang Zhong considered this and walked all the way to the entrance of the headquarters. He saw a naval colonel coming out of the headquarters with several senior officers.

Wang Zhong thought they were going to do something and wanted to get out of the way, but they came directly to him and saluted directly.

"I am Kozelsky, Commander of the River Fleet. Major General Rokossov, Mengang called to say that you are here. We thought you would go to the headquarters first, and we are preparing to pay a visit at the right time."

Wang Zhong saluted back: "I'm exploring the terrain. After all, I was asked to build fortifications here."

"We have been notified that your division will be fortified here and we are asked to cooperate. Let me show you the defense we have constructed."

"That's great." Wang Zhong smiled.

Kozelski made a gesture of invitation, and then led the way, introducing as he walked: "It is said to be an inland fleet, but in fact there is only one ship, as you have seen. The shipping capacity of the Duva River is not strong, so this The small boat is still stranded from time to time during the dry season.

"Except for this ship, the main force of our headquarters is a naval infantry regiment. One battalion is stationed in the port area, and the other two battalions are placed at the ferry in front. We built concrete fortifications at the ferry and relocated all the fellow villagers on the other side. Come here, the buildings will be bulldozed to ensure a good shooting range.”

When Kozelski introduced it, Wang Zhong had already seen the bulldozed buildings on the other side, and his entire field of vision was greatly broadened.

Wang Zhong turned back and asked Popov: "Are there any fellow villagers on the other side? Move as many as possible over here, and then bulldoze the buildings to ensure shooting."

Popov: "I'll go and ask. I should be able to bulldoze most of the buildings."

"Most?" Wang Zhong frowned.

Popov: "Some people just don't like to leave their nest, and they are quite stubborn."

Wang Zhong: "Even if the Prossen soldiers invade the territory?"

"Yes. But I will let the priest do the work. You don't have to worry too much. What if everything goes smoothly?"

Wang Zhong nodded.

Seeing that Wang Zhong and Popov had finished speaking, Kozelski joined the conversation: "In addition to letting the naval infantry build positions, we also asked our dredging engineering department to deepen the entire river channel so that the enemy's tanks would not be able to wade through the water. come over.

"We have received many reports that the enemy used a new device to allow tanks to cross the river bottom when they first started attacking. This will now be eliminated."

The method of crossing the river mentioned by Kozelski was quite common in later generations, because modern tanks are equipped with three-defense systems, which prevent poison gas and radioactive fallout from nuclear explosions from entering the tank by maintaining positive pressure in the tank.

One of the "benefits" brought by this three-proof system is that after the tank enters the water after installing a breather pipe, as long as the depth does not exceed the limit, it can avoid water intrusion and drive from the bottom of the river to the other bank.

Tanks of this era did not have such advanced equipment for maintaining positive pressure. To submerge, all possible places where water could enter must be blocked.

This is how the Three Virtues of the Earth crossed the Bug River.

Apparently Prosin in this time and space also adopted the same method to cross the river on the border between Prosin and Ant.

Kozelski: "We've basically done everything we can think of, is there anything else you would like to instruct?"

Wang Zhong: "I... Is it appropriate for an army to instruct the navy?"

Shouldn't there be an insurmountable barrier between the navy and the army?

"Our orders are to help you defend Shostka," Kozelski said.

Wang Zhong: "Well, we are happy to have a regiment of naval infantry join us."

"There's also a gunboat," Kozelski reminded.

"Oh, yes, there's also a gunboat."

At this time, the air defense siren sounded.

The gunboat members who had just been wiping the paint on the deck immediately took action, entering the two 37mm machine gun emplacements on the rear deck, swinging the machine guns up and pointing them at the sky.

Wang Zhong turned to Popov and said: "Replenish the Divine Arrow troops as soon as possible and join the air defense operations."

As soon as he finished speaking, eight Lago Sans flew over the city and flew towards the west.

Kozelski exclaimed: "The destroyer fleet was dispatched so quickly today."

Wang Zhongze frowned: "Are all the destroyer groups here equipped with LaG-3? Are there no MiG-3 or Yak-3?"

Kozelski asked doubtfully: "I know the MiG-3. Didn't Yakov just design the Yaak-1?"

"Uh..." Wang Zhong was embarrassed, "I said string, Lager 3, MiG 3, and then I casually said Jacques 3. In fact, I meant Jacques 1, I meant Jacques 1, How could Jacques 3 come out so easily?”

Kozelski simply accepted Wang Zhong's argument: "Yeah, I sometimes call him Il 2 Il 3 or something."

Wang Zhong said and stretched out his hand: "Then I already know the situation of the river fleet and naval infantry. I have to inspect other places, so I will leave first."

Kozelski held Wang Zhong's hand: "Goodbye, General Rokossov."

Wang Zhong was about to leave when he suddenly remembered something and asked: "Apart from this ferry in the city, are there any other ferry crossings on the Duwa River?"

Kozelski immediately replied: "Thirty kilometers downstream, there is a ferry, but it has left your defense area. There should be other troops stationed at that ferry, right?"

Wang Zhong: "What about the iron bridge? It can't be just this bridge, right?"

"There are three bridges, all quite far away from here. The Prosin people have to make a big circle to cross the river there." Kozelski gestured, "I mean, if the enemy's target is St. Yekaterinburg, if."

He stopped and confirmed: "The enemy's next step is to attack the capital, right? I mean, after eating Agsukov's troops."

Even the Navy already knows about Agsukov's condition.

Wang Zhong nodded: "Yes. The headquarters estimates that it will be mid-September, and we still have a month to build defenses."

Kozelski nodded: "Okay, I will let the naval infantry continue to strengthen the fortifications. Fortunately, there are cement factories in the city, and we can build more permanent cement bunkers."

Wang Zhong was shocked: "Is there a cement factory in this city?"

Popov: "Yes, I didn't find out until I arrived. Currently, the church is organizing workers to work overtime to produce cement, and it also sends a special transportation team to transport raw materials from the surrounding areas."

Wang Zhong: "This is great. We can finally build concrete bunkers."

In Aolaqi, the enemy's heavy artillery left a deep impression on Wang Zhong. If it were not for squeezing out cement and building those strong support points, Aolaqi would probably not be able to hold on.

Wang Zhong muttered and clapped his palms with his riding crop: "Cement, good, cement is good."

Popov: "I want to remind you that we only came here with people, and basically lost all the technical equipment. Only cement is not enough."

Wang Zhong: "Let Pavlov do it."

Popov: "I believe Pavlov will do his best. However, you can also work hard when we go to the capital tomorrow."

At this time, Colonel Kozelski, who had already said goodbye, turned back: "General, I heard that Your Highness the Princess is your lover?"

Wang Zhong was shocked, is there such a thing?

No, didn't Lyudmila say that the princess is the flower of the high mountains, did I hit a wall with her?

It must be a rumor!

Wang Zhong: "No, Her Highness the Princess and I are just acquaintances."