Arc of Gunfire

While "Holy War" was fermenting, Wang Zhongzheng and 450 officers who were about to receive awards lined up on the review ground at the Summer Palace.

Wang Zhong was not surprised to find that most of the people were familiar faces from last night's dinner party.

When these people saw Wang Zhong, they all came up to shake hands after saluting.

————

General Tukhachev stood on the viewing platform and watched this scene.

His adjutant whispered in his ear: "It has been confirmed that Major General Rokossov placed an order for 100 spectator tanks to the United Machinery Factory in the name of the royal family. Valentin was furious and said that the production of such 'toys' The car's a mockery of his perfect design."

Before General Tukhachev could speak, Marshal Semyon said: "There are indeed many feedbacks from the front line, and they are very opposed to the elimination of the commander. Some people would rather command a T28 tank with a commander than drive a T34. There are also radios, Everyone on the front line criticized the design for not installing a radio, and they also thought of many crude ways to deal with it, including running telephone lines between the tanks. "

"But His Majesty the Tsar likes Valentin's design very much." Tukhachev said.

Marshal Semyon was silent, but after a moment he spoke again: "The battlefield will not change because of personal preferences. Neither can His Majesty the Tsar. It just so happens that His Majesty the Tsar cannot take care of things right now, so we take advantage of it..."

At this time, General Turgenev interjected: "No, no, production has dropped sharply due to the relocation of the factory. If we change the design, the production of tanks will plummet. We can only produce defective products first, and then gradually expand the battlefield." The scale of production of products that are well received.

"This can also appease Valentin, can't it?"

Tukhachev and Marshal Semyon were silent.

At this time, Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess appeared in a corner of the parade ground with a group of female officers and walked straight to the viewing platform.

Tukhachev looked at the Crown Princess, and then followed the Crown Princess's gaze to Major General Rokossov.

"He's almost like a prince." Tukhachev muttered. "I heard that the song he wrote was a big hit at the audition yesterday? This posture is like the reincarnation of St. Andrew."

Marshal Semyon: "This is a good thing for Ant, as it can unite the officers."

Tukhachev was silent.

At this time, the Crown Princess walked up to the viewing platform and greeted Tukhachev and others: "Hello, generals and marshals."

"Hello, Your Highness the Crown Princess." Tukhachev saluted the Crown Princess like everyone else.

Crown Princess: "In today's process, I am only responsible for awarding the Gold Star Medal, right?"

"There is also the flag of the unit that has been newly awarded the title of Guards. You don't have to carry the flag yourself. You just need to take it from the flag bearer and hand it to the commander of the unit. The commanders will hand the flag to the sergeants on standby behind them. In fact, it just goes through a process, and the flags and equipment will be sent to the troops by the transportation team later," Turgenev explained dutifully.

Crown Princess: "What about the other honors? So many people won't all be awarded the title of Guards and the Medal of Gold Star, right? With so many honors, I would doubt that we actually won the battle, and the Proscenians are almost finished."

"No," Marshal Xie Miao shook his head, "There are indeed many gold stars, but not many Guards. The title of main Guards requires the troops to withdraw in an organized manner. Many troops who have achieved the title of Guards have not withdrawn."

The expression of the Crown Princess was a little sad: "That's it. I understand. What about the others?"

"Some other medals will be awarded by us. Your Highness, the Crown Princess, you will be in charge of the Guards and the Venus." Turgenev warned.

The Crown Princess nodded: "Okay! Without further ado, let's begin the ceremony."

Suddenly, she stopped and looked doubtfully at the Guards flag team that had just entered the field.

Among the white Guards flags, there was a red Guards flag mixed in.

Tukhachev immediately turned to the adjutant and asked: "What's going on? Why is there a red flag?"

Adjutant: "There was none originally. The flag assigned to Rokossov's department is the normal Guards flag, with a message from Princess Olga on it.

"But the church interfered with our decision. Yesterday's investiture ceremony was postponed because of this. The red flag was requested by the church, and the church also requested that a gyrfalcon image be added to the flag."

Olga tilted her head slightly: "Gyrfalcon? What is that?"

No one present could answer the Crown Princess's question.

Tukhachev's adjutant seemed to finally have a chance to show off in front of the Crown Princess and said: "It is a raptor from Khazalia, which usually inhabits the grasslands."

Olga said "Hey", without even looking at the adjutant, she turned back to look at General Rokossov: "The eagle of the steppe, it suits him quite well."

Tukhachev sighed: "We have no precedent of using a red flag. The church wants to destroy our tradition."

"I've heard about this." Crown Princess Olga smiled and said, "The red symbolizes the blood of the sacrificed warriors, and is the blood-stained style of the warriors. This saying has been widely spread, don't you know? ?”

Tukhachev turned away.

Princess Olga: "Let's start the ceremony quickly!"

————

Before the ceremony even started, Wang Zhong saw the red Guards flag. That should be the flag awarded to his 151st Provisional Infantry Division. I just don't know what the number has been changed to.

There won't be another 30 Guards divisions ahead, right?

But to be honest, among the white and blue flags, a red flag is really conspicuous. Regardless of the number, this red flag has made Wang Zhong the most beautiful cub.

The ceremony officially began, and the military band began to play the national anthem of the Ant Empire.

Wang Zhong's brows twisted into knots when he heard the national anthem.

He originally thought the Tsar was the one and the national anthem should be God Save the Tsar. A bit retro is the "March of the Preobrazhensky Ensemble".

If it were the era of the Tsarina's rule, it would be "Thunder of Victory". After all, the lyrics include "Glory belongs to you, mother Catherine the Great."

As a result, now, Wang Zhong almost couldn't hold his breath when he heard the melody.

This song was so familiar to Wang Zhong that he subconsciously turned his head to confirm that the national flag was indeed Ant's blue St. Andrew's cross with a double-headed eagle on a white background.

At this time, the people around him began to sing, and Wang Zhong was relieved.

The word is wrong, it is a word in praise of the Tsar.

Wang Zhong hummed along with the people next to him, and finally finished the song.

Immediately afterwards, the Crown Princess stood at the front of the auditorium and began to recite the speech. The main idea was to thank everyone for their hard work. Generally speaking, she still did not leave the monarch's glory.

After the speech, General Turgenev, whom he had met several times, came forward: "Next, let's start awarding awards. First, the Guards flags will be awarded. This time, a total of 11 troops have won the title of Guards."

Wang Zhongxiang fought 11 guards in more than a month, and these were still retreating. The intensity of the battle was indeed great.

Turgenev read out the name of the first unit: "The 151st Provisional Infantry Division. The division faced a superior force several times its own in Orachi, resisted tenaciously for three days, destroyed more than 200 enemy tanks, and successfully Completed the mission and broke out.

“Due to this heroic performance, the Military Command awarded the unit the title of the 1st ‘Red Flag’ Mechanized Infantry Division of the Guards!

"Please invite Major General Alexei Konstantinovich Rokosov, commander of the division, to come to the stage to accept the flag!"

Wang Zhong strode out of the queue, letting his body's muscle memory take him out of the standard military steps and onto the viewing stand.

The Crown Princess handed the red flag to Wang Zhong with a straight face.

Wang Zhong looked at the thing on the flag curiously and found that it was not a double-headed eagle, but an... eagle?

What's the meaning? What about the double-headed eagle? Cut off a head and stewed it?

Or do you think the double-headed eagle is not Roman enough? After all, it is the symbol of Byzantium, and the violet is not Roman enough. Simply using the original Roman eagle emblem is Roman enough.

But is there Rome in this world?

When Wang Zhong was puzzled, Olga said softly: "Go down quickly, eagle of the grassland."

This means that others are waiting to take the flag. Wang Zhong turned around and saw General Turgenev waiting. The general couldn't read the next person unless he got there.

So Wang Zhong handed the flag to the attendant on standby and strode off the viewing platform.

The Guards flags were distributed quickly, and the next step was to award the Gold Star medals.

Wang Zhong went to the viewing platform with other gold star recipients, there seemed to be about a hundred of them.

Olga came to Wang Zhong again - this time starting with him, after all, he was the "first achievement" designated by the emperor.

When giving Wang Zhong the medal, Olga hummed "Katyusha" softly.

Good guy, the eagle of the prairie is here!

There is a sentence in the lyrics of Katyusha, "She is singing about the eagle of the grassland", and then the next sentence of this sentence is "She is singing about the beloved".

Can you stop playing so straight?

But now is the time when women play straight and men play pull-off. Let me guard against it.

Wang Zhong originally wanted to show off his world championship-level pulling skills, but Olga went to hand out the prize to the next one.

Wang Zhong, there was no time to pull!

Forget it, maybe I’m overthinking it? Maybe people suddenly want to hum Katyusha.

Wang Zhong successfully carried out a wave of self-pull.

After that, the ceremony continued for another half hour. Wang Zhong's legs were numb from standing. Fortunately, he didn't need to carry the flag, as it would be sent directly to Shostka.

When everything was over, air raid sirens suddenly sounded all around.

Wang Zhong had made an appointment with the Prosen people, and they happened to come to the capital for bombing at the end of the ceremony.

Under the command of the palace staff, Wang Zhong followed other officers and quickly got into the air-raid shelter. As soon as he entered, news came and the alarm was lifted.

It seems that the MiG-3 troops defending the capital blocked the enemy bombers on the outskirts.

Wang Zhong breathed a long sigh of relief. The investiture ceremony was over. There was one last thing left for him in the capital: to attend the state funeral of his father and his good brother and speak at it.

Wang Zhong started to have a headache when he mentioned this. Whose speech should he copy?

I tried writing it myself last time, but the effect was really not good, so I still have to copy it myself.

The good news is that the state funeral is on the 18th and today is only the 13th. I still have five days to worry about it.