Arc of Gunfire

On September 20, 1914, at 0330 hours, Wang Zhong arrived at the division headquarters bunker early.

Pavlov was holding a large steel cup. When he saw Wang Zhong coming in, he asked: "Want tea? Today is probably going to be a long day."

Wang Zhong: "No, forget about your tea. Nelly, make me some tea."

Popov: "I want it too!"

Nelly left immediately.

Wang Zhong picked up the telescope and went to the observation window of the bunker to look outside. The view from this observation window is much worse than the window in the division map room, but Wang Zhong has a plug-in, and he can get a clear view by cutting the viewing angle.

In the misty morning light, the west bank was silent.

Even in Wang Zhong's plug-in perspective, there are no highlighted units.

Wang Zhong: "Is the enemy not conducting reconnaissance at all?"

Pavlov replied: "There was an enemy reconnaissance team after you went to bed yesterday. Didn't you hear the sound of machine gun fire?"

Wang Zhong shook his head, and then realized a question: "Are you awake?"

Pavlov: "I slept for a while, about two hours. Don't worry, it won't affect my performance of my duties. I am the chief of staff. Most of my work is mechanical. Sometimes it is enough to leave it to the staff. ”

Wang Zhong couldn't help but switch back to the naked eye perspective and looked at Pavlov's dark circles: "It's really worrying that you're like this."

At this time Nellie came in with a large serving plate, which contained not only teapots and cups, but also refreshments. She put the things on the map table.

Wang Zhong: "Well, don't focus on the specific city defense map. Focus on that. We won't be able to use the overall battle line map today."

Nellie moved the big plate and poured a full cup of hot tea for Wang Zhong.

Popov sent his teapot over: "A little more."

Nellie poured all the tea in the teapot directly to him, and then left with the empty teapot.

Vasily: "Okay, the rest of us don't have to drink."

Wang Zhong smiled and continued to observe the west bank.

Suddenly, he saw enemy reconnaissance troops appearing on the west bank from an overhead perspective.

Wang Zhong: "Here we come!"

Vasily rushed to the side and used the artillery scope to observe: "Where is it? I didn't see it."

Wang Zhong: "Call, answer the anti-tank battalion."

Pavlov immediately picked up the receiver and shouted "anti-tank battalion" and then handed the receiver to Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong took it over and happened to hear the voice from the other side: "Anti-tank battalion, please speak."

"The enemy's reconnaissance force has appeared on the other side. I'll let the bridgehead fire flares, and you load grenades. Don't fire with towed artillery, let ZIS30 fire, and transfer after firing."

"Understood, ZIS30 fires, transfer after firing."

After Wang Zhong finished speaking, Pavlov had already connected the bridgehead with another phone: "Set up flares, be careful not to expose the position of the machine gun, and fire with individual weapons."

Ten seconds later, a flare was launched from the bridgehead, illuminating the crawling enemy scouts on the other side.

The ZIS30 deployed at the preset position No. 7 on the river bank opened fire immediately, and high-explosive bombs exploded on the flat land on the west bank.

Then the gunshots sounded like exploding beans, all of which were rifle shots.

Unfortunately, the lighting is too poor and the enemy is too far away, so the accuracy is limited.

The second round of high-explosive bombs came.

After the first wave was calibrated, this wave fell directly into the center of the enemy team, causing the enemy to flip over.

Then they began to retreat.

Popov also arrived at the observation port of the bunker and looked at the opposite side with a telescope: "Isn't it a bit late to conduct reconnaissance now? Could the enemy have entered a state of underestimating the enemy? Think about the performance of the prisoner yesterday. "

Wang Zhong: "Isn't this a good thing? An arrogant army will be defeated. Today we will let their corpses litter the fields."

Pavlov also joined the conversation: "I'm more worried about the bridgehead. If you ask me, just pull the people back, the bridge will explode."

Wang Zhong: "Then the enemies will be scattered on the river bank, and it will be difficult for us to concentrate on destroying them. Our purpose of leaving this bridge is to attract the enemy's attention and kill them as much as possible, and the bridgehead is the bait we set."

After speaking, Wang Zhong took a sip of tea, then went to get refreshments, only to find that the refreshments were cut cucumber strips.

Wang Zhong: "Where's the pickled cucumber?"

Vasily: "A few days ago, we opened them all and used the lids to make fake landmines. We discovered one thing. Real mines detonated when they were hit by enemy artillery. But the lids of pickled cucumber cans will not detonate. , we only need to bury it shallowly, and after the shelling, the soil above will be blown away, and the enemy's engineers will come to clear the mines. "

Wang Zhong looked at Vasily: "It's not simple, musician, this is a very good use."

When Vasily heard the title "musician", he looked like he had eaten a fly, but he continued: "We also hid some real mines, but we removed the fuses so that they would not be hit by artillery shells. The overpressure detonates.

"We set up a new fuse under the mine and used a magnet to maintain contact. Once the enemy picks up the mine and the magnet is no longer in contact with the ground, the current will be directed to the fuse and it will explode."

Wang Zhong: "Okay, musician!"

Vasily's expression changed from eating a fly to eating a cockroach, and he looked like he would find half a cockroach left after taking one bite.

Popov: "I don't know anything about electricity, but if the mine is deflected by the enemy's cannon, won't it explode?"

Vasily: "There is no loss in that. Ordinary pressure mines would have been detonated by overpressure."

Wang Zhong: "This experience can be generalized. You can write about it when the front line stabilizes."

Vasily: "Okay, as long as you don't let me write music, anything will do."

At this time the alarm clock on the table rang.

Nelly just entered the room with new tea and was startled by the alarm clock.

Pavlov pressed the alarm clock: "It's time, shall we start preparing for counterfire?"

Wang Zhong looked at the time: "Let's get started."

Pavlov picked up the phone receiver: "Catch the artillery regiment. Artillery regiment? Start shooting."

————

Lieutenant General Siegfried Giles had just arrived at his offensive command post when he heard a sound like rolling thunder coming from the distance.

He frowned and asked the adjutant: "What's going on?"

Adjutant: "I'm going to find out the situation."

After speaking, the adjutant, who was much older than Siegfried, turned and left.

In the Asgardian Knights, it is common for the chief officers to be younger than their subordinates. This reflects Emperor Reinhardt's will: to quickly replace the old officers with new, younger officers who are more familiar with the latest military technology. Croat officer corps.

Paradoxically, without these Juncker officers, the huge machine of the army will become unable to move.

This is true even for the Asgard Knights, who try their best to use officers from the civil class.

In Reinhardt's plan, the entire "replacement" plan would last ten years. By the time the replacement was completed, Prossen had already landed on the land of the United States and became the true world hegemon.

The adjutant came back soon: "The enemy is shelling our army assembly area and supply center."

Siegfried: "Is it the usual bombardment?"

"Probably not, the time is wrong. Moreover, the enemy did not conduct shelling last night, which caused many people not to sleep well."

Siegfried frowned: "Is the attack plan exposed?"

"It's possible that the soldiers have recently been talking about quickly wiping out Ant and going to Ye Castle to celebrate New Year's Day. Maybe the enemy captured prisoners and brought this information with them."

Siegfried: "Can our artillery suppress the enemy's artillery?"

"Yes, aerial reconnaissance has discovered enemy artillery positions."

Siegfried: "Then let's fire."

————

Pavlov looked up first: "This whistle is wrong."

Wang Zhong looked confused. From the moment he heard the roar of his own artillery shells streaking across the sky, he couldn't tell what was wrong.

However, there was an explosion from behind. Wang Zhong quickly zoomed out and saw that the enemy's shells were falling continuously.

It landed on a fake artillery position made of wood and camouflage netting.

Didn't you expect that the reason why I didn't shoot down your reconnaissance plane was to let you see the fake position! This is called a war that never tires of deceit, and you Prossens have to learn another lesson! That Sun Wu of Siris is taller than you. I don’t know where he is!

Pavlov had no plug-in, so he could only call everywhere to confirm where the enemy was bombing. After making a third phone call, he got the accurate information and reported to Wang Zhong: "The enemy is bombing our fake artillery position."

Wang Zhong: "Give the troops who bully the enemy extra food today. When it gets dark, let them drive out the new false positions as soon as possible."

Vasily muttered: "Fake positions, fake mines, Rokosov's war is full of fake stuff."

Wang Zhong: "This is called a war that never tires of deceit! The enemy is stronger than us, so we have to use our brains to fight them. Do you understand?"

Wang Zhong didn't realize until he finished speaking, Damn it, it wasn't me who made the fake landmines!

Before he could say anything to Vasily, the phone rang.

Pavlov picked up as usual: "Division headquarters. How many planes? Have you notified the Air Force? Okay, got it."

After putting down the phone, the bear-like chief of staff said to Wang Zhong: "Brother Peter heard a large number of three-engine transport planes in the sky, probably airborne troops. The Air Force has been notified to take off to intercept."

Wang Zhong: "Three-engine transport aircraft, Junkers 52?"

Vasily exclaimed: "General, you are really familiar with Prosen's weapons."

Wang Zhong thought that was not the case. Most military fans were attracted by German military uniforms at first, and then gradually turned into other types of military fans, so most military fans were quite familiar with Sandoku's equipment.

Wang Zhong: "I have long realized that we will have a battle with Proson, so I know their situation secretly!"

The other people in the headquarters looked at each other and in a tacit understanding did not say anything about the last thing.

Not even Nelly mentioned it.

At this time, the call came again. After receiving it, Pavlov reported to Wang Zhong: "The air defense observation post saw the enemy aircraft flying in this direction."

As he spoke, he drew a few lines on the map with a pencil.

Wang Zhong: "It looks like the airborne field is between Kalinka and Seneca. Call the Army Group and inform Kirinenko."

While Pavlov was on the phone, Popov said: "The internal guards of the Tribunal will take care of them. They are better equipped than ordinary infantry, and they are all warriors with firm beliefs. Now they also have tanks to support them."

Wang Zhong: "I believe Kirinenko. I had a long talk with him in Yebao. He is a trustworthy general."

Popov stared at Wang Zhong for a few seconds: "That's it."

At this time, the enemy's artillery preparations for the defense line officially began.

Heavy artillery shells caused a lot of dust to fall sparsely on the ceiling of the bunker, which had just been built more than 20 days ago.