Arc of Gunfire

On the morning of July 14, Wang Zhong was brushing his teeth when he heard the faint roar of cannons outside.

The artillery position was west of Trinca, closer to the enemy, so the cannon sound came from the opposite direction of the sun.

Wang Zhong stopped, feeling a little uncomfortable.

Nellie looked at Wang Zhong who had stopped in confusion, and looked blankly in the direction he was looking, only to see an ordinary corner of the wall.

Finally, Wang Zhong found the reason why he was not used to it: "Before, the artillery was always behind me, but now the artillery is closer to the front line than me."

Nellie: "What are those who ran to the front line yesterday to face the enemy's tank muzzle talking about?"

Wang Zhong looked surprised: "You know I faced the tank muzzle?"

"Everyone says so. As long as you do something brave on the battlefield, the whole army will know it immediately. When I was fetching water yesterday, a corporal from the reconnaissance battalion next to me seemed to be driving their battalion commander to a meeting. The corporal sat on the hood of the jeep and described your behavior vividly.

"He also said that it was your bravery that gave him the courage to drive a jeep in front of the enemy's tank muzzle."

Wang Zhong keenly noticed a detail: "That's not right. The reconnaissance battalion should not have seen the scene of me facing the muzzle to persuade surrender today. This corporal is bragging!"

Nellie: "Maybe he didn't see it with his own eyes, but you really faced the muzzle, didn't you? Think about the child in the lady's belly! They can't live without a father! ”

“Compared to whether there is a father or not,” Wang Zhong took out his toothbrush and said solemnly, “whether he is a slave or not is more important! I am fighting for my children not to be slaves.”

Nellie hesitated and put the cup of water into Wang Zhong’s hand: “Rinse your mouth! Rinse well! Rinse the tooth powder clean!”

There is no spare capacity to produce toothpaste now, especially the soft tubes for toothpaste. There is no time to produce them at all, so the tooth powder distributed on the front line, brushing with a toothbrush, feels like smearing lime on the teeth.

Wang Zhong rinsed his mouth carefully, and just as he put down the cup, Nellie handed him a towel. This towel was actually washed with warm water, and it smelled slightly fragrant.

Nellie saw Wang Zhong sniffing his nose at the towel, and said: “It’s the perfume given by our landlord Aunt Xie Na. She said that during the civil war, her husband always came back from the war and was always smelly, so she has been preparing perfume for so many years.”

Wang Zhong raised his eyebrows: “What about her husband? I remember that the landlord’s family has no spouse? ”

Nellie: “I don’t know, and I didn’t dare to ask.”

Wang Zhong shook his head: “Why should I not ask? We haven’t mobilized to the point where all the old men in remote villages join the active service. I have contributed to this.”

It’s true. Wang Zhong’s efforts have at least saved Ant from losing two million people. If we count the number of people who persuaded the generals of Ant not to attack rashly but to fight a defensive counterattack, the number may be even higher.

After washing up, the sound of artillery outside continued, which was to disguise the appearance of firepower preparation.

Wang Zhong glanced at Nellie: “You should catch up on your sleep. You fanned me all night last night, didn’t you?”

“You also chased away mosquitoes all night.” Nellie said.

Wang Zhong: “There are mosquitoes in such a northern place?”

Last summer, everyone was fighting fiercely, and Wang Zhong was still a grassroots commander. When it was time to sleep, he basically fell asleep and didn’t pay attention to the problem of mosquitoes at all.

So he was quite surprised.

After saying it, he realized that he had let the cat out of the bag. Could the people of Ant not know whether there were mosquitoes?

So he hurried to make up for it: “I mean, what are mosquitoes? "

Now that things have come to this, I can only pretend to be a dandy young master who is ignorant of the sufferings of the world. I don't know what mosquitoes are!

Nelly has an expression of caring for her silly son: "It is a flying insect that sucks human blood. "

Wang Zhong had a vague guess that the people around him had guessed that he was a time traveler. They behaved so normally, maybe someone had come here before.

For example, that Andrew looked like a fellow villager, but he might not be a fellow villager from Seris, so he did not "climb Mount Naroda" - he might also be a fellow villager from the Yuan Dynasty, and was scared by the divine wind.

If Saint Andrew is a fellow villager, then many things can be explained, such as the church's respect and trust in him.

For example, how could Saint Andrew, a person who lived more than 100 years ago, foresee that quantum mechanics might be able to explain various "miracles".

While Wang Zhong was distracted, Popov's bald head broke into his field of vision, and the angle just reflected the light of the morning sun, which dazzled Wang Zhong's eyes.

Popov said loudly: "Fortunately, I went to the 204th Heavy Howitzer Regiment last night. This regiment has a lot of new recruits, and the commander has no experience. He even planned to set off this morning! I scolded them and forced them to come overnight, so that they caught up with the shelling this morning! ”

Wang Zhong: "Thank you for your hard work. Actually, the 197 heavy howitzer regiment is enough. The 152 guns are enough to fool the Prosen people."

"That is definitely not as effective as the 204 regiment. This regiment has the B4 heavy gun, our old friend! 203 mm! It will definitely give the enemy a hard time!"

Wang Zhong raised his eyebrows: "So good? When I was organizing the mobile army, I didn't include them in the organization because the B4 howitzers were too heavy and inconvenient to maneuver."

Popov: "It's really too heavy. Five guns broke their tracks on the way here. Fortunately, part of the support brigade of the group army has arrived and sent tractors. After three hours, these guns can also join the bombardment."

Wang Zhong: "The bombardment was over after three hours."

Popov was a little surprised: "Such a short bombing time? What if the enemy doesn't wait for the attack and sees that we are small in number?"

Wang Zhong shook his head: "The Prosen people won't do this. They will let reconnaissance planes conduct reconnaissance to confirm the situation. Sometimes they are quite rigid in fighting.

"Even if the enemy attacks, we are ready to block it. The enemy does not understand the performance of our vortex, and they will act more cautiously when they are blocked."

As soon as Wang Zhong finished speaking, Vasily opened the door and came in, and immediately said: "And the enemy is afraid of the name Rokosov and will be extra cautious!"

"Don't talk nonsense. As a commander, we cannot exaggerate the enemy's fear of us. This is wrong." Wang Zhong glared at Vasily, then pointed at Popov and said, "The bishop happens to be here. Let the bishop educate you. !”

Popov cleared his throat: "Be lenient if you anticipate the enemy. Maybe the Plosans have a certain fear of Rokossov, but our commanders must not take this fear into consideration. They must treat the Plosers as I don’t know who our commander is thinking about.”

"That's right." Wang Zhong nodded repeatedly before reacting, "Isn't that right? Why do you think the enemy will be afraid of me? What should I be afraid of?"

————

"Did you hear that? There are 203 heavy artillery! According to the report of the headquarters, this is Rokossov's favorite heavy firepower!" Colonel Busey lay on the ground, assuming a standard anti-artillery posture, and said firmly .

As he was speaking, a 203mm heavy artillery piece happened to land nearby, and a large amount of dust was knocked down from the ceiling.

In order to prevent the dust from getting into his mouth, Colonel Busser closed his mouth and swallowed the second half of the words.

Heavy artillery shells landed one after another, and powder kept falling from the ceiling, so everyone in the room kept their mouths shut and endured the shaking in silence.

I don’t know how long it took, but the firepower preparations were over.

Colonel Busse got up and said: "Quick! Enter the defensive position set up yesterday! The enemy is about to attack. Maybe the infantry has already reached 50 meters in front of the position!"

Captain John Christopher also got up: "I'm going to join my tank company."

He came to the headquarters this morning to get the city defense map so that he could know how the tanks should support the defense line.

Colonel Busey: "Go! It all depends on your tanks. If it is true as the vanguard troops said yesterday, only your new tanks can face those assault guns!"

Captain John saluted, turned and dashed out of the headquarters.

Colonel Busey glanced at the adjutant and said: "If I die for my country, you must break out alive and give my letter to my wife."

The adjutant's eyes were filled with tears: "Yes, I will definitely do it, Colonel."

Suddenly, there was loud gunfire in the west of the city.

The adjutant scolded: "Damn Rokosov, he is really cunning, he actually attacked from the west of the city! It's a pity that our defensive position last night was omnidirectional!"

Colonel Busey frowned: "West of the city..."

Suddenly, he pressed the chief of staff's shoulder: "Will the follow-up troops of Said Division be coming up today?"

"Yes." The chief of staff of the battle group looked at the time. "I'll go, it's already this time! The shelling prevented us from noticing the passage of time."

As he spoke, he strode to the phone and picked up the receiver: "Hey! Pick up the defense forces in the west of the city! The phone is disconnected? Why don't you connect it quickly!"

He dropped the phone, ran to the radio, and put his hand on the radio operator's shoulder: "Call the western troops and ask them to confirm whether the incoming enemy is an enemy! Confirm whether the incoming enemy is an enemy! It would be terrible if a friendly force is hit by mistake!"

Radio operator: "Use plain code?"

"Just use the clear code! What time has it been? The key is to stop accidental attacks as soon as possible!"

————

An hour later, Major General Witte, the commander of the Said Division, entered the headquarters of the Busse Battle Group in Yeisk with a disgraced look. He said to Colonel Busse: "Okay, my division headquarters was almost wiped out by you, Colonel." gentlemen!"

Colonel Busey: "The troops have just been bombarded by enemy heavy artillery and are quite nervous."

Major General Witte: "I just heard that you were bombarded by heavy artillery, so I rushed forward quickly. When my division headquarters arrived, I could at least stabilize the morale of the troops! But you almost killed me!"

"My command vehicle was wiped out by your one shot, and the division chief of staff and the vehicle went up to the sky together! Fortunately, I was sitting in the tank at the division headquarters, otherwise I would have to go on the road with the chief of staff!

"Can't you recognize the iron cross on the command car?"

Colonel Busey dared not speak.

But Captain John of the heavy tank company said: "It is normal for the division column to be unable to see clearly due to such huge smoke and dust."

Major General Witte turned to John: "Huh, commander of the new tank company, the emperor has high hopes for you and your tank company, but you were beaten up by Ant?"

John: "It was the enemy air force that blew up the tracks of one of our tank platoons. It was normal for the tanks to be unable to move and lose the assault gun fire.

"We still have two platoons of eight tanks intact, and we can still fight the enemy's assault guns. I am confident.

"There is no invincible armored vehicle in this world. Our Panzer 6 tank is like this, and the enemy's new assault gun must be the same."

Major General Witte looked at John's face carefully: "Very good, very good. If I hadn't just walked away from the hell gate set by my own people, I would have appreciated you, Captain."

After speaking, Major General Witte turned to the map in the room: "Report the situation! How many enemy attacks have you repelled?"

"Zero times," Colonel Busey said.

Commander Witte: "What?"

"Zero times. The enemy prepared such fierce firepower, but did not attack." Colonel Busey said, with a very confused expression.

The confusion also passed to Major General Witte.