Arc of Gunfire

While the frontline soldiers on both sides were chatting to kill time, the power in Wang Zhong's hands was increasing every minute.

Units under the First Mobile Group Army kept getting off the bus at Jarvik and driving over in battalion units, with new battalions arriving every hour.

Acting Chief of Staff Alexander was almost overwhelmed, with new battalions to arrange for him every hour.

Wang Zhong assigned Vasily to him, and he and Popov watched them spinning around.

Popov sighed: "Sometimes I'm glad that I'm just a bishop, especially as your bishop, you will do most of the things that I should do for you, so I will be more free."

Wang Zhong shrugged: "I'm just not sure whether your bald head can successfully boost morale, so I did it myself."

Popov was speechless: "I don't want to be bald myself. Just wait and see. Men are like this when they get older. You are just young. You may be balder than me in the future! Your children will ride on your neck by then. Go up, touch your head and shout, 'I am a witch, please tell me with the crystal ball, who is the most beautiful woman in the world'."

Wang Zhong burst into laughter. Is this a variation of the Snow White story?

At this time, someone entered the door. As soon as he saw Wang Zhong, he laughed "oh ho ho ha ha".

Wang Zhong: "Okay, Yegorov, I saw you, don't block my door."

Popov: "Look, men become bald when they get older! Isn't this another example?"

Yegorov was stunned for a moment: "Why was I teased about being bald as soon as I entered the door? I'm not bald yet!"

"Come on," Popov said.

Wang Zhong pointed at the map: "Look at the locations of the units in the Guards and choose your division headquarters address."

Yegorov looked at the map and joked: "Don't you ask me about the situation on the road?"

Wang Zhong: "How is the situation on the road?"

"The Plosen Air Force attacked us, but missed. The anti-aircraft artillery battery on the train worked." Yegorov paused, pointed to a point on the map and said, "This sign, is this a farm?"

Wang Zhong: "Yes, I visited it in advance. There are two houses and a stable."

"My headquarters is here. This grassland is so vast and empty. If it were in Khazalia, there would be at least five more villages on the map, plus small farms dotted here and there."

Popov: "The soil below this grassland is not black, and it is not that fertile. In many places, only weeds can grow. Unlike the black soil in Kozalia, the grass outside the farmland is so high that car wheels can be rolled in."

But Salia is too fertile, and the grass is so lush that it can restrict the movement of wheeled vehicles. Only tanks can walk on flat ground.

If this were in Kozalia, Wang Zhong wouldn't have been able to let the reconnaissance troops race yesterday. If they couldn't race, they might be outflanked by enemy armored forces, and the vortex might be crushed and beaten by tanks with turrets in close combat.

But Wang Zhong hopes to fight on the land of Khazalia. Unfortunately, the last Khazalia land is around Borsk, which is also the last Khazalia land controlled by Ant.

If Duke Myshkin is defeated, he can only push south into the mountains and defend the mountain passes.

Wang Zhong waved away the sudden nostalgia - to be precise, the homesickness for his second hometown, and said to Yegorov: "Go and command your troops. The enemy may see through our delaying strategy at any time and launch an attack."

Yegorov smiled: "Don't worry. At first glance, this area is full of grass and is not suitable for defense. However, we have few infantry and many technical weapons. We are really not afraid of shooting at us on such open ground. Everyone is willing to shoot at us." There is no place to hide, and the one with the most firepower wins.”

Wang Zhong's group army is not suitable for fighting in areas with poor visibility, such as dense forests. Fighting in such places requires a lot of infantry to "open up the field of vision."

Wang Zhong: "Be careful, the enemy is mainly armored, and it is also suitable for fighting in the open."

"Leave it to me." Yegorov saluted Wang Zhong, then turned to Alexander, "My chief of staff, come with me. I cannot command the army without a chief of staff."

Alexander looked at Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong: "Go ahead and fulfill your responsibilities. Just hand over the army headquarters to Vasily."

Vasily: "Me?"

Alexander smiled: "I believe you can do it, musician."

As he spoke, he patted Vasily on the shoulder and saluted Wang Zhong.

Yegorov walked out first and shrank his shoulders when he passed the gate, as if he would be stuck by the gate if he didn't shrink.

After the two left, Wang Zhong looked at Vasily and shook his fist at him, meaning "come on".

Vasily was speechless. At this time, the communications staff reported: "The 2nd Tank Destroyer Battalion is calling. They are about to arrive and ask where to replenish fuel."

Vasily: "Tell them that there is an oil station along the road. If you see a silo in the distance, it means you are almost there."

The communications officer immediately turned around.

The organization of the tank destroyer battalion was proposed by Wang Zhongxian. Previously, SU76 and the like were regarded as self-propelled artillery and were organized into self-propelled artillery battalions, while anti-tank guns were directly called anti-tank artillery battalions.

Before the vortex, the Ant Army did not have armored vehicles like Wang Zhong, which could only be used to fight tanks, so it was organized into a separate "Tank Destroyer Battalion".

In the future, Hellcats and Wolfguans sent by the United States will also be incorporated into tank destroyer battalions.

But now there is only a full-time tank destroyer called Vortex in the Ant Army, so the three tank destroyer battalions currently organized are all in Wang Zhong's group army.

The 2nd Tank Destroyer Battalion is an affiliated unit of the 225th Infantry Division, and the troops arriving now are all troops of the 225th Infantry Division.

Wang Zhong: "Didn't the 225th Division send a vanguard force? Pavlov would not make such a mistake. He must have organized part of the 225th Division's command organization into a vanguard force and sent it over. This kind of thing should be done by the division. The advance team is responsible for the arrangements.”

Before Vasily could answer, someone else entered the door of the army headquarters.

It was Lieutenant Colonel Eugene—Brigadier General.

Popov: "It seems that the advance team has arrived. Why did the military chief come first? Those standing in front of the attack should be the staff officers and the clerk."

Brigadier General Eugene looked bitter: "Because I was originally a clerk."

Wang Zhong: "You are the mine manager, aren't you?"

"That's also a senior clerk. I'm better at arranging marches than commanding troops to fight. General, you'd better give me the rank of brigadier general and acting division commander. I can be a colonel."

Wang Zhong: "Not at this stage. As a school-level officer, you were the one with the best performance last year. After all, your troops did not retreat and tenaciously sniped the enemy. You were promoted to acting commander of the 225th Division because of your military merit. ”

In the Ant Army, a large number of outstanding colonel officers were promoted to brigadier generals last year, commanding troops at the division and brigade level.

The high command was not sure how these people would behave, and Wang Zhong was not sure either.

Fortunately, the 225th Division commanded by Brigadier General Eugene is a unit under his command. At worst, he can just go down and command it himself.

Wang Zhong was pretty sure that his ability to command a division was pretty good.

But now he will not tell Brigadier General Eugene this. He wants to try to see if the mine director can learn warfare.

After all, this man is now considered a "Rokossov faction" and is a general who Wang Zhong knows deeply.

Brigadier General Eugene: "Except for digging trenches and fighting defensive battles, I'm really not good at anything else."

"Are you good at working on maps and arranging marching formations?" Vasily asked with sparkling eyes, "You are the advance team of the 225th Division, so you are responsible for arranging the marching of your division!"

Brigadier General Eugene: "That's no problem. I also brought documents and staff."

"That's great." Vasily was overjoyed. "The army's staff is still in Yebao, busy sending carloads of people onto the train. The clerks and staff sent here have stayed in Arvik. Now I, the captain's adjutant, am the only one who plays the leading role here. There was originally Alexander who could take the lead, but he was asked to leave again by Yegorov."

Wang Zhong held his chin and suddenly said: "A special headquarters should be organized to be responsible for such complex transfer work. It is too messy like this."

Popov agreed: "Yes, after all the troops have arrived in the combat area and deployed, this headquarters will turn its attention to the transportation of logistics, so that everything will be in order. It just so happens that our army's dependence on logistics is particularly serious."

After all, the First Mobile Army had too many guns.

When it was formed, I didn't think about the organizational problems of rushing to the battlefield quickly. Mainly, Wang Zhong only had the experience of commanding a division. Division-level units used trains to move long distances. Basically, Pavlov and his staff could handle it. There was no such thing. So troublesome.

Now, based on what he saw and heard, Wang Zhong intuitively felt the need to add a unit of 30 to 50 people specifically responsible for commanding the transfer of troops.

With such a headquarters, the transfer will definitely be much smoother. The military staff will not need to be distracted by long-distance train transportation and will only be responsible for the last 50 kilometers from the military depot to the front line.

By the way, Wang Zhong also deeply understood a question that he couldn't understand before traveling: Why did Zhu Rihe's drill also include unloading the train at the train station? What's so good about this drill?

Now he found that he really needed to practice, and he couldn't do it without practice.

The First Mobile Group Army has never practiced this. It is in a hurry now because the staff are indeed very capable, especially a certain sixth-level civilian Colonel Karatayev who is stationed in Arvik.

If the staff officers and clerks are even less capable, it will be a mess.

Wang Zhong looked at Brigadier General Eugene who was busy like a clerk, and he felt grateful from the bottom of his heart for the Prussians' caution. If they attacked now, he didn't know what the situation would be like.

————

"We need to make a tentative attack." Major General Witte said while looking at the map. "After the enemy prepared firepower, he never attacked, which made me feel that this was a delaying measure. In fact, the enemy was not ready to confront us head-on, so he deliberately frightened us. "

Colonel Busey was shocked: "The opponent is that Rokossov!"

Major General Witte: "It is precisely because it is Rokossov that we have to doubt this. He is very cunning. He may pretend to attack and prepare firepower, but in fact the real purpose is to buy time for the follow-up troops to arrive."

Colonel Busey: "Is it possible that you are playing into his hands? Yesterday we saw an exquisite double trick. We saw through his first trick and thought the enemy was weak, so we attacked and were almost defeated. Hundreds of his tanks were eaten in the wilderness!"

Major General Witte: "Have you seen his hundreds of tanks? Seen it with your own eyes?"

Colonel Busey shut up.

Major General Witte: "That means seeing is believing. Send a motorized reconnaissance battalion to find out the enemy's situation, especially to see if there are 'hundreds of tanks'!"