Arc of Gunfire

At 0900 on the morning of August 18, Wang Zhong arrived at the expeditionary army station.

All the troops lined up on the parade ground. As soon as Wang Zhong got off the car, a sea of ​​"Ura" sounded.

Wang Zhong glanced at Popov: "I didn't say anything, and I didn't even get on the podium. What are they shouting?"

Popov: "Get used to it. The Propaganda Department has exaggerated your victory into a great victory."

Pavlov urged: "Let's go. Time is tight. You have to see all the troops assigned to us in the morning and understand their situation."

Wang Zhong glanced at Pavlov, suppressed the desire to complain, and walked towards the troops.

As a result, the troops shouted more vigorously after seeing his face clearly.

Not to mention, it was pretty cool, as if he had become Napoleon.

At the last moment of Waterloo, the French Guards retreated. When they fled the battlefield and passed by Napoleon, they didn't forget to shout long live, which made Napoleon laugh.

I hope I won't experience this scene in the future.

Wang Zhong prayed like this while walking to the front of the troops.

Then he was dumbfounded.

Because he looked at the officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers, all of them were young faces. Only the bearded division commander and the military chaplain looked older, and even the chief of staff looked just 30 years old!

Wang Zhong looked back at Pavlov in confusion and pointed at the troops. Before he could speak, Pavlov nodded: "Yes, that's the situation."

He looked at these young soldiers again and couldn't help but say: "Okay, stop shouting! Stop shouting!"

The leading officer shouted: "Stop shouting! Quiet!"

Then the shout of "Quiet" was like a domino, spreading all the way to the distance, and the shout of "Ura" gradually fell, and the parade ground became quiet.

Wang Zhong came to the bearded division commander and asked, "What is the average age of your troops? What is the proportion of old non-commissioned officers? How many experienced officers are there?"

Faced with Wang Zhong's rapid-fire questions, the division commander shook his head and said, "General, our 450th Provisional Infantry Division has no experienced officers and non-commissioned officers. Even I am a high school principal. They said that since I can lead a high school with 5,000 people, I can lead a provisional infantry division with 8,000 people, so they gave me the rank of major general and made me the division commander."

Wang Zhong couldn't help but say, "Even Eugene started as a lieutenant colonel regiment commander. What is the reserve front doing?"

The division commander didn't dare to answer.

Pavlov said: "Not bad, at least this division still has 8,000 combatants, and all of them have received complete recruit training, formal training! The most embarrassed division has only 5,000 people, and the training is also completed by the instructors of the Guards Army. The combat effectiveness is no different from that of the militia division."

Wang Zhong took a deep breath, calmed down, and asked the bearded division commander: "What is your name, Principal Davashili?"

"Davarich?" The principal was stunned for a moment, "Isn't this the name in the navy?"

"My troops also call each other like this. So what is your name?"

"Semyon Alexandrovich Roshenkov, commander of the 450th Provisional Infantry Division." After saying this, the bearded man remembered to salute Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong returned the salute and then turned to the soldiers of the 450th Provisional Infantry Division.

He asked the young private first class standing in the first row: "How long have you been in the army?"

"Six months, General, I am a veteran here." The private first class replied.

Wang Zhong hesitated to speak, and finally just took the Mosin-Nagant rifle from the private first class's shoulder and checked it. It can be seen that it is carefully maintained. This private should have received better training and is very careful in maintaining weapons.

After returning the gun to the owner, Wang Zhong asked Pavlov: "Are there no other weapons besides Mosin-Nagant? I saw the report before I came here. The daily production of PPSh has exceeded 6,000!"

Pavlov: "But we have 10 million troops, of which at least 3 million are fighting the enemy on the front line, and many of the remaining 7 million are resting like the First Mobile Army. 6,000 a day is not enough for them."

At this time, the private interrupted and said: "Report to the general, our divisional sergeants are also equipped with PPSh, which is a reward after being promoted to sergeant. If you perform well in training, you will also be selected as a submachine gunner and get a Sten submachine gun. I didn't do well enough, so I got the Mosin-Nagant!"

Wang Zhong stared at the private's face and suddenly felt that such a good child was carrying an outdated old gun to the front line. It was his dereliction of duty as the chairman of the Equipment Review Committee-even though he was not actually responsible for the specific production.

Pavlov: "Once the transportation line is opened, maybe we can replace them with a full set of United Kingdom equipment."

Wang Zhong: "Are you talking about the Sten submachine gun and the Bren light machine gun? Forget it, the United Kingdom's planes are good, and we should use our own light weapons. What does the commander of the military station in Abavahan say?"

Pavlov: "I have used all the equipment that can be intercepted to arm them."

Wang Zhong patted the first-class soldier on the shoulder, then put his hands behind his back and walked slowly along the queue.

After walking two steps, he saw a first-class soldier with a slightly older face holding a Sten submachine gun in his hand. It seems that he is the one who was selected as a submachine gunner with more skilled military skills.

The submachine gunner wore the chest mount designed by Wang Zhong, looked at Wang Zhong energetically, and held his chin high.

Wang Zhong: "How does the Sten submachine gun feel to use?"

The submachine gunner replied: "Report to the general, it is not as good as the PPSh, mainly because there are too few bullets, and the magazine is easy to jam, so it must be used very carefully. If the general can replace it with a PPSh, it would be great."

Wang Zhong: "I will."

After saying that, he continued to walk forward, his eyes swept across the young faces.

The several infantry divisions assigned to the expeditionary force are all in the situation of the 450th Provisional Infantry Division.

Good news: fully equipped and fully staffed.

Bad news: only fully equipped and fully staffed.

Wang Zhong walked around and almost knew what kind of troops he was assigned. If he took this kind of troops to fight the Prosen people, he would probably be beaten to death by the Aryan Superman.

Now taking these troops to Baras for actual combat may be a good thing for them.

After inspecting the infantry troops, Wang Zhong came to the tank troops.

The faces of veterans suddenly increased, almost 50-50 with the young recruits! Wang Zhong was so moved that he cried. It seemed that Pavlov was not lying yesterday. The overall condition of the 51st Tank Army was indeed much better than that of the infantry.

The T34W tank with the tactical number 422 was parked at the front of the entire tank army. There were also four members - the tank could be driven and fought without a tank commander, which was equivalent to vacating the position of the tank commander for Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong held the hand of the gunner with the highest rank: "We are going to fight side by side. Whether I can come back alive depends on you guys."

The gunner's voice was a little trembling: "Leave it to us!"

Wang Zhong nodded and turned to the colonel standing next to the tank: "Is this your brigade?"

The 51st Tank Army has three tank brigades under its jurisdiction, and there is no tank division. However, the brigade commander should be a brigadier general, so Wang Zhong asked this question.

Colonel: "Acting Brigade Commander. General, why do we still need to produce T34? Switch to T34W. We are tired of the two fatal shortcomings of the two-man turret and the lack of radio."

Wang Zhong: "Doesn't your T34 have radios distributed to each tank?"

"Yes. It is said that the 915 model T34 is equipped with radios, but these are old tanks."

After the colonel finished speaking, Pavlov explained: "The command believes that Baras's army is weak and the old T34 is enough. Besides, they can't guarantee so many radios. You might as well ask them how many electrical engineers they have. "

Wang Zhong: "How many electrical engineers do you have?"

The colonel held up two fingers: "Two, our entire brigade only has two electrical engineers."

Wang Zhong was shocked and asked: "How many tractors do you have to tow the broken-down tanks? How many maintenance battalions do you have?"

Colonel: "Maintenance battalion? We have a support company with six tractors."

"Six!" Wang Zhong was shocked, "What about the artillery? How many tractors and tractors does your artillery have?"

"We don't have artillery in our brigade." said the colonel.

Wang Zhong's mouth opened into an O shape, but he immediately controlled himself and said to himself: "It's okay, I fought worse battles last year."

Pavlov: "The Second Brigade has artillery, and the number of tractors and tractors is a little more."

Wang Zhong: "Really, then let's go to the Second Brigade."

After that, he walked towards the Second Brigade with great expectations, but more than ten minutes later, he was frowning again.

The organization of the 51st Tank Army can be seen to have learned from last year's lessons. Except for the first brigade which has no artillery, the other brigades have a little bit of each type of arms, but each type of arms is not enough.

It is a state of integration, but not complete integration.

Especially in terms of support capabilities, the entire tank army simply has the word "shortcomings" written on its face.

After understanding the situation, Wang Zhong is 100% sure that this tank army will be defeated when it collides with the Prosen people.

Obviously, the overall organization of the non-direct tank troops strengthened in Yeisk is already very balanced, but isn't that a common situation!

Wang Zhong asked Pavlov: "Can the support troops of the First Mobile Army be transferred here separately, so that at least the armored forces can be mobilized."

"I'm in a hurry to call you here to coordinate this matter." Pavlov spread his hands, "Only you can do this. I'm just a chief of staff. I really can't do this kind of mobilization involving many aspects."

Wang Zhong: "Okay, I'll make a few calls and solve this matter. Is there any other unit I haven't seen?"

Pavlov pointed to the black army in the corner of the parade ground.

Wang Zhong's mood improved when he saw them.

Although the soldiers of the 393rd Marine Infantry Brigade had been standing in the sun for so long, they did not waver at all.

Wang Zhong walked up to them and looked at the young and vicissitudes of life with satisfaction. He praised: "Good! I was a little unsure about the troops in front of me, because they were worrying whether it was training or combat readiness, or the condition of weapons and equipment.

"But when I saw you, I had confidence. It depends on you, black death gods! ”

The marines in sailor shirts shouted “Ura” in unison, and the wind blew across the parade ground, lifting the ribbons behind their caps.