Arc of Gunfire

Andreas and Kosrek's sufferings did not end.

To be more precise, the sufferings of the Proson army did not end.

When the anti-aircraft artillery vehicles followed the troops, Ant's cavalry watched from a distance. Anyway, the anti-aircraft vehicles could not keep up with the cavalry, and overtaking shooting was too wasteful of ammunition, and the killing efficiency was very low.

When the anti-aircraft vehicles arrived at the designated position to establish defenses, the cavalry began to walk around the defense area, waiting for the infantry to leave.

Andreas's troops had no choice but to wait for the cavalry to go back for food when they were hungry, and then they began to march secretly.

Fortunately, Ant's cavalry did not visit at night, probably because they were worried about the horses being trampled.

The Proson soldiers dragged their tired bodies and marched in the night.

When the sky turned pale, a small group of Ant cavalry appeared. They did not launch an assault, but watched the Proson people from a distance.

Andreas noticed this small group of cavalry and pointed it out to Kosrek.

Kosrek: "Maybe the cavalry officer is watching us, waiting for his troops to catch up. We also have weapons, so few cavalry troops can't do anything to us."

Andreas looked around: "They just followed us like this, and we panicked."

Kosrek looked around: "Everyone is just tired."

He suddenly raised his voice: "Come on! Such a small number of cavalry dare not attack us! We still have weapons and bullets, and our machine guns alone can kill half of them!"

The sergeant's voice made many people look up and really pick up their weapons and cheer up.

Andreas suddenly found that the recruit he had helped before was gone, and all he could see were veterans with exempt soldiers.

It seems that most of the recruits have "fallen behind" in this difficult march.

Sergeant Kosrek: "Okay, keep going! There should be a village ahead after walking so far, and we won't be afraid of cavalry when we get to the village!"

Cavalry is not suitable for fighting in villages.

Andreas vaguely felt that the team seemed to be moving a little faster.

Thirty minutes later, the village appeared.

The cavalry team that was chasing stopped after seeing the village. The chestnut horse rider who led the team stood on a small hill by the road and looked at the village.

A machine gun was mounted on the two-story building at the entrance of the village. The sergeant who commanded the machine gun was holding a telescope and looking at the chestnut rider.

Kosrek suddenly said: "They are all non-commissioned officers. Most of the officers have died."

Senior officers in Plossen rarely died in battle because they believed that their duties were in the headquarters and they were unlikely to go to the front line.

But the grassroots lieutenants of Plossen still led by example. It was normal for a large number of non-commissioned officers to command the grassroots troops after the fierce battle.

Andreas licked his lips and said: "I hope there is water in the village."

"Don't worry, there will be water. Maybe there will be hot soup."

Five minutes later, Andreas and Kosrek walked to the entrance of the village.

Kosrek asked the sergeant next to the machine gun loudly: "Do you have hot soup?"

"No!" The sergeant shook his head, "We wanted to make a fire to cook, but the locals took all the firewood and other things away when they ran away, so there was nothing to make a fire. And you need meat and vegetables to make soup, right? We only have compressed biscuits here!"

Kosrek: "Didn't you kill some horses or mules?"

The sergeant pointed to the pile of cavalry corpses in front of the machine gun position: "There is horse meat here, do you dare to eat it?"

Andreas looked at the pile of corpses and found that the horse and human corpses were completely mixed together. The bright red blood could not be distinguished from horse blood or human blood.

It really takes some courage to swallow such "meat".

Kosrek waved his hand: "Forget it, is there any water?"

"Yes, a local tried to throw something into the well last night and was caught by the military police, so the well water is still drinkable now. Drink it quickly, who knows when it will be poisoned."

Kosrek nodded and gestured to Andreas, and the two followed the team into the village.

After walking a few steps, they saw several locals hanging on the trees by the roadside, each with a sign hanging on them, writing the reason why they were hanged.

"Poisoned the well."

"Mixed laxatives in the food."

"Throwing stones at the Proson soldiers."

...

Andreas stared at the one who threw the stone and said to Kosrek: "Such a young child should be hanged for throwing a stone?"

Kosrek: "That's what the military police do."

"No," the three infantrymen smoking by the tree replied, "We hanged them, not the military police."

Then the three men laughed.

Andreas looked at the three men: they were all very young, their uniforms were new and without any dirt, they must be rookies who had just arrived at the front.

He couldn't help but say: "We shouldn't hang a child, even if he threw stones at us!"

The laughter of the young privates stopped abruptly, and they pulled their hems awkwardly: "Sorry, we... but when we hanged the child, the quartermaster laughed very happily?"

Andreas was about to question, but Kosrek grabbed his shoulders: "Okay, it's more important to eat and replenish water, and then we have to rest for a while, there is still a long way to go to the Tiber River!"

Andreas glared at the three recruits, followed Kosrek's footsteps, and soon came to the central square of the village - every Ante village has such a square, and the most conspicuous building next to the square should be the church.

But now only the remains of the church remain, with a few skeletons hanging on the bell tower.

A group of disgraced Proson soldiers had gathered around the place where compressed biscuits and water were distributed.

Andreas filled the water bottle and was given compressed biscuits, which he ate with water.

Several flares suddenly shot into the air.

The defenders around the distribution point didn't know what happened, but the veterans who were distributing supplies immediately reacted and began to spread out to find cover.

The roar of engines came from the air.

The machine gun fired, but the sound of the machine gun seemed a bit weak amidst the sound of the aircraft engine, and the firepower density was obviously not enough.

The Pe-2 bomber roared past, and a bomb was inserted directly into the table filled with compressed biscuit barrels, directly smashing through the thick table, and the warhead smashed the stone slab under the table.

The timing device at the tail of the bomb kept making a clicking sound.

The recruit in charge of distributing things looked at the bomb with wide eyes, obviously panicked. A sergeant major rushed over and tackled the recruit to the ground.

Almost at the same time, the sound of the timer was interrupted, the bomb exploded violently, and the light and gunpowder smoke suddenly engulfed the sergeant major and recruits lying on the ground.

Someone shouted: "Secretary General!"

It seems that this sergeant major is the division chief who laughed when he saw the recruits hanging the children.

Andreas was so shocked that he fainted, and it took five seconds for him to wake up. The strong tinnitus covered other sounds in the world.

However, as a veteran, Andreas was very accustomed to this kind of tinnitus. He did not wait for the tinnitus to subside and directly checked the surrounding situation.

The table full of compressed biscuits has disappeared, and the compressed biscuit barrels are now scattered across most of the village square.

The bucket also fell over, and water flowed all over the floor, even forming several puddles.

Many soldiers who had recovered from the bombing were lying on the edge of the puddles, constantly scooping water into their mouths with their hands.

When the tinnitus ended, Andreas remembered Kosrek and shouted: "Kosrek!"

"Here, he's not dead yet." Kosrek's voice immediately came from behind him.

Andreas turned around and saw Kosrek squatting against the wall, cleaning sand from the machine gun.

"You can really keep your composure," Andreas said.

"When the cavalry comes to attack later, we will have to rely on this old guy to defend against the enemy," the old machine gunner said.

Just as Andreas was about to answer, someone nearby exclaimed: "The plane is back again! Hurry and take cover!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the Pei-2 bomber that had dropped its bombs appeared again, shooting the ground with machine guns.

This time even the recruits reacted, and in the blink of an eye there was no one standing in the square.

After two rounds of strafing, Ant's pilot walked away.

Andreas got up: "Damn it, the anti-aircraft artillery unit didn't fire a single shot!"

"Where are the anti-aircraft artillery units? They are all on the road dealing with the Ant cavalry." Kosrek said.

Andreas: "How could things come to this?"

At this time, someone next to me interrupted: "It's much better than when I ran back from Abawahan last winter. Didn't you participate in last year's Abawahan battle?"

Because the Battle of Abawahan was lost, the Plosen Army did not issue corresponding medals.

Kosrek: "Last year we fought against Rokossov's troops in Yeisk, and then we went down to rest. After returning to the front line, we defended the Suhayaveli River, and then we ended up here."

The passing officer who interrupted shook his head: "Well, you are so lucky. Only 30% of our troops who participated in the Abawahan battle came back. Including me. The retreat battle last year was so difficult. This year at least we have water. Last year we Many people have diarrhea because they chew ice to get water, because the ice water is too cold and freezes their stomach and intestines.”

A new person joined the conversation: "Ever since Rokosov started leading Ant, we have been retreating."

Kosrek: "He didn't lead Ant."

"Didn't he? I heard that he is already Ant's 'Shadow Czar'."

Andreas: "The theory I heard is that he slept with the Tsar."

"almost--"

Another flare went off.

"Another air strike. After the cavalry comes, the planes will come. After the planes come, the cavalry will come again!" Kosrek closed the machine gun that had been cleaned and looked up at the sky.

What swooped down this time was Ant's stubby bomber, which looked like a milk bottle (actually it was a P47 fighter jet).

A bomb exploded in the square again.

The enemy plane not only dropped bombs, but also strafed them while pulling up. Tracer bullets fell from the sky like a downpour.

Andreas lay on the ground, thinking that was enough.