Arc of Gunfire

As soon as General Shipling entered the Eagle's Nest, he immediately asked Lieutenant General Gerrich who received him: "How is His Majesty's mood?"

"The mood is very good." The lieutenant general looked inside and lowered his voice, "Thanks to Gil-Ais, His Majesty has been able to accept the reality and has become the one who led us to victory in the first place."

General Shipling breathed a sigh of relief.

Gerich: "Go ahead and put forward your idea boldly. His Majesty just praised you yesterday for allowing Rokosov to eliminate 100,000 people."

General Shipling: "Isn't this irony?"

Gerrich: "Of course not. His Majesty also said that if it had been someone else, most of the troops of Army Group South might have retreated to the defense area of ​​Army Group Center, and then no one in the entire West Kosalia could stop Luo Kossov. You have preserved for us the possibility of a ceasefire across the Tiber River.”

"Ceasefire?" General Shiplin's eyes widened. "Is Your Majesty really considering this? How is that possible! There is only one situation where Rokossov will ceasefire, and that is when he needs time to resupply and rest, and wait until he is ready. He will continue to attack!"

Lieutenant General Gerrich: "Then how do you think this war will end? It is impossible for us to defeat Ant! We can only bleed the enemy's blood and make them accept a ceasefire!"

Shipling stared into Gerich's eyes: "That's impossible. As long as there is an Ant in the world, he will also attack us."

"So how will this war end?" Gerrich asked, "Will the Prosen Empire be destroyed?"

Shipling did not answer, but pushed past Lieutenant General Gerrich and walked along the luxuriously decorated corridor.

Lieutenant General Gerrish looked at his back with his pockets in his pockets, and finally sighed. He turned around and opened the cabinet under his workbench, took out a bottle of whiskey, took out a cup from the drawer, poured himself a glass, and Drink it all.

————

General Shipling entered the room and saw His Majesty the Emperor gesturing something in front of the map.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, His Majesty turned back to meet Shiplin's eyes and said, "You came just in time, General Shiplin. I urgently need to know one thing. Can Agsukov hold on?"

"No." General Shiplin replied decisively, "Our Eleventh Army in the Marina Fortress has indeed withdrawn relatively completely, but only one army cannot stop Rokossov's troops. In addition, I want to remind you. , the Fifth Armored Corps, which belongs to the Eleventh Army, also suffered very serious tank losses. About a hundred tanks under repair were abandoned in the repair shop. The entire army currently only has a hundred tanks that can fight. "

"The armored forces suffered heavy losses, I already understand this. But what if we rely on the fortifications left by the Ants around Agsukov for defense? Is it possible to defend the city with only infantry troops?" the emperor asked again .

General Shiplin: "Your Majesty, Rokossov has a very terrifying offensive weapon. At present, we have not found a good way to deal with it."

"In fact, we found it." Marshal Celtic said, "According to reports from all parties, this siege weapon named Urban has its rocket launcher exposed on the back. Therefore, we can cover it with direct artillery fire. It can directly destroy its launch capability and even detonate unlaunched rockets.”

General Shipling nodded: "Okay, I guess the Academy of Military Science has developed another curved-fire weapon that can accurately hit Urban when he is marching?"

"Actually, our land-based Stuka rocket launcher can do the job. We have already conducted tests." Marshal Celtic replied.

General Shipling: "We didn't capture Urban, did we? How to test it?"

Celtic Marshal: "We copied an Urban based on the intelligence collected from the front line, and we made the launch rail on the back many times stronger and heavier than normal, but it was still destroyed by the Land Stuka. ”

Air Marshal Grand Duke Meyer interjected: "In fact, the new attack aircraft of the Air Force can also destroy the Urban cannon."

"It must be possible!" the emperor declared loudly, "So, General Shiplin, tell me, can Agsukov hold it?"

"No." General Shipling answered the same as before, with a little more determination. "Withdrawing the Eleventh Army across the Tiber River can effectively strengthen the defense of the Tiber River. Although other units of the Southern Army Group have not been successfully The establishment has been eliminated, but it has been completely defeated and it will take time to regroup.”

Marshal Rundsteyer: "What if Agsukov is not defended and Rokosov directly crosses the river?"

"He can't get through. His troops have swept through half of Khazalia, and they need to stop to rest and replenish their troops. We may only have 100 moving tanks left, but there are no moving tanks in Rokossov's hands. There will be so many!”

General Shiplin came to the map and drew two lines between the Tiber River and the starting point of Rokossov's summer offensive.

"Look at this distance!"

After His Majesty the Emperor was silent for a few seconds, he asked: "Then let's give up Agsukov as you said. How much time do we have? Is it too late to turn this city into a ruin?"

The generals of the National Defense Force present looked at each other.

General Shipling: "Since we are going to cease the war, shouldn't we continue to anger the Ant people?"

Emperor: "Do you think a ceasefire can be achieved?"

"No." General Shipling replied decisively.

The emperor nodded: "You have qualities that our senior generals are now very lacking! In addition to the credit for the successful retreat, I have decided to promote you to the rank of Marshal of the Empire!"

Shiplin stood at attention, held his head high and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

"But I ask you to defend the Tiber River defense line and protect Bogdanovka!" His Majesty stopped and stared into General Shiplin's eyes, "Can you do it?"

General Shipling opened his mouth, but finally swallowed "can't" and said: "I will do my best!"

His Majesty suddenly raised his voice: "Try your best! Every time my generals tell me this, they can't do it in the end! You losers, you only learned to eat with a knife and fork in the military academy!"

Marshal Shipling: "Your Majesty, if you give me all the newly formed armored divisions, I can maintain the Tiber River defense line at least until next year!"

Emperor: "You will get two new armored divisions!"

Marshal Shipling: "Two? As far as I know, the headquarters has been newly organized into..."

"The headquarters has indeed formed six new armored divisions, as well as a brand new heavy tank battalion composed of Panzer 6 tanks that just rolled off the assembly line. But these troops will be transferred to Sardin."

Marshal Shipling frowned: "The Allies landed on that boot?"

"Not yet, but we all know they are coming." Field Marshal Celtic replied on behalf of the Emperor, "The troops that just withdrew from Sicily suffered huge losses and will definitely block the subsequent Allied offensive. We are transferring the armored division to Sardinia South."

The emperor once again took over the conversation: "Because of Rokossov's great progress, it can be expected that the Allies will also make great achievements on the Western Front. They don't want to give too much credit to Ant for their victory over us.

"Maybe this is our chance, we can hold off Ant for the Allies. I have sent an emissary and it is possible to meet with the President of the United States in a few weeks."

The emperor grinned: "This is the way I found for the empire to end the war! As long as the United States no longer supports Ant, we may form a stalemate with Ant, and the Alliance will fall apart and each will go its own way!"

General Shipling looked at Marshal Celtic and Marshal Lundstel.

The two men pretended not to notice his gaze.

The Emperor continued: "So, we are going to destroy Agsukov! To this end, I mobilized a hundred thousand people of the National Police and about five thousand combat engineers to repaint Agsukov in Rokosov. Before Kokov, this city will be reduced to scorched earth!”

————

At the same time, the First Mobile Army Headquarters.

The entire headquarters column was moving. Yegorov sat on the jeep and looked at the surrounding scenery.

"Wait a minute, are we approaching Orachi?" He suddenly said, patting the back of the driver's seat hard, "Stop the car! Let me take a look at the surrounding terrain!"

The driver braked so hard that Yegorov's head almost hit the back of the seat.

He stood up, picked up his telescope and looked around.

"Yes, yes, it's here! The regiment I led ambushed the enemy here! It's in this forest! Our position is in the forest! Old man Eugene's regiment is on the high ground in the southwest! We just need to climb over the front You can see the city from the hillside!”

Yegorov put down his binoculars and said to his new guard: "Let me tell you, half of the people in the city of Orachi work on ranches, and the milk and sausages they produce are very important in Agsukov." Best seller! Order! Everyone, hurry up and eat sausages!"

The order immediately came down like an echo.

Yegorov remained standing on the seat and urged the driver: "Drive quickly, drive quickly! Don't worry about me, I can stand firm!"

The jeep started, maybe because Yegorov, the bear, stood up, and the center of gravity of the car became higher, so it swayed very hard, as if he was drunk.

The car just rushed all the way up the slope.

Then the driver subconsciously released the accelerator.

The car that had just climbed the hill stopped immediately.

Yegorov held the back of the driver's seat and stared blankly ahead.

There is nothing there except ruins.

Egorov's fingers pinched the backrest so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

"Aolachi..." He murmured in a low voice, "Is this...Aolachi? Did we go the wrong way? The terrain around here - two years have passed, there should be some changes, right? This is completely Unchanged terrain, it doesn’t make sense!”

At this time, the leading troops of the 1st "Red Flag" Mechanized Infantry Division of the Guards also crossed the mountain. Seeing this scene, the leader of the regiment shouted directly: "Everyone, stand still!"

The entire queue stopped immediately.

The regiment leader jogged to the side of Yegorov's car: "General, there is something fishy. Let's send out a reconnaissance team to check the situation first!"

Yegorov: "No, look at the red flag. The troops in front of us have passed, leaving the liaison officer behind. Orachi... was destroyed by the Prosins."

As he spoke, he bent the telescope.

"Sukabu! The Prosen people must pay with blood!"