Just then, a communications officer came running over with a message: “Telegraph from Armored Cluster Command.”
Randolph took the telegraph, glanced at it, and handed it to the chief of staff.
The chief of staff read it out: “The siege task of Bogdanovka has now been transferred to the infantry units of the Sixth Army Group. Our cluster will carry out repairs here for one day before advancing. Your unit should strive to capture Loktov by dawn tomorrow.
“We believe there are at most two brigades of infantry troops there.”
After the chief of staff finished reading, Major General Randolph asked, “The shell fragments we found yesterday, they were 203mm, weren’t they?”
“Yes, General.”
“Two brigades of infantry with 203? That’s artillery from an Army Group!”
The staff officers remained silent.
After pondering for a while, Major General Randolph said: “Did the artillery observers see many mines detonated by the big guns?”
“Very few.”
Randolph then asked: “How many booby traps did the sappers clear in Karlinovka?”
“Four, and they were all makeshift booby traps made with hand grenades, easy to clear as long as the tripwire isn’t pulled.”
Randolph clicked his tongue: “This General White Horse sure likes to bluff. The minefield is probably only partly real, the rest fake. However, if we want to expand the offensive scale, we need time to organize the troops.
“Just let the artillery turn those fake minefields upside down!
“Begin the artillery bombardment on the enemy positions in the urban area at six o’clock, and our attack will be launched at eight in the morning, doubling the troop strength from the original plan!”
Launching an attack is a complex affair, only slightly easier than organizing a retreat. Doubling the attacking forces often meant that the attack formation needed to be reorganized.
“Also!” Major General Randolph added, “Don’t release smoke when attacking. The Air Force said yesterday that they had destroyed the enemy’s only Divine Arrow launcher. I don’t trust the Air Force, but the enemy has been using Divine Arrows against reconnaissance planes in the air and not our armored reconnaissance battalion; I think they might not have many Divine Arrows left.”
————
Over at Wang Zhong’s position, six o’clock sharp.
The first to notice the enemy’s artillery fire moving toward the urban area was Yegorov, who shouted, “The enemy artillery is extending toward the urban area!”
As soon as his words fell, a shell landed in front of the forward command post’s window.
Although to prevent injury from window shards after the fighting started, all the glass had been removed before the enemy arrived, the blast wave still surged into the room, tearing off the entire wooden window frame, which now had no glass, and smashing it on the desk and telephone behind the window.
The artillery periscope was directly pushed over onto Dmitry, who caught the mirror with a grab, carefully placed it on the ground, and then lay down.
Wang Zhong also lay on the ground.
Yegorov shouted to him, “Your Excellency General! You can’t lie like that! Your internal organs will be damaged!”
Wang Zhong raised his head and looked at Yegorov’s method of lying down—wasn’t this just a plank?
With the physical fitness Wang Zhong had before crossing over, he wouldn’t last long in that position before muscle breakdown.
But he did it anyway; this Aleksei had no other skills, but his body was well-trained, so maybe he could withstand it.
The shells continued to fall, and nothing could be heard over the explosions.
Wang Zhong always felt the house was shaking and could even hear the steel bars groaning.
Constant fine sand and stones fell on his head, on his neck, inside his collar.
Suddenly, a palm-sized piece of concrete fell with a smack not far in front of Wang Zhong, making him involuntarily raise his head just in time to see the ceiling decorations collapsing and crashing down.
The artillery barrage continued, as if it would never stop.
Wang Zhong heard someone shouting hysterically.
He switched to an overhead view and immediately saw that the shouting came from a group of young men responsible for operating the switchboard next door; they were curled up in the corner, holding their heads, using shouting to alleviate their fear.
As the duration of the bombardment increased, Wang Zhong became increasingly worried that the house the forward command post was in would not hold.
The sensation of the earth shaking made him feel like the house could collapse on him at any moment.
The impulse to stand up and run out of the house grew stronger, making his breathing more rapid.
Is this what the enemy’s artillery preparation was like? No wonder some troops with low morale and organization disintegrated after being shelled.
This would cause a breakdown; otherwise, it would take more courage to stand up and run…
The relentless bombardment finally ended.
Wang Zhong waited for a while before raising his head: “Is it over?”
Just raising his head caused a large amount of white dust to fall from atop him. Now he was covered in a layer of dust, as if he had been lying in the snow for two hours during snowfall.
Popov spat and wiped off the dust from his watch to have a look: “Damn it, they bombarded us for two hours!”
Wang Zhong was shocked: I actually held a plank for two hours?
The instant he realized this, his muscles began to ache, so he simply lay on the ground and let out a long breath.
Dmitry got up, placed the artillery periscope back by the window, then looked outside and said, “The field…has been entirely blasted into a different color. Can this land still grow crops? The ground is full of metal!”
Popov also got up: “Don’t worry, the wounds of the earth heal themselves, just like humans.”
Yegorov picked up the telephone from the ground, grabbed the handset: “Connect to Brother Peter! Connect to Brother Peter! What? The telephone line is broken? Hurry and repair it!”
Putting down the handset, Yegorov looked at Wang Zhong: “The enemy is likely to attack now; we need to check with Brother Peter to confirm the scale.”
Wang Zhong thought that Brother Peter’s ears were almost on par with radar; except for not being precise in localization and ranging, the reconnaissance effectiveness was indeed unquestionable.