Siegfried touched his own red hair, “Let’s be cautious, Your Majesty. Ante is vast and has great war potential.”
Reinhard stopped, “Yes, they do have great war potential, I know. That’s why from the beginning my goal has been to destroy their will to fight.
“The morale boosted by the death of the Crown Prince is only temporary; without a new leading figure to support it, this morale will quickly dissipate.
“Unfortunately for them, a new leading figure has emerged, but they have not placed this person at the center as a symbol of spirit.
“This is our chance, Siegfried. According to reliable intelligence, General Rokossovsky is currently at Shostka on the Duva River, which is where we’ll strike next.
“We will launch a pincer attack from both the south and north with 1.8 million men and 2,000 tanks, with Shostka right in front of the southern pincers! To eliminate him, I will reinforce the main force in the south, the Second Armored Group, with two more Knight’s Army divisions!”
Von Maqi immediately raised his head, “Thank you very much, I will surely not disappoint Your Majesty.”
Reinhard, “You let Rokossovsky escape in the previous battle. But at the time you did not know he would become an important figure stirring the morale of Ante, and you also had the mission of advancing southward.
“Now, you can make up for that mistake! To help you accomplish your mission, I will also give you Ottos Krantz’s Brandenburg forces! This is a special force that played an important role in the initial stages of our invasion, capturing many key bridges.
“You should make full use of these troops to completely eliminate Rokossovsky!”
Von Maqi stood at attention, his head held high as he answered, “Yes! After 20 days of replenishment, my group will start the offensive. I will finally fulfill my long-standing wish to lead the troops into Ekaterinburg Fortress!
“My revered Majesty, I request that this operation be named ‘November Festival,’ to celebrate our total annihilation of the Ante road roller that has always threatened Europa.”
Reinhard shook his head, “No, that would be too kind for an inferior race like Ante! No, we can’t use such a weak name. This operation will be called—Typhoon! We will eradicate Ante as easily as a typhoon, ending the war before winter arrives!
“This December, we will sign the surrender document with the enemy at Ekaterinburg Fortress, just as we did last May in Carolingian!”
Marshal Von Bock and other officers stood up one after another, shouting, “Long live Prosen! Long live the Emperor!”
————
Wang Zhong raised his head upon hearing the sound of artillery fire outside and approached the window.
Unfortunately, he could not see the shells being fired in the darkness.
Even when he switched to a bird’s-eye view, he still saw nothing. In this view, the entire western bank was pitch-black, meaning there were no enemy units.
Wang Zhong, “I wonder how long this calm will last.”
Vasily, “The enemy won’t be calm. By tomorrow morning, they’ll be digging graves for their comrades who died in their sleep.”
Wang Zhong, “We would do the same if the enemy artillery advanced. The good news is we have ready-made reinforced concrete buildings for bomb shelters. How is the reinforcement of the buildings on the east bank progressing?”
Pavlov, “It hasn’t started yet, the main priority right now is pouring concrete bunkers to get them to peak hardness sooner. However, we have reinforced some key buildings with steel.”
Wang Zhong nodded, “Good. Also, we’ve brought a brand new type of artillery and a new type of self-propelled artillery. Gather the anti-tank artillery units tomorrow, and get them familiar with these two weapons as quickly as possible before the enemy attacks.
“Especially the self-propelled anti-tank artillery, we need to prepare specific positions and routes for their relocation.”
Popov frowned, “You mean that unimpressive-looking tractor? That thing just looks like a stick tied on top of a tractor. And although I’m not familiar with artillery, that artillery piece looks different from all the ones we have.
“It looks more slender than the 76 gun, but the barrel is very long! It’s like an embroidery needle!”
Wang Zhong, “Yes, an embroidery needle, and one that consumed a lot of production hours to create. The time it takes to make one of these guns could be used to make several 76 guns. But correspondingly, this gun has astonishing power and terrifying accuracy.”
Vasily laughed, “Sounds good. Our anti-tank artillery troops have only pulled out the gunner. General, where did you get this gun from?”
Wang Zhong, “No one else wanted it, they complained it wasn’t tested.”
Everyone else was stunned.
Vasily laughed, “General, you’re teasing us again! You blew all this smoke without it being tested?”
Wang Zhong thought to himself that he bragged because the gun had been tested in combat on Earth.
He looked at Vasily, “Tomorrow, we will test this gun.”
Vasily’s smile froze.
Wang Zhong, “You have to understand that our armaments are very scarce right now because most of the factories are being relocated to the east and even after the relocation is complete, it will take time to restore production efficiency.
“Because of that, we can only continue producing the flawed T34 to replenish our forces and slowly expand the production of the highly praised Parade Tank.”
Harlamov, being from the Air Force, was puzzled when he heard ‘Parade Tank,’ “Parade Tank?”
Wang Zhong: “In order for a foot soldier like me with no tank training to command from a tank, my vehicle, number 422, was modified from a Parade Tank. But it turned out to show excellent combat performance.”
Harlamov blinked, “Did you just say ‘a foot soldier with no tank training commanding a tank in battle’?”
Wang Zhong: “I’m a foot soldier.”
Harlamov gasped, “What? I thought you were from the Armored Troops! After all… didn’t you kill eight Prosen generals with a tank?”
“Two, two Prosen generals,” Wang Zhong was almost tired of correcting this statement again and again, “and one of them was actually killed by artillery.”
“I see. But it’s strange, war is really strange. One of the most formidable tank commanders from Prosen actually wrote ‘Infantry Attack.’ Harlamov shook his head. “Maybe one day you, a foot soldier, could become a Marshal of the Air Force.”
Wang Zhong laughed heartily, but thought to himself, not to hide it from you, I’m a super pilot in War Thunder with over a thousand enemy planes shot down!
If my physique could handle it, I would definitely show you what an ace pilot is.
But the planes now don’t have ejection seats, and the rate at which pilots are shot down and die is too high, so it’s better to honestly be a general on the ground.
Though being on the ground isn’t necessarily much safer than being in the air.
At this moment, Nelly pushed the door open and came in with a cart: “Snack time! Today’s snack is yogurt cheese and pancakes brought over from Ye Fort.”
Harlamov’s eyes widened when he saw Nelly: “Why is there such a young girl here? She looks about the same age as my daughter, who should be in fifth grade!”
Nelly looked disdainfully at the pilot: “I graduated from tenth grade a long time ago.”
“Eh? Is that so?” Colonel Harlamov was surprised.
Vasily asked, “You have a daughter?”
“Of course, I carry a photo of them both as an amulet. Look!” Harlamov took out a locket and opened it to show the photo inside to everyone.
It was clearly a family photo folded to show only the daughter and wife.
Pavlov was amazed at the photo: “You’re a lucky man.”
Wang Zhong: “Chief of Staff, don’t you also have a wedding ring?”
“Yes, I do. But my wife… let’s not mention her,” the bear-like Chief of Staff shook his head, “she’s strong enough to go bear hunting in the mountains now.”
Wang Zhong joked, “Isn’t that normal? Ante women are eventually going to fight bears in the mountains.”
Nelly frowned, looking at Wang Zhong.
Harlamov looked at the photo of his wife and shook his head: “She probably couldn’t beat a bear. She’s a middle school teacher, quite delicate. She would get a sore back and back pains just from chopping wood outside in winter.
“After that, the church installed coal stoves for the city’s intellectual families, and she has been thankful to the church for many years now. When she sits outside making coal balls in winter, she always tells my daughter about the past when they could only burn wood for warmth.”
Wang Zhong: “Isn’t heating in winter now all done with fuel from Kubar?”
Harlamov shook his head, “We can’t transport it over there; it’s better to use coal from nearby mines. Coal production was low before, but after the church took it over, production increased and now everyone can afford coal.”
Wang Zhong: “I see.”
Harlamov continued, “We were planning to move to Kazarlia, but now Kazarlia has fallen.”
Wang Zhong earnestly replied, “It hasn’t fallen. I still carry a box of it with me. As long as I’m alive, Kazarlia will always have land that hasn’t fallen, and that land is right beside me.”
Harlamov paused for a moment, then apologized, “I’m sorry, General, I…”
“And now, the Bolsk Front Army is still fighting; that is also Kazarlian territory. So to say Kazarlia has fallen is not accurate,” Wang Zhong corrected seriously.
“I’m sorry,” Harlamov apologized sincerely.
But Pavlov said, “The situation for the Bolsk Front Army isn’t great either, but if the enemy focuses mainly on attacking Ye Fort for the rest of this year, they might get a chance to breathe. If the enemy wants to get the oil from Kubar, they will eventually have to attack Bolsk.”
Wang Zhong: “No matter how much territory we lose, we will recapture all of it in the end. Definitely.”
Everyone else in the room unanimously said, “Of course.”
Nelly: “Do you want sour cream with your pancakes?”
Wang Zhong: “Yes!”