The enemy conducted several more rounds of salvo fire before they started to advance.
Pavlov picked up the phone and then reported to Wang Zhong, “In addition to attacking the windows on the second and third floors, the enemy also targeted the shelters we used this morning to fire upon their scouting team—of course, those shelters are now empty.
“Three machine gun teams were caught by the enemy. We managed to salvage one machine gun, but lost ten men with more than ten wounded.”
Wang Zhong, “That’s acceptable, we’ll make the enemy pay in blood.”
Vasily, “Would our losses be greater if the enemy stayed put and shot at all our windows one by one?”
Wang Zhong, “The Panzer IV’s short 75 at this distance is not that accurate. Haven’t you noticed that their main forces are mostly using the short 50 guns? The high-explosive shells from those aren’t that powerful.
“If the enemy keeps firing from this distance, I’ll have the Anti-tank Artillery Battalion open fire. Do you think their short 50s can compare to our newly-acquired 57mm guns?”
Caliber is basically equivalent to power, and the high-explosive shells from the short 50 guns, which we experienced in Upper Peniye, are more like hand grenades. To expect them to take out sheltered anti-tank guns is wishful thinking.
And the newly-acquired 57mm guns, while they can’t penetrate Tiger or Panther tanks at a distance of 1500 meters, that’s not what the enemy is driving. They have early models of the Panzer III and IV.
Who’s afraid of whom.
The newly-appointed staff officer who was observing called out, “The enemy has passed the one-kilometer mark!”
Wang Zhong quickly prostrated himself at the observation window.
And right then, the anti-tank guns opened fire.
The new 57mm gun shells were incredibly fast. With a whoosh, the shell flew out of sight, barely visible.
Immediately, seven or eight tanks in the enemy formation came to a halt.
One caught fire, and its Tank Operator scrambled out of the tank like a flying escapee. Before he got far, the tank exploded, and the turret was flung into the sky.
A few more tanks showed no external damage, but their crews still ran out and took cover behind their vehicles.
As for the tanks with no visible damage and no crew fleeing, from Wang Zhong’s perspective, they looked as though everyone inside was already dead.
One shot penetrated, and the entire crew was sent to heaven. Like my 57mm shells, do you, Prosen bastards?
Wang Zhong knew this, but the Gunner did not, so during the second wave of attacks, several shots were ‘double taps’ aimed at the seemingly unresponsive targets.
At this point, the enemy had pinpointed the rough location of the anti-tank guns and began swiftly firing back.
Wang Zhong hurried to assess the situation on his side and found that the enemy had detected the ZIS-30 posts—after all, these vehicles are quite noticeable due to their size and the higher firing position which made them hard to conceal.
But the first salvo landed on the shelters, with only one of the ZIS-30 Gunners injured by shrapnel.
The enemy did not spot the towed 57mm gun positions at all.
Ironically, because the towed 57mm gun crews were numerous and fired rapidly, with twelve guns sounding off, it was almost like a string of firecrackers.
The entire battlefield was now filled with roaring gunfire and the thunder of tank engines—a lively commotion indeed.
However, the absence of machine gun fire felt strange to Wang Zhong.
Mainly because enemy infantry were held back by mortar fire, leaving the machine guns without targets—firing blindly was inefficient and would attract direct return fire from enemy tanks, so it was better not to fire at all.
Now it was a pure artillery battle, the main force being the gun regiment that had been replenished on the basis of the original Anti-tank Artillery Battalion by the Guards First Division.
It now seemed that the attack on this side of the crossing point would be rapidly defused.
At that moment Vasily said, “Enemy tanks are nearing the bridgehead!”
Wang Zhong immediately looked in the direction of the bridge and indeed, the enemy tanks were approaching the bridgehead.
No sooner said than done, the T-34 on this side of the bridge fired.
The T-34 couldn’t shoot as far as the new 57mm guns, but there was no problem supporting the bridgehead at close range.
Plus, the T-34s had armor, unlike the naked ZIS-30, so they could push to the river’s edge, taking cover and engaging the enemy in close-range firefights.
While the Panzer IVs were initially focused on suppressing the bridgehead, they swiveled their guns to fire at the T-34s.
Caught off guard by the sudden barrage from the T-34s, the enemy didn’t even manage to switch to Armor-Piercing Shells—high-explosive shells simply hit the T-34s’ positions.
After several exchanges of fire, the remaining Panzer IVs deployed smoke and began to retreat.
Seeing the troops attacking the bridgehead deploying smoke, the other units also started using traditional Skills to lay down smoke screens until the entire west bank was enveloped in white smoke.
Wang Zhong, “Machine guns, open fire. Form a fire zone.”
As the enemy had deployed smoke, and they couldn’t see our machine gun positions through the smoke, it was time for the machine guns to fire freely.
The sounds of machine guns erupted like popping beans, weaving into a dense web of fire that stopped the enemy infantry who tried to advance amid the confusion.
Suddenly, Wang Zhong saw a Panzer IV at full power heading toward the bridgehead, with three half-tracks loaded with infantry behind it!
The Panzer IV crashed into the bridgehead, diverting all the attention of the defenders to itself, and then the three half-tracks raced to the side of the bridgehead. Elite Prosen grenadiers jumped out, throwing grenades and shouting, “Charge!”
Then, within the bridgehead, combat engineers clad in battle armor appeared.
Surprise, I stationed combat engineers here!
The Prosen grenadiers, armed for close combat with submachine guns which fired pistol rounds, could not penetrate the brand new combat armor.
Wang Zhong equipped the combat engineers with Papashas that had drum magazines — predecessors to the more modern versions, capable of being used as blunt weapons when the bullets ran out.
Wang Zhong watched contentedly as the combat engineers brutally killed the Prussian soldiers in close combat.
At that moment, Vasily suddenly shouted, “Quick, look over there!”
It was then that Wang Zhong snapped out of his spectator mode and reverted to his naked eye, following the direction Vasily pointed.
He saw the Naval Infantry boarding speedboats and crossing the Duva River.
What did this mean? Had the Naval Infantry assessed that the bridgehead was in danger and thus took the initiative to strike?
The Naval Infantry didn’t fall under Wang Zhong’s command, although they accepted his orders, they weren’t his troops. Therefore, from his bird’s-eye view, he could only see a massive Naval Infantry insignia amid the smoke and not the individual soldiers.
Nevertheless, he watched the insignia throw a left hook, wiping out the Prosen infantry that had used the smoke to approach and even burned a short-barreled Panzer IV that was supporting the Prussians in the smoke.
Meanwhile, the Naval Infantry’s inland gunboat also sailed out, anchored on the river, and started bombarding, the automated guns sweeping through the smoke.
Good lord, just now when the visibility was clear, they feared that a single ship might not be able to defeat the tank group. Once the smoke arose, they began to take advantage of the automatic guns, right?
The quality and initiative of these Naval troops!
As Wang Zhong was reflecting, the telephone rang. The phone was right beside him this time, so he picked it up directly, “This is Rocossov.”
“This is the bridgehead, we have repelled the enemy, the machine guns can cease fire now, General.”
“Alright,” Wang Zhong hung up the phone and said to Pavlov, “Cease the machine gun fire, no need to maintain the fire net anymore.”
Pavlov immediately picked up the phone.
After he had relayed the orders, he said, “Should we consider setting up a direct command communication system? I’m getting tired of making calls all the time. At least some simple commands could be conveyed via broadcast or something.”
Wang Zhong: “That’s worth considering.”
Popov, by the observation window, said, “Has the enemy’s first wave of attack been repulsed?”
Wang Zhong glanced over and saw that the enemy hadn’t fully left his field of vision but had stopped at the edge of it and started engineering work.
Wang Zhong used his bird’s-eye view to confirm there were no enemy aircraft in the sky — but he was still uneasy and said to Pavlov, “Call Brother Peter to confirm we have no enemies overhead.”
Pavlov immediately carried out the order, and 30 seconds later, he put down the receiver, “Brother Peter says there are no enemy planes anymore.”
Wang Zhong: “Order the artillery to fire to prevent the enemy from approaching and starting their engineering work.”
Again, Pavlov picked up the receiver.
Moments later, the sound of artillery shells tearing through the air echoed overhead.
Through the bird’s-eye view, Wang Zhong could clearly see shells falling near the enemy engineering troops.
Watching the enemy being blasted and knocked off their feet, Wang Zhong breathed a sigh of relief: “The first wave has been repelled.”
Vasily clicked his tongue in amazement, “How come the enemy infantry had no hesitation and just charged at us, rendering our fake landmines utterly useless?”
Wang Zhong: “Perhaps the enemy wasn’t as sharp-witted as you, thinking that after our artillery bombardment there wouldn’t be any mines left, and even upon seeing the exposed fake mines, they didn’t consider that possibility.”
Vasily frowned, “I don’t know whether to praise them or mock them for being so rigid. I didn’t expect my clever idea to be frustrated like this.”
At this moment, Popov interrupted Vasily’s casual talk, “What do you think the enemy’s next wave of attack will look like?”
Wang Zhong: “I think they will use smoke to obscure our view, and then with the support of direct fire, they will mount a strong attack on the bridgehead.”
Popov: “Then do we proceed with the defense according to the original plan?”
“Correct, I haven’t seen anything unexpected so far.”
Wang Zhong returned to the city defense map, making gestures over it: “With a fortress like the bridgehead, the enemy can at most deploy two companies for the attack, and those two companies can’t attack simultaneously.
“You see, one company here, one company there. According to our prepared fire plan, the mortars can completely cover the enemy’s attack formation.
“We aim to cripple two of the enemy’s companies in one go. When evening comes, we’ll switch defenses under the cover of night, replacing the garrison troops with fresh forces. We’ll keep bleeding the enemy infantry this way.”
Pavlov: “Once we’ve bled them enough, we’ll pull back, blow the bridge. The enemy won’t be able to repair it under our fire.”
Wang Zhong: “Exactly, this time we have the terrain, the manpower, the firepower, and the support of brother units. We will hold out here until it rains.”
Popov: “I actually hate the rainy season; my legs start to hurt as if I’ve got gout whenever it rains.
Wang Zhong: “Are you sure you don’t actually have gout?”
“Of course not, I haven’t eaten anything that would cause gout, I’m a Priest, understand, a Priest,” Popov gestured over the holy emblem on himself, “But now, I am hoping for the rain to come sooner.”
At that moment, a staff officer came in: “Reporting, the reserve troops have captured a Prussian pilot who has been brought to the door.”
Wang Zhong: “What unit’s pilot? A fighter?”
“It’s a bomber unit,” the staff officer replied.
Wang Zhong: “Bring him in.”
Soon, a pilot wearing a flight jacket was brought in.