Time moved a little backward, to one hour before dawn.
At the headquarters of the Prosen Asgard Knight Order’s Ampler Division, Kluge, an old acquaintance of Rokossov and the acting commander of the Ampler Division, was addressing his troops.
No, that’s not right, for after the courageous performance in the offensive actions following the crossing of Orachi, Commander Kluge had officially become a “Division Commander,” promoted to the rank of Major General, just like the White Horse General, Rokossov.
At this moment, Kluge was lecturing the newly supplemented staff at the division headquarters, “I’m very familiar with the White Horse General, especially familiar. He’s a cunning man, the master of trifles! But if you’re not careful, you’ll fall right into his trap!
“Yesterday, he bombed our deployment area, flipping over our troops that were setting up for the attack, forcing us to delay our offensive for over two hours!
“I believe he will try again today. However, there will be a slight change in the bombing positions! He’ll bet that we’re deploying further back, trying to dodge the bombardment with a small sacrifice.”
The reason troops need to deploy just before they encounter the enemy is that maintaining the formation after deploying for an attack is extremely difficult.
The formation used while marching is favored because it’s manageable.
Attack formation, on the other hand, cannot be managed. It’s manageable to march in attack formation for three kilometers, but any longer distances will lead to all sorts of problems.
Looking proudly at the map where he’d drawn the deployment location, Kluge said, “That’s why we should do the opposite: we deploy in the same position as yesterday, which will cause the bombardment to fall behind us, allowing us to initiate the attack on time!”
Then, the newly appointed Chief of Staff commented, “But I’ve looked through my division’s combat logs against General Rokossovsky, and his nightly artillery barrages have been hitting fixed targets, without any variation. Even when our troops had moved far from the villages and camped in the open, he bombarded the villages.
“Could he bomb the original locations this time as well?”
Kluge frowned, “Impossible! I have a basis for my prediction! Last night, Commander Giles’ headquarters was bombed, but the shells fell off target, only flipping over the military police battalion that was having dinner!
“Clearly, Rokossov had our intelligence, perhaps a military map. But think about it, how could our own map be off? It’s our army’s map! The location of the headquarters must be clearly marked, not a single coordinate wrong!
“That must be Rokossov playing clever, that’s why it was off! He’ll continue to act smart today!”
After a few seconds of thought, the new Chief of Staff nodded, “That makes sense!”
Kluge declared, “Then it’s settled. Let us mock Rokossov’s cleverness!”
————
An hour later, the artillery staff suddenly entered to report, “The enemy has begun to bombard our deployment area!”
Kluge laughed, “Where did they hit? Is it our rear?”
Staff, “No… it’s… our troops that are currently deploying.”
Kluge’s face changed, and he hurriedly strode out of the headquarters’ armored command vehicle—the Prussian Army now dared not stay in buildings when facing the White Horse General, instead residing in armored command vehicles in open fields.
Looking at the shells continuously falling less than two kilometers away, Kluge nearly lost his footing, but the new Chief of Staff came to support him.
He shouted with all his soul towards the bombing area, “My newly replenished troops!”
Under the heavy barrage, all lives are equal; no matter if they’re veterans or not, if a shell lands nearby, those who should die will die.
At that moment, the communication staff came out of the communication vehicle and saluted Kluge, “Major General, we just received a telegram from the Emperor’s Personal Guards Division, who were also bombarded but suffered minor losses due to their assembly point being moved back a kilometer. Only stray shells fell on the troops that were deploying.”
The new Chief of Staff looked at Kluge, wisely choosing not to speak.
Kluge sighed, “Tell the Emperor’s Personal Guards that my division can’t launch the attack as scheduled. Ask them to also postpone their attack time, or they might be flanked by the enemy.”
The staff saluted and then ran toward the communication vehicle.
————
At 0800 hours on September 21, near the headquarters bunker of the Guards Mechanized Infantry Division in Shostka,
Wang Zhong looked outside, then at his watch, “Even if we hit them this morning, shouldn’t they have launched the attack by now?”
Pavlov joked, “Maybe you killed their division commander again, leading to command chaos.”
Wang Zhong shook his head, “Impossible. Prussian commanders like to come to the front to see the situation first-hand. In Peniye, their combat group commander was staring eye to eye with me the whole time; I was prone on the water tower, and he was standing on the high ground, with the weeping Kazarlia between us.
“Back then, I didn’t have a T34; if I did, I would have charged at him.
“And yesterday, guess what, I saw a battalion commander!”
After speaking, Wang Zhong realized he had said too much and hurriedly corrected himself, “I mean, I spotted a tank that seemed to be a battalion command tank, then I called in heavy artillery cover.”
In reality, Wang Zhong had already noticed this glaring flaw in himself, only being able to illuminate enemies within his eyesight. Now in command of a division, with such a broad front, staying in the division headquarters bunker only allowed him to illuminate a sector of the enemy in front.
In order to make efficient use of this cheat, Wang Zhong had to treat tank number 422 as a Parade Tank—sitting on it and doing nothing, just patrolling along the position. Light up an enemy commander, and boom, gone.
Of course, there was a downside to this. The gunner of tank 422 was a tank instructor, so he shot more accurately than anyone else. He was also well acquainted with the tank’s quirks, so if he switched to another gun, he couldn’t achieve the same level of precision.
This problem was easily solvable. After all, the Parade Tanks ordered in the name of the Royal Family by Olga had already been produced in the dozens, all of which were in Wang Zhong’s unit. It was simply a matter of switching to another tank.
However, Pavlov would get upset if Wang Zhong left the headquarters to hop into a smaller tank.
At the time, Pavlov had persuaded Wang Zhong with these words, “The front line is still stable now. There’s no need for you to run around everywhere. You are most effective when you hold the command post. If the defense line is full of holes in the future, then wait to run around as a firefighter.”
Pavlov’s words were logical and in line with military common sense.
Moreover, the Prussian troops were well-organized. In Loktov, when the enemy commander at the front was killed, the division only descended into chaos for an hour, after which they launched a fierce infantry assault that nearly penetrated Wang Zhong’s “Imperial Iron Wall.”
It seemed that killing the enemy’s battalion commander wouldn’t have an immediate and significant effect.
Just yesterday, when Wang Zhong blew up that battalion commander, the enemy’s attacking troops didn’t stop at all.
It appeared that to the Prussians, a battalion commander’s rank wasn’t enough. Only by killing a division commander could they stop the enemy’s attack for more than an hour.
But where was the enemy division commander?
In Loktov, the enemy’s division commander was less than four kilometers from the front line—Wang Zhong could find him just by charging with a small tank!
The longer the war dragged on, the farther the enemy division commanders stayed from the frontline.
Could it be that they were scared off by me?
I’m thinking, I haven’t blown up many division commanders.
While Wang Zhong pondered, a new staff officer operating the artillery mirror asked Vasily, “Musician, why is there a layer of net on the artillery mirror?”
With pride, Vasily replied, “Don’t understand, do you? They didn’t teach this at the military academy, right? This is General Rokossovsky’s invention! With the net over it, due to the imaging principle of the artillery mirror, we can’t see the net, but we can see the enemy—because the imaging position of the net isn’t on the eyepiece!”
Staff officer: “I understand the principle, but what’s the point of it?”
“To prevent reflections. The bunker now faces west, and in the afternoon, sunlight could come in and potentially reflect light, exposing our position. Learn this; it might save your life one day!”
The new staff officer looked convincingly impressed, although his rank was much higher than Vasily’s—Vasily’s military academy trained junior officers, while the staff officer had attended the same academy as Wang Zhong.
The staff officer leaned closer to the eyepiece of the artillery mirror: “Indeed, I can’t see the net, but the amount of light entering is obviously affected. I feel that aside from preventing reflections, it could also maintain a good field of vision in the afternoon against the setting sun.”
Vasily was momentarily stunned, then quickly recovered: “Right! Exactly! The general has said so already.”
Wang Zhong thought to himself that this was nonsense; he had never said such a thing—how could he know this if it wasn’t depicted in the movies?
But he just smiled slightly, “Of course.”
Then he added to the story: “This technique was actually developed during sniper competitions between the Crown Prince and me. Back then, our game involved both of us entering the Royal Hunting Grounds from different directions, fully equipped…”
New staff officer: “In the Royal Hunting Grounds of Oryol?”
Wang Zhong: “…Right! After entering, we would move forward and hunt for our daily food, silently advancing until one of us discovered the other.
“Whoever fired first and the bullet landed within a two-meter radius of the other person would be considered the victor.
“Of course, it’s hard to determine the winner in such a game, so in the end, it came down to who admitted defeat.”
The new staff officer laughed, “The Crown Prince must have won all the games.”
Wang Zhong kept smiling, not because he agreed with the answer, but because he suddenly realized that he had oversold his story.
If some nosy person later went to the Royal Hunting Grounds to inquire and was told that nothing of the sort ever happened, wouldn’t that blow his cover?
He could only hope that everyone would comply in silent accord.
It was a bit like the time before his traversal, riding on the slow green-skinned train, where out of sheer boredom, passengers resorted to chatting to pass the time. Everyone would ramble on about all sorts of topics, knowing full well that the stories were made up but never calling each other out, treating them like stories.
The situation on the green-skinned train was similar to the current one; everyone inside the command post had to stay confined in this small space, bored stiff, killing time as best as they could.
Unable to play poker, they could only resort to harmless boasting.
No sooner had Wang Zhong finished embellishing, than player Vasily began, “Filippov and I didn’t have such extravagant hobbies. Our entertainment was…”
New staff officer: “Enemy incoming! The attack has begun!”