Giles stared at Feliz for a few seconds, sighed, and did not order anyone to go out.
“Have the troops temporarily halt their advance, spread out on the spot, and dig artillery shelters. We’ll wait for the engineers to be brought in from behind to clear the mines.”
The Chief of Staff suggested, “The divisional engineers can still be used, especially for clearing this amount of mines.”
Another staff officer suggested, “Actually, there’s a combat engineer battalion that made it out. After reorganization, they can be sent up to clear the mines, considering they are engineers too.”
Giles: “Fine, we’ll do it both ways. I want to see the enemy’s new mines by tonight.”
———
About 6 hours later, the “new” mines were brought before Giles.
Giles wanted to approach, but was stopped by his aide-de-camp, Feliz.
Feliz stepped forward first to carefully examine the device and then turned to look at the engineer captain with a puzzled gaze—the insignia on his collar had an ornament, indicating he was a combat engineer, not a regular one.
Feliz: “How does this thing detonate?”
“The detonation works through a pull rope underneath. The other end of the pull rope is buried deep in the ground.” The engineer immediately explained, “So if you cut the pull rope, it won’t explode.”
“I mean, how does it detonate when infantry step on it?” Feliz raised his voice.
The captain: “It won’t detonate. The pressure plate on this thing is a decoy, it’s completely inert, but it simulates the sensation of stepping on a mine. Infantry who step on it dare not move, luring mine-clearing personnel to approach, and then it can be detonated using a simple pull rope.”
Feliz’s mouth gaped open, and for a moment, he forgot to close it.
Giles concluded, “So the enemy has exploited our fixed ways of thinking, resulting in dozens of casualties on our side?”
The Chief of Staff added, “And wasted six hours of our time. By the way, while we were stalled in the open, we came under artillery fire, resulting in a few hundred casualties.”
Giles’ eye twitched.
Feliz immediately stepped in as Giles’ “mouthpiece,” cursing loudly, “These enemies only know how to play sly tricks! Coming up with things as perplexing as brain teasers! Are these things useful? Can they prevent them from losing the war in three months?”
Giles rebuked, “Don’t be like that! The enemy’s cunning is to be respected. We have to admit when we’ve been outsmarted.”
He then asked, “What about those iron discs used to cover these mines? Are they specialized equipment?”
“This thing,” the engineer captain picked up the “disc” placed next to the mine, “you can see it has a groove on one side, we believe it might be a bottle cap.”
“A bottle cap!” Feliz exclaimed, “How can they use such things in warfare?”
Giles patted Feliz on the shoulder: “Don’t be like that, a good soldier must be able to skillfully use anything at hand, even if all they have is a pencil, they have to figure out a way to kill the enemy.”
“The White Horse General has delayed us with these rudimentary things, we should reflect on it carefully. So, have the troops now recaptured the lost positions?”
The engineer captain replied, “I’m only responsible for transporting the discovered items to headquarters, I don’t know the situation at the front.”
The Chief of Staff answered, “The troops have entered the positions. In line with your instructions, the railroad has been dismantled, and the Anti-tank Artillery Battalion has also been deployed.”
Giles: “How long before we can start digging in?”
Engineer captain: “We’re combat engineers, good at clearing mines. For trench advancement, we need digging equipment and dedicated engineering experts, all of whom have been captured by the enemy.”
Giles: “Not a single expert remains?”
“Not one remains, we even lost the trench arrangement plans drawn up by the previous bowmen brigade commander. It will take time for a new expert to come and redraw the arrangement plans.”
Giles put a hand to his forehead: “Damn it, hurry up and get the troops up from behind!”
At that moment, the Chief of Staff suggested, “The commander of the Ampula Division, Kluge, suggests building an artillery observation post on the slope at the front line to guide the artillery bombardment.”
“How far is the breakthrough from our lines?” Giles inquired.
The Chief of Staff: “It’s just south of our current trench. We can start building now… no, we can start building tomorrow.”
After checking the time, he amended his statement again: “We can start building today, it’s light now.”
Giles waved his hand grandly, “Let him build it.”
———
The next day, on September 25, 914, Wang Zhong entered the bunker yawning and first greeted the night-shift Popov: “Hello. How’s everything?”
Popov: “Fantastic, there were mine explosions even in the middle of last night. But this morning, the report from the bridgehead says the enemy was observed on the positions we abandoned.”
Wang Zhong stepped up to the observation window and picked up the binoculars for a pretense of a look: “Indeed.”
From a bird’s eye view, the trench was filled with the enemy.
Popov: “I never expected these fake mines to delay the enemy for that long.”
Wang Zhong hummed a response: “This means that the time it takes for the enemy to dig through will be pushed back another day. By the way, have the prisoners been sent back to Ye Fort?”
Popov: “They’ve already been crammed into a sealed railcar and taken away. Additionally, the interrogation of the enemy’s cryptographer by the Judge has concluded.”
Wang Zhong: “Did he talk?”
Popov: “No, the person was rushed into the emergency room and just got resuscitated. The Tribunal sent a telegram scolding us about this matter, demanding that the individual be sent to Ye Fort immediately, where professionals from the Tribunal headquarters will take over.”
Wang Zhong: “So, they were stuffed into a train instead?”
“No, Ye Fort dispatched a plane to pick him up, and he’s already on the plane and gone.” After Popov finished, Pavlov entered the bunker.
“So, what’s the situation like?” he asked.
Wang Zhong repeated what Popov had just said.
Pavlov laughed heartily, “That’s great. I’d really like to see the face of the enemy commander when he sees what Vasily has made.”
Wang Zhong: “I would too, it must be quite a sight.”
He paused, looking across the river: “I guess the enemy is bringing up their anti-tank guns now.”
Within Wang Zhong’s field of vision, there were no highlighted anti-tank gun units, so he added, “We should have the Air Force look for them.”
Pavlov: “That’s possible. Maybe the Prussians forgot to camouflage them. After all, there were no camouflage nets in the war materials you seized with your assault yesterday.”
Indeed, during previous Air Force reconnaissance, it seemed like the Prussians had been careless and forgotten to install camouflage nets. It wasn’t until yesterday’s charge, capturing the enemy engineer brigade headquarters, that we realized the enemy didn’t have any camouflage nets at all.
It was unclear whether they discovered the Ante infrastructure was too poor after arriving, requiring a change in their supply plan that delayed priorities, or if they simply never thought they needed camouflage nets in the first place.
Wang Zhong himself picked up the telephone receiver: “Connect me with the Air Force.”
————
More than two hours later, a call from Harlamov came in: “We’ve discovered at least one battalion of anti-tank artillery troops. We strafed them, but I can’t say for sure how many we killed. After all, everyone would lie down when the machine guns sweep over.”
Wang Zhong: “That means they’re all well-trained Prussian soldiers.”
Of course, Harlamov didn’t catch the movie reference in Wang Zhong’s remark and agreed, “Indeed, many recognized the direction of our attack and knew to quickly move out of the strafing area.
“It’s difficult to judge the effect of our attack just with our eyes. So we were about to call you and arrange for another artillery strike when the enemy Air Force showed up.”
Wang Zhong: “No worries, it’s good that you made it back safely.”
Harlamov: “I’ve had someone send over a map with the enemy anti-tank artillery battalion positions marked. It should be arriving soon. Also, if you were thinking of another armored train sortie, I’m telling you there’s no chance. The enemy has torn up the rails on their side of the front.”
As soon as the other side finished, a staff officer came in leading a messenger: “Report, a messenger from the airfield has arrived.”
Wang Zhong: “The map is here, Harlamov. I’ll hang up now.”
“Alright, good luck hitting the enemy hard!”
“I will.”
Wang Zhong put down the receiver and said to the messenger, “The map.”
The messenger didn’t respond, but directly took out the map and handed it to Wang Zhong.
Wang Zhong glanced at the map and handed it to Pavlov: “Artillery strike according to this.”
As Pavlov was giving the orders to the artillery, Vasily said, “Looks like another boring day today. It would be great if we could make a charge like yesterday. Why don’t we do it again?”
Wang Zhong: “Not possible, aerial reconnaissance just reported the enemy has destroyed the rail track. This kind of armored train assault can’t be used anymore.”
Vasily, not giving up: “Then let’s organize a pure armored assault? Use ferries to transport the tanks across…”
Wang Zhong: “No, the western ferry docks are full of enemy tank traps in the water; ferries can’t dock there anymore, and small boats can’t carry tanks.”
Vasily, frowning: “Are we just going to stand here and watch then?”
After some thought, Wang Zhong said, “Here’s an idea, we can organize people to shout across to the other side with loudspeakers, mocking them for their slow advance. By the time they have dug their way across, it’ll be raining and they will be stuck in the mud.”
Vasily: “That sounds pretty good. The navy should have loudspeakers; I’ll see if I can get hold of one.”
Wang Zhong: “Go on then. And be careful, the enemy has routine artillery bombardments.”
Vasily immediately rolled up his sleeve to show off his watch: “I have this! Taken from a dead enemy’s wrist! Now, this watch is going to shine for the Ante Empire!”
Wang Zhong: “You rascal, hoarding spoils for yourself! And you even dare to pull it out in front of the bishop!”
Popov: “Normally, we wouldn’t actively deal with soldiers taking war trophies, but showing them off in front of me is a different story. Remember to remind me to confine you to a month in solitary when we leave the battlefield.”
Vasily exclaimed, “A month???”
Popov: “Yes.”
Vasily immediately looked like he was on the verge of tears.
Popov went on, “The main thing is to maintain discipline in the army. We can’t all start hunting for war trophies as soon as we take an enemy position. Then, if the enemy counterattacks, we might lose the position again.”
Vasily turned and ran off with a doleful face.
Wang Zhong: “I was sitting on a tank the whole time yesterday, so I didn’t have time to pick up any war trophies. Otherwise, I would’ve wanted a Prussian-made scope.”
As he finished speaking, the artillery began their attack on the anti-tank gun positions, with the sound of shells flying overhead.