Wang Zhong looked up at the sky and thought to himself that it hadn’t snowed, so why was the princess coming—no, why should he fear the snow, he wasn’t playing both sides.
Thus, he saluted the princess, his heels slamming together with a thunderous sound, “Your Imperial Highness, the Grand Princess!”
Ludmila also saluted, and all the soldiers on the platform saluted in one direction. A few slow-reacting members of the Guardian Army looked around confusedly until they saw the princess’s crown, and then hastily saluted as well.
The princess’s smile stiffened when she saw their salute, but she quickly adjusted her expression and responded with royal etiquette, “At ease. You are all brave warriors who have fought for the Empire; there’s no need for such formalities.”
After finishing her words, she got off the train and came up to Wang Zhong. Seeing that Wang Zhong had lowered his hand, she once again revealed the smile she had at the beginning and opened her mouth—
Wang Zhong cut her off, “You should have notified us in advance of your inspection!”
Olga didn’t stutter this time but smoothly caught on to his comment, “If it were announced, there would be a security issue. The situation in the capital is very complex now. More than a hundred people were shot today, and a curfew might be implemented starting tomorrow.”
Wang Zhong slightly frowned, “Is the situation that bad?”
“Yes, when you held Shostka, the defeatists kept quiet. The moment you retreated, they started. But exactly what they say, I do not know. If I did, the Judges would certainly know as well, and they would have been completely eradicated.”
Wang Zhong, “What do you mean by ‘they started’?”
Olga, “You would know if you were to experience the capital for yourself. I can tell from their eyes, their attitudes. Before coming here, I saw the Grand Patriarch, and his eyes also indicated many issues. If the Prussian Army wasn’t just 200 kilometers from the capital now, he might have already started a systematic purge of the capitulationists.”
Olga paused, then shook her head, “I don’t know, he might also be waiting for these capitulationists to expose themselves. After our army drives the enemy from the capital, that might be the time to act.”
The princess stopped, raised her hand, and gently touched the stars on Wang Zhong’s coat collar, “The Grand Patriarch trusts your judgment a lot. The enemy will be stopped, right?”
Wang Zhong, “The enemy will be stopped.”
He had wanted to remove the princess’s hand as he spoke, but considering the many eyes on him, he decided against it.
A girl being pushed away under such circumstances would probably feel humiliated.
But Olga withdrew her hand herself and with a smile said, “That’s good. I came here for two reasons, the first being to ask about the next production plan.
“The 100 tanks produced under the special royal decree have all been completed, and aside from the 24 reserved for the parade, the rest have been sent to the troops and have been well received.
“What shall we produce next?”
Wang Zhong, “Continue producing the Parade Tanks, of course. If they’re well received, we continue production. It’s best to switch all of Ye Fort Joint Machinery Factory’s capacity to Parade Tanks. It took more than two months to produce those hundred units, which is too slow. At this pace, we’d only produce six hundred tanks a year, which is far too few.
“The scale of the war we’re now involved in is unprecedented; throwing in six hundred tanks won’t even cause a splash.
“At the start of the war, we had over twenty thousand tanks, even if most were just BTs and T26s, but the enemy also had many of their Panzer I and II.
“But now look, our twenty thousand tanks have all been gobbled up by the enemy, not even a core spit out.”
Olga nodded, “Then we’ll continue to produce Parade Tanks. By the way, General Tugenev discreetly gave these tanks a production designation, calling them the T34W model.”
Wang Zhong frowned, why the W model?
The Cyrillic alphabet starts with ABCD as well, W isn’t at the front!
Seeing Wang Zhong’s expression, Olga laughed, “This is to avoid using up the letters reserved for regular improvements. The chief designer, Valentin, was furious when he heard the troops’ feedback on the T34W; he threw it right into the fireplace. He said his improvements would make the troops truly satisfied.”
Wang Zhong, “… Then I hope he includes radios on the new tanks.”
Olga sighed, “Radios are even less likely, I’ve specifically inquired about this. The production of radios simply can’t keep up with the consumption. Airplanes need radios, not to mention spare parts for replacements.
“If we were to equip all the tanks with radios, the shortfall would be huge. Major General Sergey from the Ordnance Department suggested that we concentrate the Parade Tanks and assign them to experienced tank units to form specialized assault Army Groups.”
Wang Zhong laughed, “Didn’t that enrage Valentin?”
“Major General Sergey is his father-in-law, so…” Olga shrugged her shoulders, “I think General Sergey is quite a decent man. He even made a special call before I came to the front line, asking if you have any special requirements that the existing equipment can’t meet.”
Wang Zhong, “Yes! I certainly do! First, I need a self-propelled gun that is equipped with a 152mm howitzer, has radios, and can use tracks to move at high speed across our nation’s rough terrain.
“This artillery should have accompanying ammunition vehicles, be able to rapidly switch firing positions, and have some resistance to enemy air strafing. It also needs an anti-aircraft machine gun!”
Wang Zhong was speaking about this based on the SU152, which on Earth was often used as a self-propelled howitzer.
After the war, the Soviet forces even included the 122mm howitzer in armored assault clusters at the company level.
Wang Zhong continued, “Then I also need a quadruple anti-aircraft gun, also mounted on a tank chassis. The gun should be our 25mm cannon, and it needs a new ammunition feeding system with a belt feed.
“This will be our accompanying air defense, aside from supporting our armored assault forces, it should also be able to clear enemy infantry while being leveled, so it needs a depression angle, understand? A depression angle!”
As he spoke, Wang Zhong grabbed the princess’s shoulders with both hands, vigorously shaking her, “Depression angle, do you understand? A depression angle!”
The princess, “Stop shaking me! Just say it properly!”
At that moment, Nelly leaned closer to Ludmila: “Why do I get the feeling that the princess is really happy?”
“They’re discussing serious matters, Nelly,” Ludmila whispered, “As soon as they’re finished, I’ll join in.”
Wang Zhong finally let go of the princess: “Sorry.”
Olga sighed, then immediately burst into laughter. Explore the unknown at m.v.l.e.mpyr
Seeing her smile, Wang Zhong quipped, “What, did all the shaking blend your brain so you’ve started giggling like an idiot?”
Olga put on a stern face: “No. I’ll relay your requests to General Sergey just as you’ve said.”
Wang Zhong: “I’d better write a formal report. I haven’t done that before because I didn’t think my position allowed me to interfere with the research and production of military equipment, but now that I can, naturally, I’ll interfere to my heart’s content. I’ll get the report out tomorrow…”
“No,” Olga said seriously, “I’ll pass on the message! Tell me whatever you need! Going through the normal channels, do you understand that it will get held up?”
Wang Zhong expressed surprise: “Would it?”
Olga said with absolute certainty: “Yes!”
Wang Zhong: “Alright. Then we also need a practical reduced-load cartridge rifle that can fire repeatedly and maintain good accuracy at 200 to 400 meters. High reliability is also very important. Reliability is crucial!”
Olga asked earnestly: “What’s a ‘reduced-load cartridge’?”
Wang Zhong: “It’s reducing the charge and shortening the length of rifle cartridges. Current rifle cartridges, when used for automatic fire, make the whole gun very heavy because it’s practically a machine gun. The universal machine guns we’ve captured from the enemy are this big—”
Wang Zhong turned his head and randomly picked a guard: “You! Go to the headquarters and tell Rocossov I want one of the captured enemy’s squad machine guns.”
While waiting for the machine gun to be brought over, Olga asked, “Wouldn’t it be better to just use a machine gun directly?”
Wang Zhong: “No, the enemy’s infantry squads are mainly organized around machine guns; in actual combat, such squads fight rigidly around their machine guns.
“However, when we concentrate our submachine gunners and fight the enemy in positions where machine guns can’t be used effectively, they’re at a loss.
“In fact, our Tokarev semi-automatic rifles have already performed very well—the key is choosing the terrain and preventing the enemy’s machine guns from being effective.”
In actuality, on Earth, squads organized around machine guns, when facing the full complement of semi-automatic Browning Automatic Rifles and Thompson submachine guns of the American ‘big-head’ soldiers, weren’t so effective.
While the BAR couldn’t suppress as effectively as a machine gun, it was flexible.
A machine gun required three people to operate and was very heavy.
The Americans could fire the BAR while moving, and just one person could run around with it.
In places without machine gun fire, the Americans’ Garand semi-automatics significantly outperformed the German Kar98k.
Most of Wang Zhong’s troops were equipped with the Tokarev semi-automatic, and they had actually encountered the same situation; as long as the Prussian machine guns didn’t catch up, the Imperial Guard had an absolute advantage in firepower.
Without a doubt, the composition of a full complement of semi-automatics, supplemented with a few automatic weapons, was more reliable than the Prussian’s current organization of squads built around machine guns.
To advance further, the only option was to develop the AK first.
At that time, the guard from earlier brought three people and carried over the captured machine gun.
Wang Zhong pointed at the machine gun: “Look at this thing, so cumbersome—that’s the disadvantage of firing rifle cartridges. I suggest we modify Tokarev’s full-power cartridges, shorten them a bit, and make them fully automatic.”
Olga nodded: “Okay! I’ve got it, I’ll talk to General Sergey. Is there anything else?”
Wang Zhong: “That’s all for now. Everything I’ve suggested can be modified from existing equipment, so we can form a force quickly.”
“Good,” Olga nodded, then said, “Take me to visit the front line. Since I’m here to boost the troops’ morale, I should meet everyone.”
Wang Zhong: “What’s the fun in just meeting? How about singing a song for them? You must have studied music, right?”
“I have,” Olga said with a puzzled look at Wang Zhong, “I’ve even sung for you before! In front of you and my brother.”
Wang Zhong: “Oh right, that did happen.”
Well, look at that, a princess who can sing. She’s only missing pink hair now.
Come to think of it, Olga did actually provide a lot of equipment, so should Tank No. 422 actually be called “Free Demon”?
Wang Zhong: “Please, this way. Our troops are intensively training. If you could sing to motivate them, they’d be delighted.”
“Sure.”
Olga naturally reached out to hold Wang Zhong’s hand, but Wang Zhong immediately turned to Ludmila: “Could you keep Princess Her Highness company as well?”
See, what’s that called? Shaving it way too close!