On November 10th at 1400 hours, the headquarters of the First Guards “Red Banner” Mechanized Infantry Division.
Two brigadier generals were led into the division’s fortress by the staff.
Wang Zhong saw that the two men were quite calm because from his vantage point, he had already seen the two brigades coming over.
But he had to put on a show, so he widened his eyes, “Why are there two brigadier generals? Isn’t there just one artillery brigade?”
“The artillery brigade is mine.” The first brigadier general to enter stood at attention and saluted, “Commander of the 33rd Artillery Brigade, Donikov! Awaiting your orders, General!”
Wang Zhong returned the salute and looked towards the other, “Then what brigade’s commander are you?”
The other brigadier general saluted, “Greetings to you, General Rocossovsky! I am the commander of the First Guards Rocket Artillery Brigade, Ivanov, and we have been ordered to provide you with two salvoes.”
Wang Zhong was ready to ask “Why only once?” but was stunned upon hearing it was twice.
He was actually given two opportunities?
Pavlov thought Wang Zhong was stunned by the lack of rounds and questioned on his behalf, “Why only twice?”
Ivanov, looking embarrassed, replied, “We only brought enough ammunition for one loading. There’s a fairly lengthy reload time between the two firings, so that needs to be taken into account when allocating firepower. Here’s our rocket artillery user manual…”
Wang Zhong took the manual without even looking at it and said directly, “My plan is this: The artillery brigade and my division’s artillery will conduct fire preparation together for two hours and must ensure that all the enemy’s pots and pans are smashed to bits.
“Then when the artillery switches to Xu Jin’s barrage, our troops will start to advance, and the rocket artillery will fire when our forces are within one thousand meters of the enemy. Wait for my signal.”
Ivanov was shocked, “You’re personally leading the attack?”
Wang Zhong: “My father died in service at Argesukov, the soldiers who escaped said he was in the forefront. My father was a general and yet led from the front, whereas I’m only a major general.”
Ivanov’s eyes moistened, and the soldiers who had seen life and death understood everything from Wang Zhong’s expression.
Although Wang Zhong was taking the lead first and foremost to get a better view of the situation with the help of an advantage, in reality, this was akin to walking into the jaws of death.
Moreover, Wang Zhong wasn’t scared at all now; at worst, he would go to the afterlife to summon his old comrades, with banners of a hundred thousand to slay the King of Hell. Would the King of Hell dare take him?
This was courage forged through the flames of war—no, fearlessness.
Ivanov saluted, “Honor to you! Having a general like you is a blessing for the soldiers. But there is one problem, our brigade doesn’t have radio.” Stay connected with m|vl|e|mp|y|r
Wang Zhong: “What?”
Ivanov: “Our brigade has no radios. It’s not customary in our army to equip artillery with radios.”
Wang Zhong recalled that in Orachi, the artillery had no radios either, so they had to place either a BT tank or a T26 on the artillery position to establish radio communication.
Wang Zhong: “Vasily!”
“Present!” Vasily stood up, shouldering the radio, “It’s all charged up, Prosen battery, reliable. I’ll go with the Guards Rocket Artillery Brigade.”
Wang Zhong nodded, “Go.”
Ivanov and Vasily left together.
Donikov: “Where do I find your artillery commander?”
“I’ll have the staff take you there. We originally had four fake artillery positions, all wooden guns; we’ve now moved the wooden guns to new fake positions, and you’ll take over these,” pointing to several locations on the map.
“Understood, by the way, do these fake positions have air defense?” Donikov asked.
Wang Zhong: “Yes, we have trucks equipped with Divine Arrow launchers, and prayer warriors on motorcycles moving around; they all operate as guerrillas nearby. Also, the anti-aircraft artillery battalion’s positions are deployed here and here, perfectly covering all four positions.”
Donikov nodded, “Got it, have the staff lead the way.”
Pavlov immediately called a staff officer to guide the way.
After the two brigade commanders had left, Pavlov said, “You charge ahead without worry; I’ll handle the rest. And if you really need support, we have radios here too, also captured from the enemy, just a bit larger.”
After this, both men looked toward the corner where the radio was—naval technicians had removed it from a Prosen tank.
It was incredibly useful.
It was just that Prosen tanks were of no good now, otherwise if they had a Panzer IV F2 with a long barrel, Wang Zhong would have commanded that.
After all, his best performing vehicle in War Thunder was the Panzer IV F2, but that was before the weightings were changed; now, he probably couldn’t make it work anymore.
Wang Zhong: “That’s the plan, radio communication. Your call sign is Valdai Hills River, and my call sign is…”
Wang Zhong touched the mess tin at his waist, feeling a strange illusion as if the soil from his homeland in the mess tin was giving off heat.
“My call sign is Dnieper River,” he looked at Pavlov, “Just call for Dnieper River, and I will respond, I will definitely respond!”
Pavlov cursed, “Suka, I’m a Kazarlian too; I also want Dnieper River as my call sign.”
Wang Zhong: “Then you… you call…”
“All right, I was just complaining,” Pavlov waved his hand dismissively, shooing him away, “Go on, get to your little tank.”
Wang Zhong left headquarters with a smile.
The rocket artillery brigade’s launchers were just then rolling out from the train station toward the artillery positions.
The driver of tank 422, Beliyakov, asked, “What kind of weapon are all these trucks anyway? They look like Divine Arrow from God’s Arrow Company, only the launchers have been clustered together.”
The gunner, Alexander Yefimovich, said, “I went over to look when they stopped there, and there’s a K on the truck, but no model number.”
Wang Zhong: “That’s called Katyusha, it’ll give the enemy a taste of springtime warmth.”
Beliyakov whistled, “The kind of warmth I’m thinking of?”
“The very kind you’re thinking of.”
A staff officer ran over and reported to Wang Zhong, “General, we’ve issued steel helmets to the assault battalion, all marked with the letter Z.”
Wang Zhong replied, “Very good, so everyone can see how they fight. As long as they prove themselves, they can join other units as reinforcements.”
As he spoke, he climbed onto the tank and patted the gunner, “Move over, move over, I’m taking my spot.”
Alexander laughed, “Just like the old days.”
Wang Zhong replied, “Indeed.”
Seated in the small tank, Wang Zhong put on his headset and microphone, then pressed the microphone on his throat and shouted, “Testing the radio now, everyone report your vehicle number, those not in tanks shut up for now.”
While vehicle numbers were being reported over the radio, the enemy suddenly began bombarding the frontline positions of the Guards Mechanized Infantry, seemingly preparing to attack again.
However, it was clear the enemy was running low on ammunition, as they only bombarded the frontline positions.
Wang Zhong turned his head and motioned with his hand, and Pavlov approached, “What’s up?”
Wang Zhong ordered, “Begin artillery preparation, smash all the enemy’s pots and jars!”
Pavlov gave a thumbs up and turned back to the bunker.
Seeing Pavlov’s thumbs up, Wang Zhong suddenly remembered a joke about how, if a nuclear bomb were dropped, you should give a thumbs up to the mushroom cloud, and if the mushroom cloud is smaller than your thumb, you’d better hide quickly.
If the bomb is bigger than the mushroom cloud, then it’s time to accept your fate, as running would be futile.
Wang Zhong gave a thumbs up towards the blue sky as a half-hearted measure.
That knowledge… probably only residents of a certain island would ever need it.
At this moment, the artillery from his own side began their fire preparation.
Its power was much greater than the enemy’s scrounging bombardment, Wang Zhong thought.
He had two more hours to arrange the attack formation. Pavlov would get it done.
————
The Prussian Army’s Second Armored Cluster Command, a makeshift map room formed by marching tents, General Moochi was studying the map when a communications staff officer rushed into the tent, “Report! The positions held by the 22nd Armored and 35th Armored Divisions are under fierce enemy artillery fire.”
Moochi waved his hand dismissively, “Aren’t they just carrying out fire preparation?”
“Yes.”
General Moochi scoffed, “This is counter-battery fire, Rokossov loves to do this. In the future—when we are on defense, I mean, if we are on defense—we could consider this too.”
The communications staff officer replied, “But the 22nd Armored has sent a telegram and also called out on the radio. The shelling is very intense, they suspect the enemy is going to attack.”
General Moochi raised an eyebrow, “Attack?”
After a moment’s thought, he said, “Let me go listen to just how intense it is.”
He turned and, with a brisk pace, left the tent, heading straight for the radio truck parked nearby.
After entering the radio truck, he shouted loudly, “Calling the 22nd Division!”
“No response, General,” replied the radio operator.
“Keep calling! And call the 35th Armored too, no, call all units reporting artillery fire.”
The radio truck immediately buzzed with calls.
General Moochi wanted to pace but found the truck too cramped for walking, so he stepped out, leaving the door open, and paced back and forth on the ground outside.
However, as the seconds ticked by, there was no response from any unit under bombardment.
The 22nd Armored Division, the 35th Armored Grenadier Division, and all the logistic units responsible for supply vanished as if they had disappeared.
At this time, an aide-de-camp came to General Moochi with his coat, draping it over him while saying, “These units didn’t construct anti-artillery cover; after all, they didn’t have time for engineering work, and have been on the offensive…”
General Moochi interjected, “But they have anti-aircraft artillery battalions, including 88mm guns. Based on the lessons learned from the Carolingian campaign, whenever a unit has been stationed in a place for more than a day, they should build bunkers for the 88mm guns and be prepared to fire.
“If the Ante people really are attacking, then we’ll have to hope that the troops have actually complied with this order.”
General Moochi looked up, “Rokossovsky is attacking? Could it be?”
————
Wang Zhong was now less than three kilometers away from the enemy’s position.
His troops had fully deployed, spreading out 36 T34Ws in a horizontal formation. Originally, he wanted to adopt the Prosen-style goose formation, but his leading the charge was precisely so he could view the situation firsthand. If he commanded from behind like the Prussians, it would all be for naught.
So he deployed an arrow formation, with himself at the very front.
Each tank carried a squad of infantry – this was a unique combat method of the Ante People.
Of course, Wang Zhong intended to let the infantry dismount and form a skirmish line once they reached the right spot.
The real skirmish line was already left behind by seven or eight hundred meters from Wang Zhong’s tank.
Wang Zhong stayed vigilant, watching ahead at all times.
His spotting range was just a bit over two kilometers; if the enemy had any tricks up their sleeve, he should be able to spot them before they could effectively harm his forces.
Suddenly, he spotted an 88mm anti-aircraft gun.
The gunners were moving into position, but the shells had not yet been brought up.
Wang Zhong immediately pressed the microphone on his throat, “Ivanov, where the hell are your rockets? Fire for me, damn it!”