“`
Tank 422 led the charge across the snowy plains, decked in their wintry shroud.
Wang Zhong, with half his body out of the turret, was almost turned into an idiot by the oncoming wind.
They continued their encirclement towards the north, right into the wind.
At that moment, Wang Zhong’s mood reminded him of the modern Peking opera “Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy,” a favorite of his grandfather’s.
The opening passage of Erhuang guiding beat, a style of vocal melody in Peking opera, matched Wang Zhong’s mood perfectly:
Through forests and oceans of snow, we charge into the vast sky!
As he thought about the lyrics, Wang Zhong heard the urgent strings in his ears, followed by the sound of trumpets, creating the expanse of forest and snow fields. Then came the rapid percussion, mimicking the sound of galloping horse hooves.
Wang Zhong could not help but look back. The cavalry, adopting an energy-saving jog, were following behind the tank formation—the sound of their hooves echoing the percussion Wang Zhong had imagined!
How does the next line of the song go?
Expressing my heroic feelings facing the mountains?
Or “I wish I could hurry to turn the flying snow into spring water, ushering in the spring to change the world”?
But better for the spring to come later, they were still counting on launching a winter offensive.
What’s the next line again?
Just then, a voice over the radio suddenly shouted, “Tank 422, we’ve got a malfunction, we’ll catch up after we fix it!”
Wang Zhong turned around and saw Tank 427 had stopped. It was also a T34W, which according to Alexandria, was equipped with a V2K engine, and its gearbox and air filter were newly designed high-spec versions.
If the T34W had malfunctioned, Wang Zhong wondered how many tanks in Division 77 were out of order.
Wang Zhong saw a cavalry captain noticing the halted tank and immediately assigned four riders to surround and guard the tank.
He was reassured and continued looking forward.
Just then, the next line he had just been unable to recall came to him: In order to eradicate bandits, first pose as bandits, like daggers thrust into Tiger Mountain.
I vow to carve this mountain seat, bury! inter! in the gully!
Wang Zhong also remembered his father, who had participated in the counterattack against Vietnam, insisting on pounding the table while singing this part—”bury” once and “inter” once.
When Wang Zhong asked why, his father said, “That’s how your grandfather sang it. When he sang the words ‘burial’ and ‘interment,’ his eyes could shoot fire.”
Wang Zhong now tried it himself, imagining singing the part and slamming the top of the turret when coming to ‘bury’ and ‘inter’.
He felt it—a surge of hatred arose.
I vow to bury the Prussians, bury! inter! in the gully!
At that moment, Wang Zhong remembered the field near Loktov, piled high with the bodies of young warriors, the tragic state of the first and second crew of Tank 422, and Aunt Alexeyevna…
He remembered Ivan and the old Duke Rocossov.
Suddenly feeling unsatisfied, he repeated in his mind: I vow to bury the Prussians, bury! inter! in the gully!
Then, he slapped the turret too hard and hurt his hand—even through the thick work gloves.
The Prussians would be annihilated. With a resolve that could shake mountains and a courage that could stir the abyss, the future would surely turn the world upside down.
Wang Zhong’s fighting spirit was at its peak, and now he needed a lucky Prussian bastard to bear this fury. He grabbed the handle of the anti-aircraft machine gun, checked the action, and ensured the anti-freezing lubricant was in good condition.
Where the fuck are the Prussians?
Suddenly, Wang Zhong really did see light in the snow, swiftly switched his view, and spotted a campfire with Prussians hidden around it.
Next to the fire were weapons being heated.
Wang Zhong immediately turned the machine gun to start firing, shouting as he sprayed, “Turret, turn right ten degrees! See where my tracer bullets are going? There’s a fire, use high-explosive shells!”
Alexandria immediately echoed, “High-Explosive Shell!”
The loader responded, “High-Explosive Shell, loaded!”
Alexandria commanded, “Stop!”
Beliyakov brought the tank to a halt with a thud, and Alexandria fired immediately.
Worthy of a royal viewing tank, even from a distance and with an emergency stop, the shell still landed within five meters of the campfire.
From the bird’s-eye view, a third of the Prussian soldiers’ markers immediately went out.
Wang Zhong: “Continue! There are still enemies!”
At this point, the other tanks also stopped to fire, but their aim was much worse.
Wang Zhong: “Keep moving forward, the other tanks’ gunfire is a bit off.”
No, not just a bit—using the old British expression for flintlock guns: beyond a hundred meters, whether you aim at your target or at the moon, the hit rate is about the same.
Tank 422 started up once more, charging towards the enemy’s line, and then Wang Zhong spotted 88mm cannons with campfires nearby.
Wang Zhong: “Smoke Bombs! Aim where my machine gun is firing, don’t wait, fire! Block the enemy cannons’ view!”
This command was faithfully executed because precision wasn’t necessary; Alexandria simply didn’t bother to stop suddenly—a smoke bomb fired while moving hit the ground four hundred meters in front of the 88mm cannon position. The smoke, whipped by the north wind, quickly formed a belt shape.
Seeing this, Wang Zhong gave an order over the radio: “Enemy 88mm AA gun position spotted, they are aiming at us; all tanks load smoke bombs, fire at the current smoke position.”
A single tank couldn’t quickly form a smoke screen, so let’s all shoot together!
“`
The smoke soon covered the Prussian positions almost completely, and at the same time, the cavalry detoured around the tank units, inserting themselves from the right flank.
Armed with submachine guns, the cavalry sprayed bullets at the enemy’s positions from a distance.
Since they were advancing on horseback, they didn’t mind the weight of the drum magazines and could carry a bunch of pre-loaded ones.
It would be tough for an infantryman to carry three such drum magazines.
Add to that the machine-gun fire from the tanks.
Wang Zhong then discovered another downside of the “standard” T34: no one was operating the anti-aircraft machine gun during a charge.
The T34W has a commander’s cupola from which the commander can also operate the anti-aircraft machine gun.
The standard T34, however, required another person to stand behind the tank to operate this machine gun.
This design was quite reminiscent of American engineering.
On Earth, early models of the T34 didn’t even have a turret-top machine gun, but later combat experience proved that this gun was outstanding at disrupting German airborne bombs. Real combat was not like War Thunder; when planes died, they were truly gone, and having anti-aircraft fire could genuinely rattle the enemy.
Thus, another war game “Wargame: Red Dragon” emulated this aspect—the effectiveness of machine-gun anti-air defenses was not as high as anti-air missiles, but it could panic the pilot and make them abandon their mission.
At this moment, Alexandria confirmed the position of the 88mm gun emplacements and began continuously “smoking” them out.
Wang Zhong operated the machine gun and fired relentlessly, not daring to slack off.
After all, he was truly on the frontline now and could be shot and killed at any moment.
The tragic death of the first two groups from vehicle 422 seemed like it had happened just yesterday, particularly the second group, for which Wang Zhong had entered the tank’s interior and anxiously guarded the hatch in the midst of his comrades’ blood.
Past experiences fueled an adrenaline rush, with Wang Zhong quite literally “fuming with rage.”
He kept mowing down the enemy with his machine gun.
By then, the cavalry had charged into the smoke, drawing close to the 88mm gun emplacements.
The moment they burst out of the smoke, the enemy’s machine guns opened fire, immediately felling four cavalrymen.
The remaining cavalry charged toward death, spraying bullets from their submachine guns as they closed in.
The enemy gunners fell mid-burst, but the assistant gunner quickly took over shooting duties, while the ammunition bearer stepped into the role of assistant gunner.
The Prussian infantry squads were organized completely around the machine gun; everyone was trained in machine gun firing, and any of them could step in as a gunner when necessary.
Wang Zhong suddenly realized the enemy’s 88mm guns were pre-aiming at the direction where vehicle 422 was advancing.
Pre-aim this!
Wang Zhong: “Beliyakov, turn 90 degrees, we’re charging straight at the enemy.”
“That fierce?” Beliyakov laughed out loud. “I love this blood-thrilling sensation!”
With a “duang” sound, vehicle 422 fishtailed and began charging straight toward the 88mm gun emplacements.
Wang Zhong yelled over the radio, “Keep circling, and remember to use smoke to block the enemy’s view! If you don’t encircle them, they’ll hear the wrong engine sounds and come after us!”
So the other T34Ws, along with the T34 squadron, continued to flank around the artillery positions, launching Smoke Bombs as they went.
Only vehicle 422 charged directly at the position with the ferocity of a wild beast.
As he charged into the smoke, Wang Zhong restrained himself, ceasing fire to not reveal his whereabouts until bursting out of the smoke—
Breaking through the smoke, Wang Zhong immediately resumed firing.
The enemy machine gunners were still targeting the flanking cavalry and were all abruptly mowed down by Wang Zhong’s gunfire—after all, the position of the anti-aircraft machine gun was high, and the enemy’s cover was rudimentary.
Wang Zhong swiftly gunned down several more enemies, while both the tank’s hull machine gun and coaxial turret machine gun opened up with full firepower.
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From breaking through the smoke to charging the enemy’s positions, it was about 300 meters, and Wang Zhong didn’t stop firing throughout since the enemy was suddenly everywhere. The tracers from the machine gun lashed out, beheading a swath of enemies.
If this were “Battlefield 1942”, kill notifications and experience rewards would be surging under Wang Zhong’s interface by now.
When he reached the positions, Wang Zhong ran out of machine gun ammo, but he didn’t waste time reloading. He directly pulled out his personal piece of equipment from the turret: an original Suomi submachine gun (drum magazine version) and continued mowing down the enemy.
He also had grenades; grabbing one, he bit the pin, yanking it out, and was ready to throw.
While personally slaughtering the Prussians, he shouted in the Prussian language he had learned from Vasily, “Who’s the prey now, and who’s the hunter?”
At this point, the tank was actually quite vulnerable because they charged the enemy infantry without accompanying foot soldiers, creating numerous blind spots around the vehicle itself.
But the Prussians had already been demoralized by the onslaught.
Wang Zhong saw someone pointing at the red flag and saying something, after which all the Prussian soldiers on the positions started running.
That’s when the cavalry finally charged in.
They pursued the enemy, hacking away.
Wang Zhong kept showing off the only Prussian sentence he knew, “Who’s the prey now, and who’s the hunter?”
He was oblivious to the fact that, at that moment, wielding a submachine gun in one hand and clutching a grenade in the other, ready to throw, he was like a god of war.
Resolved to bury the Prussians in the mountains,
With aspirations that shake the mountains, a spirit that quakes the abyss!
Longing for the day to join comrades in a feast of a hundred chickens, smashing the bandit’s nest, sure to cause the earth to shake and the sky to turn upside down!