At the end of February, as the temperature began to rise, the snow started to melt, but only the surface layer thawed, while the deeper ground, frozen solid, remained as hard as ever. This formed a barrier that prevented the melting snow from penetrating deep into the soil.
And so, the muddy season began.
Even in a large city like Ye Fort, where roads were paved with asphalt, the shadow of mud could be seen; after an outing, trouser legs would be dotted with splashes of mud.
In such miserable conditions, even tanks had to shake themselves off three times, and cars simply couldn’t drive off the asphalt roads.
Thereby, the battlefield went completely silent, all major military operations, from north to south, ground to a halt.
Both sides were hustling to stockpile ammunition and replenish their troops, preparing to make a big push in the summer.
On March 6, Colonel John Wick made a sudden visit to the Suvorov Military Academy, finding Wang Zhong who was about to go to class in the principal’s office.
Upon meeting, he asked, “Have you heard?”
Wang Zhong responded with some confusion, “Heard what?”
“The United Kingdom’s intelligence just conveyed some information to your High Command.”
Wang Zhong: “If it was just conveyed, how would I have heard?”
“That’s true,” Colonel John Wick said as he sat down in front of Wang Zhong, smiling, “then let me be the one to tell you. The Prussians are planning an assault on the southern front, with the first phase being a breakthrough from the Coastal Fortress to Bolsk’s defenses.
The specific time of attack and the main direction of the offense haven’t been identified by the United Kingdom’s intelligence officers.”
Wang Zhong: “What good does that do? Everyone knows that the Prussians will hit the southern line.”
John Wick: “Confirming previous guesses is also important. After all, deploying troops based on guesses can lead to mistakes and become a case study of errors in military textbooks.”
Wang Zhong: “There won’t be any mistakes. When they attacked Ye Fort last year, we were at our weakest. Now if they think about attacking Ye Fort again, they’ll face units that have been replenished and have defensive battle experience. They won’t have as easy a time as they did last year.
“As for the northern line, even if they manage to take Saint Andrew Fort, there’s not much worth attacking to the north. It’s all forest and tundra up there, with even worse infrastructure and fewer settlements. They would get bogged down, while we, on the other hand, could rely on the north’s Ice-free Port for ample supplies.”
Originally, the Ice-free Port was mainly used for shipbuilding, and the city along with its surrounding industrial belt couldn’t support a Front Army – the north had no real agricultural capacity, and you can’t feed an army on salted fish and wood, can you?
But now the situation had changed. The Ice-free Port was the endpoint of the Arctic Ocean transportation route. The allies’ supplies amassed in the Ice-free Port were enough to support an army of a million men.
So, even if Saint Andrew Fort were lost, the Andrew Fort Front Army could simply change its name and continue the fight, setting up defenses along the railway line from the Ice-free Port to Ye Fort, with good supply lines all along the front.
Wang Zhong laid all this out in his analysis and then said with certainty, “The enemy can only hit the southern line; it is practically an open secret. Any rumors they have about attacking the north or center are just deception operations.”
Colonel John Wick smiled, “Your judgment is pretty much in line with that of our generals. Do you think the Prussians can succeed?”
Wang Zhong: “I’m not sure. Duke Meishikin is a very outstanding general, and he has good insight into defensive operations. I don’t know if he can withstand the enemy’s assault.”
In fact, the Army Group led by Meishikin already had several hundred thousand men, with tens of thousands more Naval Infantry at the Coastal Fortress. Given such a mass of troops and a commander who wasn’t inept, they should be able to hold off the Prussians for some time.
The question was, for how long.
Colonel John Wick shifted the topic: “I’ve heard you’ve made significant progress in turning the Prussian prisoners of war to your side?”
Wang Zhong: “You’d be better off asking Cardinal Ravkid from the Tribunal about that matter.”
“Come on, I’m not a reporter. I’m asking you as a military attaché, because in the future, we will also need to win over as many Prussian prisoners of war as possible.”
Wang Zhong: “The situation with the POWs is not bad so far, some have agreed to enter our factories to help produce equipment. But turning POWs is a long-term effort, and results won’t come overnight.”
John Wick: “I thought the Prussians, seeing themselves as a superior race, would disdain to mingle with inferior ones!”
Wang Zhong just smiled and did not respond to John Wick’s baiting.
So, John Wick changed the subject: “When exactly is your child expected to be born? The Federation government is planning to send a small gift.”
Wang Zhong: “You should ask the obstetrician.”
John Wick: “Of course, our intelligence has already inquired with the obstetrician, but I thought our friendship would allow me to get an answer from you directly.”
Wang Zhong: “Certainly, the earliest would be in August.”
“Will Belinsky preside over its baptism or become its godfather?” John Wick continued to inquire.
Wang Zhong: “He will preside over the baptism. We have not decided on the godfather yet.”
In fact, many people had been inquiring about the child’s godfather in recent days. After all, that could potentially affect the balance of power in the Ante Empire in the future.
Wang Zhong found this kind of jockeying for a share of the spoils before the battle had even been won deeply distasteful, so even with John Wick, a foreign friend, making inquiries, he did not hesitate to show his displeasure openly.
John Wick immediately said, “Actually, this isn’t what I intended to ask, but the ambassador is very concerned about this matter and asked me to inquire.”
Pinning it on the ambassador, huh!
Wang Zhong: “We haven’t decided who the godfather of the child will be yet, because the competition is too fierce. Once we’ve made a decision, I will definitely notify the ambassador.”
John Wick seemed quite satisfied with this answer and continued with another question, “May I visit the test of the ‘Vortex’ style tank destroyer?”
The Vortex improvement has progressed to the third-generation prototype, which addressed some issues of the second-generation prototype. It increased reliability and once again adjusted the structure of the mantlet.
Now, at distances over 1000 meters, even if hit by an 88mm gun, the Vortex has a decent crew survivability.
Yes, it’s crew survivability, not the vehicle’s survivability.
Even if it’s hit by an 88mm gun at that distance, the gun would be damaged, and it would lose its combat effectiveness. In such a case, it’s already good if the tank operators survive.
Moreover, the Prosen PAK40 anti-tank gun can also destroy the Vortex’s parts and disable it at a distance of 1000 meters.
At 1000 meters, the PAK40 poses basically no threat to the crew, and the crew would definitely survive.
Those who have observed the Vortex’s tests generally have high praise for this tank destroyer.
The only issue is its production feasibility; this thing really isn’t easy to manufacture.
Despite removing the time-consuming large turret component, the production time actually increased, breaking the general rule of assault guns being cheaper to produce than tanks.
The main issue is that the vehicle has too many precision-engineered parts.
Wang Zhong also wanted to make a bare-bones version for mass production for general use, but General Sergey shut him down with one sentence: “Do you want the stripped-down version competing for the 100-gun barrels?”
The output of the 100-gun barrels is so limited. Currently, the prototype vehicles are using the barrels originally prepared for the destroyers and battlecruisers’ secondary guns, but with the start of mass production, these barrels could be used up in a week. After that, the production rate would be bottlenecked by the barrel output.
Indeed, there was no need to create a stripped-down version to compete for gun barrels.
In conclusion, the “Vortex” became exclusive to elite troops, much like the Tiger tanks it’s designed after.
On Earth, Tiger tanks were all assigned to heavy tank battalions, which then acted as fire brigades that ran around the front lines, leaving behind impressive exchange ratios wherever they went.
Of course, Wang Zhong did not plan to organize the Vortex into independent destroyer battalions, nor did he intend to use them as fire brigades to run around everywhere. It was meant to only be equipped by Wang Zhong’s freshly granted First Mobile Group Army.
This made everyone even more interested in this weapon because, to outsiders, it seemed that General Rocossov was using his authority to provide special equipment for his own loyal troops. Everyone wanted to see for themselves.
Faced with John Wick’s request, Wang Zhong readily agreed, “No problem, I’ll arrange for Vasily to organize a visit right away.”
“I’m very grateful,” John Wick stood up, then took a document folder out of his briefcase and placed it on Wang Zhong’s desk.
Wang Zhong, looking puzzled, untied the string of the pouch and took out the stack of documents inside.
The cover of the document displayed the Prussian Iron Cross.
Wang Zhong: “Prussian battle plans?”
John Wick gave a wry smile, “No, that would be too hard to get hold of. These are summaries of the conditions of the various units by the Prussian High Command in February, including critical data like the number of tanks ready for battle.”
Wang Zhong flipped the cover open, skipped over the frontispiece and the summary page, and went directly to the main text.
The first thing that came up was a table of the number of ready tanks and the personnel replenishment status in each of the Prussian Armored Divisions.
Wang Zhong frowned: “Why are the Prussian combat-ready tank numbers so low? The First Armored Division has only 81 ready for battle, 25 in repair, and 40 sent back to the factory? The second and third divisions add up to a bit over 100 for both repair and return to factory combined!”
John Wick: “It seems that the director of the Armored Troops has fallen out of favor, so the Prussians are no longer pursuing his dream of the large 400-tank Armored Divisions. They’ve cut down the number of armored battalions in most divisions to two, and some divisions even have just one.”
Wang Zhong turned to the next page and exclaimed in surprise, “The number of tanks has decreased, but the accompanying forces haven’t been reduced—in fact, an Armored Grenadier Battalion has been added. Are they scared after seeing the end of our divisions, which have nothing but tanks, and decided to increase the degree of combined arms in their forces?”
After all, it’s quite embarrassing for a tank division with two hundred tanks to be beaten by an infantry division; it’s normal for the Prussians to be alarmed.
John Wick: “It’s not all about reducing the number of tanks. This report doesn’t include the Asgard Knights. Reportedly, the regiments of the knights are still organized with three armored battalions.”
Wang Zhong: “The Asgard Knights aren’t under the control of Prussian High Command?”
John Wick nodded: “That’s right, they report directly to the emperor. And by the way, everyone now thinks that your First Mobile Group Army operates in the same way.”
Wang Zhong: “That’s absolutely not the case!”
This time, it was John Wick’s turn to smile without saying a word.