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Since the enemy was less than 50 kilometers from Yarvik, Wang Zhong immediately decided not to waste time at the Front Army headquarters and proceeded with a forward enemy reconnaissance with his troops.
General Andre tried to detain him, “You have come a long way, why don’t you rest first?”
Wang Zhong: “The military situation is urgent, I’ll wait to drive the enemy out of Yarvik before resting.”
General Andre: “We are on the east bank, the enemy is on the west bank…”
Wang Zhong: “But once the enemy occupies the bridgehead on the west bank, the logistics of your troops on the west bank will all be cut off! General Andre! You should be more anxious than I am!”
The General hesitated for a few moments, then suddenly came up with an excuse: “The enemy has pushed so far, they should stop to rest and repair their tanks!”
————
55 kilometers from Yarvik, Yeisk, under Prosen Army control.
John Christopher crawled out from under his tactical number 210, Tank No. 6, and shook his head at the driver.
The elite crew of Tank No. 6 were familiar with all combat positions and could switch roles at any time.
Such an elite crew naturally knew how to repair the tank; if one person couldn’t fix it, another would take over.
Now that the tank commander had gone down to take a look himself, it meant that everyone in the crew had already checked it.
John: “We can’t deal with this malfunction, let’s wait for the battlefield repair camp to come up.”
The driver nodded: “I think so too. By the way, before the engine and transmission fail, I felt that the idler wheel was also a bit off, quite shaky.”
“The ground here is worse than in Belka,” John stomped his foot, “I heard it gets even worse during the rainy season, but honestly… it’s already bad enough, this wouldn’t even qualify as a road in Carolingian.”
The gunner, sitting atop the tank’s turret and smoking, said to the commander: “You weren’t in last year’s war; I fought for three months before getting pulled back to test new tanks. At that time, the mules of the Infantry Division we coordinated with had all their hooves worn out, had to find a smith on the spot to make new horseshoes.”
The gunner suddenly fell silent.
Curious, John asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I just remembered what happened to that blacksmith. After finishing the horseshoes, he went home to find his wife and daughter being raped. He grabbed the hammer he used for the horseshoes and smashed two infantrymen’s heads.”
John: “Then what happened?”
“A sergeant fired, killed the blacksmith’s whole family with a submachine gun.”
John Christopher fell silent.
The others fell silent too.
After a few seconds, the electromechanical operator broke the silence: “Hey, it’s just a few inferior people dying.”
John glared at the electromechanical operator, about to speak, when the driver kicked him and motioned with his mouth towards the left.
John looked and saw two individuals with crescent plaques hanging on their chests, wearing black leather coats, slinging submachine guns. They were battlefield military police, known as “chain dogs” among the ordinary soldiers.
If they heard you questioning Prosen as the superior race, generally something unpleasant would happen.
John could only swallow the retort that had reached his lips.
The electromechanical operator continued: “Still, those infantrymen lack class, to be able to hang an inferior race. I couldn’t, I find them too dirty. Besides, Ante women are not as beautiful as our Prosen girls, lusting after them is like raping your own sense of aesthetics.”
John didn’t speak, his gaze followed the two military policemen.
Just then, engine noise came from the west.
The few men gathered around the broken tank turned to look in the direction of the sound, and indeed saw dust stirred up by the swift movement of a tank.
The driver: “Sounds like our own kind, Tank No. 6.”
No sooner had he spoken than tactical number 217, Tank No. 6, arrived with eight infantrymen, sparks flying and lightning fast.
As it passed by Tank 210, Tank 217’s commander waved at John: “Commander, we’re off to follow the vanguard.”
“Be careful not to break down again!” John waved back, while cautioning him.
“Don’t worry, the repair camp assured me on their honor.”
“Where are they now?” John asked again.
“Almost here, they’re repairing Tank No. 213 on the road.”
John recalled where Tank No. 213 had broken down and muttered: “That’s indeed close.”
As three more repaired Tank No. 6s passed by Tank No. 210, everyone greeted John.
Not only was he the commander of this company, but he had also just become the Prosen tank operator who had destroyed the most enemy tanks.
After the four tanks passed, John said: “Now I can rest easy, the vanguard has four more Tank No. 6s.”
The gunner: “The vanguard should be able to see the Suhaya Weili River in another day or two, right? Their much-vaunted Rocossov defensive line was just so-so, easily breached under our firepower.”
John also smiled: “Yes, aside from Tank No. 6 being difficult and time-consuming to maintain, and the higher failure rate when going the distance, it’s practically a perfect fighting vehicle.”
Everyone unanimously agreed with this statement.
————
Yarvik, Ante Army Suhaya Weili Front Army headquarters.
Wang Zhong: “Maybe you’re right, but we can’t gamble the outcome of the war on the enemy. We have to take victory into our own hands. I’m going to scout now and will stay in touch with you via radio. Give me a copy of your radio call sign list.”
“Alright,” the General turned to the Chief of Staff and shouted, “Hurry and give a copy of the radio call sign list to the major general.”
The Chief of Staff turned and called out, “Crypto officer! Quickly bring the call sign list for the major general.”
While the security level of the radio call sign list wasn’t as high as that of the cipher books, it was still kept by the crypto officer under the supervision of a Judge.
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