After the shock of seeing the tiger had passed, Wang Zhong’s first thought was that the enemy still didn’t know that their reconnaissance team had been wiped out, since the assault had been too quick; most of the enemy hadn’t had time to react before being taken down.
The last one, though valiant, was a driver, and drivers couldn’t operate the vehicle’s radio, so most likely no message had been sent out.
With that in mind, they could change into Prussian uniforms and stage a classic scene from an anti-Japanese movie—
Then Wang Zhong saw the Tiger tank stop; it clearly sensed something was wrong.
But in the height of summer, with the wheat so tall and the Tiger still more than 2000 meters away, how could it possibly see them? Wang Zhong was puzzled when he suddenly noticed the No. 2 tank burning—damn, the thick smoke had given them away!
As the Tiger stopped, more enemy units entered Wang Zhong’s field of vision, with more than five half-track vehicles and thirty to forty infantrymen.
Wang Zhong made a snap decision; he switched back to his own perspective to give orders, just as a soldier on the second floor shouted, “Enemy! To the west!”
Wang Zhong immediately ordered, “Everyone, plant a makeshift mine with a hand grenade on the spot, fast! Vasily, make a sign, write ‘Beware of booby traps’ in Prussian.”
The soldiers who had just been relaxing sprang into action.
The Military Chaplain asked, “What about the prisoners?”
Wang Zhong replied, “Tie them up, stuff one in each vehicle.”
Before he finished speaking, his gaze landed on the prisoner who was reciting Sanctified faction scriptures.
In an instant, he made a decision, pointing to the man, “Leave him, the Empire will kill the Sanctified faction anyway.”
In fact, there was a bit of self-interest in Wang Zhong’s decision; he was curious to see how much legendary color this prisoner would add to his deeds after getting back to the Empire.
Jokingly, being hailed as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse would be super cool, right?
So, they stripped the already delirious enemy soldier of all his weapons and equipment, even taking his water bottle, while the other prisoners were tightly bound and thrown into the back of the trucks.
Then seven Willis Jeeps kicked up dust as they sped away.
Vasily, who had been making the sign, was the last to board; he leapt onto the already moving Jeep with one swift step, grabbing the weapon rack behind the Jeep’s windshield to stay standing.
At this moment, the Prussians had just finished deploying and were pushing towards the farmstead—such rigidity was to be thanked, for had they driven the Tiger straight at them, that would have been really bad.
Unlike many people’s perception and the depiction in many video games, all veterans who had driven Tigers remembered the Tiger’s mobility as being very good.
So, the Tiger could easily have charged forward with the infantry, and then at the very least most of Wang Zhong’s vehicles wouldn’t have made it out alive.
Without their vehicles, the vast number of accompanying infantry would have eliminated Wang Zhong’s small unit.
But the Prussians didn’t; they chose to stop, with the infantry advancing ahead and the Tiger covering.
Then seven Willis Jeeps kicked up dust as they sped away.
From his bird’s-eye view, Wang Zhong saw the Prussians startled by the dust raised by the Willis Jeeps. The infantry line actually halted its advance and sent a Sdkfz 251 half-track with a squad of infantry to investigate.
Seeing this situation, Wang Zhong stretched out his hand, “Field telephone!”
Vasily immediately stuffed the field telephone into Wang Zhong’s hand.
Wang Zhong, “Genghis Khan calling Attila.”
After shouting it twice, the reply from Front Army headquarters came, “This is Attila, speak, Genghis Khan.”
“Fire support at the following coordinates…”
Wang Zhong, aided by his external aid, accurately reported the coordinates of the enemy who hadn’t fully left his sight yet.
He repeated the coordinates twice, then Front Army responded, “Our artillery can’t cover that range, repeat, cannot cover that range.”
Wang Zhong frowned, but it made sense upon reflection; his reconnaissance team had advanced so far that they had already left the coverage of friendly artillery.
Nowadays, the range of an ordinary howitzer is also about 20 kilometers at the most.
Wang Zhong, “Then let the Air Force deal with them.”
“We will forward the coordinates to the Air Force. Any other requests?”
“No, Genghis Khan over.”
After finishing, he handed the field telephone back to Vasily.
In fact, Wang Zhong wasn’t sure if the planes would be able to find these enemies.
After all, there is no GPS navigation right now, and it’s normal for pilots to stray off course if they don’t have a dedicated navigator for guidance.
Even with a navigator, they often fly off course, the greater the distance, the more they deviate.
And single-seat planes basically have to navigate by landmarks alone.
But in this great plain, there aren’t many useful landmarks in the sky.
So Wang Zhong’s request for the Air Force strike was a shot in the dark.
————
On the Prussian side, let’s turn back time a little.
Lieutenant Linden, tank commander of Tactical Number 217, was the first to spot the black smoke up ahead. He immediately gave the order to halt and raised his binoculars to observe.
But the gauzy curtains obscured much of the view, and the burning object was simply too far away for Linden to make out what it was after a long look.
At that moment, the infantry company commander climbed onto the tank and leaned over the turret to ask, “What’s wrong?”
Linden pointed toward the front: “Smoke!”
The captain hurriedly picked up the binoculars and looked in the direction Linden was pointing: “It looks like a vehicle on fire. We should have a motorized reconnaissance battalion up front, should we call them?”
Lieutenant Linden, “I’ll call them, and please deploy your troops right away to commence reconnaissance operations.”
After all, Linden was just a lieutenant and couldn’t direct the infantry captain, he could only suggest.
Infantry company commander: “Understood, I’m deploying formations now and will search and advance to the east.”
After saying this, the company commander jumped off the tank and began to loudly signal for the infantrymen to dismount.
As the infantry dispersed, Lieutenant Linden called the reconnaissance group that should be ahead while continuing to observe the direction of the smoke.
However, even after the infantry was fully deployed, Lieutenant Linden still had not received a response.
The infantry company commander climbed on the tank again: “How’s it going?”
“No response,” Lieutenant Linden paused, “I’m afraid the reconnaissance group has been wiped out—it makes more sense to think that way. After all, the reconnaissance group has lots of radios; it’s impossible for all of them to fail.”
Company commander: “Then the battlefield might be just up ahead, I’m starting to advance.”
Lieutenant Linden, “I’ll cover you. I’ll start moving after you’ve advanced fifty meters.”
The Prosen people had been practicing combined infantry and tank tactics for a long time. They knew not to let tanks charge blindly ahead in such tall wheat fields, as doing so would make them too vulnerable to enemies hiding among the crops.
After the infantry commander had jumped off the tank, he walked along and repeatedly ordered, “Advance! The battlefield should be right ahead, keep going until we can see clearly what’s burning!”
The infantry started moving, and Linden waited for them to cover 50 meters before ordering his tank squadron to advance—now the four Tiger tanks had been delegated to Lieutenant Linden’s temporary command for him to lead.
The roar of the engines from the four Number 6 tanks came to life, propelling the heavy metal boxes forward. Linden’s 217 might have crushed a gopher hole, frightening several gophers to dart out of their burrows and into the wheat fields.
The Prosen people advanced cautiously, when suddenly a massive cloud of dust billowed up ahead.
Linden saw the infantry company commander raise his hand and make a fist, signaling to stop advancing.
The infantrymen gradually came to a halt, watching the front warily.
Minutes later, a half-track loaded with a squad of infantry pushed forward.
Linden watched these brave souls anxiously until they disappeared into the gauzy haze.
Suddenly, Lieutenant Linden heard an explosion from the direction of the thick smoke!
He hurriedly asked, “What’s going on? Infantry, infantry, what’s happening?”
Then he heard a Prosen voice shouting clearly over the radio: “Joseph has been killed by the enemy’s booby traps! There’s a farmhouse here with only one crazy scout soldier inside, reciting texts from forbidden books!
“There’s a sign in the farmhouse yard that says ‘Beware of booby traps,’ signed ‘Major General Aleksei Konstantinovich Rokossov.'”
Lieutenant Linden felt goosebumps on the back of his neck.
Major General Rokossov? Was it that same Rokossov, the general who had decimated our forces, killing and capturing a host of our generals?
Lieutenant Linden had little memory for the lengthy train-like names of the Ante People, who also liked to use saints’ names for themselves, with so many bearing the same moniker, making it even harder to distinguish.
As he wondered, he suddenly heard the soldier who had just reported over the radio shout, “Wait, don’t snatch the microphone from me!”
The next moment, a maniacal voice came through the radio: “He comes from the darkness, like lightning piercing through the clouds, bringing death and illuminating everything! The multitudes on the earth sense the coming of the end of the world! Whoever worships the beast and its image shall drink the wrath of God’s fury! Don’t you understand? Science is the beast, the image of the beast! Prosen is doomed!
“And Rokossov, he is the harbinger of destruction, the incarnation of divine punishment! I have seen him, his left hand holding up boiling blood churning in the air (actually a red flag on a Willis jeep behind him), his right hand holding God’s scepter (referring to a thread cutting machine)!”
Linden pursed his lips; suddenly, he no longer wanted to enter that manor as if doing so would encounter something terrible.
So he used the armored troops’ radio frequency to order the other tanks: “We’ll wait outside the manor for the engineers to clear mines. Lacking forward reconnaissance, we can’t advance any further.”
As he gave the order, the man who had plunged into madness kept repeating, “It will bring us ruin! Ruin!”
The next moment, a crisp gunshot ended everything.
Then the initial voice returned: “Captain, I was scared he would continue, so I carried out discipline, executed the man sowing discord and undermining military morale.”
Then the company commander’s voice appeared: “You idiot, you shouldn’t have let him have the radio. Now the whole combat group has heard it.”
————
Colonel Busse happened to hear this segment as well.
Your next read is at empire
Because his tank was broken and he was temporarily staying in Yeisk, John Christopher was right there beside him—he had been invited by Colonel Busse to dinner, as the entire combat group had advanced so swiftly thanks to the efforts of the Number 6 heavy tank company commanded by Captain John Christopher.
“Does this Rokossov possess some kind of mysterious power? After all, there really is mysterious power over there. Could he really…” John Christopher hesitated before asking in a lowered voice, “Could he really have the power to slice open tanks with a knife? Look, it even scared someone into madness.”
Colonel Busse shook his head: “How would I know, I’ve never clashed with him. But back in Argesukov, at the officers’ club, I heard a wounded soldier named Shrifen say that those people seemed really sinister.”
John Christopher frowned, then suddenly said, “Wait a minute, we should be calling the Air Force to find him, shouldn’t we? Didn’t the Air Force promise us sufficient support? Let them bomb him to death!”