Upon issuing the order, Wang Zhong was actually quite anxious, fearing that just trying out this decision might cause his troops to be sacrificed in vain, suffering many casualties.
Uncle Hei’s tactics sometimes really aren’t for everyone, just as not everyone can use Indian tactics.
That’s when the drawback of the “external assistance” became apparent, only during communication could one gain a field of view, but military communications couldn’t be used for idle chatter. After quickly understanding the situation and giving orders, communication ended.
In other words, Wang Zhong’s frontline field of view could not be sustained continuously, maintaining constant contact with the assaulting troops might disrupt the commander’s judgment, leading to less than ideal outcomes.
Therefore, Wang Zhong could only ask Vasily to contact the assault battalion again under the pretense of having them report the situation, using their perspective to check on the condition of the assault troops.
Then, Wang Zhong saw the Willis jeep cavalry bravely charging towards the enemy’s armored column, which had not yet initiated an attack.
The jeeps, spread far and wide across the hills, reminded Wang Zhong of the time he had led the empire’s cavalry to charge while playing “Mount & Blade II”.
The key thing was that both Willis jeep units had brooms tied behind each vehicle, so the dust kicked up was particularly heavy, making their presence seem even more formidable.
The jeep convoy began firing their machine guns.
Even if the Prosen tank commander liked to poke his head out to gather information, at this time, he had no choice but to retreat back inside the tank.
However, Wang Zhong wasn’t sure how much impact it would have on them to be forced inside their tanks since Prosen’s latest Panzer IV tanks were all equipped with commander’s towers.
The enemy’s hull machine guns opened fire!
But hull machine guns lack aiming devices, relying first on feel to shoot and then adjusting based on the trajectory of tracer rounds.
Hitting the speeding Willis jeeps with hull machine guns was indeed difficult.
And there was also such heavy dust.
Wang Zhong watched anxiously for a while and realized that the memoir he had read before wasn’t lying; it’s very hard for machine guns to hit speeding Willis jeeps.
The mountain ranger machine gunner was using an MG42, while the enemy tanks presumably had MG34s mounted on them, which should have a lower rate of fire.
Moreover, the ranger machine-gunner had been using a tripod-mounted MG42, which had much better accuracy than the hull machine guns on tanks.
Wang Zhong had just heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the enemy firing their cannons, but the shells didn’t even come close to the speeding jeeps.
It seemed he had been too hard on Colonel Ka; his tanks being defeated by pickup trucks was not because of incompetence. Even the Prosen’s elite armored troops couldn’t hit the speeding Willis jeeps.
Just then, the communication with the assault battalion and Vasily ended, meaning Wang Zhong’s field of view could only be maintained for a brief moment.
At that moment, Wang Zhong suddenly realized that the Prussians had taken measures, as he saw all the Prosen tanks’ hull machine guns firing in one direction.
They were no longer chasing individual jeeps, but had created a fire coverage area, causing the Willis jeeps to run into a wall of bullets within this zone.
In the blink of an eye, three jeep drivers were shot.
One jeep’s driver fell off entirely, skewing the steering wheel in the process; the vehicle started to make a sharp turn and looked ready to drift across the grassland, but alas, the tall grass soon blocked the wheels and caused the vehicle to overturn.
The machine-gunner leaped out, but ended up pinned under the rolling jeep.
Luckily, when the jeep convoy set out, knowing the danger of the mission, they instructed everyone except the drivers and machine gunners to dismount.
Just a second before the shared view disappeared, Wang Zhong spotted another jeep getting hit, while the rest managed to avoid the Prussians’ coverage area.
The shared view ended.
Wang Zhong clicked his tongue.
Damn, Colonel Ka was still incompetent after all. Look at those Prosen elite tank operators; they knew exactly what to do in an instant.
—-
On the Prussian Army’s side, five minutes earlier.
Colonel Busse was supervising the deployment of his units when a communications staff officer leaped down from the radio car, panicked and sprinted toward the colonel, coming to attention and saluting, “Report, Colonel! We intercepted the enemy’s radio transmission, the enemy commander claims to be General Rocossov!”
Colonel Busse’s scalp tingled, “Who?”
“General Rocossovsky!”
The two armored infantry company commanders standing beside the colonel widened their eyes, with one exclaiming, “Is that Rocossovsky? The one who annihilated over a hundred thousand of our men? Are we about to be surrounded?”
The colonel cursed, “Dammit! The Imperial Army has just achieved a great victory at the Coastal Fortress, slicing through the enemy’s lines like a hot knife through butter, and now a mere Rocossovsky has you scared? That’s disgraceful!”
Colonel Busse was about to continue when another radio operator jumped down from the radio vehicle, whispering a few words to the communications officer.
Colonel Busse demanded, “What’s going on?”
The communications officer replied, “Come over and listen for yourself.”
With that, he gestured for the colonel to join him. Puffing with impatience, Colonel Busse approached the radio vehicle, took the headset from the radio operator, and as soon as he did, he heard cries over the radio:
“The enemy is charging at us, from all over the hills!”
“Stay calm! State your radio call sign, abide by communication discipline!”
Without the radio call sign, it’s impossible to know who’s talking, and thus hard to determine which area is under attack.
“231! 231 is being attacked by the enemy!”
The call signs used within Prussian Army units are generally their tactical codes, and only the units themselves use objects or animals as their call signs.
If a unit within the army wants to communicate with other outside units, they can indicate themselves by using their unit’s call sign followed by their internal number.
Here, 231 is the call sign for the armored platoon currently expanding on the left.
Before Colonel Busse could issue any commands, another cry came over the radio: “251 is under attack, the enemy is everywhere!”
Busse: “This is Unit 1, 231, 251, stay calm, how many casualties now?”
“No casualties, repeat, no casualties! The enemy is firing at us with heavy machine guns or autocannons!”
“Just heavy machine guns and autocannons?”
“Yes!” It sounded like the other side had calmed down, “The enemy seems to be some barrel trucks! Why are they using barrel trucks to charge at armored troops?”
Many Prussian soldiers were seeing Willis jeeps for the first time, so they thought these were similar to the barrel trucks used by the Prussian Army.
In fact, Willis jeeps were much lighter.
Colonel Busse: “Destroy those vehicles.”
“…Sorry, Colonel, they’re too fast, we can’t hit them.”
After a moment’s thought, the Colonel said, “If you can’t hit them, then concentrate fire on one area, as long as the density is high enough you’ll hit something! Drive the enemy away and then continue with the original battle plan!”
After finishing, Colonel Busse put down the receiver and cursed, “To be thrown into disarray by mere barrel trucks, is this the Asgard Knights?”
At this moment, Busse’s adjutant said, “This is Rokossovsky, if it’s him, it explains why our vanguard was easily devoured earlier, he must have some strange plans.”
“Are you scared too?” Colonel Busse glared at his own adjutant.
Adjutant: “Rokossovsky is the new Tsar of the Ante people’s lover, he will definitely receive preferential support in manpower and resources. The sudden ferocious welcoming by the Ant Air Force earlier now makes sense! Think about the heavy bombers that flew over our heads this morning.”
Colonel Busse pursed his lips.
It seems… there was some sense to that!
When the Busse battle group set out from Yeisk, they had received reports from the logistics in the rear, stating that the enemy had dropped a large number of bombs, which judging by the volume couldn’t have been from twin-engine bombers, but rather a type of heavy four-engine bomber.
Being able to deploy heavy four-engine bombers…
Upon reflection, Colonel Busse also felt there was a trick within this.
At that moment, the chief of staff arrived, “The troops are ready for encirclement, let’s set off. Our frontal armored troops suffered extremely heavy losses, and facing the enemy’s preset positions, the exchange of fire was too costly.”
“No,” Colonel Busse looked at the chief of staff, “What do you think is the enemy’s intention using a highly mobile light armored force to strike our flanks?”
The chief of staff thought for a moment and said, “It might be a desperate charge, some Ante generals are bad at war, but they have a brute courage. Also, I’ve read quite a few of their literary works, and their culture has a tendency towards self-destruction, which could explain why since last winter they would rather self-destruct than surrender.”
Colonel Busse: “But the enemy’s commander is Rokossovsky.”
The chief of staff’s eyes widened, “Rokossovsky? That Rokossovsky?”
“That Rokossovsky, the White Horse General Rokossovsky, the Empire’s Iron Wall Rokossovsky, the Star of Victory Rokossovsky.”
The chief of staff hesitated: “This…”
“Does Rokossovsky also have a tendency towards self-destruction?” Colonel Busse asked.
Chief of staff: “If his actions are genuine, I believe he does. Think about it, he rode a horse to lead KV tanks to attack us, that’s clearly a self-destructive tendency. Without a doubt, Rokossovsky is an Ante-style hero, and such a hero, if not self-destructive, would accomplish great things.”
He paused, then said, “Since it’s Rokossovsky ordering these light armored forces to strike us, then this action is not simply self-destructive, he must have a purpose.”
After the chief of staff finished, Busse’s adjutant said, “Dust clouds. The Ante People might lack smoke shells, so they use light armored forces to create dust clouds, to cover the movements of the enemy’s subsequent troops.”
Colonel Busse took over from his adjutant, “We thought that the 100 tanks were just false information, that the enemy was very weak, so we launched an attack. But actually, the vanguard was right, they really saw 100 tanks!
“This is Rokossovsky’s ruse; in fact, the Ante People have already concentrated a large number of tank forces, preparing to devour our battle group!”
The chief of staff realized, “That’s it!”
Colonel Busse: “We must retreat back to Yeisk! We’ll conduct a defense from there, waiting for our army’s subsequent troops! You, organize the retreat immediately, select volunteers to stay behind to snipe at Rokossovsky’s armored forces, and hold them back!”
The chief of staff saluted, “Yes, sir!”
————
On Wang Zhong’s side.
Vasily: “The jeep units are reporting that the enemy seems to be retreating after leaving behind some rearguard forces.”
Wang Zhong immediately switched perspectives, and indeed, he saw that the enemy entangled with the jeep units was retreating, leaving behind roughly fifteen Panzer III tanks spread out in the field.
From the positions they occupied, these vehicles were targeting to intercept.
Wang Zhong switched back and looked at Vasily with a puzzled expression, “Why? Why are they running?”
Vasily shrugged his shoulders.
The efficacy of the pickup tactic was not as Wang Zhong had anticipated. Initially, Wang Zhong thought that the jeep units might be able to get close enough to throw incendiary bombs and destroy some tanks, but that did not happen.
It wasn’t easy to find gaps in the enemy tank clusters to get close enough to throw incendiary bombs.
Upon further thought, Colonel Card was defeated by pickups because they not only had heavy machine guns but also RPG rocket launchers, and Card’s tanks, being modern main battle tanks, were done for if hit on the side or back with an RPG.
Wang Zhong’s “pickup” units had no RPGs.
Shit, should’ve asked the Federation for some bazookas; though not as famous as the Panzerfaust, they’re actually very useful.
Acting Chief of Staff Alexandria asked, “What do we do now?”
Wang Zhong thought for a moment and said, “Our tank destroyer units were afraid of the enemy charging into close combat, but since the enemy has now occupied positions for a blocking battle, we can just push up and exchange fire with them. Order the destroyer battalion to attack.
“Although I don’t know what kind of decision-making process the enemy went through to decide to retreat, it doesn’t prevent us from devouring their rearguard.”
Wang Zhong said this, showing a gourmand’s smile, “As an appetizer, not bad at all.”