Arc of Fire

Chapter 39

Yegorov was standing by the window at this moment, observing the western side, seemingly unafraid of the enemy's artillery fire.

The main reason was that the three-story estate of Lord Boye where he was staying was quite sturdy, and a 75mm infantry gun might not necessarily be able to take it down.

Even sturdier was the main building of the distillery; probably even the Prossenians hadn't expected such a small village to have a solid structure made of reinforced concrete.

Yegorov had already made up his mind-if they really couldn't hold out, they would retreat to the distillery and rely on the sturdy building to put up a stubborn resistance.

At that moment, amidst the enemy's cannon fire and explosions, he heard a different kind of artillery sound.

"The tank fired?" Yegorov turned his head to look behind him-toward the east.

After a second of hesitation, Yegorov quickly walked to the eastern window.

Due to the obstruction of the buildings, he couldn't see the tank, but he could see the smoke set up by the enemy on the eastern open plains.

The Ant Army had also been equipped with smoke shells, though that was learned from the "advanced experience" of the Prossenian forces.

Yegorov muttered to himself: "Looks like the Prossenian devils have detoured to the east. Count Rokosov is leading the tank in battle with the enemy! How did he spot them?"

While speaking, Yegorov raised his binoculars for a futile observation, still unable to see the situation, so he turned to Sergeant Major Grigori and said: "Take a machine gun to the eastern village entrance, find a good position, and set it up. The Count only has one tank, and the enemy has set up smoke; he might not be able to hold them all off."

Grigori saluted: "Leave it to me, Lieutenant Colonel Yegorov."

After watching Grigori leave, Yegorov looked to the east again, muttering: "How did the Count discover the enemy's detour?"

Pavlov: "Maybe that's just what a military genius is."

As soon as the words were spoken, a 75mm high-explosive shell hit the wall of the estate's main building, failing to penetrate it but causing a sparse shower of dust to fall from the roof.

Yegorov glanced at the beams above, confirming the house wouldn't collapse, before turning to glare at the Chief of Staff: "Say less!"

----

At this moment, Wang Zhong watched the last half-track turn into a burning pile of scrap metal.

He raised his perspective, quickly counting the remaining infantry on the open plains.

There were still about sixty or seventy infantry survivors, all scattered across the plains.

The closest enemies to the village were just five hundred meters away from entering it.

The urgent task now was to hurry back to the village entrance and hold the position; once the infantry entered the village, it would be hard to deal with them using the tank-even with Wang Zhong's cheat.

At that moment, a machine gun appeared at the window of the easternmost building in the village, opening fire on the enemies in the plains without hesitation.

This machine gun was a captured enemy weapon; its firing sound wasn't the dull thudding of the Ant Army's heavy machine guns but a harsh noise like tearing canvas.

Wang Zhong saw all of this clearly and immediately decided to drive the tank to the side of the village entrance, organizing a crossfire network with the machine gun there.

Without half-tracks, the enemy had lost their mobility and mobile cover; relying solely on infantry, it would be very difficult to break through the machine gun crossfire on the open plains.

"Driver, stop, turn 180 degrees in place!"

Even Wang Zhong could hear the sound of the driver pulling the control levers-this tank didn't have anything convenient like a steering wheel; it relied entirely on two levers to control each side's tracks.

With the driver's operation, the tank's tracks on both sides rotated in opposite directions, and the long body began to turn in place.

Su Fang was still firing, but as the tank started turning, the whip of tracer rounds swept straight into the plains.

"Couldn't you say something before turning?" Su Fang complained loudly, "I've wasted all these bullets!"

Wang Zhong had no time to deal with her; once the tank turned to the direction he wanted, he immediately banged on the turret's top plate and shouted: "Stop! Don't turn anymore! Shift gears, full speed ahead, stop at the village edge!"

As the tank started moving, Su Fang protested: "I can't shoot at the enemy like this!"

Just as she finished speaking, a bullet struck the tank's turret, sparking and ricocheting away.

Wang Zhong looked back and saw the enemies in the plains taking shots at the tank, but at this distance, even the well-trained Prossenian soldiers could only rely on luck.

However, the Prossenian infantry organization was like that of the Germans from another timeline, with the core of their squads being the machine gun-if a machine gun opened fire-

Before he could finish the thought, the enemy's machine gun started firing.

Wang Zhong immediately located the machine gunner, noticing he was firing while holding the weapon, likely because the enemy was in the wheat field where the summer wheat was already tall; lying down would make aiming impossible, so he had to fire while standing.

The accuracy of a handheld machine gun was predictable; it looked like the tracer rounds were coming at Wang Zhong, but they were all flying high.

Su Fang ducked her head, losing the earlier sharpness she had while killing enemies, instead clinging tightly to Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong: "Why are you sticking so close?"

Su Fang: "I feel like the bullets might just go around you!"

"Look at the wound on my shoulder and say that again! I'm still running a fever!"

Though their conversation lacked any sense of tension, Wang Zhong knew that in such a situation, getting hit by a bullet at any moment wouldn't be surprising. Who can predict a battlefield?

But strangely, he wasn't afraid at all.

And he always felt that his fearlessness had little to do with adrenaline-because his breathing was very steady right now.

Just as he thought this, Su Fang said: "Konstantinovich, you're so brave. I'm trembling with fear, but you're just as calm as usual!"

Konstantinovich was Wang Zhong's patronymic, and using it at a time like this likely carried a sense of respect.

Wang Zhong glanced at the girl, taking a second to remember that as an Easterner, she didn't have a patronymic, so he could only address her by name: "Su Fang, you're very brave too."

At that moment, the driver's voice came through the headset: "We're almost at the village edge; there's a low wall ahead."

Wang Zhong: "Stop in front of the low wall, face the enemy head-on."

The tank immediately braked and then turned.

Su Fang, as if she'd been holding back for a long time, grabbed the machine gun and fired back at the Prossenian machine gunner who had been sending tracer rounds over their heads.

Unsurprisingly, her shots went low.

After all, she had set the scale to 100 when they were closer to the enemy.

Wang Zhong estimated the distance and said to Su Fang: "Set the scale to four hundred!"

"Oh!" Su Fang stopped firing and began adjusting the scale.

At this moment, the two machine gun turrets in front of the tank also opened fire, forming a crossfire of death whips with the machine gun at the village entrance.

Su Fang finished adjusting the scale and joined their ranks.

The enemy might have run out of smoke shells; they had no way to deal with the fire network now.

One machine gunner found a mound in the field, set up his machine gun on it, and started returning fire.

Wang Zhong immediately grabbed Su Fang's hand, pushing her line of fire toward the enemy, while ordering the gunner: "See Su Fang's tracer rounds? There's an enemy machine gun there, do you see it?"

"I see it!" The gunner replied while stepping on the turret rotation pedal, aiming the short, thick tank cannon at the enemy.

Loader: "High-explosive, ready!"

The gunner stomped on the firing pedal.

Due to the short distance, the shell hit almost the instant it was fired, sending the Prossenian machine gunner and loader flying into the air-literally flying into the air.

Su Fang: "Good! That's for shooting at me!"

Wang Zhong's headset was filled with the cheers of the tank crew.

But he couldn't feel happy, because from his overhead perspective, he saw that the enemies from the front were also advancing.

Happy New Year, everyone, and Happy Chinese New Year's Eve.

(End of chapter)