Arc of Fire

Chapter 6

To confirm this, Wang Zhong asked Captain Sergei, who was lying beside him, "Is Divine Arrow a kind of rocket?"

"Yes."

Wang Zhong continued to confirm, "Guided by a Prayer Hand?"

"The Prayer Hand prays to God, and then God guides it."

Sergei seemed to try hard to make his voice sound devout, but he failed.

At this point, Wang Zhong had already concluded that Divine Arrow was some kind of radio or wire-guided weapon, though in this world, which might have developed after a civilization collapse, the ancient technology used to create Divine Arrow was beyond modern understanding.

As a veteran player of *Wargame: Red Dragon*, he immediately realized how crucial such an anti-tank missile was in the current situation.

Wang Zhong said, "Sergei, send someone to contact the Divine Arrow squad. That should be Brother Yatsemenko's Divine Arrow squad."

Lyudmila had joined Brother Yatsemenko's Divine Arrow squad, and Wang Zhong remembered clearly that Yatsemenko's squad had lost their Prayer Hand, which is why Lyudmila was urgently added to the team.

Captain Sergei replied, "Understood."

Wang Zhong continued to observe the frontline.

Even after losing a tank, the enemy did not stop their assault.

The Prossenians used mortars to launch smoke screens, blocking the Divine Arrow squad's line of sight, and then a second tank pushed forward, using the still-burning wreckage as cover.

Wang Zhong clicked his tongue, "The enemy is quite experienced."

Captain Sergei said, "Haven't you noticed? The enemy has an iris emblem on their sleeves. That's proof they participated in the Carolingian Campaign."

Wang Zhong had no idea what the Carolingian Campaign was, and he didn't dare ask, in case it was common knowledge in this world.

But Carolingian-on Earth, there was a Carolingian dynasty in Frankish history. Could it be that in this timeline, France was also blitzkrieged by the Germans-no, by the Prossenians?

And now, these Prossenian troops attacking us, could they be veterans of that blitzkrieg on Carolingia?

As Wang Zhong pondered this, he saw the squad that had just fired the Divine Arrow leave their original position, seemingly intending to move forward and bypass the smoke screen.

"What the hell?" Wang Zhong muttered, "Moving forward might let you bypass the smoke obstruction, but then you'll be only two or three hundred meters from the tank. The tank could even hit you with its machine gun!"

"Huh?" Captain Sergei let out a confused sound, "I didn't plan to move forward?"

Wang Zhong said, "Not talking about you! Brother Yatsemenko's squad is moving forward. It's too dangerous! Stop them!"

Captain Sergei looked into the distance with confusion. From his perspective, all he could see was a cluster of buildings; he couldn't spot Brother Yatsemenko's squad at all.

In fact, without an overhead view, it was impossible to gather such detailed frontline intelligence from the rooftop position, as most of the view was blocked by buildings.

Captain Sergei said, "I don't even know where they are. How did you see them?"

Wang Zhong shut his mouth. Explaining his cheat ability was troublesome, and he decided that in the future, he'd only give orders without explaining why he issued them.

At this moment, through his overhead view, Wang Zhong confirmed that Lyudmila was indeed there-her figure was too striking, and with that silver hair, she was easily recognizable even from an overhead perspective.

The urgent task now was to stop the Divine Arrow squad from advancing to their doom, but there was no way to contact them at the moment.

As Wang Zhong worried, Sergei said, "We've contacted the rear artillery group. The artillery commander wants to speak with you."

Wang Zhong switched his view back and took the receiver-only then did he notice that at some point, the communications soldier had pulled the telephone line up to the rooftop.

"This is Wang... Count Rokosov, go ahead."

He almost said, "This is Wang Zhong"!

"Count Rokosov? Why are you in command?" The voice on the other end was extremely surprised, "This is bad..."

Wang Zhong was quite taken aback. From the information Duke Vladimir had revealed earlier, the Count Rokosov he was impersonating was a friend of the Crown Prince, yet these people were so openly critical of Count Rokosov...

"Duke Vladimir is dead, killed by the Prossenians' battleship bombardment. We've suffered heavy losses. If you're calling to make snide remarks, you can hang up now."

"No, wait. I'm calling to inform you that the Prossenians are almost at our artillery position. I can give you one round of support. After that, you'll have to fight without artillery backup."

Wang Zhong immediately pulled his view to the furthest zoom. At this height, it felt like looking at a satellite map on Google Earth.

Then, something unexpected happened-on this "satellite map," there were actually troop markers.

At Wang Zhong's location, there was a rectangle with an X marker, representing infantry, while to the east of the city, there was a marker representing artillery.

Right now, this marker was green, and Wang Zhong felt he had access to their field of vision.

He zoomed in for a closer look, and sure enough, he could see through the artillery's perspective.

Was this because he was currently on the phone with them?

While Wang Zhong was studying his cheat ability, the voice on the phone said, "Give me the coordinates, and I'll fire as many shells as I can. After that, you're on your own!"

At this moment, Wang Zhong suddenly noticed there were still plenty of smoke shells at the artillery position.

An idea suddenly struck him.

Wang Zhong asked, "Do you have smoke shells?"

There was a second of silence on the other end before the reply came, "Yes. What about it?"

Wang Zhong said, "I'll give you a coordinate. Fire all the smoke shells there."

Since the Prossenians used smoke to obscure the Divine Arrow squad's vision, allowing their tanks to fight at a distance they excelled in, why couldn't we do the same?

Use smoke to completely strip away their vision, then let the infantry charge and engage the enemy in close combat.

In close combat, the tank's direct firepower would be useless.

Of course, this would also render machine guns ineffective, but machine guns would likely be targeted and destroyed by the enemy tanks anyway.

The only issue was whether the frontline commander would understand the meaning of this smoke barrage and seize the opportunity to launch a counterattack.

However, Wang Zhong didn't care too much about that. His real goal was to save Lyudmila-if the enemy tank's vision was completely obscured by smoke, they naturally wouldn't be able to fire on the Divine Arrow squad she was with.

Wang Zhong adjusted his view. His overhead perspective came with coordinates, so he just needed to report them.

He didn't notice that Captain Sergei beside him had widened his eyes and opened his mouth in shock.

After Wang Zhong reported the coordinates, the other side immediately repeated them and confirmed the order, "Fire all smoke shells at this coordinate, correct?"

Wang Zhong replied, "Correct, fire them all. Don't use live rounds. This coordinate is right in the middle of the skirmish zone, and many shells might land on our own people."

Smoke shells had no lethality, and as long as someone wasn't unlucky enough to be directly hit, they wouldn't cause harm.

"Understood. After firing these smoke shells, we'll have to retreat. The enemy's machine gun overwatch fire has already reached us, do you understand?"

"Got it! Fire now!"

A roar came from the other end of the line, "Fire!"

Then the call was disconnected.

Wang Zhong used his overhead view to check the effect, and at that moment, he heard Sergei ask in surprise, "You just reported the coordinates like that? Using a pair of binoculars?"

"Yeah," Wang Zhong replied casually.

"But... everyone says you scored zero in all military subjects!" Captain Sergei said.

Wang Zhong thought to himself, what a coincidence! That's perfect, since I also have no military knowledge. I won't have to worry about slipping up in the future.

As he thought this, the smoke shells landed.

In an instant, the entire block, friend and foe alike, was enveloped in white smoke.

Even Wang Zhong's overhead view was completely obscured, unable to see anything.

Now it depended on whether the frontline infantry commander was a coward or not.

Just as Wang Zhong thought this, he heard deafening battle cries echoing through the thick smoke, "Ura!"

(End of Chapter)