Arc of Gunfire

Chapter 300 The last day of the first year of the war (Update 32/33)

In the early morning of December 31, Wang Zhong got up and touched his side, and found that there was a rare vacancy, and the sheets were completely cold. Apparently Lyudmila had been up for a long time.

He lifted the quilt and sat up, only to see Nellie adding firewood to the fireplace.

Wang Zhong: "Lyudmila is not here, so she can't give me the hug every morning. Neli... can you do it for me?"

Nellie patted her chest and made a loud sound: "Are you sure?"

Wang Zhong: "It doesn't matter if it's hard, the most important thing is the feeling of being cared for."

Neli looked at Wang Zhong with very "caring" eyes.

Caring for fools is also caring.

Wang Zhong gave up acting coquettishly and stood up: "Bring me my clothes."

After a while, Wang Zhong, who was neatly dressed, left the room. After taking a few steps, he saw Lyudmila through the window in the corridor directing the servants to transport a tree into the yard.

Wang Zhong: "Why are you cutting down the trees?"

Nellie: "Let's make a Christmas tree."

"Christmas is not...oh." Ant didn't celebrate Christmas on December 25th, but on January 7th, so he mixed New Year and Christmas together, and decorated the Christmas tree on December 31st.

No wonder Lyudmila got up early.

At this time, Wang Zhong vaguely heard the ringing of the phone from the study, and hurriedly left the window and hurried to the study, only to see that the old housekeeper had already picked up the receiver.

Seeing Wang Zhong come in, the old housekeeper said: "General Rokossov is here, I will let him listen."

After speaking, he handed the receiver to Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong took the receiver and said, "I'm Rokossov."

"General," said the other side, "here is the director of the Weapons Testing Center of the Ordnance Bureau. He has just sent over two... uh, weird things. He said they were produced under your instructions to work overtime and asked us to suspend the ongoing 76mm self-propelled artillery. Test firing.”

The 76mm self-propelled gun, also known as the SU76, was rushed through before the review committee was established, aiming to use the chassis of the T70 tank that had already been produced.

After all, the light tank has proven itself useless on the battlefield that started in June, but the chassis has been produced, and the assembly line for producing the chassis is still there. It is a lot of trouble to switch to other production, and simply use it to build assault guns.

On Earth, it was not only Maozi who adopted this idea, but Santoku as well. The Panzer III tank was soon proven to be obsolete, but converting the Panzer III chassis production line to other production would take a lot of time. It would be better to just use it to produce the Panzer III tank. Assault gun.

The Panzer III Barbarossa may have lagged behind at the beginning, but the Panzer III Assault Gun is a good thing that can be used until the battle is defeated.

Wang Zhong: "Is the original plan today to test SU76?"

"Yes, there are still two subjects left and the test is over."

"Okay, let's finish testing first. Tell the designers that they are on holiday and wait until the New Year before testing and improving. It won't be done on this day or two." Wang Zhong said.

"Yes," replied the director of the testing center. "Thank you for your reasonableness."

Wang Zhong: "SU76 is also very important to our army."

The Su 76 plays a significant role as a mobile light artillery. It is not as simple as simply using the light tank production line.

The problem with the SU76 is that it is modified with a light tank chassis. After adding a 76 gun, it has no weight to use for defense.

In contrast, the No. 3 assault gun's own defense is even stronger than that of the No. 3 tank.

The 100mm carrier vehicle plan that Wang Zhong is nodding to now actually uses the idea of ​​the Earth-3 assault gun, using a tank chassis to carry the cannon, and then having a relatively reliable frontal defense.

However, the Earth-3 assault gun was really an assault gun at first, mainly to support infantry in demolishing bunkers. Later, the barrel was lengthened and used for anti-tank use.

Wang Zhong omitted the assault gun stage and directly built a tank destroyer.

Testing Center Director: "Well, I wish you a happy new year."

Wang Zhong: "I also wish you a happy New Year."

After saying that, he hung up the phone first, and then found Butler Mikhail looking at him.

Mikhail: "Is this okay for you? The master has already informed me that we have to continue working today. Is it really okay for you to celebrate the New Year here?"

Wang Zhong thought about it and realized that it was indeed not good for him to enjoy life at home in the face of a powerful enemy.

Suddenly, he had a brilliant idea: watch the Spring Festival Gala before traveling through time. There were often New Year greetings. It seemed that the army chief officers went down to the grassroots units to celebrate the New Year with the soldiers.

Why not learn from advanced experience?

So Wang Zhong snapped his fingers and said to Mikhail: "Tell Lyudmila that today we will go to Kubinka and have New Year's Eve dinner with the soldiers - I mean, New Year's Eve dinner. Let the kitchen prepare today The ingredients are pre-processed and then loaded into the truck, and the chefs are also on board.”

Mikhail was shocked: "This...I have never heard of such a practice!"

Wang Zhong: "Then you have seen it now. I will call Pavlov first so that he will not be confused."

————

Two hours later, Kubinka.

Pavlov looked at the truck driving into the training ground and blinked.

Wang Zhong jumped out of the car and asked, "Has the notice been sent out?"

Pavlov: "I...to be honest, I have never held such an event. There was a New Year's salon before, but it was mainly a dinner party for officers and a bonfire party with soldiers...never held it before."

Wang Zhong: "You have to get used to it as much as possible. There will be more and more such activities in the future. Let's let the truck take the ingredients to the cooking team first. My chef is also here. Let's..."

Pavlov: "Did you forget that we have a French cook here?"

Wang Zhong patted his thigh: "Yes, I got it in Loktov. He... didn't die?"

Pavlov: "It is said that when Orachi broke out, he took a frying pan and beat it all the way out, smashing the heads of several Plossians."

Wang Zhong: "I only knew that Italian chefs would smash their heads when cooking, but I didn't know that French chefs would do the same."

Pavlov: "So who's going to be the chef now?"

Wang Zhong: "We didn't eat any French food along the way. Aren't they all pretty normal Ant delicacies? Sour cream, pickled cucumbers, Chanaki stew..."

Pavlov just shrugged.

Wang Zhong turned back to Neli who was following him and said, "Well, tell our chef... Hey, why are you wearing the boat hat again?"

Nellie changed her boat hat into a maid's headband when she was at Rokosov Manor.

Nelly: "Now that I'm in the military camp, I'm a soldier again."

Then it evolved into a subspecies of Maidmon, the Military Hat Maidmon? The stunt is taking out a Deshka machine gun from your skirt and launching a ripple?

Nelly: "I'm going to inform the chef that a French chef will be the chef today. But maybe that French chef has to defeat our chef in wrestling before he can get the right to take charge."

Is Ant's cook so hard-core?

Nellie had turned and ran away.

Pavlov looked at Nelly as she left and said, "This is what I would do if I had a daughter."

Wang Zhong asked doubtfully: "Don't you have a daughter?"

Pavlov shrugged: "I hope so, but they are all brats, which is annoying, especially when they grow to seven or eight years old, just like my old sled dog when he was young, he will eat everything in my house." The disassembled mechanical device was completely destroyed.

"Do you know the pain of looking up when you want to tell the time and finding that the clock is dismantled? And when you want to listen to the radio, you find that the semiconductor inside is broken... Oh my God."

Pavlov said with a pained expression.

Wang Zhong: "How are they now?"

Pavlov: "Now? I've been writing letters all day asking for my signature. I got some newspapers and signed your name under your picture on the front page."

Wang Zhong: "You... signed for me?"

"Yeah, it's better than annoying you, right? They haven't seen your signature anyway." Pavlov spread his hands.

Wang Zhong: “Give it to me next time and I’ll sign it.”

"No, no, no, then the previous signature will be exposed." Pavlov shook his head repeatedly, "That's it."

Wang Zhong smiled.

————

After all, the winter solstice has just passed, and night is quickly falling.

It is said that daylight at Fort St. Andrew is so short that it only lasts a moment.

There are now nominally three divisions stationed in Kubinka:

The first is the completed 1st Guards "Red Flag" Mechanized Infantry Division, which is the main force of the mobile army being formed by Wang Zhong.

Followed by the 225th Mechanized Infantry Division formed as a model division. In fact, this division has not yet been fully staffed. There are many shortcomings in technical arms. The tanks of the armored battalion have been filled, but there is a serious shortage of other vehicles. There is only one tractor in place that can recover tanks, and there are only 50 trucks in the transportation group.

Finally, there is the First Division of Melania's People's Army. This division currently has only a quarter of its troops. The good news is that there are many technical soldiers. The bad news is that the technical soldiers are not equipped with equipment. Tanks, anti-tank guns, howitzers - what? All are missing.

Now the three divisions gathered together, and dozens of bonfires were raised across the playground, surrounding the commanders and soldiers.

Wang Zhong was very confused, why wasn't the food served when it was time to eat?

But he didn't dare to ask. After all, as an Ant person, it would be strange if he didn't understand Ant customs.

He was struggling with his hungry stomach. Lyudmila came over and gave him a few biscuits: "Let's eat something to satisfy our stomach first. Dinner tonight will have to wait until ten o'clock."

At this time, the girls from the cooking team came out carrying baskets on poles. The baskets contained snacks, which seemed to be for everyone's stomach.

Lyudmila continued: "And don't let everyone just sit and have some entertainment."

Wang Zhong: "Then let's start first? How about a flamenco?"

Lyudmila scolded: "Look, there is no band here, who will play flamenco for you? And how can the soldiers dance like they dance at the nobles' ball?"

Wang Zhong immediately understood what dance the soldiers should dance: of course the knee-destruction dance!

Then Wang Zhong had an idea. He knew that Yegorov was good at dancing this dance, so he took a step forward and shouted: "Yegorov!"

Pavlov: "He and Dr. Katya went into the city, and they probably won't come back tonight."

Damn it, there is no Yegorov at this time.

Wang Zhong looked at Pavlov: "Can you do that leg-breaking dance?"

Pavlov: "Me? Do you think I can do that dance with my physique? I'll break my knees first to show you."

Wang Zhong frowned. At this time, he saw his adjutant Vasily and had an idea: "Vasily, I have a task for you. Find a way to heat up the place."

"Eh?" Vasily was shocked, "Me?"

Wang Zhong: "Of course, you are a musician. Sing!"