Arc of Gunfire

At the end of February, as the temperature warmed, the snow began to melt, but only the surface snow was melted. In fact, the frozen ground deep in the land was still as hard as ever, forming a barrier to prevent the melting. Snow water seeps deep into the ground.

So, mud season begins.

Even in big cities like Yebao, where there are asphalt roads everywhere, you can still see the shadow of mud. When you go out, your pants will be covered with mud spots.

In such a bad situation, the tank would tremble three times, and the car would not be able to drive off the asphalt road.

As a result, the battlefield was completely silent, and all major military operations from north to south came to a halt.

Both sides are seizing the time to stock up on ammunition and replenish their troops, preparing to do a big job in the summer.

On March 6, Lieutenant Colonel John Wick suddenly visited the Suvorov Military Academy and found Wang Zhong in the principal's office who was about to go to class.

As soon as they met, he said: "Have you heard?"

Wang Zhong asked in confusion: "What did you hear?"

"The intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom have just conveyed information to your headquarters."

Wang Zhong: "How did I hear about what I just conveyed?"

"That's it," Lieutenant Colonel John Wick sat down in front of Wang Zhong and said with a smile, "Then let me tell you. The Proscenians are preparing to launch an attack on the southern front. The first stage is to break through the coastal fortress to Bor The intelligence officers of the United Kingdom have not found the defense line of Sksk, the specific time of the attack and the main direction of attack.”

Wang Zhong: "What's the use of this? Everyone knows that Proson wants to fight on the southern front."

John Wick: "It is also very important to confirm the original conjecture. After all, troops are deployed based on the conjecture. Once the conjecture is wrong, it will be used in military textbooks and become a wrong example."

Wang Zhong: "It can't be wrong. When they attacked Yebao last year, it was when we were at our weakest. Now if we want to attack Yebao, we will face troops that have been replenished and have experience in defensive warfare. They will never It will be as easy as last year.

"As for the northern line, even if they take Fort St. Andrew, there is nothing to fight to the north. The north is full of forests and tundra, with worse infrastructure and fewer settlements. They will be unable to move forward, but on the contrary, we can rely on There are plenty of supplies in the ice-free ports in the north.”

Originally, Freezing Port was mainly engaged in the shipbuilding industry. The city and the surrounding industrial belt alone could not supply a front army. There was not much agricultural production capacity in the north, so we couldn't let the army just eat salted fish and wood, right?

But now the situation has changed. The ice-free port is the end point of the Arctic Ocean transportation line. The materials shipped by the allies are piled in the ice-free port, enough to supply a million troops for combat.

Therefore, even if Fort St. Andrew is lost, the Fort Andrew Front can continue fighting by changing its name. By setting up defenses along the railway line from Freezing Port to Ye Fort, there will be good supplies along the entire line.

Wang Zhong analyzed all these, and then said categorically: "The enemy can only attack the southern front. This is basically a conspiracy. All the rumors that they want to attack the northern front or the center are all actions to deceive the enemy."

Lieutenant Colonel John Wick smiled and said: "Your judgment is basically the same as that of our country's generals. Do you think the Prosins can succeed?"

Wang Zhong: "I'm not sure. Duke Meishkin is a very good general and has great experience in defensive operations. I don't know if he can block the enemy's offensive."

In fact, the front army led by Meishkin already has hundreds of thousands of troops, and there are tens of thousands of naval infantry in the coastal fortress. As long as the commander is not stupid, this bunch of troops can hold off Proson for a period of time.

The question is how long it can be blocked.

Lieutenant Colonel John Wick changed the topic: "I heard that you have made significant progress in instigating a rebellion against the Ploson prisoners of war?"

Wang Zhong: "It would be better for you to ask Cardinal Rafkid of the Inquisition about this matter."

"Come on, I'm not a reporter. I'm asking you about the situation as an army attache. After all, in the future we will also need to recruit and surrender as many Proson prisoners of war as possible."

Wang Zhong: "The current situation of prisoners of war is not bad. Some prisoners of war have agreed to enter the factory to help us produce equipment. However, instigating prisoners of war to rebel is a long-term job, and achievements do not happen overnight."

John Wick: "I thought that the Proscenians, who consider themselves a superior race, disdained to join in the troubles of inferior races!"

Wang Zhong just smiled and said nothing, and did not answer John Wick's words.

So John Wick changed the subject: "When will your child be born? The federal government plans to give him a small gift."

Wang Zhong: "You should ask the obstetrician."

John Wick: "Of course, our intelligence department has asked the obstetrician, but I think with our friendship, I should be able to get an answer by asking you directly."

Wang Zhong: "Of course, the earliest should be August."

"Will Belinsky preside over its baptism? Or will he be its godfather?" John Wick continued to ask.

Wang Zhong: "I will preside over its baptism. The word of the godfather has not yet been decided."

In fact, many people have come to inquire about their children's godfather in the past few days. After all, this matter may affect the future power structure of the Ant Empire.

Wang Zhong was extremely disgusted with this kind of thinking about how to divide the spoils before winning, so even if John Wick, a friend from a foreign country, came to ask, he would not hesitate to put on a bad face.

John Wick immediately said: "This is not actually what I want to ask, but Mr. Ambassador is very concerned about this matter. Please ask me to ask."

Did the blame go to Mr. Ambassador?

Wang Zhong: "We haven't decided who the child's godfather will be yet, because the competition is too fierce. I will inform the Ambassador once it is finalized."

John Wick seemed quite satisfied with this answer and continued to ask the next question: "Can I visit the test of the 'Vortex' tank destroyer?"

Eddy current improvements have been advanced to the third-generation prototype, which has modified some problems of the second-generation prototype, improved reliability, and adjusted the structure of the gun mantlet again.

Now that the vortex is at a distance of more than 1,000 meters, the members have good survivability even if they are hit by an 88mm gun.

Yes, crew survivability, not armored vehicle survivability.

Even if it is hit by an 88mm gun at this distance, the gun will still be damaged and the combat effectiveness will be lost. In this case, it is good to save the tank crew.

In addition, Prosen's PAK40 anti-tank gun also has the ability to break accessories and take away the vortex combat effectiveness at a distance of 1,000 meters.

PAK40 is basically no threat to the crew at a distance of 1,000 meters, and the crew will definitely survive.

People who have watched the eddy current test generally speak highly of this tank destroyer.

The only problem is productivity. This thing is really difficult to produce.

Obviously, the turret, a large part that takes up a lot of work, was removed, but the production time was actually higher, breaking the general rule that assault guns are cheaper than tanks.

The main reason is that there are too many finely crafted parts on this car.

Wang Zhong also wanted to make a beggar's version and mass-produce it for everyone to use, but General Sergey blocked him with one sentence: "Do you want the beggar's version to steal the barrel of a 100-gun gun from you?"

The output of 100 gun barrels is only that large. The current prototype uses the barrels originally prepared by the Navy for the secondary guns of destroyers and battle cruisers. However, after mass production begins, these barrels may be completely used up within a week. After that, the output will be determined. The output of the barrel is stuck.

There is really no need to get a beggar's version to grab the barrel.

All in all, the "Vortex" has directly become a rare commodity that only elite troops can use, just like it did with the target Tiger tank.

All the Tiger tanks on Earth were allocated to heavy tank battalions, and then when the fire brigade ran around on the front, they left an astonishing exchange ratio wherever they went.

Of course, Wang Zhong does not plan to organize the vortex into an independent annihilation battalion, let alone let them run around as a fire brigade. It should only equip the First Mobile Group Army that Wang Zhong has just received a designation.

This made everyone more interested in this weapon, because in the eyes of others, this was special equipment that Lieutenant General Rokossov used his authority to buy for his direct troops, and everyone wanted to see what happened.

Faced with John Wick's request, Wang Zhong readily agreed: "No problem, I'll ask Vasily to arrange a visit right away."

"Thank you very much." John Wick stood up, then took out a document bag from his briefcase and placed it on Wang Zhong's desk.

Wang Zhong untied the rope at the mouth of the bag in confusion and took out the stack of documents inside.

The document had Prossen's Iron Cross logo on the cover.

Wang Zhong: "The Prosen people's battle plan?"

John Wick smiled bitterly and said: "No, that one is too difficult to get. This is the status of each unit compiled by the Prosen Command in February, including key data such as the number of tanks ready for combat."

Wang Zhong opened the cover, then turned the title page and abstract page, and went directly to the text.

The first thing that comes up is a table of the number of combat-ready tanks in each armored division of Prossen, as well as a table of troop recruitment status.

Wang Zhong frowned: "Why are the number of combat-ready tanks in Prosen so low? The First Armored Division only has 81 tanks ready for combat, 25 for repairs, and 40 returned to the factory? The 2nd and 3rd Armored Divisions even added up to 81 tanks for repairs and returns to the factory. It’s just over 100 cars!”

John Wick: "It seems that the Director of Armored Forces has lost power, so Prosin no longer pursues his dream of a large armored division with 400 tanks, and has reduced the number of armored battalions in most divisions to two, and some divisions even have only An armored battalion."

Wang Zhong turned to the next page and exclaimed: "The number of tanks has been reduced, but the accompanying troops have not been reduced, and an armored grenadier battalion has even been added. Has the enemy seen the final fate of our divisions that have nothing but tanks?" , scared to increase the degree of synthesis of the troops?"

After all, it was a bit embarrassing for a tank division with two hundred tanks to be taken care of by an infantry division. It was normal for the Prosins to be frightened.

John Wick: "It's not all about reducing the number of tanks. This report does not include the Asgard Knights. The Knights are said to still have three armored battalions."

Wang Zhong: "The Knights of Asgard are not under the control of the Prosen Command?"

John Wick nodded: "Yes, they are directly under the emperor. By the way, everyone now thinks that your First Mobile Army is the same."

Wang Zhong: "There is absolutely no such thing!"

This time it was John Wick's turn to laugh.