Arc of Gunfire

The Proson Army attacked the front line.

When the sound of shells breaking through the air came, all the infantry troops behind the tanks raised their heads.

The Proson troops were supplemented with a lot of troops with military training foundation but no front-line combat experience, or only combat experience during the Melania period, but about 60% of the troops were veterans who had been on the Eastern Front since the offensive began last year.

This is because some non-commissioned officers were transferred to form new troops or absorbed into the Asgard Knights, otherwise the proportion of veterans would be higher.

After all, in the offensive operations that began in June last year, the Proson Army did not suffer too much loss-except for the divisions that were surrounded and annihilated in Kalanskaya at the end of the Yebao Battle.

The veterans immediately heard that the shells flying across the sky were not flying fast.

"This is a shell fired from a fairly far distance." A non-commissioned officer said so.

Immediately, a new recruit asked a question very tactfully: "Why do you say that?"

The old sergeant: "The shells fired from a distance will be slower when passing over the head, because the trajectory of these shells is very high. If the landing point is far away from you, it is now at the highest point of the entire track..."

The sergeant gestured with his hands.

At this moment, a cloud of thick smoke suddenly rose from a long distance ahead, obviously the shell exploded.

The sound of the explosion came more than ten seconds later.

The sergeant was shocked: "This landing point is at least five kilometers away from us, and we can still see such a big smoke. This is definitely a super heavy artillery, it may be Leopold!"

"I think it may be Carl." Another old sergeant expressed a different opinion.

"Are you stupid? Carl flies slower. It definitely wouldn't have made this sound when he passed overhead just now!"

The new recruit asked curiously, "Why is there only one round? When we were preparing firepower just now, I saw that the enemy positions were all fireballs formed by the explosion of shells."

"Stupid," the veteran patted the new recruit's helmet, "One round of this large-caliber thing is enough to kill a thousand people in the city, and I don't know how many were injured. One round of this shell can kill a battalion - no, a regiment!"

The lieutenant who had been listening to them spoke at this time: "You new recruits, you will understand when you are bombed by the heavy artillery of the Ants."

The new recruit protested, "I was also a soldier for three years before I transferred to the reserve. Don't think of me as a new recruit."

The lieutenant: "You are a new recruit. Let me tell you, there are some particularly bad guys among the Ants. They will scout where the civilian houses are in advance, and when they come into contact with us, they will aim at those civilian houses and fire at night."

The veterans at the scene all frowned.

The lieutenant continued, "Then you will know what it feels like to be bombarded by heavy artillery. The shells will fall a hundred meters away from your bed. You will get scared and get up, and your nose will bleed continuously because your fragile nasal cavity will be torn by the overpressure. In more serious cases, you may cough up blood because your alveoli will be destroyed by the overpressure, and the blood will spray out through the trachea."

The recruit also became serious: "I have read the newspaper. This is what the White Horse General did. The newspaper called him a scum who didn't care about the lives of his compatriots."

The expressions of others became very subtle.

Finally, the lieutenant said: "It's not his fault. We used to treat the Ant people as untouchables and slaughtered them at will. Maybe he assumed that there were no compatriots in the occupied area."

The recruit was stunned for a moment, and then he asked: "Sir, have you killed Ant civilians?"

The lieutenant: "I didn't. But I didn't stop my men from killing them, and I laughed on the side. So we must win this war, otherwise the Ant people will do the same thing when they fight back to our homeland. And they are still righteous at that time, because we are the evil ones.

"We think we are better than the Ant people, so we commit all kinds of atrocities unscrupulously. If the Ant people prove that they are not worse than us, then these atrocities will lose their basis."

The recruit said: "Sir, you keep using the word atrocity."

The lieutenant: "Yes, no matter if there is a reason or not, no matter what the reason is, it is an atrocity. As long as you do that to humans, it is an atrocity. Damn, why did they attack the Ant women at that time? Wouldn't it be better to find two sheep? ”

Then the old sergeant said, “The captain was not like this before, but he became like this after we were defeated in front of Yebao last year.”

“Because I dream now, and I dream of that house that day, but it’s no longer my soldiers who committed such atrocities against Ant’s mother and daughter, but Ant’s soldiers who did the same thing to my wife and daughter. And the white horse general was standing where I was at that time, clapping and teasing, commenting on my daughter’s figure and face.”

The captain glanced at the Ant army’s defense line that was still in the distance.

He said, “And in the dream I could only watch all this, because I had fallen to the ground and turned into a corpse.”

At this time, the tank passed a broken tree, and the captain looked back for some reason, and found a red spot on the broken tree. At first he thought it was blood, and then he found it was red paint.

He immediately realized that this was the target of the defenders, and shouted, “Get down quickly, the mortar is coming! "

Just as the voice fell, a shell fell a few dozen meters away, followed by dense mortar shells.

The captain lay on the ground and shouted: "Damn it! This defense method is Rokossov! We met Rokossov again!"

————

At the command post of the fifth division of the fortress garrison, the division commander observed the effect of the mortar barrage with binoculars with satisfaction.

"Very good, very good," he laughed, "let's try what I learned at the Suvorov Military Academy! The general answered my questions personally!"

At this time, the chief of staff of the division asked: "Is the general really that young? There is a saying that it was actually his elder brother Pietro who made the meritorious service. The younger brother was only chosen for his outstanding appearance."

The division commander shook his head: "No, no, I swear it is definitely the young Rokossov I met, because during class, there was light in his eyes, and he really had an insight into the war, no matter what I proposed He can answer all questions fluently.”

In fact, they are all off-the-shelf in various military writings from another time and space. Of course, no one here can know about them.

The division commander held his hands on the edge of the observation window of the division headquarters bunker, looking out at the battlefield full of explosions and gunpowder smoke, and sighed: "It's a pity that General Rokossov has not studied attack yet. We can only defend like him."

The chief of staff laughed dumbly: "For a general who is the only general in Ante who has the success of annihilating enemies with an organized system, it would be inappropriate to say that he can't attack, right?"

"No, no, this is General Rokossov's own statement. He said that Kalanskaya's enemies were actually lost to General Winter and General Mu, not to him. He also said that the attack was basically against one another. Kicking a dead tree that was riddled with termites was not his thing.

"So he only taught us defense. After he had experience attacking enemies who had sufficient supplies and established fortified areas, he would write a book to teach us how to attack."

He looked at the defense line again: "Look, this is the defense line built according to General Rokossov's method! What's a pity is that when I returned from my studies, the front was already occupied by the enemy, and I couldn't personally investigate like the general. The enemy may control the area."

Chief of Staff: "Are you talking about the harassment tactics of relying on first-hand reconnaissance information to guess where the enemy's headquarters and supply centers will be, and then taking advantage of night and daytime meals to launch artillery bombardments?"

"Yes." The division commander bit his lip, "It's okay. We can give it a try when we move our defense to other places."

————

At noon on May 1, at the headquarters of the 11th Army in Plossen, General Eric von Shipling was holding a phone call and talking to General Evard von Steiermark, the commander of the 1st Armored Group. Telephone.

"The first attack was blocked, and the casualties were much greater than expected." Shipling said, "The enemy has at least made significant progress in defense compared with last year."

General Steiermark said: "The armored division commander under me said that this defense method is very similar to Rokossov's defensive tactics in Orachi that he saw in the experience summary report. The Anters are no longer persistent. Yu was fighting with us on the same position, but preferred to wait until our army had just occupied the position to cover it with artillery fire, causing us a lot of damage and then counterattack to regain the position. "

General Shipling replied: "Yes, the infantry also reported that the artillery shelter holes on the position were dug very secretly, and there were booby traps. Our troops who were not familiar with the position could not find the artillery shelter holes at all, and they did not dare to find them. As a result, he suffered heavy losses from enemy fire.

"The trenches in the position are also very difficult to dig, which is not conducive to defending against their shelling."

Admiral Shipling paused and added: "It seems that Rabelais's intelligence was right that Rokossov was transferred to the rear as a teacher. As for whether it was because of the failure of the political struggle that he was promoted from covert to covert. Surrender, that’s unknown.”

General Steiermark said: "It would be good if this kind of intelligence can be half correct. So what are the plans? A frontal attack on such a defensive position will cause heavy casualties."

Admiral Shipling: "Didn't His Majesty the Emperor's favorite Giles demonstrate it? Soil work. Otherwise, let the navy work harder and completely block the water supply of the coastal fortress."

"I don't really want to rely on other military services." Steiermark said, "I'll try my best to be roundabout, and you can continue the soil work."

Shipling: "Good luck."

"Good luck to you too."

————

St. Catherine's Castle, the Tsarist Council was held at 11 noon.

Wang Zhong and General Gorky arrived at the Summer Palace at 10 o'clock, and first met in the waiting room with the generals who were scheduled to attend the imperial meeting.

As soon as they entered the waiting room, the two of them saw General Turgenev wearing new epaulettes.

"Hey, is the awarding of honors over?" Wang Zhong, who has recently become familiar with these "literary celebrities" and has reached the stage where he can call them "hey" in person, said jokingly.

Turgenev looked at his epaulettes: "An extra star doesn't make sense. I objected many times, but His Majesty still let me, an old man who only knows paperwork, be the chief of staff."

Wang Zhong: "If you don't want to be a general, you can let Gorky become a general."

Anyway, they are all literary celebrities.

General Gorky: "No, I'm still working on my offensive plan. I don't want to hand over the command of the Western Front now."

While talking, [Admiral] Chekhov came over.

Wang Zhong: "You were promoted too?"

Chekhov said angrily: "I don't know who has been clamoring all day long to send Sergei's son-in-law to the front line to let him feel how bad his design is. He plans to retire and return home together with his son-in-law, so he can only send him to the front line. I’ll take it up and train harder.”

Wang Zhong: "What my fiancée said was that he was ill."

"Isn't this the same thing?" Chekhov sighed, "You should change your impulsive behavior."

Then he changed the topic like this: "So what is the situation on the front line?"

The new Chief of General Staff replied: "We have repelled the first wave of the enemy's offensive, but the Prossenians will definitely not attack just once. By the way, the Coastal Fortress reported being bombarded by unimaginable heavy artillery, which was more powerful than the main gun of a battleship." Big, I don’t know what it is.”

Wang Zhong: "Train gun, Leopold or Karl cannon."

Admiral Chekhov: "It sounds like we can hold off the enemy this time."

Wang Zhong: "Yes, but how long it can be blocked is a question."

General Gorky: "Similar to last year, we will delay as much time as possible until the muddy period comes in October, and at the same time lure the enemy deep into our country to fight a battle of annihilation in the hinterland of our country."

Admiral Chekhov: "You're saying it's better not to resist?"

"No," General Gorky shook his head, "It's only April now. It's not good to put the enemy into the Great Plains so early. We will lose the war at a devastating speed."

Admiral Chekhov nodded: "I understand."

At this time Turgenev asked Wang Zhong: "Is your new army ready?"

Wang Zhong: "We are ready now, but the more preparation time we have, the better the effect of the battle will be, General."

General Chekhov echoed: "Moreover, his army now includes nearly 200,000 non-combatants. It would be very troublesome to send such a large organization to the Primorye-Borsk line in a circle. Let's set off now." , the leading troops will leave for half a month, and then the follow-up troops will arrive one after another within two weeks.”

In other words, it would take a month for Wang Zhong's model army to be completely delivered to Duke Meishijin.

Wang Zhong really never thought about this.

Seeing Wang Zhong's expression, Chekhov also explained: "Now you are not the only one using the transportation line for military purposes. The railway is crowded with soldiers and supplies being transported."

Turgenev said: "By the way, many people have suggested that your army should not be called the Army. It will confuse everyone with those armies that only have 20 to 30 thousand people and no logistics personnel. Do you want to change the name?" "

Wang Zhong: "Then it's called a group army."

At this time Olga suddenly appeared and said: "By the way, let's change the name of the unit. The mobile army does not have the feeling of an elite unit."

Others hurriedly saluted Olga: "Your Majesty."

Wang Zhong was pushing forward the conversation: "Then what do you call it? If it's called an assault, there's already an assault group army."

Olga nodded to the others, and then continued to say to Wang Zhong: "Prosen has established an Asgard Knights, you should also come up with a corresponding name."

Wang Zhong thought for a while and said: "No, the name is not important. Even if my army group number is mediocre, as long as it achieves a record of achievements in history, this number will also leave its name in the history of war."

Olga nodded: "Then let's call it the First Mobile Army. After all, your army is not for breakthroughs, but you don't seem to be planning to focus on defense, so calling it mobile is appropriate."

Wang Zhong: "Thank you for the name."

Olga stared at Wang Zhong for a few seconds and said, "You are going to the front line again, right?"

Wang Zhong: "Not necessarily. General Chekhov just told me that it will take a month for my army group to mobilize to the southern front."

Chekhov: "It can't be the front line yet. One month is only enough to send you to the key supply hub. Then you have to spend time connecting with the local logistics system and then march to the front line."

General Gorky: "In fact, there is no need to rush into the battle with new forces. At least the Primorye-Borsk direction is still quite stable for now. If we resist the enemy's attack on the Valdaichu River, we can use the Valdaichu The river boat is available, starting directly from Yebao, and it’s no problem to go all the way down the river.”

Wang Zhong: "You can ship halfway, and then go south to join the competition on the grassland. We have the Vortex, which is a destroyer that can destroy enemy tanks at a long distance. We also have the best gunners."

Olga: "Then you will stay in Yebao for a while?"

Wang Zhong: "It depends on the development of the battlefield situation. No one can say for sure, my majesty."