Arc of Fire

On the morning of July 8, 914 A.D. according to the Jules calendar, Wang Zhong woke up amidst the rubble.

The “senior officers’ quarters” next door, where he had stayed before, had its roof blown off, but, miraculously, none of the three beds had been crushed.

As soon as Wang Zhong opened his eyes and sat up, he saw Yegorov cleaning his gun.

“Not polishing shoes today?” he asked, puzzled.

Taking his shoe, Yegorov showed a huge gash at the front: “It got blasted by a grenade. I only discovered it this morning, so I sent Vasily to get me a new pair,” he said.

Wang Zhong: “Treating Vasily as your personal orderly?”

“What’s wrong with that? Or could it be, the rumors are true?”

Wang Zhong: “What rumors?”

Yegorov, as if searching for the right adjective, twirled his hand in the air, “A relationship of a wolf to a sheep!”

Wang Zhong thought for a second, then figured Yegorov probably meant to say “an intimacy as of dragons and suns” but misspoke.

Wang Zhong: “Not at all! Don’t you know my reputation? I’m the bulldozer of Saint Yekaterinburg, the terminator of noble ladies’ chastity!”

Yegorov: “But that doesn’t conflict with this! Did I spell it right, though?”

Wang Zhong: “No, you didn’t.”

“I knew it!” Yegorov cursed, “Damn! You guys always come up with these words no one uses!”

Wang Zhong changed the topic to the empty bed: “Popov didn’t come back last night?”

“How could he possibly come back? After last night’s battle, there must be a mountain of tasks to do. A normal brigade headquarters needs over a hundred staff, odd-job men, and clerks. How many do we have? It wouldn’t be surprising if Pavlov collapsed at any moment.”

Wang Zhong: “Does a brigade headquarters really need that many people?”

“That’s not even counting communications and security. A normal brigade HQ, along with logistics and accompanying laborers and such, numbers in the thousands.”

Wang Zhong: “A brigade? That many people?”

“Yep, that number is on the conservative side for logistics. A fully staffed brigade with sufficient supplies normally has a ratio of 2 civilians to 1 soldier, and that can be reduced to 1:1 only if you have enough vehicles.”

Wang Zhong scratched his head. No wonder they said the victory of the Huaihai Campaign was pushed by single-wheel carts.

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Having only known it on paper, now Wang Zhong truly understood that modern warfare is a war of logistics.

In passing, Wang Zhong also finally figured out why Pavlov was always busy with panda eyes. He hoped Popov would relieve some of his pressure.

Wang Zhong wished so.

At that moment, Yegorov spoke up: “Heard you wanted the laborers to dig tank emplacements yesterday?”

Wang Zhong: “Yes, a type of tank emplacement that I devised myself.”

Of course, it wasn’t actually his own idea, but rather one taken from the Soviet armored defense manuals of another timeline.

Who says plagiarism is limited to poetry?

Wang Zhong picked up a brick, cleared a clean space on the ground, and started to draw a diagram for Yegorov.

(Image from the Bilibili UP host Doggie Chocolate)

As he drew, Wang Zhong explained: “Look, the straight walls on this side are the front, facing the enemy, and the sloped side is the rear. The rear has two steps, allowing tanks to move between them using their own power.

“If tanks move to the bottom of the emplacement, they will be completely concealed by the front wall, keeping them hidden from the enemy, who can’t directly attack them.

“Backing up onto the ramp will allow the tanks to expose just their turrets to fire. At this time, a large area in front can accommodate the muzzle blast, making it difficult for the enemy to spot the tank’s position.”

Yegorov, holding his chin: “Though I’m an infantry officer, I can tell this is cunning! It’s reminiscent of our Civil War trenches, with differing heights on each side, making it difficult for enemies who enter the trench to shoot backwards, while our counter-attacks can easily reclaim the trenches!”

Wang Zhong hesitated: “Uh, I think there still is a difference.”

“Anyway, it’s all about using the height difference of trench sides to our advantage. So, were these tank emplacements dug in the end?”

Wang Zhong shook his head: “No, the labor camp said the amount of earthwork required was too much. With their manpower, not even by tomorrow night—tonight, could they finish. So, they had to do some things that would have immediate effects instead.

“Like burying landmines.”

Yegorov looked up in surprise: “Do we have mines now?”

“They were delivered last night. Also, I have some new ideas for the minefield. See, the enemy would use artillery to blast the minefield, setting off all mines, right?

“We need to think inversely, so I had the engineers guide the laborers to bury the mines five kilometers away from the city, so enemy artillery can’t reach the minefield.

“But, we erected signs in Prosen around the city, along with some pickle jar lids.

“Inside those lids, we’ve mixed in real mines, and beneath each, we’ve buried homemade booby traps made out of grenades. If the engineers disarming the mines don’t notice the booby traps, then BOOOOM!”

Yegorov stared, dumbstruck, “Was that your idea?”

No, it was acted out in “Mine Warfare.” Back then, war movies always had military advisors with combat experience, so it should be reliable.

But Wang Zhong, with shamelessly thick skin, slapped his chest, “My idea!”

Yegorov raised his thumb, “No wonder you have a good eye for Vasily, that troublemaker. You both like coming up with bad ideas.”

Wang Zhong laughed heartily, maintaining his smile as he stood up and walked over to where the window used to be—now there was only a breast-high wall left. Had the vase still not been on the windowsill, one might not have known there was once a window here!

Looking out at the fields, Wang Zhong’s smile vanished.

It hadn’t been noticeable at night, but now the once green fields had turned iron grey.

Just as Dmitry had said, this land was almost entirely made of iron now.

However, Wang Zhong noticed a tuft of grass growing stubbornly in the morning sun.

As Yegorov was cleaning his gun, he asked, “What do you think the enemy will lead with today?”

“I think it will be an airstrike,” Wang Zhong replied. “They always start with a bombing run, otherwise the Prosen Air Force would have to explain themselves to the Army.”

“Makes sense.”

No sooner had he spoken than the telephone rang in the next room.

A moment later, Dmitry came in to report, “Brother Peter has heard a large enemy air group approaching.”

Wang Zhong, “Alright, got it, sound the air raid alarm.”

The air raid alarm sounded right after he spoke, clearly Brother Peter had called the air defense troops first.

Yegorov, “Didn’t many people see the Air Force shoot down the enemy’s high-altitude reconnaissance plane yesterday?”

“I saw it. After they took down the enemy, they even flew over the city to salute the young lives sacrificed,” Wang Zhong said. “Although I’m grateful for their efforts to boost morale, I still wish the Air Force could provide a bit more substantial help.”

The roar of engines came from the horizon, and Wang Zhong symbolically lay down on the ground.

Twenty minutes later, the sound of the enemy planes receded, and Wang Zhong got up, patting the dust off his body.

At that moment, Vasily rushed into the room, “Commander, I’ve brought the boots over!”

Wang Zhong, “Did you encounter any bombing on the way? All good?”

“No trouble. A kind old lady pulled me into her cellar. Now I smell like pickled cabbage. Can you guys smell it?”

Both Wang Zhong and Yegorov shook their heads.

Vasily handed the boots to Yegorov and excitedly asked Wang Zhong, “What’s the plan for today’s fight?”

“The plan is simple. Even though we didn’t finish digging a complete tank shelter yesterday, I had the labor camp stack some sandbags for cover, and we put sandbags on the fronts and the turret fronts of the tanks.

“We’ll be on the edge of the city, taking cover among the ruins and exchanging fire with the enemy.”

Wang Zhong glanced at Yegorov and continued, “The T34 tank has really poor visibility, I confirmed this myself yesterday. The tank commander also acts as the gunner, and most of the time, he can only focus on the aiming periscope.

“So, by positioning the tanks at the edge and staggering them, all facing outward, we can effectively reduce the blind spots in the tanks’ view.”

Yegorov, “You’re treating the tanks as gun emplacements?”

“These are the results from yesterday’s battle. Those Guards of Honor, they do fine standing in place, aiming, and shooting at the enemy, but asking them to charge at the enemy tanks for a close fight is asking too much.

“When the enemy infantry gets close enough to threaten the tanks, we’ll reverse out and let the machine guns deployed on the flanks of the tank shelters cover for the tanks.”

Wang Zhong said with conviction, as if he was an experienced tank commander—though considering the abysmal loss rate of the Ante Empire’s tank troops right now, perhaps Wang Zhong really was the leading tank expert in the Ante Empire.

Yegorov nodded, “I can’t manage the tanks, I’m just a simple infantryman. I’ll keep holding our position today. In fact, things are much better than yesterday; at least we have more people.”

Because of Wang Zhong’s valiant fight yesterday, the church was able to muster a greatly increased Guardian Army, stuffing five Guardian Army battalions into Rocossov’s battle group.

However, these men had hardly received any combat training, and all they had were the outdated weapons from the stores.

In the words of Paradox Interactive gamers, these were the quintessential “cannon fodder infantry.” But having cannon fodder was still better than letting elite troops fight a lonely battle.

Yegorov, “And you, General? Going to continue riding your tank?”

“Yes, I am the mobile force; I’ll appear where I’m needed.”

——This is the confidence a top-down perspective gives me.

Just then, the howl of shells passed overhead.

The enemy’s artillery preparation had begun.

Everyone in the room lay down together, maintaining the standard artillery evasion posture.

As the shells fell, Yegorov laughed, “Looks like it’s going to be another busy day today!”