Arc of Fire

Wang Zhong took a couple of deep breaths before he finally loosened the tight grip of his fists and said to Yegorov, “Have them buried.”

Yegorov replied, “Digging graves will take time, and we could come into contact with the following Prosen Army at any moment. My suggestion is to blow up the latrine. After we take the fuel, we’re going to demolish this entire station anyway. Just add a few more explosives.”

Wang Zhong nodded, “Let’s do that.”

After saying this, Wang Zhong didn’t want to see the tragic sight again and turned to leave, when Su Fang asked, “Is that a child?”

Wang Zhong turned back once more, following Su Fang’s gaze, and indeed saw a small figure.

Yegorov cursed, “Those bastards, they drowned him in the shit.”

Wang Zhong couldn’t bear to look any longer and turned away from the latrine, entered the cabin through the back door leading from the yard, and headed straight for the map on the table.

Unlike the map seized from the earlier Prosen division headquarters, this one did not show the positions of combat troops but was marked with supply lines, stations, and transport units.

For a moment, Wang Zhong considered following this map to disrupt the enemy’s supply lines, which could potentially throw them into great chaos.

Wang Zhong ordered, “Pack up the map and documents, they might be useful later. Have the troops board the vehicles, and engineers, arrange the explosives as quickly as possible.”

Suddenly, Wang Zhong remembered something and wondered if there would be enough soldiers who knew how to drive, so he asked, “Can we find enough drivers?”

"Most people have driven tractors back home, and others were part of the local transport teams in their villages, no problem,” explained Yegorov.

Wang Zhong nodded.

At that moment, Pavlov rushed in, gasping for breath, but without pausing to catch his breath, he said, “Are we really going to make a run for it in cars? The roads must be full of Prussians by now!”

"The branch road we’re taking doesn’t have any,” Wang Zhong answered.

"No cars now, but eventually, we’ll have to join the main road, and it’ll definitely be swarming with Prussians!”

Pavlov was right; although the Third Rear Amur Group had found a gap, being in enemy territory, it wouldn’t be surprising to encounter the enemy at any time if they traveled along the road.

Given the limited strength of the Third Rear Amur Group, it seemed they would be quickly wiped out.

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Wang Zhong paced a few steps inside the cabin and suddenly noticed the slanting sun outside the window.

He immediately looked at his watch and was surprised to discover that it was already seven in the evening.

The sun had not yet set at seven, which indicated that they were at a considerably high latitude, and it was also summertime.

Having had no experience of living north of the Yangtze River before his journey through time, Wang Zhong didn’t know when the sun set in the northern summers, so he asked Yegorov, “How long until it gets dark?”

Yegorov also checked his watch and said, “Sunset is in an hour, and it will be completely dark around eight-thirty.”

After a brief moment of deliberation, Wang Zhong commanded, “Set up a simple defense, we’ll wait here for the logistics troops and the field hospital to follow. The logistics unit has more drivers, and we can drive away more trucks.”

Yegorov countered, “But wouldn’t that make us even more vulnerable on the road?”

Wang Zhong smiled slightly, “We are driving Prosen military vehicles with Prosen crosses on the outside. We’ll turn on the lights at night, and they’ll think we are one of their own.”

Having heard the tales of volunteers using vehicle lights at night to deceive the American forces, Wang Zhong decided to put it into practice himself.

Pavlov protested loudly, “What if we get caught, then we’re done for?”

Wang Zhong retorted, “I will be in the first vehicle leading the way. If we’re done for, I’ll die first.”

After saying that, he regretted it; he had meant to prioritize his own survival, but impulsively, he had shown off…

He could only hope that the enemy would be really that negligent.

Thinking it over again, Wang Zhong felt unsure, so he added, “Also, assign someone brave who speaks Prosen with me in the first vehicle. He will handle any inspection by the Prussians.”

Pavlov raised an eyebrow, “Can’t you do it?”

Wang Zhong replied, “Should I be able to?”

"No, you are a Lord after all!”

Are nobles of this era expected to speak Prosen?

At that moment, Su Fang said, “I can speak Prosen. I’ll ride in the same vehicle as Lord Rocossov and take the lead.”

Wang Zhong breathed a sigh of relief; even if there was trouble, at least he would face death alongside a beautiful woman.

He told Yegorov, “You ride in the first vehicle too, bring along Grigori and their sabotage team, all armed with submachine guns. If any real trouble arises, we can still catch the Prosen bastards off guard.”

"Great!” Yegorov laughed, seemingly very fond of taking the lead in a charge.

**

At the same time, Lord Von Dietrich was pacing back and forth in his own headquarters. “What’s going on? Why hasn’t the attack come? Has the scouting squad from the 54th Division arrived yet?”

The communications staff officer replied, “Not yet, sir. We’ve been maintaining radio contact with them continuously, but their jeep broke down, and the road conditions in the combat zone are atrocious.”

Dietrich asked, “What about the armored units? Have we made contact?”

"We’ve made contact with a company commander at the front,” the staff officer said. “He has lost contact with the armored platoon assigned to the 54th Division. It could simply be a radio failure in the platoon command vehicle, of course.”

Dietrich sneered. “An armored platoon out of contact, plus the thick smoke from the heavy artillery bombardment, and the enemy has launched a localized counterattack. These Ante People are prepared for a fight to the bitter end. But we’ve been waiting so long, where are they?”

Saying that, Dietrich moved to the window of the stone manor that served as the headquarters, looking out at the four tanks of the headquarters’ direct tank platoon on alert in the garden.

The Armored Troops were ready for action, with their vehicles’ engines running.

But the attackers were late.

Dietrich demanded, “Call the Air Force, I want air support!”

"Lord, sir,” the chief of staff spoke up, “it will be dark in an hour, and even if the Air Force mobilizes and arrives, they won’t be able to see anything.”

Lord muttered a curse and continued pacing the room.

At that moment, an explosion suddenly came from the distance.

He rushed to the window to look in the direction of the sound and saw a ball of orange fire rising from the ground.

The chief of staff also leaned over, recognizing the location of the rising fireball at a glance. “Looks like the forward supply depot has blown up. An Ant Air Force bombing? But there’s no sound of engines.”

Dietrich roared, “Idiots! The enemy we’ve been searching for is there! Damn it, the threats on the radio were a feint, a diversion! Deploy the troops immediately!”

The chief of staff said, “The reserves are stuck on the road, remember? Right now, the only forces we have on hand that can be deployed immediately are the Army Group’s air defense and reconnaissance units. Should we send them?”

Dietrich swore, “No, this is the enemy’s all-out counterattack. Sending so few troops might lead them into a trap. Tell the reserves to hurry!”

**

Wang Zhong glanced behind him when he heard the explosion. “Wow, that’s quite dramatic.”

His vehicle was at the very front of the column, and the bombs, set with timed fuses by the engineers, had exploded after the entire convoy had set out. So now he was at least a kilometer away from the supply depot, but the fireball created by the explosion still looked impressively huge.

It was almost like a nuclear explosion.

Although Wang Zhong had only seen images of nuclear explosions in documentaries.

At that moment, Captain Sergey, who was driving, said, “Why does it have to be me driving this first vehicle? Can’t you find someone else?”

Wang Zhong replied, “This is me trusting you.”

Actually, it was because Sergey, as a nobleman, spoke both Prosen and Carolingian.

Sergey cursed, “Damn it, what kind of suicidal orders are these? Driving with the headlights on, on a main road! We’re definitely going to be spotted and then riddled with submachine gun fire.”

Sufang said, “Even I, a girl, am not afraid. Why are you so scared?”

At that moment, Sufang was squeezed into the same spot as Wang Zhong.

The girl was flat in front but had a big backside, which squeezed Wang Zhong right up against the side of the driving cabin, next to the door.

In another context, Wang Zhong might have enjoyed it, but right now he had switched to an overhead, bird’s-eye view and wasn’t in the least concerned with these things.

Wang Zhong had another reason for going first: to use Golden Finger’s highlighting function—enemy soldiers within his line of sight would be directly highlighted.

This way, Wang Zhong could be warned of the enemy from distances of two kilometers or more.

At that moment, the sky was gradually darkening, and the average person might have a visual range of five or six hundred meters—anything further would be pitch black and invisible.

But Wang Zhong’s Golden Finger vision wasn’t much different from daylight.

He thought the Golden Finger could be very useful in night battles, too.

Just then, Wang Zhong heard Yegorov’s voice: “Turn left at the large white poplar ahead, and you’ll be on the small road.”

Wang Zhong spotted the large white poplar and the left turn onto the small road, which extended northeastward, flanked by thickets on both sides.

There wasn’t a single Prosen person on the road.