Arc of Fire

Highland 153, command post of the Fifth Beshensk Regiment.

Major Eugene, binoculars in one hand and a clenched fist in the other, exclaimed, “Good! Well done! Wipe them out!”

He was cheering on the T34 that had appeared on the flank of the high ground.

Unable to resist, Captain Andrei said, “Major, you’ve turned into a cheerleader since just now.”

Major Eugene: “It’s not like I can do anything else, I’ll just command you, right?”

“Then you should go inspect the positions,” Captain Andrei replied. “The enemy tanks are approaching, and the new recruits in the troops must be very scared now. You need to encourage them.”

“Me? Are you sure? A miner encouraging the soldiers?”

Captain Andrei glanced at Major Eugene: “Just carry yourself with some presence, put on the air you had when scolding the miners at the mine. The appearance of a strict father figure kind of officer can greatly benefit morale in such times.”

Major Eugene took a deep breath: “Fine, I’ll go make a round.”

Captain Andrei: “If you really don’t know what to say, just pat the soldiers on the shoulder and tell them the general is watching us. After all, the general’s tank is on the flank, and everyone can see that red flag.”

Major Eugene nodded, squeezed out of the bunker, and ran along the trench with his back bent, firmly patting the shoulder of every soldier he met: “Hold on!”

“Don’t be afraid!”

“The general is watching us!”

By the time he had patted who knows how many, someone shouted: “Look quick, the general is covered in smoke!”

Major Eugene stopped and, like everyone else, stuck his head out of the trench to look towards the forest.

Pink smoke had enveloped the T34 tanks in the woods, and the general’s banner was no longer visible.

The enemy tanks were still firing, with more pink smoke completely covering the treeline. The side fire from the T34 fell silent.

More terrifying was the sharp, dreadful howling sound coming from the sky.

This was the first time Major Eugene had heard that sound, and goosebumps immediately rose on the back of his neck. He had heard from the old veterans that it was the sound of a dive bomber called Stuka used by the enemy.

At that moment, a frightened recruit shouted: “It’s a dragon! The Prussians have sent dragons to attack us!”

Major Eugene didn’t understand war, but he knew how to deal with subordinates who talked nonsense.

Especially during mine disasters, Major Eugene could be stricter than the Judge when dealing with those fools who spread rumors.

He rushed over and slapped the recruit: “That’s the enemy’s dive bomber! It must be targeting the general!”

“Look!” someone shouted.

Major Eugene turned his head and saw three flaming dragons rising from the ground.

The Divine Arrow Company had actually moved near Highland 153 overnight!

An explosion occurred in the sky.

The second volley of Divine Arrows launched.

At that moment, another shout rang out: “Enemy planes! The enemy planes are… they’re nose-diving!”

Major Eugene cursed: “That’s called a dive!”

Apart from the diving formation, three enemy planes caught fire and were falling, overtaking the formation that had activated air brakes.

The second volley’s three Divine Arrows hit the target, brilliant flashes of fire dismantling the enemy aircraft in midair, with burning debris falling in sync with the formation.

The third volley of Divine Arrows launched.

The morale of the enemy pilots seemed to finally collapse, as they dropped their bombs from two thousand meters before scattering in flight.

In fact, during a steep dive by a dive bomber, even with the wind at low altitude, the bomb wouldn’t drift much; lowering the bombing altitude was mainly to see the target clearly.

From a two thousand meter altitude, even targets like tanks or bunkers are just small dots when viewed from the air, blended into the complex terrain, very difficult to spot.

Experienced Prussian Air Force pilots would consciously control their diving speed, only dropping bombs when they could clearly see their target from 1,200 or even 800 meters.

However, facing the highly efficient slaughter from the Divine Arrow, the pilots chose to bomb from two thousand meters and then save their own lives—as after all, the operation manual stated that bombs could be dropped from 2,000 meters.

Two of the third volley’s Divine Arrows went into the sky due to losing their target, but the third, as if it had eyes, chased after the dive bomber that rushed into the blind spot of vision and blew it up into a fireball.

By then, the aircraft brought down by the first two volleys of Divine Arrows had also hit the ground, along with the bombs.

The aerial bombs fell around the pink smoke—Prussian Air Force training was indeed well practiced, given such accuracy in bombing from that high up.

The bombs created a grey-brown “wall” that obscured view.

Everyone in the position was paying attention to this direction, including Major Eugene who had come out to encourage his men and was now lying at the edge of the trench, craning his neck to see over there.

In fact, the enemy likely found themselves in a similar situation, because during this time the enemy tanks charging in had not fired.

Just as the words were spoken, a big-headed T34 burst out from the grey-brown “wall,” with its antenna-bound red flag fluttering in the wind.

Major Eugene and the soldiers cheered together!

The T34 stopped and its cannon blew up a Panzer IV.

The remaining Panzer IVs began releasing smoke bombs and retreated backward.

The enemy infantry also threw smoke bombs, and the once unstoppable enemy that had charged forward were now retreating!

Around Regiment 153’s position, the Ura shouts were deafening.

————

In the woods, the first platoon of God’s Arrow Company’s position.

“See that! I fought one more battle than you guys!” Ekaterina exclaimed gleefully, jumping around.

“Retreat!” Yeca Neiko snatched her from the ammunition box and threw her into the jeep, “Retreat! We’ve fired so many shots, the enemy must have discovered our location! The artillery is coming!”

Ekaterina protested, “How could it be so fast, are you guys crazy?”

“We’re not crazy!” As Yeca Neiko heaved the other Prayer Girls into the vehicle, he explained, “In Loktov, we had just left our firing position when the Prussians’ bombs fell! If it weren’t for Ludmila Vasilyevna’s quick reaction, we would have all been dead!”

Once he was in the jeep, he slammed his foot on the accelerator, speeding off and continuing, “Our firing position was on top of an Anatolia bathhouse, the bombs obliterated the whole bathhouse, and even though we’d driven far away, we were still affected! The Prussians went to great lengths to kill us!”

As he spoke, a howling noise came from the sky.

The heavy artillery landed on the position they had just vacated.

“Look! Do you see, girls? Old man me just saved your skins!” Yeca Neiko, the deputy knight, finished and burst into laughter, “The Prussians think they’re the best at war in the world! But we’re just as good!”

————

Wang Zhong switched back to the indoor perspective.

“The enemy’s air raid is over, I wonder how many T34s are left intact.”

Pavlov looked out the window of the map room, puzzled, “How can you see that the enemy air raid is over from there? How did you see it?”

Wang Zhong replied, “Mirage.”

As long as I keep a straight face, the lie becomes truth!

Vasily asked, “Where?”

Wang Zhong smacked Vasily on the head with the side of his hand, “Listen in! We especially need intelligence right now!”

Then, without changing his expression, Wang Zhong changed the subject and approached the map table, saying,

“There are hundreds of tanks around us, right here we have a battalion, here one to two battalions… ”

As he spoke, he took a pencil and marked on the map.

“It looks like a lot, but an armored battalion requires over a kilometer of frontage to deploy. Based on this…”

Wang Zhong drew a circle around Orachi on the map with his pencil, “That’s the enemy’s limit. If the enemy wants to increase the troop strength for a single assault further, they would have to deploy on the side of the large ranch—that is, on the southeast side of the city.”

Pavlov agreed, “Right, that side hasn’t had artillery preparation, and it’s open land, our mines are still in place.”

On the battlefield, large-scale mine clearance isn’t usually done by engineers one by one, but by creating overpressure with explosives that detonate pressure-activated mines.

The blast wave from the explosives can also sever the tripwires of tripwire mines.

Engineers use explosive cord for mine clearance for this reason; a rocket fires carrying a long explosive cord, lands in the minefield to detonate, and the overpressure and blast wave clear out the entire strip area around the cord.

Artillery fire preparation also has overpressure and blast waves, and artillery’s Xu Jin barrage would not only disperse the mines along the path but also clear obstructions like barbed wire.

The forests to the north of Orachi, as well as the southwest highland 153, had undergone repeated bombardments over a few days, so there are hardly any mines left, with only the occasional stray mine capable of killing a few unlucky individuals.

During the Cold War, one could use a mine-laying vehicle to quickly lay a new minefield ahead of an enemy attack, but such equipment doesn’t exist now.

However, the southeast hadn’t been plowed by artillery fire, the mines were still there.

Wang Zhong, with his hands pressing on the map table, looked over Orachi, “The current strength of the enemy’s attacking forces is not yet beyond what we can withstand.”

“The issue is how much of our forces we need to expend each time we repel the enemy,” Pavlov paused, glancing at Wang Zhong, “and how long our fighting spirit can hold out.”

Wang Zhong affirmed, “It’s mainly about fighting spirit.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than the phone rang.

Pavlov picked up the receiver, “Division headquarters, speak. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Okay, very good.”

After hanging up, he looked at Wang Zhong, “The attack from the forest direction has been repelled; we don’t know the enemy’s losses. We have twelve dead and seventeen wounded.”

Wang Zhong said concernedly, “That many?”

Pavlov noted, “It could have been much worse than Bilokotov.”

“Indeed. After all, we dug so many shelters and fortifications. I still think it’s not enough, given that we’re going to be attacked all day long.”

Pavlov was about to respond when the phone rang again.

He answered with a couple of “uh-huhs” and, after hanging up, reported, “The enemy from highland 153 has retreated. Based on the enemy’s attack organization speed during the past two days, I don’t think we need to worry about the highground for an hour and a half to two hours.”

Wang Zhong commanded decisively, “Then let’s move all the T34s to the east side! Now, immediately. Have them stop at the middle school gate on the way to the east to resupply ammunition and fuel.”

Pavlov promptly picked up the receiver, then realized, “We should have radio.”

Wang Zhong called out, “Vasily, do the honors!”

————

After the enemy retreated, Tank 422 rumbled to life, moving past highland 153 and headed toward Orachi.

Clearly, other battles awaited the general elsewhere.

The other T34s only then emerged from the lingering pink smoke and joined up with Tank 422.

Major Eugene and everyone from the Fifth Belshenk Battalion cheered the departing T34 tanks with a resounding, “Hurrah!”

“Hurrah!”

The morning sun shone upon them.

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