Arc of Fire

But Wang Zhong wouldn’t be fooled by such talk.

"Damn it, where in World War II could you get such fast air support? Do you think this is the U.S. Army in the Gulf War?”

This isn’t the game “Steel Division 2,” where you call for the Air Force to read a bar, and they just fly in from the edge of the map!

Wang Zhong stepped forward and slapped the officer, “Nonsense! You can’t provide air support that fast! That plane is bombing somewhere else, just passing by nearby! You’re trying to fool us, to cause trouble while we’re hiding!”

The officer stood tall, “It seems you are completely ignorant of the advancements in our country’s military technology, foolish inferior!”

Wang Zhong burst out laughing, “Still talking about military advancements, look at your so-called proud tank forces, aren’t they being pounded by our KVs?”

The officer’s expression immediately turned sour.

At that moment, the sound of engines came from the southwest; there was no need for a sound array to hear it directly.

The officer wore a smug look, while Wang Zhong pursed his lips, smiling as he watched him.

Dmitry said, “Maybe we should still hide!”

Wang Zhong said, “Look at this village. Do you see any signs of enemy bombs having fallen here? This isn’t the enemy’s target, and it’s not possible for enemy calls for support to be responded to so quickly, so isn’t the answer obvious?”

The real reason Wang Zhong was so calm was that he had already seen the enemy plane from a bird’s-eye view, and its path indeed did not pass over Karlinovka village.

If it wasn’t for that, he would never have risked everyone’s lives to verify whether his speculation was correct or not.

The roar of the engines continued to approach, and Wang Zhong walked straight out of the courtyard, standing in the middle of the village road, gazing into the sky with a fearless air.

The Prosen officer shouted, “You’ll be riddled by the plane’s machine guns! You’ll all die!”

Wang Zhong replied, “So will you, probably a bit earlier than us.”

By now, the engine noise was so intense that the windows of the surrounding houses began to shake.

The Imperial Guard soldiers all clung to the walls and crouched down in their positions.

Among the captives, some simply lay flat on the ground, but that officer was still staring at Wang Zhong in the middle of the road.

Then, the sound of the engines faded away.

Wang Zhong turned and looked at the enemy lieutenant, “Where is your air support?”

The lieutenant’s face turned ashen.

Brother Peter peeked out from the rooftop, “The enemy plane is gone! It flew towards Loktov!”

Wang Zhong spread his arms, welcoming the admiring looks of his subordinates, “Don’t be so surprised, I told you, the Prosen’s integration of air and ground forces isn’t that good, they couldn’t have brought in planes that fast.

"Even if he really did call for planes, it would take those guys at least an hour to fly here from the airport!

"And this village has not been bombed at all, it’s not a target for the Prosen Air Force!”

Wang Zhong pointed to his temple, “Use your brains, classmates. As long as you are smarter than the enemy, you can beat them!”

The officer glared at Wang Zhong, looked him up and down several times, the scornful expression he had earlier completely gone.

In Ante language, he asked, “May I know who you are, or rather… who are you exactly?”

Wang Zhong said, “It seems that Prosen people don’t understand etiquette very well, shouldn’t you introduce yourself before asking about someone else’s identity?”

"You’re right, I am Second Lieutenant Joseph von Hoffman of the 220th Motorized Reconnaissance Battalion. May I ask who you are?”

"Aleksei Konstantinovich Rokossovsky, Major General.”

Second Lieutenant Hoffman was startled, instinctively took a step back, but the surrounding Imperial Guard stepped forward, several gun barrels pressing against his back.

The lieutenant glanced at Wang Zhong again and shouted something in Prosen.

Wang Zhong turned and asked Dmitry, “What did he say?”

"The White Horse General. The newspapers say it’s a nickname the enemy gave you.”

Wang Zhong stepped closer to the enemy, smiled slightly, “That’s right, I am the White Horse General, the enemy you can’t kill. I will fight until your empire is destroyed.”

The lieutenant said, “Impossible! Since its establishment, the empire has won every war!”

"Then, this!” Wang Zhong pointed to the ground beneath his feet, “This will be its final war! In at most five years, we will completely destroy it!”

The enemy officer’s lips quivered, but Wang Zhong’s confidence suppressed any rebuttal he might have had, until at last, he finally lowered his proud head.

Wang Zhong gave a grand wave of his hand, “Load them onto the truck, prepare to retreat!”

Just then, the door of the courtyard next to the post office opened, and an old man with a walking stick came out, looking at Wang Zhong, “Your Excellency, are you leaving?”

Wang Zhong, “We will return.”

The elder, “When? In five years?”

It turned out the old man had overheard the conversation.

Wang Zhong, “Maybe not even five years, old sir.”

The elder hesitated to speak, then finally fished a few potatoes out of his pocket and put them into Wang Zhong’s hands, “I told my daughter-in-law to take the kids and our belongings and run away, this is all that’s left in the house.”

Wang Zhong keenly caught the key term: daughter-in-law. He had a feeling he already knew where the son had gone, no need to ask.

He looked at the potato and realized that the old man must have been carrying it for a long time, possibly as emergency rations for himself.

"Old man, we’ve had our fill. You should keep the potato for yourself.”

The elder said, “I am already old. During the civil war, I tried to join the army to fight for the Secular faction, but they wouldn’t have me.”

The civil war in the Ante Empire was a conflict between the Eastern Holy Church’s Secular faction and the Sanctified faction. In the end, the Secular faction won and elevated the current Tsar to divine status.

The elder said, “Consider this potato as my last contribution to fight for The Saint Andrew!”

The Saint Andrew, the founder of the Secular faction, is the origin of the Andrew’s Cross on the imperial flag.

Wang Zhong stared at the old man for a few seconds and took back the potato: “I will make good use of them.”

The elder said, “If need be, throwing them at the enemy works too!”

Wang Zhong nodded, and at that moment, he thought to ask the old man about the local wind direction and such.

So he asked, “Old man, have you lived here for a long time?”

"All my life.”

Wang Zhong asked, “What kind of wind predominates in this area during this season?”

The old man chuckled: “You’re planning to fire the artillery around here, aren’t you? I’ll tell you, at nine o’clock in the evening during this season, it’s mostly windless. If you fire the artillery at that time, just aim using the map coordinates, and you’ll be set.”

Wang Zhong nodded.

Just then, Grigori came over to salute Wang Zhong: “Your Excellency the General, all the spoils have been accounted for. We have captured a total of five submachine guns, two machine guns, and various ammunition, plus one functional motorcycle!”

Wang Zhong commanded, “Paint our military symbols on the motorcycle and requisition it.”

He turned to look at the Prosen soldiers’ bodies scattered on the street and said, “Bury grenades under these soldiers’ bodies, hang the pins on them, so when the enemy tries to move the bodies, the grenades will be triggered.”

"Yes,” Grigori turned and ordered, “You all heard him, get to it!”

Then he said to Wang Zhong, “The walkie-talkies have been checked; there’s no damage. Dmitry is studying the instruction manual found on the enemy’s radioman.”

Wang Zhong nodded, prepared to check the walkie-talkies, but then remembered he hadn’t said goodbye to the old man and looked his way again.

"You have matters to attend to, General!” said the old man as he shakily saluted.

Wang Zhong solemnly returned the salute before heading over to his subordinates who were fiddling with the walkie-talkies.

Leaning against the gate of a small courtyard, the old man watched Wang Zhong’s figure and whispered softly, “What a brave and youthful general. May The Saint Andrew protect you.”

————

At the same time, to the southwest of Loktov, Vasily showed the newly made sign to his temporary subordinate Filippov: “Take a look at this!”

Filippov stopped hammering, resting against the sign he just drove into the ground, “Don’t show me, I don’t understand Prussian script.”

"It says: ‘There are no landmines here!’”

Filippov furrowed his brow: “Using such phrases to bluff, will it really work? Feels like a child’s prank to me!”

Vasily retorted, “We’ll place a large mine underneath this sign so the enemy will have to believe it. Come on, let’s go plant it over there, just opposite the one you just hammered in stating there’s a minefield.”

Filippov shook his head: “If the academy instructors knew, they’d scold you for only having petty cleverness!”

"They would also tell me, ‘In real war, these petty clevernesses are useless!’” Vasily mockingly impersonated the instructors.

Filippov said, “As long as you’re aware.”

"But look, the brigadier assigned me to this, doesn’t he know I only have petty cleverness? He must do, it’s to give the enemy a little surprise using these exact tricks!”

While talking, the two arrived at the spot. Vasily tossed the sign onto the ground and started digging a hole.

Filippov took detonators and explosives out of his backpack: “How much should we use?”

"Give it a block!”

"That much? That could blast a man to the moon!”

"Hey, with tricks like this, better to blast with force than bury a lot. Ideally, all the Prosen Army will see one explosion and then they won’t dare to push over these signs anymore! Just put one block in there!”

Filippov placed a whole block of explosives in the hole, then started installing the detonation device.

Since both might be assigned to lead sapper squads, they had studied demolition and were adept at handling explosives.

Finally, Filippov tied the detonation pull ring to the base of the sign with a wire: “Done!”

Vasily planted the sign into the hole and began refilling it with soil.

Filippov yelled, “Be careful! That thing could launch us to the moon too!”

Vasily, unconcerned, said after finishing, “Let’s go find some tin cans to throw in the fields behind, to make the enemy’s mine detectors screech.”

"I support this idea,” Filippov agreed, “But where are we going to find tin cans?”

"Let’s buy some from the locals; I’ve got rubles,” said Vasily, suddenly sighing, “Better use it now, or we might not get a chance later.”

Filippov asked, “Would the locals who stayed behind take rubles?”

"If not, we’ll just say we’re from the Tribunal and they’ll take it,” Vasily replied.

"But we’re not wearing blue caps.”

"That’s easy, we’ll hide our caps and tell them the enemy’s bullets blew them away! Come on, Filippov, let’s give the Prussians a little surprise!”