Chapter 43: Chapter 39 Crossfire
Yegorov was standing by the window watching the west, seemingly unafraid of the enemy’s artillery fire.
The main reason was that the three-story Boye mansion he was in was quite sturdy, and the 75mm infantry artillery might not necessarily take it down.
Even more robust was the main building of the winery; perhaps the Prussians had not anticipated such a solid reinforced concrete structure in such a small village.
Yegorov had it all figured out, if they really could not hold on, they would withdraw to the winery and resist relying on the solid building.
It was at that moment, amidst the enemy’s cannon fire and explosions, that he heard a different kind of artillery sound.
“Is the tank firing?” Yegorov turned his head to look behind him—at the east.
After a second of hesitation, Yegorov quickly moved to the window on the eastern side.
Because the building blocked his view, he couldn’t see the tank, but he could see the smoke set up by the enemy on the eastern plains.
The Ante Army also had smoke bombs, however, they were “advanced experience” learned from the Prussian Army.
Yegorov muttered to himself, “It seems the Prosen devils have circled to the east, Count Rocossov is engaging the enemy with his tank! How did he find them?”
As he spoke, Yegorov lifted his binoculars in a futile attempt to observe the battle, but since he still could not see the situation, he turned his head to Sergeant Major Grigori and said, “Take a machine gun to the eastern edge of the village, find a good position and set it up. The count only has one tank, and the enemy has set up a smoke screen, so they might not be able to fully block the enemy.”
Grigori saluted, “Leave it to me, Colonel Yegorov.”
After seeing Grigori off, Yegorov looked east again and murmured, “How did the count discover the enemy’s flanking maneuver?”
Pavlov said, “Perhaps this is what makes a military genius.”
Just as the words fell, a 75mm shell hit the wall of the main mansion building, but it didn’t blow through the wall, only causing a pile of dust to fall sparsely from the ceiling.
Yegorov looked at the beams overhead to make sure the house was not going to collapse, then turned to glare at the chief of staff, “You, talk less!”
————
At that time, Wang Zhong watched as the last half-track vehicle turned into a burning wreck.
He elevated his view and quickly counted the remaining infantry on the plains.
About sixty or seventy infantry had survived, scattered across the plains.
The enemy closest to the village would enter it after another five hundred meters.
The most urgent task now was to quickly return to the entrance of the village and hold it, as it would be difficult to deal with the infantry once they entered the village with the tank— even if Wang Zhong had cheats.
Just then, a machine gun appeared in the window of a building at the very eastern edge of the village and began firing at the enemy on the plains without a word.
This machine gun was seized from the enemy; its firing sound was not the dull thud of the Ante Army’s heavy machine guns but a sharp, tearing sound like ripping canvas.
Wang Zhong saw all this clearly and immediately decided to drive the tank to the side of the village entrance to set up a crossfire network with the machine gun at the entrance.
Without the half-tracks, the enemy had lost their mobility and mobile cover, making it difficult for the infantry to break through the crossfire on the plains.
“Driver, stop, turn on the spot 180 degrees!”
Even Wang Zhong heard the sound of the driver pulling the lever—this tank didn’t have a convenient steering wheel but relied on two control levers, one for each side track.
As the driver operated, the tank tracks began to rotate in opposite directions, and the long vehicle started to turn on the spot.
Su Fang was still firing, but as the tank began to turn, the tracer bullets whipped out into the plain.
“Say something before you turn!” Su Fang complained loudly. “My ammo’s being wasted here!”
Wang Zhong, who had no time to mind her, waited until the tank turned to his desired direction and immediately knocked on top of the turret, shouting, “Stop! No more turning! Shift gears, full speed ahead, stop at the edge of the village!”
As the tank started to move, Su Fang protested, “I can’t shoot at the enemy like this!”
Before her words ended, a bullet struck the tank gun, sending out a string of sparks as it flew away.
Wang Zhong turned around and saw the enemy in the fields attempting to hit the tank, but at that distance, even well-trained Prosen soldiers had to rely on luck to score a hit.
However, just like the infantry organization of another timeline’s Germany, the core of the infantry squad is the machine gun—and if that machine gun starts firing—
Before he could finish, the enemy’s machine gun opened fire.
Wang Zhong immediately located the machine gunner and saw that he was firing the machine gun by hand, probably because the enemy was in the wheat field and the summer wheat had grown tall. Lying on the ground, one wouldn’t be able to aim, so they had no choice but to fire the machine gun while standing.
The accuracy of firing a machine gun by hand is imaginable; it looked as though tracer bullets were headed straight for Wang Zhong, but in reality, they all flew high.
Su Fang was shrinking her neck, and had lost the sharpness she just had in killing the enemy; instead, she clung tightly to Wang Zhong.
Wang Zhong, “Why are you so close?”
Su Fang, “I think the bullets might curve around you!”
“How about you look at the wound on my shoulder and say that again? I’m still running a fever!”
Even though they were having a not-so-tense conversation, Wang Zhong knew that it wouldn’t be surprising to get hit by a bullet under these circumstances. On the battlefield, no one can be sure.
But what was strange was that he was not afraid at all.
And he always felt that his fearlessness didn’t have much to do with adrenaline—because his breathing was very steady at the moment.
No sooner had he thought this than Su Fang said, “Konstantinovich, you’re really brave. I’m so scared I’m shivering, but you’re just like usual!”
Konstantinovich was Wang Zhong’s patronymic, and using a patronymic at such times mostly conveyed a sense of respect.
Wang Zhong glanced at the girl, and it took him a second to remember that as an Easterner she didn’t have a patronymic, so he had to call her by her name, “Su Fang, you are brave too.”
At that moment, the driver’s voice came through the headset, “We’ll be at the edge of the village soon, a low wall is just ahead.”
Wang Zhong, “Stop in front of the low wall, face the enemy.”
The tank immediately braked and then turned around.
As if she had been holding back for a long time, Su Fang picked up the machine gun and returned fire at the Prussian gunner who had been sending tracer bullets over their heads.
The result was unsurprisingly low.
After all, she had just been close to the enemy, and her range was set to 100.
Wang Zhong estimated the distance and told Su Fang, “Set the range to four hundred!”
“Oh!” Su Fang stopped firing and began adjusting the range setting.
At that moment, the two machine gun turrets in front of the tank also opened fire, the whips of death formed by the tracer bullets and the machine guns at the entrance of the village created a crossfire.
After Su Fang finished adjusting the range, she joined their ranks.
The enemy was probably out of smoke bombs by now, having no way to deal with the fire net.
A machine gunner found a mound of Earth in the field, set up a machine gun on it, and began to retaliate.
Wang Zhong immediately grabbed Su Fang’s hand and pushed her line of fire towards the enemy, while commanding the gunner, “See Su Fang’s tracer bullets? Is there an enemy machine gun you see there?”
“I see it!” As the gunner responded, he stepped on the turret rotation pedal and aimed the short, stout tank gun at the enemy.
Gunner, “High explosive, ready!”
The gunner’s foot pressed down on the firing pedal.
Due to the short distance, almost the moment the gun fired, the shell hit its target, sending the Prussian machine gunner and his ammunition handler flying sky-high—literally.
Su Fang, “Take that! For shooting at me!”
Cheers from the tank operators filled Wang Zhong’s headset.
But he couldn’t bring himself to celebrate, because from a bird’s-eye view, he saw that the enemy in front was also advancing.