Cannon Fire Arc

On the evening of July 24, at 2330 hours, the headquarters of the Prussian 10th Army Group.

When General Boke heard the sound of horseshoes, he raised his head and adjusted his monocle, looking towards the entrance of the tent.

He did not have to wait long.

A dusty and dishevelled Moravian Cavalry Major General lifted the tent flap and hobbled his way to General Boke.

General Boke said, "It seems I do not need to ask to know the outcome. You didn't run into those tanks, did you?"

The Moravian Major General shook his head: "No. We were stopped by Ante's cavalry troops. We had only rifles, and some units carried lances, but all of Ante's cavalry were equipped with submachine guns and drum magazines, their fierce firepower had us completely overwhelmed!"

"They have no chivalry at all!"

General Boke turned his head to the chief of staff: "Didn't you tell the Moravian cavalry about the enemy's submachine guns?"

"We did," the chief of staff looked at the Prussian, "and we also informed them of the enemy's known formation to facilitate their maneuvering around the enemy. Not only did we give them intelligence, but to prevent diarrhea, we also distributed quinine to them. Our own supplies of quinine are running out, and a considerable number of soldiers have already fallen due to malaria-induced weakness."

The Moravian Major General hung his head low, like a frost-hit eggplant, repeatedly mumbling, "No chivalry, no chivalry!"

General Boke looked as though he wanted to say something but eventually simply patted the Moravian's shoulder: "Get some rest, and see the psychologist tomorrow."

Ever since the discovery of shell shock, a condition leaning more toward psychological illness, Prussian field hospitals at division level and above had been staffed with psychologists.

The Moravian Major General did not argue but just nodded his head before turning and leaving the command tent.

After he had gone, General Boke cursed: "Damn that Rokossovsky, he's nearly driven the Moravians insane! Sometimes I can't help but believe what the propaganda machine trumpets, second-class citizens will always be second-class citizens!"

The chief of staff and a bunch of staff officers nodded in agreement.

General Boke paced a few times in the tent before heaving a long sigh: "It seems we can only rely on the air force now. Hopefully, this time they will be more reliable!"

————

On July 25th, at 1000 hours in the morning, at the Yeisk Corps Command.

The telephone rang, and Pavlov picked it up immediately: "Headquarters! Yes, got it."

As he responded, the sound of an air raid siren from outside the warehouse echoed in.

Wang Zhong, looking at Pavlov putting down the phone, asked: "Was it Brother Peter who called?"

"Just as you guessed," Pavlov looked towards the window of the warehouse, "Well, no need to guess. Yes, it was Brother Peter. A large enemy air group is coming our way. And he has already issued orders directly to the anti-aircraft forces."

The day before, Wang Zhong had anticipated that the Prussians would bomb the fake tanks outside Yeisk, so he had delegated the authority to activate anti-aircraft preparations to Brother Peter to save on reaction time.

Popov asked: "How many enemy planes are coming exactly?"

"Brother Peter said there are at least 40 heavy bombers and sixty-four Stukas."

Wang Zhong: "What about the reconnaissance planes mixed in?"

"There are two, mixed in with the high-altitude group, and there's a distant Focke-Wulf 189 flying low and hugging the ground."

Wang Zhong's interest piqued upon hearing about the Focke-Wulf 189: "What? After yesterday's failure of the cavalry reconnaissance, the low-altitude reconnaissance has finally come! Tell the Divine Arrow unit to take down that 189 at all costs! It's a must!"

Popov stood up, grabbing the phone—Divine Arrow fell under church jurisdiction.

"Hello! Deputy Knight Yeca Neiko, tell your unit to keep a sharp lookout, there's a Focke-Wulf 189 flying low on the enemy's side that might come over for surveillance at any moment. Ignore the other planes, but that reconnaissance aircraft has to be brought down!"

Reconnaissance planes at high altitude would have difficulty discerning that the tanks on the ground were "fakes," but they would clearly see the "flames" rising from the tanks and billowing smoke.

Thus, high-altitude reconnaissance might actually add to the deceit of these fake tanks, inadvertently aiding Wang Zhong in tricking the Prussian generals.

However, a low-flying reconnaissance plane could easily see through Wang Zhong's "little trick," so the low-flying scout plane, as well as Stukas flying low after dive-bombing, must be dealt with no matter what.

After Popov issued his instructions, he was about to put the receiver down when Wang Zhong stopped him: "Wait a moment, let Katyusha not engage the other enemy aircraft, just wait for the reconnaissance plane to appear."

Popov was momentarily puzzled, holding the mouthpiece: "Who is Katyusha?"

Wang Zhong: "That's the little girl, only her guided Divine Arrow would continue to pursue after leaving the visual range, very impressive little girl!"
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Popov: "Do we have such a person?"

Wang Zhong: "Her full name is Ekaterina. What's going on with you, Military Bishop not aware of the names, ages, and abilities of his prayer warriors?"

Popov: "I used to know, but a lot of the Army Group's prayer warriors have changed lately... The deputy knight will definitely know."

He released the mouthpiece: "Hello, General Rokossovsky requests that the prayer warrior named Ekaterina on your side handle the enemy reconnaissance aircraft specifically. Alright, that's the request."

After finishing his call, he hung up and looked at Wang Zhong: "The deputy knight is aware."

Wang Zhong nodded.

At that moment, anti-aircraft guns began firing outside, signaling that the enemy aircraft had entered the anti-aircraft commanders' field of vision.

As Wang Zhong shifted his gaze, he saw the swarm of aircraft above.

Without much effort, he found the reconnaissance plane mixing in with the flock. Then he looked around but didn't spot any aircraft carrying Fritz X guided bombs.

Strangely enough, the Fritz X had been used in large-scale combat last year, but now they were nowhere to be seen.

What Wang Zhong didn't know was that the Prussians had evaluated the effectiveness of Fritz X in bombing cities and found that in an environment with numerous buildings, even without any ground defenses, it was difficult for the bombardiers to accurately guide the bombs to their intended targets.

Mainly because Fritz X required bombardiers to see the light at the tail of the bomb to know where it was, and in the complex urban background, that light was too hard to spot, especially during the day.

In nighttime bombings, the bombardiers could clearly see the light at the tail of the bomb, but then they couldn't see the targets on the ground under blackout conditions, making it quite awkward.

Moreover, frequent large fires on the ground and the thick smoke would also interfere with the guidance.

So the Prussians had reassigned the bomber squadrons equipped with Fritz X to the Aegean Sea to attack naval ships.

Unaware of these facts, Wang Zhong was still puzzled. His knowledge of Fritz X came from playing War Thunder, where the Fritz X was extremely reliable, precisely hitting dug-in enemies every time. Little did he know about the weakness of the real Fritz X.

Under Wang Zhong's watch, the Prussian formation began bombing, targeting the "tank cluster" outside the city, and bombs carved several "scars" of explosions on the ground.

Many "tanks" caught fire, looking just like the real thing from high up.

The dense smoke from the flames further concealed the tank formation, ensuring that the enemy's high-altitude reconnaissance planes wouldn't be able to snap any useful photos.

The problem lay with the FW189 hiding at low altitudes.

At that moment, the MiG-3s from the 11th Fighter Regiment appeared, with 12 white contrails rushing toward the trails of the dense Prussian formation, reminding Wang Zhong of a phrase he'd loved before crossing over: The storm is coming! It is the brave petrel, flying proudly over the roaring sea, amid the lightning; it is the prophet of victory, shouting:— May the storm come harder!

The Prussian formation opened fire, with tracers creating a storm in the high skies, and the MiG-3s danced like petrels amid the tempest.

Wang Zhong thought to himself, just wait, next year Prussian pilots will be charging like this against the Federation's B17 formations, facing an even greater disparity between enemy and ally.

Just wait, Prussia!

As the MiG-3s tangled with the bombers now on a return flight course, Stuka dive-bombers descended.

Wang Zhong saw several fire dragons shoot up from the ground, hitting the diving Stukas and forcing them to drop their bombs at high altitudes before they scurried towards the ground in a panic.

However, the plain had virtually no significant elevations and depressions—or rather, such unevenness was negligible for aircraft, so the Divine Arrows continued their simultaneous firing, downing nearly 30 Stukas in the brief time span of a single dive!

Just then, Wang Zhong spotted two FW189s—no, there were two of them almost stacked together! They had successfully fooled Brother Peter's hearing by using the noise from the larger group of aircraft as interference!

A lone fire dragon burst from the ground, hitting the higher-flying FW189.

The Prussian pilot pulled the plane away from the friendly aircraft above just before being hit, so that after taking the hit, they wouldn't interfere with their comrades' flight!

A second fire dragon ascended!

The enemy aircraft had spotted the fire dragon's launching position and attempted to dodge the threat with an ultra-low, nearly ground-skimming flight—

But it was still hit.

Wang Zhong watched a thrilled little Katyusha jumping for joy at the firing position.

He thought to himself that he'd have to award her a medal when they got back and give her head a good rub!

As for whether little Katyusha would take that as a reward, Wang Zhong couldn't care less!

————

On the evening of the 25th, at the southern Ante air base of the Prussian Air Force Command.

The commander of the Prussian 5th Air Force looked at the Stuka pilots in front of him and questioned, "Are you sure what you saw were real tanks?"

"They were real!" the Stuka pilot with the rank of colonel answered assuredly, "They must be tanks! And they were filled with fuel, so they caught fire as soon as they were bombed! The enemy is preparing to attack!"

The other pilots nodded in agreement: "Yes, they were real tanks!"

The commander of the 5th Air Force scanned the faces of the pilots and suddenly pointed to a lieutenant, "Your expression isn't very convincing. You tell me!"

The lieutenant pilot glanced at his companions, then said, "None of the tanks exploded in sympathy, so I thought that was a bit odd…"

The leading colonel explained, "That's because the enemy wasn't completely ready to attack; they hadn't loaded ammunition yet! Our tanks also fuel up first, then get loaded with ammunition!"

The commander paced back and forth in front of the pilots as the chief of staff said, "Whether they're tanks or not, we'll know once the photos are developed tomorrow."

The commander retorted, "Why would we need reconnaissance by human eyes if photos were enough? But the enemy managed to wipe out the very reconnaissance planes that could have clarified those fake targets! So many Stukas came back, but both reconnaissance planes were lost!"

At that moment, a colonel wearing airborne ranger uniform entered the room, sporting a natural edelweiss on his collar.

Only airborne rangers could wear a real edelweiss; mountain rangers could only carry the metal edelweiss insignia.

The colonel saluted the commander, "The airborne ranger assault team is ready; we can drop tonight!"