Arc of Fire

Chapter 106: “Those Who Never Abandoned Me

No matter what bizarre troops the Crown Prince stuffed into another train, they’re still blocked on the train and won’t be able to make it for a while.

Wang Zhong received his first wave of reinforcements today from the 23rd Tank Army—the remnants of it, to be precise.

The Fast series of light tanks, designated as BT models, are quite the vehicles in games, given their speed.

But in reality, they’re just speeding coffins, penetrable by machine guns with a slightly larger caliber.

That’s why the Soviet Union on Earth practically stopped producing them after the war started.

After all, the T34 is also fast, and its comprehensive performance is on a completely different level from the BT series.

Witnessing these BT-7s rolling into Rocossov’s defensive group area, Wang Zhong sighed and thought he’d just have to make do.

After all, these things still had 45mm guns and machine guns; there was no problem slaughtering infantry, and with their maneuverability, they could flank and deal with Mark III and IV tanks quite effectively.

The leading BT-7, tactical number 2301, had an antenna on the back of its turret, clearly the command vehicle of a platoon or company.

A lieutenant colonel popped out of the hatch and saluted Wang Zhong on top of the turret: “Comrade Major General Aleksei Konstantinovich Rokossovsky, I salute you.”

Wang Zhong took a glance at his name from the bird’s-eye view and responded, “Salutes to you too, Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Fyodorovich. The report said you had twenty BT-7s, why do I only see ten?”

“That’s because five of them were immobilized due to lack of maintenance and parts, and another five were destroyed by the enemy Air Force. The enemy Air Force is equipped with 13mm machine guns; just a bit thinner than our Anti-tank Rifles, when they shoot from above, these paper-thin toys just collapse.”

The lieutenant colonel shook his head, “My battalion is down to these few tanks, General sir. Let us make some contributions, even if it’s just being stationary gun emplacements. Piled up with sandbags in front of our turrets, we can still exchange fire with the Prussians.”

Wang Zhong shook his head and waved the lieutenant colonel over.

Mikhail climbed down from the tank with a puzzled look but still agilely came over to Wang Zhong and saluted again.

Wang Zhong placed his hand on Mikhail’s shoulder, “The situation is as follows: we have a fully-strength enemy Armored Division in front of us, one of all seventeen of the enemy’s Armored Divisions, and we suspect that part of an enemy mechanized infantry division is also moving up.”

“We’ve just lost the screening forces to the southeast, and the enemy will attack us from both the southeast and southwest. Our troops can’t hold such a large area. Understand so far?”

Mikhail nodded, “Understood, so we need to reinforce…”

“Don’t speak yet, listen to me. The unit currently responsible for the defense to the southeast is the 5th Bishensk Regiment; they are down to three hundred men, and they’ve lost almost all their technical equipment, even short on machine guns.”

“The anti-tank guns on their positions are actually made of wood, got it?”

“Understood, so we should…”

“We don’t have anti-tank guns, so we can’t exchange fire in the open field. We need to let the enemy in, cut off their infantry, then use Molotov cocktails to destroy their tanks and armored vehicles.”

“And I need you to stand by in the eastern part of the city. When the enemy enters the urban area, use your speed to encircle them. Your 45mm guns can penetrate the enemy’s flanks and rears!”

Mikhail frowned, “There’s a fatal issue with your plan; none of us are from Loktov. Although the city isn’t large, having us, a bunch of newcomers, navigate the streets for a flanking attack is asking for a lot, isn’t it?”

Wang Zhong replied, “The local Guardian Army will provide you with directions and scout the enemy positions for you.”

Mikhail’s frown deepened, “The Guardian Army are just militia, aren’t they?”

“Yes, many of whom were conscripted in the past few days.”

“This…”

Wang Zhong interjected, “Don’t worry, I’ll personally command a tank. Even if the rest of you fail to complete the mission of encirclement, I’ll accomplish it. Your command tank looks good; now, it’s mine.”

Mikhail was perplexed, “Huh? Ah?”

Wang Zhong turned to the soldiers waiting nearby, “Erase this tank’s tactical number and paint my tactical number, 422.”

Wang Zhong had hesitated between spraying the number 422 or 67 but eventually decided that the honor of number 67 should always belong to that brave tank crew.

He should carry on the glorious number 422, leading it through the entire battle, with the spirits of those sacrificial Tank Operators.

At this point, Mikhail asked, “But…unlike the T28, the BT-7 doesn’t have a separate Tank Commander, I’m both commander and Gunner in the tank. Have you had… Gunner training?”

Wang Zhong paused, his impressions of tanks were all based on games, where a single player could do everything; so he never considered that the BT-7 lacked a separate commander.

At that moment, two soldiers climbed onto the tank with buckets, wiped the original tactical number 2301 from the paint, and then hand-painted the new tactical number, 422.

Mikhail didn’t stop the two, but instead, he watched Wang Zhong intently, “General?”

Wang Zhong said, “I can stand behind the turret and be the Anti-aircraft Gunner.”

In this timeline, the BT-7 had an Anti-aircraft gun.

Mikhail seemed unable to believe his ears, “You said what?”

“I’ll be the Anti-aircraft Gunner on the back of the turret,” Wang Zhong stated firmly.

Faced with overwhelming enemy numbers, it was essential to fully leverage the advantage brought by Wang Zhong’s “cheat” to achieve victory at a minimal cost.

His leadership in the battle for Peniye Village had already proven how effective Wang Zhong’s personal command of a tank could be.

The original Gunner of tank number 2301 stuck his head out, “What does this mean? Why change the tactical number? Mikhail, what’s going on?”