Arc of Fire

Chapter 635: Chapter 77: His Majesty the Tsar Rewards You with a New Tank

On December 10, 1915, a day after the light forces had begun their pursuit of the Prosen Army, the armored troops and mechanized infantry of the Abawahan Front Army also started their chase.

Meanwhile, the Front Army Headquarters was also getting ready to set off with the heavy-armored troops.

When Wang Zhong stepped out of the bunker, the tunnel entrance was packed with Anteans, including a large number of women and children.

Pavlov explained, “Yesterday, I had let those living in districts not occupied by the Prosens go home, including many women and children.”

Wang Zhong looked at them, his expression softening, “There are still so many women and children alive. Old friend, I feel the value of our struggle in this moment, such value!”

Pavlov patted Wang Zhong on the shoulder, “Liking to ramble is a sign of getting old, yet you’re not even thirty, General Davarish.”

Wang Zhong, “Ah? General?”

"Early this morning’s plane, just landed. Should be arriving soon.”

As they spoke, a horn sounded from the tunnel behind Wang Zhong; he turned around and saw a Willys Jeep approaching with its headlights on, only turning them off near the exit.

Before the vehicle had fully stopped, a mischievously grinning major hopped out.

Wang Zhong’s eyes widened, “Vasily?”

"Yes, it’s me.” Vasily stood at attention and saluted, “Report to General Davarish, Major Vasily has completed the accelerated six-month staff officer course and formally requests to rejoin the ranks!”

Wang Zhong, “No, you should be commanding a regiment.”

Vasily, “No, General, I don’t think I’m cut out for that. Just consider me afraid of dying.”

Wang Zhong was silent for a few seconds before pointing at the scarf around his neck, “This belonged to my last deputy. You know that?”

"I know,” Vasily said solemnly. “Your personal charge is well-known throughout Yeburg, despite being an Admiral and a Front Army Commander, you charged like a battalion commander. So, high-risk as it is, let me be your deputy.”

Pavlov interjected, “There’s one thing you got wrong. It is now strictly prohibited for anyone above battalion level—including battalion chiefs to charge personally. We can’t afford to lose so many senior officers. You see, even the staff courses have been crammed into half a year.”

Wang Zhong stared at Vasily for a few more seconds and sighed, “If I have to lose another deputy in the future, it might as well be someone with a big fate like you.”

Vasily slapped his thigh and laughed joyfully, but he quickly realized this was inappropriate and shut his mouth.

After all, Wang Zhong had just lost a deputy, whose belongings still hung around his neck.

At that moment, Pavlov nudged Wang Zhong’s waist to catch his attention and nodded towards the people behind Vasily.

Only then did Wang Zhong notice a colonel and a major standing behind Vasily, with the major respectfully holding a box.

The colonel met Wang Zhong’s eyes and said, “Admiral Aleksei Konstantinovich Rokossovsky, in light of your outstanding performance in the recently concluded

"Not concluded, Kutuzov’s operation isn’t over. We plan to keep pushing until we meet stiff resistance from the Prosens,” Wang Zhong interrupted.

The colonel, “Alright, in light of your outstanding performance in the recent defense of Abawahan and the encirclement battle against the Prosen Sixth Army Group, the High Command has decided to promote you to General.”

The major with the box stepped forward, opened the box to reveal the General’s insignia: five stars in total, four at the corners and one in the center.

Pavlov, “Next time it will be just one big star, frankly, I think the five stars look better.”

Wang Zhong, “I think either is fine, let’s move on.”

He reached to remove his own insignia, but Vasily immediately stepped forward, “How can we let a General remove his own insignia? Allow me to assist you.”

Quickly, the old insignia was removed, Vasily took the new insignia, and placed it on the collar of Wang Zhong’s winter uniform.

The senior colonel responsible for delivering the insignia said, “We’ve also brought the other military insignias, as well as this appointment letter, which needs to be handed over to your unit’s clerk

"Give it here,” Pavlov reached out and took the document directly, “Our Commander suffers a headache just from looking at documents, most of them are handled by me.”

Wang Zhong, “You’ve been a great help, Pavlov, a great help.”

Having said that he turned around, found everyone’s eyes on him, and said, “I’ve got nothing to remark, right now I only care about one thing: how long before we can advance into the Prosen capital, Plowsonia. So, let us depart.”

With that, General Wang Zhong jumped into his Jeep.

Vasily immediately climbed into the passenger seat, while the already seated driver released the handbrake and gently pressed the accelerator.

The surrounding crowd automatically parted, just wide enough for a vehicle to pass.

They seemed reluctant to stray too far from their General.

Suddenly, Wang Zhong remembered something, he hadn’t seen young Griff among the crowd.

He always felt the boy would come to see him off.

Switching to an overhead view, he searched for little Griff and found the boy crouched on the rooftop of a nearby building, brandishing a small Red Flag.

The little fellow was surrounded by a large group of children, acting every inch the king of the kids.

"Forward, Davarish!” young Griff shouted.

All the children shouted together, “Forward, Davarish!”

Like a pile of dead leaves ignited by a spark, the originally silent crowd suddenly burst into a cacophony of shouts:

"Don’t let them get away!”

"Push all the way to the border!”

"Wish you to return home soon, General!”

The crowd on both sides of the road seemed endless; even after traveling a kilometer, the road was still lined with people.

The crowd tossed various consolation gifts onto the vehicles, calling out to Wang Zhong:

"Avenge my father!”

"My husband is missing, please find where he is buried!”

"General, I want to go home! My own home!”

Wang Zhong tried to see who had shouted that last sentence, but he was lost in the crowd.

Thus, Wang Zhong thought that if only all the occupied areas could be liberated, then this stranger could go home.

Even as the convoy left the city, the roadsides remained packed with people.

Wang Zhong: “No need to see us off further! There might still be landmines outside! Go back!”

Vasily: “Now we really must fight all the way to Plowsonia.”

"Isn’t that stating the obvious? Starting to state the obvious is a sign of aging.”

"Wait a minute, why do I feel like I’ve just heard that line?” Vasily asked, puzzled.

Wang Zhong: “It’s your imagination.”

At the same time, at Saint Ye Katerina Fortress, a Military Arsenal Testing Ground, His Majesty the Tsar had suddenly arrived and was looking at several brand new prototypes: “Is this the new model tank? It looks even bigger than the T34 and KV.”

Designer Ke Jing: “Indeed, because Admiral Rokossovsky

"General,” Olga corrected. “He’s a General now.”

Ke Jing hastily corrected himself: “Right, his Excellency the General proposed increasing the weight of the tanks. He wanted us to develop a tank that could match the enemy’s new heavy tanks. So, I designed this vehicle.

"The assault gun that the General favored previously was also my work.”

Olga: “Let’s focus on this vehicle, the rest doesn’t matter.”

"Of course,” Ke Jing quickly produced the blueprints, “The most important feature of this vehicle is its indestructible defense. The General wanted a breakthrough tank that could be used for assaults, so it required robust defense from all directions. To meet this requirement without excessively increasing the weight, you can see we employed angled armor on both the sides and the back of the tank.”

Olga: “I see that. Do you guys have to design it like a turtle? And why is the turret so round at the back?”

Ke Jing: “After comparing all the designs, we found that an ovoid shape best achieves the goal of all-around defense.

"The rounded back of the head, as you mentioned, offers at least 150 millimeters of effective thickness against horizontal shots from any angle, with some angles reaching up to 220 millimeters.

"If we used the cast turret common on tanks, achieving this would significantly increase the weight. It might even become too heavy to move, Your Majesty.”

Olga: “And the body?”

Ke Jing, patting the front armor of the vehicle body: “The body is similar, with the best-protected upper front armor having a thickness of 110 millimeters at a steep angle of 61 degrees. The enemy’s best 88mm guns would hardly stand a chance of penetrating it from the front.

"Additionally, you may have noticed that the front of the vehicle body is wedge-shaped, my new design. This increases the likelihood of deflecting incoming shells.

"Your Majesty, please believe, this vehicle has an unshakeable front armor and quite reliable sides and rear. It is an indestructible war machine that can frustrate all enemy firepower!”

Olga: “What about its firepower?”

Ke Jing: “Given that a 100mm gun is already powerful enough, and considering the tank was nearly overweight, we still opted for the same 100mm gun used in the Whirlwind. It should be sufficient against most Prosens tanks.”

Olga nodded repeatedly: “I see no issues, let’s go with that. By the way, the engine used is the new one authorized by the Federation for our production, right?”

"Yes, because the production plant has just been refurbished, the output of the engines is very low, but given our current use of heavy tanks, this output is acceptable.”

Olga nodded again: “Good. Have you tested its reliability?”

"It has been tested, but these prototype vehicles all used imported engines from the Federation, so… it can’t represent the reliability of the models with licensed production engines.” Ke Jing appeared somewhat awkward, after all, if mass-produced models had issues, it could cause unnecessary casualties.

Olga: “Since you’ve tested its reliability, we don’t need to test the rest, just take it to the battlefield to see how it performs. General Rokossovsky is organizing an attack, and since he set the specifications, let him test it personally.

"Send all the prototypes to the Abawahan Front Army!”

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