Arc of Fire

Chapter 611: Chapter 54: Ascension

Wang Zhong commanded Vehicle 422—ah, the prototype of the heavy rocket assault gun—along Tsar Avenue, soon discovering the road was blocked by the wreckages of T34s and large barricades.

So he decisively ordered the crew to turn left, entering Pozharsky Street.

There were many wreckages on Pozharsky Street as well, but the passability was still acceptable, given that the Prosen engineers had almost completely destroyed the anti-tank stakes.

As the Red Flag-adorned Vehicle 422 passed by, many people spontaneously followed it.

In designing this assault gun, Wang Zhong had hardly mentioned maneuverability; he only required that it be able to reach the front line without breaking down, so the prototype was much slower than the T34 and Whirlwind, and people could keep up with it by simply walking a bit faster.

Wang Zhong had no choice but to wave at the followers, “Don’t follow, don’t follow! We’re heading to the front!”

"We’re going to the front too, General!” someone responded loudly.

Wang Zhong could only give up, but just as he was about to, he saw a child, possibly under ten, among the followers, and quickly pointed at the child, “That child cannot follow! Kid, it’s too dangerous!”

The child shouted, “I’ve killed more Prosen devils than you all! Really!”

Others laughed, “He’s a little hero!”

Wang Zhong stared at the child’s face, sensing the truth in his words; such a little fellow surely was no stranger to the battlefield, and trying to scare him was futile.

Besides, forcing the little hero to go back didn’t feel right.

So Wang Zhong asked, “There’s still space in the Combat Room, right?”

"Yes, General!”

Wang Zhong said, “Then stop the vehicle, let the little hero get on! Have him sit in the Combat Room!”

Taking into account both the child’s safety and feelings, Wang Zhong momentarily felt like a genius.

He gave the order, the vehicle had just stopped, and the crowd lifted the child over their heads, bringing him to the still unnamed tank, and directly placed him on top of the Combat Room.

The child turned his head and looked at the big gas tank rocket artillery behind the Combat Room, “What’s this? A bomb?”

Wang Zhong replied, “A flying bomb, later it can send the enemy and their bunkers to the sky.”

The child smiled, “That’s great.”

He then looked at characters on it and asked, “General, can I write the names of my fallen friends on it?”

"Of course,” Wang Zhong immediately reached into the tank, “Quick, give me paint and a brush.”

Soon, both items were handed to Wang Zhong.

He passed them to the child, then patted the top of the Combat Room, “Move forward! Drive slowly, let the child write properly! Write them all! Those filled with hatred are often ugly, but this time, the righteousness is with us, this is a just revenge, a glorious revenge, under the mushroom cloud lies no wronged souls!”

This 500mm thing created a mushroom cloud too, just smaller and without radiation.

Wang Zhong was indeed not wrong.

Vehicle 422, the prototype, restarted, moving extremely slowly, almost at the pace of a walking person.

The crowd following the combat vehicle also moved at a standard pace and formed a wave of people behind the vehicle.

Wang Zhong tilted his head to watch the child writing on the rocket, “Alyosha, Misha, Semyon

"Wait a second, how many names are you planning to write?” Wang Zhong couldn’t help but ask.

The boy pulled out a bunch of Soldier’s ID tags from his pocket.

Wang Zhong was silent for a few seconds, then asked, “Are they all your neighbors and friends?”

"Yes, and there’s a nemesis,” the child paused and countered, “Who is Yakov to you, General?”

"My Deputy Officer, a kind, simple, smart… attentive mature man. He could be a good father in the future.”

Wang Zhong looked ahead; without changing to a bird’s-eye view, he could see a window at the very end of the road flickering, probably from machine-gun fire.

The crackling gunfire reminded Wang Zhong of a city’s New Year’s Eve before his time travel.

How nice it would be if these gunfires were fireworks to expel the Nian beast.

Wang Zhong waved away the sudden surge of homesickness; he was no longer the unaccomplished boy of peacetime, he was a determined warrior of the Secular faction, Davarish.

The prototype rumbled forward, with the crowd behind holding their rifles, their bright bayonets pointing towards the sky, and the blood-soaked Red Flag flying above their heads.

Someone in the radio was shouting, “Calling the approaching Red Flag vehicle, is that General Rocosov?”

Wang Zhong replied, “Yes, I am Rocosov.”

"Don’t advance any further, enemy remnants have occupied the Post Office Building and are stubbornly resisting; there are three Long-barreled Fours in front of the building, we have already lost six T34s! We have already lost six T34s.”

Wang Zhong leaned over to confirm the situation, exactly as the unnamed officer in the radio had reported; a few hundred enemies were taking cover in the Post Office Building, resisting till the end, with the remaining three Long-barreled Fours positioned in a triangle pattern in front of the building, covering each other’s weak spots.

They had even adjusted their angles to make it difficult for anti-tank guns to penetrate their weaknesses.

And these Long-barreled Fours also had additional add-on armor, the design was already quite close to the late-version Fours from Earth.

Wang Zhong first switched to vehicle communication, “Be careful, there are Long-barreled Fours aimed at the front corner; make sure to watch the angle when you move out, don’t expose your weak spots.”

"Don’t worry,” the driver confidently answered, “Our vehicle has no weak spots on the front, just a whole armor plate; Whirlwind has the main gun, these don’t even have that.”

The Gunner added, “My role as gunner is actually just a sideline; later, I’ll go out with the Loader to load rocket shells.”

Wang Zhong cautioned, “Still, be careful about the sides.”

“80mm then!” the driver said, “Relax, we’re going out at an angle, it won’t penetrate.”

Wang Zhong nodded and turned on the radio, “Thank you for the update, don’t worry, we’ll take care of the stubborn enemy. Have your warriors find a good cover, don’t be scared, the fireworks will be quite large in a bit.”

"This… General, we can handle it

"Follow orders.”

Wang Zhong had just put down the handset when the little boy patted him on the shoulder, “Done.”

Wang Zhong turned his head and saw that the bomb was now covered with a dense mess of text.

He lifted the cover on the gunner’s side, “Go down little boy, let the gunner give you the scope, so you can clearly see the enemy’s end. Watch what it means for an enemy to turn to rot and mud.”

The little boy nodded and crawled into the cabin, sitting on the gunner’s lap.

Gunner: “Good boy, you are about the same age as my son, eh? How many enemies have you killed?”

"Five,” the little boy said confidently. “And I buried many booby traps, all under the bodies of the enemies.”

"Wow, impressive!” Neither the gunner nor the loader took him seriously, adopting a tone used to humor children.

Only Wang Zhong felt this child might indeed have killed quite a number of enemies.

He closed the hatch.

Driver: “We’re about to turn the corner!”

Wang Zhong turned around and shouted to the warriors following him, “Take cover! Don’t come out until we’ve fired! Take cover!”

Officers and sergeants in the team hurriedly shouted, “Cover! Let the General fire first!”

Wang Zhong initially wanted to duck as well—he had an overlooking view, ducking his head wouldn’t hinder his vision.

But after a thought, he felt it looked too cowardly and might negatively impact morale, so he maintained his position — luckily, the hatch was designed to offer protection to the commander poking his head out, so it was all good.

Prototype 422 turned forty-five degrees, slicing directly towards the corner of the intersection. As it emerged from the intersection, it positioned at an invincible angle.

An armor-piercing shell landed with a bang on the front armor and rebounded off, striking directly a building across the corner, then exploded inside, shattering the windows.

Wang Zhong ducked his neck and looked back at the still-smoking second-floor windows.

Worthy of a 75mm armor-piercing shell, he thought, the aftermath looked promising.

Then another shell hit the side of the prototype vehicle, also rebounded by the 80mm angled side armor, and embedded into the wall.

And it seemed that the fuse was damaged by the impact, as it did not explode.

As the prototype vehicle burst out of the intersection, it straightened itself and faced Prosen’s three Panzer IVs head-on with its invincible frontal armor.

Wang Zhong checked the distance with his overhead perspective, “320 meters, can we fire?”

"Yes. How did you measure the distance so quickly?”

I’m cheating.

Wang Zhong: “Target at 320 meters, fire!”

"Wait, adjusting the elevation! Okay! Fire!”

The gunner must have smashed something, Wang Zhong heard a burning sound behind his head, and he turned just in time to see a rocket ascend into the sky.

Then he was engulfed by the smoke produced by the rocket’s propellant.

He could only switch to overhead view, watching as that bright object soared into the sky, tracing an elegant arc towards the enemy-held Post Office Building.

The object crashed into the third-floor window of the building.

Nothing happened in the first second.

The next moment, a violent explosion engulfed the entire building.

From the overhead view, the shockwave spread like ripples, sweeping across the entire street in a second.

The scene resembled a nuclear explosion, minus the initial burst igniting combustible materials.

The shockwave destroyed all the windows on the street and blew away anything that could be blown away.

The three Panzer IVs parked in front of the Post Office Building were flipped over, one of them even losing its turret.

A huge mushroom cloud rose from the ground, morphing in the air from bright white to dark red and finally extinguishing completely into a cloud of gray smoke.

By then, Wang Zhong’s field of view was recovering, as the rocket’s propellant smoke had been dispersed by the explosion’s shockwave.

He had just switched back when he saw half a signboard from the Post Office Building stuck in front of the prototype vehicle, still swaying back and forth.

Through the radio, only the little boy who had just entered the tank exclaimed, “Wow.”

For a moment, the battlefield fell silent.

Even the gunfire several blocks away stopped, as everyone wondered what had happened.

Wang Zhong thought, should I issue a command now?

Just then, he saw a dusty person emerge from the building across from the Post Office, pistol raised high. “Charge! Ura!”

Then, like a video game spawning characters, a whole group of dusty people appeared, rifles with bayonets ready. “Ura!”

Stirred by the shouts, Wang Zhong heard a deafening “Ura” from behind, as a massive force of dusty troops emerged from around the corner, flooding towards the enemy like a tidal wave.

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