Arc of Fire

Chapter 628: Chapter 70 Thanks for the Cake Sponsored by the Plathen Emperor

Wang Zhong emerged from the tunnel just as the first parachute bloomed in the sky.

"Looks like the drop was a little more accurate this time?” he asked Pavlov.

Actually, after switching to an overhead view, he could immediately tell that most of the airdropped supplies had drifted outside of the encirclement and landed in the Antean-controlled area.

But he still had to put on an act.

Pavlov: “I don’t know, anyway, the parachutes drifted at least 500 meters off course… is it 500 meters?”

He turned his head to ask a staff officer: “How far is the enemy from us now?”

"Last night, the enemy troops stationed at the auditorium surrendered to us,” the staff officer replied. “Currently, the closest enemy position is nine hundred and fifty meters away.”

Pavlov: “Well, the auditorium finally surrendered. I thought the enemy there would be the last to surrender.”

General Frederick—General inspected the auditorium himself, looked at the captured Red Flag, and even took a photo.

This distance was within Wang Zhong’s highlighting range, so he could see everything clearly. However, he was worried that killing this general would cause the enemy to flee.

After all, creating fake flags and such was all to keep the enemy’s Sixth Army Group from leaving, so Wang Zhong strictly ordered all units not to fire recklessly and not to kill the general.

Now that the Sixth Army Group was surrounded, the moment Frederick dared to appear within Wang Zhong’s highlight range, he would either be captured or killed, either way demoralizing the encircled enemy troops.

Unfortunately, General Frederick never entered Abawahan’s city center again.

At that moment, a parachute drifted directly over the tunnel exit, causing a large chunk of snow and ice to slide down and crash to the ground.

Wang Zhong’s guards immediately tensed up and surrounded him tightly.

"It’s just the snow sliding down,” Wang Zhong said.

After all, he had the highlight and knew there was no one with hostile intentions nearby.

But the guards still had stern faces: “We can’t take that risk!”

Pavlov then directed the soldiers guarding the gate: “Bring a tank over to stand on. Climb up and see what it is that’s so big. It doesn’t look like ammunition because there’s no cushioning equipment.”

Wang Zhong: “Would the enemy definitely use cushioning pads for airdropping ammunition?”

"Yes, there would definitely be cushioning pads, and even so, there’s still a risk of accidents after the ammunition lands. Furthermore, their shells and fuses are airdropped separately, and it seems the fuses are too light as they all drifted onto our positions, while only half of the shells landed in our area.”

After Pavlov finished speaking, Wang Zhong frowned, “Wouldn’t that allow the Prosen inside the encirclement to have too much gunpowder and create a lot of homemade explosives, causing trouble for us?”

"Don’t worry,” Pavlov spread his hands, “food is also light, so most of it was blown over our heads by the north wind, or flew past us and landed in the sea.”

Most parts of the Inland Sea don’t freeze in winter, so these supplies drifted into the sea to feed the fish.

Wang Zhong: “No wonder the fish caught in the Inland Sea have been so plump recently.”

At that moment, someone who climbed to the roof of the tunnel opened the airdropped package and lifted a cake: “General! It’s a cake, I can’t understand the Prosenese written on it!”

Pavlov: “Get a Prosenese prisoner to taste it, and have an interpreter identify what’s written on the cake.”

Wang Zhong: “Is it necessary to be so cautious? They don’t have the ability to airdrop with precision. If it happened to land on our own men and they ate poison and died, then who would dare to eat the food airdropped in the future?”

Pavlov: “Being a little bit cautious has no drawbacks, anyway, we have plenty of Prosenese prisoners.”

Quite a few prisoners indeed…

A few minutes later, a Prosenese major with a blue and swollen face was brought over. He looked at the cake in his hands with hesitation.

Wang Zhong: “Eat.”

The major looked at him confusedly, but since he had been captured a few days, he understood the word “eat” in Antenese.

Then, his expression turned incredibly pessimistic, as if this were the last cake he would ever eat in his life.

Although Wang Zhong didn’t understand Prosenese, he felt the major had a big misunderstanding about him.

At that moment, the major saw the actual cake.

His expression underwent a shocking transformation.

This made Wang Zhong curious about what was written on the cake.

The interpreter: “The cake reads, ‘Happy 47th Birthday to General William von Frederick.'”

Wang Zhong: “Ah? It’s our opponent’s birthday! Why didn’t you tell me?”

Pavlov: “Did this really need to be mentioned to you specifically? Besides, when we previously provided information about the enemy leader, it included his birthday. It’s not my fault if you didn’t read it.”

Wang Zhong: “Ah, look at this mess. The Prosen Emperor’s cake didn’t get delivered, and now we’ve cut it up for this major, this really is something.”

Saying this, Wang Zhong stepped forward, cut a piece of the cake with a knife, and put it into his mouth with a fork.

"Mmm,” he nodded lightly, “Although Prosen food has always been quite unappetizing, this cake isn’t bad. It’s almost up to the standard of their sausage and roasted knuckle! We can’t be without some gesture of our own. Messenger, tell the kitchen to bake a cake, and make it a big one!”

Pavlov looked at Wang Zhong, blinking: “What are you going to do? I can’t accept you wasting resources on this without a reason.”

Wang Zhong: “We need to wage psychological warfare now, and this is part of that psychological warfare. First, we have to send an official telegram using Prosen’s encryption method, but with the codebook from a week ago, to show that we haven’t cracked Prosen’s codes.”

Actually, they had been cracked, and the United Kingdom had been sharing the decrypted Prosen secret cables all along.

Pavlov: “We did indeed capture an Enigma Machine set up a week ago.”

To successfully decrypt a message using an Enigma Machine, one needs to know the initial gear positions of the machine on the sending side. These starting positions are the key to decryption, and Prosens generally change them every ten days, which aligns with the habit of their Armored Divisions reporting their combat readiness to the High Command every ten days.

(Every day’s combat situation was still reported up to the Army Group level and filed.)

Wang Zhong: “Use that to send the message. I believe, given the Prosen’s meticulous nature, they will definitely have a record of the initial positions of last week’s Enigma Machine.

"The wording of the telegram needs to be solemn, and the title should just be… just write His Majesty the Tsar’s name! It’s regarding the phone call I made to Olga.”

After hanging up the phone, Olga gave Tugenev a smile: “My dear brother, he wants me to draft a telegram in my name to congratulate General Frederick, the commander of the besieged Sixth Army Group.”

Tugenev: “Congratulate him for what?”

"His 47th birthday today.”

Tugenev lifted his chin and slowly lowered it: “Oh, I see! Is this part of the psychological warfare against the Sixth Army Group?”

"That’s correct,” Olga said. “What about Lady Melina the state dignitary? It would be better if she could help me polish it.”

Tugenev: “In what form shall we send it?”

"It seems they want to use the enemy’s codebook from last week to send it

"Enigma Machine, mm-hmm, smart. It doesn’t reveal that we’ve cracked the Enigma codes, while it intimidates the enemy.” Tugenev nodded, “Though this trick is a bit unscrupulous.”

Olga burst into loud laughter, clearly very fond of Rocossov’s approach.

Prosen Sixth Army Group Headquarters—located right in the center of the encirclement.

"General, the enemy is broadcasting using our codes. They’re using the initial settings from last week’s Enigma Machine,” said the Sixth Army Group Chief of Staff.

General William von Frederick had already lost a lot of weight, his once plump cheeks now looked “like those of real Junker Nobility.”

The true Junker Nobility, living on their impoverished East Prussian estates, would have to do a great deal of farm work each year and undergo military training, which indeed made it hard for them to gain weight.

However, such emaciated Junker nobility had almost completely vanished within the Empire.

General Frederick: “Is the translation finished?”

"Not yet, the telegram is still being sent.”

The General nodded, then asked, “How long will the diesel for the generator last?”

"We dispatched a suicide squad last night, and they managed to recover 100KG of diesel from the no man’s land between the two sides,” said the Chief of Staff gravely.

The General: “How many lives were sacrificed for this bit of diesel?”

"Seven men,” the Chief of Staff answered.

The General nodded.

Chief of Staff: “If we run out of diesel entirely, we can use hand-cranked power, but that voltage won’t be enough to maintain a high-power radio station and wireless. Receiving signals should be fine, but transmitting

At this moment, a messenger came in with a telegram: “Decoding complete! It’s a beautifully worded congratulatory message, wishing you a happy 47th birthday.”

General: “Damn it!”

The messenger: “The signature is Her Majesty Olga Nikolayevna.”

General: “Rocossov didn’t sign it himself?”

The messenger shrugged.

Then another messenger rushed in: “General! The Anteans are broadcasting on all wireless channels.”

General Frederick: “Bring me a wireless radio with batteries to Headquarters, I want to hear what Rocossov has to say.”

The radio was quickly brought in, and considerately, the headphones had been warmed by the fire, making them very warm.

The General put on the headphones, just in time to hear on the other end of the wireless: “Respectable General Frederick, it is with great regret that I, Rocossov, inform you that I have just eaten the cake sent by the Plathen Emperor for you.

"I’m sure the image of me eating the cake will appear on the front page of tomorrow’s Antean Daily. As a substitute, I had my chef prepare a tastier cake for you. I propose a temporary ceasefire today for all our troops, so that we can gather and bury the remains of fallen comrades on both sides, and so I can personally deliver the cake to you.

"If you disagree, we will send a suicide squad to place the cake in the May 5th Street garden, and we promise not to attack anyone retrieving the cake.

"Furthermore, considering the current state of your forces, we agree, based on humanitarian grounds, to accept your critically injured soldiers.

"Also, on humanitarian grounds, we will provide vodka and cigarettes for free, ensuring that every soldier gets their share

The General slammed the headphones onto the table: “Rocossov has gone too far!”

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