Cannon Fire Arc-Chapter 654 - 96 The Touchstone

Chapter 654: Chapter 96 The Touchstone

The two-hour-long artillery barrage had not yet ended, and the rocket artillery’s coverage followed closely behind.

The Eleventh Army Group of Prosen had just received a large number of new recruits, and this sudden, fierce firepower stunned half of them. Some outright collapsed, clutching their heads and screaming, until they were silenced by a slap from an experienced non-com from their squad.

As for the other half of the recruits, they were already dead in the barrage.

Under such intense fire, many veterans had perished, let alone the new recruits.

By the time the shelling finally ceased, the non-coms began to drag up the huddled recruits one by one, “Get into position, you pigs! Remember your training! The Anteans are coming!”

No sooner had the recruits been cajoled and threatened into their positions than the Anteans arrived.

At least thirty T34 tanks, along with three lines of skirmishers pressing toward the city—indeed, there were KV1 tanks mixed among the T34s, but the Prosens had not recognized them.

Sergeant Hu Le was in charge of leading an anti-tank hand grenade team, armed with the Empire’s latest anti-tank weapon: magnetic hand grenades.

However, because these devices were extremely unwieldy to use, the soldiers referred to them mockingly as mallets, implying that using them against tanks was as effective as using an actual mallet.

There was even a joke: at least with a mallet, you could scratch the paint off an Antean tank, but with magnetic grenades, you couldn’t manage even that, as the heavy contraption made it impossible to move fast enough to reach a tank’s blind spots.

Sergeant Hu Ke placed two anti-tank mallets next to his position and also pulled out a few captured Antean incendiary bombs.

He looked at the sole new recruit in the group and said, “I’ve taught you how to use incendiary bombs, right? Don’t be scared, they’re very easy to use. The greatest feature of Antean equipment is simplicity! Just pull the cord, throw it on the tank’s radiator grille, and you can force the tank operators to bail out!”

The recruit, puzzled, asked, “Then why don’t we use these simple and reliable things? Why do we have to wield these deadly heavy mallets?”

Sergeant Hu Ke replied, “Recruit, remember, don’t talk nonsense like that, especially not in front of the Constitutional Guards. Our weapons are precise and effective, as long as you use them strictly according to the combat manual written by people who’ve never seen the battlefield, they will surely be effective!”

The recruit looked confused, “I can’t tell if you’re praising or criticizing…”

“I’m praising,” Sergeant Hu Ke said decisively.

The others in the group chimed in, “Yes, he’s praising.”

“Our anti-tank mallets are so wonderful to use! And the new anti-magnetic paint on our tanks looks so cool!”

The recruit looked back and forth at his seniors.

At that moment, his attention was suddenly drawn to something else.

Amidst the roar of engines, a song could be faintly heard.

No, it was not just a song, but the Antean skirmishers behind the tanks singing in unison.

The recruit asked, “What are they singing?”

“I don’t know,” Sergeant Hu Ke shook his head. “I’ve never seen Anteans singing while charging. This is the first time.”

The recruit then asked, “Why are the Antean Infantry all wearing capes, like their cavalry?”

With a grim face, Sergeant Hu Ke replied, “That’s their Guards units.”

“Like the Tsar’s Imperial Guard?” the recruit continued to press, as if determined to get to the bottom of it.

Another veteran explained, “It’s a title of honor. Units that distinguish themselves in battle are awarded the title of Guards along with a new number, and everyone gets the cape you see, as well as better weapons like semi-automatic rifles and the ‘Scale Weight Launcher’.”

The recruit asked, “Scale Weight Launcher?”

“Yes, a silent rifle especially suitable for night combat. In the dead of night, you can’t hear a sound, and just as a breeze passes, you’re down. The bullet will shatter your chest, making you feel no pain whatsoever!” As he spoke, the old soldier suddenly let out a loud roar, “Awooo!”

The recruit jumped, and his grip on the anti-tank mallets loosened, causing them to drop to the ground.

Unsurprisingly, he ended up dropping one on his own foot.

Sergeant Hu Ke said, “How are you? Quickly take off your boot and check it out, our military branch needs to move fast, you can’t fight tanks with an injured foot!”

“I’m fine!” the recruit claimed.

“Take off his boots!” Sergeant Hu Ke ordered. “A man with a foot injury can’t join our assault team!”

So, two veterans flanked the recruit and helped to remove his boots.

Sure enough, the recruit’s foot had swollen a bit, looking ready to burst.

Sergeant Hu Ke said, “Get someone to take him to the field hospital, or he can volunteer as a machine gunner, in charge of a machine gun.”

The recruit protested, “I can still fight!”

But the obedient veterans had already grabbed the recruit’s arms with vice-like grips, leading him away from the shelter.

Sergeant Hu Ke, watching the two depart, sighed, “One day you’ll thank me, kid.”

As soon as the words were spoken, the advancing Ante tanks began to fire, most likely for intimidation. To urgently reposition in response to such fire would play right into the Anteans’ hands.

“Hold steady!” Although there were no new soldiers in the squad, Sergeant Huck was still constantly boosting morale, reminding everyone to remain calm.

At this moment, the Ante tanks that were approaching continued to fire, launching their main cannons at anything that looked like a bunker into the sky.

However, the Anteans guessed wrong several times and did not hit the real bunker.

At this point, the Antean skirmish line passed the 300-meter marker, and the Prosen machine gun fire started immediately.

The sound of the new machine guns during strafing was like tearing canvas, and even the most seasoned Guards of the Anteans had to be wary of the dense firepower.

So, the skirmish line behind the tanks immediately dropped to the ground.

Then, the tanks fired.

The machine gun emplacement closest to Huck was silenced right away.

Huck frowned and cursed, “The enemy tanks are locating our machine gun emplacements much faster than before! It used to take them at least five minutes to find out where our fire was coming from!”

Another tank fired, and hit bunker was suddenly enveloped in white smoke. Huck thought it was a smoke bomb and figured our tactics had been learned by the Anteans, but the next moment he saw the bunker door open and people, smoking all over, running out.

These people were rolling on the ground, but no matter how much they rolled, their bodies still emitted fizzing smoke, as if their flesh was being vaporized.

The screams could be heard clearly even from this distance.

Huck cursed, “Another new weapon! Why do the Anteans always come up with new weapons!”

Actually, the Federation’s white phosphorus shells had been developed for some time, but only recently had been supplied to the Anteans.

More and more white smoke rose from the positions, and whenever there was a puff of white smoke, there were bound to be people screaming and rushing out from it, rolling on the ground, yet the smoke still fizzed and devoured their bodies.

The horrific scene made Sergeant Huck shudder.

He whispered low, “God, what on earth are the Anteans using now!”

No sooner had he spoken than a tank belched long flames, shooting them into the bunker from the firing port. Then the bunker door opened, and the machine gunner, ablaze, desperately rolled on the ground.

Sergeant Huck’s face turned ashen, “It looks like this time, Rocossov is determined to win, and that’s bad, truly bad!”

————

At 1300 hours on the 13th, the Abawahan Front Army Headquarters.

Pavlov threw a report onto the desk in front of Wang Zhong, “We have taken the outer positions of Prinka and are now making progress into the urban area. In accordance with the General’s intent, we haven’t blocked the enemy’s escape route; they can escape from the city’s west side at any time.”

Wang Zhong picked up the report, briefly scanned it, hastily signed it, and then tossed the clipboard holding the report back to Pavlov.

Pavlov handed the clipboard to a staff officer waiting behind him.

Wang Zhong resumed the previous topic, “We don’t know if the defending commander has the courage to flee; maybe they think it’s good enough to be a defeated general right here. With the current supply situation in Prosen, they might eat better in our POW camps than in the Prosen military.”

Popov said, “Don’t you know? During our nearly a week of wild pursuit, our soldiers seized a lot of Prosen supplies, and even some of the Prosen supply convoys surrended outright unawares.

“Currently, our soldiers and officers’ evaluation of Prosen military food supplies is — ‘swill,’ and the coffee that came with the supplies has earned the nickname ‘mud.’”

Wang Zhong laughed, “They deserve it!”

As his words ended, everyone in the room wore a smile.

After that, two hours passed, and one of the communication staff rushed over and said loudly, “Report! Our forces have occupied Prinka!”

Wang Zhong clenched his fist, “Excellent! Come on, guys, this is a good start, let’s continue to unravel and wipe out the Eleventh Army Group!”

This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom.

————

Xiplin received the report almost at the same time as Rocossov.

He furrowed his brow and asked the communications chief, “Is this message accurate? Who reported this?”

Communications chief, “It was the Division Commander of the Armored Division preparing to launch a counterattack. After hearing something off on the radio, he stopped the retreating soldiers and interrogated them, finally confirming it.”

He sighed, “We spent a long time fortifying Prinka. Before we started collapsing like a house of cards, the mobile forces stationed there began to build fortifications.”

Xiplin stopped, paced back and forth in the room for a few rounds before continuing, “A city fortified like this, and it’s fallen in less than a day, looks like we need to reassess the strength of the Rocossov-led Abawahan Front Army under him.”

Chief of Staff, “Before it was captured, the corps commander of the 20th Infantry and the defenders of Prinka spoke on the phone, and at that time, the corps commander believed that Prinka could hold out for at least 48 hours. It seems that the enemy moves faster than we thought.”

Xiplin shook his head, “After this attack, Rocossov is no longer just a general good at defense. We’re his proving ground.”