Cannon Fire Arc

Chapter 245: Chapter 36 "Gifts of Nature

The enemy pilot started speaking volubly as soon as he saw Wang Zhong's military rank, with saliva flying everywhere.

Wang Zhong: "Vasily!"

Vasily silenced the enemy with a heavy punch.

Then Vasily said something in Prussian, and the enemy curled up.

Wang Zhong asked, "What did you just say?"

"I told him he's going to be handed over to the Tribunal anyway, so I thought I'd acquaint him with it in advance," Vasily explained as he rubbed his fist.

Wang Zhong: "Okay. So what was he saying? I mean, when he first came in."

"He said that using our 'blasphemous' weapons for air defense is a war crime," Vasily answered.

Popov: "He said that? Then you don't need to add time scooping manure for that punch. That punch showed the will of Saint Andrew."

Coming from an atheist environment, Wang Zhong took a second to catch on: "Ah, he said using Divine Arrow for air defense is a war crime?"

"Yes," said Vasily.

Wang Zhong: "Why? Just for religious reasons?"

Vasily translated.

The Prussian pilot became agitated again and rattled off a bunch.

Wang Zhong looked at Vasily.

Vasily: "He says Divine Arrow attacks are hard to dodge in the air, especially during a dive. It's not fair."

Wang Zhong: "You attacked us without declaring war, a surprise attack, and you tore up the non-aggression pact we had. Is that fair?"

After Vasily translated, the Prussian hung his head.

Wang Zhong was surprised: "He actually hung his head?"

The Prussian pilot spoke up, and though Wang Zhong couldn't understand him, he could feel the other's remorse.

Vasily: "He says he's sorry about that. He also says that if they really believe they are the superior race, they shouldn't have resorted to surprise attacks and should have defeated their opponents fair and square."

Wang Zhong shook his head: "No, no, no, even if they had used a surprise attack, we would still win. We will surely win."

After Vasily translated this, the other side got agitated again and said a lot.

Vasily: "Uh, to summarize, he basically said that the Prussian military has superior technology and combat experience, and they've already inflicted heavy casualties on us, wiping out millions of our troops."

Wang Zhong stood up, walked to the observation window, looked outside, and saw that the wind was strong today; the smoke laid by the enemy had dispersed, allowing a clear view of the wreckage on the battlefield and the corpses of Prosen soldiers.

"Bring him over."

Vasily: "Kam!"

The Prussian pilot came over, trembling.

Wang Zhong handed him his binoculars: "Look for yourself. Look at the wreckage and corpses on the west bank."

This time, the pilot understood without needing Vasily's translation—the majority of human communication after all is conveyed through actions and facial expressions.

The Prussian pilot picked up the binoculars and surveyed the battlefield.

His expression grew more solemn.

Wang Zhong: "Ask him if he needs me to tell him about our losses."

After Vasily translated, the pilot put down the binoculars and shook his head.

Wang Zhong: "Then tell him, scenes like this will happen over and over. I personally have fought the Prussians multiple times, each time achieving a very eye-catching kill ratio. There will be more and more generals like me, and our troops will become more and more elite.

"You may currently have a huge advantage in the kill ratio along the entire front, but one day, it will fall back to one-to-one.

"Ante has vast lands, brave people, and you are doomed to not win this war."

With a proud tone, Vasily translated everything Wang Zhong had said to the Prussian pilot.

The pilot put down his binoculars and muttered a word: "Nyey!"

Wang Zhong understood this word—it meant "no," because before his transmigration he had seen an actor use it impressively in a movie, saying: "Nanna nanna!"

Wang Zhong: "He doesn't believe? It doesn't matter, whether he believes or not, things will develop this way. Prosen's defeat is inevitable."

After Vasily translated, the Prussian pilot turned, stared at Wang Zhong, and babbled a string of words, among which Wang Zhong faintly heard his own name.

Vasily: "He's asking if you are the defense expert, the White Knight General Rokossovsky?"

Wang Zhong: "I am. What about it?"

After Vasily had translated, the pilot stepped back to look Wang Zhong up and down.

Curiously, Wang Zhong asked: "Shouldn't you have been given my photo? How come you haven't seen me?"

Vasily had only translated half of it when the other began to speak at length.

Vasily: "He says the Air Force didn't distribute photos."

At that moment, Wang Zhong suddenly had a thought, turned and asked the soldier who had brought the pilot: "Where's his map case? Pilots always carry maps with positions of both enemies and allies, helpful for making an emergency landing in an area controlled by their side if they're shot down."

The soldier was shocked: "There's such a thing?"

The others were also astonished; Pavlov said, "That's new! But on second thought, it makes sense."

Wang Zhong thought it obviously made sense; that's how it was always done in the movies!

Red-tailed aircraft, seen it? The beauty of Memphis, watched it? And The Great Escape!

Wang Zhong: "The map won't just have the positions of friend and foe; it also will have the locations of where their own men parachuted and where enemy planes went down. Have a company from the reserves spread out and search the place where he crashed."

Wang Zhong paused and asked, "Did he try to escape when you captured him?"

The soldier replied, "He did."

Wang Zhong snapped his fingers, "That's right. He wanted to run, so it's impossible that he would have set fire to the map. That would be too obvious and would reveal his location. I guess he hid it in a tree hollow or buried it somewhere!"

At this moment, Popov stopped the staff officer who was about to deliver a message and said, "Have you forgotten about the Judges?"

A fully staffed regular division always has a contingent of Judges, who are responsible for overseeing the use of codebooks and internal counter-espionage operations.

Of course, they also interrogate prisoners of war.

Wang Zhong replied, "You're right. Let's have the Judge ask him kindly. He might just lead us to the map."

Vasily was so engrossed in the conversation that he didn't translate. The Prosen pilot looked back and forth at everyone.

Popov said, "Then I'll go call the Judge."

Wang Zhong said, "Wait a moment, first ask him; what if he's willing to talk? Vasily, ask him where the map is hidden."

Vasily asked, and the reply came immediately, "He said that when he parachuted, the bag with the map got torn, and he doesn't know where it fell."

Wang Zhong said, "Is that so? Then tell him that we are about to hand him over to the Judges of the Eastern Holy Church."

Vasily conveyed the message.

The other party shook his head repeatedly.

Vasily said, "He says it's no use who you hand him to; he really doesn't know where it fell."

Wang Zhong said, "Then tell him a story. There was once a historian who discovered a mummy."

Vasily was shocked, "A mummy? Isn't that something from Iggy Country? Does Ante even have such things?"

Wang Zhong replied, "Just translate, why bother with so many questions? The archaeologist tried every method and couldn't determine the age of the mummy, so he handed it over to the Tribunal. A day later, the Tribunal told the archaeologist that the mummy was five hundred years old.

"The archaeologist was shocked and asked the Tribunal how they knew. The Judge answered, 'He confessed.'"

Vasily struggled to contain his laughter and translated the story to the pilot.

The pilot looked utterly terrified but still shook his head.

Just then, two Judges entered the room. Wang Zhong gestured for them to proceed.

————

An hour later, a map case was placed in front of Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong asked, "Where was it found?"

The Judge replied, "In the woods, hidden under a cluster of fungi, damaging the mycelium so that no new mushrooms will grow there even after it rains."

Wang Zhong raised an eyebrow, "What are you talking about? Isn't this nature's generous gift?"

With that, he tossed the map case to Vasily, "See what's inside, musician."

Vasily, with a gloomy face, opened the map case and unfolded the map.

Everyone in the bunker crowded around to see the contents of the map.

Vasily said, "The Prosen are quite meticulous; they've marked the positions of their troops very well. We have two units in front... let me see, Asgard Knights divisions, the kind we've encountered before!

"There are also two divisions in the rear, and there's the emblem of a grenadier division! My God, the enemy has prepared such a thick force on our front!"

Wang Zhong cursed, "What are you panicking about? No matter how many troops he has, he's still got to come at us in waves!"

No sooner had his words fallen, the howl of artillery shells came from the sky.

The explosions soon followed from nearby.

The heavy artillery firepower of the army level mercilessly rained down upon Shostka city.

While the earth shook and the mountains trembled, Vasily, as if nothing was amiss, pulled out other documents from the map case and spread them out on the table.

Wang Zhong thought about going over to ask him what he had found, but the chandelier in the bunker suddenly fell and hit him on the head.

He shoved the chandelier aside and felt the lump that had formed.

"Suka!"

The shaking continued for almost half an hour before ceasing.

Wang Zhong, leaning against the wall, rose to his feet, dusting off his clothes while looking outside.

The enemy's second wave of attacks had begun.

"They're not using smoke bombs?" Wang Zhong was surprised when suddenly, smoke bombs landed on the former anti-tank gun positions.

But the anti-tank guns had already been relocated.

Especially the ZIS30; as soon as the enemy retreated, these were swiftly moved.

Pavlov also came to the observation window and observed the enemy's advancing formation, "It looks like they're applying pressure from two directions again, the ford and the bridgehead? Are they completely disregarding the other side of the river?"

The ford was to the north of the bridge, and to the south of the bridge, the river was wide and deep, suggesting the enemy had no intention of crossing there.

As another round of smoke was deployed, covering the east side of the bridge, the former position of the T34s.

Pavlov said, "Just as you've said."

Wang Zhong smiled, "Isn't it so."

At that moment, Vasily spoke up, "I think I know what the enemy commander in front of us is called now. His name is on this document, Siegfried Gilais. Then on this map, there's the initials of his name, right here."

Vasily showed the map to Wang Zhong, pointing at a spot, "Look, in this empty place, an initial. Don't you find that strange?"