Arc of Fire

On the afternoon of August 28 at 1630 hours, the transport ship carrying the Expeditionary Army Headquarters entered Moha Port.

Wang Zhong stood on the deck, looking at the chaotic port, and asked Pavlov with confusion, "Aren’t the Navy’s destroyers only equipped with machine guns? How come these look like marks made by 100mm cannons?"

Pavlov was also bewildered, "I don’t know, maybe it was done by Whirlwind after landing? But if the enemy is still resisting, shouldn’t the transport ships avoid docking?"

Then the two top military leaders of the Expeditionary Force exchanged glances.

Yakov said, "It seems that the Whirlwind troops have already left the port. Are they attacking Moha City now?"

Wang Zhong replied, "According to the plan, yes."

He looked toward the city, listening to the gunfire in the air.

Then he switched his perspective because he hadn’t established direct contact with units such as the Naval Infantry 393rd Brigade. From an overhead view, he could only see terrain and the "troop tags" of the combat units—the northern part of Moha City was already dominated by a huge Naval Infantry insignia, and the Ante Army Infantry’s insignia was slightly smaller but also covered a large area.

These two large insignias, along with the smaller emblems of the Tank Destroyer units, seemed to indicate that Whirlwind had entered the city to support the infantry in capturing the urban area.

The enemy forces in the southern part of the city were designated as Barlas Imperial Guards Fifth Infantry Division.

Wang Zhong was puzzled, unable to understand how his elite Tank Destroyer units and elite Naval Infantry 393rd Brigade were struggling to overtake the poorly reported Barlas forces?

That doesn’t make sense.

He switched back to his physical perspective and asked Pavlov, "Has the United Kingdom provided any new intelligence? Why is this Fifth Division of the Imperial Guard fighting so evenly matched with our landing forces?"

Pavlov still hadn’t realized something was amiss, he answered, "That’s already not bad, considering it’s a brigade plus a newly trained infantry division full of green troops facing a mechanized infantry division. It’s normal for them to be at a disadvantage.

"They’ve at least trained for quite some time."

Wang Zhong replied, "No, that’s not right. Immediately contact the 393rd Brigade via field telephone to find out what’s going on!"

Pavlov quickly turned to summon the communication staff officer.

Soon, the communication staff officer handed the field telephone to Wang Zhong, "Brigadier Aromeyev of the 393rd Brigade is on the line."

Wang Zhong took the field telephone and switched perspective again. The icons of the 393rd Brigade indeed changed into specific individuals, showing them fighting room by room against the enemy.

"Aromeyev, what’s going on? The Federation’s intelligence indicates that the Imperial Guard, with regular training and morale, is also having a tough fight?" Wang Zhong immediately questioned.

"They are not the Imperial Guard, not even Barlasians. They are Prosens dressed in Imperial Guard uniforms!" The voice of Aromeyev came through the handset, "Repeat, Prosens!"

Wang Zhong hurriedly looked at the enemy, trying to confirm this with his own highlight capability. Then he found that he couldn’t confirm as the highlighted enemy did not stand out.

He asked, "Aromeyev, where is your headquarters?"

As he spoke, he had already located Aromeyev: The Brigadier was on a water tower, surrounded by the capable command team of the 393rd Brigade.

Water tower, ah, how nostalgic.

Wang Zhong momentarily recalled the water tower in Upper Penie village. Maybe after the war, an enemy statue would be erected on the water tower.

Aromeyev answered, "I’m on the water tower southwest of the port. Do you want to come over?"

Wang Zhong replied, "Of course, I’ll be right there, over and out."

He handed the field telephone back to the communications staff officer, and told Pavlov, "They are Prosens! Damn it, they are wearing Barlasian uniforms, that’s why the Naval Infantry is having such a back and forth fight with them!"

Pavlov squinted his eyes, "No wonder you’re so excited, it turns out there are Prosens to kill."

No, what exactly do you think of me?

At this moment, Popov came out of the cabin looking pale, "Damn, have we docked?"

Wang Zhong pointed to the sailor who was throwing mooring ropes over the side of the ship, "The sailor is performing the final step of docking."

"Finally over," Popov exhaled deeply, "This two-day journey has been more uncomfortable than the past year."

Wang Zhong then told Yakov, "You go ashore first and find a jeep."

Popov asked, "What? Are you going to the front line personally again? It’s just indigenous Barlasians, there’s no need for that, right?"

"They are Prosens, Prosens wearing Barlasian uniforms are fighting us."

Popov suddenly became animated, "What? This violates international law! These Prosens won’t enjoy the protections of the Geneva Conventions if we capture them!"

Wang Zhong replied, "Clearly, they don’t care about that. Anyway, I’m going to personally command the 393rd Brigade, Pavlov, you manage the overall situation, and get the Expeditionary Force ashore as quickly as possible. Popov, you... you rest first!"

As he finished speaking, there was a commotion at the cargo hold entrance; Wang Zhong turned his head and saw Bucephalus running onto the deck. Upon seeing Wang Zhong, it grimaced and ran over.

The cavalryman also rushed onto the deck, chasing the horse while shouting, "The moment I opened the door, this thing bolted out! Grab it!"

Bucephalus rushed up to Wang Zhong, attempting to bite off his big cap with its mouth.

Wang Zhong, "Enough! Behave yourself!"

Bucephalus did not listen at all, it bit Wang Zhong’s cap, shook its head, and tossed the cap like a frisbee.

Then it started to gnaw at Wang Zhong’s hair.

Pavlov, "I reckon you’ve spoiled this horse?"

Wang Zhong, "Then let’s switch to a ’Willys Jeep’ that runs on gasoline!"

At that moment, witnessing everything, Amelia asked, "Is there anything special about this horse? Why is it so refractory? Could it be... it’s a Druid?"

Wang Zhong shook his head, "No, no, no, Druids in our country can only summon thick fogs, and that also depends on the weather, so they cannot transform into one. Besides, if this were a Druid, I definitely wouldn’t let it transform into a horse; having it turn into a wolf rider would be much better."

As he spoke, he pushed Bucephalus away.

Just then, Yakov returned, "The Jeep is ready!"

Wang Zhong, "Good, I’ll be right there."

The water tower, where Aromeyev was, was easy to find, especially with someone like Wang Zhong, who was a ’cheat code’ himself, leading the way; the Jeep soon stopped next to the ladder of the water tower.

The naval infantrymen assembled beneath the water tower saluted Wang Zhong in unison.

Wang Zhong lifted his hand and swiftly scurried up the stairs, reaching the top in no time.

Now, the entire naval infantry brigade was considered under Wang Zhong’s direct command, and the whole area was in plain view.

Sadly, the naval infantry’s combat was so fierce that they had already expelled the enemy from within 2.5 kilometers of Wang Zhong’s view.

Aromeyev saluted Wang Zhong, "General! We have done our best, but the enemy is incredibly determined; we’ve sustained heavy losses!"

Wang Zhong, "How many have we lost by now?"

"There’s no accurate count yet, but some platoons have lost more than half. However, we’ve also killed quite a few enemies; the papers and family letters on them were all in Prosen language! This is definitely the Prosen Army!"

Wang Zhong raised his binoculars.

At that point, he suddenly noticed that two naval infantrymen were escorting five or six prisoners towards the water tower.

Although they were still far away, they had already entered the area lit by Wang Zhong, and these enemies were marked with red borders with names and affiliations appearing above their heads.

The fighting on the front lines and the infantry had landed first from the Vulture Legion of the Empire of Prosen.

Wang Zhong was surprised; the Vulture Legion was a force sent by Sturmtiger during the Banya civil war on Earth. In this dimension, it had somehow become the codename for Barlas intervention forces!

Damn, Wang Zhong thought, MI6 of the United Kingdom isn’t as formidable as imagined. On reflection, the founder and leader of MI6 was someone who devoted his entire life to causing mischief. Their messing things up was not so surprising?

At this moment, Wang Zhong saw a Whirlwind tank destroyer supported by naval infantry turning the street corner and opening fire on a building resisting the Prosens.

Most buildings in the city didn’t have reinforced concrete exteriors, so when struck by the 100mm cannon, the entire building was enveloped in smoke.

Wang Zhong, from a bird’s-eye view, wasn’t completely obstructed and could clearly see half of the building collapse as Prosens dragging machine guns ran out from the back door, running for their lives.

It seemed the machine gunner had stopped shooting and started changing positions the moment the Whirlwind appeared, else he wouldn’t have escaped unscathed.

The Whirlwind knocked down a house and fired again, this time targeting shops on the south side of the street—another cannon shot caused half of the two-story building to collapse. A surviving Prosen limping out from the back door staggered towards his comrades.

The Whirlwind continued firing, seemingly relentless in its effort to destroy the building completely.

Wang Zhong, "It’s a pity, our Whirlwind isn’t equipped with white phosphorus shells or napalm." Read latest chapters at empire

He switched his view and saw Aromeyev looking perplexed, "What? Whirlwind? Indeed, we’re closely coordinating with the Whirlwind tank destroyers, but where did you see a Whirlwind?"

All the Whirlwinds had indeed been deployed to the city to fire high-explosive shells.

Wang Zhong, "I was just musing about not having been able to equip new shells for the Whirlwind. If we had white phosphorus shells, we could fire them at the windows of buildings, igniting the people’s skin and clothing inside; they would rush out of the rooms in unbearable pain, begging us to grant them a peaceful death."

"Oh, the Allied Forces have such things?" said Aromeyev.

At that moment, an army officer entered the courtyard of the water tower and called out, "Report! I’ve come to inform you, General, that the 1st Battalion of the 51st Tank Army has just completed their unloading."

Wang Zhong, "Tell Pavlov to organize the dispersed units into a temporary combat group and push towards the city. The naval infantry needs our support."

"Understood!"

After the officer had left, Aromeyev said, "We can defeat the enemy, we don’t need additional support."

Wang Zhong patted his shoulder, "I know, but we can’t afford to delay. We don’t know how many Prosen forces are still inside Barlas; we need to quickly capture Moha and advance deeper."

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