Arc of Fire

August 6, Wang Zhong at the Equipment Committee’s desk, saw the daily paper from the Empire of Prosen delivered by the intelligence department.

The front-page headline featured a picture of Admiral Erwin gazing at the Shallow Draft Gunboat decorated with the Prosen and navy flags.

The photograph’s resolution was very low this age, compounded by the printing quality of the newspaper, making it difficult to discern the extent of damage to the gunboat.

Wang Zhong studied the image for a long time but could not figure it out, so he shouted, "Vasily, come translate this... oh..."

Vasily had gone to school.

So he changed his request and called his chief secretary and national dignitary Gabriel, "Uliyanovna, find someone who understands Prosenese!"

Soon, a female clerk who understood Prosenese was summoned to Wang Zhong’s office.

The clerk looked very nervous, continuously adjusting her clothes and hair as she entered the room.

Wang Zhong handed her the newspaper: "Translate the front-page headline."

Wang Zhong: "Translate the front-page headline."

"Ah, oh, okay." The clerk bowed her head and began to translate.

Wang Zhong’s chief secretary, Aunt Gabriel, watched the clerk with a stern gaze, clearly ready to rebuke her for any presumptuous behavior.

The clerk: "The glorious Prosen Army, with courage and intelligence, annihilated the insuperable inland fleet of the United Kingdom and inflicted heavy losses on the accompanying ground troops.

"Admiral Erwin Jonas Eugen Rommel ingeniously leveraged the enemy’s rigid thinking, pretending to withdraw all forces—those were actually motorcycles dragging branches.

"The main force of the African Legion was ambushed on the floodplain by the riverbank, ambushed the fleet of the United Kingdom, destroyed the escort ships, and boarded the Shallow Draft Gunboats..."

Wang Zhong furrowed his brows, perplexed as to why this tactic seemed familiar, as if he might use it himself. Was this Erwin learning from me?

The clerk continued translating, but Wang Zhong no longer cared about the front-page content—after all, most of it was just boasting. He walked to the globe and located Mamluk.

If Alexandria were indeed occupied by Prosen, the Royal Navy would lose its most crucial naval base and might have to retreat to Maoti Island.

The support facilities on the island were not very good and might not sustain the entire fleet. Moreover, the supplies stored on Maoti Island were not abundant.

The worst-case scenario was the Royal Navy completely withdrawing from the Aegean Sea, retreating directly to Gibraltar.

That would give Prosen complete control over the canal, allowing their ships to pass through and enter the Bahara Ocean.

Of course, the Royal Navy should not be weak enough to let Prosen transport materials and troops to Balas by sea.

The disconnection of the canal route would not spell immediate death for the United Kingdom; in fact, with the diminishing air raids from the Prosen Air Force, domestic industry in Conedian where most industrial production took place was gradually recovering.

The industrial chain of the United Kingdom currently did not rely heavily on Bahara. Iron ore came from Oslya, coal was supplied by the Federation, and a lot of it was refined into steel in Conedian, then turned into industrial finished products.

Bahara currently mainly provided personnel and tea.

Wang Zhong stared at the globe and pondered for a while, feeling that even if Mamluk were taken by Prosen, it wouldn’t cause a fundamental change in the overall war situation.

But the progress on the side of the Allies would be slower, which might allow him to completely dismantle Prosen before the Allies could open a second front. РÁ𐌽o͍ꞖÊṩ

Wang Zhong did not realize that his current strategizing greatly resembled the times before he crossed over when he played "Hearts of Iron IV", except now he truly was a general whose decisions could determine the lives of tens of thousands, and those under his command were no longer just strings of zeros and ones.

At that moment, the clerk finally finished reading the front-page headline and looked up at Wang Zhong, "General, I’ve finished. Should I read the next one?"

Wang Zhong shook his head, "No, that’s not necessary, you may go back to work."

The clerk’s expression immediately filled with dejection and disappointment.

Wang Zhong didn’t notice, as he was engrossed in envisioning how to deploy his troops on the globe.

That was more interesting.

Gabriel gestured to hurry the clerk out.

The girl reluctantly left the room.

Gabriel: "General, you haven’t looked at today’s documents yet."

Wang Zhong suddenly snapped out of his fantasy, returning to the cold reality.

"When I go off to war, the committee seems to run just fine. Do I really need to approve these documents?" he asked.

Gabriel pushed up her reading glasses, "Of course."

Wang Zhong had no choice but to sit at his desk and start reviewing the documents./filepath> The first document was the requirements for urban siege assault guns proposed by Wang Zhong after his return.

The committee’s clerks had transformed Wang Zhong’s verbally stated requirements into detailed design specifications.

Wang Zhong quickly skimmed through the document, shaking his head, "No, no, no, this specification’s mobility is too good, but we don’t need it to be very fast nor do we need it to have long-range mobility. The way I envisioned this thing, it’s supposed to be transported by train to the front lines.

"Its own power only needs to cover the segment from the station to the front line. Understand? We sacrificed mobility and firing rate for a single shot’s incredible destructive power and robust protection that can move freely through cities."

He finished speaking and looked up, seeing Gabriel’s stern, unmoved face.

Wang Zhong, "Did you hear what I just said?"

"I will convey this to those who set the design parameters, or you can annotate these comments on the document," the state lady said.

Wang Zhong held his forehead—Gabriel doesn’t understand military matters, what’s the use of talking to her.

So he picked up a pen, drew a line across the speed index, and added comments next to it.

Damn, it used to be Vasily who wrote these comments!

After finishing this document, Wang Zhong opened the next one and found it contained the heavy breakthrough tank design requirements he had proposed after returning from the frontline.

This actually closely matched Wang Zhong’s expectations, the proposed technical specifications were very close to the Earth’s IS3 heavy tank.

It’s just unclear what the actual thing would turn out to be. Although Wang Zhong recognized the IS3, he couldn’t draw the design himself and had to wait for the designers to come up with something rough, which he could then alter based on his memory.

After signing off on the second document, Wang Zhong flipped open the third document.

"Design Specifications for a 30-ton Medium Tank with an Egg-shaped Turret"

This was it! With Ante’s current industrial level, they probably couldn’t produce a real T54, but with the Federation’s aid in machine tools arriving next year and the improvement in factory workers’ skills, there was still hope.

Of course, he couldn’t put all his bets on this one. He needed a more secure plan to raise the tank’s weight to the 40-ton class and create a new tank comparable to the Leopard.

Wang Zhong made slight adjustments to the specifications for the egg-shaped turret tank, then signed off his approval.

Then, he stopped reviewing the documents and said to Gabriel, "Call the old principal up, I need to submit a new requirement proposal."

Gabriel, "You should finish reviewing the documents first, who knows how long you two will talk."

Wang Zhong thought it over and agreed, nodding, "Alright then."

As Rocossov and his subordinates discussed the new tank design specifications, on the outskirts of Alexandria.

Admiral Erwin stood on a hill, observing the military port right before his eyes through binoculars.

The fleet of the United Kingdom had left its station and was bombarding the Prosen army; the fierce firepower of the battleships was indeed incomparable to that of a shallow draft gunboat.

This vicious firepower had kept Erwin’s African Legion immobile for two days straight.

Today, the Air Force had promised to deliver a powerful attack to deter the United Kingdom’s fleet and force their withdrawal from Alexandria.

However, the time the Air Force had promised had passed by an hour, and the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom was still unleashing fire on the shore, with no signs of stopping.

Just as Erwin was about to give up, a nearby artillery spotter shouted, "Planes! Our planes!"

Erwin, who had just put down his binoculars, immediately resumed his observation stance.

He saw a formation of Stukas coming from the north. Higher up were numerous heavy bombers, but Erwin didn’t see the legendary planes carrying secret weapons.

The Stukas began to dive, and amidst their screeching, huge columns of water started to rise around the United Kingdom’s naval ships.

The enemy’s bombardment squad fell into chaos, with each ship frantically trying to dodge the dive bombers’ attacks.

Simultaneously, the heavy bombers began attacking the port facilities.

Erwin cursed, "Damn, they bombed the materials piled at the port too! We were counting on those supplies for food! Damn it! They should use the secret weapons to drive away the Royal Navy instead of bombing my supplies!"

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Just then, Erwin suddenly noticed two medium bombers following behind the bomber formation entering the scene.

He saw one of them drop a shiny object, initially thinking it was a reflection, but then realized it wasn’t—it seemed to have lights of its own, flashing in the sky.

Erwin vaguely remembered something from the Imperial Academy of Sciences about a remote-controlled bomb, the Fritz X something—was that it?

Erwin watched the Fritz X fly straight toward the Royal Navy’s battleship.

He began to pray, praying that this bomb would hit its target!

At the critical moment, the big fellow struck the middle of the battleship, immediately penetrating the structure near the smokestack, creating a terrifyingly large hole.

The next moment, nothing happened.

Erwin frowned deeply.

Was it a dud? What sort of secret weapon was this, completely useless?

In the blink of an eye, the middle deck of the battleship bulged upwards!

The next moment, a massive explosion occurred, the orange flames burst through the deck, shooting into the sky, forming a huge mushroom cloud—

The shockwave swept through the entire port before the sound wave, shattering all the glass in the City of Alexandria.

Then, a deafening boom almost tore Erwin’s ears apart!

The first successful attack of the remote-controlled bomb had been achieved!

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