Cannon Fire Arc

August 29th, Moha City, 0400 hours.

Wang Zhong rose earlier than usual and saw Nelly sitting on a stool, asleep against the table.

In Wang Zhong's memory, Nelly was always awake, tirelessly working. Therefore, the sight of her sleeping face now was entirely novel for him.

After staring at her face for a few seconds, Wang Zhong suddenly felt a surge of pity and thought that the hardworking Nelly deserved a good rest.

Just then, a gust of wind suddenly poured through the tent's cross-shaped opening, causing Wang Zhong to sneeze.

Nelly didn't wake up, continuing to slumber against the table with steady breathing.

Wang Zhong picked up a blanket from his camp bed and covered her with it. However, before he could turn around, the blanket slid off Nelly and landed on the not-so-clean ground.

"Tsck." Wang Zhong picked up the blanket, pondered for a moment, and decided to lift Nelly onto the camp bed. That way, she could be properly covered and have a more peaceful sleep.

The mornings in Moha were quite cold. Sleeping like this against the table, she was not only at risk of catching a cold but also liable to get a stiff neck.

Having made up his mind, Wang Zhong placed the blanket at the end of the camp bed and, in a standard princess-carry pose, lifted Nelly up—

But before he could step toward the camp bed, Nelly opened her eyes.

Wang Zhong was taken aback, "Uh, good morning."

Nelly rubbed her eyes, yawned deeply, and then said in a calm tone, "Put me down."

Wang Zhong silently set her down, "Sorry, I wanted to move you to the camp bed so the blanket wouldn't slip off, right, so it wouldn't slip! I was just covering you when it slid!"

Fortunately, the word "slid" in Antenese didn't have any strange connotations, so Wang Zhong's explanation seemed relatively reasonable.

Nelly: "Mm, I know."

After saying that, she tidied her clothes and began to fold Wang Zhong's camp bed.

Wang Zhong stood to the side, watching Nelly with a puzzled expression. Was it really not a big deal that he had princess-carried Nelly while she was asleep?

Nelly suddenly stopped and looked at Wang Zhong: "What are you dawdling for? Your clothes are over there. Get dressed and hurry to the Headquarters tent."

"Oh, right." Wang Zhong quickly donned his admiral's attire and rushed out of the tent, heading straight for Headquarters.

As soon as Pavlov saw Wang Zhong enter the Headquarters tent, he announced loudly, "We've figured out how the Prosens fooled MI6."

Wang Zhong: "How did they fool them?"

Pavlov: "Those Prosens were originally stationed in a fishing village on the western side of the city by the sea, a place far from the transportation lines and without a deep-water port, so it was basically off the beaten path.

"Six years after the Prosens arrived, they built barracks and training grounds there, and the villagers were all relocated."

Wang Zhong: "Then what?"

Pavlov: "After the Balas royal family realized we were planning to overthrow them, they had these Prosens switch places with the original Fifth Division of the Imperial Guard stationed here. MI6 thought it was a routine rotation, which is a common practice for the Balas royal family, to prevent any unit from staying in one place too long.

"And then we encountered them."

Wang Zhong: "How could such a crude plan escape the scrutiny of MI6 and The Church Tribunal?"

Popov: "To be fair, since the year the Tribunal started expanding from Prosen, they focused on Prosens heavily. Balas was just a minor country, so it's normal they weren't noticed. Plus... the Tribunal probably assumed MI6 was keeping an eye out."

Amelia: "Maybe MI6 thought the same, after all, Moha is closer to you, and you were the lead in the landings, so naturally, you should be responsible for the reconnaissance before the landings..."

Wang Zhong: "Alright, let's not dwell on that. How many Prosens did we annihilate yesterday?"

Pavlov: "We wiped out two Prosen regiments, captured two thousand prisoners, and took in more than two thousand wounded."

Wang Zhong: "The Naval Infantry performed quite well, add one more Venus commendation slot for them, no, make that three!"

Pavlov: "Understood. Additionally, last night we also killed over a thousand Balas soldiers, who were basically used as cannon fodder by the Prosens to be sent to their deaths.

"After obtaining information about their original positions from the Prosens, I dispatched an Armored Troops unit to go west along the beach and look for the real Fifth Division of the Imperial Guard that had switched with the Prosens. Just now, they reported that the barracks are deserted, the Balas Fifth Division fled with their weapons after learning of the Prosens' defeat."

After Pavlov finished speaking, Yakov was overjoyed, "That's great, the enemy scattered in fear because of us!"

Wang Zhong shook his head solemnly, "No, the enemy fleeing in an organized manner with weapons is not called scattering."

Yakov: "Uh... I misspoke. Don't make me clean the latrines again!"

Wang Zhong didn't respond but turned to look at Amelia, "We need aerial reconnaissance to confirm the positions of the fleeing enemy. Miss Emilia, is it appropriate for you to continue staying here with the Air Force? Wouldn't it be better for you to go to the airfield and take to the skies yourself to help us locate the enemy?"

Miss Amelia saluted Wang Zhong, "Report, the reason I haven't departed is that my fighter aircraft is expected to relocate here at noon today. I haven't received training to pilot a Yak or a P47, and the United Kingdom, to prevent me from being shot down by the enemy while piloting an unfamiliar aircraft, has forbidden me from taking off in anything other than a Spitfire."

Wang Zhong said, "Alright, Pavlov, order the airport to dispatch someone, anyone, for reconnaissance immediately."

At that moment, Yakov suddenly interrupted the conversation, "Wait a moment, didn't a local tribal leader come to find us yesterday? What was his name?"

"Bahram," Wang Zhong replied offhandedly.

"Yes, yes, Bahram. Why not let the local tribes help with the reconnaissance? They know the terrain, and even if this 5th Division is hiding, the locals should be able to find them!" Yakov said excitedly.

Amelia agreed, "Indeed. Aerial reconnaissance isn't very useful against those skilled in camouflage. Sometimes even a cloak of the same color as the environment can shield from an aviator's line of sight."

Wang Zhong said, "That's doable. As for the Balas unit, just let the armored detachment sent to the west continue to chase them. Our main objective is still to head south as quickly as possible. The next choke point is the Valley Bridge in Fenny Valley. When can our troops depart?"

Pavlov replied, "The vanguard of the 51st Tank Army can depart this noon; I've reinforced this tank brigade with a half regiment of infantrymen, each T34 carrying an infantry squad with it."

"Very good. It's our turn to race against time now; we must move quickly," Wang Zhong said before swiftly changing the subject, "When do we move out ourselves?"

"We can't advance that fast; otherwise, all our units will be at a loss where to dispatch messengers if communication gets cut off." Pavlov sighed, "You're already an admiral, rounding up, you're practically a Front Army Commander, you should be getting used to your headquarters being stationary for long periods. Once you become Front Army Commander, do you expect your headquarters to keep moving with the advancing troops?"

In this era, there wasn't the convenience of modern C4I command systems, and handling the large volume of intelligence to keep the entire army running meant that the Front Army Headquarters itself could have a staff of thousands to tens of thousands, indeed making it very cumbersome to move.

Wang Zhong made a troubled face, "So how long do we have to live in tents?"

Pavlov asked, "What, do you dislike living in tents? No worries, soon..."

Suddenly, the telephone rang loudly, Pavlov picked up the receiver, "Hello? Monk Peter? I understand."

He hung up the receiver and shouted, "Enemy aircraft are heading our way, get ready for anti-aircraft defense!"

No sooner had his voice faded than the sound of the hand-cranked air raid alarm was heard outside.

The sound of the anti-aircraft guns firing followed—Pavlov really had organized everything flawlessly.

Suddenly, Amelia sprinted out of the tent.

Wang Zhong didn't follow her; instead, he switched to an overhead view and watched as Amelia climbed aboard tank number 422, positioned next to the Headquarters, took hold of the anti-aircraft machine gun, and calmly loaded it—the tank seemed to be prepared for Wang Zhong to join the battle at any moment, with live ammunition in the anti-aircraft machine gun ready to fire.

Amelia looked up at the sky for a while, then turned the machine gun toward the east.

At that moment, the phone rang again, and Pavlov answered it, "Headquarters! Coming from which direction? The east? Why didn't I hear it before? Understood!"

He threw down the handset and said to Wang Zhong, "Two sounds have suddenly appeared to the east—enemy BF110 heavy fighters. They may have been using the valley to hide their engine noise; Monk Peter didn't hear them!"

Wang Zhong looked back at Amelia in the courtyard—amazing, wasn't that the ability of "New Humans" from the Gundam animation? She had sensed where the real danger would be coming from!

Just then, Amelia fired, sending tracer bullets shooting straight up into the sky.

Wang Zhong hurriedly followed the tracer bullets' path to find the enemy aircraft and sure enough saw two BF110s flying at ultra-low altitude.

The tracer bullets flew over the top of the enemy planes, as if declaring, "I've already spotted you."

But the Prosen heavy fighters remained undeterred and continued on their original course.

No, something was wrong—flames from their exhaust pipes had visibly increased, the Prosens had opened their engines' afterburners!

By now, even Wang Zhong could hear the roar of the engines; the enemy planes were about to fly directly overhead.

If the enemy targeted the large tent on the ground with their guns—

Amelia fired again, her tracer bullets' path just sweeping over the flight path of the lead enemy aircraft.

The plane in front was hit several times, Wang Zhong could see bullet holes in the aircraft's fuel tank and the oozing black fuel.

However, the self-sealing fuel tank quickly plugged the holes.

Amelia kept shooting.

By now, the enemy plane should have entered her visual range, so this salvo was even more accurate—with all bullets hitting the lead plane's left engine, which soon caught a large fire.

The lead plane began to lose power, plummeting toward the ground—

Amelia turned to the wingman, but this time the Prosen pilot decisively abandoned the attack maneuver and dodged, avoiding the tracer bullets and breaking away at an ultra-low altitude.

The downed lead plane hit the ground, plowing a long furrow into it.

After finally coming to a halt, the burning engine exploded, and the entire wing broke apart.