Cannon Fire Arc

Chapter 790: Chapter 35 Confrontation

October 3, 916, Ronez City, First Front Army Headquarters, Kazarlia.

After entering the Headquarters, Wang Zhong handed his coat to Vasily.

Vasily: “It doesn’t seem to be raining much outside.”

Wang Zhong: “Yes, I only got this wet walking over. Weather forecast?”

Pavlov: “It’s just light rain for the coming week, which can be negligible in terms of transportation impact.”

Wang Zhong: “What about its impact on aircraft take-offs and landings?”

“It can be neglected for now, so aerial reconnaissance is still normal,” said Pavlov while spreading a stack of aerial reconnaissance photos across the table like a deck of poker cards, his gestures reminiscent of a skilled gambler.

Wang Zhong approached the table and casually picked up a photo: “Summarize it.”

Pavlov: “The retreat of the Prosens before was clearly intentional. Currently, they are primarily defending along the Bug River. Since the entire defense line has significantly shortened compared to this summer, the density of the Prosen Army on the opposite side of the river has clearly increased.

“Look at these photos, they are all Prosen barracks out of our artillery range, and most barracks show signs of habitation, indicating they are filled with soldiers.”

Wang Zhong picked up a photo, looking at the signs of life circled with a red pen: “Is there a possibility that the Prosens did this intentionally?”

“Yes, but the intelligence passed from the underground district also indicates that the withdrawn Prosen Army is regrouping on the riverside, even with a higher troop density than at the start of the war.

“Without sufficient equipment, it will be difficult for us to break through the Prosens’ defenses.”

Pavlov paused, looking at Wang Zhong.

“What about our equipment?”

Pavlov: “Currently, only 10% of the tanks in the armored brigade equipped with the new T54 tanks are combat-ready. The maintenance department reports that with sufficient repair parts, we can restore the number of combat-ready tanks to 50% of the mandated strength by the end of October.”

After a brief pause, he added: “But the supply of parts is somewhat difficult, the main production capacity is used to produce new tanks, and we might need to cannibalize some new tanks for spare parts.”

Wang Zhong: “What about the replenishment of new tanks?”

Pavlov: “Also very few, new tanks are being used for re-equipping other units. All Front Armies need T54s and Rokossovsky Type 1s. Konstantinovich, most of our Tank Operators are still operating T34Ws, these tanks struggle even with the enemy’s Long-barreled Fours, let alone the increasingly appearing new tanks on the battlefield.”

Wang Zhong realized Pavlov was insinuating something, so he asked: “What new tanks has the enemy deployed in combat?”

Pavlov fished out a few photos of the new tanks from the pile: “These were spotted by aerial reconnaissance.”

Wang Zhong: “Weasel 3 and…”

He took the photo from Pavlov and stared intently: “And a Four artillery carrier?”

This isn’t just some made-up vehicle from the world of tank games?

Indeed, we have now entered the timeline of the tank world!

Vasily asked confusedly to Wang Zhong: “How do you know the models of these equipments? Did you receive any intelligence when I wasn’t around? But shouldn’t all information you receive pass through me?”

Popov: “Vasily, to the Sanctified faction, this is divine revelation; for the Secular faction, this is ‘information’ from either the future or another dimension. Saint Andrew often foresees the future.”

That’s because Saint Andrew is likely from my hometown, Wang Zhong thought. Having Saint Andrew as a precedent saves him a lot of trouble explaining.

Wang Zhong: “The Prosens are not sitting ducks; in this round of armor-piercing shell confrontation, we have the advantage, but this advantage won’t last long. The Prosens have already started to equip weapons that can counter our new tanks.”

Similar to how Ante can’t switch to T54s and Rokossovsky Type 1 all at once, the Prosens will likely have a mixed high-low equipment state for a considerable time.

“The good news is, the Prosens lack rare metals, and Allied Forces intelligence has confirmed this,” Wang Zhong said, “So in the future, the quality of Prosen armor steel will decline because they lack rare metals like manganese. To enhance protection, they can only make their tanks bigger and heavier. Moreover—”

Vasily: “The bad news is, the enemy has entered a defensive state, so they no longer need large-scale mobility in the wilderness, which alleviates the impact of poor mobility. What were you about to say?”

Wang Zhong looked at Vasily, resuming his interrupted thought: “—they won’t be able to cross bridges in river network areas, but this issue can be ignored if used for key defensive positions.

“On our side, since we’ve obtained new engine manufacturing licenses, we can appropriately increase the weight of new tanks. The new Rokossovsky Type II breakthrough tank will have better protection and a larger caliber main gun.

“Additionally, we’re replicating the new Prosen shell, with the new shell use, the 100mm gun will also have better penetration depth—at the cost of reduced post-penetration impact.”

Sub-caliber armor-piercing bullets exchange post-penetration impact for deeper penetration because the bullet diameter is much smaller than the caliber, which doesn’t allow for much explosive material.

This approach, culminating with what War Thunder players are familiar with as “steel darts,” colloquially known as “small flying rods,” has no explosive charge and relies on fragment to kill crew post-penetration.

Pavlov: “Time is on our side.”

At this moment, quarreling voices came from outside the headquarters.

“Let us in! We have an important invention that could change the course of the war!”