Arc of Fire

Afterwards, Wang Zhong heeded Duke Meishikin’s advice and went straight to bed for a good sleep.

He hadn’t expected to sleep for so long.

By the time he opened his eyes and got up, the calendar on the desk showed that it was already August 7th.

Just as he sat up, Nelly entered the room, “Would you like breakfast?”

It was then that Wang Zhong realized that he was starving, his stomach stuck to his back—an understandable feeling after nearly 20 hours of sleep.

“Anything will do.”

No sooner had he spoken than Nelly came in with a cart.

Nelly: “I saw you like walnut jam, so I prepared some, but there’s no soft bread left in town. Also, there’s no fresh beef anymore, so I made some cabbage soup with canned beef. The yogurt is from cans too.”

Wang Zhong asked in surprise, “Why are the supplies so poor? We always had fresh meat, eggs, and milk in Orachi!”

Nelly looked at him with irritation: “Orachi had a large ranch; this place doesn’t, and the people from the surrounding villages have run off, so we can only eat what is brought in by rail—canned goods and sausage.”

Wang Zhong sat at the table in his room, adopting the posture of someone ready to dine: “Canned goods are fine, too. You’ve made them smell so good, my appetite is whetted just by the scent.”

Nelly brought the dishes to the table one by one, and Wang Zhong picked up his spoon to sip the sour and refreshing soup, which was very appetizing.

With a pot of sour cream in hand, Nelly asked, “Do you want some sour cream?”

At first, Wang Zhong couldn’t understand the custom of adding sour cream to sour soup, but now he had grown accustomed to it, just like Indians can’t live without masala.

“Add some!”

So Nelly poured a big dollop of sour cream into Wang Zhong’s soup bowl.

Wang Zhong stirred the sour cream into the soup and then asked, “Where is Liu Xia? Last night—yesterday, she went to the church but didn’t come back?”

“She did return. Seeing that you were sleeping soundly, she didn’t wake you and went back to attend the collective funeral of God’s Arrow Company.”

Wang Zhong frowned, “Who died in God’s Arrow Company?”

“Miss Liu Xia is the only one left in her Divine Arrow squad. The nun responsible for launching the arrows, the Guardian Army soldiers, and those protecting them all perished. Many from other squads were lost too, and it’s said that a prayerful died as well.”

Wang Zhong stopped stirring his soup with the spoon, “Yesterday, as we were running out, Liu Xia’s state didn’t really show it.”

Nelly didn’t continue the discussion but simply prepared oatmeal with milk and placed it next to Wang Zhong’s soup bowl.

Wang Zhong continued to eat, asking while he did so, “Did Pavlov set up the command center properly?”

“It’s in the building across from us.”

“Has the casualty count been completed?”

“He wanted to come report to you yesterday, but I sent him away.” Nelly hesitated, then asked tentatively, “Did I do the right thing?”

“You did the right thing.” Wang Zhong nodded, quickly finished his oatmeal, ate up the sour soup along with the chopped sausage inside, and finally nibbled on some bread with walnut jam.

After eating, he stood up: “I’m going to the command center. Bring me my uniform.”

Nelly immediately brought over the uniform and cap, along with a pair of brightly polished leather shoes.

Upon entering the command center, Wang Zhong went straight to the map hanging on the wall.

Furthermore, the telegraph team made no segregation, ticking away right next to the map table, making the vast command center seem exceptionally busy.

Pavlov was by the map, flipping through the report in his hands: “How can the anti-aircraft artillery battalion be left with so few people?”

Wang Zhong approached and asked, “What happened?”

Pavlov looked up, “You’ve woken up? You seem in good spirits.”

Wang Zhong stared at the dark circles under Pavlov’s eyes for a few seconds and replied, “And you look like you’re about to drop dead. I suggest you get some sleep.”

“You talk as if it’s easy. Do you have any idea how much effort it takes to gather a dispersed army like this? Not to mention, I still have five staff officers from my staff who haven’t rejoined yet, and we’re short twenty-seven clerks—I have fewer than a hundred clerks in total!

“All in all, our division, including combatants and logistics, has assembled less than six thousand people. When we set out, we had over ten thousand in logistics alone!”

Wang Zhong: “Did you set up points outside the city—at the village entrance—to guide the troops back?”

He almost said ‘village entrance’, but Shepetovka is a railway hub and a large city.

“Yes, we set them up. There are big pots filled with food and plenty of clean water there too. Every so often, some returning troops are led back over.”

As soon as his voice fell, singing could be heard from outside. Pavlov went to the window and pulled back the curtain to look. He then said to Wang Zhong, “Look, over a hundred more people have come. Who knows how many are still rushing this way. By the way, take a look at this roster, the efficiency of the fighters’ assembly far exceeds our expectations. We now have assembled more than three thousand people.”

Wang Zhong was pleasantly surprised, “There are actually more than three thousand people? I thought that we had almost run out of people.”

“Some battalions did run out, like the troops of the Beschenk Regiment at height 153, including infantry, armored troops, and anti-tank gun squads, just that handful of men.

“I think we can still assemble more fighters. From the enemy’s posture, it seems they are in a rush to head south and don’t have the energy to capture those of us scattered across the plains.

“But logistics…the level of organization of the logistics personnel is naturally not as high as that of the combat troops, and many of them can’t even read a map, becoming lost in unfamiliar places. They also lack tactical skills and aren’t good at hiding when they encounter enemies…”

Pavlov shook his head.

Wang Zhong asked, “What about your Sixth-Level Clerk?”

“The old man got out quite smoothly. Do you hear this stamping sound?”

Only then did Wang Zhong notice the thumping stamping sound amidst the dripping noises.

“What are they stamping?” Wang Zhong asked, puzzled.

Pavlov casually replied, “Death notices.”

Wang Zhong fell silent all at once.

Pavlov raised an eyebrow, “What’s the matter, haven’t you gotten used to it? I thought you’d be used to it after going to deliver personal effects in person.”

Wang Zhong replied, “I’d rather hope that I never get used to it.”

He turned towards the map, then fell silent again.

Pavlov took a look at the map and said, “That’s the situation; it’s very bad. The Second Armored Group crossed Orachi and rushed south at full speed. The good news is that the First Armored Group’s speed has been slowed down southward thanks to the Naval Infantry, but… it’s still not slow enough.”

Wang Zhong asked, “Doesn’t that mean we’ll be encircled in three to five days? Why aren’t we retreating? Is General Skorobo refusing to retreat?”

“No, the Front Army headquarters already requested a retreat last night, but His Majesty the Tsar did not agree,” Pavlov said, pressing his lips together. “Perhaps His Majesty feels that looking at the map, there is still such a broad area available for transporting supplies, so there’s no need to retreat.”

At that moment, the Judge overseeing the use of the codebooks at the radio station glanced over here but didn’t say anything more.

“Isn’t it still wide?” Tsar Nicholas V cursed, hitting the map, “Such a wide area, and you’re telling me you can’t get supplies through?”

“Your Majesty,” the Chief of Logistics at High Command tried to explain, “Logistics transportation depends on roads and railways. Most of the roads have already been cut off, and the railways have been almost destroyed due to the enemy’s advance airstrips. Your Majesty, if we don’t retreat now…”

Nicholas V banged the table, “You told me we could hold! You said it!”

All the generals fell silent at once.

Because indeed, they had confidently claimed they could hold.

Nicholas V continued to pound the table, “You also said the enemy had reached the end of their rope and cited as proof the enemy’s central heavy troop clusters halting their advance! You talked about the massive losses of the enemy. And now? What about now?”

The Chief of General Staff started, “The enemy stopped at that time, probably just waiting for supplies and the infantry… ”

“That’s not what you said then!” Nicholas V interrupted the Chief of General Staff, “I should’ve recorded what you said back then and played it here! Wait, there should be records of that meeting, right? Bring them out, let’s see what my generals said at the time!”

Chief of General Staff said, “The battlefield situation is constantly changing, so judgments change as well. At that time, we concluded that we could hold, but now it’s proven wrong. If it’s wrong, then we need to adapt based on the current situation.”

“If it’s wrong,” Nicholas V glared fiercely at the generals, “you should be shot!”

“Even if you shot us, we should still retreat now,” the Chief of General Staff stated.

Nicholas V fell silent for a few seconds, then in a much gentler tone said, “Argesukov is our most important core city, the origin of ancient Ante! Losing it would severely damage our morale! Can you bear this responsibility?”

“We can let General Skorobo take this responsibility,” the Chief of General Staff said.

Nicholas V sighed, “It seems we have no other choice. Can we evacuate all the troops now?”

The generals looked at each other, and eventually, Marshal Semyon Konstantinovich spoke, “It’s difficult. Given the current situation, we estimate that we can evacuate two to three hundred thousand troops.”

Nicholas V was shocked, “Nearly a million troops can only evacuate so few? What’s the difference between that and not retreating?”

Marshal Semyon replied, “There’s no longer a million. The enemy’s attack has been very fierce, and now there are roughly seven hundred thousand troops in good order in Argesukov. The rest have been scattered and need to be reassembled and reorganized, but currently there are no conditions within the encirclement to assemble and reorganize the troops.”

Nicholas V said, “Seven hundred thousand is not a small number! Only three hundred thousand can get out! No, I refuse such a retreat! Either you give me a secure plan, at least get six hundred thousand out, I don’t care if you use troops to cover the retreat or whatever, but if we retreat, it must be in large numbers!”

Having said that, Nicholas stood up and walked out of the conference room, visibly upset.

The people in the room looked at each other.

“Another failure,” the Chief of General Staff sighed, “If it weren’t for the princess’s actions, it wouldn’t be so hard to persuade.”