Cannon Fire Arc

On November 25th, Wang Zhong woke up to heavy snowfall outside.

The room's windows were already frosted over, and just being near them you could feel the chill.

"Pavlov called earlier," Ludmila said, "You don't need to go to Headquarters today, there's nothing urgent so far, and it's snowing across the whole frontline."

Wang Zhong: "He called from Headquarters to tell me not to go there?"

"Yes, since the Chief of Staff is already there, how about you take a day off?" Ludmila suggested with a smile, "It's good for me too since I won't have to be stuck at the anti-aircraft position."

As she spoke, Ludmila brought over hot coffee, pickles, and sour cream to the small table in front of Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong thought for a moment and asked, "Has anti-air duty been heavy recently?"

"It's okay, Prosen's rocket attacks aren't that frequent," Ludmila replied, picking up her cup of coffee too.

Wang Zhong: "Your recent task is intercepting enemy rockets?"

"Yes, those things can't be caught by planes nor can they be shot down by anti-aircraft guns, we can only use Divine Arrow to detonate them in advance."

"I see… How effective is the pre-detonation?"

"Haven't you noticed that recently the enemy rocket attacks have only caused a few casualties and fires, and no buildings have been destroyed? The fragments of the rockets we detonate still fall into the city, wounding some pedestrians and igniting some buildings but greatly reducing the lethality to intact structures."

Ludmila paused for a few seconds, shaking her head, "To be honest, I'm not sure if our interception is reducing casualties, the intercepted rockets seem to turn into oversized shotgun blasts scattering over the city."

Wang Zhong: "The key to interception is to let the people know we are intercepting."

Just like the essence of national defense is to make people believe they are protected—this is a classic quote from the British show "Yes, Prime Minister."

Ludmila: "The technical department has been researching new warheads recently, seems like they might be able to push the enemy rockets aside instead of detonating them."

Wang Zhong: "Is the interception altitude sufficient?"

If intercepted in high altitudes, just a slight deviation in the missile's trajectory will result in a drastically different impact location.

But the Divine Arrow's interception altitude wasn't high.

Ludmila: "I don't know, but we have to try. By the way, I read in the newspaper that Prosen also used these rockets to attack the United Kingdom."

"Yes, they probably want to intimidate the UK into surrendering. Unfortunately, it won't work, it's just a waste of their rocket production."

V1 and V2 rockets were peculiar, considering production time, neither was a cheap weapon, after all, "rockets" remained expensive even up to the era Wang Zhong traversed to.

In that era of Earth, the old man from the United States tried to reduce the cost of rockets, but never succeeded in the end.

On Earth, Sturmtiger exhausted itself launching numerous V1s and V2s, achieving little success, seriously hampering its own military production.

Later, military enthusiasts would often speculate that if Sturmtiger hadn't launched so many V1s and V2s, they could have built many more tanks and cannons and possibly wouldn't have lost, and so on.

But now, Wang Zhong has a bit of understanding, even if Prosen diverted its production capacity to conventional weapons, it could only delay its defeat, it's better to gamble on new weapons.

"My dear?" Ludmila interrupted Wang Zhong's train of thought.

Wang Zhong: "I'm thinking, is the Empire of Prosen desperate for a cure?"

Ludmila looked seriously at Wang Zhong's face: "I heard that in the north, their new heavy tanks have achieved remarkable results against our latest tanks."

Wang Zhong: "Yes, their new heavy tanks have finally caught up with our Rokossovsky Type and T54. But we already got the new engines; a stronger model is being tested behind the lines and we'll upgrade our armored forces across the board in next summer's offensive."

Next year not only will improved versions of the T54 and Rokossovsky Type enter service, but regular units' T34Ws will also get upgraded with 85mm AA guns, so even when facing the Panzer IV H or even the Panzer IV G, our regular Armored Troops won't suffer as badly.

And when facing Prosen Infantry's Sturmgeschütz III assault gun G version, they could penetrate the enemy's frontal armor at a longer distance.

Moreover, the self-propelled artillery units will be equipped with a large number of SU152s next year; these can be used as howitzers for indirect fire, but in sieges or when emergent anti-tank firepower is needed, the cannons can be lowered flat for AP shell combat.

Lastly, there are the wire-guided rockets from Kitov and Grishkov. Wang Zhong wasn't worried about these two geniuses handling the rockets; his concern was whether there would be enough qualified operators once they were developed.

Before traversing time, Wang Zhong operated first-generation wire-guided missiles in various simulation games, which required some skill to hit the target.

The second-generation simplified the operation, reducing the difficulty, and later the missile operators merely had to keep the aiming laser on the target, further simplifying the process.

But the devices that Kitov and Grishkov were working on were definitely first-generation.

Wang Zhong sipped hot coffee, ate pickles dipped in sour cream, and envisioned next summer's offensive.

Ludmila: "Oh, Doctor Kaja came to see me."

Wang Zhong: "What's up?"

"She's planning to marry Yegorov once the winter campaign is nearly over. But she's worried Yegorov might not agree, so she wants you to help convince him."