Chapter 54: The Eagle Above Peniye

Wang Zhong stepped out of the church and just happened to see Tank No. 67 rumbling down the village road.

He gave a thumbs-up to the tank operators, watching as they passed by in front of him.

Ludmila stood behind Wang Zhong, muttering, “Just one tank... Can it really hold off the enemy?”

Wang Zhong said, “Don’t underestimate this one tank. It’s a heavy tank, weighs a full fifty tons in battle, while the enemy’s Panzer III is only around ten tons. It’ll give the enemy a tough time!”

Ludmila looked at Wang Zhong’s profile and hesitated for a moment before asking, “Are you... very familiar with this tank?”

Wang Zhong replied, “Of course!”

Ludmila blinked and asked, “When did you become familiar with it?”

Only then did Wang Zhong realize his slip of the tongue. In this timeline, Aleksei was a debauchee with zero military skills!

He could only say with feigned confidence, “I just got familiar with it! Tank Commander Xie Liaosha has briefed me on the tank’s capabilities!”

"Xie Liaosha,” Ludmila repeated, “Are you already on nickname terms with each other?”

Shoot, he had forgotten the Russians’ complicated naming conventions. In situations like this, where a superior addresses a subordinate, it’s safer and more polite to use the person’s patronymic—something like ‘whichever-evich’.

Xie Liaosha was a name reserved for those who were very close.

The problem was, Wang Zhong didn’t know his patronymic, and the man had not introduced himself. He had addressed him as “Lieutenant” the whole time, and it was only a slip of the tongue that made him blurt out “Xie Liaosha,” a name he had heard from the driver in Tank No. 67’s crew.

It was also because the situation on the battlefield was so urgent that he hadn’t thought to ask for a name.

Suddenly, Wang Zhong thought of the gunner from Tank No. 422.

—I really should ask for their names. If they sacrifice themselves, at least I’ll know whose name I should write in the eulogy.

Though he didn’t believe the enemy had weapons capable of penetrating the KV’s front and side armor, just in case, he should still ask.

Wang Zhong whistled loudly—a muscle memory inherited from the original Aleksei—and Bucephalus came galloping toward him, halting abruptly in front of him.

He swung himself onto the horse and raced down the road.

Ludmila, left behind, got a mouthful of dust.

Su Fang carefully examined her profile, “Are you alright?”

Ludmila murmured, “In the past, he would definitely have taken advantage of a situation like that. Now, it seems like he cares more about tanks.”

Su Fang replied, “Maybe he’s tired of it.”

————

Wang Zhong galloped all the way to the village entrance, learned the names of Tank No. 67’s crew, then oversaw the infantry camouflaging the tank.

With everything in order, he saw there was still half an hour until dawn.

He decided to take a quick nap.

After all, he had been feverish the day before and hadn’t fully recovered, and they might be engaging in intense battle all day today. As the commander, he couldn’t afford to be the weak link.

But he woke up less than an hour later, feeling exceptionally spirited, not at all like someone who had been gravely ill the day before.

He stood up and noticed that Ludmila and Su Fang were sleeping not far from him.

Ludmila was sprawled across the table, her face resting on her hands, drooling all over the table.

Su Fang, meanwhile, was seated on a bench, leaning against the armrest, having fallen asleep there.

He had managed to get a good amount of sleep the day before, but these two girls had been busy with the mass and hadn’t shut their eyes at all.

He took the towel blanket covering himself and draped it over Ludmila.

Then he switched to an overhead perspective to check on the enemy situation, as if covering her with the blanket had drained all his tenderness.

Damn, relying on the allies’ field of view isn’t showing much of the enemy movement; I’d better climb the tower myself.

While Wang Zhong was observing, he heard footsteps behind him and switched back to normal vision. As he turned, he saw Sofang climbing the water tower.

"You go rest, we won’t need you during the day,” he said.

Sofang clenched her fist: “I can operate the machine gun!”

Wang Zhong: “There’s no machine gun to operate today.”

Sofang: “Then... I...”

Her eyes darted around as if looking for something she could do.

At that moment, Ludmila came up clutching her chest: “Alyosha, you...”

Wang Zhong: “I remember Monk Yeca Neiko still has one Divine Arrow left, right?”

"Uh, yes... the last one.”

Wang Zhong: “Then you should return to your post and get some rest.”

"Eh?” Ludmila froze, her hand still on her chest.

Wang Zhong then looked at Sofang: “Like this, if you really must find something to do, go to the hospital. There will probably be quite a few casualties today.”

In truth, if the KV1 went berserk, there probably wouldn’t be many casualties. But... just in case?

And mostly, Wang Zhong wanted the two girls to get some rest.

"Go on, hurry!” he urged, “If anything goes wrong, we’re still relying on you to contact the higher-ups!”

"Oh.” Sofang shrank her neck, turned to glance at Ludmila, “Let’s go, Captain Vasilyevna.”

Ludmila looked at Wang Zhong, on the verge of saying something, but in the end, she turned around—

Just then, the roar of engines came from the sky.

Someone below shouted: “Air raid!”

The two girls exchanged glances and rushed toward Wang Zhong, one on each side, tackling him to the ground.

Wang Zhong hit the ground hard and was about to protest when he saw a camouflaged airplane flying in from the east.

Recognizing the shape of the plane, Wang Zhong laughed out loud because he recognized it as an Il-2 Sturmovik attack aircraft, and a two-seater at that!

The plane flew over Upper Peniye Village, then like a cheetah spotting its prey, charged towards the Prussian Army to the west.

The Prussian Army, completely unprepared for an air raid, was caught off guard.

The rockets fired from the plane hit a truck, and the Prussians stared at the rising fireball in shock, only scattering in a panic when the plane started strafing.

The Il-2 dumped all its remaining rockets on the Prussians’ heads, igniting a great fire in the enemy camp.

Then the plane circled back and began strafing the ground with its 23 mm cannons and machine guns.

In just three minutes, the enemy camp was littered with dozens of bodies, seven or eight trucks were burning, and the injured were wailing everywhere.

Through the bird’s-eye view, Wang Zhong could clearly see even Cyclops on the ground, clutching his head.

Hahaha, how elegant are you now?

The Il-2, having completed its attack, flew over Upper Peniye Village again.

Wang Zhong pushed the two girls off him and stood up, cheering at the plane: “Ura!”

While the people on the ground didn’t have bird’s-eye view, they could see the black smoke rising from the enemy’s side and joined in the chant: “Ura!”

The Ant Air Force was not destroyed!

Just this fact alone was enough to boost morale!

Along with the soldiers, Wang Zhong turned their joy into a continuous cheer: “Ura!”