Mercenary I am the king

Chapter 1033 Operation "The Tide"

Suburbs of Savinnu.

Song Heping stood behind a makeshift bunker, holding night vision binoculars, his view filled with the hellish scenes of street fighting.

Tracer bullets streaked wildly among the dilapidated buildings, weaving a web of death.

Mortar shells rained down, creating a massive wave of dust and debris carrying rubble and severed limbs.

Haftar's soldiers, their tanned figures trudging through the rubble, were relentlessly suppressed by intersecting fire behind the broken walls and ruins.

Each flash of the explosion illuminated the twisted corpses and the dark red bloodstains that flowed into streams amidst the ruins.

Time ticked by, but the advance of the battlefront was suffocatingly slow.

Saif's three thousand reinforcements and the munitions on the Marlin were like a sword hanging over their heads, with less than three days' journey remaining to Savinnu.

With each passing minute, the anxiety multiplies.

"This can't go on like this..."

Song Heping muttered to himself, "It seems I'll have to lead the team myself."

Haftar, standing to the side, was taken aback: "You?"

“Sometimes even the leader has to risk his life,” Song Heping said calmly. “If we can’t take down Savinnu, we’ll both lose.”

The implication couldn't be clearer.

This battle is of great importance.

If they fail to take it, it means that Lebia will have no place for Haftar and Song to maintain peace.

Americans and British alike will never give them a second chance.

When pushed to the limit, Song Heping's warlike genes began to rage again!
Suddenly, the satellite phone in his pocket began to vibrate violently.

This time it wasn't a message, it was a phone call!

Song Heping abruptly put down his binoculars and took out his phone to answer the call.

"Hahahahaha!"

On the other end of the phone, Henry's laughter, almost distorted with excitement, came through, clearly reaching Song Heping's ears amidst the sounds of gunfire:

"Boss! Just now! Just now! Jebteil! The Marlin! It's blown up! The entire intelligence community is saying it! The ship... the ship sank! The Marlin sank! Hahahaha! It sank! Someone actually bombed it, and they actually succeeded!"

Song Heping's hand holding the phone trembled slightly.

The deafening gunfire on the Savinnu front seemed to recede into the far distance at that moment.

He slowly raised his head, his gaze piercing through the smoky, blood-filled air, and landing on the dark southern horizon.

That's the direction of Jebuti.

A staggering $1.5 billion bounty, a fuse he had long foreseen and was simply waiting for to be detonated.

The United States appears so powerful and invincible.

But the price of such tyranny is widespread hatred across the globe.

No matter how magnificent or luxurious the Empire State Building is, it can't stop termites from quietly breeding in its dark corners.

The only difference is which ant ultimately gnawed through that fatal load-bearing beam.

He uttered only three words into the phone: "Understood."

Then, the communication was cut off decisively.

Time seemed to return to normal, and the sounds of gunfire filled our ears again.

Song Heping slowly turned around, his gaze sweeping over Haftar.

His lips curled upwards very slowly.

He knew that the explosion not only shattered Saif's hopes, but also precisely struck a nerve in Washington that was extremely sensitive due to the midterm elections.

"Haftar".

Song Heping's voice wasn't loud, but it was like an icicle, precisely piercing through the surrounding noise and penetrating Haftar's chaotic consciousness: "The Marlin has sunk."

"What!? The Marlin?"

Haftar's body jolted violently, as if struck by an electric current.

He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but nothing came out.

It took him several seconds to regain his ability to speak.

"It...it sank? It really...sank?"

The immense shock left his mind still in a semi-shutdown state.

"we won."

Song Heping laughed and said, "Even if Saif's three thousand reinforcements appear on the horizon tomorrow, it will be too late. Without the Marlin's replenishment, their ammunition reserves in a meat grinder like Savinu won't last a week."

He paused, then turned his gaze back to the smoke-filled front lines.

"Now, the news needs time to ferment. Immediately notify all frontline commanders to stabilize the existing front! Cease large-scale offensives and switch to a defensive attrition warfare! Our ammunition supply lines will arrive no later than the day after tomorrow, at which time..."

Song Heping's voice suddenly turned cold, and his gaze shifted towards the battlefield: "If they haven't withdrawn from Savinnu by now, then use heavy artillery and aerial bombs to completely wipe this area off the map!"

Haftar's orders were quickly transmitted via radio waves to every battalion and company command post of his forces along the Savinnu Front. The frenzied charge came to an abrupt halt.

Originally, under pressure from the supervisory team, the soldiers who had been trying to break through the defenses under the fierce firepower of GNA quickly retreated to their respective bunkers, broken walls, and basements like a receding tide.

The intense gunfire suddenly subsided.

Haftar's forces quickly withdrew their claws and switched to a patient siege, using sustained, low-intensity firepower to slowly bleed their prey dry.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Savinnu, in the GNA command post—a basement half-collapsed and barely reinforced with sandbags and steel plates—the atmosphere was as heavy as lead.

The frontline commander's hoarse report over the radio betrayed his barely concealed panic: "General! Haftar's men have suddenly retreated! The offensive has stopped! They... they're fortifying their positions, as if they're waiting for something!"

At the GNA headquarters in Tripoli, Saif stood in front of the radio, his face full of doubt.

Return?
The attack has stopped?
Did they abandon Savinnu?

"No matter what tricks they try, you hold on! Hold on! Our reinforcements and ammunition are on their way! The Marlin is on its way!"

Saif seemed to be encouraging himself, or perhaps intimidating his men, "Tell the soldiers on the front lines: anyone who retreats will be executed on the spot! Hold every building!"

However, after putting down the radio headphones, an ominous premonition crept into his heart.

The unusual actions of Haftar's forces are suspicious.

They clearly had the upper hand in the attack, so why did they suddenly stop?

What are they waiting for? Could it be...?

A terrible thought popped into my head uncontrollably.

He remembered the enormous bounty of 1.5 billion US dollars.

Saif shook his head violently, trying to dispel the thought.

impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
The Marlin was an American ship!

Who dares to move?
Who can move?
That ship was his last hope, his only bargaining chip to turn the tide!

If even this ship has problems...

He couldn't help but become irritable, and the sudden news made him even more agitated.

Time has never felt so slow and heavy.

Hours later, on the other side of the ocean, the waters off Jebuty Harbor, churned up by the explosion, became the center of a global media storm.

The piercing sirens shattered the tranquility of dawn as warships and rescue vessels from multiple countries, like sharks drawn by the scent of blood, darted across the sea, which was littered with large slicks of oil, twisted metal fragments, and all sorts of indescribable packaging debris.

The thick column of black smoke stubbornly shot into the sky, creating an eerie and tragic scene with the rising sun.

The high-powered camera lens greedily captured every detail: the flames burning on the sea surface, the wreckage of ammunition boxes with clear US military supply codes (NSN) salvaged by rescue workers, and even some parts that were not completely destroyed and belonged to US-made TOW anti-tank missiles or Javelin missile launchers...

These images were instantly transmitted to every corner of the world via satellite signals.

In the heart of Manhattan, New York.

The top floor of a skyscraper.

This is the headquarters of Horizon News Group.

Inside the control room, a huge screen displayed live footage from Jebtie, footage from the White House press conference, and trending topics from various social media platforms—all dominated by keywords such as "Marlin explosion," "arms allegations," and "White House denial."

Angel stood in the center of the control room, dressed in a well-tailored dark gray suit, his blond hair neatly pinned up at the back of his head.

She is now at the helm of Horizon News Corporation.

But few people know that the biggest behind-the-scenes investor in the early days of Horizon Group, the now-rising media star, was Song Heping.

This hidden move, quietly laid before Song Heping was even included in the U.S. Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT) list, has now finally been pushed to the center of the chessboard.

And the timing it targeted was precisely at the critical juncture when the White House was at its weakest and the Democratic Party was most afraid of trouble in its own backyard—with the midterm elections just around the corner.

Angell's gaze swept across the television screen as the White House spokesperson, feigning composure, answered reporters' questions, attempting to attribute the explosion to an "accident" and the ship's claim that it was carrying some routine supplies for peacekeeping forces.

A cold, mocking smile curled at the corner of her lips.

After a moment's glance, she picked up the internal communicator, her voice clear, calm, and authoritative, instantly resonating throughout the entire news center:

"Attention everyone! Activate the 'Tsunami' contingency plan, top priority! I need live footage from Jebuty 24/7, especially the ammunition debris with US military markings! Zoom in! Close-ups of everything! Play it on a loop! Contact our reporters in the area and get firsthand testimonies from port workers and nearby fishermen who witnessed the explosion at all costs! Emphasize the explosive yield! Emphasize that an explosion of that scale could never have been caused by 'conventional supplies'!"

She spoke very quickly, and her instructions were clear:

"Data analysis team, immediately delve into the Marlin's background and find any possible clues connecting it to US defense contractors and the CIA! Create an infographic! The more visually appealing, the better! The faster, the better! Social media team, push the hashtags #MarlinLies, #WhiteHouseArmsGate, and #WhoBombedJebuty to the top! Find prominent commentators and military analysts, think tank scholars, especially opposition members of the Democratic Party and pro-Elephant (Republican) mouthpieces! Provide them with ammunition, get them to voice their questions, and demand an emergency congressional hearing!"

"Remember, our core narrative: This is a ghost ship laden with deadly weaponry, blatantly violating the UN arms embargo, and intent on exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe in Lebia! And the White House is lying! Let's spread the fire to swing states, to the backyards of those Democratic lawmakers struggling to keep their seats!"

The entire Horizon News Center instantly sprang into action, operating at high speed like a sophisticated war machine.

The clatter of keyboards blended into a torrential downpour, telephones rang incessantly, reporters spoke rapidly into the camera, and technicians quickly edited the most impactful footage.

Angel walked to the huge floor-to-ceiling window and looked down at the city that symbolized global power.

Song Heping's words on the phone were still ringing in my ears: "Angel, the wind is rising. Let's set the fire right up to the White House's eyebrows, right up to the Democratic Party's midterm election stronghold. Let them be overwhelmed and unable to take care of themselves."

She picked up her phone, composed an encrypted text message, and pressed send: "'Tsunami' has been activated."

She quickly received a reply with just one word: "Very good!"

　It’s the end of the month, please vote!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)