Mercenary I am the king

Chapter 1184 Segmented Blockade

Highway 7, about 8 kilometers from Bala town.

Eddie's convoy of reinforcements sped along Highway 7 toward Mosul.

The vanguard of the convoy consisted of three BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles. Although these vehicles are thin-skinned, they are still considered capable and durable in the 1515 armed forces.

Most importantly, this vehicle is equipped with a 30mm 2A28 smoothbore cannon and a 7.62mm PKT machine gun mounted side by side on its roof. This allows it to quickly establish a powerful firepower network to suppress the enemy when encountering obstacles or attacks, giving follow-up troops time to deploy.

The BTR-70PK command vehicle radio was filled with the cacophony of various vehicle units confirming their positions.

"Pay attention to suspicious locations along both sides of the road, and watch out for those embankments and house ruins..."

The leader of the vanguard team, inside the third armored vehicle, continuously scanned the terrain on both sides of the road through the observation port, while reminding the other vanguard vehicles to be on alert over the radio.

They used to be masters of ambush, but now they've become the targets of ambush.

Sometimes the hunter is the prey.

It was pitch black outside the car, but with the help of the night vision equipment inside, I could see some things outside. Although these old Russian-style night vision devices were not advanced, at least I wouldn't go blind.

However, death's first greeting did not come from guns and cannons, but from underground.

"boom!!!"

A dull bang like thunder suddenly exploded!

A shockwave of black smoke and mud suddenly rose from beneath the left track of the lead BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle!

The TM-62 anti-tank mine, which had been buried on the road long ago and contained more than 7.5 kilograms of TNT equivalent explosive, was precisely detonated.

The violent explosion instantly tore apart and threw away the four road wheels and tracks on the left side of the BMP-1!
The broken metal track fragments shot out like deadly shotgun pellets, hitting the following pickup trucks and sending sparks flying.

The vehicle, weighing over 13 tons, suddenly tilted to the left, its steel tracks limp on the ground like dead snakes, completely blocking the narrow road that could only accommodate two vehicles side by side.

"Crench--!"

"Oh!"

The screech of emergency brakes and the dull thud of a rear-end collision rang out in succession.

The massive convoy instantly descended into chaos and congestion. Following vehicles, bewildered, came to an abrupt halt, some even nearly plunging off the road.

"Landmine! We've triggered a landmine! The lead vehicle is disabled!"

"Vehicles at the front of the convoy, spread out quickly, don't crowd together!"

"Fire support squad, search for enemies along the roadside and suppress them! Pickup truck squad, get out and charge! Tear those infidels to pieces!"

"Sappers! Engineer squad, go clear the mines! Quickly! Quickly!"

Eddie grabbed the microphone from the command vehicle, his voice, distorted with anxiety and anger, carrying throughout the convoy via radio.

Two sappers carrying mine detectors and demolition charges hurriedly jumped off the truck that was following closely behind, bent over, and tried to approach the disabled BMP-1 to survey the minefield.

At this moment——

"boom!"

A sharp gunshot shattered the brief chaos.

The bullet came from a limestone ridge about 400 meters to the right of the road.

A combat engineer who had just crouched down to deploy a mine detector suddenly jerked his head back and fell straight backward, revealing a horrifying bullet hole in his forehead.

The 7.62x54mm R SVD sniper rifle cartridge instantly took his life.

Almost at the same second as the gunshot, a strange spray sound rang out again.

"Boom!"

An RPG-7 rocket, trailing an orange-red plume of flame, shot out from the bushes on the left hillside, whistling with death, and slammed straight into the side of the disabled BMP-1's turret!
boom--

A burst of fire erupted from the turret.

Although the Russian armored vehicles have relatively thin side armor, their artillery shell armor is quite thick, and due to the large angle of inclination, the rockets did not completely penetrate the armor.

Although the armor-piercing round was barely stopped and did not penetrate, the huge blast and the flying metal jet still caused the vehicle to shake violently. The observation equipment on the turret was damaged, and the crew inside the vehicle were dizzy from the shock.

Immediately afterwards, more precise single-shot and short bursts of fire rang out from the high ground on both sides.

The "Liberation Force" infantry, equipped with AK-74M and PKM rifles, began unleashing a hail of bullets on vehicles and personnel exposed on the road from their carefully constructed makeshift positions.

The bullets struck the vehicle's steel plates and the ground, sending up a trail of sparks and dust.

"Sniper! Right flank high ground!"

"There are also ambushes on the left!"

"Machine gunners! Suppress the fire! Suppress the hilltops on both sides!"

Eddie peered through the observation window at the chaotic scene outside, listening to the gasps from various units through his earpiece, and forced himself to calm down.

"Don't engage! All vehicles that can move should immediately leave the road, circle around to their position across the Gobi Desert, and attack them from the flanks and rear! All vehicles, maintain distance and watch out for landmines!"

He knew that every minute he lingered there increased the risk of Mosul falling.

We must resolve this battle as quickly as possible, at any cost.

Judging from the intensity and frequency of the gunfire, the number of attackers should not be too large.

Our convoy is long enough and has enough vehicles, so the enemy, without overwhelming force, cannot cut off the head and tail and attack the middle.

The DShK heavy machine gun and ZPU anti-aircraft machine gun on the armed pickup truck began to fire wildly at the hillsides on both sides, attempting to cover possible ambush points with a barrage of bullets.

The massive convoy was forced to trudge off the roadbed like a group of clumsy beetles and into the bumpy, rocky Gobi Desert.

The train's speed suddenly dropped, and the violent jolting made the soldiers in the carriages suffer terribly, causing their formation to become scattered.

However, when the convoy came to a complete stop and, as Eddie ordered, began its full-scale flanking maneuver, the attackers' gunfire ceased.

It suddenly stopped.

"Ok?"

The eerie silence and the heavy darkness of night made Eddie, sitting in the car, feel uneasy and his eyelids twitch.

"Expert team! What's going on?! The gunfire has stopped?"

He picked up the radio microphone and asked a question.

After a few seconds of silence, the leader of the vanguard team finally responded.

"Chief, the attackers have escaped!"

"Ran away?! What did you say?! Ran away?!"

Eddie could hardly believe his ears.

Such a short-lived defensive battle?!
How is this going? !
"Has anyone seen the attacker?!"

"Reporting, Chief! They really escaped! I saw their car! They're retreating south! Should we pursue them or not?!"

"South?!"

A map of northwestern Iligo immediately popped into Eddie's mind.

"They're trying to distract us! Ignore them!"

Eddie is very confident.

He thought it was just a trivial skill.

They launched a sudden, rapid attack, then turned and fled.

And then you make yourself chase after them?!
Southward?!

Mosul is to the east at this time!

These self-righteous heretics!

He cursed under his breath, but still issued what he considered the most rational and correct order: "Ignore them, immediately regroup and continue advancing towards Mosul at top speed! They are deliberately delaying us!"

The convoy began to slowly regroup.

Because there were too many vehicles scattered earlier, it will take time to gather them together.

The group of five thousand people and more than two hundred vehicles of various kinds had previously scattered like an anthill that had been trampled on, and it would take some time to regroup them.

A full half hour later, the convoy finally returned to normal and was all back on the highway. "Let's go! We can't wait!"

Eddie was extremely anxious.

He glanced at the gold watch on his wrist—it had been looted from the body of a high-ranking Iligor government officer.

The clock struck one in the morning.

Even so, it was still hundreds of kilometers away from Mosul.

At this rate, they won't even reach Mosul by dawn.

Even if I get there by then, the corpses in the city will probably be cold by then.

The convoy roared once more, kicking up yellow dust clouds, and sped toward Mosul at top speed.

After passing the location of the attack, Eddie saw the BPM-1 armored vehicle overturned and lying upside down outside, along with dozens of corpses scattered around.

The equipment on the corpse was taken away, but the corpse didn't have time to collect it at that point.

Let's leave it for now!
he thinks.

Damn heretics!

Once I take back Mosul, I will definitely go back and sweep through all the regions, killing all the heretics in Nineveh province!
Ten minutes later, the convoy entered the 3221 road sign on Highway 7.

It was only a few kilometers away from the place where the attack had occurred.

This is a sharp bend carved into the mountainside, where the highway is forced to make a near 90-degree turn, with steep rock walls on the inside and a dry riverbed several meters deep on the outside.

As the convoy cautiously entered the bend, with most vehicles still stuck at the bend's entrance—

"Detonate!"

From a well-camouflaged observation post about 300 meters across the river, the "Liberation Force" militiamen in charge of this section of the ambush pressed the detonator in their hands.

boom! ! !
boom! ! ! !

This time it wasn't a landmine.

It's the most common flavor of IED, and one that 1515 is also very familiar with.

Two deafening explosions rang out almost simultaneously!

This was not a single explosion, but a pre-set cluster that was remotely detonated.

Several discarded gas cylinders filled with TNT, steel bars, and shell fragments, along with a series of 152mm howitzer shells, were cleverly buried under the rock wall on the inside of the curve and on the road shoulder.

The shockwave from the explosion slammed into the vehicles and people who had just slowed down and were crowding around the bend.

Two armed pickup trucks full of soldiers were hit first. One of them was overturned by the huge blast wave, rolled half a circle in the air, and crashed heavily onto the road. Its fuel tank ruptured and burst into flames instantly.

"Ah-ah-ah-"

Soldiers inside the vehicle who didn't have time to jump out let out piercing screams.

The other vehicle was riddled with holes by a dense barrage of pre-fabricated shrapnel, all the windows were shattered, and the soldiers inside were either killed or wounded, their blood instantly staining the carriage red.

The explosion sent debris and dust raining down, covering the windshields of following vehicles.

Panic spread like a plague through the convoy.

The cries of the wounded, the shouts of officers, the roar of engines, and the crackling of burning vehicles mingled together, creating a hellish scene.

"Around the burning vehicles! Don't stop! Speed ​​up and get through! Attack the convoy, find those damn bugs now and kill them!"

Eddie, inside the command vehicle, watched the thick smoke and flames rising into the sky ahead, listening to the casualty reports over the radio. Even though his heart was bleeding, he could only harden his heart and continue giving orders.

This is the bend in the road. If we don't leave, everyone will be crammed in here. I'm afraid even more people will die later!

However, it was all for naught.

His command was flawless.

Just like last time, the gunfire quickly subsided and disappeared...

The enemy once again took advantage of the darkness and blended into the night.

Gone……

A dozen minutes later, Eddie stood at the corner where the attack had taken place. The strong smell of blood made even this terrorist leader, who had chopped off countless heads, frown and rub his nose.

The recent explosions and gunfire have destroyed five pickup trucks and one truck.

Death toll...

There were more than thirty people crammed into that truck alone.

"Damn it!"

He angrily raised his foot as if to kick something away to vent his anger.

But when he saw what was under his feet, he instinctively pulled his foot back...

Because those were the heads of his men...

A head that had been blown off.

The face was no longer recognizable; only charred remains and flesh and blood remained.

"leader."

The junior leader cautiously asked, "Should we split up our forces to pursue the enemy? What if we don't..."

He swallowed, moistening his slightly dry throat.

"I'm afraid they don't know where they'll set up an ambush next time. We can't take this slow, insidious attack, no matter how many of us there are..."

Eddie glared at the leader resentfully, thinking, "You think you know everything? You think you're so smart! I don't know anything?!"

But he didn't say it.

After all, this kind of reaction from subordinates is normal.

The 1515's night vision equipment was already quite basic, relying on some old Russian night vision devices captured from the government forces or a small amount of second-generation night vision equipment issued by the US military to the Ilgo government forces to maintain its nighttime perception capabilities.

Now the other side has seized this weakness.

They all launched their attacks from a distance of 300 meters.

These old night vision devices only reach a range of 300 meters before they become somewhat inadequate.

It seems that the other side's night vision equipment is more advanced than ours, and they are using a segmented blocking method.

This means that there are countless more such ambush points along the next 100 kilometers of road...

The thought of this gave him a headache.

What to do? !
Just then, the communications soldier ran to his side and whispered, "Chief, Emil is on the channel."

Upon hearing this, Eddie quickly turned around and returned to his command vehicle, grabbing the radio headset with one hand.

"Your Excellency, what are your instructions?"

Where are you now?

Bakdadi's voice came from the other end of the radio wave.

“Emir, we are about 100 kilometers away from Mosul.”

"One hundred kilometers? An hour has passed, and you've only traveled a dozen kilometers?!"

Bakdadi's tone was filled with dissatisfaction.

"Eddie, what's wrong with you?!"

Eddie could only bite the bullet and answer, "Emil, we've already been ambushed twice. I think their attack on Mosul was a trap; they know we'll definitely come to their aid, so they've set up ambushes along the way..."

"I don't care! I won't listen to any reasons!"

Bakdadi interrupted Eddie very rudely.

"I only want results! I only want Mosul! If you can't get Mosul back by 5 a.m., causing the collapse of my plans in northwestern Ilig, then you can repent to Allah with your death!"

　Asking for a monthly ticket! Asking for a monthly ticket!

　　Please give me your monthly tickets! I sneak back from the hospital every day to keep updating, so I deserve some encouragement!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)