Mercenary I am the king

Chapter 1280 Song Heping's Backup Plan
"Squad leader! This absolutely cannot go on!"

Jiang Feng, carrying the smell of gunpowder and dust, suddenly rushed to Song Heping's side.

He looked disheveled.

His Kevlar helmet had several scratches, his combat uniform was torn in several places by rocks and shrapnel, and a wound on his left cheek, cut by a stray bullet, was still slightly bleeding, mixed with dust to form a blackish-red stain.

"They're sticking to us too tightly! It's a suicidal attack! They're not giving us any chance to break off contact! At this rate, forget about reaching Baiji, it would be a miracle if we even lasted until nightfall!"

Song Heping did not respond immediately, nor did he even look up at him.

His entire attention seemed to be focused on that small tactical tablet, where the last few drones were trying to squeeze out even the slightest advantage in this desperate game.

Jiang Feng suddenly reached out and grabbed Song Heping's arm, which was operating the tablet. The force was so great that Song Heping's movements were slightly halted.

"Listen to me, old squad leader!"

He practically roared, his eyes fixed on the other side, "You know what to do in this situation! Someone has to stay behind! A true rearguard! A complete rearguard! I'll lead the team! Give me two thousand men... no, fifteen hundred will do! Give me the brothers who can still fight! I'll stay here, using this high ground, to build the last line of defense! We'll wear them down! We'll fight them to the death! Every minute we can hold them off is a minute more!"

He took a breath, his speech quickening, carrying an undeniable urgency:

"You immediately take the main force, abandon all unnecessary heavy equipment, carry only light weapons and minimal supplies, and advance rapidly! While we are holding back their main force, charge towards Baiji with all your might! This is the only way to save most of our men!"

His intention was extremely tragic—

The voluntary sacrifice of these two thousand men was used to secure the slim chance of survival for the main force of more than five thousand men.

Song Heping finally raised his head.

He gently but firmly pushed Jiang Feng's hand away, and said in an unusually calm voice:
"Jiang Feng, even if everything goes according to your ideal plan, and I successfully shake off the pursuers with these five thousand men and barely escape into Baiji, then what?"

He raised his dusty finger and pointed in Baiji's direction.

"We just took Baiji. You and I both know the level of its fortifications. What use are these 5,000 men?! And now, these 20,000-plus bloodthirsty 1515 militants are relentlessly attacking us. Do you think they'll stop after killing your 2,000 men? You're wrong. They'll seize the opportunity and attack the city without hesitation! Guess what the final result will be?"

Song Heping said, enunciating each word clearly:

"The result is that Baiji will also be breached! We have only changed our burial ground from this open Gobi Desert to the narrow streets and ruins of Baiji."

Jiang Feng suddenly froze on the spot.

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

A wave of overwhelming despair washed over him in an instant.

Just now, he was only thinking about how to get the main force to break through, but he didn't consider this even more tragic chain reaction.

Yes, Baiji simply couldn't hold on.

Two thousand people can only manage to gain two or three extra hours at most.

Useless.

That has absolutely no effect.

"Then we...we..."

Jiang Feng felt a chill run down his spine: "Are we just going to be worn down and die here like this? The Americans are treacherous, laughing at us from the air! And Thunder Defense isn't doing anything in Hurmatu either! They... they want us to die! They want us all to die here!"

Song Heping listened quietly to Jiang Feng's desperate outburst.

As he approached, a defiant smile slowly crept onto his lips.

"We're not that easy to die! What are you thinking? Do you think I'm the kind of person who doesn't have a backup plan and just waits to die in an emergency?"

Song Heping turned the tactical tablet in his hand toward Jiang Feng. The screen no longer displayed close-ups of intense local firefights, but instead switched to a broader electronic map of the war zone.

On the map, red and blue symbols representing friend and foe are densely intertwined, indicating a precarious situation.

However, Jiang Feng's gaze was drawn to several extremely inconspicuous, slowly flickering small green lights.

These points of light are not in the core combat zone, but are located on the edge of the map, on the right flank of the 1515 armed control area...

Jiang Feng's eyes lit up.

That's the direction of Kirkuk! Their movement trajectory is very peculiar; they are not moving in a straight line towards the combat zone, but rather with a sense of detour, infiltration, and even veiled concealment.

"Who told you we had nowhere else to go?"

Song Heping's voice wasn't loud, but it carried confidence: "Would I, Song Heping, put myself and the lives of thousands of brothers in a deadly situation with no way out?"

He raised his hand and looked at his watch.

"The Americans want to sit in their safe command center and watch the show, to see us and 1515, these two trapped beasts, fight to the death, so they can step in as saviors to clean up the mess and easily reap all the spoils of victory. They want Hurmatu's Thunder Defenses to remain inactive, using the excuse that the air force can't be mobilized... Hmph!"

He snorted coldly, "This is probably an order from their higher-ups to kill me, or at least to make our armed forces, Samir's and Abuyu's, insignificant in the Northwest."

"but……"

Song Heping abruptly changed the subject:
"They forgot, or rather, they underestimated one thing from the very beginning. I, Song Heping, have never been an obedient pawn who simply follows their predetermined path!"

His fingertip pressed heavily on the green dots on the tablet map:
"Let all those who are waiting to see me make a fool of myself open their eyes wide and watch!"

Jiang Feng's gaze was fixed on the green dots, his mind racing, combining their positions, movement trajectories, and Song Heping's confident tone...

An extremely bold, even insane, conjecture flashed through his mind, which was shrouded in despair, and his pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpoints!

He suddenly raised his head and looked at Song Heping.

"When...when did you arrange this?"

Song Heping put away the tablet, reached out, and patted Jiang Feng's shoulder forcefully, saying with a hidden slyness:
“From the moment you asked me for help, saying there was an unexpected situation and that those lunatics from 1515 were relentlessly pursuing you, I never placed all my hopes on the empty credibility and promises of those Americans. Remember, a true old hunter, when venturing into a dangerous jungle, never prepares only the rifle that is out in the open.”

His gaze swept over the soldiers fighting fiercely around him, and he said in a low voice:

"Pass the order down to all units: cease alternating retreats and completely consolidate the defensive line! Hold your ground, utilizing the existing terrain and fortifications! Conserve every bullet and effectively inflict casualties on the enemy! Our mission has changed—it's no longer retreating, but holding our ground! Hold out until…"

He looked up at the increasingly dark sky, where the last golden rays of the setting sun were being mercilessly swallowed by the inky blue night.

"One hour, just one hour will do! I guarantee that these 20,000-plus people in Az will not leave this Gobi Desert tonight!"

Jiang Feng nodded heavily, grabbed the assault rifle leaning against the rock, and turned to rush towards the front line where the fighting was most intense.

Soon, his voice, carrying an unprecedented strength and determination, resounded through the radio, reaching every corner of the defensive line:
"All troops, please! This is Commander Jiang Feng! Halt the retreat! Condense the defenses! Take up advantageous positions, conserve ammunition, and deploy firepower in tiers! Give them a good beating! The boss has a backup plan! Repeat, the boss has a plan, reinforcements are on their way! Let those sons of bitches of ISIS die here tonight, and not a single one of them will leave!"

The order was quickly relayed to every soldier.

Although many people have doubts, and no one knows what the specific "backup plan" is, the name Song Heping is a symbol in itself, a symbol of miracles and victory.

If he says there's a chance, then there definitely will be a chance!

Hundreds of kilometers away, in the cool command center of the Bakta Green Zone.

Colonel Kurt watched as Song Heping's troops continued their fierce fighting on the screen, but they seemed to have stopped moving backward and instead tightened their grip, remaining stationary in place.

"Huh? What's going on?"

He couldn't help but frown slightly.

He then noticed that the red arrow representing the 1515 armed forces encountered stronger resistance when it touched the contracting blue defensive line, and its advance slowed down significantly.

"A death throes... but it's more resilient than expected."

He muttered something to himself, then casually picked up his slightly cooled coffee and took a sip.

He didn't pay too much attention to it, regarding it as a instinctive reaction of a cornered beast.

He didn't believe that Song Heping could pull off any tricks that would change the course of the war in such an absolute predicament where he was at a complete disadvantage in terms of troop strength, situation, and supplies.

What he was expecting was still the predetermined script—both sides would bleed to death, and then he would make his dazzling entrance.

But he would never know that at this very moment, in the invisible and intangible electromagnetic spectrum above the battlefield, several communication signals using special encryption algorithms, almost impossible for conventional equipment to detect, had already stirred up tiny ripples, like pebbles thrown into a seemingly calm lake, that were destined to spread into a raging storm.

The "backup plan" that Song Heping never revealed to anyone has already begun its precise and deadly countdown without anyone, including his closest comrades, being aware of it.

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

　　
　
(End of this chapter)