Middle Eastern tyrants

Chapter 21 The Defense of Nukoshir (Part 4)
"Artillery, artillery again!" Colonel Avi exclaimed. "Didn't we already send air troops to take out the enemy's artillery positions?"

"Report!" A scout came to report: "Lieutenant Ariel's squad has been wiped out. Three Mirage IIIs were shot down. They claimed they encountered an ambush by anti-aircraft positions!"

Colonel Avi was stunned. He hadn't expected that the Mirage III had been shot down. Could it be that the other side had a new type of homing missile?
But isn't this just a dual-command outpost?
An officer interjected, "Could it be that the intelligence from the 45th Armored Brigade is wrong? We're not fighting Shuangzhi's border troops at all, but the United States' garrison."

According to the intelligence they had gathered, the Nukoshir outpost in front of them was commanded by a young lieutenant colonel from the Shuangzhi royal family, whose father was the newly appointed Minister of Defense.

Upon hearing this news, everyone in the 7th Armored Regiment looked as if they had seen a ghost.

Colonel Avi glanced at the other man. "Should I personally escort you to Brigadier General Shaw and tell him, 'Your judgment has been wrong again'? And then change our battle plan?"

The officer fell silent upon hearing this.

Colonel Avi shouted, "No matter whose army is on the other side now—the Shuangzhi or the United States!—that's no excuse for us to avoid temporary setbacks. Listen up, we're going to fucking break through first!"

He paced back and forth in the makeshift command post, saying, "We're constantly being bombarded by artillery fire from the other side. Where are our proud artillerymen?!"

"The 6th Automated Artillery Regiment of the 38th Armored Division is expected to arrive before noon today." The adjutant wiped the sweat from his brow. "However, they don't have much ammunition left. It's said that the transport convoy behind them is stuck in the sand pit and they're looking for tow trucks to pull them out."

"The Kazakh Salt Flats are truly a cursed place."

Colonel Avi muttered, "Deploy the 6th Automated Artillery Regiment in the canyon 12 kilometers away and use their mobility and range advantage to bomb their command post!"

He added, "Let these country bumpkins see what true technological superiority looks like!"

Lu Lin had actually been searching for the enemy commander's whereabouts for the past two days, and if given the chance, he would like to give the enemy a precise "firepower bombardment".

Unfortunately, after the last incident, the opposing commander never showed his face again.

He also discovered a problem with the cheat: the "Eagle View" could only mark units of visible enemies.

If the opposing commander is sitting inside a tank, he can only mark the tank. But if the opposing commander dares to show his head, he can mark both the commander and the tank at the same time.

Just then, the air raid siren suddenly sounded!

Ahmed called to everyone in the staff room, shouting, "Take cover!"

Everyone quickly lay down, and Lu Lin also pulled Yehena, who was a bit slow to react, to the ground as well, and said to her, "Follow my posture!"

He supported himself with his elbows and knees, pressed his abdomen to the ground, and rested his forehead against his crossed forearms, with his fingers protecting the back of his head.

Yehena's face turned pale. In fact, not only her, but all the Shuangzhi soldiers except Ahmed looked terrified. They were basically all green recruits participating in the war for the first time.

About half a minute later, the shells landed, the dense sound of the shells like thunderclouds overhead.

The feeling of this real battlefield is different from the descriptions in books; it gives people a sense of suffocation from all sides.

Some soldiers with poor psychological resilience may break down on the spot.

Fortunately, the outpost's fortifications were strong enough. The command bunker at the Nukoshir outpost was semi-underground, and the light bulbs flickered due to the impact of artillery shells, with dust falling from the ceiling.

After a while, the shelling stopped, and everyone got up, still shaken. Ahmed looked at Lu Lin, who seemed unaffected, and couldn't help but praise him, "I didn't expect you to adapt so quickly."

"Maybe it's because I've been hanging out with the artillerymen lately, I've become a bit immune to the sound of artillery fire," Lu Lin explained casually.

He switched to eagle-eye view and flew a short distance along the direction of the artillery fire, quickly spotting the self-propelled artillery hiding behind the valley. "M50?"

Lu Lin was no stranger to Zion's self-propelled artillery.

The biggest difference between self-propelled artillery and traditional howitzers is that one has wheels, while the other can only be towed by a vehicle.

锡安的M50大多都是由谢尔曼或AMX-13坦克改装的，车子的下半部分是谢尔曼套着AMX-13的发动机，上半部分是155mm的M1榴弹炮，射程在14公里左右。

The biggest advantage of the M50 over traditional artillery is its "stop and fire" capability; it can be deployed and fired within one minute, while traditional howitzers take at least ten to fifteen minutes.

Lu Lin was extremely envious, but the other side was clearly wary of his artillery positions, deploying the automated artillery regiment far away and in a concealed manner.

"Lieutenant Colonel, what should we do now?"

The soldier's voice drew Lu Lin's attention back to the command post. He said, "Let them bomb if they want to. Our main target remains the Tin Armored Forces."

Let them fight their battles, and we'll fight ours.

Everyone looked at each other.

Khalid understood his meaning: "Our goal is to delay their offensive as much as possible, and once the UN ceasefire is reached, victory will be ours!"

Lu Lin nodded: "That's right, that's exactly what I mean. Let Zion's artillery regiment bomb if they want to, as long as the armored forces don't get right in our faces, we'll be fine!"

Lu Lin was trying his best to avoid a direct confrontation with Zion's armored forces, and was adopting a strategy of exchanging artillery fire as much as possible.

Otherwise, even if only one Chieftain truck came charging over, their defenses would be severely damaged. Most of his men were raw recruits who hadn't even grown up yet, and their morale would collapse as soon as that metal lump came over them.

So as long as it doesn't involve close-quarters combat, he can accept it; at worst, everyone can just engage in a firefight.

"Get me to the reconnaissance platoon and find out where the shells came from!"

"We still need to put on a show," Lu Lin instructed. "Artillery positions, provide fire coverage, get Zion's artillery regiment moving. We can't let them have it so easy!"

In the evening, at the 7th Armored Regiment headquarters, Colonel Avi was sweating profusely as he made a phone call.

After being blocked for 48 hours by a border checkpoint in Shuangzhi, Brigadier General Ger of the 38th Armored Brigade had reached the peak of his anger.

Colonel Avi explained while wiping his sweat: "The commander on the other side is cunning. Their howitzers can't penetrate our tanks, but they're targeting our engineers and maintenance crews!"

The entire route was riddled with anti-tank mines they had laid, preventing the engineers from advancing and hindering our armored forces from utilizing their advantages!

"Artillery? Our artillery is firing back at them!"

Colonel Avi's forehead was covered in sweat, and his back was bent lower and lower.

However, Brigadier General Gerrard softened his tone afterward, and Colonel Avi nodded repeatedly.

The new adjutant beside him vaguely heard the words "United Kingdom" and "Warrior-class" being mentioned on the other end of the microphone.

Colonel Avi's eyes suddenly lit up, and he straightened his back and said in a firm and powerful voice, "I assure you, by noon tomorrow at the latest, we will definitely take the Nukoshir outpost!"

(End of this chapter)