The Middle East: From War Correspondent to Middle Eastern Influencer

During these ten minutes, a person's physiological functions will drop to their lowest point, and it is also the time when alertness is at its lowest and one is most prone to drowsiness.

Wu Hen once again pulled the drone out of the pocket of his tactical vest.

On the screen, several clusters representing human body heat sources are very conspicuous.

The two sentries behind the broken wall at the entrance were huddled together to avoid the wind. Judging from the changing outline of the heat source, one of them was smoking; while the other was leaning against the corner of the wall, nodding his head, clearly in a half-asleep state.

The third sentry, who was hiding in the collapsed ventilation duct and was originally supposed to serve as a crossfire support point, was also present.

The screen showed him curled up motionless inside the pipe, seemingly fast asleep.

Although Hassan had served in the government army before and knew how to deploy crossfire, he clearly overestimated the bandits' ability to execute their plan at four in the morning.

"No matter how good the tactical plan is, if the people who execute it are a bunch of thugs who don't even have basic discipline, then it's just a piece of paper."

Wu Hen retrieved the drone and pulled down the AN/PVS-14 monocular night vision device fixed to the helmet tipping frame.

With a soft electronic buzzing sound, the world before Wu Hen's eyes turned into a fluorescent green.

He checked his equipment; the safety of his M4A1 carbine was off, and the pistol strap was undone from its holster on his thigh, ensuring he could draw it as quickly as possible from any position.

3:55 a.m.

Wu Hen had already reached the side and rear of the ruined wall.

Even from a distance of less than two meters, he could smell the cheap tobacco and the sour stench of not having showered for days emanating from the two sentries.

"It's fucking cold. That fat pig Hassan is inside sleeping with a woman while I'm out here starving!" one of the sentries muttered, flicking his cigarette butt to the ground.

"Say less, or he'll hang you up and beat you again if he hears you," another sleepy voice said.

Wu Hen pressed himself against the outside of the wall, waiting quietly.

A slightly stronger gust of cold wind from the Gobi Desert swept by, stirring up sand and dust on the ground, and making a piece of broken sheet metal on the crumbling wall rattle.

It's now!

Using the sound of the wind and the noise of the corrugated iron as cover, Wu Hen slid directly through the narrow gap between the crumbling wall and the collapsed warehouse door, a gap only wide enough for one person!

His movements were very stealthy; the barrel of his M4A1 was pressed tightly against his chest to avoid hitting any obstacles. In the instant he passed through the gap, he was less than half a meter away from the smoking sentry.

It did not raise any alarm.

The two sentries were still complaining about the cold, and the guy hiding in the ventilation duct was still snoring.

Wu Hen successfully broke through the first line of defense.

However, just as he was preparing to venture deeper and cross an open area filled with discarded oil drums, an unexpected turn of events occurred!

"Thump, thump, thump!"

A chaotic sound of footsteps treading on gravel suddenly came from the corner of the factory building at his ten o'clock position.

It's that four-person patrol team!

According to the route previously scouted by the drone, this perfunctory patrol team should have continued north along the outer wall and would not have turned into this oil drum area at all.

But for some reason, the armed man in charge seemed to have changed his mind and led his men to take a shortcut to the southeast corner!

"Damn it!"

Wu Hen cursed inwardly.

He was at the edge of an open area, with nothing to hide from except a few low, old oil drums. In the night vision goggles, he knew that the four men would run into him as soon as they turned the corner!

Retreat? Impossible. Although the sentries on the other side of the ruined wall haven't spotted him, he'll definitely make a sound if he turns around.

Should they fight head-on? Wu Hen's finger was already on the trigger of the M4A1, but once he fired, even with a silencer, it would attract the militants in a very short time. Not only would the $80,000 go down the drain, but he himself would also have to die here.

In a flash, his gaze fell on a ditch less than three meters to his side.

It was an abandoned sewage ditch from a chemical plant, covered with a cracked cement slab, and the bottom of the ditch was filled with rotten, foul-smelling sludge.

"Damn it!" Wu Hen cursed under his breath. A second before the patrol team's flashlight beam swept across the corner, he did a side roll and slid directly into the sewage ditch.

Wu Hen supported himself on both sides with his limbs, trying his best to avoid touching the mud. Above his head was the half-broken cement slab.

However, the mud inevitably stuck to his tactical pants, and the stench made his eyes water.

"Abdullah, what are you doing this way?" A patrolman's voice came from above.

"I think I heard some noise over here, so I came to check it out," replied the militant leader, Abdullah, whose footsteps stopped less than two meters from the sewage ditch.

Wu Hen held his breath, not daring to move an inch.

His finger was already on the trigger of the M4A1. If the other person peeked into the ditch, he would not hesitate to pounce.

The blinding white light of the tactical flashlight pierced through the gaps in the concrete slab and swept across Wu Hen's bulletproof vest.

Thanks to the darkness and silt deep in the sewage ditch, the patrol team did not find anything unusual.

"There's no noise at all, just the sound of the wind and those stray cats and dogs. Let's get out of here, this place stinks." Another companion urged, covering his nose.

"Maybe I misheard." Abdullah seemed to be overwhelmed by the stench as well. He shone his flashlight haphazardly a couple of times and then turned and left.

The footsteps gradually faded into the distance, and only when Wu Hen was sure that the patrol team had completely gone did he dare to slowly exhale the breath he had been holding in his lungs.

He used his hands to support himself on the edge of the ditch and climbed up with difficulty.

He was in a terrible state, his clothes covered in black, foul-smelling mud, and his legs were sticky.

"Damn it." Wu Hen shook the mud off his tactical gloves, pulled the bolt of the M4A1 to make sure the sewage wasn't clogging the barrel, which was very important.

Having evaded the deadly patrol, Wu Hen finally managed to infiltrate the core area of ​​the chemical plant.

This former main factory building was enormous, with a dome that was over ten meters high.

According to the intelligence provided by White Wolf, the batch of heavy equipment that Raven looted is most likely hidden in an underground warehouse or concealed area of ​​this main factory.

Wu Hen pressed himself against the massive concrete support pillar, using night vision goggles to carefully search for the internal firepower configuration and hidden sentry positions.

The factory's interior was a complex space. He saw a pile of NATO military rations, boxes of RPG rockets, and even two BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles covered with camouflage nets parked in the open space in the center of the factory.

"It really is a big fish." Wu Hen quickly memorized the locations of these high-value targets in his mind.

Just as he was about to approach a heavy, explosion-proof iron door deep inside the factory building.

Suddenly, a bad feeling came over me!

Then a series of heavy breathing sounds came from behind!

Wu Hen quickly turned around, and in the green vision of his night vision goggles, he caught a chilling scene!

It was an armed man holding a leash, and the dog he was holding was a large German Shepherd!

German Shepherds! They are often used to train as military dogs!

At this moment, the German Shepherd was lowering its front half, in an attack posture, staring intently at the load-bearing pillar where Wu Hen was hiding!