Chapter 639 - 581: Firefight Ahead

From Kabul to Kandahar, this southbound road was not unfamiliar to Song Heping.

Over two years ago, he disguised himself as a drug lord from Central Asia together with a US Special Forces officer named Mist, and headed south from here to Helmand Province to find Rabbani, an undercover agent of the Revolutionary Brigade, leading to a precise clearance operation by the US Army on a drug production facility.

It was also because of a sudden change in the situation at that time, which led to being chased by the armed forces of the Revolutionary Brigade, forcing them to continue retreating west and eventually crossing into Persia from the highland area.

Returning to this familiar place now, looking at the almost unchanged, even more dilapidated streetscapes and desolate scenes outside the window, and the villages destroyed by the war, as well as the locals who walked by, looking at the military vehicles with a blank and hollow gaze, he couldn't help but feel a deep sigh.

If a country is entangled in war, it is the common people who suffer the most.

Heaven is unkind and treats everything as straw dogs.

The traditional cultural wisdom of China, nurtured over thousands of years, always shines with the light of wisdom.

There was no time for more sentiments.

Song Heping was now more vigilant.

It's exactly the fear of what might come.

In a place like Afghanistan, including the US Army, all military personnel, unless on special operations, would return to their outposts or camps at night.

Staying out was an unwise choice.

However, it was already four thirty when they departed from Kabul.

The distance from Kabul to Kandahar is over four hundred kilometers, coupled with the fact that this route traverses through mountainous highland areas, in this impoverished country one can't even talk about highways, let alone decent national roads, armored vehicles and tanks of Old America frequent these roads, and anyone familiar with tanks knows these paths are often in bad condition.

Dust swirled all along the way, and everyone covered up with their combat scarves.

Song Heping had combat experience in Afghanistan, and before departure, he repeatedly emphasized that everyone must have at least two combat scarves.

These items are essentials in desert regions and places like Afghanistan, useful for wiping sweat, covering the head to protect from sunburn, shielding the face from wind and sand, filtering dirty water for survival, and can even be used to make simple fishing nets.

The convoy had just passed Ganiz, running a hundred kilometers, as the sky began to darken.

"I estimate we won't reach Kandahar City before 9 tonight, maintain distance between each truck, drive with low lights, do not close the canopy on the vehicles, and have each vehicle set up vigilance personnel responsible for observing the surrounding situation, also, start checking your night vision devices, test if they're functioning properly, nightfall is soon, and I remind you, this place is truly Hell, don't lose your lives here, we only get the bonuses if we return alive, I don't want the insurance company to end up compensating your families."

Song Heping began issuing commands using a radio transceiver.

"First platoon, received."

"Second platoon, received."

The voices of Gabri and Arthur rose in the channel.

Arthur had been promoted to platoon leader of the second platoon following his outstanding performance in operations against the Los Zetas Organization in Mexico.

Currently, under Grey Wolf's management, the Falcon School has three special operations platoons, among which the first and second platoons are relatively mature, and the third platoon consists of recruits who joined less than three months ago. Although these people had some military background before joining, some were ex-soldiers, some former police officers, and even some had been gangsters from some South American country, joining the Falcon School for various reasons.

According to Grey Wolf's plan, the first special operations company of Falcon Special Soldier School must use "Falcon" as its codename; future goals might include a battalion or even a regiment, different companies using different codenames, but the first company must be the one with the fiercest combat power and only the first company is entitled to use the "Falcon" designation, representing the highest training standard of the school.

The mercenaries of the first and second platoon had undergone at least eight months of special warfare training. This time, Song Heping brought them out to truly join the genuine operations of the "Musician" Defense Company to play their roles.

And the subsistence allowances for missions were extremely substantial.

Commonly, without assigned missions, their salary was only 1500 US dollars, but once deployed to a combat zone, depending on the mission, they could earn a monthly salary between 8000 to 20000 US dollars, with additional commissions for special missions.

Great rewards beckon brave warriors.

Thus, no one was afraid of being deployed, instead, they were more eager.

"Why isn't there even a village here?"

"Are they asleep so early?"

"Do you still think you're in Venezuela? After 8 PM, there are hardly any people alive at the Venezuela School."

"Are you guys looking for some booty?"

The next hundred kilometers went smoothly, with no unexpected incidences.

Occasionally, they saw a few figures by the roadside, but they turned out to be local villagers, causing the Special Forces mercenaries to tense up for a moment before relaxing again and starting idle chatter.

At 8:10 PM, the convoy had passed Jalehdak, and forty kilometers further south would take them into Kandahar.

Song Heping breathed a sigh of relief in silence.

This time, there should be no problem.

"Old squad leader, Afghan isn't that scary after all..."

Just as Jiang Feng was turning his head, smiling and about to tease Song Heping about being overly anxious, they suddenly heard intense gunfire from a distance.

"Fuck!"

He exclaimed.

"Contact ahead!"

Everyone's nerves instantly tightened.

"At what o'clock?"

"10 o'clock!"

"The distance is a bit far!"

The communication channel immediately became lively.

"Increase vigilance!"

Gabri commanded over the radio for the trucks to enter combat mode.

Everyone immediately crouched down below the compartment shields.

The shields of the military trucks were reinforced for bulletproofing, capable of resisting 7.62 caliber bullets.

Although the rebels in Afghan often use heavy machine guns like the Desheka, it's better than nothing.

"The exchange of fire is at the intersection ahead." Jiang Feng had already poked half his body out from the top machine gun position of the Humvee, and through the night vision goggles, he saw the location of the firefight.

Song Heping also noticed the muzzle flashes at the intersection ahead.

Clearly, there were people there.

But were they enemies or allies?

The situation was completely unclear.

This was the most troublesome scenario in Afghan battlefields.

The deployed forces here included the Multinational Coalition with interchangeable radio channels, but since he and his men were new arrivals with independent radios, they weren't connected to the coalition military channels.

This caused a problem.

If they proceeded blindly without clear information and passed through the firefight zone, they would be regarded as enemies by both sides, and falling into that situation would be the most miserable scenario.

"Stop the vehicles, I need a three-man team to come with me to check it out."

Song Heping quickly made a decision.

"Collins, you stay on the vehicle responsible for the radio and observation. Klein, you man the rooftop machine gun. Gabri, Arthur, order everyone to disembark and find cover nearby. Jiang Feng, you take two people with me to see what's going on ahead."