Chapter 705 - 646: The Illegal Artillery Position

"Are these people from I5I5?"

On the sand dune, Song Heping slowly walked past each corpse, then turned his head to ask Latif, who followed by his side.

"Are they the same group that attacked your village?"

"It's them!"

Latif's teeth clenched with a grinding sound.

"These beasts! Animals!"

Seeing his raging fury, Song Heping did not ask any unnecessary questions about why he hated them.

In recent times, the Eastern region had never truly united, except for the time when a great leader named Saladin rose to fight back against the Crusaders. After that, the place became fragmented with tribes and states, merging and splitting, with people of the same ethnicity and belief divided into different factions, hating each other even more than they hated infidels.

"If these are people from I5I5, we need to hurry on our way. If I'm not wrong, tonight I5I5's actions won't be as simple as just targeting your village. It's likely that Samir is in their sights too."

Song Heping aired his speculation, urging everyone, "Let's retreat, hurry to Lavo Town, I suspect it's already become very chaotic there."

At these words, Latif also broke out in a cold sweat.

But right now, Samir had no phone service.

Because their People's Power Armed Forces weren't favored by the US Army, they often experienced electronic interference and even surveillance.

For safety purposes, Samir always used the most primitive messenger system to communicate.

This ancient method naturally had its pros and cons.

That is, communication was extremely inconvenient and the transfer of information was slow.

The advantage was that confidentiality was extremely high, almost unaffected by any technological devices.

Everyone got in the car and sped toward Lavo Town as fast as possible.

At a distance of one kilometer away, Song Heping saw a fireball burst from the darkness in the distance, then it slowly rose towards the sky.

It was obviously the glow from an explosion.

"Everyone be alert, stop the cars up ahead, let's proceed on foot; looks like a fight has broken out."

Both SUVs were now driving with their lights off, and upon receiving Song Heping's order, they immediately turned to park beside some trees.

Everyone got out of the cars.

Song Heping pointed in the direction of Lavo Town and said, "See that? There's a glow over there..."

Before he finished speaking, a rumbling sound of explosion faintly reached them.

"Seems like the fight has started."

He pointed at Jiang Feng, "Same old rules, Jiang Feng, you three take the lead as vanguard, we'll follow on your right rear side, Hunter, you cover our back, and Disaster Star, bring the M72 along."

After speaking, he went back to the car to get the M320 grenade launcher.

If I5I5 militants had attacked Samir's stronghold, it meant their numbers were definitely substantial.

Samir's current People's Power Armed Forces had over a thousand men, and even if not all of them were stationed in Lavo Town, at least a few hundred would be there.

To attack several hundred men, it was estimated that it would take an army of over a thousand.

At this thought, everyone's expressions became stern.

This was not some small-scale special forces operation, nor was it a mission to protect a VIP from attacks.

It was a real face-to-face battalion-level battle, where a moment of carelessness could lead to total annihilation.

From one kilometer away, they started advancing towards Lavo Town, and Song Heping also had a good estimate in his mind. Because if I5I5 had assembled thousands to attack Lavo Town, their formation would definitely not be just infantry. Even if their equipment was crude, they would definitely have mortars, and possibly even rocket launchers.

The encounter with I5I5's sentries several kilometers away also meant they had planned to set up various positions within a few kilometers, hence pushing the sentry line so far out.

Sure enough, having walked less than a hundred meters, a fireball appeared in a small grove of trees under a sand dune up ahead.

Leading the way, Jiang Feng's team stopped first and issued a warning over the radio, "About a hundred meters ahead there is a glow, looks like muzzle flash."

"Check it out, if it's I5I5's artillery position, take them out directly."

"Roger that."

Jiang Feng moved quickly, with Klein and Collins following him in an inverted triangle formation, surrounding the area.

Because the few trees had blocked the view, they hadn't seen clearly before.

But once they moved around, Jiang Feng discovered that it was an artillery company!

"Fuck!"

Jiang Feng cursed in the radio channel to express his surprise.

"There's a company's artillery position behind the trees on the back of the sand dune!"

This area was close to the Euphrates River, so there was more vegetation, with grass and trees in many areas, though it was not dense.

Through the sparse forest, one could clearly see a huge artillery position with twelve mortars set up. The artillerymen were busily loading shells and propellants, constantly stuffing them into the mortar muzzles.

The mortar tubes fired one by one, like fireworks during the Spring Festival.

Each shot illuminated the surrounding area with muzzle flash, and the people around were clearly visible.

At least seventy people!

"The three of us can't handle this, boss, you guys need to come up and help!"

"Alright, wait for us."

Song Heping said to Hunter, "Find a sniping position yourself, I won't give specific orders. Just do as you see fit."

"Got it, no problem."

Hunter turned and disappeared into the night.

The squad was small, and if a battle broke out, the intensity would be extremely high. These were the company's core operational members, all with excellent combat skills. Song Heping didn't need to give them detailed commands, especially not to Hunter.

He was a veteran sniper and knew exactly what to do.

Soon, the two groups converged.

Song Heping also had a clear view of the scale of the artillery position not far away.

Definitely tricky!

Six to seventy personnel, ten times the strength of his own team.

Even with a surprise attack, killing a dozen at the start, the remaining dozens would react and could be deadly.

Even if they couldn't kill his team of five immediately, any delay would draw a large number of reinforcements.

The situation was now very clear.

Tonight, armed I5I5 was taking major action to eliminate all people and villages associated with Samir's popular forces.

Lavo Town, as the central stronghold of the people's power militia, naturally could not escape the fate of being besieged.

As for whether other personnel were under attack at the moment, Song Heping wasn't sure, nor did he need to be.

He just needed to rescue Samir.

He had been worried about how to persuade Samir to join forces and take on armed I5I5, but now it seemed unnecessary.

Even if Samir wanted to keep to himself, it was impossible—the enemy had been targeting them for a long time.

The development of events seemed to be turning in his favor.

"They have too many people..."

Jiang Feng said, "There's no way our few can win against them!"

Looking at the I5I5 artillerymen bustling not far away, Jiang Feng shook his head.

"Right..."

After contemplating for a moment, Song Heping suddenly pointed in one direction and said, "Is that truck an ammunition vehicle?"

At that moment, everyone noticed a truck parked under a tree behind the artillery positions.

Next to the truck were stacks of boxes which several I5I5 artillerymen were moving one by one to the various artillery positions for the gunners to load and prime.

"Yes, it's an ammunition vehicle."

Jiang Feng said, "Old squad leader, are you planning to blow up their ammunition vehicle? But the truck is forty to fifty meters away from the artillery position. The blast won't kill that many artillerymen."

"Don't you think their artillery positions are somewhat in violation of operational procedures?" Song Heping suddenly smiled and turned to look at Jiang Feng.

"Right!"

Jiang Feng stared for a moment and finally saw the clue.

"Their artillery positions are too close together without enough space in between!"

"That's right," Song Heping said. "The devil is in the details. That's why foundational skills need to be solid; otherwise, it costs lives."

"But the distance is still too far," said Jiang Feng.

Song Heping said, "You guys wait here; Jiang Feng and I will go and take out their ammunition vehicle. Hunter, are you in position?"

"Just got into position, two hundred meters away, I can provide support."

"Good, later help me take out the two sentries next to the ammunition vehicle, and Jiang Feng and I will take care of those moving the ammunition."

"Are you planning to drive the truck into the artillery position to explode it?"

"No better plan than this."

"Be careful!"

Concern filled Hunter's reminder.

It was a risky move.

Of course, if it was successful, the payoff would be the greatest.

These I5I5 artillerymen's positions were so at odds with operating procedures, the spaces too small, almost crammed together.

Twelve artillery pieces, and two to three boxes of ammunition for each piece behind the enemy lines.

All it took was for the truck to rush over and detonate.

At least half of those sixty or seventy people would be joining their maker.

"Disaster Star, after the explosion, you immediately go all out. If you find any unexploded ammo boxes, hit them with an M72 round," Song Heping commanded.

"OK, no problem!"

Disaster Star flashed his white teeth in the darkness.

It seemed he was very eager to do just that.