Along the flat road, trucks roared past one after another, kicking up clouds of dust.
Lei Cheng sat in the jeep, glancing back every so often, afraid the enemy would catch up.
"I wonder how things are going over at Gao Sheng's end!" Liu Guo said, his face tense.
Chen Quan sighed. "We've already cut off contact. That way Red Team won't notice any flaws. For the rest, we can only leave it to fate."
"Relax, Gao Sheng won't drop the ball!" Lei Cheng settled back into his seat. "The soldiers have been holding a belly full of anger for ages. They're definitely going to hit hard!"
"Brigade Commander!"
A vehicle roared up and drove alongside Lei Cheng's.
The reconnaissance company commander shouted anxiously, "The enemy is coming up fast. They'll catch us in about five minutes!"
"Good!" Fighting spirit burned in Lei Cheng's eyes. "Tell everyone: once we're caught, stop at once. We'll block them right here on this road!"
"Understood!"
"Finally, it's happening!" Liu Guo rubbed his hands together, his face full of excitement. "This is our first time counterattacking Red Team. I feel strangely thrilled!"
"Me too!" Chen Quan laughed heartily.
"Then let's give them a good beating!" Lei Cheng drew his pistol, his face cold and resolute.
In the forest beside the road, Gao Sheng had leaves stuck all over his body as camouflage. Crouching beside a tree, he watched coldly as tanks rumbled across the road.
"How arrogant!" Gao Sheng spat. "Su Chen was right. They didn't take us seriously at all. They don't even have security posted!"
The Third Company Commander asked eagerly, "Regiment Commander, when do we open fire?"
Gao Sheng fixed him with a stare. "Have you finished everything I assigned you?"
"All done!" the Third Company Commander said excitedly. "All the brigade's 40mm rocket launchers, mortars, and artillery have been concentrated in one place. The moment you give the order, we can open fire!"
"Good!" Gao Sheng nodded eagerly. "Once they're stuck on the road, fire at once!"
Boom, boom, boom...
Just then, the rumble of artillery fire rose in the distance.
Everyone turned toward the sound, and they could clearly see columns of white smoke rising into the blue sky.
"It's started!" Gao Sheng said solemnly. "Tell everyone to get ready for battle. We can't let the brigade commander and the others die for nothing!"
"Understood!"
At the other end of the road, the two Red Team division commanders had already linked up at one point.
Ma Jianhui gazed at the black smoke ahead and grinned. "We've caught up. They can't escape now!"
Shi Dajun laughed heartily. "Old Ma, we're probably the fastest force ever to wipe out Blue Army."
Ma Jianhui chuckled. "We've got new equipment, and our numbers are more than double Blue Army's. If we fought the same way as everyone else, we'd be embarrassing ourselves!"
"Then should we speed things up?" Shi Dajun laughed. "If we annihilate Blue Army before the Army Commander arrives, that'll be good news for him!"
"Definitely worth doing! Blue Army is so weak. I think one hour will be more than enough!" Ma Jianhui nodded vigorously.
The two of them immediately ordered that all tanks ignore everything else and advance at full speed.
They had to annihilate Blue Army within one hour.
Boom, boom, boom...
A fierce firefight broke out on the road.
The moment the enemy caught up, Lei Cheng had all the trucks block the road to buy time.
Chen Quan and Liu Guo personally commanded the fighting, standing with the soldiers to hold back the enemy's assault.
But their weapons were inferior, and Red Team fought them in an utterly overwhelming way.
With more and more tanks charging in, in less than ten minutes most of Lei Cheng's side were dead or wounded.
Bang!
A shell landed nearby, and Lei Cheng and Liu Guo were both blasted, smoke rising from their bodies.
"Damn it, why isn't Gao Sheng firing yet?" Lei Cheng roared in fury. "If he doesn't open fire soon, we'll all be dead!"
At that very moment, in the forest beside the road,
Gao Sheng personally hefted a 40mm rocket launcher, aimed it at a tank below, and pulled the trigger.
Whoosh!
The rocket burst from the tube and struck that tank with precision.
In an instant, the entire tank belched billowing white smoke and was declared "destroyed."
"Fire! Hit them hard!" Gao Sheng bellowed.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
Boom, boom, boom...
In almost no time, more than forty 40mm launchers and over thirty heavy artillery pieces opened fire all at once.
On the road, tanks were blasted one after another, smoke rising from them as they stopped.
The steel tide that had been rolling forward quickly ground to a halt, and nearly the entire road was blocked.
The 40mm launcher is a marvel for close-range attacks on tanks.
Although Red Team had switched to new tanks with strong frontal armor,
Gao Sheng's side was ambushing them from the flank, specifically targeting tank sides.
If one shot didn't do it, two would, and they'd surely knock out a tank.
Ma Jianhui and Shi Dajun stared in shock, their mouths hanging open, completely disbelieving.
"Damn it, they actually set up an ambush!" Shi Dajun fumed.
Ma Jianhui anxiously said, "We've been fooled. The Army Commander was deceived too. Now they're making a desperate last stand!"
"The road is blocked now, and our attack has failed. We must pull all the tanks back immediately, or our losses will only grow!"
Shi Dajun was so furious he felt his lungs might burst, but he also knew that if they didn't withdraw in this situation,
even if they won, they would suffer terrible losses.
Losing heavily to a lightly equipped mobile force would be an utter humiliation.
"Pull back!" Shi Dajun roared. "Once everyone's out, we'll regroup and wipe them out in one go!"
The two of them immediately ordered all tanks to turn around and retrace their route to regroup.
No sooner had the order been given than an officer cried out in alarm, "Look, behind us!"
Ma Jianhui and Shi Dajun quickly turned their heads, their pupils dilating in shock.
Behind them, a great fire had somehow ignited, and billowing smoke was drifting rapidly toward them on the wind.
"There's fire over there too!"
"Over there, and there too!"
Ma Jianhui and Shi Dajun's heads spun around, and they realized fires had broken out on all three sides.
Thick smoke surged in like a tide, and visibility dropped at once.
"What's going on?" Shi Dajun was bewildered. "Are we... are we being encircled by Blue Army?"
Ma Jianhui shook his head. "Impossible. We've been fighting for over a day. Blue Army should be wiped out by now. Where would they get so many people?"
"Division Commander, look!" an officer suddenly shouted in alarm.
The two of them immediately followed his pointing finger.
At the sight, both of them were badly startled.
Beside the fire on the left, many civilians were feeding firewood into the flames.
The two suddenly understood: Blue Army must have called on the nearby residents to help.
"Isn't this cheating?" Shi Dajun's mouth twitched.
Ma Jianhui was also furious: "They must have planned this from the start! They used smoke to cut down our visibility, then had the civilians block the road so we couldn't break out. If you can't beat us, you can't beat us, but using this trick is so despicable!"
"What do we do now?" Shi Dajun asked. "Should we report to Commander Yao?"
"There's no time!" Ma Jianhui shook his head. "Even if he knew, it wouldn't solve the current situation!"
Staring at the fiercely firing hillside, he said coldly, "Have our men dismount. Leave one-third of the tanks to pound the hillside, and have the rest go up and wipe them out. We'll break through head-on!"
Shi Dajun gaped. "Old Ma, we're armored forces. You want us to fight on foot?"
Ma Jianhui glared at him. "There's no other choice now. Otherwise the civilians will block us in, and then we'll be the targets. Better to use this method. We outnumber them, so wiping them out is no problem, and we can keep our tanks intact!"
Shi Dajun thought it over. There was really no other option now.
"Fine, let's do it!"
The two of them immediately gave the order!
At the same time, Su Chen had already led the 2nd Company swiftly toward them.
A battle that would shock the entire military was about to begin!