1044: Chapter One Thousand Twenty-Eight: Crossfire 1044: Chapter One Thousand Twenty-Eight: Crossfire Peter looked uncomfortable as he sat down on the corridor chair, but no sooner had he sat down than Dani stood up, speaking gravely, “This area is being temporarily cleared, many people are still to come, let’s wait somewhere else.”
Gao Yang and his group had a special identity, as did Peter and his group of Russians; after Dani had finished speaking, he immediately gave instructions to the hospital staff following him: “Arrange an office room right away, any room will do as long as it’s quiet and not too exposed to people.”
The hospital’s facilities were limited, and Gao Yang’s group was led to a conference room large enough to accommodate twenty people around an oval table, furnished with numerous chairs, quite suitable for resting and waiting.
Gao Yang was now sensitive to the term “machine gun”; he had just heard the Russians discussing machine gun fire, which wasn’t of much importance in a battle scenario, but Gao Yang wanted to understand what was happening because the Signal Flag folks had explicitly mentioned machine gun fire, suggesting there might be something special about it.
Gao Yang cleared his throat and then addressed Peter, who sat opposite him, “Mr.
Peter, can I ask you something?
Can you tell me what happened to your friends?”
Gao Yang didn’t want to reveal immediately that he could understand Russian, preferring to inquire in a more prudent manner.
Without any hesitation, Peter responded, “Colonel, now is not the time to satisfy curiosity.”
Gao Yang was straightforward too, “It’s not about curiosity.
What they encountered could be important to me.
I just want to understand the nature and location of their ambush.
You can share what doesn’t need to be kept secret.”
Peter turned to the Russians, waved his hand, and loudly said, “Leave out what can’t be said, and describe in detail what you encountered.”
One Russian stood up hesitantly and asked, “In great detail?”
Peter nodded, “In great detail.
We owe a big favor, if not now, then when?
I’m not your captain, but I’ve not asked you to disclose secrets.
I said, speak what can be spoken.”
The Russian then took out a folded map from his large pocket, walked briskly to Gao Yang, spread the small map on the table before him, pointed a few times over the map, and then pinpointed a location, saying, “This is where we were ambushed.”
Gao Yang looked and saw the ambush location was in the eastern district of Damascus, right at the frontline of the conflict between government forces and the Rebel Army.
Gao Yang frowned, unable to help himself, “Why go there?”
“Sorry.”
“Oh, apologies, I shouldn’t have asked that question, please wait a moment.”
The map, only covering part of Damascus city area, was small, but Gao Yang remembered that the rebel training camp they had noticed in the afternoon seemed to be along the road extending eastward from where the Russians were ambushed.
The map, marked in Arab, required Gao Yang to examine closely.
He recalled the position of the training camp noted in the afternoon, and looked again at the ambush point on the map to confirm that following the road further east indeed led directly to the training grounds.
Uncertain whether it was purely coincidental or somewhat related, after a long contemplation, Gao Yang nodded and said, “Alright, please continue.”
“The ambush site was at a crossroad where we had reached the most dangerous area.
Then a lead vehicle here noticed something unusual—a pile of rubbish that hadn’t been there the day before; it was construction debris.
Our captain immediately halted the convoy, and as his vehicle started to reverse quickly, the explosion occurred.
The explosion was powerful, but the odd part was the small size of the shrapnel reduced the impact of the explosion.
Our captain’s vehicle, being further away, was flipped over; the rest, you already know.”
After pondering for a moment, Gao Yang spoke in a deep voice, “Please detail your engagement process, and also, can you mention approximately how many of you were there?”
The soldier hesitated before finally answering, “We had five vehicles in total, including seven Syrians positioned behind the lead vehicle.
After the explosion, the second vehicle faced intense machine-gun fire, creating a dense crossfire network.
The machine gun posts were located here, here, and here.”
Gao Yang sighed softly, finding it increasingly intriguing; the Rebel Army’s machine-gun posts were arranged in a T-shaped pattern, one in the center with one on each side—a simple yet extremely effective and practical crossfire network.
During World War I, the Germans had developed a tactic of placing machine guns in front and firing at charging infantry from the flanks.
Modern infantry charges don’t cram into one group but instead advance in a spread-out line, keeping at least ten meters between soldiers.
Firing machine guns directly at an enemy attacking from the front means only fanning out the shots, which is likely to waste the vast majority of bullets with a low hit rate.
If each shot must be aimed, it would be a massive time sink, potentially leading to a breach in defense by the enemy.
But with two machine guns, one on the left and one on the right, forming a crossfire line targeting the enemy soldiers lined up approximately straight ahead, there’s no need for sweeping back and forth—just aim at one spot and fire away.
The difference in hit rates between swinging a machine gun side to side in fan-like sweeps and simply tweaking the gun slightly to focus steady fire on one point is strikingly clear.
Don’t underestimate the crossfire tactics invented during World War I; the original Rebels actually didn’t know how to use it.
But now, they do.
Gao Yang examined the map, noting the machine gun positions on either side, positioned over four hundred meters apart, directly pointing at the attack locations, a distance that greatly reduces the threat of assault rifles but does not impact the capabilities of machine guns.
Importantly, this distance prevents untrained Rebel Army forces from firing bullets sky-high when operating machine guns.
Gao Yang was now certain that the Rebel Army’s machine gunners had undergone specific training; the reason being straightforward—three machine gun positions strategically pre-arranged could not easily cooperate if originally each was operating independently, merely serving as individual fire points.
But now, those three formed a coordinated, simple yet effective killing system.
Gao Yang stroked his chin and fell into a long, silent contemplation about the Iron Wall Mercenary Corps’ combat tactics.
After reflecting for a while, he nodded and said gravely, “What type of machine guns are the enemy using?”
“The center one is an M2 heavy machine gun; the ones on the sides are light machine guns, 5.56 caliber, likely M249s.”
Gao Yang slapped the table and asked, “Why light machine guns?”
“The machine gunners on the sides are concealed.
That’s a street, a hotly contested area between government forces and Rebels.
I believe they use light instead of heavy machine guns for easier maneuvering into and out of concealed positions.”
Gao Yang frowned and said, “Good, contested areas, understood, please continue.”
“The first vehicle was overturned by a blast wave.
Upon realizing our convoy wouldn’t enter their firing range, the enemy intensely shot at the second vehicle entering their range, killing all seven aboard.
Our convoy retreated, and then we attempted to rescue our captain trapped inside the vehicle.”
Gao Yang waved his hand and asked, “How did you deal with the machine gunners?”
“Snipers; we had two snipers.
The enemy’s machine gunners were quite accurate, but they were slow in relocating.
Our snipers easily took down the front heavy machine gun position, then killed the left-side gunner, but couldn’t completely eliminate the right-side gunner.
The right-side gunner reacted swiftly, escaping the machine gun post upon realizing our sniper presence.”
Gao Yang nodded and instructed, “Good, please go on.”
“Under cover, we rescued our trapped captain.
The driver was already dead, then we withdrew, that’s all.”
Gao Yang raised his index finger, nodding, and then asked, “One question, did you observe any characteristics of the machine gunners, such as their ethnicity?”
A Russian glanced aside, then a sniper stood and said, “I am the sniper; I saw the front gunner’s face, a big beard with local features, unmistakably so.
I shot the assistant gunner on the right; I didn’t see his face clearly, but his dark hair is a common appearance for Syrians.”
Gao Yang nodded and acknowledged gratefully, “Thank you very much.
I would also like to know, based on your observations, did you find anything particularly distinctive about these machine gunners?
Please think carefully, any aspect will do.”
The group of Russians pondered, and soon one said, “Distinctive?
The distinct part is those damn good accurate machine gun shots, making it hard for us to move—an unusual competency for those bastards since they even used crossfire tactics for ambush.
Isn’t that distinctive enough?”
Gao Yang smiled, “Indeed, that’s quite distinctive.
But is there more?
Any finer details?”
“Yes, they sustained fire well, using 200-round belts, but with very short pauses for reloading, meaning the swapping of bullets was done swiftly.”
The sniper frowned and added, “I noticed a detail through my scope.
Their reloading motions were standard, but, well, much better and quicker than the rest of the Rebels, yet still not fast enough, like, uh, they’ve just learned the right way to operate machine guns but are not yet proficient.” (To be continued.
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