144: Chapter 143: Free Shooting 144: Chapter 143: Free Shooting Gao Yang and his team had completely discarded conventional tactics; the tanks and infantry were disjointed, lacking necessary protection, but it turned out that the effects were not bad at all.
After the battle entered a state of chaos, Hamis’s guards only managed to successfully fire a single rocket, which did indeed hit the tank Gao Yang was in, but the result was merely that it knocked off a loudspeaker from the tank; however, it is possible that those guards were aiming for the loudspeaker all along—although Glolov’s karaoke was not unpleasant to listen to, the guards being blasted with the terribly loud noise seemed to be suffocating from it.
The attack was aimed at a cluster of houses, typical residential buildings in the desert city, which basically provided no defensive protection against Gao Yang’s tank shells, but it became difficult to confirm whether or not their target, Abdul, was behind the high walls of the courtyard.
After the tanks entered the neighborhood, their movement was hindered, a terrain extremely disadvantageous for tanks; fortunately, Hamis’s guards neither had effective weapons nor means to attack the three tanks, and the high walls forced Glolov to turn off the loudspeakers on the tank because the noise reflecting off the walls made Gao Yang and his team inside the tank unable to bear their own amplified sounds.
Their primary search target was two armored Mercedes-Benz sedans; information from a captured officer indicated that Hamis was riding in one of the armored cars, and the other was used by a Libyan commanding officer.
Gao Yang wasn’t concerned about Hamis’s fate; he just felt that finding Hamis first was the only way to locate Abdul.
Li Jinfang drove the tank, making aggressive maneuvers on the narrow streets, while Glolov had stopped firing at random and was instead using co-axial machine guns to strafe every target he saw—he would only fire a shell if the targets were too many or hidden behind cover.
Green Mamba and his men had already breached the neighborhood and were engaged in fierce street fighting with Hamis’s guards, but there was still no news of the target being found.
However, only the external part of the buildings had been breached, so there was no need to be too anxious yet.
Seeing a house with an intact wall and two large iron gates, Li Jinfang rotated the tank on the spot and charged towards the gates.
The two iron gates were crushed under the tracks of the tank, and the moment the tank’s headlights illuminated the courtyard, Li Jinfang immediately roared, “Mercedes, found them!”
One of the Mercedes had already started its engine, and when the driver saw a tank burst through the gate, the Mercedes immediately reversed at high speed.
At the other end of the courtyard was another large gate, which was already open; the Mercedes sedan was attempting to escape through this other exit.
Glolov first fired a burst of bullets at the Mercedes, but the bullets only left white marks on the car’s windows.
Realizing the vehicle was armored, Glolov immediately fired a shell, sending the Mercedes that had reached the gate and was about to exit the courtyard flying into the air.
The shell hit the front of the Mercedes, and its tremendous impact sent the heavy armored car soaring into the air, flipping over before crashing back down, effectively blocking the gate—there was no way the car could leave the courtyard now.
Gao grabbed the tank’s radio and bellowed, “The target is with me, I repeat, the target is with me!
Quick, come support, don’t let anyone escape!”
After shouting, Gao grabbed the microphone again.
Though the music had stopped, the microphone could still be used for announcements.
He yelled in Chinese, “Abdul, we’re here to save you!
Stay hidden and take care!
When you see our people, reveal your identity promptly; remember to speak in English!”
Uriyangko had been following Gao and his team closely.
Hearing Gao’s call, he swung the barrel of his cannon around, made a turn on the spot just like Li Jinfang, and rammed the tank into the wall, creating a huge breach and storming into the courtyard, bricks tumbling from the tank.
Green Mamba quickly converged his forces towards Gao with two assault teams, while the other tank, upon receiving Gao’s command, refrained from rushing into the courtyard and instead stayed outside to cover the two tanks that had already entered.
The courtyard Gao and his team had entered was very spacious, housing four vehicles—besides the two armored Mercedes sedans, there were also two SUVs.
A large courtyard meant large buildings; to the north of the yard stood a sizable two-story house, and to the east side, closely adjacent to the house, was a row of wing rooms.
Several men rushed out of the house, only to be immediately gunned down by Glolov and Uriyangko with their co-axial machine guns.
Gao and Li Jinfang held their position temporarily, waiting for Green Mamba and his assault team to arrive so they could launch an attack together.
Knowing they were going into urban combat, Gao had donned a heavy-duty bulletproof vest with plate inserts, which made his movements quite cumbersome.
After opening the hatch of the tank, Gao squirmed his way to below the hatch, ready to rush out as soon as Green Mamba’s men arrived.
Green Mamba’s men arrived quickly.
In total, sixteen of them entered the courtyard from the side of Gao’s tank, leveraging the machine guns on the two tanks to provide suppressing fire and quickly moving towards the house’s door while avoiding the line of fire.
Seeing that Green Mamba’s men were in position, Gao wriggled out of the tank hatch, then immediately jumped down from the tank, pulled the bolt of his rifle, and crouched low as he rushed toward the house.
Inside the building, there were still quite a few people firing guns out of the windows.
Although most of them tucked their bodies below the windowsills, blindly shooting outside, this tactic still caused casualties among Gao Yang’s team.
Two members of the Green Mamba’s assault team were shot, one in the leg, but the other took a bullet in the neck that severed a major artery; blood was spurting everywhere.
Although he was immediately dragged behind the safety of a tank, it was clear that he wouldn’t survive.
The resistance from inside the building was fierce.
While those inside couldn’t break out, those outside couldn’t get in.
Green Mamba and his assault team clung to the exterior wall of the building, out of reach of bullets coming from doors and windows.
However, grenades thrown from inside could still pose a threat to them.
Nevertheless, after one of the Green Mambas quickly picked up a thrown grenade and tossed it back inside, causing an explosion, no more grenades were thrown from inside, as throwing them too far was useless, and there was a high chance they would be thrown back if too close.
Gao Yang rushed to the front of the building and ran up to where Green Mamba was standing against the wall, yelling, “How is it, can we break in?”
“No, there are at least twenty people inside, and we can’t throw grenades in there for fear of injuring your friend.
What do we do!
It would be best if we could capture a prisoner to interrogate.
Even if we don’t get an answer, at least we can try.
It’s better than being in this dilemma.”
Gao Yang was afraid of accidentally injuring Abdul, so he had told everyone not to fire at unarmed persons and to be certain of their identity before shooting.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have a photograph of Abdul or anything that could help others recognize what Abdul looked like.
Gao Yang also felt they couldn’t keep at a stalemate.
Although he was concerned about accidental injury, he couldn’t let Green Mamba and his team have heavy firepower at their disposal and suffer heavy casualties because they were too cautious about causing collateral damage.
Just when Gao Yang was feeling stuck between a rock and a hard place, he suddenly saw rhythmic flashing lights coming from a window in an annex of the building.
“Look over there!”
After yelling and pointing at the flashing room, Gao Yang shouted, “It seems that they’re signaling some sort of code over there!”
Green Mamba yelled excitedly, “Yes, that’s Morse code, let me see, it’s indeed correct!
This combination is SOS, wait, wait, it’s me here!
Damn, that’s where he is.
Now we can bombard the building.
Let’s go save your friend!”
After Green Mamba finished speaking, Gao Yang immediately grabbed the throat mic of the radio and bellowed, “All units, fire at will, fire at will!
Big Dog, wait for us to leave, then level this building!”
After saying that, Gao Yang clapped Green Mamba on the back, then got down on the ground and quickly crawled past the firing windows.
Green Mamba and the rest followed suit, dodging the bullets shot from the building, and quickly ran to the door of the room where the lights were flashing.
The door was locked from the outside.
Gao Yang yelled towards the interior, “Abdul, are you there?
Answer me in Chinese!”
An excited voice came from inside the room.
“Gao!
I’m in here!”
“Get back, I’m going to break the door down!”
The door that held Abdul was made of iron and looked very sturdy, also locked with a huge padlock.
After gesturing for the men behind him to make room, Gao Yang stepped back, took down the shotgun he was carrying on his back, which was already loaded with two breaching rounds, specifically for a moment like this.
As Gao Yang was about to fire, he heard two loud booms behind him.
Glolov and Uriyangko had opened fire.
Along with a wave of heat, bricks flew in all directions; a small fragment hit Gao Yang on the buttocks, causing him to cry out in pain before his shotgun also fired.
The breaching round, made of soft lead shaped into a large slug, had great kinetic energy but wouldn’t ricochet.
Although primarily designed for wooden doors, it should still have been able to shatter the lock.
However, due to the explosion, Gao Yang’s shot hit the iron door instead.
With his eardrums rattled by the close blast, Gao Yang’s ears were ringing, and he couldn’t hear anything.
Rubbing his ears with one hand, just as he was about to fire again, he noticed that the lock was open.
Gao Yang casually took off the lock, opened the hasp, pushed the door, and saw Abdul crouching in a corner.
As an excited Abdul stood up to lunge at him, Gao Yang immediately spoke into the radio’s throat mic, “Target is rescued, repeat, target is rescued.
Fire at will, or do whatever you want!
Now our mission is to search for the gold!”