287: Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty-Five: White Flag 287: Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty-Five: White Flag Superior firepower held absolute dominance, and so did the numbers, but the advantage of heavy weaponry couldn’t be fully utilized.
As for numerical superiority, launching a charge with a human wave tactic was tantamount to sending the soldiers of the Skull Gang to their deaths, and Gao Yang couldn’t bring himself to issue such a heartless command.
They held an urgent military meeting over the radio, but despite brainstorming, they still couldn’t come up with any viable solution.
After another ten minutes of delay, Gao Yang finally made up his mind.
Since there was no other way, he decided to go with the no-method method—disregard for casualties, and simply overpower the enemy.
Gao Yang feared that issuing an order that disregarded casualties would provoke dissent among the soldiers of the Skull Gang, but thankfully, the training over this period and the brilliant results during the attacks on the Mokadi Faction had raised their prestige to an extreme height.
Although everyone knew a direct assault would lead to significant casualties, no one opposed Gao Yang’s orders.
Once the orders were issued down the chain of command, neither the junior officers nor the soldiers showed any sign of fear, which was quite remarkable.
In Somalia, an army ready to execute a command that was bound to result in high casualties, without stumbling, was already a strong force.
In Somalia, no, in all of Africa, the most common mode of warfare should be like this: both sides pull together a few thousand people, then start shooting at the enemy they can’t see.
After dozens of casualties on both sides, one side declares victory and withdraws from the battle.
Then the other side also declares victory, and so a battle concludes.
If it is a fight for territory, outsiders can tell who won based on whether the land changed hands, but if it’s not about territory, no one really cares about the outcome.
Strangely enough, Africans seem to achieve more victories with machetes than they do with guns, of course, most of their victories with machetes are in massacres rather than in actual wars.
That Gao Yang was able to lead an army of almost a thousand men to charge was something he could be proud of.
But he couldn’t just do nothing and let these face-saving soldiers die for nothing, so Gao Yang ordered a half-hour artillery preparation before the charge.
They would fire off all the artillery and rocket shells they could, hoping to kill a few unlucky enemies by luck.
Even if they didn’t hit the mark, they needed to show the enemy their determination.
After Glolov had dispersed all of his direct artillery units and the heavy firepower assigned to the brother’s unit had entered hidden positions, Gao Yang shouted into the radio, “All units, pay attention: mortars, rocket launchers, RPGs, and both light and heavy machine guns, open fire at will on all possible enemy hiding spots.
Fire!”
At Gao Yang’s command, the irregularly shaped frontline erupted with gunfire and artillery.
The shells and rockets fell within the enemy-controlled area, but the scatter was indeed too widespread, which made Gao Yang somewhat regret wasting the shells.
As for the light and heavy machine guns, they at least could deliver the bullets where they were needed.
Although they couldn’t see any enemy, they at least let them know that they weren’t short of ammunition.
The firing mortars and rocket launchers did indeed provoke a counterattack from the enemy.
Even though they were guessing the positions, as Glolov had said, the enemy could still find the locations from which they were firing, even if they were in cover.
Fortunately, the enemy’s accuracy was somewhat affected.
The enemy’s first shell exploded about ten meters away from a rocket launcher, without causing any casualties, while the second shell damaged a rocket launcher that had just finished firing a round, but it did not result in any personnel casualties.
Upon realizing that the enemy’s artillery was too sparse to cause heavy casualties among the firing Skull Gang, Gao Yang’s apprehensive heart felt a bit better.
The enemy had limited retaliatory capability; as long as they maintained simultaneous firing, the enemy couldn’t respond along the entire front.
Gao Yang’s relaxed mood lasted less than two minutes before he grew despondent again, as the enemy no longer retaliated.
The bombardment from the Skull Gang seemed to inflict no harm on them, to the point where they seemed to simply ignore it.
Although Gao Yang wasn’t sure if his guess was correct, he couldn’t help but think that way.
Whether it was effective or not, Gao Yang felt that they had to persist.
The shells and rockets would be useless if left unused, especially with another two thousand rounds of ammunition ready to be delivered.
He decided to use everything up.
After all, it was the same old saying: even blindly killing one enemy would reduce the enemy’s firepower in the upcoming assault.
A few minutes later, the light and heavy machine guns fell silent first, as they needed to save some ammunition for covering the troops during the charge.
A few minutes after that, the rocket launchers also gradually ceased firing, preserving a round of ammunition for a volley in support of the infantry’s attack.
Only the remaining thirty-plus mortars continued bombarding without stop.
As the half-hour artillery preparation time was nearly up, Gao Yang glanced at his watch, preparing to issue the command to launch a general assault, when his communication channel suddenly filled with various voices.
“Commander, the enemy has raised a white flag!”
“This is Rabbit, I see the enemy has raised a white flag, repeat, the enemy has raised a white flag!”
Logically, the artillery preparation had been ongoing for more than twenty minutes, and at least a thousand shells had been fired.
Yet, Gao Yang immediately shouted through the walkie-talkie: “Cease fire, cease fire, no one is to advance without orders, no one is to open fire.”
If they could intimidate the enemy into capitulating without a fight, that would be the perfect outcome Gao Yang had been dreaming of.
The mortars stopped firing one by one, and the battlefield gradually quieted down.
Then Gao Yang urgently said in his walkie-talkie: “All commanders, pay attention, don’t fire unless we are attacked.
It’s best if we can end this peacefully.
Keep an eye on the locals who have just joined us; keep them close, whether they intend to or not, don’t let them spoil the situation.”
After finishing, Gao Yang walked a few steps and, using a pile of bricks for cover, stuck out his head and observed through binoculars.
He noticed that in the enemy area, several spots were indeed raising white cloth on sticks, and at two of them, the white cloth was being waved.
The enemy truly intended to surrender.
Soon, the battlefield fell into complete silence, with not a sound of gunfire.
And at that moment, from one of the enemy’s buildings, a soldier dressed in German jungle camouflage, holding a very large white flag, strode out with his head high and chest out to the middle of an open area between the two lines and stopped.
After stopping in the open area, the soldier waved the white flag several times and then gestured towards the place he came from.
After that, four more soldiers, carrying things, walked towards the open area.
(To be continued.
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