590: Chapter 585: The Amazing Old Instructor 590: Chapter 585: The Amazing Old Instructor All-out war preparation, that was what everyone from the Satan Mercenary Corps to the entire Skull Gang was doing.
The Skull Gang, among all forces in Somalia, was rare in adopting an elite force strategy.
The real standing army, specially prepared for combat, consisted of about twelve hundred people, barely the size of a regiment.
The standing army of twelve hundred was strong and well-equipped.
Although they had just suffered a defeat, their morale was still high.
United in spirit, they were preparing for a battle that could turn the tide.
Gao Yang had great confidence in these soldiers.
Besides the standing army, there was the navy.
Yes, these people were specifically for collecting fees at sea, which frankly meant robbing at sea.
This group was not too large, comprising about six hundred people.
If necessary, they could also be mobilized to fight onshore and were responsible for transportation.
As for the title “navy,” it was something to be taken lightly with a laugh.
The rest were the garrison troops, the most numerous, with over three thousand people, who were usually responsible for maintaining order and consolidating newly occupied territories.
The combat strength of the garrison was not strong, but the Skull Gang’s garrison was trained, unlike some other forces.
Those pirates or local warlords counted anyone who could carry a gun as a soldier.
They fought as pirates with a gun, and without it, they worked as fishermen or farmers.
Compared to them, the combat ability of the Skull Gang’s garrison was somewhat stronger.
In previous battles of the Skull Gang, deploying just the Instruction Platoon along with some of the standing army was always tremendously successful; they could defeat the enemy without even getting a chance to fight a tough battle.
After several continuous expansion battles, Maide and Abu misjudged the situation.
They deployed the Instruction Platoon, plus six hundred from the standing army and five hundred from the garrison, fully expecting to swallow Gaedale as before.
Unexpectedly, they encountered tough resistance and not only failed to conquer Gaedale but also suffered heavy losses.
Under these circumstances, the first thing Gao Yang did was to gather the standing army to prepare for deployment against the British-led forces in Gaedale.
The Skull Gang was not solely focused on expanding eastward; they were expanding both eastward and westward at the same time.
The eastern front had met resistance after reaching Gaedale, but the western front had been smooth sailing, reaching a place called Ras Kalaan.
If not for the setback at Gesale, the expansion focus of the Skull Gang should have been the western front.
From the map, heading east from Bosaso first passes through a mountain range, followed by Gandara, and then another range of mountains.
The coastal road to the north takes a big detour south, which is inconvenient for transport.
Heading west is different, with a coastal road running along the coast of northern Somalia.
The Skull Gang intended to expand westward, but although the terrain was favorable in the west, there were also many forces.
After taking Ras Kalaan, they first had to station half of the standing army there to hold it, so although the western front was a priority, progress was not very fast.
As the overall commander, Gao Yang’s first order was to recall the standing army stationed at the western front in Ras Kalaan back to Bosaso and to regroup them with the other half of the standing army that had been damaged in the attack on Gesale.
As for the defense of Ras Kalaan, it naturally fell to the garrison.
Good steel must be used on the edge of the blade, not only were the elite troops concentrated for use, but heavy weapons also needed to be amassed together.
The heavy weapons of the Skull Gang included mortars, rocket launchers, and heavy machine guns among others.
Previously, the Skull Gang distributed heavy weapons evenly among all the standing army units.
However, after Gao Yang took over command, his first act was to concentrate all the artillery to establish a large artillery team capable of providing fire coverage.
Over time, the Skull Gang’s mortars and rocket launchers had increased significantly.
Now, they had sixty 107mm rocket launchers, one hundred and ten 60mm mortars, and fifteen recoilless guns mounted on jeeps.
Although these were light artillery, in Somalia, whether in terms of the number or quality of guns, the artillery unit of the Skull Gang was the strongest.
Most importantly, the current Skull Gang’s artillery team had changed significantly under Gao Yang’s leadership.
With Zhou Zhou’s training, the artillery skills of the Skull Gang had greatly improved compared to the former poorly trained instructors and students.
After reviewing the Skull Gang’s artillery, Gao Yang felt much less pressure.
He truly hadn’t expected that Maide would devote all efforts to developing the artillery, not only willing to spend money on buying guns and ammunition but also on training.
Having such a powerful artillery team, during battles, they only needed to focus on positioning the guns and bombing away.
In Somalia, having such heavy artillery meant winning more than half the battle against any force.
The artillery of the Skull Gang gave Gao Yang a pleasant surprise.
However, apart from that, everything else was as he had anticipated.
The overall strength of the standing army had improved, but only to a limited extent.
After all, Jiang Yun and Zhou Zhou were just two people; no matter how hard they tried, they could not substantially enhance the combat capability of the standing army in a short period of time.
As for the standard of the Instruction Platoon, under Jiang Yun’s training, it was elevated to another level.
The strategy of the Skull Gang was initially to enhance the capability of the Instruction Platoon and then use it to boost the overall strength of the Regular Army.
However, this process required time, significant time.
Training an elite force was not something that could be achieved in a day or two, especially not in a place like Somalia.
The soldiers of the Skull Gang were almost all extremely illiterate, initially having a very weak foundation.
Gao Yang had a deep understanding of this; when they first taught the Regular Army soldiers to march correctly, it took several days just to distinguish left from right.
Now, the ability of the Regular Army to perform correct tactical maneuvers and to coordinate slightly complex interoperational battles within platoons and squads within less than a year was something Gao Yang already found quite remarkable from Jiang Yun.
The limit of the Regular Army was coordination at the platoon level within a company for squad and platoon-scale operations.
Expanding this to a company scale, it became difficult to get them to perform coordinated operations proactively.
As for battalion-level, expecting commanders to adaptively collaborate based on battlefield conditions was simply impossible.
In general, to command the Skull Gang’s Regular Army, which only had the scale of a regiment, one could not act like a real regiment commander who would issue orders and then wait for lower commanders to get things done.
As the highest-ranking officer, one must be personally involved in everything and give extremely clear orders to every junior commander.
It was precisely because of the lack of commanding skills among the Skull Gang that, although there were now two battalion commanders, during combat the Regular Army could at most operate at the company level.
The battalion commanders were essentially just for show.
After gathering information, understanding the paper strength of the Skull Gang’s army, Gao Yang went down to the troops to observe the soldiers’ combat capabilities himself.
The Regular Army was essentially the foundation Gao Yang and his colleagues had laid down.
As the highest commander when the Skull Gang captured Bosaso, after descending to the company level, there was hardly anyone who did not recognize Gao Yang and his colleagues.
Wherever these veteran officers went, they were warmly welcomed, astonishing the newer members of the Satan Mercenary Corps.
How strong was the commanding capability displayed by Gao Yang and his peers when they captured Bosaso?
Actually, not particularly, as they merely capitalized on the Skull Gang’s mindset of the underdog, yet they swept through Bosaso in an overwhelming victory.
The ordinary soldiers did not feel that the Mokadi Faction they fought was a weak division that could hardly be weaker.
In their eyes, the numerous and formidable Mokadi Faction was terrifying; thus, they only felt that it was a minority overcoming the majority, a remarkable battle.
Before the arrival of Gao Yang and his peers, the idea of capturing Bosaso and completely wiping out the Mokadi Faction was unthinkable.
Having commanded an incredible battle and belonging to the esteemed Instruction Platoon within the Skull Gang, which boasted daily about being personally trained by instructors from the Satan Mercenary Corps, they flaunted this proudly to demonstrate their prowess.
Indeed, they were the most formidable, making it difficult for Gao Yang and his fellow old instructors to lack prestige.
In some respects, these initial instructors had become legendary.
The Skull Gang had expanded its scale, but those who had fought under Gao Yang and others were considered veterans.
These veterans boasted in front of the new recruits about having fought under the old instructors, and the recruits listened to the magical stories of the old instructors and then let their imaginations paint these characters, thus establishing the mystical images of the old instructors within the ranks of the Skull Gang.
Everyone knew that when the Skull Gang was first established, several old instructors came; they were capable of anything.
They procured food and arms, trained the troops to be invincible in attack and unbeatable in defense, and during crucial times they even sacrificed themselves to save everyone in the Instruction Platoon.
Everyone knew that when the Skull Gang was first formed, it was nearly obliterated by some very formidable foreigners.
Yet, with the help of the old instructors, all these extremely dangerous foreigners were eliminated; even the leader, Maide, and Abu, who were both thought to have been mortally injured, were saved by an old instructor.
Everyone knew that the capture of Bosaso was entirely due to a few old instructors.
Their incredible presence led a Regular Army of less than one thousand to obliterate the Mokadi Faction’s several thousand soldiers.
Although the battle was fought by all, without the old instructors’ command, victory would have been impossible.
Under the command of the old instructors, victory was certain; they were that incredible.
No matter how absurd it sounds, the notion of the old instructors’ miraculous prowess was entrenched in the minds of the Skull Gang’s soldiers.
Yes, Gao Yang and the five other individuals were these six mystical old instructors in the eyes of the Skull Gang’s soldiers.
(To be continued.
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