618: Chapter Six Hundred and Eleven: The Bone-Paring Knife 618: Chapter Six Hundred and Eleven: The Bone-Paring Knife “Charge!
Push forward!
Locate the enemy snipers!
Thunderbolt, prepare for fire support!”
Gao Yang bellowed his orders.
To deal with the enemy snipers, they had no choice but to quickly close in and engage in street fighting.
There was simply no other way, and as for casualties, there was no time to consider them now.
They had helicopters in the sky and artillery on the ground, yet even so, dealing with the enemy snipers was still a challenge since no one could pinpoint where the snipers were hiding.
With so many buildings around, it wasn’t easy to spot snipers shooting from within houses.
However, although snipers were hard to spot, ordinary infantry couldn’t hide.
Under the onslaught of helicopter and artillery fire, any major enemy fire points on the defensive line that dared to reveal themselves were quickly blown to smithereens.
At this moment, what mainly stopped the Skull Gang soldiers from entering Gazaley were the regular infantry.
Although the snipers caused significant casualties among the charging soldiers, especially targeting the junior officers, without the regular infantry, they lost their support and cover, making it impossible to stop the frontline from collapsing.
The first to break through the defenses was the Second Platoon.
After their platoon leader was killed by an enemy sniper, the Second Platoon no longer had a commanding officer.
Instead of being afraid, they charged ferociously, braving the enemy’s fire to rush into the urban area.
Calling Gazaley a city was a compliment; in Huaxia, it would barely be considered a large village, with scattered low buildings and a population of just over three thousand.
But now, this large village was swarming with over five thousand people, most of whom were pirates or armed personnel.
As the Skull Gang expanded their territory, pirates who fled the area took up residence in Gazaley.
With the addition of the original residents, the village was crowded to the brim.
Because of the common enemy, the Skull Gang, the pirate groups, despite the close quarters, had not fought each other, instead merging under the leadership of the British to unite against the Skull Gang.
For the Skull Gang, no matter how many disparate groups the pirates gathered, they were just a piece of fat meat.
The only question was whether to swallow it in one bite or in several.
However, with the British involved, that piece of fat meat now contained some hard bones, and swallowing it was no longer so straightforward.
The attacks from the southwest and the sea met fierce resistance; they couldn’t make any headway.
Despite support from helicopters and artillery, the British had quickly built bunkers, firmly blocking the attacking forces from entering the city.
The only area where the situation was being opened up was the northeast, the main attack direction, but progress was not smooth.
Whether it was the numerous new barricades on the roads or the nearly all fortified houses, artillery and helicopter attacks worked well against the barricades but struggled against the solid strongpoints.
Gazaley was now like a piece of fatty meat that had grown a few hard bones, and no one knew exactly where those bones were located.
When confronting barricades and strongpoints occupied by pirates, they could be taken down after a few attacks, but for those held by the British, the Skull Gang’s assaults often came to naught.
Gao Yang and his group were like a knife, the vanguard found the hard bones they couldn’t swallow and passed them on for the Instruction Platoon to deal with.
Gao Yang had to seize Gazaley quickly because the British reinforcements would soon arrive.
He needed to act swiftly; if too much time was wasted, the outcome would be uncertain.
The British forces were already at sea, and they had gathered at least three hundred soldiers who were on their way.
Most of the British in Gazaley City were employees of British maritime security companies, along with some mercenaries.
The mercenaries were of less concern—dead is dead—but losing too many security company employees was a serious issue.
Among other issues, compensation had to be paid for the deceased security company staff.
If all the British trapped in Gazaley were killed, the British companies wouldn’t be able to afford compensation, and who knows what kind of uproar it would cause.
The British had to rescue their people trapped in Gazaley, so they gathered their forces as quickly as possible and rushed to Gazaley for a forced evacuation.
Gao Yang had to resolve the situation before the British reinforcements arrived, so even though the circumstances in Gazaley were not yet clear, he still had to enter the fight.
Without waving his hand or making any noticeable movement, Gao Yang simply spoke in a deep voice through the radio, “First squad of the Instruction Platoon, come up with us!”
The first squad of the Instruction Platoon had reinforced their numbers and firepower; each man was equipped with an RPG-26 and carried a 60mm mortar shell as well.
Including the squad leader, the Instruction Platoon’s first squad had exactly forty people, which meant that Tommy had precisely forty mortar shells available, aside from what they were already carrying.
In the Satan Mercenary Corps, there were only people of either yellow or white races, and they stood out starkly amongst the Skull Gang soldiers who were all black, even if they were dressed in the same clothes.
So the Satan Mercenaries didn’t bother changing their uniforms.
Conspicuous as they were, they had no choice but to move out like that.
The enemy had a plethora of snipers, making it extremely dangerous to be a conspicuous target.
Therefore, the journey to the inner city area was the most perilous.
Following behind the first squad of the Instruction Platoon, Gao Yang and his team proceeded with great caution.
Having advanced over three hundred meters and about to enter the range of the enemy’s high-caliber sniper rifles capable of high precision shooting, Gao Yang couldn’t help but say, “It would be great if we had drones.
With a couple of unmanned aerial vehicles reconnoitering at low altitude and equipped with infrared probes, the enemy wouldn’t have anywhere to hide.”
No sooner had Gao Yang made this remark than those around him nodded in agreement.
After surveying the area, Eileen called out loudly, “Even the smallest handheld drone, the kind with four rotors.
Even if we just had a few of the smallest drones, things would be much easier now.”
Technology was advancing rapidly, with ultra-small drones in abundance and cheap ones costing only a few hundred US Dollars, you could buy one, strap a camera to it, and fly it above the enemies’ heads for a good look around; it would be really cool, and even if you add some high-tech gadgets like thermal imagers, they would only cost a few thousand Dollars.
The Satan Mercenary Corps didn’t make use of drones because their only problem was a shortage of manpower.
Mercenaries lacked logistical support and reinforcements; they had to carry everything themselves.
Every person in Gao Yang’s team had to perform multiple roles, and with the weight of guns and ammunition already being heavy, plus essential living supplies and body armor, there really was no capacity to add any extra weight.
If the Satan Mercenaries wanted to enjoy the convenience of high technology, they would need to increase their number, assigning people specifically to handle tasks like remote drone reconnaissance.
However, such people were not easy to find…
There were plenty who could operate drones, but few who could conduct aerial reconnaissance with them.
It wasn’t as simple as just sending a drone up to circle the sky.
For the Satan Mercenary Corps, they needed people who could multitask, not just do reconnaissance but also fight.
Such people were hard to come by.
In most combat scenarios that the Satan Mercenaries were involved in, drones weren’t necessary, so dedicating a person to handle a drone was excessive.
However, in the battle they were currently engaged in, having such a person and a drone would be incredibly beneficial.
Despite this insight, finding a member to operate a drone was a task for the future.
Gao Yang shook his head, setting aside these momentarily impractical thoughts to focus on the immediate battle.
Approaching Gazaley City with utmost caution, or rather, with trepidation, Gao Yang’s only hope was that the enemy snipers were not using high-caliber sniper rifles.
Once within eight hundred meters, whether the sniper rifles were high caliber or not was inconsequential; mid-caliber rifles could just as easily claim their lives, even with their heavy body armor.
Gao Yang issued an order to speed up, daring not to linger at any one spot, advancing in an irregular zigzag pattern and executing tactical evasion moves extremely frequently.
As they approached closer than five hundred meters to the front line, Gao Yang’s heart somewhat relaxed.
At this point, tension was fruitless; if a sniper had them in their sights, there was nowhere to run.
All they could do was avoid giving the opponent a chance to shoot.
Just as Gao Yang was about to command a full-speed advance, a whooshing sound seemed to pass by his ear.
With the battle raging, explosions and gunfire merged into a continuous racket, and he couldn’t tell if he had imagined it or if a bullet had really just whizzed by his ear.
On the battlefield, stray bullets flying past was commonplace.
However, the sight of Frey suddenly collapsing forward into the ground, not far to his left, immediately made him realize it was the work of an enemy sniper.
“Get down!
I’ve been hit!
The bullet didn’t penetrate the armor!
The shot came from over there!”
After falling to the ground, Frey shouted loudly, indicating a direction as he yelled in evident pain.
Gao Yang immediately dropped to the ground and aimed his rifle in the direction Frey had indicated.
At a distance, even if Gao Yang saw someone get hit, he couldn’t discern the bullet’s trajectory, and neither could the Skull Gang soldiers.
However, now, the wounded Frey could determine the direction the bullet had come from.
With just a slight indication, Gao Yang could use Frey’s direction to locate the enemy sniper.
There were many places a sniper could utilize, but only a few would be ideal.
As a top shooter himself, Gao Yang could quickly ascertain where the enemy was most likely to hide.
Gao Yang swiftly found the enemy, or rather, the most probable place from where the shot came – a small hole in a building.
Without hesitation, he fired a shot at that hole, and almost simultaneously, Cui Bo’s, and Glolov’s guns also rang out, tracer bullets leaving streaks of light as they hit the spot targeted by Gao Yang.
At this moment, Gao Yang urgently called out, “Thunderbolt!
Signal the trajectory!
Fire the rocket!” (To be continued.
If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it with recommendation tickets or monthly tickets at Qidian.com.
Your support is my greatest motivation.
Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)