784: Chapter 775 You Don’t Understand 784: Chapter 775 You Don’t Understand It’s said that the Russians are a fighting nation, facing life and death lightly, ready to fight if not submitting, and those born in the icy snowy lands truly live up to the name of a fighting nation.
However, the Old Russians fight against people a lot, and they often destroy themselves.
Their merit as a fighting nation is substantial, but compared to the real fighting nations, the Old Russians are just dregs.
That’s right, the real fighting nation is the Tuareg People.
The Tuareg People are a branch of the North African Berbers, a nomadic tribe in the Sahara Desert, present in Algeria, Niger, Mali, and Libya.
Officially they are a nomadic people, but from the day this nation was born, their real means of livelihood has never been nomadism.
Nomadism is merely a side job for the Tuareg People, their main occupation is doing business, plundering, especially plundering slaves.
In the business of the Tuareg People, the slave trade is a very important component.
When facing powerful tribes, the Tuareg People are businessmen; when encountering weaker tribes, they are plundering bandits.
But the Tuareg People have another main occupation, which is warfare.
In modern society, the means of plunder and survival of the Tuareg People gradually lost their ground, and thus the Tuareg People became the tribe providing the most cannon fodder in the modern mercenary world.
When one mentions mercenaries, most people would think of Americans, Russians, Israelis, and this is true, the high-end market indeed belongs to these nations.
But in terms of numbers, this perception is wrong.
It’s the Tuareg People who dominate the numbers in the mercenary world, not defined by nationality, only by tribe and ethnicity.
Libya is a typical mercenary war, and in the Libyan battlefield, over seventy percent of the active mercenaries are Tuareg People.
The Tuareg People are true warriors because apart from fighting, they don’t know anything else, they literally live by warfare.
However, the Tuareg People can’t detach from warfare, but tragically, they aren’t very skilled in modern warfare.
Therefore, the Tuareg People provide the vast majority of cannon fodder on the mercenary battlefield.
Everybody likes to use the Tuareg People because they are cheap, obedient, and can be settled with a little money.
On African battlefields, the Tuareg People are very common, so they are truly the definition of cannon fodder.
No matter what one does, doing it frequently naturally brings experience and turns one into an expert.
When some Tuareg People survive on the battlefield for many years, they are no longer cannon fodder, but have become veterans, feared Tuareg old men.
Just like in Afghanistan, what should American soldiers worry about the most?
It’s not the young, strong, heavily armed youth, but those old men with gray hair and beards, carrying old rifles, those who fought guerrilla warfare against the Soviet Union for eight years, and for or against the Taliban until today.
Decades of warfare have taught even the foolish something, let alone those who survived, most of whom are smart besides being lucky.
Old tricksters, those who have roamed the battlefields for half their lives and still survive, are truly hard to deal with.
They may not be literate, may not know how to use any modern instruments, and may not know how to use any gun other than the AK47.
But no matter what gun they use, they can surely handle it expertly.
They know when to dodge, when to hide, and when they need to come out to fire a shot, they definitely won’t waste bullets.
In the mercenary circles, there’s a special term just for them, called “Tuareg old men”.
Old men not merely in age, but in terms of combat ability, gunmanship, and experience.
A young Tuareg might also be called an old man, but most of the time, the Tuareg old men are indeed old men, those in their fifties or sixties who would normally have already left the battlefield.
Gao Yang knew the prowess of Tuareg old men, as he had fought alongside a mercenary group primarily formed of Tuareg in Libya.
In Misrata, Libya, when Satan Mercenary Corps had just been formed, Gao Yang fought there alongside Green Mamba, the Coleman Company, and also with a mercenary group called Sandstorm, which consisted of Tuareg from Mali.
At that time, Sandstorm Mercenary Corps was also paid the price of elite mercenaries, but they earned an elite price merely because they were fearless in battle.
Strictly speaking, they were just a cannon fodder mercenary group, yet within Sandstorm, there were two men, two Tuareg old men who left a deep impression on Gao Yang.
Not to exaggerate, but Sandstorm Mercenary Corps was supported by just two old men; otherwise, just the fearless alone would not be sufficient to command an elite price.
It was because Gao Yang had dealt with Tuareg in Misrata, that he had a deeper understanding of the Tuareg People and thus harbored great wariness towards the Tuareg old men.
Understanding the characteristics of the Tuareg People, knowing what the Tuareg old men represented, also lets one know what Gao Yang was facing.
Gao Yang needed to draw Sadiq’s attention to himself, so covering for the laborers to escape seemed to align well with what he intended to do initially, but the problem is, by using the laborers as bait, he could easily leave and then actively target Sadiq’s men.
However, if he chose to cover for the laborers’ escape, he would be stuck by the Tuareg, a proactive versus a passive stance vastly different in terms of safety.
Of course, Gao preferred to take the initiative, to be safer, but he could not abandon those laborers because he had made a promise.
Having made up his mind, Gao Yang no longer pondered.
After taking a breath, he quietly said to Bantuna, “Forget it, don’t say anything else.
You and Jansen take them away.
I’ll stay behind to hold off the enemy, otherwise none of us will escape.”
When Gao Yang spoke to Bantuna, he never hid anything from the laborers nearby.
It was impossible to hide it as they could not find a private place to discuss it.
Bantuna said that the laborers were very afraid during those hard times, but upon hearing Gao Yang’s final decision, they finally saw a glimmer of hope again.
Naturally, their glances towards Gao Yang turned even more grateful.
Bantuna urgently said to Gao Yang, “Boss, don’t try to be a saint, you’ll die!”
Gao Yang sighed and said, “I’m not a saint, but I’m a man of my word.
I’ve already decided, so no more persuading me.
Get ready.”
After saying that to Bantuna, Gao Yang spoke gravely into the walkie-talkie, “Jansen, come to me.”
Jansen quickly crawled over to Gao Yang and whispered, “Boss, those guys are really good, they aren’t using sniper rifles, but their shooting is too accurate!”
Gao Yang shook his head and said, “It’s the Tuareg elders.
You’re not from this circle, you wouldn’t understand.
Alright, you and Bantuna take these people and go back to where we hide our stuff, the money in the suitcase, split it with Radar, fifty-fifty.”
Bantuna stared intensely at Gao Yang and said in a deep voice, “Are you a mercenary?
You must be a mercenary!”
Gao Yang nodded and replied, “There’s no need to hide it from you anymore, yes, I am a mercenary.”
Bantuna then asked, “Which mercenary group?”
Gao Yang thought for a while and finally whispered softly, “Satan, Ram.”
Bantuna immediately widened his eyes, uttered a monosyllable, then immediately lowered his voice, incredulously saying, “You, you are Ram?
Satan’s Ram?
F**k, a big shot!”
Jansen said confusedly, “Is the boss famous?”
Bantuna gave Jansen a disdainful look and said, “You’re not from this circle, you don’t understand.
Who is Ram?
He is…, well, didn’t you say he’s like God?
In the mercenary business, he is God, because he controls your life and death.
If he wants you dead, you can’t survive.”
Gao Yang chuckled and said, “It’s not that exaggerated, you’re talking nonsense.”
Jansen looked puzzled and said, “I seem to have heard the name, Ram, isn’t he the top marksman?”
Bantuna asked in surprise, “How do you know that?”
Jansen shrugged and said, “I heard it.
An issue of ‘Mercenary’ magazine was very popular.
A buddy of mine wants to be a mercenary, and he buys that magazine every issue.
Then he told me about this new top marksman who also makes big money.
Right, boss?
That’s you, isn’t it?”
Bantuna sighed and said, “Talking nonsense, I told you how magically the boss fights, like God himself, turns out he really is Ram, the top marksman, I should have guessed earlier.”
Gao Yang gestured with his hand and said, “Now is not the time to talk about this.
Okay, Jansen, hand me my hunting rifle, then you and Radar leave this place.
Find a way to get these people out, and remember, keep it as secret as possible.
I don’t have time to come up with ideas for you, figure it out yourselves.”
Bantuna said in a low voice, “Boss, if you insist on playing the hero, I think you better not take the hunting rifle.
If you’re going up against the Tuareg elder, you need to react fast.
Having the hunting rifle might hinder your movement.”
Gao Yang indeed didn’t want to give up the method of long-range precision shooting, but Bantuna’s words made sense.
If he underestimated the Tuareg elder in a confrontation, it could spell huge trouble for him.
After carefully considering, Gao Yang finally decided to painfully let go of his hunting rifle.
The Sako rifle was too heavy and too big.
In the jungle, where quick reactions and movements were needed, carrying an eight-kilogram, over one-meter-long hunting rifle was really not a good idea, especially since he would also have to carry more than a hundred large, heavy bullets.
Since neither Gao Yang nor the enemy moved, Gao Yang did have an opportunity to make some preparations.
He said in a deep voice, “Alright, take the hunting rifle away for me, give me a few full magazines, and also, Jansen, hand me the infrared camera, put it in my backpack, and take out the rifle bullets.”
After quickly unloading his backpack on the ground, he continued to aim ready to shoot.
Jansen and Bantuna opened his bag and packed it with six full magazines, then Jansen put the small infrared camera he was carrying into it.
“Boss, done, here’s your bag.”
Gao Yang lay on the ground, quickly shouldering his backpack, then said softly, “Okay, you guys leave, crawl away, make some noise, try to lure a few of them out to shoot.
We’ll contact later, get moving now, off you go!”(To be continued.
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