readx;

Zebak, southeast of Bahshanda province in northeastern Afghanistan, is just a small town with fewer than 500 households. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Because there are still a few small towns and dozens of villages scattered in the valley in the Wakhan Corridor, and there are no roads, the residents living here have to drive their donkeys to the nearest Zebak to buy living and production materials, and sell goats, furs and other goods.

After the U.S. military occupied Afghanistan, a military camp was built outside the town of Zebak.

With the formation of the Afghan Political Axe Army, the U.S. military gradually reduced its garrison and handed over most of its patrol tasks to the Political Axe Army. At this time, the U.S. troops stationed in Zebak had only one reinforced platoon, about sixty people, three M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks and five M3 Bradley cavalry fighting vehicles. The main task of the U.S. military is to assist the Afghan political axe army and protect the road to Barak.

For the US military stationed in Afghanistan, this is a very "boring" task.

There are about 250,000 Afghans in Zebak and the Wakhan corridor. Only by giving these people the necessary means of subsistence and production and selling the goods will they not fall to the Taliban. This had to rely on the gravel road, which had been in place for hundreds of years, to ensure that convoys carrying supplies could reach Zeebak safely. To do so, the U.S. military must protect the road and prevent the Taliban from attacking convoys.

Taking 60 people to stabilize 250,000 people is a very good deal.

According to this ratio, in Afghanistan, which has a population of 25 million, the US military only needs to send 6,000 troops, but the actual size of the troops stationed is dozens of times that of this number.

Obviously, Zebak is not a hot spot and has not entered the eyes of the Taliban.

It's just that for the U.S. troops stationed here, this is really not a task that can arouse interest. The goal of the more than 60 US officers and men is similar: to complete a one-year overseas deployment.

Because at its most, the U.S. military stationed a mountain infantry battalion here, so the camp on the outskirts of Zebak was very well built. The whole camp is surrounded by prefabricated panels three meters high and half a meter thick, and there are two knapsack surveillance cameras in each of the six top corners; The gate of the camp is six meters wide enough for the main battle tanks to pass, and the speed bump is made of sandbags and a wall outside the gate, and there are sentry posts and machine gun fortresses at the door, and there are two towers up to five meters high inside the gate; The camp is a low-rise flat-story building, all made of lightweight boards, with barracks, canteens, material warehouses, ammunition depots, fuel depots, vehicle maintenance centers, fitness centers, and communication command centers, as well as a basketball court and a baseball field in the central open space, and a small bar with a movie theater behind the barracks.

In terms of quality of life, it can definitely be the envy of military personnel in many countries.

If it weren't for the murderous tanks and combat vehicles, and the soldiers who always carried their guns with them, I am afraid that no one would think that this was a military camp.

At night, it's more like a city that never sleeps.

There are two large generators of 1,500 kilowatts and one small generator of 350 kilowatts, and the fuel needed to generate electricity is delivered once a week, enough fuel to be stored for a month. The US officers and men did not have to worry about electricity at all, not only could they use all kinds of electrical appliances, but they could also light up all the lights on the fence. Even from more than ten kilometers away, you can see it clearly.

For the Taliban forces, who lack heavy weapons, they can only stand and watch from a distance.

For such a camp, even if there were only more than 60 US officers and soldiers inside, the Taliban forces could only retreat. Without heavy weapons for attacking fortifications, no amount of infantry is useless. Besides, there were three tanks and five combat vehicles in the camp, and the artillery squad had six 82-millimeter mortars, and even if the Taliban were armed with heavy weapons, even a few tanks, it would be difficult to take the camp.

The fighting could not be ended in half an hour, and the arrival of US air support would surely kill the Taliban militants.

In the same way, the mainland special forces who entered the hinterland of Afghanistan from the Wakhan corridor rarely provoked the US troops here, at most they only saw the opportunity to shoot a few cold guns when passing by, so that the US troops obediently stayed in the camp or were led in the wrong direction by the gunfire.

When he was still in K1, he passed Zebak three times, and Liu Wei bypassed.

Only this time, he didn't plan to avoid the roadblock.

Unbeknownst to Captain Hughes in the camp, danger was looming.

After dark, the captain, as usual, made his rounds around the camp and chatted with several sentries on duty at night before going to the bar behind the barracks.

Most of the soldiers who were not assigned to the task spent their time in bars.

The man in charge of the bar was a black sergeant, who was also the only "bartender" in the camp, and was ready to retire and return to his hometown to open a similar bar.

The captain drank a glass of rum and greeted the soldiers one by one before returning to the officers' quarters.

Unlike the "young boys" in their early twenties, Captain Hughes married five years ago before he was first deployed to Afghanistan and is now a father of three. As long as he was not out on duty, the captain would sit in front of his laptop with a camera at 11 p.m. every night and make video calls with his family.

At this time, it happened to be 11:30 a.m. West Coast time, the wife had already prepared lunch, and the children were in the dining room, and it was time for the family to reunite. With so much to do during the day, Captain Hughes could only find this time to connect with his family.

Although the camp lights out at 11:30 a.m., the officers' quarters were not among them.

As usual, Hughes didn't mention what was going on at the camp, and most of the time his wife and four-and-a-half-year-old son were telling about what had happened that day.

These dozens of minutes are also the most relaxed and enjoyable time of the day for Captain Hughes.

In three months, the third round of overseas deployments will be over. Back in Glendale, Southern California, Hughes will become a major officer in the National Guard and will never have to travel to Afghanistan again. In the coming decades, he may not be able to become a general, but he will be able to stay with his family and watch his children grow up.

In more than ten years, he will be able to be a grandfather.

Thinking about it, Hughes laughed.

As his wife brought the meal to the table and urged his eldest son, who was chatting with his father, to return to his chair, Captain Hughes did one last thing: pray a pre-dinner prayer with his family.

Closing his laptop, the captain lit a cigarette.

He rarely smoked, only smoking one at this time, because at the end of each correspondence he felt like an inseparable parting.

Another day passed, and the time to go home was approaching.

After smoking a cigarette, Captain Hughes turned off the lamp and collapsed on the bed.

If he was at home, he would have to wash up and change into his pajamas. But in this damn place, taking off your clothes and going to bed is the stupidest choice.

More than half a year ago, when Captain Hughes first arrived, the camp was attacked by a surprise attack.

Several mortar shells landed in the camp, one of which hit the soldiers' quarters right in. That scene Captain Hughes will never forget in his life. More than a dozen soldiers were either killed or wounded, and the few who were not killed were just from carrying out patrol duties and did not take off their combat uniforms and body armor before going to bed. All the soldiers who were not on patrol and wore trousers were killed, and two of them had shrapnel cut their bellies and their intestines were bleeding to the ground.

From then on, Captain Hughes developed the habit of sleeping without undressing.

Even when he was in the shower, he kept his body armor out of reach.

At first, the captain was a little unaccustomed to it. After all, body armor is hard, and the bed board is also hard. After a month, the captain was completely accustomed to it.

Three months ago, during a sudden battle, the captain was awarded the Silver Star for arriving in time to rescue a wounded.

At that time, the patrol that was returning to the camp was attacked, and the snipers who were lying in ambush a few hundred meters away killed the driver of the "Humvee" off-road vehicle, wounded the patrol commander in the passenger seat, and killed two more reckless soldiers while the US troops were rescuing the wounded. The situation was very critical, and the patrol commander had suffered heavy blood loss, and if he did not receive timely treatment, he would have died. However, the snipers ambushed well and changed positions, so that the fire suppression of the American troops was completely ineffective. Captain Hughes arrived quickly, risking the risk of dragging the wounded patrol commander behind cover, before allowing M1A2 and M3 to rush out of the camp and deploy a defensive line on the perimeter, scaring off the snipers.

This battle earned Captain Hughes the respect of all the officers and men in the camp.

For Captain Hughes, who was already deployed to Afghanistan for the third time, it was just a very ordinary battle.

Two years ago, in southern Afghanistan, Hughes, then a lieutenant, led a platoon to tribal areas to encircle Taliban militants. On the way back, Hughes's helicopter was hit by RPG rockets, killing both pilots instantly, and the helicopter fell into a valley. Hughes, with seven soldiers, held out in the valley for a day and a night, repelling more than a dozen attacks by Taliban militants until rescue forces arrived.

This battle led to Hughes being promoted to captain officer.

It's just that in Afghanistan, such a battle is nothing, otherwise Hughes would not have been sent here.

Now, it doesn't seem like a bad thing.

Had it not been for his appointment as commander of the Zebak barracks, Hughes would likely have participated in Operation Scavenger and been given the opportunity to fight Taliban militants in the mountains.

Compared to the mountainous areas where the Taliban are entrenched, this is simply paradise.

Three months to go.

Hughes closed his eyes and fell asleep.

It was not a sweet dream full of laughter, and every time he fell asleep, Hughes dreamed of those battles and saw the American officers and soldiers who died in front of him. It was as if they had come to life and were beckoning to him, asking why he was still here, not going to hell to meet them.

It was a hell of gunpowder and war, a place full of killings.

Hughes woke up violently, already sweating.

The room was cold, and the heating fan had long since stopped turning.

Generator broken?

The captain sat up and pressed the switch on the lamp, but it didn't come on.

Through the windows, you can see that the camp is pitch black, the lights on the fence are all turned off, and even the street lights in the camp are off.

What's going on?

Hughes had a very bad premonition that it was impossible for three engines to fail at the same time, something must have happened!

(To be continued)