The Middle East Army under the command of General Shi Guofan was divided into two major parts, one along the Transjort and Sinai Peninsula, directly to the Suez Canal Zone, and the other in Baghdad to rest and wait for the arrival of baggage supplies, and then continue to march towards the two river valleys where the Byzantine army was entrenched.

The blue sky was clear, without the slightest trace of dust, and in the distance the horizon rose bursts of hot fog unique to the Middle East, and the hot mist rising from the ground distorted everything at the end of the horizon.

The reconnaissance battalion of the 7th Armored Division, with 26 No. 4 "Shepherd" tanks, 12 No. 3 "Weasel" light tanks, 24 Steyr Type 35 wheeled infantry fighting vehicles, 6 tracked 40-mm self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery vehicles, and more than 30 light off-road trucks and jeeps, were parked on both sides of the dirt road southeast of Ramadi, about 110 kilometers northwest of Baghdad.

Although it's only April, the temperature in the Arabian Peninsula is still very high. The tank soldiers of the Tang Kingdom, who were only wearing vests and shorts, were hurrying to check the engines and thermal sheaths of the tanks, while the infantry who followed the tank companies were lying in the shade of tanks, armored vehicles, or cars, eating dry food and drinking cold water from the military kettles they carried.

The task of the 7th Panzer Division, commanded by Major General Ma Kam Tong, was to march along the banks of the Tigris River towards Deir ez-Zor, cutting off as much as possible the retreat of the Eclipse-Byzantine coalition entrenched in Mosul in the direction of Damascus. In addition, as soon as the order is received, it will immediately occupy the Deir ez-Zor oil field together with the 3rd Mountain Division.

Due to the limitation of logistical support capabilities, the Imperial Army can only send 9 divisions in the direction of Syria at present, and the combined Espression-Byzantine army they face is less than 100,000 people, and their combat effectiveness is not much stronger than that of the Poles who have just conquered the East Francs, and they are basically on the verge of collapse.

According to the order of the High Command, the Army's Middle East Corps must end the Middle East campaign by the end of December, at least fully occupy and control the Two Rivers region. This had little to do with operations, and whether or not the orders issued by the High Command could be fulfilled actually depended on the logistical transportation and supply capabilities of the Imperial Army.

After a brief rest, the convoy of the 7th Armoured Reconnaissance Battalion returned to the northwest along the "road" south of the Euphrates. It is a Gobi dirt road left behind by camel caravans for thousands of years, flanked by open desert and Middle Eastern wilderness. More than a dozen kilometers behind them, a huge convoy of tanks, armored vehicles, self-propelled trains and trucks, jeeps, and nearly 3,000 vehicles of various types of the 7th and 3rd Mountain Divisions formed a column dozens of kilometers long on this wasteland.

Behind them, a large military station had been circled outside the city of Ramadi, where fuel tankers, transporters, tractors and various construction vehicles were parked. As the troops advanced, the construction of an asphalt road began. Constant hordes of fighters and bombers flew overhead in the direction of Damascus.

The two elite armored armies of the Imperial Army under the command of General Li Haiying and General Wang Mingbo were transferred to the front line of the Donets battlefield in Eastern Europe, because the new Type 05 "Cheetah" tank had only begun mass production before the Eastern European campaign, the 7th Armored Division did not begin to replace this medium tank equipped with a 90 mm tank gun, and its main force was still the No. 4 "Big Head Shepherd" tank equipped with a 56 times caliber 75 mm tank gun.

After the Battle of the Dnieper, the Imperial Army formed a total of thirteen armored divisions from the 12th to the 25th, and half of the tank crew of the 7th were recruits who had not yet experienced the tempering of the war.

Before dusk, the 7th Armored Reconnaissance Battalion came out of the city of Ramadi in the morning, and they had been driving on the Gobi Highway for almost a whole day, and the bumps on the dirt road were particularly tiring, and the hot and dry weather in the Middle East also made people feel thirsty.

Lieutenant Wang Mingyang led the reconnaissance platoon with three Land Wind jeeps in front, and on both sides of the road was an endless wasteland with little vegetation and some dry ditches or small riverbeds everywhere. Only a dozen kilometers to the southwest, the valley of the Euphrates stretches like a green ribbon across the wasteland.

Dongfeng Motor Company's licensed version of the Landwind off-road vehicle still has excellent performance, and the 3.6-liter inline 6-cylinder Jiangxia-style gasoline engine is powerful, allowing it to easily run at speeds of more than 80 kilometers per hour even on the Gobi. There is not a single figure in the wilderness, except for the occasional camel and horse, and the uneven ground produces low, drought-tolerant plants: red willows, sea buckthorn or camel thorns, which grow tenaciously among the dunes.

By this time, the 7th Reconnaissance Battalion had reached almost 30 kilometers outside the city of Laveau.

The jeep turned over a small sand dune, and in front of it was a red willow forest, and several objects half-hidden in the red willow bushes appeared in Wang Mingyang's sight, and they were the turrets of several Matilda tanks painted in the color of the earthy desert.

"Enemy, run back!" Wang Mingyang shouted, and the jeep made a turn on the sand dunes very nimbly, and then turned over the sand dunes again in a few clicks.

"The hound calls the wolf's head, the hound calls the wolf's head, and at 11 o'clock ahead, several enemy tanks are spotted......"

Wang Mingyang reported the discovery of the enemy to the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Xie Guangyu, through a short-range wireless intercom, and behind them, the Byzantines seemed to have spotted them as well.

Less than two kilometers behind them, after Lieutenant Colonel Xie Guangyu received their report, the tank company, which had been advancing in a column in a column, immediately changed its formation, lined up in the wilderness, divided into two groups, and sped in the direction where the enemy had been discovered.

A skirmish broke out.

The jeep bumped along the potholed dirt road, with the machine gunner in the back of the car operating the MG34 general-purpose machine gun on the canopy rack, and Lian Zeshi sitting in the driver's seat to control the car.

At this time, the voice of the "butcher" company commander came from the receiver installed in front of the co-pilot's seat: "Okay, the battle is over, and the combat readiness is lifted!" ”

"Damn, a mouth in this place is full of sand, dogs*day*,...... The Byzantine Yankees were also too cowardly, and the reconnaissance battalion of the 7th Division fired a few shots, and TMD surrendered! Alati sat behind and spat out a few mouthfuls of loess, cursing with disdain.

"Also, as soon as the guns rang out, the Byzantines would have surrendered long ago, and our division came to the front line, and we never fought, just following other people's butts and eating dirt...... Bah! I said, the girls here are really good-looking! Battle, who was sitting in the passenger seat, also said in his broken Chinese.

"Hey, Bart, the military department has repeatedly ordered that you are not allowed to provoke those MSL women, you don't want the gendarmerie to send you to the labor camp to build roads, do you?!" Lian Zeshi said while driving the car, "I'm bored to death, I thought I could fight, the Byzantines are too weak, and even the Poles are inferior!" Hey, light a cigarette for me! ”

……