At four o'clock in the morning, Wang Dong gave an order, not to break through or attack, but to stand by.

Not to mention the officers and men at the grassroots level, even the 14 acting brigade commanders were extremely puzzled.

The government forces have been holding on for three days, and holding on will allow the rebels to retreat?

In addition, the government forces have been scattered by the rebels and are scattered in various locations in companies and platoons, and whatever happens next, the troops should be concentrated.

It's just that all the officers and soldiers could feel that after the round of bombardment around midnight, the rebels were visibly afraid.

On many fronts, the rebels have begun to retreat, voluntarily abandoning buildings previously occupied with great sacrifices, and in some places even retreating in great strides.

It's not that Wang Dong doesn't know that he has to concentrate his troops, it's just that the third bombardment of the night is coming.

At four o'clock, more than 30 JF-17s returned to the battlefield.

This was the third sortie of the night!

According to Wang Dong's arrangement, if there is a breakthrough, these fighters will open the way for the breakthrough troops, that is, focus on bombing the rebels in the direction of the breakthrough.

Because there is no need to break through, the tasks have been adjusted.

More than 30 JF-17s, still carrying small-diameter bombs, continued to bomb the rebels scattered around the city under the guidance of scouts.

If government forces were allowed to concentrate at this time, it was likely to cause completely avoidable accidental injuries.

Because the rebels had already begun to retreat and were more dispersed, the third round of bombardment lasted an hour and a half.

The last batch of four JF-17s also dropped all the bombs outside the city, very simply, these four fighters have been hovering over Semavo for an hour, if they don't return, they can't fly back, and the bombs have more flight resistance, they will consume more fuel, and they will have to drop the bombs.

By the end of the bombing, the sky had brightened slightly.

After a night of fierce fighting, two rounds of high-intensity precision bombardment, to be precise, government forces stabilized their positions and recaptured some of the cities occupied by the rebels.

After daybreak, the mechanized infantry battalion, which followed Wang Dong into Semavo, took control of the main road in the eastern city.

The road to Nasiriyah has been opened and can be broken out at any time.

It's just that what Wang Dong received at dawn was not all good news.

The armored cluster that attacked to the west on the outskirts of the city was hit hard!

At about 10 o'clock in the evening, the armored group encountered a second rebel armoured unit, consisting of 14 M1A1s and at least 20 M2A3s.

Fierce fighting lasted almost half an hour, destroying all the rebels' main battle tanks.

However, 6 "khaleds" were destroyed by rebel tanks, 5 BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles were shot, 17 officers and soldiers, including 4 tank commanders, were killed, 38 officers and soldiers were seriously wounded, and mainly infantry in combat vehicles.

This battle fully exposed the flaws in the protection of "Khalid".

To put it bluntly, the armor is too thin.

At least 1 "Khaled" was destroyed by the M1A1 shot by the M829A1 at a distance of more than 3,000 meters, and all three tank crews were killed!

To be able to hit "Khalid" from such a distance, it must have been luck.

The problem is that the M829A1, which replaced the depleted uranium core with a tungsten core, can penetrate up to 450 mm thick homogeneous armor at a range of 3,000 meters.

In other words, the equivalent thickness of the front of the body of the "Khalid" is less than 450 mm.

Obviously, this is only the level of the second-generation main battle tank.

You must know that even the third-generation main battle tank with the worst protection ability, that is, the "monkey version" T-90S, the equivalent protection thickness on the front of the hull is more than 500 mm, while the Western tanks that are good at protection are more than 550 mm, and some perverted main battle tanks, such as the "Challenger" 2, even reached 650 mm, and the "Merkava" 4 is even equivalent to 700 mm in some parts because of the power compartment.

It's just that the "Khalid" was originally a second-generation and a half-generation main battle tank with a second-generation hull and a third-generation turret.

In addition, the automatic loader derived from the T-72 has an extremely significant safety hazard.

The "Khalid" was completely destroyed by an armor-piercing shell, and all three tankers were killed because of the detonation of the shells stored in the hull.

Such a tragedy would not have happened if the rear of the turret had been used to isolate the magazine.

Because Wang Dong did not yet grasp the control of the government forces, the armored group did not stop and continued to attack westward.

It's just that the speed of the assault is reduced, and all the infantrymen on the vehicle are dismounted.

Not that infantry is needed to provide cover for tanks, but to avoid burial of infantry fighting vehicles.

At first, more than 30 infantrymen were injured by bullets in the infantry fighting vehicle they were riding!

At about half past one in the morning, the third armored battle began.

This time, it was the main force of the government army, an entire armored battalion, 24 M1A1 and 30 M2A3, and hundreds of infantrymen.

The fierce battle lasted more than an hour, from 4,000 meters to less than 500 meters.

For a modern tank, the engagement distance of 500 meters is about the same as an infantry fighting bayonet.

In this battle, it is the rebels who have the initiative.

It can be said that from the beginning of the battle to the end of the battle, the rebels always have the advantage, and the armored cluster is more of a waste of time with the rebels.

The problems of the protection of "Khalid" were exposed more thoroughly.

Within the first fifteen minutes, seven Khaled were destroyed by rebels 2,500 meters away, four of whom were destroyed by anti-tank missiles.

At this distance, the threat of "Khalid" to the M1A1 is very small.

The main thing is that you can't hit accurately!

As a result, the "Khalid" had to use artillery missiles, so they had to stop and fire, and they could not continue to move until the missiles hit.

All seven Khaled vehicles destroyed were shot after they stopped.

It can be seen that in tank-on-tank battles, artillery missiles fired by tank guns have little tactical value, and can even be said to be cumbersome.

In fact, as long as the distance is shortened to less than 2,500 meters, the commander will only use armor-piercing shells and will not consider artillery missiles.

As the engagement distance decreased, the tank guns of the "Khalid" began to wield.

Of course, the quality of the commander played a decisive role.

In the nearly an hour of fighting, "Khalid" achieved a 12-18 exchange ratio, and all the M1A1 was destroyed.

In the case of destroying the opponent, it is the commander's on-the-spot play that determines the victory.

It is a pity that the reserve of "Khalid" is only 39 rounds.

By this time, there were not many shells available.

If each tank is able to carry a few more shells, even if it is only 5, the armored cluster has the potential to destroy all the main battle tanks of the rebels.

Only, there is no if.

At the last minute, 12 A-5PGs arrived in time.

The five "Khaleds", which had run out of shells, took the opportunity to withdraw from the battlefield, and the infantry who remained in the rear also seized the opportunity and rescued all the wounded.

In the end, only 5 "Khalid" and 7 BMP-3s remained, and all of them ran out of shells.

In three battles, 17 tank commanders, 42 tank crews, 48 tank crews and 63 vehicle infantrymen, and hundreds of officers and men were seriously wounded; As a result, 38 M1A1s and 27 M2A3s were destroyed, and nearly 800 rebels were killed or wounded.

In fact, the biggest result was that the rebels were never able to close the gap to the east of the encirclement.