Just as Li Lan was talking about the army, a report sounded in front of the console: "Report commander, on the road one hundred and twenty kilometers southeast of the city of Carlin, a small unit of the Puntland Republic Army was discovered, numbering almost a company, riding in an armed pickup truck, no tanks and armored vehicles were found, and no large troops of the other side were found in the rear for the time being. ”

"When did you find out?" Li Lan immediately picked up the walkie-talkie and asked.

"It's been three minutes since I found out. The 4th Mechanized Infantry Battalion asked for instructions on whether to annihilate this small force. Ahmed, who was at the headquarters on the second floor of the base car at this time, continued to ask.

"Don't worry, wait until they get close to Carlin City, and then see how it goes."

After Li Lan finished speaking, Natasha on the side had already taken the initiative to mark the general location of Ahmad's report on the electronic map. After giving Ahmed some orders, Li Lan also paid attention to the map.

"This site is the most difficult point in the Bossaso East Mountains, and it is also the exhaustion that connects the cities of Bossaso and the eastern part of Puntland, the whole East Mountains have complex terrain, spanning twenty or thirty kilometers, and the mountains are steep and only accessible by a few trestle paths, which have also been largely impassable in recent years. So, apart from the sea route, this is the only road that connects Bossaso with the eastern city of Puntland. There are no shortcuts to land marches. Natasha explained.

"Yes, it was with this in mind that we sent troops to capture Carlin just after the end of the battle in Bossaso, just to hold the east-west passage to Bossaso." Li Lan nodded, pointed to the large area of Puntland's nominal territory on the map, and continued: "At present, Puntland wants to quickly send troops to Bossaso, and only this road is feasible. Puntland up and down. Now, if we can gather an army of about 30,000 people, I think it will be enough. Unless Puntland now doesn't care about law and order in the country. ”

In fact, the so-called Republic Army of the Republic of Puntland is not strong, and its strength is not as strong as that of Awill. And in terms of equipment. Nor can it be compared to Awei, who has already received aid for a year. In terms of the concentration of troops, Puntland occupied nearly 150,000 square kilometers of land, and although most of it was deserted, it also dispersed Puntland's army.

With the help of the army equipment of modern warfare and the commanding heights of public opinion and morality, Li Lan is extremely easy to fight Aweel, and it is naturally not difficult to fight Puntland. The difference between the two is that the army of the Republic of Puntland is scattered, while the army of Avel is concentrated. In three days, he was able to break up Aweil's army of 70,000 or 80,000, but he could not destroy the Puntland Army in the same amount of time.

And now Li Lan doesn't want to beat Puntland in one go, but he won't let Puntland have a good time. If he had the chance, he wanted to destroy the morale of the Puntland army, and then concentrate most of his strength to compete with Ethiopia.

In Li Lan's eyes, the whole of Somalia is torn apart. The only thing he can look at is Somaliland, whether it is Puntland or Southwest Somalia, or the nominal Somali government that is hotly fought and the Somali sectarian organization that is designated as a rebel force, Li Lan does not look at it.

There was only a regular army of 40,000 men in Somaliland. can enter Li Lan's eyes, but it is only average. After all, in the modernization of equipment, Li Lan pursues excellence. His requirements for the army are first-class Shijie. And in the whole of Africa. And there is no country whose army can reach the first class of shijie. This is true even in Egypt.

In the modern war pattern, with more than 10,000 people swept through Bossaso in three days and defeated 780,000 of Awe's troops, there is actually nothing to be proud of. Looking at the gap in weapons between the two sides and the difference in the quality of soldiers, under such an asymmetrical war, on the one hand, morale is like a rainbow, and on the other hand, the vast majority of recruits have no faith. It would be strange if such a gap could not be swept in one go.

In Li Lan's eyes, what is called an enemy, perhaps the regular army of Ethiopia is his good opponent at present. But it was only in the combination of Ethiopian open space that he qualified to be an opponent of the army in his hands. It is by no means that Li Lan despises the enemy, and this is exactly the case.

If Li Lan now has an air force and missile units, then he will dare to argue with first-class countries now, and this is the confidence brought to him by the Red Police soldiers and the confidence brought to him by the Red Police weapons and equipment.

Now, a small force of the Puntland Republic Army appeared around the city of Carlin, and what Li Lan was thinking about was whether there would be a large force in the rear to follow, and where they would advance. How many liliang do you have to dispatch to give a hard blow to the top management of Puntland.

"On the Ethiopian side, if there is any action, it has been four days, it is impossible that preparations are still underway!" Puntland's move quickly reminded Li Lan of the Ethiopian side. Through more than three days, Li Lan has already shown the combat effectiveness of his army to the whole Shijie, and there is no reason for Puntland to dare to come alone, which is clearly an act of looking for death.

"At present, there is no information in this regard, and our own intelligence department has not yet been established, and the intelligence on the Ethiopian side has been provided to us by the Chinese side recently. If the commander wants to find out, he might as well ask Miss Maggie Lin. Natasha said.

"I don't think this matter can be dealt with lightly, it is very likely that Puntland and Ethiopia will act together." Li Lan thought for a while and said: "We need to learn more about the situation in Ethiopia and see if we can get any useful information from it." To straighten out the information on the Ethiopian side in the last few days, let me take a look at it first. ”

“haode。” Natasha responded, and quickly called up the Ethiopian intelligence from the base car's database and handed it over to the monitor in front of Li Lan.

Li Lan didn't say anything, opened the contents of the folder, and looked at it.

Since NATO countries have always supported the nominal Somali government in Mogadishu, they have not publicly supported Puntland, but have asked Ethiopia, which has always liked to intervene in the situation in Somalia, to come to Puntland's aid.

Ethiopia has a long history of political ties with Puntland and has always been very supportive of Puntland's high-level desire to form a coalition government in Somalia. On the other hand, it is also very supportive of Somaliland, although Somaliland has not agreed to the proposal to form a coalition government in Somalia, but Ethiopia has always had deep political and economic cooperation with Somaliland.

Supporting Puntland is Ethiopia's hope that Somalia will not be too chaotic, and its cooperation with Somaliland is Ethiopia's hope that by winning over Somaliland, Ethiopia will form a kind of peripheral political pressure on Eritrea. Because although Ethiopia and Eritrea have stopped border conflicts, contradictions have always existed, and no one on either side knows when the next military conflict will break out.

The formation of political pressure on Eritrea is also in the hope that in addition to military confrontation, Ethiopia will gain greater advantages. Therefore, over the years, Ethiopia has always had political contacts with Somaliland and Puntland, and the relationship is not bad.

This time, Li Lan's rise in Somalia has made Ethiopia see a great crisis. It can allow Somalia to continue in turmoil, and it can also see Somalia complete peaceful reunification in the true sense of the word. Because in this area, it is the traditional boss.

As for China, although Ethiopia has a lot of economic exchanges with China, it is more inclined to cooperate with European and American countries, especially in the military field. It has also always hoped to receive military assistance and support from European and American countries, and it is not difficult to see this from the fact that there are many US air bases in Ethiopia.

However, Ethiopia does not intend to tolerate China's desire to expand its influence in the region, not only because of the instigation of Europe and the United States, but also because it does not want to let the situation in Somalia lose its control, let alone see a powerful regime born around it and take away its reputation as a regional power.

These days, the United States has promised it many benefits, with only one purpose, to defeat Li Lan. Ethiopia, which has not interfered in the Somali situation once or twice, is very moved by the bargaining chips given by the United States, and coupled with its own will, it agrees to use force against Li Lan.

However, in the past three days, the Ethiopian military has seen that Li Lan is very difficult to provoke, especially the army. Tracked by US spy satellites and drones, the Ethiopian military has a very clear understanding of the combat effectiveness of Li Lan's soldiers.

This made Ethiopia, which was originally full of interest, quickly stopped, and the originally strong desire to send troops could not cool down a lot. It is simple to send troops, as long as the logistics and troops are assembled in place, it will only take five or six hours to set off from Ethiopia and arrive at Li Lan's territory.

But seeing such a strong fighting force of the Red Alert soldiers really made the Ethiopian top brass hesitate. If it's just a trip to Somalia for a dozen autumn breezes, they'll be more than happy. But if you can't catch the fox and make a fuss when the time comes, then you won't be able to make a fuss. Moreover, once the casualties are too large after the troops are dispatched, they will not be able to account for them at home.

Therefore, in the past two days, Ethiopia has been a little hesitant. However, as soon as the United States saw the attitude of the Ethiopian side vacillating from side to side, although they were also very surprised by the strength of Li Lan's subordinates, they did not want Ethiopia to give up, but directly increased their bargaining chips.

Now, the United States is deliberately trying to let Ethiopia be a litmus test to see how much strength is hidden in Li Lan's territory. (To be continued......)