Until China has yet to make any countermeasures to the U.S. Waverider attack, the United States is rushing to expand on the battlefield gains after this attack. In particular, the attack of the Wave Rider caused heavy losses to the Kurdish army, and Barzani temporarily ordered the troops to rest on the spot and carry out various construction activities to prevent the US army from using the Wave Rider to attack again, which directly brought the war on the Turkish Southern Front to a standstill. This allowed Turkey to focus its best efforts on the defense of Istanbul, and the U.S. military immediately sent additional troops to Turkey, including Nathan Lin's Marine Expeditionary Force, which was originally deployed in Libya.

NATO allies have amassed more than 150,000 troops in Istanbul, mainly Turkish troops, supplemented by a part of Greek and American troops, to defend the historic city to the death. Not only the Bulgarian, Romanian, and Yugoslav armies participated in the siege battle, but the Chinese side also sent a group army as the main attacking force.

The 21st Army, which was originally part of the Lanzhou Military Region, was reorganized before coming to Europe, especially before participating in the Battle of Istanbul, and the military deliberately strengthened the armored and artillery forces of this group army. The 21st Group Army not only received a batch of heavy Apocalypse tanks that the military did not like to install, but also equipped them with a lot of Type 01 main battle tanks, a new generation of main battle tanks developed by NORINCO.

In terms of artillery, the developed and mature vehicle-mounted electromagnetic cannons began to be provided to the 21st Army on a large scale, and these electromagnetic cannons will be used to shell Istanbul more than 100 kilometers away, Qi Yiming and the PLA General Staff do not care much about preserving the cultural heritage of this historical and cultural city, and now UNESCO is completely neutralized because of lack of funds, if necessary, Chinese artillery will really turn Istanbul into a scorched earth.

The NATO Allied Forces' idea of fighting was very straightforward, that is, to clear the wilderness, so that the attack of the SCO Coalition was very uncomfortable, and they used an opportunity to destroy the living forces of the SCO Coalition Army, so as to protect Istanbul and ensure that the Turkish Straits were not lost. And in order to do this, the Turkish army built a large number of fortifications and defensive lines on the periphery of the city, so that the Chinese front-line commanders could not help but feel that they were fighting a war in the last century.

There are not many air forces that can support the SCO coalition forces, and the US military attacked the SCO Air Force in Europe, causing a lot of losses, and they also need to deal with the air forces of Germany and France and other countries to protect the homeland of the three Eastern European countries, plus Turkey itself does not have much decent air force (this decent standard is slightly higher, the Turkish fleet is dominated by F-16, and this fourth-generation aircraft is really not very decent for the Chinese Air Force, which has begun to focus on fifth-generation aircraft), Therefore, the number of fighters involved in the battle of Istanbul was relatively limited.

On the contrary, the Army Aviation Force has hundreds of Tengu mechs participating in the battle, and these mechs that can transform into low-altitude attack aircraft will provide the most close fire assistance for the ground forces of the SCO Coalition Army, and of course, they will also enter the city streets when necessary to engage in street battles that are a headache for the infantry, giving full play to their advantages as infantry mechs.

On the first day of the Battle of Istanbul, as Qi Yiming had originally designed, the 21st Army's electromagnetic artillery units and long-range rocket artillery units began to carry out indiscriminate large-scale bombardments of Istanbul nearly 100 kilometers from the city.

In the first round of shelling, Chinese artillery poured more than 1,000 tons of ammunition at Istanbul, which not only stunned the Turkish army, but also caused a large number of casualties among Istanbul civilians. Recognizing the brutality of the war, the Turkish side immediately organized the evacuation and relocation of Istanbul residents by government officials, while the people of the city, who had thought that the war would not harm them, left the city with their families in horror.

However, the unforeseen outflow of refugees has also caused considerable problems for Turkey, with residents scrambling to leave the city and taking up a large number of transportation roads and ships in the straits, which has caused a headache for NATO allies who need these transportation channels and transportation capacity. At first, Turkey wanted to smoothly move these civilians out of the city where a major war was about to take place, but soon, two mechanized infantry of the Yugoslav People's Army and a Bulgarian armored division took advantage of the chaos to launch a first offensive against Istanbul.

The somewhat panicked Turkish defenders were unable to resist the onslaught of the SCO coalition forces at all, and Turkey's strongest first line of defense was directly broken by the SCO coalition forces. Under such circumstances, the Turkish side had no choice but to continuously throw troops into the front line, mobilizing nine divisions to resist three divisions of the SCO coalition army, which, after successively crushing two Turkish divisions, was unable to follow up and finally had to withdraw from the front. Despite this, the first line of defense of the Turks was occupied by the SCO forces, and the first line of defense, located fifty or sixty kilometers from the city, had already been set up by the SCO forces with a second line of artillery positions.

These artillery pieces are mainly 52 times the diameter of the 155mm self-propelled guns of the SCO coalition and some 155mm and 203mm large-caliber towed guns, which are enough to fire the latest bottom row extended-range shells directly into Istanbul from this position, and the NATO allied barracks and other facilities in Istanbul will face such a terrible blow.

To add to NATO's madness, the blocked roads for refugees led directly to the delivery of supplies to Istanbul from the rear, and normal military movements were difficult to achieve. At the insistence of the Americans, Turkish officials who had guided Istanbul residents out of the city had to drive the Turks back to their homes, or bomb shelters and makeshift shelters. This, naturally, caused even greater panic among the Turks.

"Sir, please let us get out of here, this is no longer our homeland, but hell, our family will be killed by Chinese fire!" A Turkish resident cried to U.S. Marine Private Nathan Lim, who was assisting Turkish officials in their evacuation.

Nathan looked at the man with tears on his face, and was very embarrassed for a while. His companion Isuzu grabbed him and whispered, "Don't be nosy, our order is to send them back to the city, not to let them continue to block the road here." ”

Nathan hesitated, "However, if you let them go back, there is only one way to die." ”

Isuzu spread his hands and said, "Then I can only blame them for their bad lives!" ”

Although his voice was small, it was still heard by the man just now, and the man's face was full of fear, and he said excitedly: "How can you be like this, you have no right to confine us to this dangerous place, isn't the United States known as a country of freedom?" Do you, American fighters defending freedom, want to restrict our personal freedom and watch us die? ”

Isuzu said: "Man, I don't want to do this either, but we are just a group of soldiers and have no right to speak, and if you want to complain, you can only go to our boss and tell me that it is useless." Moreover, this is a time of war, and if victory is not guaranteed, no democratic freedom will be lost. ”

Nathan frowned: "Isuzu, you can't talk like that, we are fighting for our values, if we can't protect civilians, then what's the difference with those murderous Chinese." ”

Isuzu pouted and said, "When you said this, did you react that you yourself are Chinese?" ”

Nathan was even more annoyed: "I said it ten thousand times, I am Chinese-American, not Chinese!" ”

But at this time, chaos ensued, and the Turks, who already knew that these soldiers would not let them go, but would drive them to the abyss of hell, broke out their own blood, and the descendants of these Turks had a martial side, otherwise they would not have ruled such a vast land at the junction of Europe and Asia. Several young Turks, taking advantage of the inattention of several Marines, grabbed them directly and fell to the ground, and some snatched the guns of the American Marines and fired at the American soldiers who were driving the Turks.

Naturally, these Turks had extremely poor marksmanship, and the American soldiers were killed, but several Turks were also killed. When the already nervous American Marines heard the gunshots, many of the recruits pulled the shots without asking or thinking about it, and opened fire on any Turks who might be their killers, and blood suddenly spread all over the road.

And the Turks, seeing that the American troops began to shoot at them, no longer had any hope for them, and some men rushed up and directly pounced on the American soldiers, seizing any weapons that could be captured, and some even pulled grenades, causing explosions and even greater chaos.

Nathan was stunned by this scene, and before he could react, he had been dragged by the fast-moving Isuzu into an anti-mine car behind him, and in this tin can, the Turks could not hurt them.

Nathan kept muttering, "My God, my God, what the hell is going on, are they all crazy?" ”

Isuzu shouted, "We're going to kill them, and I'm not surprised that they did it, oh, ****, they're going to knock this car down, take care to protect your head and belly!" ”

An angry group of Turks pushed down the anti-mine van, but because the compartment was closed, Nathan and Isuzu were not killed by them until more Turkish soldiers arrived and quelled the riots, and the two of them were rescued. And when Nathan came out and saw the corpses all over the ground, he threw up as he leaned on the car.