The 9th Company of Valenzuan had to cross 35 kilometers of desert terrain within two hours, and no more than three hours at most, to reach the predetermined place of operation.

There was a lot of time, but it was still impossible to run on two legs, carrying a bunch of heavy equipment, or still have to drive.

He sat in the passenger seat with two maps in his hands. One is big, the other is small.

The big one was drawn before the departure, and the scale was very large, and the route of travel was roughly planned—only for his company. This was copied from the regimental staff when I went to the regimental headquarters for a meeting. The small one, on the other hand, was just drawn, according to the large map, reduced on scale, and drawn according to the mission briefing that the regimental chief of staff had just called.

While looking at the map, he instructed the driver next to him to correct the route.

Marching in the desert, even with a car, is not easy to walk.

In the Western Desert region, except for the road that runs through the east and west, which is paved and hardened, there are no roads in other places - some of them are also stepped on by caravans with feet, cow hooves, and wheels.

It's not easy to walk.

Although, the terrain here is generally flat and endless. But when you really drive, gravel, sand, small potholes and slopes are all things that restrict the passage of vehicles, which is quite a test of the off-road performance of the vehicle.

But fortunately, the alliance's newly equipped Iron Bull-200 military version has been greatly upgraded compared to a generation. Not only is the rear body fully enclosed with metal, but the tires and suspension of the vehicle have been upgraded, with a special emphasis on off-road ability.

Bumps are inevitable, and you can't drive too fast, otherwise who knows that a certain piece of broken rock that the wheel has pressed will blow you up at this critical moment in the mission, and it will be over. Although there is a spare tire, changing the tire is also a waste of time, not to mention that the spare tire may not be enough.

The convoy ran through the desert at a speed of about 25 kilometers per hour, leaving some time to spare.

Valenzuan felt that under such circumstances, he should be able to arrive at the place at the scheduled time.

It is a little earlier to be able to do a little. Arriving early, with a little more time left, would have allowed them to dig a few more foxholes and dig them a little deeper, and the rest of the battle would be easier.

Seeking war, being belligerent, does not mean that you really fight and give away the lives of your brothers.

In the midst of the march, they did not take it away.

Valenzuan had already sent a reconnaissance squad to the west to investigate the situation in a few three-wheeled motorcycles in the company.

The Alliance's military has been fully distributed communications equipment to the squad level.

Every once in a while, the reconnaissance team would pass back a piece of information.

They also ran into scouts from other brother companies, and based on this information, as well as the battle detected ahead, Valenzuan pieced together an approximate picture of the current situation.

An unknown number, but certainly a large number of mechanical legions, is being attacked by a synthetic battalion of the Wind Extinguishing Brigade. That should be the 2nd Battalion of the Wind Extinguishing Brigade, they were bombed, and they were counterattacking under artillery fire.

They alone are certainly not enough, although there are Lion tanks, there are tanks, there are tanks, there are elite infantry, but the number is always a problem.

However, although the number of front-line attacking troops was much smaller than that of the enemy, the firepower was incomparably fierce!

Among them, the main source of firepower is the coalition artillery units, which are already on the move.

It was not only the artillery of a composite battalion of the Wind Extinguishing Brigade who participated in the battle. The artillery battalion below the brigade, the artillery support company within reach of the other battalions, and even the artillery of the 3rd Brigade next door, all poured fire on it anyway.

The intensity of artillery support is much larger than the scale of the troops participating in the battle.

With such artillery support, the brother troops of the 2nd Battalion next door made great progress.

Valenzuan really felt a sense of urgency in his heart.

He calculated the distance and time, and it would be okay to arrive at the scheduled location in two hours, but he still had to try to get as early as possible.

In a hurry, about an hour and a half after departure, they arrived at the intended place of operation.

The enemy has not yet arrived.

They hurried to set up their positions.

It stands to reason that they had about an hour to set up the fortifications.

There were only about 130 people in their company, with some sapper equipment, shovels, hammers, and so on. Each squad and platoon found a suitable place and began to work.

With such a small number of people, it is of course impossible to dig out an intricate and functional trench in an hour.

Anti-artillery holes, tunnels, pillboxes, command posts, rest areas......

These things, all of them.

But it's impossible to stand upright on the wasteland and shoot at people.

They would dig some foxholes temporarily, and put them in front of the pits with some gravel that they could pick up, and use them as bunkers and firing points; If possible, they will dig another pit next to the foxhole - a covered pit to serve as an anti-artillery hole.

But it's not easy.

The wasteland of the Western Desert is not a desert, and it is not full of quicksand. However, the soil structure is still not strong, and if you dig a hole without artificial support, you will collapse if you don't do it.

At present, there are only some simple engineering tools that can be used in the company, and there are no serious engineering companies and engineer battalions, and they have recently been equipped with military construction machines, and it is a bit difficult to dig such holes.

Valen Zuan and the company instructor walked around, checking the arming of each team and assessing the progress of the project.

But while they were digging holes, something happened.

From the northwest, a figure is moving.

The soldiers immediately became nervous.

Their hole hadn't been dug yet, and in fact it hadn't been two hours before it was supposed to be, and it was still twenty minutes away.

But on the battlefield, anything can happen. It is impossible for the enemy to cooperate with his own actions, and he will arrive when he says. They may have withdrawn early, or they may have sent out reconnaissance or vanguard to make sure that the rear road is safe.

The soldiers still had to hurry to prepare for battle, and climbed into the rather shallow foxholes that had not yet been dug; Some really have nowhere to climb, so they can only hide behind the iron bull trucks behind; On the battlefield, using vehicles as cover is obviously not a good choice, but if a soldier who doesn't even have this choice, he can only find a place to lie on the spot.

However, what happened next ...... I don't know if it's a false alarm, or if it's worse news.

It is not the enemy who comes, but the friendly army.

There are also many familiar faces inside.

It was the brother company next door, the same company of the 3rd brigade and 2nd regiment.

There were about 20 people who came over, and many of them were injured and looked very embarrassed.

When he saw these guys from afar, Valenzuan had a very bad thought in his heart.

He shouted what his brothers should do next, and at the same time, the company instructor had already led a team of people to meet him.

Valentzuan took the binoculars and looked twice.

The voices in the distance are not very audible here, but you can see that there seems to be some conflict between the two sides. The good-natured instructor of the 9th Company seemed to be angry and scolding something, and he also took out his pistol and loaded it. The soldiers on the opposite side were dejected, and some people argued a few words, but in the end there was no movement.

In the end, the instructor and the soldiers of the company, pressed the gang and walked back.

Fortunately, there was no bigger mess, and it didn't get to the point of disarming those people.

After bringing the people back, the instructor arranged for them to find a place and temporarily formed an extra squad to dig pits and prepare for the war. And he himself came back to the company commander to prepare a report.

Valentouan asked, "Deserters? ”

The instructor's face was a little ugly, he hesitated for a moment, but changed his character: "To be precise, it should be a rout." ”

Valenzuan was noncommittal.

The instructor was still a little soft-hearted.

'Deserters' and 'routers' are completely different in nature. The former is to be court-martialed, or at the front line, any military commander or military and political officer has the right to shoot him directly. And the latter, it is a helpless choice, there is no way.

If it's a rout, it's okay, it's still usable when it's put away. But if it were a deserter, then Valenzuan would not dare to trust this wave of people.

If you can escape once, you will have a second time. At the critical moment of the battle, if one of your own defense lines escapes directly from the battle, it will affect the life and death of the entire company.

Looking at the company commander's expression, the instructor hurriedly said, "It's really a rout!" Look at the fact that there are no officers in those gangs, and the highest rank is only a sergeant......"

Then he spoke of the information he had received from the rout.

The 3rd Company was on the northwest side of where they were now, and the task they received was similar to that of the 9th Company, which was to outflank the rear road and fight a blocking battle.

But their condition and luck are worse. First of all, they ran into trouble on the road, they encountered a small group of enemies, and had to get out of the car and fight. This allowed them to arrive on the battlefield later than scheduled, and their intended area was relatively close to the enemy, so they collided with most of the enemy before they had time to prepare.

“…… According to them, before they could get out of the car, they were hit by a round of artillery fire, and one vehicle was blown up, killing a carload of people; As soon as they got out of the car, they had no bunkers, so they could only rely on vehicles to fight the enemy, but the artillery fire was continuous, coupled with the fact that there were combat drones attacking from the sky, they could not resist, and the fire points in the company could not be deployed, and the casualties were very large from the beginning. When the mechanical dogs rush at them, they can't stop them. ”

"The whole army suffered heavy casualties, and the rest of the people had to fight and run, and the dead were not taken care of, and the living were all scattered. They don't know where the other comrades have gone, or even if anyone is alive but themselves. ”

Valen Zuan was quite emotional, and sympathized with the experience of the 3rd Company.

A battle, prepared and unprepared, the outcome varies greatly.

He touched his chin and said, "That sounds excusable, but to get them involved in the next battle, you have to keep an eye on their will to fight." ”

"I'll keep an eye on it."

……

The rout has already arrived, and the enemy will naturally not be far away.

In fact, within a few minutes, the scouts on the front line received information that they had seen the enemy's tracks, and they had even knocked out two combat drones.

Soon, they also returned.

There is no need to go forward to investigate, the enemy is already coming. Valenzuan was holding the binoculars, and he could already see them.

"Fire!" He ordered.

There is no need to get closer and fight again, this is not an ambush war, and in this endless wasteland, there is no condition to engage in an ambush. Try to eliminate the enemy at a long distance and prevent them from getting closer, that's of course the best.

However, the guns in the hands of ordinary soldiers did not fire.

Now, the enemy is still three kilometers away, and it is a waste of bullets for a normal rifle to fire.

At the moment, only mortars owned by platoon-level units are spraying fire. The upgraded 80 force has a lot more firepower than before, and it doesn't sacrifice portability too much. Five such guns, under the operation of the mortar gunner, fiercely projected fire forward.

Another weapon capable of firing is a heavy explosive shotgun. The effective range of this thing is completely more than 3,000 meters, and at this distance, it can still guarantee accuracy - it is people who can't guarantee accuracy. After all, if you look at something three thousand meters away, it's good to see a small black dot.

It's just that if there are a bunch of small black dots, relying on the ruler on the firearm, and training experience, the sweep is enough.

It is heavy firepower at the level of an infantry company, and when the enemy suffers such a blow, it is really a bit of a person who has been bombed on his back for a while.

They seemed to have been somewhat unexpectedly surprised by the infantry's ability to project such heavy fire. They had just eliminated and defeated the 3rd Company, which was not ready for battle, and the soldiers of the 3rd Company suddenly entered the close-range firefight before they even had time to deploy their heavy weapons.

And now, in the face of the fire of the prepared human infantry positions, they suffered considerable losses at once.

Carrying the telescope, Valenzuan saw that many modified people, mechanical dogs, and even another machine with a firepower platform, which had four mechanical legs and could walk sideways like a crab, had also been smashed by a string of heavy explosive bombs.

Company Commander Valenzuan smiled.

It is quite important to take the lead, at least the morale of the troops has been mobilized.

But soon, the enemy's counterattack also arrived.

There was a howl in the sky, and there were cannonballs.

The shells were fired out of sight, and they were definitely out of the way anyway. The enemy also does have large-caliber self-propelled heavy guns that can hit targets at a distance of several tens of kilometers, at least no worse than the Soyuz's 155 grenades.

These shells fell and smashed on the position of the 9th Company, and suddenly the whole place was dusty.

When he heard the sound of cannonballs whizzing, Varenzuan shouted 'shelling' and lowered his head to bury himself in the dirt of the foxhole.

The earth shook violently, the explosions that almost deafened him, the sand and rubble that fell on his helmet and his uniform......

These are extremely shocking.

But at the very first moment after the shelling, Valenzuan immediately raised his head and looked around.

The damage is difficult to assess, one iron bull was blown over, and the other foxholes have not come up for the time being, and I don't know what happened.

But he clearly saw that the position of the heavy explosive shotgun, the original gunman and the cartridge supplier, the body had been abnormally distorted, and he was obviously dead.

Looking further, those mechanical monsters that had been suppressed by the fire had already taken the opportunity to charge.

He gritted his teeth, dragged a warrior next to him, and ran out with the cat on his waist.

He was in charge of the blaster, and the little soldier he dragged over, and a little foggy, fed him.

Fortunately, the heavy explosive gun itself is still relatively strong, and the shells did not fall directly into the foxhole, and the gun can still be used.

With a few manipulations, he made the blaster roar again!

(End of chapter)