Mercenaries, I Will Be King Chapter 1228 - 1071: The Devil of Ashala Town

Song Heping's orders were executed swiftly and resolutely.

The mbers of the Suicide Squad, under the strong cover of the sniper team led by Naxin, began orderly disengaging from the enemy's fire.

They covered each other, dragging wounded comrades, carrying weapons and ammunition that could be taken, and arduously moved to the second pre-set position deeper in the valley.

"Over there! There are a few more there!"

Samir's voice desperately called out over the channel.

"At the 2 o'clock position, there are a few wounded brothers!"

The retreating militia heard his shout, and several of them turned their heads and ran toward the 2 o'clock position.

Song Heping saw through the sniper's scope, about 400 ters away, several "Liberation Forces" militian covered in blood lying on a sand slope, their bodies stained red by blood.

It seed they were injured during the previous brutal hand-to-hand combat with the 1515 Ard n, and the injuries were severe, almost losing the ability to crawl, although their hands were still moving, seemingly reaching for sothing.

"Beware of the machine gunners!"

Not far away, soone from Naxin's sniper team shouted.

But before the words finished, the sound of dense machine gun fire rang out in the distance.

Da-da-da-da—

The barrage of bullets turned several militias who wanted to return to rescue their comrades into sieves, and the bodies rolled down the slope.

Bang—

Bang—

Bang—

After the machine gun fire, the snipers on this side kept retaliating.

"Samir, order your n to retreat imdiately."

Song Heping gritted his teeth and issued the command.

There are too few n.

The first line of defense had started to pull back.

The 1515 attackers have already pushed to within a few dozen ters of the defense line.

Going to rescue now is simply impossible.

Even with the sniper team and machine gunners on this side constantly providing fire support, they couldn't stop the machine gunners of the 1515 side from harming the militias trying to return to the defense line to aid the wounded.

On the battlefield, theoretically, no one should ever be abandoned.

But that is not absolute.

Blindly rescuing disregarding reality and losses is tantamount to letting personnel who still have combat capability throw their lives away.

Especially in a blocking battle.

When outnumbered.

Such actions are foolish.

Samir also understood Song Heping's aning, he clenched his fist and slamd the sand a few tis, biting his lip until it bled, and ordered fiercely: "Retreat! All retreat! Don't linger! Go to the second line of defense!"

Finally, the militias no longer attempted to rescue those few isolated wounded and began retreating to the second line of defense.

Song Heping saw through the sight the severely injured n unable to move silently clutching the hand grenades, then pressing them to their chests…

A few 1515 extremists rushed up, just raised their guns, only to see the wounded loosening their grip on the grenades…

"Run!"

Soone exclaid.

So turned to run, while others looked bewildered...

Boom—

Boom—

Boom—

The explosions sounded one after another.

The 1515 soldiers closest who hadn't run yet suddenly enjoyed a "fragntary bath," with dozens of bullet holes appearing all over their bodies.

For these extremists lacking armor, shrapnel easily pierced them like a knife through butter.

Soon, they turned into rolling gourds, clutching their blasted faces as they flopped on the ground like fish caught ashore, in extre agony.

"Real warriors…"

Seeing this situation, Song Heping could only sigh.

He knew there was nothing he could do, but simultaneously saw hope.

Compared to the low morale witnessed when he first arrived, looking now at the wounded militias who fought to the last mont, perishing together with the enemy, undeniable is the fact that—Illiguo people's wolf-like nature was forced out.

At least, this nation is not beyond saving.

"Boom boom boom!"

The last few rounds of 107 rockets screeched as they landed in the area where the 1515 Ard n tried to gather in the riverbed center, once more stirring up a blood storm, slightly stalling the frenzied extremists' pursuit.

But it wasn't of much use.

The rockets quickly ran out.

The 1515 extremists resud their tide-like assault.

Song Heping watched the distant dense enemy resembling ants, then looked at the blood-stained valley area, estimating the current battle situation in his mind—

His side has lost at least a hundred n, with dozens wounded.

aning that in the first engagent at the first line of defense, half of the troops he commanded had already been lost.

However, look at the opponents, those 1515 n.

They seem to be suffering as well.

At least in the first round of ambush, those modified heavy "Tank" and armored vehicles in their convoy were mostly wrecked.

All that's left are so "death pickups."

Although equipped with heavy machine guns in the car beds, Song Heping has a way to deal with them.

The second line of retreat was through Dry River Valley; to pursue, they had to cross Dry River Valley and co around.

Song Heping had already simulated this scenario in his mind.

Sure enough, the enemy's pickup truck convoy, just as Song Heping had anticipated, began to recklessly cross the river valley and sped forward. The intention seed obvious: to use the mobility of the pickups to flank Song Heping's Suicide Squad and attack from the side, cutting off escape routes.

But they seed to underestimate this Illiguo Suicide Squad.

Perhaps they didn't have much in the way of tactics before.

But now it was different.

If these Illiguo militias were a flock of lambs before,

they still seed to be lambs now.

The difference is, now leading the flock is a lion.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The preset Directional Bombs on the south bank of the river valley, and trap mines buried in the wind-eroded caves, were remotely detonated one after another. The fierce explosions and flying prefabricated fragnts created a new death zone among the pursuing pickup convoy, with screams filling the air.

"Don't let a single one escape."

Seeing the opportune mont, Song Heping quietly issued an order to Naxin's sniper squad.

The SVD sniper rifles in the hands of the Persian special forces unit mbers emitted crisp sounds continuously, precisely shooting dead each remaining extremist on the "Death Pickup" convoy that had just been ravaged by Directional Bombs and explosives.

When the last Suicide Squad mber staggered into the more fortified positions on the north bank, built using natural caves and reinforced cliff walls, the 1515 Ard forces, under the frenzied drive of the supervisory teams, barely managed to control the first line of the burnt ground covered in corpses and wreckage, at an unimaginable cost.

But what greeted them was more fierce, more precise, and deeper hate-driven crossfire from the Suicide Squad's new position!

Bullets rained down like a torrential shower, rcilessly suppressing any enemy attempting to show themselves.

Dry Sand River, this arid death valley, had now been stained in vast, horrifyingly dark shades of reddish-brown by the viscous blood.

The air was thick with the nauseating stench of blood, the burnt sll of charred flesh, and the fetid odor of ruptured entrails.

The burning vehicle wreckages billowed thick smoke, obscuring parts of the clear blue sky.

Everywhere in sight were incomplete, grotesquely twisted bodies, destroyed and contorted weapons, brass shell casings, and rocket tail fins scattered all over the ground.

The three hundred Suicide Squad mbers, in less than two hours of brutal resistance, managed to tie down the ferocious three-thousand-strong enemy in this Hellish place of Dry Sand River at the cost of over a hundred and fifty casualties and a resolute determination to die!

As they retreated to the second line of defense, the commander of the distant 1515 forces, standing by a pickup truck, holding a radio walkie-talkie, looked at the tragic scene before him and struggled to swallow his saliva.

"Headquarters calling Hungry Wolf, what's your situation over there?"

The call ca from the 1515 Ard Illiguo headquarters through the radio.

"Hungry Wolf" was the code na for their pursuit unit.

Two days ago, his unit received orders from the higher-ups to detach northwards from the main force advancing towards Baghdad, aiming to leverage the sway of the capture of Haddid's key town, to sweep the northern tribal militia territories, expel the Kurd people there, and seize control of the two major northern oil field regions.

After all, though 1515 was composed of lunatics and maniacs, they still had brains.

Warfare needs funding.

And where does the money co from?

Oil!

Petroleum!

That's black gold.

So, 1515 wouldn't just rely on foreign funds but also sought self-reliance.

There's hardly a wiser choice than occupying oil-producing and grain-producing regions.

The attacks over the past two days faced no significant resistance.

Ihassan, leading his forces, easily swept through several Illiguo tribal territories north of Mosul.

Those Illigos and tribal militias had long been terrified of the 1515 Ard, intimidating even the governnt army, let alone the poorly equipped and outnumbered tribal militias.

Ihassan hadn't expected to bite into a tough bone here, nearly breaking his own teeth.

He wasn't underestimating the enemy.

He knew the territory direction belonged to the "Liberation Forces," a thousand-strong militia led by Samir.

One could say the Liberation Forces militia is renowned for its combat strength among Illiguo's local ard groups, comparable in fighting capability to Illiguo's largest "National Movent" militia group, albeit slightly smaller in scale.

Hence, he went all out, mobilizing all his troops.

The result…

Ended up like this.

In the yellow sand river trench before him lay nurous corpses.

A single glance couldn't differentiate who was who, and one would even have to step over the corpses to pass.

It's no exaggeration to say there were over a thousand corpses lying in front.

Ihassan had fought many battles.

But he had never seen a battle as brutal as this.

"Headquarters…"

He wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"We encountered a bit of trouble near the northern Elbil region…"

"Samir's territory?"

"That's right…"

"Be careful, we got word that the 'Devil of Ashala Town' is currently up north and supposedly joined Samir's ard organization. He and Samir knew each other back in Illiguo."

"'Devil of Ashala Town'?" Ihassan, hearing the na, envisioned an Oriental figure in his mind and shivered under the scorching sun.

This was the sa man who had single-handedly withstood thousands on a mountain near Ashala Town and miraculously survived a bombing by the US Army's planes — "Devil of Ashala Town"?

This nickna was given to Song Heping by people within the 1515 Organization.

His reputation was formidable not only in the Middle East region but also in 1515's African branches, which had also suffered losses at his hands…

"No wonder…"

Haisan's Adam's apple moved, swallowing his second gulp of saliva with difficulty, breaking out in a cold sweat despite the thirty plus degree heat.