Mercenaries, I Will Be King Chapter 1493 1228: Mobile Warfare

Fifteen minutes past twelve at night.

Fifteen kiloters outside Hulmatu City, inside an abandoned farm, Song Heping's temporary command center was set up here.

Song Heping was not staying inside an oppressive command vehicle but had moved a folding chair to sit under the shadow of a half-collapsed earthen wall. In front of him, a battle map crowded with annotations was spread on an ammo box, with an ergency lamp and an encrypted military laptop nearby, along with a satellite phone.

He was holding three intelligence summaries from different sources, his gaze sweeping back and forth over the differently colored annotations and slightly contradictory data.

One was transmitted through encrypted channels from the Persian ally Avanti, in which Avanti confidently claid that the defenders of Hulmatu had increased to seven thousand five hundred people, with at least one battalion of elite "foreign rcenaries" already arrived.

Another was "courtesy offered" by the Russian intelligence agency, rough in style, focusing on marking Hulmatu's newly added anti-tank missile positions and artillery locations, but its estimate of the total troop strength was relatively conservative, believing it to be around six thousand five hundred.

The last one was "shared" from Colonel Kote with the US Army's high-tech reconnaissance results, with clear pictures, rich signal intelligence, clearly pointing out the defenders exceeded eight thousand, and detailed listing of the "Black Flag Group" reinforcents rushing from Ozham direction and their approximate troop strength and equipnt situation.

Each piece of intelligence had its emphasis and discrepancies.

The benefit of cross-verifying intelligence is that you can instantly see which piece has the most exaggeration.

"Old Master Sergeant, whose intelligence should we trust?"

Jiang Feng, with a wrench squatting next to him, frowned, "Old Russians say six thousand and five, Persians say seven thousand five with experts, Old Arica directly calls it over eight thousand... that's a huge difference."

Song Heping did not imdiately answer; he used three colored pens, red, blue, and black, each representing the three sources of intelligence, to mark positions on the map.

Soon, the surroundings of Hulmatu were filled with various symbols.

"Don't trust completely, but don't completely distrust."

Song Heping finally spoke, his voice steady, "Persians want to exaggerate difficulties to make their subsequent support appear more important; the Russian intelligence network has sowhat declined over the years, details may be outdated."

He paused here, scratched his chin, and continued:

"Old Arica... hmp, their technology is undebatable, but the analysis and conclusions, who knows if there's so sand mixed in, trying to scare us or guide us according to their ideas."

He pointed at several areas on the map that all three sources had emphasized: "Look here, the abandoned factory district to the east of the city, all three ntioned increased troop strength and reinforced fortifications, this point can basically be confird."

He then pointed to a residential area south of the city, "Here, only Persians and Aricans ntioned a new reserve troop assembly area, but Russians did not ntion it... Have Samir dispatch two of the most elite teams to verify this area."

"Understood!"

"Additionally…"

Song Heping's gaze deepened.

"Aricans ntioned Ozham reinforcents, Persians also hinted at unknown source reinforcents… Samir!"

He looked up and called.

Samir imdiately jogged over.

"Boss, any orders?"

"Contact your hidden lines in the northwest, especially in the direction of Mosul."

Song Heping pointed at Mosul and said:

"I want to know if there are any additional forces moving towards Hulmatu besides those from Ozham. Focus on Mosul; it's where 1515's northwest base is, also the hub connecting the Illiguo and Siria battle zones. Find out the situation with Mosul's defenders, any unusual mobilization."

"I'll contact imdiately!"

Samir did not hesitate, imdiately walked aside, and began contacting his hidden informants using an encrypted phone.

The waiting was tense.

Song Heping still sat in the folding chair, his fingers unconsciously tapping the edge of the map, yet his eyes firmly locked onto the point representing Mosul.

Ti ticked away.

Finally, Samir finished his call, walked back quickly, with a hint of excitent and seriousness on his face.

"Boss, I found out!"

Samir lowered his voice and said: "My insider in Mosul said that yesterday, Mosul's original defenders of around six thousand suddenly were transferred nearly three thousand in batches! The direction is Hulmatu! Now only about three thousand defenders remain in Mosul City!"

This news was like a boulder thrown into a tranquil pond, causing a stir among the command center's core mbers.

"Mosul also mobilized troops?!"

Jiang Feng gasped.

"Ozham two thousand, Mosul three thousand... damn... In this view, Hulmatu probably houses close to ten thousand of those 1515 lunatics... Buckdadi is moving all his assets here, determined to have a life-and-death showdown with us in Hulmatu!"

Samir cursed: "He really thinks highly of us! Now Hulmatu City probably has nearly ten thousand gathered! How can we fight this? And they defend while we attack, it's to our disadvantage. Even if we break the periter, those terrorists in the city are hard to clear, it will take a lot of effort, even…"

He wanted to say "even cost a lot of lives," perhaps feeling such words were demoralizing, so he stopped himself.

All eyes focused again on Song Heping.

Pressure was as heavy as a mountain.

Hulmatu had already transford from a hard-to-chew bone into a steel fortress that could potentially break teeth and even choke to death.

Song Heping's face showed not a trace of panic; he even let out a light laugh.

The laugh was light, yet it made those next to him look at each other, puzzled at what he could find amusing at a ti like this.