"Have you gone mad?!"
When Cook found out that Song Heping had taken on the military contract in Mosul, he started cursing over the phone.
"Do you realize the US Army couldn't clear out the resistance army hidden in there after fighting for three months? I heard there are elite snipers and small groups lurking in the city, and this is not a small-scale raid, it's a large-scale military operation. The place is hell, many Arican soldiers don't even know where the bullets are coming from before they et their maker!"
"If you're scared, you don't have to go. You've made enough money now; you can go back to your hotown, buy a big villa, get a country house for vacations, hunt in Siberia on your free days, and live a peaceful life."
Cook's personality was well-known to Song Heping.
If he didn't like sothing, he would start by cursing.
After cursing, he would still go ahead with it.
Song Heping was well aware that Cook understood why he had taken this contract.
The reason was simple.
It was like a small company taking on a subcontract from a big business; without previous cooperation and no qualifications, they wouldn't be considered.
Only with a past partnership, good reputation, and trust from a big corporation could they secure a contract.
Simply put, you have to enter this circle.
Currently, all the lucrative contracts within Illigo were monopolized by a few large international defense companies, and for a smaller company like "Musician" to get so corporate orders was already quite impressive.
If not for Angel's help, Wood Energy's relatively good oil field security orders might not have ever co to Song Heping's team.
It was precisely because they secured the Hassan Oil Field order that they later obtained the Cook Oil Field contract. With two oil field contracts under their belt and performing well, they later managed to obtain a minor military contract for the Sherebyat Water Station.
In the water station security operation, "Musician" Defense's performance was exceptionally outstanding, which caught Curtis's attention. It was Curtis who recognized the capabilities of "Musician" Defense, leading to this recomndation.
Ro wasn't built in a day.
Success will never be achieved overnight.
Song Heping understood this, and naturally, Cook did as well.
It was just that when he heard it was Mosul, he beca agitated.
Indeed.
Now, Mosul is a hell.
Since early last May, the coalition commander had publicly boasted that they had control over the entirety of Illigo.
The reality was they couldn't even completely secure the Green Zone, which remains ssily unchanged till now.
The situation in the northwestern part of Illigo was even more complicated.
The reason is that this area borders Siria, Persia, and Turkey, allowing the ard resistance organizations to fight when they can win and flee when they can't, while continuing to receive a steady supply of resources.
Although the coalition forces led by the US Army had made so deploynts and interceptions on the border to try to cut off the supplies coming into cities like Mosul from these neighboring countries, the border is still thousands of kiloters long, and the US Army couldn't completely stem the flow.
The result is that, although it seems they have taken several major cities in the northwest, the battle has not stopped, causing the US Army especially in Mosul and its surrounding areas to suffer the greatest losses since the invasion.
The significant casualties put enormous pressure on the politicians, a longstanding tradition in Arica: as long as the number of national soldiers' casualties rises, anti-war sentint erges dostically, and opposition in Congress would exploit the situation to discredit the administration.
But this wasn't enough to stump those in power. Since regular military casualty numbers were unsustainable, they let contractors and local Illigo troops take over—whatever ICDC governnt army, whatever ISF special forces, let them handle it.
The deaths of these individuals didn't need to be counted or explained to the public; as long as the money went to the contractors, it was purely a business transaction.
Perfect!
Currently, there are already several contractors who have received contracts in Mosul, including Black Water, Sparta, and Olive Group (OG company), all of whom have deployed a large number of combat rcenaries in various parts of Mosul.
The compensation for these contracts is extrely generous, sothing previously unattainable for a small company like "Musician" Defense.
This ti, Deputy Commander Peter actually took the initiative to extend an olive branch to "Musician" Defense, giving them an opportunity to join the circle—how could Song Heping not seize it?
Indeed, when Song Heping told Cook he could avoid going if he was afraid, Cook imdiately refused.
"Who said I'm not going? Am I that kind of person who fears death? Song, you're underestimating !"
"If you're not scared, then hurry back to the company. I am waiting for you guys here; this mission is quite tricky, so we need to study it thoroughly."
After hanging up, Song Heping picked up the docunts provided by Peter, opened the cover page, and started studying the content inside slowly.
This is an analysis report on an organization nad "Hunter".
According to the contents of the report, the "Hunter" organization has only appeared in Mosul within the last month.
During this month, as many as 162 US Army soldiers have died in Mosul battle, with over three hundred wounded.
At first glance, this number doesn't seem high.
However, when compared to the casualty figures from the entire "Illigo Freedom" operation, it becos horrifying.
As part of the invasion force invading Illigo, from the start of the invasion in April last year until the announcent of the end of the "Illigo Freedom" in July, a total of 262 US Army soldiers died, and among them, 123 died from traffic accidents, friendly fire, and other strange causes.
Out of these 162, besides a portion who were killed by Resistance Organization's stealth attacks using rocket and Mortar fire, most were snipers who were killed during search and destroy missions in the city over the past month.
The ambushers who targeted US forces were extrely skilled shooters and very clever, never engaging in prolonged combat, killing whatever and whoever they could, and moving imdiately upon detection by US forces.
By the ti support arrived, it was often too late, and the area searches afterward usually ca up empty.
The report also analyzed the tactical asures used by the resistance organizations in the Mosul area recently; these ard militants adopted a range of effective tactics and strategies.
Instead of defending the city with large structured forces using buildings as they had at the beginning of the battle of Mosul, they completely decentralized their forces, ford nurous mixed, highly efficient combat teams, and adopted hit-and-run tactics continuously wearing down the strength of US forces and the ICDC.
Moreover, over the past month, they widely deployed sniper teams to inflict casualties and constrain the US-British allied forces, using reinforced car bombs to destroy armored targets, extensively laying traps, obstacles, and improvised explosive devices, making it difficult for US forces to move around the city.
Additionally, they have planted nurous informants across the city; whenever US forces capture a place and leave behind so troops to solidify their positions, ard militants would arrive right after their departure, quickly organize superior troop strength for a counterattack, kill the defenders inside the buildings, or imdiately retreat if they could not be killed, more slippery than eels.
This resulted in the Arican soldiers, accustod to conventional wind-assisted battles, being at a loss; currently, two battalions stationed in the city are being bombed at night and ambushed with sniper fire by day while clearing the streets, pushing many to the brink of ntal breakdown.
"Sparrow warfare, guerrilla warfare..."
Song Heping, looking at the report, spoke out two terms he was very familiar with.
He even wondered if the resistance ard groups recently entrenched in Mosul, Illigo had been studying China's military textbooks.
By evening, the cooks finally returned to the company.
After dinner, everyone sat down beside the long table in the conference room.
A large map of Mosul had already been hung on the wall.
Song Heping first explained the current situation in Mosul to everyone.
"The urban area of Mosul City is large and the terrain complex, easy to defend and hard to attack. The entire campaign's operation area includes the main urban area and the surrounding villages and towns.
There are about 200,000 buildings in the main urban area, which facilitates militants hiding and engaging in street battles. Now the US Army, ICDC, and various companies' rcenaries almost need to scrutinize every building.
Especially in Mosul's Old Town, there are more than 5,000 buildings, densely populated, with narrow, winding streets where vehicles cannot pass, and siege troops must fight on foot.
Many old buildings have underground passages, allowing militants to effectively avoid reconnaissance. This is the most deadly part; sotis when the US Army's clearing troops enter an area, they get hit by shells or bullets fired from unknown origins before finding the enemy. When they call for air support, the enemy has already run away."
"This kind of fighting, reminds of Grozny," White Bear said, shaking his head, a hint of fear on his face: "It's a complete urban at grinder."
The cook looked at him and said, "It hasn't reached that tragic level yet, at least the militants in Mosul City don't have heavy weapons, not even armored vehicles. I've looked at the descriptions here... most of them were killed by snipers."
Song Heping said, "That's right, the intelligence in the report shows that a organization nad 'Hunter' has appeared in the Mosul area recently, consisting of the most elite snipers from the forr Revolutionary Guard, even including forr national athletes.
The US Army has now deployed a Seal Team specifically to deal with this organization; our task is to assist this Seal Team in finding their base—"
At this, he laughed helplessly.
"General Peter specifically valued our ability to dismantle their bases, asking us to locate the 'Hunter's' base in Mosul, take out their leader, and dissolve this sniper unit."
"Who is their leader?" Queen Julia asked, holding a photo from the report and looking it over again, "This photo of the US Army soldier, according to on-site analysis, was killed by a sniper rifle from at least a thousand ters away. Looking at the bullet hole, one shot to the head, using a steel core bullet, went straight through the helt..."
"Then there's this one, hit in the neck..."
"And this one, again in the head, the first shot hit the head from a distance of over a thousand ters, the Kevlar Helt luckily blocked it, but the shooter took another shot, this ti hitting the neck, and there was no saving him..."
After showing several photos, Queen Julia spread her hands.
"Think about it, do you find it terrifying too? What kind of sniper weapons do the militants in Mosul have? If I'm not mistaken, they are all using SVD sniper rifles just like mine, so here's the question, being able to hit the opponent's head and neck from a thousand or even over a thousand ters away with this type of sniper rifle, who among us can achieve that?"
She looked around the room.
Then she raised her hand first: "I'll go first, I can't do it, at most I'm confident within a thousand ters."
The conference room suddenly fell silent.
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