"Hurry up! My people are running out of patience; if you don't show so ID proof soon, we'll turn you into a hive of bees!"
Seeing that Song Heping kept silent, the guy opposite seed to get nervous.
"Rabbani!"
Song Heping finally rembered the na.
"I'm Song! Co out! Damn it! It's you, bastard!"
The man under the opposite porch heard Song Heping introducing himself, ran out from under the porch, and waved his hands towards the upstairs: "Friendly! Friendly! Hold your fire, don't shoot by mistake!"
Just as he was waving his hands, a burst of fla suddenly flashed from the dark window upstairs.
Bang—
After a gunshot, a bullet hit the wall atop the front gate, chipping off a chunk of plaster.
"Shit!"
Song Heping rolled to the side, flipping behind the concrete gatepost at the entrance.
"Rabbani! You fucking shooting at !? FUCK!"
But he still calmly yelled at Jiang Feng and the others on alert by the car: "Nobody fire! Don't be nervous!"
Sure enough, Song Heping had guessed the situation correctly.
Soon, Rabbani in the yard began jumping and cursing: "Who was that!? Who fired the shot?"
Then he quickly explained towards the direction outside the main gate: "Song! My n are all greenhorns; they must've been too nervous, don't shoot!"
"Damn it!" Song Heping cursed: "Get your n to stow their weapons quick, otherwise if my people really open fire, you'll all be off to et Allah!"
After so commotion, Rabbani finally got control of the situation and had the guards open the gate to let Song Heping and his team in.
The two t in the courtyard.
Song Heping was surprised to find Rabbani at the police station and bluntly asked: "Since when did you beco a cop, Rabbani?"
Rabbani replied: "After you guys left last ti, the Revolutionary Brigade took a heavy hit, but my identity was also questioned and exposure was just a matter of ti, so I had to return to Kandahar. The Aricans got a job at the police station, I'm now the deputy chief here."
"Shit! An official now!? But you're not doing a great job as a deputy chief of police, with such inexperienced subordinates."
Song Heping hugged Rabbani and then said: "Tell your n to be sharper next ti, don't be so rough and ready. I'm easy to talk to, but if you t the Aricans they would've blasted you."
With Rabbani here as the deputy chief, the situation suddenly took a turn for the better.
Song Heping had been concerned about whether the local police would cooperate with his work, but it seed there was no need to worry now.
Rabbani was fluent in English; he had been an informant for the US Army ISA, and after being exposed, it was most appropriate for him to take up the position of deputy chief at the local police station of the new governnt, especially since not many people speak English in Afghan, and it's crucial to have soone who does when the police station has to interact with multinational forces.
It was probably for this reason that he was placed in this position.
"You just said that you were sent here by the Jie Fushi Group?"
Rabbani was curious about why Song Heping was there, as he had always thought Song Heping was with the US Special Forces.
"That's right, my company has signed a training contract with them, to co here and train you guys..."
He looked up for the police station's sign, didn't see it, looked around, still didn't see it.
But he soon realized.
Whether there's a sign hanging here or not doesn't matter anymore.
Ata knows, and the civilians know.
"Where's your chief? I need to go over so paperwork with him."
"You've co at a bad ti, Song, sothing big has happened here," Rabbani said. "I'm afraid you won't be able to see the chief now."
Song Heping asked in surprise, "He's dead?"
He ant it as a joke, but unexpectedly, Rabbani said, "It's quite possible."
Song Heping was surprised, how could things have taken such a dramatic turn? If the chief was really dead, who would he coordinate with regarding the original plan?
"How did he die?"
"I didn't say he's already dead; I an, he might be dead, but nobody knows if he's dead or alive right now."
After saying this, Rabbani felt like he was confusing himself, so he quickly explained the whole situation to Song Heping.
Admiral Chariz had been commanding the coalition forces for half a year, and from the beginning, he had felt a lack of troops, then coordinated with various European countries to send more troops here, which took three months, and finally increased the troop count.
But he found that after the reinforcents, the situation in Afghan hadn't improved at all; although he could boast to the journalists that he had control over the whole of Afghan, how many Ata Ard Organization mbers were annihilated, and how he assisted the Afghan new governnt in establishing a new order and rebuilding hos — everyone knows whether the water they drink is cold or warm.
In Rabbani's words, actually, since Admiral Chariz took office, the situation had gotten much worse.
The coordination among the multinational forces of the coalition was a complete ss; previously, the US Army was the main force, with other minor participant countries tagging along, but now the British Army took the lead and found the others still tagging along while the once-main-force US Army also started tagging along.
Among the multinational forces, the strongest combat force was the US Army, with the most comprehensive support and combat systems, including intelligence, also dominated by Old Arica.
The result was that the British found themselves in the highest command position, yet they couldn't direct any of the forces at all.
Half a year passed like this, the British Governnt felt utterly embarrassed, and the Aricans were constantly pressuring and creating various conflicts, aning — if you can't handle it, let do it!
The British, begrudgingly ambitious but lacking capability, had always been pressuring Admiral Chariz to pull off a significant operation within the year to shut the Aricans up.
Thus ca this major operation.
The plan was set before the operation. It involved attacking from four directions in the south, including Maruf, using four cities as bases, simultaneously launching assaults to clear out the Ata Organization and various resistance organizations entrenched in the mountains of the Abba and Yiba border for a period of seven days.
Today was just the fifth day.
On the first day, the British Army as the main force advanced along the line from Shahersafa to Maruf, focusing on attacking the Ata strongholds in the Dobagagel Ridge area upon entering the border region. anwhile, the US Army's 3rd Division was advancing along the mountain road in the direction of Xinkai on the left flank, responsible for coordination and encirclent.
Unexpectedly, when the British advanced within forty kiloters near the Abba border close to Maruf, they discovered the Aricans were still in Xinkai and hadn't even started!
Admiral Chariz then made a call to inquire what the hell was going on with the 3rd Division, urged them for a whole day, and only then did the 3rd Division lazily move out from Xinkai and began to leisurely advance along the mountain road.
On the first day, they didn't even advance 10 kiloters before stopping to set up camp.
The next day, Admiral Chariz continued to press with phone calls.
The US Army replied that the mountain road was rugged and they had encountered sporadic ambushes by the Ata Ard Organization, causing the advance to be extrely slow.
On that day, the US Army advanced about 20 kiloters and then stopped again.
After waiting in the mountains for two days, the British Army finally ran out of patience on the third day.
After all, a force of tens of thousands of soldiers huddled in the mountains would have been spotted even by a blind person. Even more so when Chariz anticipated Ata targeting his forces since the first day from Kandahar, the intent was to use the ten thousand British soldiers as bait to hold Ata back so they wouldn't flee in panic into Ba Country to hide, perhaps even mobilize troops to attack them.
Then, taking advantage of the situation, they'd let the US Army utilize its air and mobility strengths to directly move behind Ata's blocking forces and encircle them in one fell swoop.
The plan was beautiful, the reality was cruel.
On the third day at dawn, the Ata Ard Organization launched a large-scale attack.
In the mountains was Ata turf.
They relied on their familiarity with the terrain and the terrain advantage to continuously organize mortar attacks, harassing the British forces entrenched in the mountains.
For the entire day of the third day, the British Army was passively getting hit.
In the mountain area, armored vehicles and tanks could not play their roles effectively. Fighting guerilla warfare in the mountains requires either helicopters and planes or reliance on one's feet.
And most of the mountainous regions along the Abba border are caves. The British Air Force is not as effective as the US Air Force, and coordinating with the US Air Force for support even led to friendly fire due to their coordination issues.
Within one day, over a hundred people were killed by their own airstrikes from the US.
From the third day on, the British Army was like a fat elephant stuck in a narrow cage, constantly bitten by flies and mosquitoes but helpless to do anything about it.
Therefore, Admiral Chariz was furious, but he was helpless against the Aricans' passive-aggressive actions and could only resort to using police forces from Kandahar.
Because the Afghan Governnt Army had already been taken deep into the Maruf region by the British Army to serve as cannon fodder.
Currently, there were only over a thousand policen in the Kandahar region's police bureau. In his urgency, Admiral Chariz ordered all the young, combat-capable policen from all the bureaus in the region to be transferred for reinforcent.
Unexpectedly, after Police Chief Ades took his n to Maruf, they lost contact on the second day and have been unheard from ever since.
"We don't know whether they're dead or alive until now. However, starting from the fourth day, the British Army began to organize a retreat, yet during the retreat they encountered furious blockades and harassnt. Many squads were scattered. The British had the governnt and police troops hold the rear and made their own escape, while the Aricans had it tough too. It is said that this morning, after the British pulled back, the 3rd Division also received the sa treatnt. This ti the Ata Organization launched the most powerful counterattack since the start of the war, with more fighters than any before..."
Rabbani spread his hands: "So we really don't know if the chief is dead or alive…"
Seeing his indifferent expression, Song Heping could not help but smirk, thinking this guy really hopes the chief is dead so he can take over as the chief himself. Didn't expect you to be so wicked!
Rabbani looked innocent and waved his hands again and again: "How could that be? Is that how you see ?"
Song Heping just smiled without a word.
In fact, it would be better if Rabbani were chief, as it would make conducting his own business much easier.
As for Police Chief Ades, whether he was alive or dead, it really didn't matter to him.
"You are the deputy chief, so it would be the sa for to coordinate work with you," said Song Heping.
Rabbani appeared sowhat embarrassed: "Now we're only left with over a hundred people to guard the headquarters, how can you continue training? We probably have to wait until after this operation is over to see how many can return."
As the two were talking, they suddenly noticed that the doorway began lighting up again.
As they turned to look, they saw several Humvees approaching.
Everyone beca alert, all looking towards the main entrance.
The vehicles belonged to the coalition forces; the guards saw the people inside and didn't dare to obstruct them, opening the big gate directly instead.
The Humvees entered in an orderly line and stopped in front of the n, kicking up a choking dust storm.
A US military officer jumped down from the vehicle and imdiately asked loudly: "Who is in charge here?!"
Rabbani could only raise his hand: "…"
The officer sized him up and then turned towards Song Heping.
"Are you Song Heping?"
Song Heping was puzzled how this guy knew his na and asked back: "Do you know ?"
The officer was sowhat arrogant: "That's correct, you're him. You two, co with ."
With that, he pointed at the vehicle.
Song Heping asked, "Where to?"
The officer said, "Military secret, you'll know when you get there!"
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