Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 787 Deadline

Yelinsky plans to break through from another channel on Jennings' flank, which is bound to catch his opponent by surprise.

Soon the good news came that the reconnaissance troops dispatched first had broken through to the open area outside the valley, and there was no exchange of fire.He excitedly climbed onto the tank, stood in the hunting mountain wind and held the communicator.

"Everyone, once we break through, we don't have to wait, assemble, and organize ourselves to advance to Jaipur. General Frings' tank truck will wait halfway... If we can't wait for fuel, we can also abandon the vehicle. Soon we will be able to Get out of this damn place and go home."

After Yelinsky finished speaking, he got into the tank and closed the lid heavily.He has entrusted the command, which is rare in the US military, which has always had obvious advantages in intelligence and command; but now he is besieged by an absolutely powerful opponent, and he must get out of the encirclement in pieces.He predicted that he would suffer some air strikes, but the enemy would definitely not be able to eat him.

In the basement of the Prime Minister's Office in New Delhi, the explosions and vibrations that have been happening one after another can penetrate the thick concrete layer and reach here.

In the basement, the grand ceremony of conferring officers and awarding medals is being held.In order to boost morale, many officers received the Warrior Medal, even many middle and lower rank officers, but not many high-ranking officials came to join in the show, at least Kahan appeared in person.

After the military band finished playing, Krinasi Gandhi, the leader of the opposition party and Speaker of the House of Lords, gave a speech.In fact, he didn't want to come to participate in this farce before his demise, especially when so many military officers gathered in the basement of the Prime Minister's Office, maybe the Chinese would use this excuse to attack the Prime Minister's Office.However, a major of the People's Self-Defense Forces brought a platoon of people to his house to knock on the door. He had no choice.

He has already learned that his son is safe and sound from an American diplomat who stayed in the city, and he believes that he will soon fly to a relative's house in Italy to take shelter for a while.

As the speaker spoke, Khan and a handful of members of the war cabinet stood behind him, most officials looking panic-stricken.

Recently there have been rumors in the city that hiding underground is not necessarily safe. The Chinese are very good at dealing with underground facilities. They will blow up the exits and ventilation facilities, and then suffocate the people below to death.

The soldiers waiting for the awards in the venue were all in good spirits. Most of them were Self-Defense Forces, and some Army officers from the Guards Regiment.

The tall and tall Major General Muyar stood at the front. He was a representative of the army under the Garrison Command and was about to be promoted to lieutenant general. He would not have to worry about being ridiculed by Pasade's sly sarcasm in the future.

"...In this difficult time, on behalf of the Lok Sabha, I hope that you will live up to the honor of the soldiers and fight the enemy bravely until all the enemies are driven out of our territory...Let them tremble before our guns..." read At this point, Gandhi's voice trembled unnaturally. He didn't know which secretary of Kahan wrote this manuscript, and he was obviously talking nonsense optimistically, "...I hope that the soldiers will continue to fulfill their oaths and follow the The great Prime Minister Kahan, stick to the capital of this great country, stick to the iron spine of this democratic world, and stick to this bridgehead of universal human values... absolutely do not allow oppression and darkness to attack unscrupulously."

Trying not to think too much about it, he just finished reading the nasty text, and he began to suspect that Kahan might have edited it himself.

Kahan walked slowly to the front, put on the medal of bravery for Muyar, did not say anything, just shook hands briefly; then walked to the second place: Colonel Halladi of the Self-Defense Forces, he will be promoted to brigadier general soon.

Halladi still had a bandage on his head. He had just been wounded in the morning's battle at the Rebito fortress. According to his staff, about 150 enemy tanks tried to escape from the Rebito castle and the Gilgi mosque during the battle. The first line entered the urban area, and the Self-Defense Forces, with their amazing courage, withstood the attack of steel with flesh and blood, and finally wiped out all the incoming tanks.

"Brigadier General Haradi, if my body allows, I really want to go to the front line and see those burning enemy tanks. I know that the closer the enemy is to New Delhi, the more anger will build up in the hearts of Indians, and eventually, this anger will It exploded."

Kahan stretched out a withered hand and shook hands with the bearded hero in front of him.Gandhi behind him rolled his eyes. Sometimes the Speaker of the House of Lords really can't figure out whether Kahan is too deep into the drama or too naive.

"Yes, Prime Minister, the enemy must be afraid. They know now that it may be too late. We have no cowards in the Self-Defense Forces, and we keep no prisoners." The Brigadier General said proudly with his head held high. Less than his upturned face, only two nostrils can be seen.

The Prime Minister walked towards the next honoree, and suddenly, everyone felt a violent shaking of the ground.Muyar looked up vigilantly, and the fine debris from the ceiling fell to his shoulders and collar.

"A 500-kilo bomb? Within a block or two?" someone whispered.

"Maybe bigger, closer?"

The soldiers became agitated, and the civil servants began to shrink back. Only Kahan was completely unmoved. Even his right hand, which was trembling all the time due to a stroke, became more deft.He quickly completed the honoring ceremony for all the personnel present. The Warrior Wheel Medal was originally issued by the People's House, the highest honor medal awarded to soldiers. In the past 30 years, there were not as many awards as this afternoon.

After finishing the award, Kahan immediately returned to the front without stopping. After standing still, he suddenly wanted to say a few words impromptu.

"Yes, we have suffered a series of setbacks before, but those people outside the city think that they can scare us with cannons and bombs? Then they have miscalculated."

"I assure you, the enemy will be hit head-on. We have recruited hundreds of dead soldiers to form a special operations team, ready to die with the enemy at any time," said the newly promoted Brigadier General Halladay.

"Very well, well said. New Delhi has become a battleground for the strong, let the cowardly escape, we don't need them." Khan clenched his fists tightly as he spoke, and finally let them down gently.The coward he mentioned originally referred to the coalition forces that suddenly withdrew in the morning, but it suddenly touched his mind and reminded him of Singer, which made him confused for a while.Vaguely, he seemed to feel that Singer was actually sitting somewhere in the venue, smiling at himself; his smile was natural, and he didn't seem to hate himself.

Muyar saw that the Prime Minister was standing on the stage and holding on to the table, as if he was about to fall, so he walked over to Kahan with a clean stride.

"You're back? I...I hope you can understand my difficulties." Kahan said in a trance.

"I've been here all this time?" Muar said.

Kahan quickly recovered from the hallucination.He paused for a moment, then suddenly raised his fist and slammed it hard on the table.

"We have to tell the enemy that they can destroy our capital, they can even take our lives, but ... they can never take our freedom."

"Yes, the Communist Party cannot take away our freedom."

Noisy yelling broke out among the officers, apparently roused by the Prime Minister's words.

Gandhi kept silent. He guessed that Kahan still had a way of coercing these people to death.There are too many such mindless people in India, so Kahan's provocative speeches with chaotic logic will always succeed.He couldn't help thinking of Singer's ridiculous trick when he escaped at the end, and only a fool like Muyar would be turned around by Singer.Of course, Singer is still a sensible person, he has seen the despair of the future.

120 kilometers away.Yelinsky's team rushed all the way out of the valley unopposed, without even running over a mine, and he thought he was going to succeed.The convoy began to form at the trumpet pass. Due to the excellent military quality of this army, the mechanized troops passed through the narrow area in an orderly manner without any congestion at all.

Suddenly countless smoke bombs fell in front, blocking the sight of the troops.

A powerful howitzer shell immediately fell from the sky and exploded behind the tank. Judging from the violent shaking of the ground, it was not a mortar shell or a medium-caliber howitzer, but a 155mm large-caliber shell.

The Chinese army has never had the ability to quickly deploy such heavy firepower weapons to the front over the mountains, but now it has.

Low-altitude drones flew quickly over enemy convoys, pointing out targets for artillery.Only 9 kilometers away, the artillery unit that has just been deployed to the position is firing firepower at the fastest speed. There is a 9-man artillery squad around each gun, which is operating continuously. This simple artillery that is completely man-operated is actually In addition to air transport, there are some unknown advantages. Human explosive potential can greatly increase the firepower of rapid shooting in a short period of time, while artillery with automatic loading tables does not have this potential.

When firing, two loaders, one on the left and the other on the right, send the heavy shells behind the breech breech with a bomb lifter, and immediately a third person pushes the shells into the barrel with a long rod from behind, and the other person who follows him sees the needle , stuff the subpackaged charge into the breech breech; after closing the breech breech, put the ignition tube into the small hole behind the breech breech.All loading actions before launch are done in one go, accurate to the millimetre.

There was no command to fire, and after the loader retreated, someone fired the cannon, and after the landslide and earth-shattering launch, everyone continued to repeat the previous series of actions.With tight and efficient operation, this artillery has increased the rate of fire to 5 rounds per minute.

The intensive artillery fire slammed the light tanks that fell behind. The arc-shaped air waves generated by the explosion of these powerful projectiles were enough to destroy and overturn the surrounding vehicles. The coalition forces suffered heavy losses before they could engage the main force.However, the firepower gradually began to weaken as the barrels had to be cleaned after the rapid fire and the battery's physical strength declined.

Of course Yelinsky should have guessed that the enemy was prepared, but he still had a chance.The striker came out of the smoke, and the commanders quickly turned their peripheral sights to watch. About 1 kilometer away, far more tanks fanned out than them, waiting for them.

This time He Fan did not continue to use the mobile team to avoid the enemy's edge.All his tanks fired at the approaching enemy in unison, and then launched a concentric charge.He rarely overwhelms his opponent with numbers, but against the heavily armored M1A2, numbers are the best solution.

The few M1a 2SEP tanks rushing to the front quickly withstood the most severe test. After miraculously resisting one or two frontal shells, more armor-piercing shells penetrated into the tank from all directions.

When the kinetic energy armor-piercing projectile hits the armor, it will only emit a small puff of smoke, regardless of whether it penetrates or not; but it can burst out with an extremely terrifying sound of metal impact.

For a moment, the sound of various metal collisions filled the battlefield, and the coalition tanks fell to the disadvantage in an instant, and the victory or defeat was already clear at this moment.

He Fan's 70 tanks fired mercilessly at the first 15 enemy tanks that appeared first, and within about 30 seconds, they wiped out the opponents without any loss.

He intentionally fired smoke bombs on the enemy's advancing path, which restricted his own vision, but delayed the enemy's deployment of troops, which was conducive to his numerical advantage.

Yelinsky's command tank was also hit once, destroying one of the road wheels, and he yelled over the radio to back off, then started to smoke.Several planes arrived, unable to see their targets through the smoke, and dropped bombs directly into the smoke.

Yelinsky lost the battle cleanly, and he knew the result the moment he saw the number of enemy tanks around him.

At the same time, another breakthrough by Jennings also hit a bloody head, and the remnant soldiers were retreating.He Fan's extended firepower continued to chase and retreat the enemy into the valley, and then stopped.

Yelinsky retreated to the starting position again, and finally merged with Jennings' remnant soldiers. The Chinese army relaxed the shelling, they were able to breathe, and a military meeting was called again.

Yelinsky noticed that the number of officers attending the meeting was reduced by half, and many of the remaining officers were injured.Judging from the expressions of his subordinates, the enemy's fierce artillery fire caused them great panic. In addition to destroying metal, large-caliber howitzers can also easily destroy the will of soldiers. Lieutenant Colonel Buck couldn't even hold the kettle because his hands were shaking all the time. .

There was silence in the venue, and no one stood up to express their views. Continuing to attack would undoubtedly lead to death. The enemy will become stronger and stronger as time goes by, but they will only become weaker and weaker.

"What should we do? They have mobilized far more troops than we imagined in the past few hours." Yelinsky himself broke the deadlock.

"Maybe we can do another raid at night? Leave the wounded and the hospital here," said a timid voice, and the meeting fell silent again.

"Report, the enemy is on our channel... directly calling... our headquarters," the communications soldier stood up and reported, "and called your name directly."

Yelinsky walked towards the radio station dumbly, reaching out to answer the communicator.

"Beware of their strategy, maybe they will measure our position and drop a bomb." Buck reminded.

Yelinsky thought for a while, but still took the communicator.

"I'm the commander... ok... ok... I see..."

He put down the communicator, and looked at all the officers blankly: "The Chinese said that there is a temporary ceasefire, and they want to send an officer to talk, and I agree."

"It's okay to talk, maybe they will allow us to give up our heavy weapons and leave? Is it a way?" Buck said, looking relieved.

"This is just the condition they put forward in the morning. Now, the situation is very different." Yelinsky shook his head with a wry smile.

A jeep carefully passed through the wreckage-filled battlefield and drove towards the mountain pass guarded by the enemy.Fu Xiaoguang was sitting in the car with a radio station, and he offered He Fan the task of persuading him to surrender.

When the vehicle drove to the front of the mountain, two Hummers immediately stopped it, and then Fu Xiaoguang got into the valley alone in this vehicle. The enemy still controlled the 2 square kilometers of mountainous area, and it seemed that there was still room to hold on.However, He Fan was not prepared to engage in any bargaining. He only proposed a time limit, and if the time passed, he would be at his own risk.

(End of this chapter)