81: Chapter 80 Misrata 81: Chapter 80 Misrata Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city, had been continuously besieged by government forces after being occupied by the Libyan opposition.
After negotiations with NATO and the opposition broke down, Gaddafi finally resolved to attack.
Gao Yang and his companions set out at dawn and arrived at the outskirts of Misrata by morning.
Gao Yang thought there would still be some time before they had to engage in combat, but what he hadn’t expected was that Brigade 32 had already launched an attack.
As Libya’s most elite force, Brigade 32 was equipped with tanks, artillery, and a few aircraft and missiles, but this heavy equipment was of little use in street battles.
Hamis did not want to send his biggest trump card, Battalion 32, to die in street warfare, so they simply bombarded and besieged Misrata.
Almost all the troops sent into the city for street battles were mercenaries.
By the time Gao Yang and his group arrived, the already deployed mercenary army had entered Misrata, only a few hours earlier than them.
However, the mercenaries that entered first made very slow progress, and by the time Gao Yang and his group got there, the government forces’ front line was still at the outskirts of the city.
Gao Yang’s unit consisted of one hundred and sixteen men, structured on the scale of a company, mainly comprising two Mercenary Groups.
Within the entire company, including Gao Yang’s group, there were four sniper teams.
However, since Gao Yang’s team was small in number and did not need to coordinate with the other two mercenary groups, they enjoyed the highest degree of freedom.
After being led to a street by an officer with the rank of captain, the captain gave a clear command.
“This street is our responsibility.
Make your best effort to push forward.
You can discuss how to allocate tasks among yourselves.
I’ll be back in the afternoon to pay you according to your progress.
Good luck, everyone.”
After finishing his words, the captain turned and briskly jogged away.
Watching the captain’s retreating figure, Gao Yang was dumbfounded and said, “Sure, the freedom is high, but can this even be called warfare?”
Glovolov chuckled and said, “This is quite normal in a mercenary war.
You can’t really follow his commands, and he knows that, so it’s just about dividing the various tasks among the three Mercenary Groups.”
Among the two Mercenary Groups paired with Gao Yang’s team was one named Sandstorm, which had a slightly larger number, sixty-five men, all from the Tuareg People of Mali.
Their weaponry was rather primitive, but they were reputed to be fearless and fierce in battle, and therefore considered elite.
The name of the other Mercenary Group sounded quite interesting and very formal, called Coleman Security and Defense Company.
It wasn’t actually a Mercenary Group but a combat team sent by the Coleman Corporation.
The Coleman group consisted of forty-seven men, slightly fewer in number, but stronger in combat than the Tuaregs.
They had better weapons and the members were of higher quality.
The group was roughly half black and half white, with most of the black men reportedly coming from Tanzania and the white men coming from Belarus and Ukraine, all of them former military servicemen.
As for Gao Yang’s Satan Mercenary Corps, while it was nicknamed a Mercenary Group, it only had four members, so it was directly regarded as a combat team.
Taking advantage of the fact that they had not yet fully entered the combat zone, the leaders of the three Mercenary Groups came forward.
After the three men shook hands, the person in charge from Coleman Company spoke first, “Hello, I’m Green Mamba.
Let me share my thoughts.
Since it’s our first time cooperating, we should act separately.
I plan to have my men take care of the left side of the street, while Sandstorm will handle the right side.
We can support each other during the battle.
Once both sides of the street are secured, we will push forward.
The main tasks for our snipers, and those of Sandstorm, are to provide support, so targeting the enemy snipers will primarily be the responsibility of Satan.
Meanwhile, Satan will also be in charge of monitoring the situation on the ground and will inform us timely of any developments.
The commander from Coleman Security and Defense Company made a fair proposal, and neither Gao Yang nor the leader of Sandstorm Mercenary Corps had any objections.
However, after a moment of thought, Gao Yang spoke in a deep voice, “I need a high ground.
When you move, I can provide support fire, but you have to notify me first.
Therefore, I suggest setting at least one walkie-talkie to the same frequency.
This will also facilitate communication.”
Gao Yang volunteered to help with suppressing fire, and, of course, neither Coleman nor Sandstorm would refuse.
The only problem was that Sandstorm Mercenary Corps didn’t have a single walkie-talkie.
There were more than ten walkie-talkies within Coleman, so Green Mamba lent one to Sandstorm Mercenary Corps.
After setting the communication frequency for the three mercenary groups to be the same, each prepared to lead their men for the action.
Coleman Security and Defense Company was going to attack first.
Their target was a six-story building 150 meters away.
The building had been occupied, and at least five firing points had been identified.
Coleman had to capture the building first before they could move on to the next phase of the attack.
The right-side street that Sandstorm was responsible for had only a few bungalows, and it seemed there were no firing points, so Sandstorm only needed to provide some coordination.
Their target was further away, so they didn’t need to act just yet.
After determining the attack targets, Gao Yang and his men quickly entered combat mode.
Gao Yang and Cui Bo uncovered their rifle scopes and together with three other snipers, began searching for targets to shoot at in the building they were about to attack.
Gao Yang’s daylight scope was already adjusted, and after a quick search with his binoculars, he immediately identified several targets he could shoot.
After putting down the binoculars, Gao Yang and the other snipers agreed on their respective targets.
Including the half-skilled Cui Bo, a total of five snipers quickly took their shooting positions.
Although they were strangers, since they were about to fight side by side, it was certain that the three mercenary groups would do their utmost to support each other.
Unless they were insane, they would not betray their comrades-in-arms, so despite the unfamiliarity, no one doubted they could count on the greatest goodwill and assistance from the other teams.
Gao Yang felt that in urban warfare, the line of sight wouldn’t be too far and the main shooting distance would be between 200 and 400 meters.
Therefore, he set the primary shooting distance on his scope to an average of 300 meters.
Gao Yang’s assumption was correct, his shooting distance was now less than 200 meters, a range at which his scope could be aimed directly without adjustment.
Gao Yang aimed at an enemy who was firing a machine gun.
The man wore a red and white checkered Arab scarf and sunglasses, and his head bobbed comically while he fired.
Since Coleman’s men were about to attack, Gao Yang had to cooperate with Green Mamba’s command to fire, so that the moment they eliminated the firing points in the building with simultaneous gunfire, Coleman’s men could launch their attack with much greater safety.
Finally, after hearing Green Mamba’s shout, Gao Yang pulled the trigger.