Chapter 522

Chapter 522: The Chinese Strike Left Cheek, the Americans Strike Right Cheek

The American-made CBU cluster bombs continuously released showers of death in the sky.

The rocket pods spewed out deadly breath as if they were free of charge.

The MK84 laser-guided bombs brought the bombing to a climax; their 908-kilogram payload rivaled that of a miniature nuclear bomb, creating massive shockwaves that plowed through the ground over and over again.

In a 500-meter radius, almost no one could stand; everyone was knocked down.

In the 300-meter radius, wails filled the air, with dust rising almost to suffocate.

Within a 200-meter radius, both people and animals met their doom.

The central 60-meter crater obliterated everything, even steel and rock.

Illegal armed militants suffered countless casualties.

The Americans’ methods of retaliation showed no regard for humanitarianism; they acted with utter brutality, leaving no survivors.

In the end, the last remaining agents of various factions barely escaped the retaliatory bombardment from the American aircraft based at Bagram Air Force Base.

Of the stored tens of thousands of tons of ammunition, over ninety percent were destroyed. More than four thousand illegal militants were reduced to fewer than a thousand survivors, as several cluster bombs nearly blanketed the entire camp, leaving no room for escape.

The finale came with four napalm bombs, unleashing a hellish sea of fire that ended the majority of lives.

“Sally!” Abik’s gaze toward his boss completely changed, as if he had re-discovered this Pashtun girl. He controlled his immense excitement and said, “The latest news—Americans bombed the enemy camps and supply points in Taloqan! Those militants suffered heavy casualties, and almost all their ammunition supplies were wiped out. Sally, I admire you so much, thank God! We are no longer on the defensive; we can now strike back!”

It is easy to imagine that such massive casualties and destruction of war supplies would not only directly hit the enemy’s morale but also significantly impact their combat ability. Without ammunition, their AK-47s were not even as useful as firewood.

Facing the well-armed soldiers of the Dragoon Consortium would be akin to voluntarily seeking death. Having been sharpened by the fires of battle, Abik would not miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

You cannot judge a person by appearance; seawater cannot be measured by a few buckets!

The leader of the defense team, oh no, now promoted to the commanding officer of the defense division, Colonel Abik, unreservedly gave Sally a thumbs-up and laughed loudly.

The fourteenth floor of the Dragoon Consortium headquarters echoed with laughter, as everyone turned their eyes to Sally, filled with excitement. To make such a dramatic turnaround in this situation was no small feat.

And all of this was thanks to their female CEO, Sally.

It was hard to imagine that such a young girl could possess such great power, capable of mobilizing both the Chinese military and the American military to jointly solve their predicament.

The impact of one person can be worth an entire division.

The morale of the Dragoon Consortium and the four northern provinces, once wavering, coalesced once more, even more so than before. Everyone regarded Sally as a messenger of Allah, who could turn dangers into safety at critical moments.

“Not at all!” Sally, aware of the truth, pursed her lips nonchalantly. The Americans? If they were that easy to command, she would already be the president of Afghanistan, instead of battling these bandits.

However, fearing that revealing the truth would dampen everyone’s spirits and confidence, Sally kept her thoughts to herself; perhaps not knowing the truth was the right choice.

May Allah forgive her dishonesty!

Throwing the heavy burden to the F-22 Raptor squadron behind her, Lin Mo flew the J-18 “Red Eagle” over the Amu River and directly into Uzbekistan, then returned home through the Tian Shan mountains, passing Kyrgyzstan.

Both countries had low population densities, and their air defense systems were not very advanced. Lin Mo could freely navigate through the clouds, minimizing the roar of the engines by maintaining distance and ensuring maximum stealth along his planned flight path.

As he approached Chinese territory, Lin Mo turned on the IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) system.

After all, the air defense systems near the border line had been operating around the clock. Although the “Red Eagle” featured advanced stealth capabilities, he still had to follow proper procedures upon returning to the country and turn off his stealth mode.

Reluctantly, he opened the internal weapon bay again and deployed half-wave dipole metal rods, exposing his radar signal.

When the signal appeared on the radar screen, combined with the IFF signal recognition, Lin Mo once again heard the cheering voices of soldiers at the radar station on the communication channel.

Alright, now he had become their target in the drill. Lin Mo tilted his head in sympathy at how idle these guys were.

Once he entered the border line, it felt like a fish returning to the sea. No matter what the Afghan government and the Americans wanted to say, it wouldn’t matter; they could not grasp a single piece of evidence against him. They were probably too busy clashing with those illegal armed militants.

Lin Mo cleverly created a diversion, truly a case of drawing away the flood; if that group of Raptors knew the truth, they would never willingly hang back, covering for him.

It seemed as if fortune was turning; following the bombardment of the illegal armed militants’ troop and supply gathering point in Taloqan, good news suddenly poured in for the Dragoon Consortium.

The Brazilian Aerospace Security Company heard about the losses faced by their major client in the war and quickly sent more personnel to prepare for the second shipment of A-29 Super Dodos for the Dragoon Consortium, striving to promptly replenish their missing aerial armaments.

Good news kept coming one after another. The Chinese side also promised to provide a small number of PL-5 air-to-air missiles to equip the Super Dodos, avoiding the risk of being shot down by fighter jets from elsewhere again.

…

In the four northern provinces of Afghanistan, the substantial daily consumption of war supplies by tens of thousands of soldiers amounted to astronomical figures.

After the gathering point outside Taloqan was bombed, the ammunition and supplies of the illegal armed militants were thrown into disarray.

Insufficient ammunition directly impacted combat effectiveness, and the supply of food and water began to dwindle.

Afghanistan’s agriculture was already not very plentiful, and the north was even more mountainous with scarce arable land. The Dragoon Consortium’s "fortify and deny" policy cut off the illegal armed militants’ hopes of foraging locally; they had no places left to loot.

The most terrifying thing was that the agents gathered at the Taloqan point faced total annihilation, accounting for almost a third of the entire operation. With the demise of the agents and their subordinates, foreign influences turned into blank slates, and subsequent supplies and cash flow became non-existent. Even previous promises and tempting benefits dissolved into nothing.

The leaders of the attracted armed organizations panicked; they had received only part of the cash, and their subordinates had suffered significant casualties. However, the wealthy financier who funded them had perished, leaving them uncertain about what to do next.

The agents from Panjshir Province immediately brought out all their resources and costs to control the situation, but Panjshir Province was in worse shape. Taloqan was precisely the capital of Takhar Province, and most of the armed organizations turned into headless flies; forget about continuing the offensive. Being forced to fight in such a desolate area made it a luxury just to survive and escape.

The entire Takhar Province fell back to Dragoon’s trigger-happy offense, which swiftly recaptured the region within a week, capturing over two thousand armed militants and seizing countless firearms and ammunition as war supplies. They even counterattacked into Kunduz Province, causing the illegal armed militants to suffer devastating losses and flee in defeat.

The Dragoon Consortium’s dramatic turnaround stunned the Kabul government, which quickly issued a warning to the Dragoon Consortium.

However, Sally and Abik had learned their lesson; they retaliated in kind by launching a guerilla strategy, occupying lands in Kunduz Province while firmly denying any expansionist actions, mimicking the Kabul government’s previous disingenuousness—striking wherever needed without holding back.

In the game of politics, it wasn’t about who was smarter but rather who was more shameless.

The agents and militants in Panjshir Province panicked as the Dragoon Consortium directly cut off the supply line from the west. If they wanted to continue the fight, they needed to obtain war supplies from the east.

Yet, getting supplies from the east was not so easy; Pakistan was the first to disagree.

Transporting from Kabul would mean the Kabul government would embarrass itself, openly supporting illegal armed attacks on the four northern provinces—this was more direct than any evidence to expose the government’s despicable face.

The consequences were severe; this was no longer merely against the Dragoon Consortium but also threatened the common interests of warlords across the provinces. If someone could attack the four northern provinces today, they could target other local warlords tomorrow.

The southern provinces’ warlords grew even more resentful towards the Kabul government.

Given the chance, another civil war to overthrow the current government was likely.

At the headquarters of Lockheed Martin in Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland, inside the heavily fortified and luxuriously equipped president’s office, the aging Mr. Lockheed wore a dark expression as he faced the few people in front of him.

At nine in the morning, he had just arrived at the office when he was cornered in the president’s office by this group from the FBI, and they had been questioning him since.

His attentive assistant brought him a cup of hot cocoa, providing him warmth, which allowed him to maintain some energy while negotiating with these black-suited investigators.

Old Lockheed never expected that the FBI agents would bring several photos to investigate whether he had been colluding with enemies or selling out his country. This was simply unbelievable.

How could a major supplier of the U.S. Air Force be suspected of aiding the enemy, trying to profit on both ends? Was that even possible?

It had to be that some bastard was framing him!

Damn!