Chapter 11: The Raid Incident (Part 1)

  The car quickly approached Fallujah, a city of 300,000 people located 70 kilometers west of Baghdad, with over 200 mosques, a stronghold of the Sunni faction, and strong religious forces. Al-Qaeda took advantage of the anti-American sentiment in the city to frequently carry out anti-American attacks, engaging in terrorist activities such as kidnapping, bombings, robbery, and murder, making the city a dangerous place. For safety reasons, Lem decided to bypass the city, taking a highway through the outer suburbs of Fallujah, passing through the provincial capital Ramadi, and then heading towards Jordan would be safe.

  It was already past nine at night, and the surroundings were pitch black. The car headlights shone like sharp knives, piercing through the darkness. There were very few vehicles on the road, only those heading in the direction of Jordan, and almost none coming from the opposite direction. However, not long after we set off, a loud muffled sound suddenly came from the distance ahead, followed by a burst of flames appearing on the horizon. The car drove forward for another stretch before it had to come to a stop. Gunshots were heard from up ahead, and a row of cars was blocked on the road. People were in a state of panic, some crouching under their vehicles, others lying flat on the ground. Something's happened! Lehm ordered two soldiers to go take a look up ahead. Before long, the soldiers brought back a lieutenant named Boris. Lieutenant Boris reported to Lehm: "Sir, there's been a terrorist attack. Terrorists detonated a roadside bomb, destroying an American patrol car and killing one soldier, with two others seriously injured. We've captured four terrorists."

  "Can the car still get through?"

  "No way. The bomb was extremely powerful and blasted a 3-4 meter deep crater in the middle of the road, making it impassable."

  Zhao Hengyang let out a long sigh: "It's all over, we can't escape."

  Laim told Zhao Hengyang to wait in the car and said to the lieutenant: "Take me to see."

  Zhao Hengyang said: "I'll go too."

  Lyme glanced at him, "Alright." He ordered Mack to lead the guard squad down from the vehicle and follow Lieutenant Boris, weaving through the convoy on the highway for over 500 meters. In the dim moonlight, a patrol car was seen overturned at the bottom of the slope, two patrol cars were blocking the middle of the road, the wounded and dead soldiers had been lifted onto the vehicles, two captives were bound hand and foot, guarded by a soldier, and four or five soldiers were surrounding an armored patrol vehicle, beating two people on the ground with guns and feet. The beaten men cried out in agony, among them someone shouted in English: "I'm not a terrorist, I'm Chinese——"

  Seeing the lieutenant leading the major general, the American soldiers stopped beating him. A captain saluted and said: "Sir, Captain Gottwin of the 4th Mechanized Infantry Patrol reports."

  "What's going on?" Lyme asked, pointing at the person on the ground.

  "They are the captured terrorists." Gotwin recounted what had happened: when the US patrol convoy was driving along this section of road, someone suddenly detonated a roadside bomb - an extremely powerful one that immediately overturned one of the patrol vehicles. The other two patrol vehicles quickly stopped and found that a Toyota sedan behind them was desperately trying to escape. The patrol vehicle immediately gave chase, shooting out the tires and forcing the car to stop. There were four people in the car, two with Jordanian passports and the other two with visas but unclear identities. Two M4A1 carbines and 4 Russian-made RGD-5 hand grenades were found on them, leading to suspicion that these four individuals were the terrorists responsible for this attack. Gotwin pointed at the two men on the ground and said, "These two are stubbornly refusing to confess."

  Laim ordered Mike to take a few team members to scout around, and the assault squad dispersed to stand guard. He also asked Lieutenant to bring those two men before him. The lieutenant brought over a military flashlight, and under the light of the flashlight, it was seen that the two men were dressed in Arabic attire, wearing Arab headscarves and long robes, but their faces were not at all. One of them suddenly shouted in Chinese: "Director Zhao, you are Director Zhao, save me quickly!"

  Zhao Hengyang focused his eyes and looked again: "Liu Hu Zi, how is it you? How did you end up here?"

  No need for Zhao Hengyang to say more, Laim also recognized that the two were Chinese, yellow skin, black hair, just wearing Arab clothes in the dark, and would be confused if not looked closely. "Does Mr. Zhao know them?" Laim asked.

  "This guy named Liu Xiumin, also called Liu Huizi, was originally the commander of a marine corps company in my brother's unit. He had a one-sided crush on a girl and took some coercive measures, so the girl's parents reported him to the unit. As a result, he was expelled from the army. Through my brother's introduction, he was arranged to work as the head of security at a company below, but this kid just left without saying goodbye after working for two months."

  Laim also remembered that it was in 2002, when he was still Zhao Changsha, Zhao Yueyang was a colonel and regimental commander of the Marine Corps. There was a soldier under him who had excellent military quality but had a bad habit - a violent temper. Whenever he saw a beautiful woman, he would become immobile and get into trouble. He was almost sent to prison. Zhao Yueyang loved talent and saved him, sending him to work as the head of security at Zhao Hengyang's company. Who would have thought that after crossing over, he would run into this kid again?

  Looking at Zhao with a beard all over his face, Lem asked in Chinese: "How old are you?"

  "Twenty-six years old."

  "I thought you were in your forties or fifties, with that full beard of yours, you really look like an Arab."

  Liu Huzi licked his lips.

  "This one, I suppose is with you?" Lyme said, pointing at another Chinese man.

  "Yes, yes," Liu Hu-zi hastily said, "His name is Hu Jinghai, a friend of mine, we're together."

  "Where did you two come from? How did you end up here?"

  "Coming from Jordan, I want to do some business in Iraq."

  Zhao Hengyang was shocked: "Iraq is in a state of war, all Chinese businessmen have been evacuated back to China, are you tired of living or something? How dare you come to the battlefield to do business? What kind of business?"

  "Whatever makes money, we do it." said Hu Jinghai, "Iraq is at war now, but isn't the war almost over? We think that after this war ends and everything is rebuilt, there will be great business opportunities. The competition in China is fierce right now, no matter what kind of business you do, it's not easy to make a profit, so we want to try our luck in Iraq."

  "Good kid," Laimu secretly admired Hu Jinghai's guts and charisma, and couldn't help but take a closer look. Hu Jinghai was beaten with blood all over his face, his mouth swollen, eyes blackened, and nose bleeding, but he still managed to show some demeanor and depth on his face. "But how did you guys get your hands on American carbines and Russian grenades?"

  "I heard the road is not safe," said Liu Hu Zi, who was also taken into custody by American soldiers. His thick beard covered up the bloodstains and wounds on his face, making him look less pitiful than Hu Jing Hai. He pointed at the two Jordanians being held in custody and said, "We spent a total of $600 to hire these two Jordanians as escorts. The guns and grenades belong to them. We had just finished lunch and left Jordan when we encountered an American patrol car on our way here. Suddenly, there was a loud explosion from behind, and the driver got scared and wanted to leave this place as soon as possible. But unexpectedly, the Americans turned around and chased after us, taking us for terrorists."

  Laim understood, the patrol team suspected that the bomb was detonated by someone in Liu Hu's car. Idiot! Laim cursed in his heart, knowing that the dark night was full of danger, and terrorists might be lurking in a corner nearby, staring at them with piercing eyes. He glanced around, the night wind blowing gently, bringing some coolness to the dry and hot space, and from afar came the high-pitched and low-pitched screams of insects, as if some kind of ghost was stirring.

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