Chapter 26: Hot Potato

  "Operation Panda Burning Incense" has made progress. Just now, Laimu received a call from Jackson himself.

  Something is wrong.

  The base's research center detected three trackers entering the village of Maya in Uday, south of Baghdad. Jackson was also eager to build his achievements and immediately dispatched an Apache squadron and a battalion from the 4th Mechanized Infantry Regiment to form a land-air siege and launch an attack on Maya Village. Unexpectedly, the firepower in the village was strong, and a rocket flew into the air, shooting down an Apache helicopter. The US military retaliated wildly, with a round of "precision strikes" destroying the firepower points in the village, also killing and injuring more than a dozen civilian villagers. This stirred up a hornet's nest. Maya Village is connected to several other villages, with a population of around 20,000 people, who immediately rose up...

  Thousands of villagers blocked the US military vehicles, throwing stones and vegetable leaves, forcing the US soldiers to be unable to enter the village to search and inspect the battlefield. The situation was at a stalemate, and Jackson had no choice but to report to Lime: "Panda burns incense" is what you started, now it's become this situation, you have to come and clean up the mess. This was a hot potato, and Lime had no choice but to take over. Lime immediately called in a small team of "Wolf" troops, preparing to rush to Wudai Town. Seeing Liu Huizi and Hu Jinghai return, he hastily handed over: "Liu Huizi, this is your responsibility, military training will be suspended for the time being, Hu Jinghai will give lectures to the special forces, whoever doesn't listen will be dealt with. I have a task now, and I'll be back after it's done." He took Liu Huizi's car keys and got into a Hummer with Major Mike. The convoy sped southward. Half an hour later, they arrived at Wudai Town, where Colonel Duncan was waiting with the main force of "Wolf" troops. The two teams merged and headed towards Maya Village. The village had been ravaged by war, and from afar, several plumes of smoke rose into the air, swirling above the village like a tornado. Six villagers were killed in the bombing, covered with white cloth, laid out in a row on the open ground in front of the mosque. Eight injured villagers were placed inside the mosque, being treated by two elderly men who knew medicine. The mosque was located at the entrance of the village, and an Ahong stood on the steps, reciting prayers for the dead. Thousands of villagers gathered around, blocking the road into the village. On the outskirts of the crowd, six tanks and over a dozen armored vehicles were parked in a cordon, with hundreds of US soldiers from the 4th Mechanized Infantry Regiment standing guard, armed to the teeth, facing off against the villagers. The tanks and armored vehicles had not been turned off, their rumbling engines adding to the tense atmosphere. Lime's Hummer pulled up next to an armored vehicle, and a lieutenant colonel who was in charge of the operation came running over with a messenger soldier. He reported to Lime: "Two tracking signals have not disappeared, it's estimated that there are still terrorists hiding in the village. We've tried several times to force our way into the village, but as soon as we make a move, the villagers gather around and block us, sir, what do you think we should do?" "You want to sneak into the village, but you're making so much noise, do you think they'll welcome you with open arms?" Lime said sarcastically. "What should we do then?" The lieutenant colonel had several stains of rotten vegetables on his uniform, and he looked dejected as he spoke.

  "Spread the news that we accidentally injured villagers." "Withdraw, withdraw completely." Laim said with a glare. "Withdraw? We just found the terrorist hideout and now we're withdrawing?" "We've been fighting for so long..."

  "Are you leaving, reporter? Not withdrawing? Do you want to invite reporters for a special report?" The reporters were all from several Western countries' major news agencies, and the US military didn't dare to drive them away easily. The lieutenant colonel understood Laim's intention: "We're all leaving, this place..." "My people will stay behind, let us take care of it." The lieutenant colonel saluted and went back to command his troops to withdraw, six tanks, twelve armored vehicles, and eight troop carriers rumbling as they turned around and headed back. The heavy troops left, but the villagers' anger didn't dissipate, with some people still throwing stones at the US military convoy from a distance. Looking at the thousands of out-of-control villagers, Colonel Duncan was worried: "'Mad Wolf' isn't riot police, if all the villagers charge over, we can't handle it." "No need to handle it," Laim said, "McKay, bring up the suitcase, just the two of us will go over." The suitcase contained one million US dollars that Laim had asked McKay to bring. "Just the two of us?" McKay was shocked, two people? They'd be eaten alive by the angry villagers! "We can't solve it with cannonballs," Laim said with a smile, "we'll use sugar balls." "Sugar balls?" McKay was confused. "Set up a warning line around the village perimeter, Colonel Duncan will take care of the warning, if anyone crosses the line, we'll arrest them all," Laim said, taking out his handgun from his waist and tossing it into the Hummer, calmly walking towards the mosque at the village entrance. McKay had no choice but to leave behind his gun and carry the suitcase, following anxiously behind. The villagers gathered in front of the mosque, wailing, cursing, and shouting loudly.

  The deaf, Ahk's prayer voice still came over clearly. Ahk wore a pair of black-framed glasses, holding a Quran, full of energy, oblivious to everything around him, bowing his head to read the scriptures. Laim walked slowly, leading Major Mack to the villagers, patting

  The two men held up their hands, showing they were unarmed, and said in Arabic, "Let's go see the casualties among the villagers." Perhaps feeling that these two posed no threat, or perhaps still having some instinctive fear of the Americans, despite the hatred on his face, the villager stepped aside to let them through. The two men did not encounter any overreaction as they walked up to the steps of the mosque. The imam seemed not to have noticed their arrival and continued praying without looking up.

  Two Muslim elders approached, standing in front of Laim, silent and coldly sizing him up. The two elders seemed to be cast from the same mold, wrapped in pristine white robes, wearing a white headscarf held by a black ring, with deep-set eyes and thick black beards that almost covered their entire faces, making it impossible to discern their age. Laim, familiar with Muslim customs, touched his forehead

  He bowed, greeted the two elders and instructed Mack to open the suitcase. Inside was a full box of brand new banknotes. The eyes of the two elders flickered imperceptibly. Rhyme said: "I'm very sorry, our actions accidentally hurt civilians, here is $1 million in US dollars, paid by the US military as compensation and medical expenses for each victim, $100,000, and the rest please elder distribute to injured villagers." The two elders looked at each other, nodded slightly. One of the elders silently took over the suitcase and entered the mosque. Another elder stared at Rhyme, still speechless, seemingly unintentionally, he tilted his head to one side, turned

  As they walked to the side of the mosque, Lem paused for a moment and followed the elder. Mac was at a loss, waiting until Lem and the elder had gone more than ten feet before hastily opening his stride to catch up.

  The elder led Lem and Mac around to the back of the mosque, where there was a grove of palm trees mixed with shrubs. Beyond the palm trees were the villagers' residences, which were disorderly arranged, with some houses made of sandstone and others made of rammed earth. Everywhere was in disarray.

  Two houses had their roofs blown off by missiles, one house had half its wall collapsed, and another house may have been hit by a missile that drilled into it, creating a large hole under the eaves. The elder walked towards the house with the big hole, with Lem and Mac following closely behind him.

  The door of the house was intact and wide open. The elder stepped inside and stopped in his tracks. The room was filled with dust, and a thick layer of it covered everything.

  The remaining sunlight came in through the big hole that had been blasted open, and the whole room was filled with a thick layer of dust, barely visible inside.

  A body lies at the entrance of the house, shot dead.

  A tea cup-sized blood hole. Laim recognized that the man was "Panda incense" - a released prisoner. There were three more people inside, one curled up in the corner of the wall; one lying at the entrance of the cave, with one leg missing; and one with his head tilted on the ground, with one leg dangling from a wooden chair. Next to them was a broken mortar and a long rocket launcher.

  Machine guns and several rifles were scattered around. Lime understood, the other three were terrorists killed by Apache. The elder stared blankly at the corpses, then looked at Lime and shook his head, revealing a sorrowful expression. Lime was about to return

  Get out, suddenly, heard the noise, turned his head to look, only to see the corpse that was hanging on the wooden chair moved, the "corpse" had a face full of blood stains, a pair of eyes wide open, right hand from

  He reached out and found a hand grenade in his hand, ready to be thrown over...!!!! That's not a corpse, it's a living person! The elder was scared stiff.!!!!————————————————???? Xi

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