Chapter 28: Marching on Foot

  Muhammad looked out at the heavy rain and felt anxious.

  "Have they been contacted?" Muhammad turned around and asked his aide.

  "There's nothing, just static on the wireless, can't get through," said the aide.

  Inside the Type 63 armored car, the old-fashioned vehicle-mounted short-wave radio was still equipped. The maximum effective distance of the whip antenna was only fifty kilometers. Moreover, there were constant thunderstorms outside, causing strong interference, and it was impossible to contact Kusayagi for a long time.

  What you fear most will come, Muhammad can't even imagine what would happen if the military district commander knew that something had happened in his own defense zone. His military career is probably over.

  It shouldn't have been agreed to let Kusay go to the swamp in person, actually, the Iranian will attack from the swamp, until now, it's just our side's speculation, the military district doesn't recognize it, this is also the reason why I sent someone to scout the swamp.

  Nowadays, sudden heavy rain, even the 63-style armored vehicle with good off-road performance, is afraid that it will be difficult to deal with, if they can't get out before the rain, the consequences will be very serious.

  Muhammad dare not think of the consequences, Omnipotent Allah, please bless Kusay safe and sound!

  "Keep calling until you get through," Muhammad said.

  If the rain stops and they still can't get in touch, Muhammad can only report to the military region and ask them to send a helicopter to search for Kusay in the swamp as soon as possible.

  Due to this heavy rain, many people stayed up all night.

  Ahvaz

  Aber Station stood in front of the map, deep in thought.

  Organizing this counterattack and choosing to launch it from the swamp was his predetermined plan, but it had been debated for a long time in the military department.

  Abolhassan knew that many people had now begun to oppose him, especially as the rift between himself and Khomeini grew wider. Khomeini was extremely dissatisfied with Abolhassan's failure to support some of his actions.

  I chose this position with all my might to attack from here so that we can drive Iraqis back in the shortest time.

  The situation in Iran was not stable, especially after Khomeini's great purge of the military, and the army's combat effectiveness had not yet recovered. The country could not afford to bear the huge costs of war, so Abolhassan chose a desperate move.

  However, it seemed that heaven was playing a joke on itself. Even with sufficient preparation, the difficulty of crossing the marshland was still underestimated. Just when it was about to end, heavy rain started pouring down at this critical moment.

  The Almighty will surely protect the Iranian people who believe in Him.

  "Mr. President, we have to consider other options now, should we withdraw the armored division?" General Sharaf said.

  "No way, we can't withdraw now. Even if we did, could we get out?" Abel asked.

  "Mr. Chairman, General, I have a suggestion." A staff officer spoke up boldly.

  "What advice? Speak up." Abel agreed.

  "We currently have large CH-47 Chinook helicopters equipped, we can use these helicopters to provide air replenishment for the armored divisions that have not yet come out of the swamp, plus the existing materials, enough for them to win a week-long impact battle." The staff officer said.

  Replenishment by helicopter? This is also a method, in Iran's arsenal, the CH-47 Chinook helicopter is the largest helicopter. It is a multi-functional, twin-engine, dual-rotor medium transport helicopter developed and manufactured by Boeing in the United States. Unlike ordinary helicopters, it uses a tandem rotor configuration with two rotors, one at the front and one at the back of the aircraft, without a tail rotor.

  This helicopter has a cargo capacity of up to 10 tons, and Iran is equipped with 68 aircraft of this model, manufactured by the Italian Agusta/Sud Helicopter Company under license. Due to a shortage of parts, half of them have been grounded. Even if thirty are called in, they can transport three hundred tons of supplies at one time, which is enough for use.

  However, this also cannot solve the problem. The current difficulty of the armored division is due to the heavy rain, which makes the swamp even more muddy and impassable for tanks.

  "We can load cement onto the helicopter, and scatter a large amount of cement on the road that needs to move forward. After the cement falls into the swamp, it will solidify within two or three hours, temporarily constructing a road that tanks can pass through. Although it may not be able to bear the full weight of the tank, it will still be much stronger than just the swamp."

  If Abel was bold enough to choose to attack in the swamp, this staff officer is even more fanciful, actually thinking of using cement to build a road?

  Building a road that can be driven on requires a lot of manpower and material resources. If only cement is scattered in the sky without any other construction preparations, can the road bear the weight of more than 60 tons of tanks?

  "Salah, we need to conduct an experiment to verify whether this method is feasible," Abel said.

  The sky gradually cleared up, and the weather in the Middle East also changed suddenly.

  Zhang Feng and Waleed's small squad, a team of nearly thirty people, were making their way laboriously along the muddy road, having abandoned their armored vehicle on the way.

  Last night, lightning flashed and thunder boomed, perhaps the Lord intended to test the brave Iraqi warriors. The No. 01 armored vehicle also unfortunately got stuck in the mud, its tracks powerless as they churned through the muddy water, yet unable to escape danger.

  After struggling in the rain for half a day, everyone was exhausted. Unexpectedly, just as they were about to escape danger, the engine stopped working due to excessive wear and tear: continuous high-speed rotation caused the engine to seize (the axle sleeve between the crankshaft and connecting rod was burned out, which was also a common problem with the export type 63 armored vehicle at that time. The engine was not up to par; if it were a German engine, there would be no problem).

  It's thoroughly miserable, Zhang Feng wanted to cry but had no tears, turning around in circles, even the direction was wrong, completely lost. Now, not even the tank can move, this training is really close to actual combat.

  There was no other way, the wireless telegraph was also broken, and it was impossible to report back to the headquarters of the 35th Brigade. Zhang Feng had no choice but to order his men to abandon their vehicles and march back on foot, treating it as a combat exercise in wilderness survival.

  Zhang Feng led all the soldiers and started the magnificent feat of returning on foot from the swamp. If they couldn't get back quickly, at least the commander of the 35th Brigade, Muhanmode, would be in big trouble, and who knows how the old man would rage.

  The sky is a brilliant blue, and after the rain, the sun doesn't seem as scorching. The already drenched military boots tread silently on the wet and slippery ground.

  Zhang Feng used the compass to choose a direction, always heading west. This way, he could leave the swamp from the nearest place and quickly contact the 35th Brigade after leaving, so that they wouldn't send out a large-scale search party for him. Even if he reached the border line in Harle Faye, he could still contact the local garrison.

  As long as we get out of this accursed swamp, it will be better to make plans again. After a big rain, the Persian attack will also be disrupted and there will be no danger of being ambushed for the time being.

  A thick-armed glasses snake is slithering in the muddy water. It has already sensed that prey is approaching, and there seems to be a lot of them.

  Zhang Feng led the team and walked at the forefront. The current situation was very similar to his training in the unnamed mountainous area, and he had already gotten used to it.

  Suddenly, he caught sight of a nearly two-meter-long reptile crawling towards him: its body was light gray and didn't stand out in the mud, almost deceiving him. Its head was large and oval-shaped, with round pupils, a prominent snout and mouth, and well-developed muscles at the jaw; its venomous fangs were relatively short, and there was a brown ring-shaped pattern on its neck. It was estimated that when it stood up, a pair of beautiful black and white spots would appear on its back, along with a spectacle-like pattern.

  This is a glasses snake!

  Zhang Feng raised his hand and the team behind him stopped. They followed Zhang Feng's gaze and saw the glasses snake.

  In Iran, Iraq and other places, cobras often appear, and more than 100 people die from cobra bites every year. At the same time, most warriors will catch cobras.

  Zhang Feng was even more unremarkable, catching snakes with his bare hands, which every special forces member must be able to do, let alone him being fully armed.

  It's been a long time since I had snake gallbladder, and these wild rations for the past few days have gotten stale.

  The technique of catching a cobra is very simple, because the cobra can only see things in front of it. So, as long as you use something to attract its attention in front, and slowly move one hand from behind, you can grab the cobra with one swift motion. The key is to be slow, otherwise, if the cobra is attracted by your hand, that would be troublesome. Especially now, without antivenom serum, once bitten, it's all over.

  Zhang Feng successfully attracted the attention of the cobra with a wooden stick, his right hand quickly grasped the seven-inch position of the cobra, and then pinched its head.

  The cobra was weakly thrashing its body, its life had come to an end.

  Zhang Feng drew out a multi-functional military knife, quickly cut open the snake's belly, took out the snake gallbladder, which was a good thing, and with one toss of his head, directly put it into his mouth.

  A cool feeling, refreshing the heart and spleen, although a bit smelly, it's still pretty good.

  Zhang Feng savored the feeling from just now, chopping the snake meat into several pieces: "Come on, everyone eat a piece, after eating, we'll have the energy to continue on our journey."

  A few soldiers came forward, but many others did nothing.

  Eating snake meat raw requires courage.

  "One piece per person, that's the order." Zhang Feng said. Eating raw snake meat is like this, when he was training himself before, scorpions, lizards and such things were all eaten raw, if the field rations are all gone and they haven't even left this damned swamp yet, then this snake meat is actually a pretty good thing.

  The rest of them had no choice but to each take a piece and put it in their mouths, close their eyes, and start chewing.

  The rough and unrefined Hades, finally took a bite of the snake meat, his painful expression was beyond words, it was even more terrifying than letting him charge into a hail of bullets.

  "Eat, like me," Zhang Feng said, picking up a piece of snake meat, cutting off a slice with his knife and putting it into his mouth to chew loudly.

  The snake meat was very chewy, Zhang Feng used his teeth to chew hard, holding his breath, so as not to produce a nauseous feeling from the strong fishy smell.

  Eating these things is also one of the training courses for special forces. In the enemy's rear, in order to avoid being discovered by the enemy, it is not allowed to start a fire at all, and eating some wild fruits and the like are not as energetic as these proteins.

  Hades took the snake meat and imitated Zhang Feng's mannerisms, closing his eyes and chewing.

  Zhang Feng was eating while gazing into the distance, when suddenly a strange phenomenon caught his attention. Despite being washed away by the heavy rain, the artificial marks were still very obvious, especially the deep tire tracks that had been pressed into the ground. It was clear that a convoy of vehicles had passed through here recently!