Under Naxin's adamant orders, several squads of the Madheh Army really withstood the pressure and, after losing a few pick-up trucks, managed to reach the edge of the oil field work area.
Soon they encountered the problem that Song Heping had anticipated, the roads within the oil area were difficult to navigate, with many roads blocked by old equipment or directly blown up and rendered impassable.
These destructions were previously carried out by various armed organizations in the northern region, specifically to prevent the US Army and the Temporary Management Committee from sending workers to take over the oil fields and resume production.
The most ironic part was that many of the roads and askew equipment in the oil area were actually destroyed by the Madheh Army themselves.
This fulfilled the old saying, "You reap what you sow."
Today, Naxin had no choice but to get out of his vehicle and complete the assault on the oil field area on foot because of the roads his forces had once destroyed.
Song Heping was lying on one of the steel towers.
The top of the tower was over a dozen meters above the ground.
From the ground, the top of the tower could not be seen.
That's why he had long since thought to have the cook and the others lie down just like him, so as not to expose themselves.
When Naxin's men reached the edge of the oil field and started to disembark and move forward on foot, they were still targeted by accurate artillery fire.
"Cook, can you guide a bit more accurately?"
Song Heping complained softly in the channel to the cook.
Because the cook's guidance accuracy was very low.
His mortar fire guidance had an accuracy of less than one-third.
Song Heping valued the mortar shells.
Last time, they had only purchased 150 mortar shells.
It was a classic case of "you never know what you have until it's gone."
In just a short while, over fifty mortar shells were already used up.
"I'm doing my best, I've never learned how to operate a mortar," replied the cook confidently in the channel.
Song Heping had no way to deal with him.
The man had never been a soldier, so it was indeed unreasonable to expect too much from him.
Guiding artillery fire required experience.
How much to adjust the scale for a certain distance deviation and the correct direction weren't things that needed calculation for a veteran soldier; they could judge it based on experience by observing the impact point.
Moreover, the cook wasn't good at math.
Asking him to use calculation formulas or command papers to calculate deviations and adjustments was indeed making things difficult for him.
Fortunately, Grey Wolf and Hunter, guiding from the other directions, had a high accuracy rate, or else Song Heping would have been cursing by now.
Managing the artillery like this wasn't acceptable.
The Soviet-made 120mm mortar shells also cost 1000 US dollars each.
They had just spent 50,000 US dollars.
Thankfully, the expenditure of those fifty mortar shells wasn't for nothing.
After such a round of bombardment, Naxin's force, which originally numbered over two hundred, had lost a third of its men by the time it approached the oil fields.
Once inside the oil area, they began to disembark and proceed on foot.
Song Heping immediately called for the mortar to strike at the vehicles stopped inside the oil field.
The moving vehicles were hard to hit before.
Now that the vehicles were stationary, Song Heping's guidance was spot on.
Soon, Naxin received reports from his subordinates.
"Instructor, our vehicles have been blown up..."
"What did you say?!"
Naxin almost yelled out in shock.
"Didn't you hide the vehicles well?!"
"We didn't have time to..."
"Damn it!"
After cursing, Naxin realized he was in a dilemma.
He had estimated that the operation would take no more than an hour to complete.
Because lingering too long here was not an option either.
Even though his forces were numerous, the defense companies in the oil fields typically had a logistical support system with the US Army.
When Country M's enterprises here were under attack, the nearby US Army Air Force would dispatch one or two attack planes to the scene based on the severity of the situation.
Once attack aircraft like the A10 or the AC-130 gunship arrived at the battle scene, for an armed organization with no air power, it was like being steamrolled; it didn't matter if there were two hundred or a thousand men, they were nothing but cannon fodder.
So speed was of the essence!