A series of earth-shattering explosions suddenly erupted at the narrowest point of the river gorge entrance.
It wasn't sporadic blasts, but rather Song Heping commanding the "Sand Fox" squad's engineering team to detonate their meticulously laid "Hellfire Formation". The formation included tons of TNT explosives, boxes of mortar shells and 122 howitzer shells, dozens of 107 rocket warheads, mixed with tens of barrels of gasoline, and countless collected scrap metal pieces and bolts.
The explosion points were precisely calculated, concentrated over the steepest and most fragile cliffs on both sides, at the narrowest throat of the riverbed.
The violent shockwave was like an invisible massive hammer weighing tens of thousands of tons, striking the convoy crowded at the entrance with a world-destroying force.
The leading few "Death God Pikas" took the brunt of the force, instantly torn into twisted steel pretzels by the extreme blast wave, then tossed high like a toy, disintegrating in mid-air.
Steel fragments, tires, human body parts mixed with scorching sand and searing flames, shot out in all directions like a torrential rain of steel and flesh!
The left track of a "Tank" was blown to pieces, causing the massive vehicle to lurch sharply to the left, crashing heavily into the ground, immediately blocking the passage and causing an accelerating armored truck behind to collide with it, its front end caving in.
More deadly, the already severely wind-eroded cliffs on both sides suffered catastrophic, large-scale landslides under the violent explosion.
Tons of sand and massive weathered rocks tumbled down like an unleashed mudslide, cascading with a burying momentum.
Follow-up pick-up trucks and an armored truck attempting to force their way in only had time to emit a desperate whimper before being instantly buried alive.
Rising dust mixed with explosive smoke formed a rolling, boiling wall of death, tens of meters high, instantly swallowing more than fifteen vehicles and dozens of militants, as if a gate descending from the heavens brutally blocked the main force of 1515 from entering the river area!
The first strike, perfectly effective!
It not only caused devastating initial casualties but also completely disrupted the meticulously organized enemy attack spearhead, ruthlessly slicing apart their massive forces.
"Rocket artillery! Fire!"
Song Heping seized the fleeting opportunity to attack, issuing the order without hesitation.
"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—!"
The sharp, ear-piercing whistling instantly overpowered the noise of the explosions.
The three 107mm rocket launchers deployed in hidden sand nests deep within the gorge sprang into action.
Thirty-six launch tubes nearly simultaneously spewed blazing, dazzling tails of flames.
Thirty-six 107mm rockets, trailing long white smoke trails, ripped through the scorching air in an almost vertical high-arc, smashing down onto the follow-up vehicles stuck at the entrance, caught in chaos due to the sudden explosion and landslide.
"Boom! Boom boom boom boom boom——!!!"
Intense explosions, with hardly any gaps, went off frantically in the narrow area behind the entrance, merging into a deafening symphony of death.
Flames shot skyward from the convoy, with thick smoke rolling up.
The terrifying coverage damage and fragmentation effect of the 107 rockets was displayed vividly at this moment.
The originally fanatical religious chants were instantly drowned out by shrill, inhuman screams. This round of precise, lethal barrage from above was like a giant red-hot branding iron, searing the nerve center of the 1515 armed forces, causing destructive chaos and unprecedented psychological blow!
The momentum of the follow-up troops' attack stalled.
"Anti-tank team! Target the remaining 'Tanks'! Fire!"
Samir's hoarse shout echoed amidst the explosions.
The modified "Tanks" posed the greatest threat to their side, not just because of their thick armor shells, but also due to the powerful KPV 14.5mm heavy machine gun mounted on top.
In this mystical land of the Middle East, after years of war baptism, some bizarre homemade weapons always emerge.
Despite their crude construction, their lethality was no small matter.
On both sides of the gorge, the "Competition" anti-tank missile teams, having long locked onto their targets, almost simultaneously pressed the launch button.
"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—!"
Three missiles, trailing slender white smoke trails, shot out like deadly poison snakes from their nests, pouncing at incredible speed (about 200 meters/second) toward the three "Tanks" that had just barely made it past the landslide zone and were attempting to spread out their formation!
The "Competition" missiles use semi-automatic command line-of-sight guidance. After launch, the operator only needs to keep the crosshair locked on the target, and the missile will automatically receive commands to correct its flight path!
The driver of the first "Tank" had just recovered from the dizziness of the explosion shockwave when he saw in the distance several "red dots" flying towards him like drunkards and immediately sensed the deadly threat, quickly steering to the left.
But the cumbersome vehicle turned sluggishly on the soft sand.
Too late!
A "Competition" missile, as if it had eyes, precisely rammed into the weak, crudely welded section above its right track!
"Boom——!!!"
A terrifyingly loud bang, enough to stop a heartbeat.
Scorching metal jets instantly penetrated the weld seams of the steel plate, rampaging and igniting within the narrow vehicle body.
Orange-red flames exploded from the turret seams, observation windows, and even the maintenance cover at the bottom, like a long-suppressed volcanic eruption.
The entire "Tank" was instantly transformed into a massive fireball, with the blown-off turret rocketing skyward several meters, crashing down to crush the wreckage of an adjacent pick-up truck.