Chapter 57: A Narrow Encounter
(Posting a chapter during work, then dinner after finishing! Asking for recommendation votes, all kinds of support! Please add to your bookshelf!)
To ordinary people, Nightwalkers are a peculiar breed.
They are swift and agile, moving at the edge of night and day, each of their actions claiming one or more lives.
As the first light of dawn breaks across the sky, their traces vanish in silence.
At this moment, Li Changjiang was like an assassin in the night.
With every pull of the trigger, he reaped the life of an American soldier.
The angles of his face grew ever sharper in the morning light.
Even though the powerful recoil from repeated shots left his shoulders and arms numb, each time he fired, Li Changjiang instantly entered a state of perfect stillness.
Inhale!
Hold your breath!
Aim!
Then pull the trigger!
Rapidly shifting his firing position, his movements were not fast, but his reaction time was razor-sharp, always relocating before the enemy could pinpoint his location.
With each change in position, casualties among the enemy increased.
In truth, had it not been absolutely necessary, Li Changjiang would never have chosen to fight the American forces—this was nothing but trouble.
“Damn it!”
“Colonel, give the order!”
Inside the American command center, the situation had reached a critical juncture, yet Colonel Sloan still hesitated to make a decision.
This mission could not fail!
But he knew that with every moment of indecision, the casualties would only rise.
“Repeat: Jack is KIA! Jack is KIA!”
The communications channel crackled with the steady stream of mounting losses.
As Li Changjiang’s tactics took effect, the scales of battle had quietly begun to tip.
With a force of barely more than twenty, facing an elite squad several times their number, it would have been nearly impossible to prevail under normal circumstances.
Though their initial ambush caught the enemy off guard, as soon as a competent leader rallied the remaining troops for an effective counterattack, gaining the upper hand in a short time would have been impossible.
Certainly not the three-hour window Sloan Allen had promised at the outset.
But clearly, Li Changjiang had taken on the role of that organizer.
“Deploy the Rangers immediately. Go! Bring our men back!”
Sloan’s voice sparked a cheer throughout the command center.
The operation began at once, orders cascading rapidly to each action team.
“Let’s go!”
“Go! Go! Go!”
“Rangers, prepare for takeoff!”
A piercing alarm blared above the military base.
Three Black Hawk helicopters spun up their rotors, joined by two rescue choppers and a reconnaissance patrol craft. Engines thundered and the whole base quaked with noise.
On the southern helipad, Sloan’s face was grim.
“Attention!”
“Sir! We’re ready!”
“Brothers! Our men are fighting for their lives in Libya. This is an affront from the Libyans, a challenge to America, an insult to our honor and dignity. Go! Bring them back, and claim your own honor!”
“Hooah!”
“Go! Go! Go!”
Figures moved swiftly.
A dozen fully armed Marines rushed into the cabin. From the control tower came the order to ascend, and six helicopters lifted off in a straight-line formation, heading directly for Libyan territory.
Hundreds of kilometers away, the war was still escalating, and the toll of death mounting.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Boom!
With Li Changjiang’s precise bursts suppressing the Nightingale squad's firepower, Caesar’s forces quickly found their rhythm. If not for the sniper’s pressure, their combat prowess would have matched, if not surpassed, their opponents—particularly in terms of experience.
“Hobbs, we need support!”
“Eagle! Eagle! This is a call for Eagle!”
“Copy that!”
“We need support! Their firepower’s overwhelming! We’ve lost all our snipers!”
“Repeat: We’ve lost all our snipers!”
By standard configuration, a quick response team of twenty would have at least two professional snipers and a backup marksman. But just moments ago, Li Changjiang had taken out both Wolf and Michelle, followed swiftly by a third marksman.
In other words—
The tide of battle had been dramatically reversed!
“Damn it!”
“Hold on! Hang in there a little longer, the Rangers are on their way!”
Sloan’s expression was grave.
He knew that, deprived of sniper cover, the Nightingale squad was in the same dire straits as Caesar’s mercenaries and the Libyan government troops after that devastating shell hit.
All they could do now was cling desperately to cover, unable to mount an effective counterattack.
At this point, waiting for rescue was their best-case scenario. If the enemy brought in heavy weapons, their only option would be to await death.
Unfortunately—
Caesar’s men and the Libyan government forces were indeed equipped with heavy weapons.
RPGs!
And plenty of them!
Clearly, there were clever minds among the Libyan ranks. As soon as the opposing firepower weakened, ten men fanned out, retrieving rocket launchers from the troop carriers and overturned jeeps, then dragging two men with black hoods over their heads toward the rear.
“Those damned bastards!”
Seeing the two men being dragged from the vehicle like dead dogs by the Libyans, Li Changjiang cursed inwardly.
So this was why these fools refused to leave.
Two packages!
This was nothing like his previous guess that one of them might be Gaddafi himself—Gaddafi would never be hauled out with a hood on his head, like a corpse.
Bang! Bang!
Boom!
Boom!
Several RPG rounds slammed directly into Nightingale squad’s positions. After a few agonized screams, the enemy’s fire restarted.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Thump! Thump!
Two muffled shots.
The Libyan soldiers who had just raised their launchers were taken out before they could fire.
“Damn it, these are supposed to be elites?”
Muttering a curse, Li Changjiang felt a surge of exasperation and amusement.
When Elisa told him these were the Libyan army’s best, he’d been skeptical—and now, their lack of skill was painfully clear.
“Damn Libyans! Ryan, take some men and move over there!”
“Doc, find the RPGs, quick!”
Marcos shared Li Changjiang’s frustration.
He realized that relying on these Libyans would only lead to disaster, so he began to disperse Caesar’s men.
They’d already lost nearly five in the first wave—now fewer than seven remained. Half the mercenaries had been taken by Barty and Koch, leaving only his closest brothers behind.
When Barty and Koch took the others to another vehicle, Marcos hadn’t foreseen this outcome. Now, in hindsight, they’d probably been betrayed.
“And that Chinese guy?”
“Forget about him—we need to suppress their fire!”
After eliminating several snipers, Li Changjiang seemed to have vanished. Though Marcos hesitated, he decided to keep waiting.
He had a hunch: that Chinese man was someone they could trust.