Mercenary's War

Chapter 2442: Chapter 2418: The Frontline

The vehicle left the highway.

The distance to the border is less than twenty kilometers. After crossing a series of low mountains, about ten kilometers on the Shah’s side of the border is Najran, where thirty thousand soldiers of the Shah’s army are stationed.

Although the Shah’s large army is stationed near Najran, the distance is still more than thirty kilometers, but it is still a very dangerous distance because it is impossible for the Shah not to deploy outpost troops on the border line. It is also very likely that Shah personnel have already secretly crossed the border. Furthermore, the Shah is very likely to continuously use drones for aerial reconnaissance, so Satan is in extreme danger during the assembly process.

Fortunately, Satan’s heavy equipment is still minimal, with only five self-propelled artillery units. As for the logistics convoy, it can completely disperse and leave the highway, easily avoiding the situation of a large number of vehicles and personnel gathering together.

Heading west off the highway is a very wide river valley, but this valley has very few chances of becoming a real river. Most of the time, this valley is just a dry riverbed.

Lightweight vehicles can pass through the valley and enter the foothills near the border, but the trailers carrying self-propelled artillery cannot pass the flat but soft valley. They need to unload the self-propelled artillery on the highway.

Fortunately, having reached the war zone, the short distance ahead can be completely covered by the mobility of the self-propelled artillery itself.

Throughout the assembly process, all vehicles implemented a blackout. In the darkness, one trailer after another was directed to leave the highway, and then the artillery commanded by Rebrov entered the self-propelled artillery, guided by people equipped with night vision devices, and drove off the trailers.

All members of Satan were equipped with night vision devices, including the artillerymen. Of course, the artillerymen only used much cheaper glow night vision devices, but they brought a lot of convenience.

Technology enhances combat power. Gao Yang had only about thirty artillerymen, and he did not mind spending a little money to equip them with night vision devices.

Gao Yang got out of the car, wearing a white robe and a headdress. From a distance, he looked no different from a Yemeni, except for the night vision device on his head, which set him apart from ordinary Yemenis.

Gao Yang quietly watched the other side of the river valley, waiting for the artillery to assemble.

Whenever a self-propelled artillery completed unloading, it would immediately leave the highway, enter the valley, quickly pass through and conceal itself at the foothills on the west side of the river valley. The progress was smooth, and the unloading work of five self-propelled artillery pieces was quickly completed.

The last self-propelled artillery also left the highway and entered the river valley, and after the long bumpy transport, no self-propelled artillery malfunctioned. Everything was normal, which was a good start.

With the assembly complete, it was time to march, and now it was time to enter the mountainous area.

The mountains near the border are not very high, with extreme lack of rainfall all year round, which makes it devoid of mountain streams common in rainy areas and lacking in sight-blocking shrubs. It’s all bare rocky mountains, which are extremely unfavorable for concealment, but the advantage is that it’s easy to open up simple dirt roads between the mountains, sufficient for off-road vehicles to conveniently drive through.

Now the key is to confirm the roads, as the narrow mountain paths crisscross. To accurately and quickly reach the predetermined assembly area, it is impossible to rely on battle maps, as these trails do not appear on the maps. Only with GPS and satellite maps can the destination be reached the fastest.

This area’s Shah and Yemen border is demarcated along the peaks of a small mountain range.

The mountain is not high, with an altitude of several hundred meters. It’s impossible for Shah’s mechanized units to cross the peaks into Yemen, but the city of Najran is established on both sides of the dry river valley of Najran. The urban area is all in a flat low-lying desert, which is essentially the sandy ground deposited by the occasional floods of the Najran dry river. At the west end of Najran, heading south, there’s another large expanse of sandy ground. Following this sandy ground southward, the narrowing sandy ground reveals the original appearance of a river valley. This flat river valley cuts through the mountains and directly enters the territory of Yemen.

To the Shah forces, that dry river valley south from Najran is a natural highway. As long as they pass through the valley into Yemen, individual small mountains are no longer a geographic obstacle to Shah’s mechanized army. Whether it’s tanks or vehicles, they can pass freely on the flat bottom of the mountains.

If Shah’s mechanized units set off from Najran city, they even have highways to use before reaching the Yemeni border. They only need to leave the highway in the bottlenecked river valley within the mountains, using the valley to travel. In terms of time, Shah’s forces can reach the border line from Najran City in at most ten minutes. The time is just that fast, and the distance is just that short.

Therefore, what Gao Yang had to do was very simple: monitor the river valley that directly runs south. If the Shah army intends to enter the valley, then there’s no choice but to engage.

Shah will definitely utilize that river valley, and naturally, Yemen will strive to defend it. So recently, the Houthis Armed Forces have deployed a large number of troops along the border, and of course, Shah would not let their guard down over the crucial valley passage. Now both sides have deployed numerous infantry on the mountains on each side of the river valley.

The infantry on the Shah’s side are only playing a role of vigilance and defense, but the light infantry of the Houthis Armed Forces have heavier responsibilities. They have to stop the Shah troops on the Najran front from entering Yemen through the valley, which ideally should not be the duty of light infantry.

However, the opposing sides do no more than mutual surveillance and alerting each other. According to Gao Yang, the Houthis Armed Forces, severely lacking in heavy firepower, ought to have heavily mined the valley, thus effectively delaying the Shah’s mechanized units from advancing. Yet the Houthis have no intention of laying mines, even though they can obtain a large number of mines from Iran.

And on the Shah’s side, they did not first dispatch infantry to seize the valley, nor did they mean to clear the highlands on either side of the valley.

Both sides have deployed a significant number of troops on a highly important passage, and then they just watch each other.

Since the concern for airstrikes causing road insecurity, Satan’s entry into the border mountains from Sana’a was delayed for a whole week. Gao Yang initially thought there was little point in going to the border again, but upon discovering the Shah and the Houthis Armed Forces in a big-eye-staring-small-eye standoff along the border, he felt it was necessary to visit, as he feared the Houthis’ northwest defensive line might collapse with just a little poke.

What Gao Yang now wants to do is to see with his own eyes what the situation is on the border. If possible, he hopes to lead the Houthis Armed Forces in delaying Shah’s offensive. To fight tooth and nail for the Houthis is out of the question, but it’s nonetheless good to help buy some time for the Houthis by standing guard for them.