126: War begins

Li Xiao learned through Nangong Yan that the M1A8 main battle tank is currently one of the world's top high-performance tanks.

Its 125mm cannon fires depleted uranium armor-piercing shells, each with a damage output of around 70,000, capable of destroying an infantry fighting vehicle in just two shots.

The enemy has a full twenty of them; a single volley can deal over a million in damage, and even with the damage reduction effect from Li Xiao's King of War title, it would still be no less than a million.

Furthermore, this thing can fire gun-launched anti-tank missiles and is equipped with a high-precision fire control system, boasting high accuracy, a fast rate of fire, and even more devastating damage.

The Ranger IFVs that currently make up Li Xiao's main force are not equipped with anti-tank missiles; relying solely on one blade ifv and seven AMXs is indeed a weak force.

Although he considered mobilizing his team's forces, this ultimately concerns his own interests, and he didn't want the people in his team to know about it.

Fortunately, the Dark Soul Mercenary Group still has about seventy pickup trucks equipped with rocket launchers; these rockets can deal over 5,000 damage to heavy armor, making them a decent source of damage output.

"So, the next test will be about troop deployment..." Li Xiao said to himself.

Hanging up the satellite phone, Li Xiao looked at the two armed helicopters outside the window; if these two Griffin Armed Helicopters could be repaired and have their durability values increased, it would be perfect.

"How about... I let Nangong Yan try?"

Thinking of this, Li Xiao immediately called for Ling Chao.

Ling Chao, who was training, immediately ran to the command center.

"Boss, you looking for me?"

"I need you to personally take people and relocate these two Griffin Armed Helicopters to this coordinate in Yun City immediately!"

Li Xiao opened the 3D map of Yun City and pointed to the abandoned campus area.

"The specific coordinate parameters will be synced to your combat computer later. As for the specific details, I will explain them to the other side; you just need to stand by."

"Yes!"

Ling Chao saluted Li Xiao.

Soon, the two damaged armed helicopters started their engines again. After watching Ling Chao and the others take off and leave, Li Xiao said to Li Le, "Contact Nangong Technology immediately."

Two days later, at a service area fifty kilometers north of Zhaoming City.

Li Xiao looked at his watch and turned to ask Li Le, "What time did Zhao Feipeng estimate earlier?"

"Reporting, it's 1:00 PM!"

Li Xiao nodded and said to Di Yun and Yang Chao, who were standing by, "It's 11:00 AM now, we can start preparing."

"Understood!"

Di Yun and Yang Chao stood up simultaneously and walked outside.

Considering the frequent offensives from the Black Hawk Empire patrol teams recently, Leng He's Third Armored Company was left behind to guard the base for this outing.

With those ten Ranger IFVs and twenty sets of portable anti-aircraft missiles, Li Xiao felt much more at ease.

For this battle, Li Xiao had Di Yun's First Armored Company act as bait to attract the enemy's first round of fire, while Yang Chao's Second Company would utilize cover on both sides of the service area to strike.

At the same time, after pinning down the Lan Bo Mercenary Group, they would use Wang Si's rockets for saturation fire.

This was the preliminary ambush plan; Li Xiao didn't have any better options at the moment.

As time approached 1:00 PM, Zhao Feipeng sent a message: the Lan Bo Mercenary Group had dispatched a force of nearly 20,000, mobilizing their entire army with the goal of annihilating the Dark Soul Mercenary Group in one fell swoop. They were currently less than twenty kilometers away from the service area.

After all, carrying heavy armored units like main battle tanks made their marching speed much slower than expected.

Di Yun had already deployed his combat vehicles in front of the service area early on.

Seven AMX IFVs were in the front, with three Rangers and one blade ifv in the back.

Li Xiao added the remaining 7 million durability to these four rear IFVs, giving each one about 1.6 to 1.7 million.

More than twenty minutes later, when the enemy's vanguard of twenty identical AMX IFVs was about three kilometers away, Di Yun ordered the seven AMXs and the one blade ifv, which were the only ones equipped with anti-tank missiles, to fire their anti-tank missiles simultaneously.

Within ten seconds, eleven anti-tank missiles took to the air. Because the TOW anti-tank missiles on the AMX IFVs rely on fiber-optic guidance, only one could be fired at a time.

However, the blade ifv uses an infrared focal plane guidance head, which can automatically identify and track targets after launch, so under the control of the fire control radar, it can fire four consecutively.

In just a few seconds, these eleven missiles dove down from high altitude one after another.

The vehicles of the Lan Bo Mercenary Group seemed to hear the whistling sound of the missiles and immediately made emergency evasive maneuvers, but how could the speed of the vehicles compare to the missiles?

These eleven missiles hit two per vehicle, directly destroying five IFVs.

"Report, Commander! We are under attack by an unidentified target; we've lost five IFVs!"

Inside an armored command vehicle, a man wearing a light blue suit with a neat center-parted hairstyle took the walkie-talkie and said in a cold, hoarse voice, "Return fire immediately!"

"Yes!"

After the man finished speaking, he sneered, "To think you'd dare to find help! Today, I will make sure none of you have a place to be buried!"

As the order was passed to the vanguard, the surviving fifteen AMX IFVs fired their anti-tank missiles simultaneously.

Di Yun's convoy was soon hit by a dense barrage of missiles, but under the 30% damage reduction from the King of War title, this wave of bombardment only caused about a million in damage.

The Commander of the Lan Bo Mercenary Group's vanguard watched the missile monitor turn into static and satisfactorily signaled his subordinates to prepare for the second wave of missiles.

At this moment, the walkie-talkie rang.

"How is it? Has the stumbling block in our way been kicked aside?"

"Commander, the first wave of attacks went smoothly; we've taken out at least seven combat vehicles, and we'll finish them off completely in the second round!"

"Very good. After you finish them off, quickly reload your ammunition and assault the Dark Soul lair at full speed!"

"Understood!"

Soon, the second round of missiles flew out. When the targets appeared on the monitor screen again, the vanguard Commander saw, to his disbelief, that the seven or eight IFVs that had been hit by the missile bombardment were still completely intact.

"What! What is happening! Aren't the AMX IFVs and Ranger IFVs both 150,000 durability? Wouldn't two missiles be more than enough to blow them up!"

The missiles exploded, and he lost visual again, but immediately after, the sound of missiles piercing the air came from above his head once more. Amidst a series of loud explosions, only half of his vanguard force remained.

Successfully destroying ten IFVs earned Li Xiao 1.5 million in durability, and he quickly allocated these durability points to the four low-health IFVs.

Meanwhile, Di Yun ordered all vehicles to quickly reload their anti-tank missiles in preparation for the next round of attacks.

"Boss! Things aren't looking good. We haven't even met the enemy face-to-face, and we've already lost half our force. How are we going to explain this when the Commander comes over later?"

"We must have taken out a few in the second round just now. Later, we'll just say the Dark Soul Mercenary Group tricked us and had a whole company hidden in ambush!"

"Yes!"