128: Air strike

Due to the damage issues with the 25mm autocannons, Li Xiao told Di Yun not to open fire until enemy infantry or military off-road vehicles appeared.

Therefore, the autocannons on the seven AMX infantry fighting vehicles were fully loaded at that moment, and when the large group of troops surged past the tanks and infantry fighting vehicles towards them, Di Yun gave the order to open fire without hesitation.

For a moment, heavy machine gun fire from Lan Bo's military off-road vehicles and modified pickup trucks, the autocannons from their infantry fighting vehicles, and an endless barrage of rocket launchers rained down upon the AMX infantry fighting vehicles.

While the durability of Di Yun's combat vehicles plummeted rapidly, the enemy's vehicles were constantly exploding, and their personnel fell in droves.

Yang Chao's Ranger infantry fighting vehicle was also providing support, firing both its main gun and coaxial machine gun, but it still couldn't stop the dense crowd from surrounding them.

"Damn it! Old Wang, don't you dare screw me over!"

Seeing that the average durability of Di Yun's vehicles had been battered down to just over two million by the intense firepower, Li Xiao was truly panicked. These were his main forces; if they were all wiped out here, the losses would be catastrophic.

Unlike the last time he defended against Cheng Mo's attack at the bridgehead north of Xi City, where he had fifty thousand troops behind him helping to soak up the firepower while he blocked the bridge, and there hadn't been that many main battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles back then.

This time, only one company was absorbing all the damage, so the durability couldn't withstand such intense firepower.

Fortunately, just as Li Xiao was preparing to order a retreat, the piercing whistle of a large number of rockets tearing through the air finally sounded above their heads.

Both Li Xiao and the members of the Lan Bo Mercenary Group were obviously all too familiar with this sound, though their reactions were completely different.

Di Yun remained in place and continued to return fire, while the troops of the Lan Bo Mercenary Group scrambled towards both sides of the highway.

The rockets came with ferocious momentum; four or five hundred of them successively blanketed nearly a kilometer of the road. As they hit the ground, they immediately unleashed countless shrapnel, with fireballs rising into the air one after another.

Within twenty seconds, hundreds of light vehicles and thousands of mercenaries were consumed by the sea of fire. Even the infantry fighting vehicles and tanks were baptized by shrapnel; three of the tanks with lower durability exploded on the spot, and the remaining tanks and infantry fighting vehicles had little durability left.

This round of rockets instantly created a vacuum zone on the long highway, and the pressure on Di Yun suddenly eased significantly.

Li Xiao seized this opportunity to immediately add the four or five million durability points gained from destroying the Lan Bo vehicles to Di Yun's combat vehicles.

"Damn it! Retreat! Retreat, everyone!"

Seeing his troops suffer heavy losses and the durability of his main vehicles nearing depletion, Emons could only grit his teeth and order a retreat.

Not to mention that he hadn't even seen a shadow of the Dark Soul Mercenary Group yet, and he had already lost more than half his strength to their reinforcements. Even if he fought with his life to defeat the enemies in front of him, he would have no strength left to fight the Dark Soul Mercenary Group.

Therefore, he had no choice but to retreat and preserve his strength; otherwise, the Lan Bo Mercenary Group might cease to exist after today.

"Want to retreat? No way! Zhao Feipeng! Detonate the C4 explosives immediately!"

"Yes!"

Upon receiving the order, Zhao Feipeng immediately pressed the detonator in his hand, and a series of C4 explosives in the green belt in the middle of the highway instantly exploded in succession like giant firecrackers.

The powerful shockwave of the C4 explosives immediately engulfed a large number of mercenaries, and many pickup trucks and off-road vehicles were blown up along with them.

Time had been tight, and Zhao Feipeng had only managed to plant over a thousand C4 explosives, but this was enough to reduce the Lan Bo Mercenary Group's forces by another ten percent.

The enemy troops fled in panic, but Li Xiao had no intention of pursuing them. He adjusted his headset and said, "Ling Chao, have you arrived?"

"Don't worry, Boss. I'm approaching the coordinates and will be there in two minutes!"

That's right. The two Griffin Armed Helicopters that Li Xiao had sent to Nangong Yan for repairs had not only been fixed by him but had also had their IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) transponders replaced.

It turned out that, unlike ordinary vehicles, vehicles with significant destructive power, regardless of whether they were sea, land, or air-based, were all equipped with transponders capable of identification friend or foe.

This transponder happened to be the reason why Li Xiao couldn't increase the durability of the Griffin Armed Helicopters.

This time, Li Xiao had added 500,000 durability points to the two armed helicopters in advance and had also purchased a full set of ammunition.

It could be said that now, except for the fact that he still lacked the ability to repair them himself, these two armed helicopters could be used with complete peace of mind.

When the two minutes were up, Li Xiao could hear the noise of the helicopter rotors spinning at high speed from far away.

"Enemy armored command vehicle spotted! Prepare to attack!"

Observing the vehicles on the highway from the air was crystal clear. As someone from special forces, Ling Chao's first thought was decapitation, so Lan Bo's armored command vehicle became his primary target.

However, unexpectedly, the Lan Bo Mercenary Group struck first.

Seeing the helicopters appear, Emons knew that things had taken a turn for the worse and immediately ordered his anti-aircraft units to open fire.

A total of seven man-portable air-defense missiles launched simultaneously, their infrared guidance heads locking onto the armed helicopters and giving chase.

At that moment, alarms blared inside Ling Chao's cockpit as the warning radar identified that the aircraft was being continuously tracked by missiles.

Ling Chao and the other helicopter immediately performed evasive side maneuvers while simultaneously deploying infrared decoy flares.

This evasive maneuver only avoided the first three missiles; the subsequent four missiles struck Ling Chao's aircraft one after another.

The missiles exploded in mid-air, and the shockwave immediately threw the armed helicopter's flight attitude off balance, with a fireball instantly engulfing the fuselage.

Seeing this, Emons breathed a sigh of relief. The man-portable missiles he had purchased dealt 30,000 damage to aerial vehicles, while the Griffin helicopters only had 20,000 durability. Once they hit, it was a 100% chance of... wait!

Just as Emons was simulating the scene of the helicopters crashing and exploding in his mind, he was horrified to discover that the two armed helicopters had actually flown right through the fireball.

The next second, four anti-tank missiles flew straight towards him.

"Open the door, quickly!"

Desperate, Emons stood up and rushed towards the rear armored door of the command vehicle, but before he could even touch the tail door, a deafening boom erupted overhead.

Before he could even turn his head, a wave of fire engulfed his entire body.

Having been struck by four consecutive missiles, the command vehicle disintegrated on the spot, and the mercenaries watched helplessly as Emons's body, charred like coal, scattered onto the ground.

"The commander is dead!"

"The commander is dead! Run!"

"Everyone, get out of here!"

Emons's death was the final heavy blow that destroyed the entire Lan Bo Mercenary Group. The retreating troops, which had previously maintained some organization, immediately scattered in panic like an ant colony hit by a rainstorm.

How could Ling Chao miss such a shooting gallery opportunity? Taking advantage of the fact that Lan Bo's anti-aircraft units had already scattered, he quickly aimed the two 21-tube rocket launchers mounted under his wings at the main battle tanks that had no time to replenish their ammunition.

In the next moment, the ten crippled main battle tanks that were fleeing were all hit by the eighty-plus rockets from the two armed helicopters.