Boom! Seven or eight Ukrainian soldiers were blasted off their feet, thrashing and screaming on the ground. Chen Ge followed up with another mortar round, putting an end to their agony.
Take lives, but do not torment—he considered himself a kindhearted man.
Zzz... A faint static hum crackled through his AMP noise-canceling headset, followed by Rock's urgent voice.
"Sledgehammer, regroup at the ruins one hundred and fifty meters east of the Mixing Tower. Double time!"
"Copy that!"
Chen Ge acknowledged the order, collapsed the mortar tube, and clipped it to the left side of his backpack. Tugging at the sling of the HK417 hanging across his chest, he sprinted east toward the Mixing Tower.
Big Bear and the other three packed away the ammunition back-racks, gripped their rifles and machine guns, and followed close behind.
By this time, on the eastern side of the Mixing Tower, the fortifications on the first and second floors had been obliterated. Companies Two and Four had breached the building, beginning a brutal clearing battle.
There was no shortcut to clearing a building. It could only be done floor by floor, room by room, where close-quarters combat and split-second life-or-death encounters were the norm.
Company One had assembled behind the ruins of several buildings a hundred and fifty meters east of the Mixing Tower. Chen Ge ran up and glanced around; barely thirty-odd men were left.
"Where are we hitting?"
Rock pointed toward a four-story rectangular building two hundred meters to the right rear of the Mixing Tower, covering an area of roughly seven hundred square meters, its top floor already collapsed by artillery fire.
"The Laboratory Building. The main passage for the underground utility trench runs underneath it. Trench ordered us to take it and blow the tunnel to stop Ukrainian reinforcements."
At those words, Hacksaw, leader of Assault Team Two, Volcano of the machine gun team, Night Hawk of the scout team, and Chen Ge all frowned deeply.
How many men did they even have?
Rock sighed, speaking with helpless resignation. "The enemy's numbers are higher than estimated, and their fighting spirit is tenacious. Ice Man, Drill Bit, and Yuri can't spare anyone to reinforce us!"
"Trench has already called for backup. Crimea sent an assault detachment over; they'll be here in forty minutes."
Hearing that reinforcements were on the way, Chen Ge, Hacksaw, and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Crimea was the callsign of the commander of the Second Assault Group on Bakhmut's eastern flank. They had been redeployed from the First Assault Group for support, as the Second Assault Group's fourteen hundred veterans had already suffered over fifty percent casualties in this industrial zone over the past two weeks.
Only after arriving on the Ukrainian battlefield and witnessing the sheer intensity of the war in person did Chen Ge realize that the casualty figures publicized by both Russia and Ukraine were heavily watered down; the real casualties were far higher than the official numbers.
In this industrial zone in the eastern part of the city alone, since Wagner and the Russian military launched their offensive on August 1, casualties had exceeded thirty thousand. Total casualties for both sides across all of Bakhmut were easily double the publicized numbers!
Rock said in a low, heavy voice, "Five minutes to check gear and replenish ammo."
The men silently checked their weapons, grabbing grenades and magazines from ammunition crates to stuff into their tactical vests and assault packs, loading up on as many grenades as possible.
Storming a building was the bloodiest, most unpredictable meat grinder.
Visibility was zero, and ambushes lurked everywhere. Hallways, corners, doorways, stairwells, ventilation shafts, and basements were all blind spots.
The Ukrainian troops hid behind walls, behind doors, between furniture, and beneath floorboards. What you could see posed no danger; what you couldn't see was what would kill you.
One step through a door, and you could instantly be riddled with holes by crossfire from two or three directions at once.
Therefore, besides carrying enough ammunition, grenades—the very soul of building-clearing warfare—could never be in surplus.
Chen Ge crouched on the ground, took a twelve-inch barrel out of his backpack, removed the handguard with a wrench, loosened the barrel nut, pulled out the 16.5-inch barrel, inserted the twelve-inch barrel, aligned and locked it into place, then reattached the handguard.
A 16.5-inch barrel was too long and ill-suited for indoor CQB.
Having swapped the barrel, he checked the five smoky-gray, twenty-round translucent polymer magazines in his magazine pouches, then reached behind into a side pocket of his backpack and pulled out an HK21E machine gun drum magazine he had bought from Thunderstone to mount onto the rifle.
A fifty-round drum was bulky and heavy; ordinary soldiers would rarely use one. But Chen Ge was no ordinary man.
To him, that extra bit of weight was negligible.
"Hey, is that an LG5?"
Just as Chen Ge was about to grab some grenades, he caught sight out of the corner of his eye of a burly mercenary carrying a sniper grenade launcher on his back.
It was China's export version, the QLU-11, 40 mm caliber.
"Brother, where did you get a sniper grenade launcher? Let me see that!"
"My name is Olotes, callsign Tanker. I brought this LG5 back from Syria. It performs pretty well. You like it? I can give it to you!"
Tanker grinned broadly, unslung the LG5 from his back, and handed it to Chen Ge. His demeanor was exceptionally enthusiastic, tinged with a hint of admiration.
He had just witnessed Chen Ge's eerily terrifying mortar marksmanship. Forming a good relationship with Chen Ge so that Chen Ge might look out for him down the road would be a massive win.
Chen Ge took the launcher with a smile and said, "Thanks for the offer, brother, but my main weapon is the mortar. Besides, the 40×53 mm HV rounds the LG5 fires are too rare; resupplying them is tough."
The mainstays on the Ukrainian battlefield were Soviet 30×29 mm grenades and 40×46 mm low-velocity grenades. For urban combat, low-velocity and medium-velocity curved-trajectory grenades were preferred. The 40×53 mm HV high-velocity grenade had a high muzzle velocity and a flat trajectory, making it prone to overpenetration and ricochets indoors; it was only suitable for long-range suppression, not urban warfare.
Tanker nodded. "It really is hard to resupply. Yesterday, I searched the camp's ammunition depot up and down and only found thirty-eight rounds of 40×53 mm HV."
Chen Ge weighed the launcher in his hands, brought it to his shoulder, aimed toward the Mixing Tower, and fired a round.
Bang! A tremendous recoil surged from the stock as the projectile flew toward the building at two hundred and forty meters per second.
No explosion could be heard over the deafening cacophony of the battle.
Having scratched his itch, Chen Ge handed the launcher back to Tanker.
"Sniping with this must be amazing. No need to calculate temperature, humidity, or wind speed—just blow the enemy and his cover sky-high together!"
Tanker couldn't help but laugh out loud, patting the launcher.
"Haha, exactly! In Syria, that's what I used against IS snipers. No need to aim precisely; once I figured out the sniper's general direction, a few quick shots would either kill him or leave him severely wounded."
"The weapons you Chinese design and develop always seem to aim for long range, immense power, and maximum lethality. I really like that!"
Chen Ge spread his hands. "We had no choice. Back in the day, our national strength was weak, and fighting wars meant trading lives against overwhelming odds. We developed a severe fear of insufficient firepower. Now that conditions have improved, naturally we have to plug that firepower gap completely."
"My Chinese brother-in-law told me about that fear of insufficient firepower," Tanker said. "Whenever he played video games with me, all he did was hoard ammo, grenades, and weapon attachments. In a fight, he'd reload after firing just a few shots. At first, I thought he was out of his mind. But after he told me about the suffering China endured in modern history, I understood."
Tanker grew more animated as he spoke, his loud voice drawing the attention of the surrounding mercenaries, who pricked up their ears to listen.
"I also watched a documentary on the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. You Chinese soldiers were incredible fighters. With such primitive weapons, you still managed to beat the heavily armed UN forces. If the Chinese soldiers had been equipped with coalition weapons back then, I'm sure you would have driven the coalition into the sea within a year at most!"
Chen Ge thoroughly agreed with Tanker's sentiment; he felt the exact same way.
In the mid-to-late stages of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, once Soviet equipment was rolled out across entire formations, the Chinese People's Volunteers fought the US military to a standstill, attacking and defending on equal footing.
As for the other coalition nations... heh, a rabble!
"Chinese brother-in-law? Your sister married a Chinese man?"
"Yeah, my family's from Khabarovsk Krai. Both of my sisters married men from Northeast China."
Well, talk about taking advantage of being close neighbors!
"That's great. Let's get ready for battle. If we survive, drinks are on me," Chen Ge said casually, then began stuffing grenades into his backpack, cramming them in until not a single one more would fit.
Big Bear, Lightbulb, Manhole Cover, and Night Cat were also loading grenades, removing part of the 60 mm mortar rounds from their back-racks to make room.
The RG-60TB man-portable pocket artillery was given first priority, followed by RGN, RGO, and an abundance of F1 "lemons."
Once everyone was ready, the teams assembled. Rock tossed away his cigarette butt, pulled down his balaclava, and clicked off the safety on his AK-12.
"Team One, Volcano's team, and Night Hawk's team assault the right flank with me. Hacksaw's team and Sledgehammer's team assault the left flank. Move out!"
Chapter 44