Mercenary's War-Chapter 2110 - 2087: Judging by Appearances

A artillery position requires close cooperation among many people to operate normally, including scouts, calculator soldiers, and communication soldiers, who generally stay at the forward artillery command post.

Additionally, there are those on the artillery position, such as the artillery commander, aimers, gunners, loaders, among others.

Another large part consists of logistical personnel, like drivers who transport the towed artillery back and forth, cooks, medics, and so on.

For Gao Yang, what he needs most now are artillery scouts, calculator soldiers, and communication soldiers, along with an excellent artillery commander and aimer. With these people, he can slightly expand to form a company, or even to two heavy artillery companies, equipping personnel fully. By pairing veterans with newcomers for a couple of years, two companies could become two regiments.

As for other positions, such as gunners, loaders, drivers, and logistic personnel, they can be self-trained, as these roles are not very specialized.

Wizard directly led Gao Yang and his team to the artillery position, but Gao Yang was more inclined to go to the command post.

Wizard did not refuse Gao Yang’s request; he simply gestured with his hand and whispered: "This way to the command post."

Just as Gao Yang’s team was about to leave, a person on the position suddenly shouted, and those who were lazily guarding beside the artillery immediately sprang into action, pulling away the camouflage net blocking the firing area. The gunners quickly rotated the wheels of the elevating gear and direction gear.

Under the collaboration of numerous gunners, within less than two minutes, the adjustment of the firing area and aiming was completed. Then, following the commander’s order, an artillery piece quickly selected shell and pouch, and fired with a boom.

From preparation to completing the first shot, it took two and a half minutes, which was fast enough.

The artillery position commander held the microphone, receiving orders from the headquarters, then he quickly issued the firing command.

"All personnel, six rounds rapid fire, commence!"

Just one shell determined the coordinates, followed by rapid fire immediately, the efficiency is indeed high.

The people on the artillery position are dressed in a variety of clothing, some wearing uniforms, some in civilian clothes, some in shorts and bare-chested, while others wear dirty suits. The ages also vary significantly; there are young lads looking around twenty, middle-aged men in their forties or fifties, and even a few old men with white hair.

But it is precisely such a group that seems extremely unremarkable as artillery soldiers, carrying out the artillery tasks with great familiarity and proficiency.

Loading, firing, Gao Yang dares to guarantee that these people have achieved the maximum firing rate of 152 towed artillery. He glanced at his watch; sure enough, six shells had been fired within one minute.

After completing six rounds of rapid fire, the artillery position commander shouted: "Change position!"

The multitude of gunners immediately withdrew the artillery, and as the artillery position fell into a busy scramble, Phoenix, looking surprised, said: "Who are these people? Their appearance doesn’t resemble soldiers; look at them, they’re essentially a bunch of civilians."

"That’s right, they are militia."

"Are you joking? Militia can be this formidable?"

Shouting chants, they withdrew the spade and gun mount, a truck towing the artillery drove to the rear of the cannon, hooked the cannon onto the car, and went off driving with the artillery. In less than a minute, the entire artillery position began to change. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Gao Yang pointed at the agile gunners and said to Phoenix: "Let me tell you a trick; it’s easy to distinguish elite Russians from mere cannon fodder—just look at their attire, but it’s exactly the opposite of what you’d think. If they’re dressed neatly in uniform, clean and tidy, then they’re definitely new recruits with no combat capability. If you see some people who are dirty and scruffy, dressed in a jumbled mix with beards looking like hobos, but all wearing Breton Tops, you’ve encountered a crack troop."

While speaking, the artillery position was emptied, everyone disappeared without a trace, Gao Yang clapped his hands and smiled at Phoenix: "As a sniper, if you don’t know this, you’ll suffer greatly. Alright, let’s hurry up and run too."

Talking while moving, Gao Yang and his team ran swiftly, and why? Because the enemy’s retaliatory firepower would soon arrive.

As soon as Gao Yang’s team ran more than three hundred meters, shells began to fall on the just-occupied artillery position. Gao Yang looked at his watch and smiled: "The counterattack time is five minutes, the enemy’s artillery is decent."

Phoenix whispered: "If it’s the United States Army, they would initiate a counterattack on the enemy’s artillery position within thirty seconds."

Gao Yang laughed: "You’re right, but the United States Army has counter-battery radars and fully computer-controlled self-propelled artillery. When artillery here fires, it’s known over there, so counterattacks are naturally quick, but this place is different. Here everything’s done manually, five minutes is quite good. If it were the United States Army, achieving a counterattack within ten minutes would already be excellent, would you believe?"

Phoenix spread his hands without speaking, Gao Yang stopped, and said to Wizard: "Now that the heavy artillery position has been shifted, where do we go to find them?"

"I don’t know."

Wizard shook his head and said: "I don’t know where they will relocate to, only when they choose a new artillery position and report to the headquarters will I know their location."

Gao Yang furrowed his brow: "Impossible, surely you have set up standby positions, right? Do you change to a new position each time?"

"Yes, I said it, enemy aerial reconnaissance is still very formidable, regular positions can’t be used at all, after their locations are detected, the enemy will preset coordinates, so our artillery can only continuously change positions."

Gao Yang waved his hand and helplessly said: "Then let’s wait, I quite admire that heavy artillery company from earlier."

In the Ukrainian conflict, artillery is one of the main actors on the battlefield. This is not like Libya or Syria where low-intensity warfare occurs, and the artillery trained here is naturally what Gao Yang needs.

If Gao Yang had high-tech self-propelled artillery, he wouldn’t come to Ukraine to find artillerymen, but he can only afford old-fashioned towed artillery, so Ukraine naturally becomes his best choice for recruiting personnel.

After waiting for about half an hour, Wizard spoke with headquarters and said to Gao Yang: "We know their location now, let’s go over."

Gao Yang whispered: "Wizard, we’re old friends, so I’ll speak frankly. I want the entire command post of that heavy artillery company from earlier, okay?"

Wizard smiled and said to Gao Yang: "Sure, actually we don’t lack artillerymen, any position is not deficient. The only issue is whether they’re willing to go with you."