Chapter Ninety-Seven: Infatuation

  This level of impact is nothing to a tank, just like scratching an itch for a giant. The gunner continued to aim, when suddenly everything went black and he couldn't see anything.

  Damn it! The gunner was about to press the fire button, but at this time he could only helplessly withdraw his eyes from the periscope and stare at the commander on the other side, who was also gritting his teeth. Cunning guerrillas!

  It's impossible for anti-aircraft shells to damage tanks, but it's possible to damage external components of the turret, such as the infrared spotlight on one side of the vehicle!

  The front upper armor plate of the t62 has a splash guard, and there are 2 headlights on the right side of the board. The one on the left is a white light lamp, and the one on the right is an infrared lamp.

  The Soviet Union's night vision devices were relatively backward, and even now they are still active infrared devices that rely on infrared headlights to emit infrared rays, which reflect off the target and land on their own sights, in order to clearly see the target and launch an attack. Meanwhile, NATO has already entered the era of passive night vision, completely relying on infrared imaging devices to obtain images, using the infrared rays emitted by the target itself to work, without needing those infrared headlights. Although the infrared headlights are invisible to the naked eye, in a passive night vision device, they are like live targets.

  Muhammad just now was under the night light, aiming at the opponent's infrared headlight position and firing, under a dozen rounds, destroyed the opponent's infrared headlight, so in the opponent's sighting mirror, it must be pitch black.

  As expected, the tank slowed down. Not only could the commander and gunner no longer see the target, but even the driver had to use infrared night vision devices to observe.

  The driver immediately pressed the button, intending to turn on the headlights, but in front of him was still a pitch black darkness. The previous shell had destroyed both the white light and infrared lights.

  The driver opened the hatch on his head and crawled out, looking forward to see where the truck had gone. The other party had already run far away!

  Run, run. Run! Khwaja floored it, the truck tearing through streets, bursting past checkpoints, racing forward without pause.

  There were originally pursuing troops behind, but after Muhammad operated the high cannon and fired demonstratively towards the back, those Soviets wisely did not follow up.

  The truck drove into the valley ahead and everyone relaxed.

  The eastern sky. Slowly revealed a fish belly white, and it's another new day.

  "Mr. Muhammad, you are truly great." A voice whispered in Muhammad's ear.

  After a night of fighting, it's temporarily safe here now, and on this empty land, the guerrilla fighters are taking a temporary rest.

  Fahim's admiration for Muhammad is heartfelt, fighting alongside Masood makes Fahim happy. But fighting alongside Muhammad has a refreshing and thrilling feeling beyond just the pleasure of striking Soviets, such as when using this high cannon to shoot at the Soviet command center, that feeling gives Fahim a sense of bursting into the Kremlin.

  "Victory belongs to our entire guerrilla unit." Muhamed said: "It was your fierce fighting that brought such results. Moreover, our two guerrilla units outside have been constantly confusing the Soviets, which made the Soviet command so relaxed."

  This time, the raid was on an old Soviet lair, and Muhammad had already made sacrifices. It would be good to bring back half of the people, but now, Muhammad saw that everyone around him was fine, just a few people were lightly injured, which made him feel even more relieved. Thanks to this high cannon truck!

  "Mr. Muhammad, this high cannon truck, can we take it back?" Fahim asked Mr. Muhammad.

  The power of this thing left Fahim's eyes wide open, no matter what he encountered, as long as he charged forward, he could clear the way. Even tanks were beaten so badly they didn't dare follow up. Fahim personally witnessed that T-62 being rendered immobile, it was simply too cool.

  Muhammad shook his head.

  The guerrilla force was not strong enough, and even if this truck arrived at the guerrilla base, it would not be convenient to start. In these mountainous areas, many places can only be traversed on foot. This time, Muhammad didn't even bring horses, otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to cross those cliffs either.

  Stroking the high cannon, Fahim was reluctant to part with it. He sat in the aiming device's fixed seat on the right side. The shooting of this high cannon he had already mastered, but these rotating wheels on the right side interested him greatly.

  "What are these, Mr. Muhammad?" Fahim asked Muhammad.

  "ZA-23 sighting device," Muhammad said. "Here are the elevation scale plate, elevation setting knob, azimuth scale plate, speed setter, and course indicator."

  Muhammad said it's a bit fast, this thing, can't be understood at once, even the old M1938 DShKM-style heavy machine gun used by guerrillas can only be used as an anti-aircraft gun with simple aiming rings.

  The sighting system of this gun is very complex, consisting of a route device, an oblique distance device, a parallel sighting device and an optical sight. It uses the principle of similar triangles to proportionally reduce the position of the gun firing, the current position of the target, and the pre-target position onto the sighting device.

  The whole mystery lies within this sighting device. The spherical device below sets the target's course and speed, while the wheel on the right side of the sight sets the angle of elevation, which is also displayed on the scale plate. After setting the target's course, speed, and angle of elevation, the crosshairs in the sight will point to where the target will be in the future, this is the most important thing. The shell needs time to fly over, if you want to hit the target, you need to have lead. In this way, the gunner only needs to press the target with the crosshair ring in the sight and fire.

  To make these principles clear, even with a high school education, it would take several days to get through, and Muhammad simply told Fahim what the devices were.

  Fahim stared at those devices, his eyes becoming somewhat dull, and his mind racing rapidly.

  "Rumble, rumble." Just then, a black dot appeared in the distant sky.

  Female deer! Female deer from Bagram Air Base! When Mohammad saw that black dot, he was suddenly startled in his heart.

  "Quickly, retreat!" Muhammad said.

  The doe is still a few minutes away, Muhammad can take the guerrillas down the mountain road quickly and get rid of this truck here.

  If we continue to ride in the truck, it will become a prime target for the doe, and she will open fire from a distance. One rocket-propelled grenade can blow up this truck.

  Upon hearing Muhammad's command, the guerrilla fighters quickly moved forward along the mountain path on the side.

  Muhammad ran forward a few steps, suddenly feeling something was wrong, turned his head and saw that Fashim was still studying the sighting device of the anti-aircraft gun, occasionally turning the elevation adjustment wheel, looking at the scale plate moving back and forth with it. He was using his brain to study, without even hearing Muhammad's command.

  Damn it! Muhammad yelled: "Fahim, retreat!"

  Fahim remained seated, for when a person becomes absorbed in studying something, they lose their sense of awareness of the outside world.

  Fahim had an obsession with weapons. When he first used the Eifleld MkIII rifle, he was already thinking about how to hit his target, taking into account wind speed and temperature. When he captured the SVD sniper rifle, he could easily hit targets over 500 meters away. After obtaining a rocket launcher, he also carried an RPG and destroyed several Soviet armored vehicles.

  Now, this high cannon is too mysterious, Fahim is studying it with great interest. When he thinks that he has to give up the high cannon, Fahim even feels a little reluctant.

  Take advantage of it now and study hard!

  Fahim gazed at it with the tender passion of a lover, stroking it, his attention completely absorbed in the cannon, without hearing the distant rumble in the sky.

  "A suspected target has been spotted ahead." The female helicopter's front cabin weapon operator said calmly.

  They searched everywhere in the mountains, a small group of Afghan guerrillas entered Rukha town, destroyed the division headquarters, and even the division commander was killed in this raid. All soldiers of the 40th Army were enraged.

  Bagram Air Base has sent out all the mobile female deer, and is searching in a net-like fashion in the Panjshir area, every hill, every river, are being sifted through.

  At last, this doe found its target, that high cannon truck!

  The plane is flying at a relatively high altitude and the distance is still quite far, so the gunner can't clearly identify it. There are many places in the valley where there have been ambushes by guerrilla forces, with wrecks of vehicles that have been attacked. What he saw might just be an abandoned vehicle.

  The pilot flying in the back lowered his altitude, flying over from the valley while the weapon operator in front adjusted the weapons to the rocket nest. Once the target was confirmed, they could launch a strike at any time.

  As it drew closer, the outline of the anti-aircraft gun became clearer, but where was the operator?

  I only saw the high cannon truck, but didn't see any guerrilla fighters. There's only one possibility: the guerrillas had abandoned this high cannon truck before dawn and escaped into the mountains.

  The mountains are their domain, especially for small bands of guerrillas, who can easily slip through the net.

  "Bagram, Bagram, Hunter has spotted a howitzer truck, Hunter has spotted a howitzer truck, in area 732."

  The signal was very poor in the mountains, and the gunner's headset crackled with electromagnetic interference before finally picking up Bagram's voice: "Roger that, dispatching infantry immediately."

  The pilot pushed the control stick, intending to circle around the anti-aircraft gun truck a few times while continuing to observe.

  Just then, the muzzle of the high cannon suddenly rose rapidly.