Chapter 279: Not a failure, but a fiasco

Zhou Ming and Majid moved to the conference room. Salim was under house arrest in his own room by three members of the Desert Squad. The remaining six members followed Zhou Ming to the conference room.

It was a very luxurious meeting room, and it was also the new private meeting room that Salm had prepared for himself. The floor was covered with a palm-thick carpet, the conference table was made of mahogany that cost millions of tons made of mahogany, a delicate crystal chandelier above their heads, and all the chairs have gold-plated edges. It looks like it could easily dazzle the eyes of any 24-karat titanium alloy dog. Zhou Ming was impressed that Saddam was truly worthy of being the emperor of Iraq, and even his meeting room was so extravagant.

Zhou Ming and Majid waited for a while, and then, at Majid's signal, the Iraqi Deputy Minister of Defence and the Minister of Communications entered the room.

There is no doubt that no country can be dominated by a single family. Even dictatorships must have the support of other powerful families. Iraq is no exception. The Al-Hussein family, to which Al-Salam and Majid belong, is undoubtedly the largest. The other allied families also occupy important positions in the government. The deputy defence minister and the communications minister are two such figures.

It is also for this reason, today's meeting is more about the Al-Hussein family, represented by Majid, gaining their support than it is about military matters.

When they they arrived, Majid informed them that Saddam was unable to preside over the meeting due to illness and that he was now acting as President of Iraq. The two ministers were very surprised to hear this news. After all, Saddam had been president of Iraq for such a long time, and he was only 53 years old. No one had heard of any health problems, so how could they not be surprised when suddenly there was a change of person?

However Their surprise only lasted a moment, and they were also very clever not to express any opinions. After all, Salm had come to power through a coup d'état, and now he had suffered another coup d'état, which was not something that was unacceptable.

After a a few minutes later, Major General Zou Yue from the Huaxia Military Officers Corps also arrived in the conference room. After introducing each other, the meeting officially began.

'Salm Salm had previously announced our surrender terms to the world, but unfortunately neither the United States nor the United Nations were willing to accept our terms, which means that the war will continue. Therefore Yesterday, Saddam ordered indiscriminate Scud missile attacks on the Gulf states of Saudi Arabia and Israel. Now that he is ill, we must continue this war for him.'

Majid said Here he paused before continuing: 'But in the next war, we cannot do what we did before. In order to defeat the enemy, to defend Iraq Iraq and defend our regime, we must change our tactics and strategies. Now standing beside me is the military advisory team from China.'

Following Majid words, Zhou Ming said: 'Hello everyone, I'm Zhou Ming from Huaxia. I think the biggest reason for Iraq's previous failure was that the army was deployed on the front line of the war. As a result, it was subjected to heavy air strikes by multinational forces at the beginning of the war, resulting in heavy losses.'

'Then the next change, we have to start here. Our defensive line should be constantly retracted, abandoning those positions on the border that cannot be defended, abandoning any idea of field warfare, and focusing on holding back the Americans with street battles and roadside guerrilla warfare in every city. 'Zhou Ming said, 'In this way, as our soldiers and American soldiers intermingle, the high-tech weapons of the enemy will be rendered useless, and we will have a hope of winning.'

After saying this, Zhou Ming looked at the two ministers. They also knew the significance of this meeting, so after exchanging a glance, they asked, 'Can the guerrilla warfare and street fighting you mentioned really win against the Americans?'

Zhou Ming nodded with great nodded confidently and replied, 'Of course, this has already been proven in Southeast Asia.'

'So do you have any specific combat plans? After all, this

(this chapter is incomplete, please turn the page) is Iraq, not South Vietnam,' the other side emphasised.

In response to this question, Zhou Ming handed it over to Zou Yue. After all, he was the expert in guerrilla warfare trained by the state. Even during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan fifteen years ago, he was among the first officers sent to to help them fight the invasion with guerrilla warfare. With ten years of practical combat experience, he was undoubtedly the only one with the authority to speak about specific strategies.

As a professional soldier, Zou Yue was also unequivocal. He simply hung up a map of Iraq and pointed to it, saying, 'The US army has already achieved control of Kuwait through the battle of Khiran. had surrendered without a fight. This must have given the US army a lot of confidence, and their next target of attack would inevitably be Basra. My plan is to choose this as the location for the second ground battle.'

Zou Yue judgment, Majid and the others subconsciously nodded. In fact, even people who know nothing about the military can easily understand that since Iraq is surrounded by mountains to the north and are difficult to cross hills and hot deserts. Therefore, compared to these harsh environments, the attack along the Kuwait-Basra line, which has plains and roads and railways, is obviously much less difficult.

Not to mention Basra is Iraq's largest port city. If it is captured, US aircraft carriers can sail directly into the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. For these reasons, Basra has always been a strategic location that must be captured, no matter which commander is in charge.

While talking , Zou Yue pointed to a point on the map: 'Isla is a medium-sized town southwest of the city of Basra. There are two highways leading directly to Basra next to it, so you can say that Isla is the throat of Basra.'

'But at the same time Isla is backed by the Euphrates River. Due to the limitations of the terrain, the US military is destined to be unable to deploy large-scale armoured group attacks in Isla. They must rely on the surprise attacks of small groups of vanguard troops, which gives the guerrillas the best room to manoeuvre for street fighting. If we can repel more than three US army assaults, then we can keep the main force of the US army's attack on the Isrago wall.'

Zou Yue said drew a circle on the map with his hand and continued, 'And leaving the main force of the US army behind is our goal, so as to facilitate our subsequent tactical attacks. However, how exactly the counterattack should be carried out still depends on the battle situation.'

At the end of his speech Zou Yue sat back down in his seat, and Majid, looking at Zhou Ming, said: 'Judging from the current situation, General Zou's plan is the most appropriate. However, at the moment, our army's will to resist and determination to fight are clearly lacking. Can we really hold off the US army?'

'The will to resist and fighting spirit are things that follow the course of the war, and of course I have a special method for that,' Zou Yue replied.

'In that case, I invite General Zou to serve as the national military advisor for Iraq and take full responsibility for this war.'

Majid first first asked the two ministers for their opinions, and then formally authorised Zou Yue. As this was the original purpose of the meeting, and as he was only an adviser, a volunteer who would not be involved in the country's affairs, there would be no grounds for opposing the United Nations. Therefore, Zou Yue accepted.

Today is February 22nd. In Zhou Ming's memory, this was already the closing stage of the Gulf War. It can be said that what Zhou Ming is doing now is forcibly changing history. Also because this reason, Zhou Ming did not dare to delay. After receiving the authorisation at the end of the meeting, he left the Presidential Palace with Zou Yue and saw Zou Yue and his group of military officers off.

It is worth mentioning that it was not just Zou Yue and his group of officers who set off to Basra to save the war, but also the Kurdish guerrillas who were already waiting for them on the road, as well as the Desert Squad and the troops that Zou Yue had temporarily taught in Badina these days.

To Zhou Ming it was now time to look at the war situation in the south, as things had already ended here in Badina, so it was not necessary to keep the entire Desert Squad by his side.

Although the Desert Squad only had six

fighters (this chapter is not finished, please turn the page), the Desert Squad is made up of only six elite warriors, each of whom is highly skilled and has excellent physical fitness. They are also very intuitive in battle. Such warriors may not be useful in a major battle on the scale of the Hundred Regiments Campaign might not be useful, but in a small-scale street battle, it could have miraculous results. Zhou Ming believed that Zou Yue, a very intelligent general, would definitely find a way.

As for the other the other temporary army was a force of 4,000 soldiers selected by Zou Yue, who had retreated from the front after experiencing an air raid.

Although it was the standards of the Huaxia elite army, it was still far from good enough. But for the battle that was about to begin, there was no time to worry about that. According to Zou Yue's introduction, Zhou Ming only remembered that the 4,000-strong men were divided into two groups according to the customs of the Huaxia army. There were two soldiers in the group who made a deep impression on him: they were called Aheen and Baker.

So, when Zou Yue and his army boarded the train to Basra, and Majid also gave the attack order to the missile force. Dozens of Scud missiles were launched . While the planes of the multinational force searched for the missiles, the military train reached Basra without incident.

Amidst the gunfire and the war was about to officially begin. But for Zhou Ming, there was another war that was about to begin.

Zhou Ming returned to his room after Zhou Yue, he returned to his room and took out his satellite phone and dialed Lin Muzhen's number.

When the number was connected, Zhou Ming told Lin Muzhen his identity, and Lin Muzhen immediately worried, 'Zhou Ming, are you okay now? I heard that Iraq has surrendered. What's going on? You're not hurt, are you? The situation there is very dangerous. Saddam is a dictatorial madman. He won't do anything to you, will he? You should come back. We're all worried about you!'

Although Lin Mu Qing's concern warmed Ming's heart, but he still had to interrupt her: 'My dear Qing, I'm doing fine in Iraq. Salm is already under my complete control, and the situation here is now in my hands.'

Lin Muqing was about to say something, but Zhou Ming spoke first: 'Muqing, I know you and Ranran are both very concerned about me, but I have something more important to ask you both now. What is the current situation in the international crude oil futures market?'

Lin Muqing was indeed very concerned about Zhou Ming, but she was also not a woman who could not distinguish between important and unimportant matters. Therefore, she also suppressed her utmost concern for Zhou Ming and answered him, 'Affected by the previous news of Saddam's surrender, the international market is generally optimistic about the Gulf War optimistic, and the international crude oil futures price has also been falling due to this, from the previous high of over 60 US dollars, it has now fallen below 39 US dollars, a drop of more than 35%.

Lin Muqing said this and thought for a moment, she continued, 'And according to the overall situation, with the US military winning the Gulf War, all major futures companies and investment banks generally believe that the price of international crude oil futures will fall further. Therefore, most institutions are selling their crude oil futures, which is another important reason for the further decline in the price of international crude oil futures.'

'This is really good news,' said Zhou Ming. 'So Muqing, let's sell now, and we'll join forces with the Tang family and the company in Brighton to drive the price of international crude oil futures even lower.'

Zhou Ming then turned and continued, 'However, this sell-off can only last until 1 pm US time at most, and after 1 pm we need to recover as many crude oil futures contracts as possible without affecting the price. Especially in the last half hour of auction time, we have to buy every crude oil futures contract we can see, understand?'

'Zhou Ming, are you You mean...the Americans are about to send news of defeat?' Lin Moqing asked in surprise.

'The word "defeat" is not quite the right word to use. If all goes according to plan, a crushing defeat would be more appropriate,' Zhou Ming said.