82: The legend of the invincibility of Dragon Kingdom weapons!

The White House.

After the President of the United States finished reading the national security brief on the situation in Afghanistan, he couldn't help but look up at his National Security Advisor.

At this moment, he had only one thought: Dragon Country was incredibly formidable!

Some time ago, when the Iron Flood of the Polar Bear Empire occupied all medium and large cities throughout Afghanistan in just 8 days, there was widespread pessimism in both the United States and NATO.

At this time, the Polar Bear Empire being called the world's number one military power was absolutely not just talk!

In this battle, the Polar Bear Empire demonstrated world-leading, top-tier military capabilities in airborne special operations, KGB agent coordination, and armored ground advances!

Especially after the Pentagon's command of the Afghan government forces' resistance failed, the White House became eerily quiet!

The United States and the entire NATO were forced to switch to strategic defense in the face of the Polar Bear Empire's powerful offensive!

But now, they never imagined that Dragon Country could be so formidable!

After the pro-Dragon Country Afghan militia resistance forces launched a strategic counter-offensive, they achieved world-shaking, impressive results in one battle!

"We should have pushed Dragon Country to counter the Polar Bear Empire's invasion of Afghanistan long ago!" the U.S. President exclaimed with genuine emotion.

Previously, the Pentagon had provided hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons aid to support the Afghan government forces against the Polar Bear Empire's invasion in just a few days.

But now, all that money was wasted.

If they had chosen to give that money to Dragon Country earlier, for Dragon Country to aid Afghanistan, who knows how much greater the achievements would have been!

"Agree to all the conditions Dragon Country proposed earlier, except for the core equipment involved in intercontinental missile manufacturing!"

"If we can get Dragon Country to stand on the front lines against the Polar Bear Empire's strategic expansion in Asia, it would definitely be great news for us!"

After a brief contemplation, the U.S. President made a major decision.

Due to ideological differences, the United States and the West had always maintained sanctions and strategic embargoes against Dragon Country.

Various advanced machine tools and electronic equipment were always prohibited from being exported to Dragon Country.

A few days ago, to encourage Dragon Country to aid Afghanistan, the White House and Western countries had already lifted various sanctions against Dragon Country.

However, the White House had consistently refused to agree to Dragon Country's condition of importing strategic machine tools and electronic equipment from Western countries at cost price.

Both sides had been continuously negotiating over prices and the types of machine tools that could be imported.

But now, Dragon Country's victory in one battle had truly shocked the West.

Facing the Polar Bear Empire's shift to strategic defense, the United States wanted to implement a strategy of arming and strengthening Dragon Country!

To have Dragon Country stand at the forefront to counter the Polar Bear Empire in Asia!

Of course, this arming and strengthening of Dragon Country was limited to conventional land, sea, and air weapons!

The United States and the White House would absolutely not budge on core equipment and technology related to intercontinental missile manufacturing!

Because the United States and the Western world wanted to use Dragon Country as a pawn, supporting Dragon Country as a proxy to contend with the Polar Bear Empire!

If Dragon Country wanted to develop intercontinental missiles and possess global strike capabilities, transforming from a pawn into a player, the United States would absolutely not agree!

That night, it wasn't just Western countries that were shocked.

A series of developing countries in the Middle East, South America, and Africa were all stunned by Dragon Country's achievements!

You know, the opponent was the world's number one military power, the Polar Bear Empire!

An existence that even the United States and NATO were afraid to face!

Dragon Country merely provided weapons aid and military skills training to a group of Afghan militia resistance forces, and they managed to teach the opponent a lesson?

Western media outlets like The Washington Post, Agence France-Presse, and The London Daily seemed to be celebrating that day.

The front pages and headlines of almost every newspaper and news outlet were dedicated to reports about this incident.

Some curious media even began openly tallying the Polar Bear Empire's losses in their newspapers:

Overnight, the Polar Bear Empire had a total of 30 T-62 tanks, 8 T-72 tanks, and 157 BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles destroyed!

Additionally, 357 BTR-60 wheeled armored vehicles, 11 Mi-24 "Hind" attack helicopters, and 17 Mi-8 "Hip" transport helicopters were also lost!

These were absolutely unimaginable results!

A T-62 tank costs approximately 500,000 USD, so 30 units are worth 15 million USD.

A T-72 tank costs approximately 1.2 million USD, so 8 units are worth 9.6 million USD.

A BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle costs approximately 400,000 USD, so 157 units are worth 62.8 million USD.

A BTR-60 armored vehicle costs approximately 200,000 USD, so 357 units are worth 71.4 million USD.

A Mi-24 "Hind" attack helicopter costs approximately 7 million USD, so 11 units are worth 77 million USD.

A Mi-8 "Hip" transport helicopter costs approximately 3.5 million USD, so 17 units are worth 59.5 million USD.

Additionally, a transport truck costs approximately 30,000 USD, so over a thousand units would be worth 30 million USD.

If radar stations and communication hubs are also included, Dragon Country caused the Polar Bear Empire to lose nearly 400 million USD in this battle!

If the nearly 5,000 casualties of the Polar Bear military and the complete destruction of their ground supply lines are added, the strategic losses are simply incalculable!

Dragon Country.

Ministry of National Defense.

Peng Lin and the others in the conference room stayed up all night, closely monitoring the battle situation of the strategic counter-offensive in Afghanistan.

In the morning, it was not until Abudullah, the leader of the Afghan militia resistance forces, called Dragon Country to report the success and victory of the strategic counter-offensive that everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.

But at the same time, everyone showed uncontrollable surprise!

After all, this was a battle against the Polar Bear Empire!

Everyone was very excited to achieve such remarkable results!

"The Washington Post, Agence France-Presse, and other Western media outlets are trying to put our Dragon Country on the spot!" Marshal Xu Yong'an said with a cold smile after seeing the Western media reports.

He understood the ulterior motives of the United States and Western countries.

They were simply trying to portray a positive and strong image of Dragon Country to the world, pushing Dragon Country to the forefront to confront the Polar Bear Empire!

After all, the Polar Bear Empire would certainly not let Dragon Country off the hook easily to salvage its image as the world's number one military power!

Going forward, whether on the Afghan battlefield or on the border between the two sides in northern Dragon Country, the military confrontation and competition between Dragon Country and the Polar Bear Empire would only intensify!

And Western countries were thinking of the 'snipe and clam contend, the fisherman benefits' strategy!

However, they did not know that there was also a tactic in Dragon Country's art of war called 'the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it'!

While they were calculating against Dragon Country, wasn't Dragon Country also calculating against them?

Now, Western countries have not only lifted all sanctions against Dragon Country but are also more willing to sell heavy machine tools and electronic equipment to Dragon Country at cost price and with interest-free loans to help Dragon Country's military and industry develop rapidly!

In this way, Dragon Country's objective has already been achieved!

As for the equipment related to intercontinental missile manufacturing that the White House adamantly refused to agree to, it was merely a bargaining chip intentionally released by Dragon Country to raise the stakes in negotiations!

Once Dragon Country's Dongfeng-6 intercontinental missile is successfully test-fired, Dragon Country will unhesitatingly accept all the great power images that Western countries have promoted and shaped for it internationally!

And truly become a strategic nuclear power with global strike capabilities!

After confirming the initial success of the strategic counter-offensive, Peng Lin also returned to the aerospace missile manufacturing branch to rest.

For the next month, Peng Lin accelerated the research and development of the Dongfeng-6 project.

During this period, the Wuzhi-10 attack helicopter was also successfully developed by the Changhe Helicopter Manufacturing Branch:

Project Name: Wuzhi-10 Attack Helicopter

Difficulty Assessment: A

Task Progress: 100%

Task Reward: 5000 Research Points

Remaining Research Points: 5000

As Dragon Country's first attack helicopter, the Wuzhi-10 will undertake the important task of forming army aviation brigades!

It will cooperate with heavy synthetic brigades to form a three-dimensional air and space combat system!

And after receiving another 5000 research points, Peng Lin finally had enough research points to solve all the technical problems encountered in the Dongfeng-6 project!

Next, the Dongfeng-6 intercontinental missile only lacked time!

And during this month, the Afghan battlefield also saw exceptionally fierce fighting!

Since Abudullah, who was close to Dragon Country, led the resistance forces to successfully carry out the strategic counter-offensive, inflicting heavy losses on the Polar Bear Empire, he became famous internationally in one fell swoop!

The Saudi royal family, the Qatari royal family, and a series of other wealthy individuals and princes in the Middle East were all willing to provide financial support for his resistance against the Polar Bear Empire!

All these aid funds were sent by Abudullah to Dragon Country to purchase weapons and equipment!

Coupled with Dragon Country obtaining funds from the West and increasing its weapons and equipment aid, Abudullah's resistance armed forces grew to tens of thousands within a month!

His attacks on the Polar Bear army's supply lines and garrisons made the Polar Bear Empire utterly miserable.

For this, the Polar Bear army specifically created an "Iron Transport Network" for the supply lines!

That is, a three-tier defense system was built along strategic roads such as "Kabul-Kandahar" and "Jalalabad-Khost"!

In the outer layer, the Polar Bear Empire used attack helicopters for 24-hour aerial patrols, with each group of 4 helicopter formations covering a 20-kilometer road section, providing fire suppression for ambush points.

In the middle layer, a mechanized checkpoint was set up every 10 kilometers, equipped with T-72 tanks and BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, along with mine-sniffing dogs and metal detectors to clear mines.

In the inner layer, convoys adopted an "armored sandwich" formation, with two T-72 tanks deployed at the front and rear, and one BTR-80 armored vehicle placed every eight trucks in the middle, forming a mobile fire fortress.

But at the same time, Dragon Country's military skills training and tactics for the Afghan militia resistance forces were also keeping pace with the times.

Facing the Polar Bear army's three-tier defense system, Dragon Country employed a layer-by-layer breakthrough tactic!

The Afghan resistance forces no longer attacked transport vehicles but specifically targeted patrolling attack helicopters and T-72 tanks.

Lynx vehicles were responsible for reconnaissance; once Polar Bear attack helicopters were spotted, "Flying Crossbow" man-portable air-defense missile teams were dispatched to attack.

At the same time, "Red Arrow" man-portable anti-tank missile teams attacked mechanized checkpoints in that area.

They also laid a large number of new anti-tank and thermobaric mines on that road section.

Once successful, they would quickly transfer on Lynx and Mengshi vehicles along pre-reconnoitered "squirrel routes," which were mountain trails, at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour!

During this month, although the losses of the Polar Bear Empire's transport vehicles were greatly reduced, its patrolling Mi-24 attack helicopters, as well as the T-72 tanks and BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles at mechanized checkpoints, suffered heavy losses!

In one month, the Polar Bear suffered 56 attack helicopters shot down, 231 T-72 tanks destroyed, and 575 BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles destroyed!

Even with the Polar Bear's vast wealth, such immense losses were agonizing!

Although they managed to save most of their transport vehicles, their patrolling attack helicopters, tanks, and infantry fighting vehicles were relentlessly destroyed!

And these achievements were wildly publicized and spread by the media under the impetus of Western countries!

Compared to the Polar Bear Empire previously crushing Dragon Country's Mengshi and Lynx vehicles with T-72 tanks, Dragon Country's weapons responded on the battlefield with the most direct results!

The "Flying Crossbow" man-portable air-defense missile and the "Red Arrow" man-portable anti-tank missile became famous internationally overnight!

International arms orders poured in continuously!

Even some countries on the front lines of the confrontation between the West and the Polar Bear Empire, facing such astonishing achievements, couldn't help but negotiate procurement contracts with Dragon Country!

Weaponry generally speaks through sales and combat performance!

And now, Dragon Country's weapons possess both characteristics!

Since the last time it was struck by the Polar Bear Empire, Dragon Country's weaponry has re-proven itself in the fires of war!

Internationally, there was even a legend that "Dragon Country weapons are invincible"!