62: Chapter 62 Delivery within three days

Li Yi was lying on the large bed in his luxury mansion, Pengcheng No. 1, enjoying the happiness of his new home, when he suddenly received a call from Lieutenant Colonel Haidari.

"Lieutenant Colonel Haidari, we just signed the contract. You're contacting me so soon—is there a problem with the arms deal contract?" Li Yi was a bit puzzled as to why Lieutenant Colonel Haidari was reaching out so quickly again.

"Yes and no," Lieutenant Colonel Haidari replied sheepishly. "There is no problem with the arms deal contract. This time, I want to urge your side to deliver the first batch of the newly purchased Tianlei Series Anti-Aircraft Missile ahead of schedule."

"Deliver ahead of schedule? You haven't even paid the deposit yet—how can we deliver?" Li Yi said, sounding annoyed.

"The first payment of 15 million barrels of oil will be ready for payment at Abadan Port in two days."

"In two days?" Li Yi couldn't help but wonder why Iran's efficiency had become so high. After all, it hadn't been long since they signed the arms deal contract, and they were already starting to pay the deposit.

"Yes, in two days. I wonder how soon we can receive the first batch of the newly purchased Tianlei Series Anti-Aircraft Missile after we pay the first installment of oil?"

"Within three days, I suppose." Li Yi gave a rough estimate.

Although he could complete the delivery immediately, he decided to push back the delivery time to avoid the Glass House thinking he had stockpiled a large number of Tianlei Series Anti-Aircraft Missile in Syria.

"Delivery within three days?! That's great." Lieutenant Colonel Haidari hadn't expected to receive the new batch of Tianlei Series Anti-Aircraft Missile so quickly.

Three days wasn't a long time; adding it all up, it was only five days in total. The Glass House could afford to wait this long.

Even if the USA launched another large-scale airstrike against Raqqa Military Base, or even tried to launch an airstrike against the Glass House, the Glass House could handle it for these five days.

"Don't get too happy too soon. If we don't see the oil you promised, we will extend the delivery time." Li Yi threw a bucket of cold water on Lieutenant Colonel Haidari.

"You can rest assured about that. I will keep an eye on Abadan Port to ensure the 15 million barrels of oil are in place within two days," Lieutenant Colonel Haidari promised solemnly. If Colonel Suman tried to delay the oil payment, he would use Major General Rahim's name to pressure Colonel Suman.

Li Yi didn't care about the internal conflicts in Iran; as long as he saw the 15 million barrels of oil paid, he would deliver the first batch of the newly purchased Tianlei Series Anti-Aircraft Missile as agreed.

After hanging up the phone, Li Yi no longer felt like just lying around.

He thought about whether to rent a luxury yacht to go out to sea, bring along a few dozen beauties, and enjoy the boundless scenery while experiencing the pleasure of billiards-like impacts.

But after thinking about it, he gave up on the idea. Now that he had a little money, it was better not to get carried away. It was better to avoid attracting attention and bringing trouble upon himself.

Lieutenant Colonel Haidari was very happy to receive Li Yi's promise that delivery would be made within three days after the 15 million barrels of oil were paid.

Now, there were only five days left until the completion of the mission assigned by Major General Rahim. For these five days, Major General Rahim would no longer be hounding Lieutenant Colonel Haidari. After all, this was already the shortest possible timeframe.

...

Hera Joint Military Base.

Lieutenant General Green watched as the F-16 Fighter Jet, Black Hawk Helicopter, Apache Attack Helicopter, and drones returned to the military base and parked on the tarmac one after another.

However, the number was seven fewer than before, including one Black Hawk Helicopter that crashed while carrying out the oil-stealing mission, as well as one F-16 Fighter Jet and five helicopters that had carried out the retaliatory operation. Another F-16 Fighter Jet had sustained multiple damages and needed immediate repairs.

Losing so many fighter jets all at once, Lieutenant General Green wanted to explode in anger but couldn't.

When the joint force commander who returned to the military base saw Lieutenant General Green, he didn't dare to make a peep, fearing he would attract Lieutenant General Green's attention and become his punching bag.

The atmosphere throughout Hera Joint Military Base was somewhat oppressive, and no officers or soldiers dared to indulge themselves by going to find girls in the surrounding towns again.

Although this was a "fine tradition" of the USA officers and soldiers, which had once contributed 1.8 million to the population of the United Kingdom, it had to be temporarily suspended at this moment.

Now they could only wait for the heat to die down before continuing to carry forward this "fine tradition" of the USA officers and soldiers.

Lieutenant General Green immediately ordered that the personnel who directly participated in the battle be interrogated one by one to understand why such a large loss had occurred in this retaliatory operation.

At the same time, he organized relevant personnel to analyze whether anyone had failed to take Raqqa Military Base seriously due to their previous invincible record in Syria, ultimately leading to carelessness in commanding the operation and the loss of so many fighter jets.

Lieutenant General Green knew that he also had some responsibility, but for now, he needed to clarify the responsibilities of his subordinates first before figuring out how to mitigate his own.

As for whether to immediately launch a new round of retaliatory airstrikes against Raqqa Military Base, Lieutenant General Green couldn't make up his mind.

If they were to continue the retaliation, the existing fighter jets at Hera Joint Military Base could still carry it out, but he didn't know if Raqqa Military Base had more anti-aircraft missiles. If they had more anti-aircraft missiles, the existing fighter jets wouldn't be able to handle it.

Of course, if Hera Joint Military Base could be supplemented with a new air combat wing, Lieutenant General Green would not hesitate to immediately launch airstrikes against Raqqa Military Base.

However, this was just a wish; to mobilize a USA air combat wing to Syria, unless the scale of the conflict continued to expand and it was something that the existing forces could not handle, it simply wouldn't happen.

If they didn't launch retaliation, he would need to find a good reason to explain it to his superiors. After all, such a large loss in a country with completely backward weaponry and equipment would make the USA lose face.

Without a reasonable explanation, Lieutenant General Green would have to find a new place to be a commander.

In the short term, Lieutenant General Green felt it was better to keep Hera Joint Military Base in a defensive state.

The oil-stealing unit could not be sent out for the time being, lest it be ambushed again. If losses increased further, Lieutenant General Green's position as commander in Syria would be doomed.

In addition, he needed to strengthen intelligence collection on Syria to find out exactly what caused such a large loss of USA fighter jets.

Lieutenant General Green had witnessed the power of Iran's anti-aircraft missiles, and they were not considered very advanced. However, according to the pilots' reports, the anti-aircraft missiles used this time could even manage to hit one aircraft with a single missile.

This required a thorough investigation to determine whether Iran had developed new anti-aircraft missiles or had purchased them from somewhere else, thereby enhancing the air defense capabilities of Raqqa Military Base.

Lieutenant General Green arranged all the necessary tasks, and only then did he think about reporting the situation to the US Central Command.