Chapter 1370: Deeply dig tunnels, store grain everywhere, and delay claiming the title of king

Hamid hadn't expected that a huge sum of 100 million US dollars would be described by Ye Chen as just "a small token of my heart."

He was so moved that his voice was a bit choked, and he sobbed, "Brother Ye, you... you are truly my second parent... My crippled leg is all thanks to your divine medicine, but I didn't expect you to fund me with such a huge sum of money. I don't know how I can ever repay your kindness..."

Ye Chen smiled, "Meeting is fate. You and I meeting is fate. Since there is fate, it is only right for me to do something."

Having said that, Ye Chen added, "By the way, Brother, now that you have this money, what are your plans?"

Hamid said without hesitation, "Brother, to tell you the truth, ever since my leg was broken, my team has lost quite a few talents, and I haven't had a chance to replenish them. Now that I have ample funds in hand, I plan to gather my old subordinates and try to build up the scale of the team as much as possible, and then purchase some relatively advanced weapons and equipment. Of course, heavy equipment is out of the question; the main focus will be on upgrading individual combat equipment and light equipment."

Ye Chen said, "Brother, I advise you not to blindly expand your army at the current stage."

"Why?" Hamid asked with great confusion, "What high opinion do you have, Brother?"

Ye Chen said earnestly, "The place you are entrenched in can be said to be easy to defend and hard to attack. Plus, the enemy's weapons and equipment aren't considered sophisticated, so it's not that easy to attack you. Blindly expanding your army actually doesn't have much significance."

After a pause, Ye Chen continued, "But in my opinion, your biggest problem now is that your defense is relatively weak."

"You only have a few helicopters, and you lose one for every one that crashes; the same goes for armored vehicles—you lose one for every one that's hit."

"Instead of this, you might as well put more effort into infrastructure, go all out to improve your defensive capabilities, and then keep a low profile and accumulate strength!"

"Infrastructure?" Hamid asked in surprise, "Brother, what kind of infrastructure can I build in this mountain nest of mine?"

Ye Chen smiled, "Of course, deeply dig tunnels and store grain everywhere!"

Having said that, Ye Chen reminded him, "You also know that although your opponent's overall strength is stronger than yours, they can't bring out any truly powerful weapons, so at most they have some old fighter jets and artillery, and they can't even afford missiles. So the war you are fighting isn't a modern war at all; it can only be considered the war mode of the 1940s and 50s to the 60s and 70s."

"If you were fighting a modern war, your base wouldn't stand a chance. The other side would dispatch a few sorties of bombers, or simply launch a few tactical missiles, and they would flatten you."

"But the good thing is that no one can afford to fight a modern war, so it makes sense for you to build infrastructure!"

"Moreover, the more this is the case, the more you need to strengthen your own base!"

"For example, you can mobilize soldiers to build a large number of air-raid shelters and artillery shelters in the village, and then purchase a batch of mining equipment to build front-line defensive fortifications and reverse-slope fortifications in the mountains, using the mountain structure as cover."

"In this way, as long as the other side bombs, you can hide in the defensive fortifications. No matter how they attack, you can minimize your losses."

"Moreover, once you have reverse-slope fortifications, it will be even harder for the other side to take your base. Even if they can fight their way into your valley, your soldiers can use firepower to cover the entire valley directly from the reverse-slope fortifications on the mountainside, leaving them with no way back."

Hamid, on the other end of the phone, already had his eyes shining upon hearing this.

Ye Chen continued at this time, "As long as you strengthen your own defenses and turn yourself into an iron bucket, they won't be able to defeat you, and they will eventually give up on circling with you and choose to go to war with other opposition forces. And you, try not to take the initiative to attack. Just turtle up in your base. Block when the enemy comes, and rest when the enemy retreats. In this way, not only can you preserve your strength well, but you also have the opportunity to continuously absorb the scattered soldiers who have been defeated by relying on your powerful defensive capabilities."

Hamid said excitedly, "Brother, where did you learn all this? It sounds very reasonable!"

Ye Chen smiled, "I learned it from our Chinese ancestors. Telling you to build good infrastructure and defensive construction, while not taking the initiative to attack, is called 'deeply dig tunnels, store grain everywhere, and delay claiming the title of king'."

Having said that, Ye Chen added, "Telling you to sit and wait to recruit the scattered soldiers of other opposition armed forces is called 'watching the fire from the other side'. In other words, it's called 'let the others die, not me'."

Hamid sighed, "I can follow the experience taught by Brother to further enhance my defensive capabilities, but if my brother units ask me for help, how can I really have the heart to watch the fire from the other side..."

Ye Chen smiled, "What's there to be embarrassed about? Let others fight their own battles; you just watch."

Hamid said awkwardly, "I'm afraid that will make the entire opposition camp despise me..."

Ye Chen said earnestly, "Despise doesn't matter. The most critical thing is to survive. We don't take the initiative to look for trouble, we don't get too close to other opposition parties, and we do our best to preserve our strength. That way, if one day the opposition fails, you will be a tough nut to crack here, and the other side won't be able to chew you down. Then they will have a high probability of recruiting you. Once they recruit you, it will be easy to handle. You can negotiate conditions with them and exchange for an official position."

After saying this, Ye Chen smiled slightly and said earnestly, "This is called 'advancing to attack, retreating to defend'."

Hamid was silent for a long time on the other end of the phone.

The strategic tactics Ye Chen had said were things he had never thought of before.

Their current strategic situation was relatively simple, nothing more than chaotic fighting. The several forces that were incompatible with each other would definitely fight as soon as they met.

However, most people only cared about what was in front of them and had no long-term systematic strategic planning at all.

Looking at Ye Chen, although he grew up in a peaceful era and had never seen what war was like, he had studied various allusions in Chinese history since he was a child and had a certain theoretical foundation for various strategies.

Moreover, the wars of the Chinese nation against foreign enemies had produced many classic battles, which further highlighted the unique strategic thinking of China. Therefore, Ye Chen combined his cognitive foundations and quickly made a relatively more accurate judgment on Hamid's current situation.

As long as Hamid could implement the strategic instructions of "deeply dig tunnels, store grain everywhere, and delay claiming the title of king," then no matter whether the opposition succeeded or not, he himself would have the opportunity to move toward success.

After hearing this, Hamid was greatly inspired and blurted out, "Brother! After hearing you say all this, I am truly enlightened! I will arrange for people to purchase a batch of light mining equipment immediately, start building defensive fortifications on the key passes and surrounding mountains, and at the same time purchase more weapons, ammunition, food, and medicine, preparing to hold the base for a long time!"