Chapter 1567

That soldier saw Su Shoudao jumping up and down with anxiety, his face ashen, and immediately said sternly: "Hey! Are you tired of living? Watch your language! Otherwise, I won't be polite to you!"

Su Shoudao said angrily: "Not polite to me? Let's reason: any construction site must have work hours and rest periods—how can you guys work 24 hours a day without distinguishing day from night, damn it? In our country, only daytime on workdays is allowed for such major operations, and everything must stop at quitting time. But you lot just keep going nonstop—if you keep this up, I'll end up with neurasthenia! Go call your Commander Hamid for me—I want to confront him directly!"

The soldier said coldly: "I'll tell you, the permanent fortifications and reverse-slope fortifications we're building now were personally ordered by Commander Hamid, who demands we finish them as soon as possible. This is now the top priority of our entire base—everything must give way to it. Not even you, let alone our deputy commander, has the right to question it!"

After hearing this, Su Shoudao's face went completely blank with confusion.

"What did you say? You're building permanent fortifications and reverse-slope fortifications?!"

"Exactly!" the soldier said proudly: "We're currently constructing a powerful integrated offense-defense fortification system, and we're also preparing large strategic reserves in advance. The permanent fortifications on the four surrounding mountains, as well as the reverse-slope fortifications, have already taken initial shape. If we had a bit more time, these mountains would be riddled with tunnels—by then, no one in all of Syria could break through!"

After hearing this, Su Shoudao stared, mouth agape.

No wonder it's been booming and booming all day—turns out they're building permanent fortifications!

No wonder there's been a constant stream of truck convoys delivering supplies these days—turns out Hamid is simultaneously building permanent fortifications and stockpiling strategic reserves.

This made Su Shoudao suspicious, muttering to himself: "Where the hell did this Hamid learn such a strategy of digging deep tunnels and stockpiling grain?"

"Hell, you're a Middle Easterner—knowing how to dig tunnels and stockpile grain is one thing, but how did you even start building reverse-slope fortifications? That's been our army's signature tactic for decades! How did you, a big oaf, manage to learn it?"

"Think back to the Battle of Shangganling—one of our army's core advantages was reverse-slope fortifications. If the enemy fired from outside the mountain, it was nearly impossible to hit the reverse-slope defenses inside. Relying on this, we withstood millions of enemy artillery shells without breaking—truly a stroke of genius in ground warfare! And now Hamid, that bastard, has actually mastered it! Absolutely outrageous!"

"Besides, Syria's overall development level is extremely low—whether government forces or rebel groups, they're still stuck at WWII-era firepower levels. Add to that Syria's mountainous and hilly terrain, adopting the Shangganling approach is not only suitable—it's practically a perfect fit!"

As Su Shoudao thought this, a figure suddenly flashed in his mind.

"Ye Chen! It must be Ye Chen! That bastard must have secretly taught Hamid our army's long-lost treasure! If this had happened decades ago, Ye Chen that son of a bitch would've been shot!"

Realizing how seriously Hamid took this, Su Shoudao knew Hamid had now transformed into Syria's version of a construction maniac—his protest would be utterly useless.

So he gruffly said to the soldier: "Hey kid, can we talk about something?"

The soldier eyed him warily and demanded: "What do you want?"

Su Shoudao said: "I want a pair of earplugs—to block out the noise. That way, when you blast the mountain again, I won't be affected as much."

"No way!" the soldier gave him a disgusted look, pulled a crumpled wad of toilet paper from his pocket, tossed it at Su Shoudao's feet, and said: "Make do with this!"

"Damn it!" Su Shoudao said, face dark: "This is useless as hell! And what the hell is this toilet paper even for? Why is it so disgusting? Did you just pull it out of your ass and stuff it in your pocket?"

"Bullshit!" the young soldier snapped, face flushed: "I tore off a piece when I was changing shifts and shoved it in my pocket—if you don't want it, don't use it, stop spouting nonsense!"

Su Shoudao listened, half-believing, half-doubting, bent over carefully, pinched the edge of the wad, slowly unfolded it, confirmed it was unused, then sighed in relief and slipped it into his pocket.

To hell with embarrassment—since coming to Syria, he's never used toilet paper this soft.

Seeing Su Shoudao stuff the toilet paper into his pocket, the soldier said with utter contempt: "Fine, I'm too tired to argue with you—get lost and go back to your room!"

Su Shoudao was also fuming, turning to leave, when suddenly the entire base blared with a piercing air-raid siren.

Su Shoudao was still sensitive to air-raid sirens—though he'd never experienced war, Yan Jing often held drills, so the sound immediately made him tense and ask the soldier: "What's happening? Is the enemy bombing us?"

The soldier was also tense and blurted: "An air-raid siren doesn't necessarily mean bombing—our commander ordered that if enemy traces are found within a 30-kilometer radius, we must sound the siren!"

"Damn..." Su Shoudao panicked—he couldn't even remember how many swear words he'd said today, but he knew once Hamid's base came under attack, his life would be in danger. Bullets and shells don't have eyes—if one shell landed and blew him up, who would he even complain to?

Just then, a voice crackled through the soldier's walkie-talkie. He grabbed it, listened briefly, then leapt down from the wall, seized Su Shoudao's collar, yanked him along, and said as they walked: "Large government forces spotted thirty kilometers south of the base—looks like they're about to attack! Come with me up the mountain!"

Su Shoudao slapped his forehead, miserable: "Damn it…… I'm not going! I don't know how to fight—why are you making me go up the mountain? Bullets don't have eyes—if you get me killed, how will your commander explain it to Ye Chen?"

The soldier snapped: "Who said you had to fight? I'm bringing you up the mountain to hide in the reverse-slope tunnels! The commander just ordered everyone to enter designated reverse-slope tunnels within thirty minutes—if you want to stay here and get shelled, be my guest!"

Having said that, the soldier let go of him, turned, and walked off.

Su Shoudao then realized: the reverse-slope tunnels themselves are defensive works—shells would struggle to hit them, and even if they did, they couldn't explode inside the mountain, especially not in tunnels reinforced with steel and concrete!

So if a large force really attacked, hiding in the reverse-slope tunnels would definitely be the safest option!

Thinking this, Su Shoudao hurried after him, grinning nervously: "Brother, brother, don't be mad—I'll come with you, okay?"