Chapter 1568: It must be Ye Chen who taught them!

At this very moment, Hamid, wearing a full set of camouflage military uniform, was standing in the highland fortification on the southernmost side of the base, using a tripod-mounted high-power telescope to look toward the south.

Although thirty kilometers is actually quite far, so ordinary telescopes cannot see anything at all, this kind of high-power telescope can only give a rough view, and because the distance is too great, the lens distortion is severe, making it very uncomfortable to look at things.

Nevertheless, he still saw, within the field of view of the telescope, a large army advancing toward him in the distance.

He was a bit confused: hadn't the government forces been mainly fighting those few larger rebel armed groups recently? How could they have freed up troops to come after him so quickly?

So he immediately ordered his aide: "Go, quickly contact the forward outposts, get ready to launch the drones, within five minutes, tell me their numbers and equipment status!"

"Yes, Commander!"

Hamid's aide immediately turned and left, running inside to use the radio to contact the forward outposts.

Soon, the outposts immediately launched several civilian aerial photography drones purchased from China.

This kind of ordinary drone, which sells for only a few thousand yuan in China, is merely a toy for photography enthusiasts and aerial photography hobbyists domestically, but in the Middle East, its strategic use is extremely powerful.

First of all, it flies high; after slight modification, it can reach an altitude of one or two kilometers, image transmission can reach nearly ten kilometers in open areas, flight speed can reach sixty to seventy kilometers per hour, and the key point is that the fuselage is originally only palm-sized; once airborne and flying to several hundred or even thousands of meters in altitude, it is invisible to the naked eye and produces no audible flight noise, making it extremely suitable for battlefield reconnaissance.

If facing a modern force with advanced equipment, this thing would definitely be useless—it would be spotted and shot down before it even got airborne.

But if facing ordinary motorized troops, the enemy would truly be unable to defend against it.

Therefore, such drones are widely used in the military domain in the Middle East.

As soon as a few drones took off, the scale of the enemy forces was quickly ascertained through reconnaissance.

The aide reported to Hamid: "Commander, the enemy force is approximately eight thousand strong, with ten armored vehicles, thirty-six towed howitzers, and additionally about sixty or more transport vehicles of various types; the forward scouts said they appear to be Russian-made 152mm towed howitzers."

"Damn it!" Hamid cursed in a burst: "It's the firepower of two artillery battalions! What do they want? Do they want to flatten us?!"

Just as he was speaking, the deputy commander rushed in, panting and saying: "Commander, I just received news that the government forces have hired ten thousand mercenaries from an overseas mercenary group called Wanlong Palace, and it is said that these ten thousand mercenaries have extremely strong combat power, having already successively captured multiple rebel groups! Including Hafiz, who had a decent relationship with us, whose entire nest was wiped out two nights ago!"

Hamid stared in shock: "What?! Hafiz's nest was wiped out? How come I've never heard of this?!"

The deputy commander said awkwardly: "Everyone is scattered in the mountain gullies, so communication was originally poor, and besides, we've been desperately working on infrastructure construction lately—who has the time to worry about outside affairs..."

Hamid then urgently asked: "Just what is this Wanlong Palace, anyway?"

The deputy commander explained: "Wanlong Palace is a non-government mercenary organization that has risen in recent years; they have multiple mercenary training bases around the world, and in the Middle East, Africa, South America, and other relatively turbulent regions, their presence can be found; in recent years they have developed rapidly, with registered mercenaries under their command numbering fifty to sixty thousand, and their comprehensive strength has now risen to the top five among global mercenary organizations."

This world is not such that every country or region is as peaceful and prosperous as China; many regions suffer constant warfare year-round, so mercenaries simply sprout everywhere in such places.

Most mercenaries are a bunch of desperate men with no sense of justice, serving only for money—whoever pays gets their service—and another part consists of mercenaries who survive by relying on certain countries, such as the famous American Blackwater, which trains large numbers of mercenaries specifically to serve the U. S. government; U. S. military operations in the Middle East almost always involve Blackwater mercenaries, and some things governments find inconvenient to do themselves are outsourced to them.

Wanlong Palace belongs to the first category.

After hearing the introduction of Wanlong Palace, Hamid felt a massive headache and blurted out: "Hiring ten thousand mercenaries from Wanlong Palace must cost at least several hundred thousand to several million dollars per day, right?"

The deputy commander hurriedly said: "Commander, Wanlong Palace's prices are extremely high; even their ordinary mercenaries cost one to two thousand dollars per day, officers cost even more, with some exceeding ten thousand dollars per day, and it is said that among their four War Kings, any one of them showing up would cost several hundred thousand dollars per day..."

Hamid stared in disbelief and asked: "Really? Why is it so expensive?!"

The deputy commander explained: "Wanlong Palace has been able to rise in recent years precisely because of their overwhelming combat power; their mercenaries are superbly trained, especially the core cadre members, each of whom is a top-tier soldier king—whether in individual combat capability or overall coordinated combat capability, they are the elite among mercenaries, but the only problem is the high cost, which ordinary people simply cannot afford."

Hamid frowned: "If that's the case, then the daily cost for hiring these ten thousand mercenaries must exceed twenty million dollars?!"

"Yes." The deputy commander wiped his sweat, somewhat nervously saying: "I also received news that this time, one of Wanlong Palace's four War Kings has come! It is said that on the battlefield, this person can fight a hundred enemies alone!"

Hamid couldn't help but shudder and blurted out: "I damn well don't understand—where does the government get the money to hire so many mercenaries?!"

The deputy commander explained: "The government doesn't have that much money, but they are willing, after wiping out the rebel forces, to grant Wanlong Palace a plot of land in Syria to build a base, which is why Wanlong Palace is so eager."

"Damn... we're doomed..." Hamid felt utter despair in his heart, completely panicked.

He secretly thought: "If this intelligence is true, then among that force thirty kilometers outside, there are likely several thousand Wanlong Palace mercenaries..."

"Now I have, in total, just this few thousand men, and their training level is far inferior to that of those top-tier mercenaries; moreover, the enemy has nearly eight thousand men, along with so many armored vehicles and towed artillery; whether in troop numbers, training level, or weapon equipment, my force has no advantage at all—if fighting really breaks out now, we basically have no chance of winning..."

Extremely tense, Hamid suddenly thought of Ye Chen, so he immediately pulled out his satellite phone and called Ye Chen!

At this moment, Ye Chen had just picked up Xiao Churan from the Song Group and was on the way to take her to the company.

Suddenly receiving Hamid's call, he was also quite surprised, so he opened his mouth and asked: "Old brother, why did you suddenly call me?"

Hamid's voice trembling slightly said: "Ye Younger Brother, Old Brother I am about to die; if Su Guodao happens to die here, you must absolutely not blame me!"

Ye Chen's heart skipped a beat, and he urgently asked: "What happened?!"

Hamid let out a long sigh: "The government forces have hired a group of well-trained mercenaries from overseas; in a short time, they have already destroyed many armed forces stronger than mine; now a force of over eight thousand is less than thirty kilometers from me—I fear I definitely cannot hold out this time!"