Chapter 1569

Upon hearing this, Ye Chen felt a sudden jolt. He hurriedly pulled over to the side of the road and blurted out, "Brother, don't panic yet. Let me ask you, what is the overall standard of the government forces?"

"Not much to speak of," Hamid said. "But the mercenaries they've hired this time are very formidable. It's the Cataclysmic Front, ranked in the top five globally. It's said they've sent ten thousand soldiers at once to assist the government forces."

Ye Chen frowned and asked, "The Cataclysmic Front, what's their background?"

"I'm not entirely sure myself," Hamid replied. "It's said to be a mercenary organization founded by a Chinese person. They've developed rapidly in recent years, and their scale and strength are both very formidable! Their individual soldier quality is far higher than the government forces! They are basically at the level of special forces from developed countries!"

Ye Chen said in surprise, "I've truly never heard of this organization. I only know of America's Blackwater and Russia's Cossacks. This is my first time hearing of this Cataclysmic Front."

Hamid sighed, "You don't usually have the opportunity to deal with mercenaries, so you certainly wouldn't know about this bunch. To put it bluntly, they are professional soldiers operating commercially, collecting money to get things done. They are most active in places like ours where there is a lot of war. This Cataclysmic Front is said to have tens of thousands of people under its command, including nearly a hundred top-tier experts. Their strength is very formidable. Their War God has even sent one of the four great Battle Kings, who are the strongest under his command, to Syria..."

Ye Chen asked him, "Don't be nervous yet. Even special forces can die if they get shot. Although your individual soldier quality isn't as good as theirs, you occupy the advantage of time and location. As long as you can make good use of your own advantages, you won't necessarily lose if a real fight breaks out."

As he spoke, Ye Chen asked again, "How are your permanent fortifications and reverse-slope tunnels coming along?"

Hamid hurriedly said, "I've been having them work overtime recently! But the workload is truly too great. In such a short time, it's indeed very difficult to fully implement the entire plan..."

Ye Chen said calmly, "I understand. Just tell me, can your current frontal permanent fortifications and reverse-slope tunnels be put into use?"

"Yes," Hamid said. "The frontal fortifications at the entrance of the base are almost finished. After all, this is the top priority of my entire defense. As for the reverse-slope tunnels, I've started digging on all four sides, but they aren't connected yet, and an internal network of tunnels hasn't been formed. However, I have already followed your instructions and stockpiled a large amount of supplies inside. Holding out for a year or two is not a problem."

"Good!" Ye Chen blurted out, "Then let me ask you, do you know the exact firepower configuration of their 8,000-man force?"

Hamid said, "10 armored vehicles, over 30 towed artillery pieces, and fifty or sixty trucks, which should be carrying supplies and ammunition."

Ye Chen thought for a moment and asked again, "Do you know the specifications and models of those thirty-plus towed artillery pieces?"

Hamid said, "The scouts visually estimated that they should be Russian-made 152mm artillery."

Ye Chen's father, Ye Changying, was a standard military enthusiast. In the past, their home had an entire room piled with models of various weapons and equipment, and there were countless books, magazines, and materials on various weapons and equipment.

As a child, under her influence, Ye Chen had a great deal of knowledge about various weapons and equipment.

Therefore, he said almost without thinking, "There are many models of Russian-made 152mm artillery, but I speculate that the ones that could reach Syria should all be models produced in the 1970s or 80s, or even older. Therefore, the effective range should be around twenty kilometers."

Hamid asked in surprise, "Brother, you know this too?"

Ye Chen gave a hum and asked again, "Does the other side have any aerial firepower?"

"No," Hamid said. "The government forces have only those dozen or so dilapidated Su-24s. More than half are lying in hangars and can't fly. The ones that can fly still have to defend the capital and occasionally strike terrorists; they simply can't spare the energy to hit me. Besides, it wouldn't make much sense for the Su-24s to come; it would just be dropping some bombs."

As he spoke, Hamid added, "As for armed helicopters, I'm not afraid of them coming. Anyway, their armed helicopter performance isn't great. I have quite a few shoulder-fired missiles here, which can take down helicopters easily. I estimate they wouldn't be willing to send helicopters over to die."

Ye Chen breathed a slight sigh of relief and said, "In that case, it's highly likely to be a purely ground war. Then you don't need to worry for the time being."

As he spoke, Ye Chen added, "I suggest you observe the other side's intentions first, because they already have a huge advantage in numbers. If they wanted to launch a strong attack, they wouldn't bring so much artillery. Therefore, their strategic intent should be the same as the ground war mode between countries decades ago: they want to fight you with infantry-artillery coordination!"

Hamid hurriedly asked, "What is infantry-artillery coordination?"

Ye Chen said, "It means infantry and artillery fighting in coordination. To put it bluntly, it's the artillery bombarding first, then the infantry charging; if the infantry can't charge up, the artillery bombards again. Applied to your current situation, the other side should be planning to use artillery to carry out a blanket bombardment on you first, blowing you into a mess, halving your personnel, and cutting your combat effectiveness in half, before using armored vehicles to cover the infantry charge."

Hamid agreed and said, "You're right. I see they definitely want to give me a dense bombardment first!"

Ye Chen then said, "Don't be afraid of the bombardment, because you already have the reverse-slope tunnels. Now, you must hurry and move all your most precious personnel, supplies, and equipment into the reverse-slope tunnels. Then, hurry and have someone fly those precious armed helicopters of yours away. The other side has a large number of people, and those few helicopters of yours won't be of much use. It's better to fly them a hundred kilometers away first and find an unmanned valley or a flat spot on a hilltop to park them. Otherwise, once the other side's bombardment starts, those helicopters of yours will probably all be finished."

"Right, right, right!" Hamid came back to his senses and immediately instructed the adjutant beside him, "Quickly have the helicopter pilots prepare, fly north, and fly a hundred kilometers away to find a place to hide!"

It's no wonder Hamid panicked. Although he had been entangled with the government forces for a long time, there had never been a large-scale conflict.

Therefore, his overall perspective wasn't that strong; at best, he was at the level of a small guerrilla leader.

Now that the government forces had suddenly assembled such a powerful armed force to attack him, he was suddenly at a loss and completely didn't know how to fight back.

On the contrary, someone like Ye Chen, who hadn't fought in a war but considered problems more comprehensively, could remain 100% calm at such a time, carefully analyze the situation, and give more reasonable suggestions.

Ye Chen said to him at this time, "I have a certain impression of the terrain there. It's all hilly mountain roads, winding and rugged, so the other side's speed of advancing toward you won't be too fast. And you don't need to be too anxious to let the helicopters leave immediately."

As he spoke, Ye Chen suggested, "You can now have the helicopters help lift some precious heavy equipment into your reverse-slope tunnels first. At the same time, you must have your frontline scouts closely monitor the other side's movements. When the other side stops marching and starts deploying artillery, it will still be in time to let the helicopters leave."

"The other side has thirty or forty towed artillery pieces. These towed artillery pieces need a long time to go from a towed state to a complete stop, then to complete deployment, calculating coordinates, adjusting angles, and preparing for bombardment. You have enough time to react!"