Chapter 9: Honor is Loyalty

  Five walls completely surround the base, with a seven-meter-wide opening left at the position directly opposite the main gate of the base.

  Luckily, Li Lan had an extra thought, if it was like a game and the entire base was surrounded, how would he get out? The five-meter high wall, he couldn't climb over. It clearly stated on the instructions that it cannot be resold or recycled. Unlike other building units, which can still be sold.

  He alone can't even get over a two-meter-high wall, let alone climb out.

  This seven-meter-wide opening was also deliberately left by Li Lan after calculation. In the defensive unit, there are also machine gun forts and sentinel guns that can be used now.

  However, unlike walls, the prices of walls are at least the same as in the game, but the prices of these two defensive attack units have increased exponentially.

  Patrol gun:

  Basic Defense Counterattack Unit, construction cost 5000 base funds, required construction time: two hours.

  Description: Twin 30mm autocannons, capable of inflicting massive damage on infantry and vehicles, also has some lethality against armored targets. Cannot engage air targets, average defense capabilities.

  Special Note: No personnel operation is required, no ammunition replenishment is needed. Warning range: Automatically counterattack when enemy is detected within a 5-kilometer radius.

  Suggestion: When it gets angry, please don't stand within its trajectory, otherwise you will definitely die.

  Machine Gun Pillbox:

  Basic Defense Counterattack Unit, construction cost 6000 base funds, required construction time: two hours.

  Note: Can automatically convert attack type, Type 1: Built-in six-barreled 12.7mm Gatling machine gun, can cause huge casualties to infantry and vehicles, but not effective against heavily armored enemy types. Not applicable to air defense, high defensive power.

  Type 2: Built-in high-temperature flame thrower, can cause great damage to infantry and light armored vehicle targets, not capable of causing damage to heavily armored enemy types. Not applicable to air involvement, high defensive power.

  Special Note: No personnel operation is required, no ammunition replenishment is needed. Alert range: Within a radius of 5 kilometers, automatic counterattack upon detection of enemy. Intelligent switching of attack mode.

  Suggestion: Beware of strangers, otherwise you will become a roasted pig.

  The performance described in the manual is quite good, mainly because once it's built, Li Lan doesn't have to worry about it at all. However, the unbelievable price makes him feel a bit worried, and it's a bit out of proportion. The cost of building a powerful tank factory is only 2,000, while the cost of these defensive counterattack units has increased by ten times in the game's price.

  But thinking of the unit prices under the chariot type and the ship type, Li Lan suddenly felt that these two units were not a pit at all, and the price was extremely fair.

  In the war car type, the cheapest unit is the mining cart, but it also requires a cost of 15,000. Like some kind of terrifying robot, self-exploding truck and so on, these are relatively cheaper than others, but still much more expensive than the mining cart.

  Fortunately, Li Ran is currently unable to produce these things, otherwise he would have to worry about funding.

  Currently, Li Lan only has 1415 funds left. Even if it's tomorrow noon, he will only have 6415 base funds, which is just enough to build a machine gun bunker and cannot build other units during this period. If he chooses the sentinel cannon, he can at most build two magnetic reactors within 24 hours.

  However, Li Lan does not want to build these defensive weapons now, mainly because of the price. He set his sights on the mineral processing plant, as each mineral processing plant can shorten the time it takes for mining trucks to recover. Although Li Lan is still unclear how much time each additional mineral processing plant can save, according to his estimate, the saved time should not be too short.

  Facing high costs, Li Lan found that there was nothing left to build at this time. The soldiers he had previously recruited were all completed.

  Thinking that the prototype of his armed self had already come out, Li Lan instantly threw away the pressure brought by the price. He ran to the room and changed into a decent suit, just like his daily necessities, these things were all provided by the base.

  In Li Ran's eyes, the base was extremely stingy, but when it came to his clothes, he was very generous. Anyway, in the room where Li Ran lived, there were all kinds of clothing and shoes.

  When Li Ran, dressed in a suit, arrived at the barracks, he found that General had already become one with the ten tall blacks inside, plus two military dogs, playing and running together in the barracks.

  As Li Ran's figure appeared at the entrance of the barracks, both the people and dogs inside discovered her arrival simultaneously.

  In this barracks, which was no more than a hundred meters wide after deducting the camp house, ten soldiers and three dogs were lined up in front of Li Lan in just over ten seconds, with even the two newly emerged military dogs standing neatly on both sides of the team. The most special general did not stand with them, but squatted at Li Lan's feet.

  Perhaps in Li Lan's eyes, all black people looked similar, so his gaze was not immediately drawn to the soldier's appearance in front of him. The two military dogs, which were two sizes smaller than the general, also only caught Li Lan's attention for two or three seconds.

  What most attracted his attention was the military uniform on these ten soldiers.

  On the internet, he had seen many Somali armed forces' messy military uniforms, but when he saw these soldiers wearing their uniforms, he felt a sense of clarity.

  Although not the world's most advanced digital camouflage, it is still a novelty to see soldiers wearing ordinary camouflage uniforms in this country of single-color military attire. Not to mention helmets, even for the Somali Transitional Government forces trained by foreigners, not everyone has a helmet, let alone a camouflage one.

  On the left shoulder of the khaki camouflage uniform, a small Somali flag is embroidered on it. The national flag is rectangular in shape, with a length-to-width ratio of 3:2. The flag has a light blue background and a white five-pointed star in the center. The five-pointed star symbolizes Africa's freedom and independence; the five corners represent the five regions of the original Somalia: Italian Somaliland (now known as the South), British Somaliland (now known as the North), French Somaliland (now independent Djibouti), and parts of present-day Kenya and Ethiopia.

  On the right shoulder is an inlaid emblem of Somalia, which looks very three-dimensional. The emblem consists of two standing African black-spotted leopards, with their forelimbs supporting a shield, forming the basic pattern of the Somali national emblem. The shield uses the colors and design of the national flag. On top of the shield is a crown of an ancient Ethiopian royal dynasty, symbolizing independence and sovereignty. The image of the leopard represents courage and strength. The crossed spears at the bottom of the shield represent the determination of the Somali people to defend their national sovereignty with force; the two leaves of the palm branch on the spearhead represent the country's crops.

  The medals worn on their chest, are not only a display of their military achievements, but also an indication that they are active-duty soldiers, ready to fight for the country and their faith at any time. However, currently, among these ten soldiers, there is only one small red square on their chest medal.

  Under his feet was a pair of heavy military boots, which is also extremely rare to see in the Somali armed forces. Many smaller armed factions have soldiers wearing slippers. Of course, those with foreign backing are excluded.

  After looking at the military uniforms, Li Ran finally shifted his attention to their faces. Due to differences in aesthetic views, Li Ran couldn't tell what they looked like either, but in his eyes, these people all had delicate features and regular facial structures.

  He also noticed that the skeletons of these people were not small, which is rare in Somalia. Because Somalis themselves have smaller skeletons, and with years of war devastation, they have been malnourished since childhood, making Somalis generally look very weak.

  Now Li Lan saw ten soldiers who looked very strong and at least plump, not the skinny ones commonly seen in Somalia.

  "Reporting for duty, sir! I'm Ahmad, corporal, temporarily in charge of this small squad."

  A familiar Chinese voice report caught Li Lan's attention, at the far right of the troops, a soldier stepped out of line one pace, turned to face Li Lan and gave a military salute.

  "I have seen the commander." The other nine soldiers also followed with a salute.

  Looking at the black soldiers in front of him, using fluent Chinese to report to himself, Li Lan felt a kind of inexplicable freshness. Not to mention their strength, just this smooth and fluent Chinese had gained Li Lan's favor.

  "Aren't you Somalis? How can you speak Chinese so fluently?"

  "Report, because the commander is Chinese, our honor is loyalty, so every one of us soldiers takes pride in speaking Chinese." Ahmed replied loudly in fluent Chinese, and even threw in an extra phrase.

  When he heard the words "our honor is loyalty", Li Lan had a feeling of being struck by lightning, but when he saw the soldiers gazing at him with serious eyes, he seemed to have seen the firm faith in their hearts. For the first time, he felt proud, proud to have such soldiers.

  Li Lan has always yearned for a military career, but an unfulfilling life had deprived him of the opportunity to enlist, and he had always envied those soldiers. Now, although he was still just an ordinary person, he possessed loyal soldiers who were devoted to him, and this alone was enough to make him proud beyond measure, not to mention that his soldiers were a group of people who could say something like "Our honor is loyalty".

  This was also the first time Li Ran felt what it meant to be warm. Since he was a child, he had always been alone and was used to seeing the coldness of society, so this feeling was really rare.

  "I'm also proud to have you all!" Li Lan returned a sloppy military salute and said seriously.