Machine Gun Bunkers and Watchtowers

After completing the construction of the three city walls on the southern side, Xiao Fan moved to the eastern side.

Previously, he thought that building a city gate here would be enough, but now he realized that his idea was somewhat flawed.

He planned to divide the city into two parts, the inner city and the outer city. The outer city would be the residential area, while the inner city would be the military zone.

Therefore, there needed to be a wall separating the inner and outer cities, so one city gate would not be sufficient.

It wouldn't be convenient to have the inner and outer cities share one city gate.

So in the eastern and western districts, each needed two city gates, one for the inner city and one for the outer city.

First, he placed the two city gates for the eastern district, and then one gate for the northern district.

The northern gate also had a water gate, which was the upstream entrance of the Haoyuan River into the base.

Finally, there was the western district, which, like the eastern district, had two gates.

In this way, the entire city actually had nine city gates, seven land gates, and two water gates.

After the nine city gates were completed, the next task became much simpler, which was to build the city walls.

The resources helped Xiao Fan save ninety percent of the cost, with a meter of advanced city wall costing only ten gold.

Xiao Fan first built the southern wall, which was three kilometers long. After deducting the 140 meters for the three city gates, the length was 2,860 meters.

The cost was 28,600 gold!

The distance was quite far, and the construction of the city wall also required being close, so Xiao Fan had Xue Ninger serve as the driver while he sat in the sidecar of the Tricar and began building the wall in segments.

A remarkable scene unfolded.

Wherever the Tricar went, towering city walls emerged with a rumbling sound on the plains.

From one end to the other, when they reached the Haoyuan River, Xiao Fan even brought the Panther all-terrain vehicle and crossed the river to continue the construction.

After spending nearly thirty thousand gold, the southern wall was fully built.

He then proceeded to build the eastern wall, which was two kilometers long. After deducting the 40 meters for the city gates, it still required 19,600 gold.

Next was the northern city wall, which needed 28,800 gold.

Then the western wall, also requiring 19,600 gold.

After building the city walls on all four sides, the total cost was 96,600 gold.

Including the construction of the nine city gates, the entire wall had cost over a hundred thousand gold.

But this was not the end, as Xiao Fan still needed to build a second city wall.

The purpose of the second city wall was mainly to separate the city into the inner and outer cities.

On this wall, Xiao Fan had pre-designed three gates, including two land gates and one water gate, to ensure that the inner city could rapidly deploy troops to the outer city.

This wall was about the same length as the southern wall, three kilometers, with a total cost of around thirty thousand gold.

After completing the city walls, Xiao Fan began building machine gun bunkers and watchtowers.

First was the construction of the machine gun bunkers. Xiao Fan decided that on each side of every city gate, two machine gun bunkers would be erected.

Previously, Xiao Fan didn't understand the concept of setting up machine gun bunkers inside city walls.

But after the design, he understood.

As the first machine gun bunker was established at the southern gate, a pillbox appeared inside the wall.

The space inside was not large, but it had a resting area and ventilation openings. A 12.7mm heavy machine gun was installed, with an embrasure for observation and firing.

Surprisingly, there was even a thick metal shield in front of the embrasure. When the machine gun didn't need to fire, the metal shield could be lowered, without compromising the defensive capability of the city wall.

Moreover, the embrasure for observation and firing made it impossible for anyone to sneak in.

Xiao Fan came in to inspect, and there were already three Red Alert soldiers guarding inside.

The three soldiers were army troops, but they weren't equipped with light machine guns. Instead, each was armed with a 95 assault rifle.

Additionally, there were binoculars and night vision goggles, and the three soldiers took turns keeping watch, with two of them on 24-hour guard at all times.

There was even a bathroom, with a cooking crew delivering meals every day.

When Xiao Fan entered, the three soldiers immediately saluted and reported to the commander.

Xiao Fan nodded, "Good, you will be the city guards of our base from now on, guarding the city well."

"Rest assured, Commander, we will complete the mission!"

Xiao Fan left the pillbox and continued to build the next one.

For the nine city gates, a total of eighteen pillboxes were built.

The eighteen pillboxes cost 36,000 gold, adding 54 more guards to Xiao Fan's forces, which now approached the five hundred mark.

After establishing the machine gun bunkers, the next step was the watchtowers.

While the main task of the machine gun bunkers was to guard the city gates, the watchtowers were for observing the overall situation.

To build the watchtowers, Xiao Fan had to go up on the city walls.

He first came to the bottom of the southern gate wall.

There were two ways to ascend the wall: a pedestrian path and a winding vehicle road.

The five-meter-wide city wall was wide enough for vehicles to drive on.

Xue Ninger directly drove the vehicle up onto the southern gate, and Xiao Fan, after pondering, had her drive to the southeastern corner first.

The construction of the watchtowers couldn't be like the machine gun bunkers, all located near the city gates. They needed to be dispersed to monitor key locations.

With the city framework established, if an attack occurred in the future, the eastern and southern sides would be priority areas since there were open plains below, allowing the enemy to deploy.

Therefore, the corners of the city walls must have watchtowers, like corner towers.

The first watchtower was built at the southeastern corner.

The watchtower was five meters tall, built on top of the fifteen-meter-high city wall, reaching a height of twenty meters.

The bottom two and a half meters had no structure, only a few iron pillars supporting it, while the top two and a half meters was the watchtower, which required climbing a ladder.

Xiao Fan climbed up, and three soldiers were lined up and saluted inside.

There was also a machine gun here, a dual-purpose one that could be used against ground and air targets.

All around were large retractable bulletproof glass panels, providing an open view. At the front and back, there were two high-power searchlights each, with one light monitoring the outside of the city and the other monitoring the inside.

However, under normal circumstances, the searchlights would not sweep over the residential area of the city, as there was no need for that.

The soldiers were also equipped with night vision goggles and binoculars, and among the three soldiers, one was a sniper.

The watchtowers had a longer viewing range and a wider area of surveillance, so the sniper could be very useful here.

The only problem was that the base currently had no electricity, so these searchlights were just a decoration for now.

However, it wouldn't be long before that changed. Xiao Fan had been here for over a week, and the base vehicle construction in Yanshan Town was also progressing rapidly. Annie told him that in about half a month, the base vehicle would be completed.

Leaving the watchtower, Xiao Fan continued to build the next one.

There was one at each of the four corners, and then one every five hundred meters.

The southern gate was three kilometers long, so there were seven watchtowers in total.

The northern gate was also three kilometers, also with seven watchtowers.

For the eastern and western gates, there would normally be five each, but since there were already watchtowers at the corners, there were only three each.

In total, there were twenty watchtowers, costing 2,500 gold each, for a total of 50,000 gold.

Afterward, Xiao Fan also built four watchtowers on the separating wall between the inner and outer cities, but without machine gun bunkers.

The main purpose of these four watchtowers was to prevent anyone from sneaking into the inner city.

In total, Xiao Fan spent over 221,000 gold, completing all the main city walls, city gates, outer ring machine gun bunkers, and watchtowers.

The twenty watchtowers added another 72 soldiers, bringing Xiao Fan's forces to 550.

Within a single day, a vast survival base had begun to take shape.