After nightfall, a military airport in Damascus was particularly busy.
In order to drop 1,000 Dragon Palace soldiers onto Hamid's base, all of Syria's few transport planes were deployed, and in addition to that, two cargo planes were urgently called in from civil aviation.
A total of six planes were tasked to fly tonight's mission, while Chen Zhonglei also selected the strongest 1,000 elites from the 8,000 soldiers of the Dragon Palace, and had them armed for the early morning airlift.
In order to kill the enemy in one blow, Chen Zhonglei had allocated all the high-end equipment to these 1,000 men.
This included a full set of the best single weapons for each man, a best bulletproof vest, a lightweight bulletproof helmet, a set of head-mounted night vision equipment and multiple thermal imagers.
This kind of high-end standard equipment was expensive and there were very few channels to purchase it, so even Wan Long Temple could not afford to have one set per person.
Chen Zhonglei felt that since it was a night raid, the night vision equipment was simply a godsend. At night when the visual distance to the naked eye was less than five metres, soldiers with night vision equipment were like openers and had a huge advantage.
The soldiers on their side have very strong protective equipment, so when they are in a short fight, even if the enemy is covered by fire, their soldiers can still have a high probability of not being shot in the vitals, which can further increase their advantage.
In addition, Chen Zhonglei also specially equipped these 1,000 soldiers with a very cruel weapon, the incendiary grenade.
This incendiary grenade, a standard equipment of the American army, is similar in principle to napalm, except that it is made in the shape of a grenade for easy use by a single soldier.
The incendiary grenade uses a thermal reaction of aluminium, which when exploded produces a heat of up to 3,000 degrees, melting even steel.
If two of these were dropped into an almost completely enclosed shelter, they would scorch the soldiers hidden inside.
It doesn't matter if there is a lot of space inside the shelter, when the incendiary bombs burn fully, they can deplete the oxygen inside and the men inside will suffocate, if not burn to death.
To use this weapon to attack Hamid's hidden fortifications was, in Chen Zhonglei's opinion, the most appropriate.
With superior weapons, superior vision, superior defence, and even more superior combat power, Chen Zhonglei believed that his 1,000 elites would definitely inflict a great deal of damage on the other side.
And just inside the barracks next to the airport, the 5,000 soldiers of the government army were also making their final assembly.
This was also Chen Zhonglei's third insurance policy. If the battle was fierce after the soldiers of the Ten Thousand Dragons Temple had parachuted in, the thousands of government soldiers on the periphery would immediately launch a charge to destroy the enemy from the inside.
Instead of carrying tractor artillery and a large number of artillery shells, the 5,000 soldiers used nearly 100 vehicles of various types to quickly march towards Hamid's base, and in a few hours' time, they would be able to kill Hamid's base at the foot of the mountain.
While the 1,000 soldiers of the Ten Thousand Dragons Temple were still checking their equipment, the 5,000 soldiers had already departed and set off, they could not move as fast as the planes, so they had to leave one step earlier.
As for the soldiers of the Ten Thousand Dragons Temple, they would board the plane at one o'clock in the morning and then take off one after another within half an hour, heading over Hamid's base.
While the soldiers were checking their equipment, Chen Zhonglei was still explaining the tactics to them, telling them to make sure to fully utilize and use all their strengths and do their best to ensure the successful completion of the mission.
At 1am, soldiers carrying parachute packs began to board the aircraft in an orderly manner.
Chen Zhonglei also boarded one of the military transport planes himself.
Although he would not personally lead the parachute jump, he would be on board this military transport plane to receive real-time information on the battlefield through the communication equipment on board, so that he could be the first to provide tactical command when the soldiers needed him.
One by one, the planes then took off and lifted off, splitting into two echelons in the air, one in front of the other and heading towards Hamid's base.
At the same time, 5,000 government soldiers were just under 40 kilometres away from Hamid's position.