Chapter 440: The Zombie Horde Moves!
Of the 4 Great Triads that used to exist in Guilin City, the Scarlet Phoenix Triad led by Ding Mei had by then submitted to Yue Zhong when he started the cleaning process. They handed over their weapons and accepted the reorganization of their forces, becoming part of Yue Zhong’s troops.
Yue Zhong cleaned up every single gang and triad in order to purge any evil intentions and characteristics. The feel of the city instantly became better, and seemed to flourish even more. Those who had wild ambitions to try and rile up trouble began to kept themselves in check.
There were a few companies started by Enhancers and hunters specializing in hunting zombies as well as embarking on other scavenger missions. Yue Zhong did not force them to close down nor change anything, because with their existence, he had these people voluntarily cleaning up some of the loose corners that he could not afford to spare time with, at the same time, these people were largely pa.s.sionate in their jobs, and could help drive resources back towards Guilin City.
With regards to these factions, as long as they did not threaten the development plans of Yue Zhong in any way, Yue Zhong would not touch them.
Yue Zhong threw the hooligans into the Sc.u.m Battalion, and those who had not engaged in any despicable acts of bullying or oppression, he placed them within the preparatory army’s training groups, and the Enhancers were be placed with the Experts Battalion to be trained specially. With such a reorganization, Yue Zhong gained another over 200 experts that were above Level 20.
After eradicating all signs of the triads from Guilin City, Yue Zhong did not stop there, instead dispatching numerous s.h.i.+fts of policemen to instil order and patrol the streets, rounding up any small-time criminals. The moment any thieves or robbers were caught, they would be thrown into the Sc.u.m Battalion and put through strict training.
From a mere few hundreds of people inside the Sc.u.m Battalion, through the methods Yue Zhong employed, it swelled to over 2,000 people, and were filled with thieves, bandits, hooligans, rapists, perverts, liars, and other ne’er-do-wells. The moment they were drafted in, although they got to eat their fill, they had to go through strict military training and instruction, over and over again. It caused them to feel that even death was more inviting than this h.e.l.lish life.
Inside the Sc.u.m Battalion, if any of these sc.u.m were to show the slightest resistance, all that awaited them was further punishments. They had no basic rights to speak of. Under those harsh conditions, many of them became like robots, suffering endlessly till the point of numbness. The majority looked forward to killing enough zombies or being killed by zombies just to be rid of this h.e.l.l.
After such a large-scale cleanup, the entire Guilin City seemed to have undergone a total makeover, so much so that even the streets were safe at night. Everyone knew of the plights of any wrongdoings, and the moment they thought of what went on in those camps, any potential thoughts of mischief would be immediately quashed.
While a small minority felt that Yue Zhong was too overbearing and tyrannical, many others were elated at the beneficial changes. This was because there were no more instances of protection fees, or free meals or bullying for the majority of the commoners.
Once he had brought about peace and stability, Yue Zhong dove into training his troops again. It was the winter season, and the troops could not go anywhere, hence he made them go through intense training, to increase their combat potential.
With the flow of time, a month had pa.s.sed.
On this day, a surveillance drone flew over Nanning City.
As long as the weather was decent, Yue Zhong would deploy some forces to scout out the situation in Nanning City.
The 3 million-strong zombie horde in Nanning had slowly begun to move towards Guilin City.
The strange development had quickly been picked up by the drone, and the information was quickly transmitted back towards Guilin City.
Although Yue Zhong did not control any satellites, and could not observe the entire earth, with the drones, gaining intel on the surrounding hundred li of land was not an issue.
Once he learnt that the zombie horde had begun to move, Yue Zhong did not dare to dally, and summoned every important member of his government.
Yue Zhong looked around and declared solemnly: “I’ve gained information! The zombie horde from Nanning has begun to move towards Guilin City, towards us. Based on their speed, in just 5 days, we will be facing 3 million zombies. Does anyone have any suggestions?”
Hu Yi directly offered: “Leader! Why don’t we take the fight to them at the Chang Yue ridge? The terrain is most suitable for the tanks to charge in. We can make use of the tanks to annihilate them.”
Murong He frowned and said: “The Chan Yue ridge is indeed suitable for an a.s.sault from our tanks. The problem is the weather! If there were to be a sudden change in weather, the troops there would lose the support and become stranded! The moment that happens, they would be finished off by the horde. I reckon that we should defend Guilin City!”
Zhang Xue w.a.n.g replied coldly: “Holding them off here is too dangerous!! If the fort was to be broken? The more than 800,000 survivors here would have no place to run to. Furthermore, our heavy rounds are lacking. With the number of zombies ranging in the millions, without sufficient ammo, what do we use to defend with? Meat s.h.i.+elds?”
A modern army’s criteria was having enough logistical support. Du Shan Xiong had a regiment of elites and strength, and the reason why he could only occupy Guilin, was primarily due to the shortage of ammo.
Du Shan Xiong had brought his troops to reclaim Guilin, and also led them to slaughter their way into Nanning. In addition, he had been cleaning up the surrounding areas of Guilin City, annihilating a few million zombies. However, as a result, the troops were nearly depleted of their ammo, and the ammo dump had only 2 bases’ worth. It would be tough for them to deal with the 3-million strong horde with just that.
Everyone frowned, although the words of Zhang Xue w.a.n.g were hard to listen to, it was the truth, and the impending danger loomed over everyone’s heads. It felt hard to breathe.
Guilin City was not an industrial city, and within it, the only thing they could do now was to refill ammunitions. In each month, they could reload up to about 10,000 rounds. The current count of reloaded ammunition in Guilin City was about 30,000 rounds. These reloaded rounds were lacking in effectiveness, and could damage the guns. The majority of it was given to the scavenger teams to use, and no one from the military liked to use it. As for the heavy artillery rounds, not only are there no ways to manufacture them, there are no known ways to reload them.
Yue Zhong eyed Chen Ying on one side and asked: “How’s the construction of the wall coming along?”
When Yue Zhong obtained control, he had a.s.signed a huge number of young males to start working on a wall. In society, there were countless city walls breached due to the existence of heavy artillery that could easily demolish walls. However, for the apocalypse, a st.u.r.dy wall would be extremely useful against a zombie horde, as well as the attacks of Mutant Beasts. Hence, Yue Zhong had placed great importance on it. After all, constructing a wall was much simpler than manufacturing heavy artillery rounds.
Chen Ying replied directly: “There’s a 5m-tall defensive wall built in the direction of Nanning, however, with the time we have, that’s the limit we can do now.”
As the majority of the zombies surrounding Guilin City had long been wiped out by Du Shan Xiong and his army, only the zombies in the direction of Nanning posed a threat. Even Du Shan Xiong did not dare to provoke them. Hence Yue Zhong had given priority towards that direction with respect to the construction of the wall.
“5 meters eh? Do your best!” Yue Zhong frowned when he heard that, before slowly replying.
A 5 meter-tall wall would not be enough to defend against a huge horde of zombies. However, being able to construct such a wall within the time limit of a month was impressive.
Yue Zhong pondered for a moment, before ordering: “Chen Ying, you delegate the job, immediately begin defensive fortifications all around Guilin City. Dig traps!! And organize the residents from the Gang Xi District to move towards the south. Try to clear the area, to act as a buffer.”
“Yes!”
Yue Zhong continued: “Hu Yi! Go take 200 experts, head to the frontlines and snipe the horde. Do your best. As long as the situation turns for the worse, immediately retreat! Try to preserve your lives and energy!”
In such conditions where the weather was unpredictable, it was the most that Yue Zhong could do. If it wasn’t for winter, Yue Zhong would have deployed all his troops to go hunt the zombie horde.
“Yes! Leader!” Hu Yi replied excitedly.
Yue Zhong then swept everybody present a glance as he said solemnly: “Everyone else, resume your training, await further orders! For this battle, I’ve decided to take the fight to them outside. Our lives are on the line this time, I hope everyone will give their all to prepare for it!”
Everyone’s heart shuddered as they replied: “Yes!”
Under Yue Zhong’s orders, everyone began moving.
With the a.s.signments set by Chen Ying, the residents of the Gang Xi District began to move towards the south side of Guilin City.
At the same time, over one hundred thousand young men were mobilized and began fortifications outside Gang Xi District.
As there were many people working on it, with their combined efforts, countless fortifications and simple works were completed within a night outside the city walls.
Within the city, many females were activated as well, preparing numerous bowls of food to be sent to those men toiling outside the city gates, everyone doing their best in order to protect their place.
On the other side, Hu Yi led 200 experts and they lugged over a hundred jin of equipment, put on the nano combat suits, and rode their motorcycles towards the distance.
Yue Zhong had intended to be on the front lines himself, but as he had just obtained control of Guilin City, the sentiments of the ma.s.ses had not stabilized yet, and he had too little trusted aides. The moment he left, there would bound to be some ambitious joker. Hence, for the sake of the whole picture, he chose to stay here. This battle was one he could not afford to lose, the moment he lost, close to 900,000 people would fall prey to the zombies.
Hu Yi and his team rode non-stop for almost 4 hours before they came near the zombie horde.
“What a spectacular sight!!” Hu Yi and the 200 experts looked over from a high point not far from the horde, and could see the mighty undead force, seemingly with no end, threatening to envelope everything as they moved.