The next day, the military personnel were still under strict guard by Yan Wei Guo, and Xiao Wen and his team took half of the soldiers to clear the soil around the base and fill it up as much as possible. Tanks and armored vehicles weren’t picky, but it was different for fighter jets. If the ground quality was poor, the wings could be damaged and the plane could veer off course.
Wen Le stayed in his room, partly because he didn’t want to face the military personnel, and partly to tidy up the rainproof cloth in the space. At least until the warehouse specially designed to house those heavy vehicles was built, he didn’t want them to rust in the rain and wind.
In the afternoon, the convoy arrived near the base to the anticipation of everyone. Zhang Zhifeng’s men cooperated with Liu Yikun’s dispatch and placed the transported heavy equipment in the designated area outside the base. While the soldiers who came to deliver them rested inside the base, Wen Le quietly loaded the supplies that had been prepared beforehand onto the transport vehicles just like he did the night before. They could simply drive away once Zhang Zhifeng and his team left.
After finishing everything, Wen Le sneaked back into the base amidst the amused gazes of the soldiers patrolling the base’s walls and nestled in Li Yunsheng and Mo Gang’s room. Even these two old men found his actions amusing, which made Wen Le feel helpless. Was it necessary for everyone to derive pleasure from his cautious behavior? Did he have to be a thief in his own base?
Due to the shortage of military resources, Zhang Zhifeng sent people to coordinate with Bai Yang to arrange a small air force unit and five mechanics who would be accompanying them on this mission. They were in a hurry to return, and Yan Wei Guo knew their situation, so he didn’t insist on keeping them.
When Zhang Zhifeng finished organizing the team and they were waiting to depart, the officers and soldiers responsible for verifying and exchanging goods reported that all the goods were already loaded onto the trucks. Zhang Zhifeng’s expression became complicated in that instant.
He bid farewell to Xiao Wen, Yan Wei Guo, and the others before the long line of vehicles departed from the base.
When the convoy was just a small dot in the distance, visible only from the top of the base’s walls, Han Ya gave the order for the three newly-prepared heavy weapons manufacturing workshops to begin operations.
The personnel who had been previously arranged to prepare the warehouse for the large equipment outside the city walls also left the base to begin construction at the designated site.
Wen Le handed over the preliminary materials needed for the construction to Lu Jianye and Ren Cheng, then returned to the base, where he coincidentally met with Xiao Wen’s group, who had just come down from the city walls.
“Oh, we finally don’t have to be sneaky anymore,” joked Yan Wei Guo as he looked at Wen Le, and the others laughed along.
Xiao Wen hugged the black-faced Wen Le reassuringly and gave him a peck on the forehead.
“Let’s go have a meeting. After it’s done, we’ll have some work to do!” Han Ya stretched and said.
The group agreed with smiles and walked into the meeting room.
Although the base was small and still in the midst of construction, it had already entered a normal state in all aspects, so the minutes of the meeting were now recorded by specialized personnel.
These recorders were directly requested by Han Ya and Li Ran from the military.
Besides taking minutes, they were also assigned to teach five others who were selected by Han Ya as future recorders for the base.
Among the five, two were soldiers selected from the military, one was the young girl who had originally followed Xiao Wen and the others into the Tibetan region, and the remaining two were Tibetans who were proficient in Chinese language and writing.
These two soldiers selected are both soldiers who have suffered leg injuries. Although they can walk after treatment, they cannot support the army’s training or stand for long periods of time. Originally assigned to logistics, Han Ya knew they had some educational background and no problem with writing, so he called them over.
The girl, on the other hand, had been taken care of by her brother and sister-in-law with abilities since the apocalypse. She initially followed Lin Yan and later merged with Xiao Wen and his group. She was a student before the apocalypse, physically weak and frail. If it weren’t for her caring brother and sister-in-law, she probably wouldn’t have survived the beginning of the apocalypse. After the base was built, because of her poor physical strength, except for some easy work, she relied mainly on her brother and sister-in-law for care, which made her feel particularly uncomfortable. When she heard that they were recruiting people to learn shorthand, she rushed over to recommend herself.
As for the other two Tibetan people, they were deliberately arranged by Han Ya. Although they had been living together with the Tibetans for such a long time, they could not really integrate to some extent, so for some jobs that were not specific requirements, Han Ya tried to let both sides participate as much as possible to speed up the integration process.
When the person in charge of the meeting records was ready, Han Ya drank some water to moisten his throat and began to report on the process of the trip and the negotiations with the military region.
“We originally estimated that there were about 100,000 soldiers on their side, so we prepared supplies for two months of living for 150,000 people. During the negotiation, the number given by the other side was not much different from our estimate. There are a total of 178,000 military and non-military personnel, with 136,000 belonging to the military region, and the remaining 42,000 survivors were rescued by the army when they entered the town to collect supplies after the apocalypse.”
Xiao Wen nodded, “No wonder there are few zombies in the Tibetan area, but there are very few survivors who escaped from the Central Plains. They must have searched the major towns near the Tibetan area, and there are probably not many people who have the ability to escape from farther away.”
Other people nodded, but no one mentioned why the other side rescued so many survivors in the Central Plains, but left the indigenous1 people of the Tibetan area to fend for themselves. It is likely that the other side is aware of the strong resistance of the Tibetans towards them and is afraid of leaving hidden dangers in the military district.
“I thought they were so fierce that they wouldn’t care about the survival of the survivors,” Wen Le shrugged.
Yan Wei Guo shook his head. “Only the one in charge is fierce. As for the survivors, there are some things that are inherent in military personnel and cannot be easily erased by any ideology.”
“But on the other hand,” Han Ya thought for a moment, squinting his eyes, “although there will inevitably be bargaining during the negotiations, the other side did not strongly demand that we exchange weapons. After the negotiations, I feel that it was a bit too smooth.”
The others didn’t feel it, but Yan Wei Guo closed his eyes and carefully thought about Han Ya’s words. After a moment of silence, he spoke again: “To be honest, I didn’t expect the other side to use tanks and armored vehicles as exchange items, and there are five tanks and ten armored vehicles. Although we don’t need fighter jets now, I don’t believe that even you, Han Ya, have thought about the possibility that satellites will be restored in the future. They dare to offer five as soon as they make a move. It doesn’t look like much now, but the exchanged supplies can only support them for about two months. What about after two months?”
Han Ya nodded. “The result of my negotiation with them is that if they still want to exchange the same supplies, they will still have to pay the same amount of heavy equipment.”
After the two of them explained, the others present also felt a bit incredible.
Even if the military district plans to farm and raise animals to be self-sufficient, there are still nearly 180,000 people! Just thinking about the amount of food that so many people need made everyone a little frightened. This place does not have the kind of soil suitable for farming in the Central Plains. They don’t have Wen Shao’s black soil, nor Wen Shao’s grain storage-like space. If they want to be self-sufficient and not need outside support, it is simply impossible.
“Could it be that the leader had a change of heart?” Bai Yang asked inexplicably.
No one could answer this question. Should they go and ask the leader in person? Even if the other side was stupid, they wouldn’t let them go to the military area to inquire about their own leader, right?!
Suddenly, Wen Le’s lips twitched and he had a strange expression on his face.
Xiao Wen was the first to notice and couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong?”
Everyone looked at Wen Le.
Wen Le still had a strange look on his face as he looked at everyone, until everyone was made uncomfortable by his gaze, then he slowly spoke out his speculation.
“Could it be that the leader didn’t survive the mutation…”
After hearing Wen Le’s words, everyone’s expressions became equally strange, making the little soldier recording on the side shiver with his heart pounding.
“That can’t be…” Yan Wei Guo said uncertainly.
No one had considered this kind of speculation except for Wen Le, but once they thought about it, they felt that it was not impossible. After all, the zombie mutation did not discriminate against people, and the virus would not avoid someone just because of their rank.
The group looked at each other and chuckled awkwardly for a few moments before falling silent again.
After a long silence, someone spoke up.
“If that’s really the case, then we are incredibly lucky,” Han Ya said slowly.
Yan Wei Guo looked at Xiao Wen and the young people next to him, while Bai Yang exchanged a glance with the other military officers.
“Have you noticed that your luck has been unusually good since the apocalypse?” Yan Wei Guo said to Xiao Wen and the others. “Mo Gang has told me a lot about your experiences before, and although they weren’t exactly smooth, they weren’t as difficult as they should have been. According to reason, you shouldn’t have been able to withstand such good luck in the apocalypse, but you did. And with the incident at the weapons factory, it seems that your luck is still getting stronger. It’s really strange.”
Xiao Wen smiled after hearing this. “We’re just lucky to be around Wen Le. Even before the apocalypse, his luck was already good. He was a commercial rookie, but he managed to make his company better and better.”
Han Ya nodded in agreement.
But Yan Wei Guo shook his head. “I’m not talking about Wen Le’s luck. I’m talking about yours,” he said seriously.
Seeing everyone’s confusion, he explained further. “Wen Le’s space has benefited you the most, but he has been supporting and working hard for you all along. And it’s you, not him, who wants to achieve great things.”
Everyone thought about it seriously and realized that Yan Wei Guo was right.
Because Lin Yan had always been interested in Wen Le’s behavior, he had observed him silently many times.
Therefore, as Yan Wei Guo spoke, Lin Yan saw Wen Le’s expression change from blank to realization, and then to a dazed and absent-minded look.
He even caught Wen Le silently mouthing something.
“So it’s cause and effect,” Wen Le murmured.
Through lip reading, Lin Yan could understand what Wen Le was saying and became even more curious.
What does “So that’s how it is, The law of cause and effect?” mean? After becoming familiar with everyone, Zhou Quan also talked about their experiences, but I couldn’t understand the meaning of “The law of cause and effect”.
However, Lin Yan also knew that Wen Le had always felt his exploration, and had always avoided it, so he couldn’t expect to clarify it from Wen Le.
Looking at Xiao Wen, he was probably even more clueless.
Lin Yan guessed right. Except for Wen Le himself, there was probably no one in this world who could understand the meaning of “The law of cause and effect”.
In the previous life before the apocalypse, his luck was really good, so he continued to balance his luck from the first twenty years of his life until his death after the apocalypse. Xiao Wen and his friends, on the other hand, did not have a good life since childhood, and they have been working hard all their lives, and even died tragically in the previous life’s apocalypse. So in this life, he used his good luck to balance their past hardships and tragedies.
He even reincarnated for them in this life!
Taking a deep breath, Wen Le put down his thoughts. If it was really like this, then their luck would continue to be good.
After withdrawing his thoughts, Wen Le immediately felt someone’s prying eyes and looked up to glare at Lin Yan fiercely.
Lin Yan felt embarrassed and rubbed his nose, shifting his gaze away.
Talking about luck was too vague and ethereal2, and there was no way to prove it, so everyone returned to the topic at hand.
“Captain Yan, have you noticed anything in your communication with Captain Zhang Zhifeng in the past few days?” Han Ya asked.
Yan Wei Guo thought for a moment, not too sure. “We have been chatting casually and not discussing the situation of the two bases. But his expression was complicated during the first meal, and even the complex emotions couldn’t be concealed when he left the base. I always thought he was a bit suspicious of our material reserves, but now that I think about it, if that commander is really gone, then his thoughts are worth guessing carefully.”
Han Ya nodded, “Let’s put this aside for now. After all, we have no way to prove it. We know in our hearts, so let’s prepare for the worst.”
Next, everyone agreed that the base’s main focus would still be on weapon production. Regardless of the situation in the military district, weapons reserves are always a top priority in the apocalypse.
With the heavy equipment obtained from the military district, the base couldn’t just leave it idle.
When Yan Wei Guo and his team left the military district, they naturally had heavy weapons equipment, but they had to abandon those fuel-guzzling vehicles along the way due to the shortage of gasoline supply in F City and the other two divisions.
However, the soldiers and technicians of the corresponding armored regiment accompanied them to the Tibetan area.
It can be said that they can handle all the tanks and armored vehicles, whether it be driving or maintenance, within the base.
As for the fighter jets, Han Ya learned from Bai Yang on the way that Yan Wei Guo’s army had no personnel who had contact with the Air Force, so he requested a ten-person Air Force team and five mechanics for fighter jet maintenance.
These fifteen people came to the base with the fighter jets today and will officially join the military under the base, completely cutting off ties with the military district.
Moreover, these fifteen people will be thoroughly searched upon entering the base to eliminate any possibility of contact with the military district.
Xiao Wen and the others cannot rely on these fifteen people to take care of the fighter jets all the time. After the meeting, personnel will be arranged to follow them, eat and live with them.
On the one hand, this is for monitoring purposes, after all, they are people from the military district, to prevent them from getting too close to the base’s weapon production.
On the other hand, it is to learn the Air Force technology as soon as possible. This may be a long process, but now that the satellite is not restored, they have enough time to learn the theoretical knowledge.
In terms of practice, they can only practice simple maneuvers in the airspace near the base. If they fly too far, they may have to abandon the plane and walk back to the base, assuming they don’t get lost.
Speaking of fuel, it is also a major problem for the base. After two trips with over a thousand people, the base’s fuel reserves are clearly below the red alert line. Whether it is the armored regiment’s training or other aspects, the red light has already been turned on. Therefore, after the meeting, the leaders of the base are all worried about the fuel problem.
Note :
1The word “indigenous” refers to the people or groups that are native to a particular region or area, usually implying that they have been living there for a long time, before other groups arrived.
2“Ethereal” means something that is delicate, airy, and light in a way that seems too perfect for this world, often with spiritual or supernatural connotations.
Thanks for the update!^^)❤
Thanks for the chapter!