After dawn, dense hordes of zombies were discovered drifting down the Yangtze River at the Three Gorges in Yiling, immediately drawing the attention of the soldiers stationed there, who began to discuss the matter. Could it be that a large-scale battle had occurred upstream on the Yangtze River?
"Investigate quickly to find out where the battle took place!" General Chen, who was stationed at the Three Gorges, immediately issued an order. He needed to figure out what had happened upstream on the Yangtze River. Was someone launching a large-scale attack on zombies?
General Chen couldn't figure out what was happening. According to the intelligence he had received, the recapture of Chongqing had not officially begun yet, so the zombies shouldn't have come from Chongqing. Then, which city along the Yangtze River had experienced a battle?
"Could it be that civilians have started their own recapture efforts? That shouldn't be the case, right?" General Chen was filled with doubt.
A meeting was quickly convened, and the subordinates had collected a lot of evidence. After salvaging a large number of zombies, the army found many identification cards on them, confirming that the zombies originated from Luzhou, so the battle must have taken place in Luzhou.
At this time, General Chen also received more information. After requesting an investigation from his superiors, satellite imagery confirmed that a battle had indeed occurred last night, and the location was indeed Luzhou. From the satellite images, it could be seen that zombies were entering the water one after another at the dock and were then drowned and washed downstream. What attracted the zombies was a small boat, and it was still unclear who was on board.
At the meeting, everyone began to discuss whether powerful civilian forces had emerged in Luzhou, otherwise, how could so many zombies have been killed?
General Chen stopped their discussion and said, "Our mission is only to guard the Three Gorges. Do not discuss other matters. What we need to discuss is whether the zombies will threaten the safety of the Three Gorges! You must know that this is a critical node for the transmission of electricity from the west to the east, and it absolutely cannot have any problems!"
Subsequently, everyone shifted their focus to discussing the threat of zombies. The threat level was finally determined: the zombies upstream on the Yangtze River could not threaten the safety of the Three Gorges. The battle in Luzhou did not need to be concerned about at all. Compared to the large-scale battles in the east, these thirty thousand zombies were merely child's play.
Currently, the army was rapidly recapturing cities, and most of the provincial capitals had been retaken. After that, the army would focus on attacking coastal cities. This was also easy to understand: transportation was the most important thing. As long as transportation could be ensured, the safety of food and personnel could be guaranteed, especially since the population in the eastern regions was too large, so they needed to be protected.
After the meeting ended, General Chen received more information, which was classified. It turned out that satellites had already discovered that in the Hezhou area of Luzhou, someone had already established a base, which had now developed to tens of thousands of people. However, this information was generally not disclosed to others.
General Chen thought to himself, "Satellites are so convenient, you can know everything in advance. This is quite convenient."
Suddenly, the army doctor came to report that the subordinates had salvaged quite a few mutated zombies. One of the zombies even had a bone spur embedded in its head, and this bone spur was only found on a Tier 2 S-type zombie.
Upon hearing this news, General Chen immediately rushed to the dissection room to inspect it and discovered the situation described by the army doctor. A Tier 1 P-type zombie had a bone spur from a Tier 2 S-type zombie embedded in its head. It was obvious that this bone spur had killed the P-type zombie, and the bone spur had been sharpened, indicating that the user was human.
"To be able to kill a Tier 2 S-type zombie and a P-type zombie with one blow, it seems that a Tier 2 evolver, or even a Tier 2 esper, has appeared in Luzhou. This is truly remarkable!" General Chen muttered to himself.
In fact, the military already had a Tier 3 esper, but there was only one, and even Tier 2 espers were not many. Now, in a small place like Luzhou, a rare Tier 2 esper had appeared, which was truly extraordinary!
"This matter is classified, do not reveal it!" General Chen instructed.
...
Meanwhile, the Hezhou Base was filled with excitement. Everyone knew about the feat of Shen Feng, Yang Chang, and Yang Ye killing thirty thousand zombies overnight, and they immediately regarded the three as saviors. To be able to achieve such a level was simply a miracle.
After Shen Feng and the other two returned to the base, they were immediately greeted with a large round of applause. They couldn't keep a low profile even if they wanted to. Among them, Chang Haojie ran to Shen Feng and asked with admiration, "Brother-in-law, you are so amazing! I want to be like you in the future!"
Shen Feng shrugged and patted his brother-in-law's shoulder, saying, "Then you must study hard. I believe you will become a strong person in the future. Keep working hard, young man."
Shen Feng asked Li Xiang to take a hundred people to guard the granary. The area around the granary was particularly safe at this time, as the zombies had been cleared. They only needed to prevent others from robbing the granary. As a result, in the nearby buildings, they found more than twenty exhausted combat team members. At this time, they still believed that Ren Jing and the others had gone to get reinforcements, rather than secretly escaping.
Shen Feng shook his head helplessly and revealed the truth of Ren Jing's betrayal, which was why he had led everyone to attack the granary without authorization, and was eventually surrounded by tens of thousands of zombies, resulting in only about twenty survivors out of four hundred members. Upon hearing this, Li Minghua was so angry that he fainted. He never expected that this battle was caused by Ren Jing's selfish desires, and he never imagined that such an honest-looking fellow would be so ruthless when he betrayed them.
Li Minghua's mind kept replaying Ren Jing's words before he left, which were so confident. Who knew that he was simply trying to escape.
At this moment, boundless hatred surged in Li Minghua's heart. Over the past few days, he had developed deep feelings for his more than four hundred brothers. Now, due to Ren Jing's selfishness, only a little over twenty of his more than four hundred brothers remained! This debt must be repaid with blood, otherwise, his boundless hatred could not be appeased.
At Luzhou Academy, more than a thousand people were also rescued. They returned to the base with Shen Feng. The people from the academy revealed the truth: Zhu Yan had always wanted to make a name for herself, but she didn't want to work hard, so she wanted to find someone with potential. In this way, as long as she could successfully ascend, she would rise with them. That was why she had planned this rebellion, and most of the people she took with her were planning to enjoy a life of ease.
Shen Feng accepted all these students. They did not blindly follow Ren Jing and leave in the trucks. One reason was that the trucks could not carry them all, and another reason was that they did not want to leave Luzhou. Shen Feng planned to select suitable people from these students to join the combat team.
Shen Feng had not slept for a day and a night. After returning to the base, he immediately found a safe place to sleep. Chang Jianyi instructed people not to disturb him, and then continued to lead people in inventorying supplies and building houses.
Due to the suddenness of the rescue yesterday, the base was still in chaos. Chang Jianyi, as the manager of the base, was extremely busy. She only saw Shen Feng once before she had to leave helplessly. There were too many things to deal with in the base, and Chang Jianyi had to rush around.
Chang Jianyi had already decided to set up an office specifically to handle the daily affairs of the base. Handling so many matters alone was like a dung beetle pushing a dung ball – spinning in circles. She had to recruit personnel to handle these matters.
Tu Xuhuai was also busy at the base. After all, he was a civil servant before, so he knew a little about handling official matters. With his help, the base's affairs were somewhat resolved. However, when he had free time, he always liked to stare at the distant urban area, and no one knew what he was thinking.
Shen Feng slept for half a day and finally woke up. He walked around the base for a while and found that the survivors treated him with great respect. For a moment, he couldn't find anyone to talk to, and he couldn't help but shake his head. He originally wanted to find his senior sister, but thinking that she was busy, Shen Feng had to give up.
Shen Feng soon arrived at the dam and looked at the distant city with worry in his heart. The Self-Rescue Association had already burned thirty thousand zombies and then drowned another thirty thousand zombies. Their record seemed impressive, but in the distant urban area, there were still hundreds of thousands of zombies waiting for him! With so many zombies, if a direct battle began, it would not be something that could be resolved in a day or two.
Recalling the battle experience yesterday, Shen Feng felt that recapturing Luzhou was definitely not a simple matter. Hundreds of thousands of zombies charging forward would overturn even large trucks. Could attacking with the waterways along the Yangtze River really be accomplished with so many zombies?
After thinking about it, Shen Feng could not find an answer, so he could only look at the scenery on the dam. The people in the base were all busy, and the Self-Rescue Association members were interspersed among them, giving instructions. In the distance, members of the Self-Rescue Association were setting up stalls to recruit personnel. Generally speaking, anyone with a skill could be highly valued.
Unknowingly, dusk arrived, and the people in the base began to cook. Food was still distributed uniformly, but cooking still had to be done by oneself. Fortunately, the Self-Rescue Association had recaptured the dam, and with hydroelectric power, everyone no longer needed to burn firewood; they just needed to turn on the induction cooker. The base was brightly lit. Since there was no electricity bill to pay, they could use it as much as they wanted.
Shen Feng looked at the brightly lit base and suddenly had an idea: "If only we had guns now, then we wouldn't have to worry about solving the zombie problem."
Suddenly, Shen Feng thought of an important matter. It seemed that he could recapture the signal tower and try to contact the people above, perhaps to get support. However, if he couldn't get support, wouldn't it be a waste of time?
After dinner, Shen Feng convened a meeting. The important managers of the Self-Rescue Association were all present. About fifty people sat in the conference room to supplement the plan for recapturing Luzhou. At this time, due to the large influx of personnel into the Self-Rescue Association, the combat team members had now reached one thousand, but their combat effectiveness had declined compared to before. After all, the six hundred newly recruited members basically had no experience fighting zombies.
Yang Chang had also become the leader of the combat team, and Li Xiang had become the deputy leader. For Li Xiang, who was already afraid of death, making him the deputy leader of the combat team was too difficult, as the combat team's mission was to face death. If his life was lost by accident, then everything would be in vain.
Seeing that everyone was present, Shen Feng directly said, "From now on, we will focus on recapturing Luzhou. Please share any suggestions you have as soon as possible."
Yang Ye smiled and said, "President, what is there to worry about? We saw yesterday that thirty thousand zombies were just drowned. Now, even more zombies can be drowned. This shows that my plan is flawless."
However, at this moment, Tu Xuhuai stood up and said sternly, "No, your plan is too risky. Simply using the waterways to drown the zombies is too simple. If there is any accident, no one present will be able to escape."
Yang Ye was immediately angered by this and asked, "Do you have a solution? Then tell me how to deal with the zombies. Hundreds of thousands of zombies cannot be burned completely. How can they be killed without water?"
Tu Xuhuai did not hesitate and walked to the very front, saying seriously, "I have discussed with Zhou Xiaoxiao for a long time these days. I think relying on waterways is too simple, because waterways are not the real Yangtze River. Even if they can drown zombies, at most, they can drown one hundred thousand. Let's assume there are seven hundred thousand zombies in Luzhou. Is it realistic to solve them all at once?"
"Then we can solve them in batches. Drowning seven hundred thousand zombies seven times will still leave none of them," Yang Ye retorted unhappily.
"But zombies will evolve!" Tu Xuhuai said seriously. "Didn't you encounter zombies that could command before? If there are similar zombies in Luzhou, commanding other zombies to occupy Luzhou, what if they don't fall for the trap? We cannot rely on all zombies being stupid. Either don't do it, or kill most of the zombies at once to prevent them from learning from experience. Once the zombies don't fall for it, it will be very difficult for us to deal with them in the future!"
These words choked Yang Ye into silence. He had not considered the possibility of command zombies appearing among the zombies before, so he had not considered what would happen if the zombies did not fall for the trap and continued to occupy Luzhou. He couldn't keep killing them. Even if he killed ten thousand a day, it would take more than two months to kill them all.
"Then what do you suggest we do!" Yang Ye leaned back in his chair, unwilling to say more to Tu Xuhuai.
Tu Xuhuai continued, "Members of the Self-Rescue Association, I know that everyone hopes to solve the zombies in the city quickly and rebuild our homeland. But this cannot be achieved overnight. Therefore, we need a systematic plan. After discussing with Zhou Xiaoxiao, I have proposed a plan called 'Regional Segmentation, Multiple Solutions'!"
Then, Tu Xuhuai began to introduce his plan. Although Luzhou was not a particularly large city, it was still extremely vast in comparison. The base only had a little over ten thousand people, including many elderly, weak, women, and children. If there were five thousand combat personnel, that would be a lot. It was very difficult to solve the zombies all at once, so they could only solve them in batches. And solving them in batches also required planning, especially to prevent communication between zombies and to prevent them from moving freely in the city!
Therefore, Tu Xuhuai targeted the various traffic arteries in the city and divided the city into eight regions. As long as the key road sections were blocked, it would prevent mutual communication between zombie regions. Zombies from other areas would not be able to come to support. They would solve the zombies according to regions, and after solving one region, they would move to the next region for combat.
When Tu Xuhuai finished speaking, everyone nodded in agreement. It could be seen that everyone present agreed with this plan.