This time, Long Yuehong didn't ask why, because he could also tell that this matter wasn't simple.

If it were just two internal spies stealing some military supplies, the "Salvation Army" wouldn't take it so seriously. They would simply send telegrams to various border settlements and key outposts, describing the appearance, height, and clothing of the wanted individuals, and specifying what materials were to be recovered. After a while, if someone happened to pass by, they would supplement it with a wanted poster with photos. There was no need to send out multiple specialized personnel carrying documents to notify each border settlement and key outpost one by one, as they were doing now.

"What could it be?" Bai Chen muttered to himself while driving.

Shang Jianyao guessed with great interest:

"Military exoskeletons? Secret weapons excavated or developed by the 'Salvation Army'?"

"Is there a possibility that the military supplies are just a smokescreen, an excuse, and what was stolen was something else?" Genava's eyes flickered red.

Jiang Baimian made a nasal sound:

"That possibility can't be ruled out.

"Oh, don't guess anymore. Without any clues, isn't this just like making up a story?"

"Yes, yes!" Shang Jianyao echoed.

He immediately refuted himself:

"Isn't making up stories fun?"

"Ho, you've seen too many entertainment materials from the Old World, your vocabulary is rich." Jiang Baimian didn't care too much whether the team members discussed it or not, as they were idle anyway.

In this way, they followed the increasingly smooth road and drove out of Yunshan in less than an hour and a half, entering a vast, weed-filled wilderness.

At this time, Ding Ling slowed down the car. When the jeep of the "Old Task Force" was level with her, she opened the window and said:

"It will take at least eight hours to get to Wubei. Let's find a settlement to rest later, and set off again tomorrow morning. Is that okay?"

"Yes." Jiang Baimian first shook her head, and then asked doubtfully, "Only eight hours?"

She had seen high-precision maps of the Old World and had also studied the rudimentary maps drawn by relic hunters of the current era. She felt that the distance from here to Wubei was similar to that from Yecao City to Hongshi Settlement. If they were lucky, the time spent would be counted in days. If they encountered bad weather or frequent disasters and had to take a detour, it wouldn't be uncommon to measure it in weeks.

Noticing Xue Shiyue's surprise, Ding Ling looked at the road ahead and explained with a hint of pride:

"In the first twenty years of the New Calendar, we completely repaired the main road from Wubei to Yunshan, and have been maintaining it all these years.

"From here to Wubei, except for a few places where the pollution is serious and there are more problems, which require detours, you can just drive along the road at other times.

"Li Ziren, one of the founders of our 'Salvation Army', once said that food is blood, industry is bones, and roads are the nerves that connect everything."

Clap clap clap, Shang Jianyao applauded vigorously.

Jiang Baimian also truly felt the different temperament of the "Salvation Army" compared to other forces.

Although they were considered to have fallen, they were far better than major forces such as "Initial City" in rebuilding roads.

In those places, similar words often appeared:

"Anyway, many roads left over from the Old World can barely be driven on. Can't you just detour slightly in some places?"

"Where are there so many supplies to repair roads? Get some vehicles with high chassis, and you can drive in the wilderness!"

"I'm even afraid that the roads will be repaired too well, making it easier for slaves to run away!"

Until today, only the internal streets of the major settlements and the roads leading to the surrounding manors in "Initial City" have been renovated and regularly maintained. Other places, including wilderness outposts and border settlements, mainly rely on the legacy of the Old World and the relatively flat wilderness.

Coupled with the existence of large areas of polluted areas, no-man's lands, and dangerous areas, and the impact of extreme weather, the time cost of people traveling has increased dramatically.

"Worthy of being the 'Salvation Army'!" Jiang Baimian also praised.

It could be seen that Ding Ling and her subordinates were quite happy about this.

Regardless of whether they had fallen or not, they were quite proud of the past actions and achievements of the "Salvation Army" and felt the same way.

Around three o'clock in the afternoon, two cars arrived at a settlement.

This was rebuilt around an old-world farm. Outside the high walls, large swathes of fields were lush and green, waiting to transform into gold.

Relying on Ding Ling's aura as a senior "Salvation Army" soldier and the captain of a border settlement team, Jiang Baimian and others entered the settlement directly without needing a pass or letter of introduction and followed her to the oil depot located in a remote area.

Ding Ling got out of the car and took out a rolled-up white handkerchief from somewhere inside her black uniform.

She carefully unfolded the handkerchief, revealing stacks of small plastic cards of different colors inside.

"These are 50-liter fuel coupons..." After a simple search, Ding Ling twisted out a light yellow plastic card.

Jiang Baimian noticed that the slightly transparent small card was printed with words such as "Standard Gasoline", "50 Liters", and "Made by the Materials Coordination Committee", as well as an incomplete red official seal.

When the oil depot guard took the plastic card and started fueling the green mountain bike, Shang Jianyao curiously approached Ding Ling, looking at the plastic cards and said:

"Are these the vouchers of your 'Salvation Army'?"

"Yes, there are fuel coupons, pork coupons, beef coupons, mutton coupons, fish coupons, rice coupons, flour coupons, cloth coupons, ready-made clothing coupons..." Ding Ling briefly introduced, "It's best if you exchange some materials for vouchers later, so it will be more convenient to replenish what you want."

"Oh, oh, oh." Shang Jianyao had a "I understand" expression.

Jiang Baimian took two steps forward and said with a smile:

"Why don't we exchange a little from you first?"

"Sure." Ding Ling didn't refuse, and even joked, "Let's exchange it for the sauerkraut pork canned food you ate yesterday. The taste of that yesterday made us drool!"

Jiang Baimian chuckled:

"This itself is produced by your 'Salvation Army', and was smuggled across the border before we had the opportunity to get it..."

As she spoke, she glanced at the expressions of Ding Ling and her subordinates, and found that they didn't care too much about smuggling.

After negotiation, the "Old Task Force" exchanged some of the canned food and biscuits they were tired of for some vouchers, including pork coupons calculated in pounds.

Long Yuehong watched the entire transaction and found that Ding Ling even had a voucher called "Timber Felling Permit".

"This is?" He pointed curiously.

Ding Ling looked down, chuckled, and said:

"All the resources of our 'Salvation Army' belong to the whole. If you want to cut down trees and get some wood, you also need vouchers."

Shang Jianyao thought for a while, pointed to the solar charging panel on top of his jeep, and asked seriously:

"Do you need vouchers to obtain solar energy too?"

Pfft... You might as well ask if you have to pay to bask in the sun? Jiang Baimian sneered in her heart.

Ding Ling was obviously stunned by the question:

"No, you don't need that."

After the mountain bike was fueled, Ding Ling and her subordinates led several members of the "Old Task Force" to the camping ground in a corner of the settlement.

On the way, they encountered some men and women who seemed to be relic hunters.

The reason why Jiang Baimian thought they should be relic hunters was because they had a very different temperament from the residents and soldiers of the settlement itself.

They were more casual, more unscrupulous, didn't care about other people's eyes, and some of them were even standing on the roof of the car, playing music and twisting their bodies, which made Shang Jianyao's eyes shine.

But if they were relic hunters, these were definitely different from those west of Yunshan. They didn't have that special temperament that combined repression and indulgence, nor did they look like they had suffered too much hunger and cold.

After parking the car at the camping ground, Jiang Baimian found Ding Ling and her subordinates and pointed to those people:

"Are they relic hunters?"

"Yes." Ding Ling first nodded, and then, seeing that Long Yuehong and the others had some doubts on their faces, she explained with a smile, "In our 'Salvation Army', not everyone can become a relic hunter."

"Ah?" Shang Jianyao responded cooperatively.

Of course, he was indeed very curious.

"Except for children and the elderly, everyone in our 'Salvation Army' has their own position and responsibilities. How is it possible to say that you can become a relic hunter? You might not believe it, but within our sphere of influence, there are no wilderness vagrants anywhere except in a few deep mountains and those unexplored polluted areas." Ding Ling once again revealed that innate pride.

She explained in detail:

"In the beginning, we didn't welcome this profession at all. There were specialized teams responsible for exploring relics and collecting materials, but later, the urban population became larger and larger, and the original positions gradually became insufficient to allocate. Even after setting up some new ones, it was still not enough, so a batch of willing people were diverted to join the Hunter Guild.

"So, in our 'Salvation Army', you must be approved if you want to be a relic hunter."

This… Long Yuehong was first greatly enlightened, but then, on second thought, he felt that this was no different from a company.

If he and Shang Jianyao and others had not been assigned to the Security Department and approved to have a certain degree of freedom of movement outside, how could they have become relic hunters?

In addition, they can also use the Hunter Guild to obtain basic intelligence from various places in the Greylands... Jiang Baimian thought about the changes of the "Salvation Army" from another perspective.

Ding Ling glanced at those relic hunters and said in a slightly complicated tone:

"These people always like to mock us for being old-fashioned and conservative, but they don't think about who provides them with food when they don't gain anything from exploration, who makes them not have to worry too much about robbers in the wild? It's their families, it's us regular troops!"

Her subordinates seemed to share the captain's feelings and nodded one after another.

At this moment, several relic hunters ran out from a certain place in the settlement and shouted loudly:

"There are clues about the two internal spies!"