Lu Xin thought a lot in his mind, and he completely gave up the idea of persuading Ye Xiao. He was a vested interest, and he must be on the same page with Lin Tan. It would be better to stabilize him first and make plans after he left here.
So what he said was: "I misunderstood, I saw it wrongly, this has nothing to do with Lin Tantan, you have a good fate, it is normal for you to create a foundation."
Ye Xiao raised his eyebrows slightly. The man's eyes did not say that. He could feel that the other party seemed to have gone through a violent struggle after seeing him, and then said such a reluctant words. He did not miss the vigilance, caution, and even the flash of murderous intent in the other party's eyes.
Ye Xiao was very sensitive to people's hostility. Lu Xin was too young to tell lies in front of him. He stepped forward and asked, "What do you want to do?"
Lu Xin said: "I didn't mean to do anything. I made a mistake."
Ye Xiao looked at him carefully, stood up, and had a gun in his hand. He stretched out his arm and pointed it at his forehead with a click. His voice was cold: "You didn't come all the way from Jinshi just to say a few unpleasant words. How did you originally plan to deal with us? In other words, how do you plan to deal with us? Do you have any accomplices?"
Lu Xin's body stiffened: "No, I don't want to deal with anyone, and I don't have any accomplices."
After a moment of stalemate, Ye Xiao put down the gun: "Since you don't want to tell the truth, just stay here honestly." He was about to leave, and Lu Xin was anxious: "I have already apologized, it was really my misunderstanding, you can't keep me locked up, you have no right!"
Ye Xiao turned around and looked at the man who seemed to have not figured out the situation yet: "If you dare to come to my territory, you should be prepared to never return. Do you think you can leave without a care in the world after you said that my deputy captain is a thief?"
As for power? In this era, the weak are not qualified to talk about power.
You are weak and don't stay in your own nest. You run to other people's fields and talk nonsense, and even gather a group of animals to do something. How do you think you can get away with it
After Ye Xiao came out, he asked Qin Han: "Have you asked He Fan to come and see him? Does he have any special abilities?"
"I've seen it. He Fan said he has special powers. I can't tell what kind it is, and it shouldn't be strong. But I've never seen him use it, and I can't detect it with a detector. When I asked him, he just said he didn't have any special powers. I don't know if his special powers are too weak and he can't use them."
Ye Xiao said: "Then keep asking, find out how capable he is, how many people like him he knows, and where is that woman?"
"She was an ordinary person, she didn't have any special abilities, but I was able to get some information out of her."
The mysterious organization in Jin City started out as a group of just a dozen people with mutant beasts around them. Later, it gathered many like-minded people. Some of these people had their pets mutated before the apocalypse, or they tamed the mutant beasts after the apocalypse.
There are also special ones. For example, if one was a beast tamer before the apocalypse, he would be able to tame more mutant beasts after the apocalypse. Or, one may have a natural affinity for animals, or even have the supernatural power of being able to communicate with mutant beasts in a simple way.
This group was not in Jinshi at first. It was Lu Xin who calculated that Jinshi was the last place protected by the dragon veins and would be the future heart of the country, so they moved there.
However, not long after arriving in Jinshi, Jinshi not only did not get better, but became more and more chaotic and dark. Zombies did not avoid each other, talented people did not appear, and even the water source became gradually turbid. The crops planted in the fields grew wilted. There was no sign of a beautiful and talented place. Let alone becoming a pure land where people could live and work in peace and contentment, it became difficult to survive in it.
This was different from what had been agreed, so Lu Xin started to calculate again and found that the general situation in the world was greatly different from what he had expected. Originally, most of the luck should have been gathered in the north, but now the chaos in the north was still serious. However, there was an unexpectedly thriving base in the south.
So I thought someone was using some evil magic to take away my good fortune.
Ye Xiao sneered: "Nonsense!"
They went to Jinshi and did nothing, holding a so-called dragon vein as a sword of authority, waiting for a pie in the sky to drop for them, and when it didn't come, they thought someone else had stolen the pie? It's ridiculous!
Qin Han also thought these people were quite funny. He said, "This Lu Xin is called the master by them. His status is very special. And that girl is the owner of the tabby cat. The cat can summon a group of beasts. The girl's status in the organization is also quite high. If the two of them are caught, the organization will not let it go."
"Then let them come." They can only hide in Jinshi. They haven't achieved anything in such a long time. What can they achieve
Ye Xiao has no prejudice against incompetent people, but he is very dissatisfied with those who make a fuss about incompetence and think that others are blocking their way. If that organization comes over, he doesn't mind teaching them a lesson.
Putting aside this unpleasant episode, the development of Zhengyang Brigade was still very smooth.
The most important thing now is farming. They have food for the winter, but as soon as winter is over they will have to hit the road. They have no food on the road yet, so they can only hope that the fields continue to grow. Therefore, farming cannot be stopped even in winter.
The number of people in the planting team increased immediately. Not only did they transfer a lot of people from other teams, but they also hired people from outside. Some of these people built greenhouses, some loosened the soil, some selected seeds, and some expanded the planting area. The fertilizer team also became busy, constantly producing fertilizers and collecting feces to make organic fertilizers.
In December, the Ning City Base welcomed a large number of refugees. The base could no longer sustain the increase in number and was unable to accept so many newcomers. After a group of refugees who entered the base killed a family of indigenous people for food and shelter, which aroused public anger, the base leadership issued a notice that they would no longer accept refugees.
Liu Wen came from a base 500 kilometers away. He was a white-collar worker before the apocalypse and a complete weakling. After the apocalypse, he did not awaken any special powers, but his strength inexplicably increased a lot. Relying on brute force, he took his parents to escape from the disaster-stricken area of their hometown and came to a base. After the base fell into chaos due to the food crisis, he decisively took his parents away.
Heard that the Ning City base was a very reliable base with powerful psychics, as well as a five-element psychic who was said to be very powerful. He and many others wanted to go there, so they set off together.
It was not an easy journey. With his elderly parents, Liu Wen was under a lot of pressure and lived every day very cautiously. He set out on the road before dawn just to walk a little further and reach the Ningshi base a day earlier.
But even so, they still encountered several waves of zombies. The team of thousands of people became smaller and smaller, with people leaving or dying every day. In the end, there were only two or three hundred people left. His father was also separated from them in a zombie attack and was drowned in the zombie horde.
Liu Wen came to the Ning City Base with his mother on his back. When he saw the tall city, he almost cried. However, this was not the end. They were told that from December, the Ning City Base would no longer accept survivors unconditionally, unless they were able to pay the high admission material standards or were superpowers.
Not to mention the first condition, few people can meet it. The second condition is quite exciting, but a psychic can only bring one ordinary person in. However, the leaders of the Ning City base also know that it is not easy for everyone, and agree to let people build temporary residences outside the city wall and let them spend the winter under the wall.
Liu Wen's heart sank. Looking at the tightly closed door, he was extremely desperate. He was not a person with special powers, so he naturally could not take his mother in. There were people with special powers among his companions, and there were many relatives or friends around him who were playing out palace intrigues and scheming for favor. The one who was alone became the most sought-after one, and every ordinary person tried every means to get in.
Liu Wen brought his mother silently to a group of shacks of some size at the foot of the city. After obtaining the consent of the locals, he built an even more shabby small house next to the shacks that seemed like they would be blown down by a gust of wind, using picked up branches, plastic boards, rags, foam boxes and other things, and lived there.
He was worried about his mother being left alone in the house, so he took her out every day. They went out to look for food and pick up all kinds of rags that could be used. They tried to avoid people as much as possible. If they encountered a group of several people, the things they had worked hard to obtain would most likely be robbed. If they encountered the natives of the Ning City base, they would probably be beaten even if they had nothing in their hands, because these people hated outsiders like them.
The weather is getting colder and the food will become less and less, so these people hate those who come from other places to compete with them for resources and are "poor people who exude cruel and evil aura and have vicious hearts."
But at the same time, as the weather grew colder, more and more refugees came to the base, and there were more and more dilapidated shacks on the city wall, almost all of them were built along the city wall. Those who came later could only settle down in more peripheral areas.
There were new residents outside Liu Wen’s house, but he did not feel safe because he knew that any random wave of zombies could tear them all to pieces.
Moreover, this winter, he and his mother had almost no warm clothes. How could they survive safely in that shabby house with wind blowing in from all sides
Ye Xiao was also thinking about this problem. The number of refugees outside the base had already gathered to hundreds of thousands, far exceeding the estimated number. If no proper way to resettle them was found, these people themselves would become a source of trouble.
"Ye Xiao." Lin Tantan waved his hand in front of him, "What are you thinking about so seriously?"
Ye Xiao smiled and said, "I'm thinking about the refugees outside."
"Oh, I heard about it too. It seemed like a new group of people came yesterday. There seem to be a lot of small bases that can't hold on recently." Lin Tan Tan said as he hung a sweater on the clothesline.
The weather is nice today, and it is likely to be a rare sunny day before winter. She took out all of last year's winter clothes, intending to dry them in the sun and then bake them to remove the odor.
Lin Tantan has a lot of old winter clothes. Physically speaking, she is not very afraid of the cold, but asking her not to wear warm clothes on cold days is like asking her not to sleep at night. She would feel miserable.
But today she wanted to see which clothes were not needed and eliminate them and give them to others. Clothing resources were extremely tight right now, and countless people did not have enough warm clothes to wear during the winter. She did not want to monopolize too many by herself.
Ye Xiao made time to come over and help her sort out her clothes. He took out a puffy coat from the bag and said, "Well, most of them are bases along the coast. There are more and more mutant creatures in the sea recently, and they are all huge and ferocious. The bases close to the sea can't hold on. Many bases inland near rivers are also migrating."
Lin Tantan took the pink-gray jacket, looked at it, and said he didn't want it anymore. He asked, "So what are your plans? Do you want to do something?"
Ye Xiao said: "I'm still considering it."
Lin Tan laughed. He said that usually when he considers something, he is not considering whether to do it or not, but how to do it well.
She rested her chin on the clothesline: "What's the problem?"
"If I want to take care of this matter, I will do it to the end, and then I will take these people with me." Ye Xiao said.
He talked to Lu Jianping, and the old guy became more smooth-talking. He talked about his own difficulties and said that the population of the base had now grown to 6.5 to 6 million, which was too many and that he could not afford any more.
The lives of the refugees are lives, but the lives of the people in the base are also lives. He can't take care of both sides, so he can only choose the people in the base.
If Ye Xiao sympathizes with the refugees outside and wants to take them in, Lu Jianping agrees and supports it. He would also be happy if they could make less noise. But if Ye Xiao does that, he will have to take responsibility to the end, and when they go to Liang City, they must take everyone away.
Ye Xiao also understood what Lu Jianping and his team were thinking. Ningshi Base had long been full of people, and they did not welcome refugees at all. However, because they were restricted from entering, the refugees might have a lot of resentment towards the base, so the base would rather let these people die outside, die in this winter.
If the Zhengyang Brigade is willing to take them in, although things like refugee riots are unlikely to happen, their survival rate will be greatly improved. By then, the Zhengyang Brigade will just walk away, leaving behind these people who are hostile to the base, which will inevitably cause trouble.
What Ye Xiao was worried about was the problem of taking so many people on the journey together.
Now, there are nearly 40,000 official members in the Zhengyang Brigade, and the number should reach 50,000 by March next year. The rest have expressed their desire to follow them openly or secretly. By then, the total number of people who may follow them should be estimated at about 200,000. He is confident that he can lead 300,000 people across several provinces and arrive in Liang City safely, but it is hard to say how many more people there will be.
Moreover, the number of refugees has been increasing.
Lin Tan Tan said, "Then train them. You know this. Give them military training so that they follow orders. Those who don't obey will be punished, and those who do well will be rewarded. For those with bad behavior and those who like to steal, fight and kill, set up a strict punishment system to restrain them."
She lay on the clothesline and thought: "And food, this is indeed a big problem. What we produce from the land is definitely not enough to feed so many people, so let's produce nutrients."
Ye Xiao raised his eyebrows: "Nutrients? Do you mean to learn from some bases to produce artificial protein?"
"Yes, artificial protein, synthetic meat, and then add some vitamins and amino acids to maintain the necessary nutrition." Lin Tantan said, "I heard that some bases will specially raise some fast-growing and fast-reproducing insects as a source of protein. This method is also very good, but you have to find non-toxic, healthy and nutritious ones, and the production process must be transparent and hygienic."
Some unscrupulous bases launched some nutritious meals, but they turned out to be black cakes made with cockroaches, mosquitoes and the like. They were not sterilized or cleaned, and many people died or got sick from eating them. Of course, they cannot do this.
Ye Xiao's expression was a little strange. He didn't really want to eat insects, but this method was indeed worth considering.
"Also, don't we produce some vegetable leaves, vegetable stems, meat scraps and so on every day? We either feed them to livestock or fertilize the fields. In fact, those things can be eaten by people, but they don't look good and are too ugly to be made into dishes. Those can be used as raw materials for nutritional supplements. Oh, and I went to the vole shed to see that the voles were so beautiful. We don't like to eat them, but now we give them to others as rewards and compensation. Vole meat can be added to nutritional supplements."
The more Lin Tantan thought about it, the more he felt that there were many ways. As long as the technology was advanced, there would be things everywhere that could be processed into nutritional supplements.
She thought: "Now that the food problem has been solved, we can still have all kinds of daily necessities. Most refugees don't have much property, and there aren't many things left in the city. Ye Xiao, can we build some factories to produce things? If we can build factories that make airplanes, there's no reason why we can't build factories that make daily necessities, right?"
Ye Xiao looked at her with a smile and said, "That makes sense. Let's have a meeting later."
The result of the meeting was, of course, the approval of these proposals.
Although everyone is not very willing to play with refugees, it would be nice if they could be subdued. Ningshi Base does not need population anymore, but their Zhengyang Brigade does.
As for production, as long as the refugees are obedient, that would be hundreds of thousands of laborers. Why worry about not having people to work
So the nutrient factory was set up immediately after the meeting. Relevant food chemistry talents were recruited, the necessary equipment and materials were prepared one by one, and the raw materials were also obtained.
The first batch of nutritional supplements had a variety of flavors. The raw materials included the vegetable leaves and stems mentioned by Lin Tantan, scraps and offal from the slaughterhouse, minced vole meat, and a batch of large radishes that were harvested in the summer but not very popular, so they were still piled up in the warehouse.
Natural and artificial proteins.
These materials are either paired in pairs or mixed together. The new factory masters who do not have much experience mix them in different proportions and follow different processes, experimenting while making them. The nutrients they produce are liquid, solid, semi-solid, clear and transparent, and turbid.
They may be a little ugly, but they are hygienic and safe and will definitely not harm you if eaten.
It’s just that taste... As the one who proposed the suggestion, Lin Tantan also went to watch, and then picked a translucent jelly-like cake that looked the most reliable, took a bite, and then his face distorted.
People who tried the crabs like her had strange expressions on their faces, and some of them sighed quietly, saying that it is not easy for refugees.
To eat something so disgusting.
Think about it, this is still normal material, and there is a group of people looking for suitable insects.
They will be more sympathetic to the current refugees and their future compatriots, and will be less dissatisfied with the need to mobilize such a large force on their behalf.
The first batch of nutrients was rushed out of the factory. Outside, Ye Xiao did not directly announce that the Zhengyang Brigade would accept refugees, but said that the Zhengyang Brigade would expand the new area, and refugees who were willing to work could sign up. The workers would provide lunch and dinner, with one to two nutrient supplements per meal, depending mainly on the labor efficiency.
The refugees were naturally excited and signed up enthusiastically, but many of them were scared away by the strange nutrient supplement.
Liu Wen was one of those who went to apply for the job. He was told, like everyone else, that the nutritional supplements produced by the Zhengyang Brigade were still in the trial stage and not yet good enough, but the ingredients were absolutely safe. If they could not accept them, they should raise the issue and they would not force them, but they would not give out other food either.
Liu Wen took a look at the formula list displayed and felt that it was quite reliable. He then tasted the nutrient solution fearlessly. It really looked like snot as others had said, and the color was a bit strange. It was said that it was because vole meat paste was added
He thought that the taste was not very good, but not as bad as expected. He could even taste the flavor of white radish, which was fresh and refreshing.
Liu Wen hesitated for only a second before deciding to take the job. There was no other way. Food was becoming increasingly difficult to find, and the weather was getting colder. He didn't want to take his mother around to look for food every day. That would be too tiring for his mother.
Liu Wen passed the recruitment smoothly. On the first day, he was assigned to dig ditches. He was strong and dug quickly, so he received two nutrient supplements.
The nutritional supplement was vacuum-packed in a relatively thin transparent bag. After receiving the two portions at noon, he ate one. To his surprise, the nutritional supplement had a bad slogan and looked ugly, but it had a good filling effect. He only ate one portion, which was about half a bowl of ordinary rice, and he was not very hungry until three o'clock in the afternoon.
When the work was finished in the evening, the foreman came to see the trench he had dug, and generously gave him two nutrient supplements. He smiled and patted his shoulder and said, "Good work, keep coming tomorrow. By the way, come earlier tomorrow, and you will get breakfast after working for an hour. You can get a nutrient supplement, which is a benefit. Also, you can bring your own container in the future, so that the amount can be a little larger than this vacuum-packed one."
Liu Wen was very happy. He left the construction site with three nutrient supplements. His mother was already waiting not far away. Her hunched body shivered in the evening breeze, and her face was full of concern and anxiety: "Ah Wen, how is the job? Are you being bullied? Are you really getting food?"
"Mom, let's go back and talk." The mother and son returned to their small, shabby house with drafts on all sides. Liu Wen took out three nutritional supplements and told them what happened today. Mother Liu was very happy. The mother and son pushed each other to share the nutritional supplements, leaving one for each.
That night, both mother and child were full of food and in a good mood, so they had a rare good night's sleep.
The next morning, the two of them shared the remaining nutrient tablet. Liu Wen only ate a little bit as a token of his gratitude, as he would get breakfast later. His mother wanted to save some for him, but he refused, as it was not safe to keep food on his body in this environment.
In this way, Liu Wen started working on the construction site. After a few days, he felt that the Zhengyang Brigade was indeed as reliable as the rumors said, so he asked the foreman if there was a job suitable for Liu's mother.
He asked apprehensively, but the foreman answered readily: "Yes, there are many. The food factory still needs people. It is said that many factories will be established in a while. I tell you, the people in these work bases are also scrambling to work, but our leaders only want people from outside."
Liu Wen seemed to realize something. He had also felt that the treatment here was abnormally good. It was not that he was a masochist and was bribed by a few nutritional supplements a day. It was that the refugees all realized the benefits of this job and rushed to work. Almost everyone was accepted here, and the remuneration remained the same.
Even if the pay was halved, there would still be many people rushing to work there.
He seemed to be trying to do some charity work in lieu of relief.
He asked, "Why are you looking for someone outside?"
The foreman smiled but said nothing, but revealed another more shocking news: "In the future, more and more people will come to work, and small foremen like me will definitely not be enough. Everyone in the team has their own responsibilities. Even if they are demoted, it is impossible for them to start from such a small position." As he said that, he patted Liu Wen on the shoulder.
Liu Wen's heart began to beat fast. Did this mean that he also had a chance to become a foreman
He immediately worked harder and successfully took his mother to apply for a job as a female worker in a food factory. From then on, the mother and son no longer had to worry about food. Later, Liu Wen was indeed promoted to a small foreman, and his salary became better and better. He even became one of the first people to be allocated a house after the first batch of houses were built on the construction site. He was envied by countless people and became a role model for countless refugees.
In early January, after the wall of the new construction site outside the planting area of Zhengyang Brigade was built, two large auto repair shops were built inside. The team's cars were towed in for repairs, and usable cars were also found from outside cities, which created many more jobs.
In addition to cars, some small factories were also set up to make clothes, shoes, tents, backpacks, waterproof cloth, water bottles, ropes, manual generators, solar generators, and everything that could no longer be found in the city or was running out, and they had to learn to make it themselves. So new groups emerged, and pre-apocalyptic craftsmanship was picked up again, and professional teams were established.
Because of her good sewing skills, Liu's mother was assigned to the clothing and shoe factory. Because of her hard work and diligence, she was soon promoted to team leader of a small group.
With more and more jobs available, more and more refugees were put to work and came under the jurisdiction of the Zhengyang Brigade. Later, people called this period the first period of rapid development of the Zhengyang Base and one of the easiest times for members to be promoted.
Lu Xin, who was locked in a solitary cell, had no idea what was happening outside, but he could see that the luck of the Ning City base was gradually weakening, while the luck of the Zhengyang Brigade was getting stronger and stronger.
This Zhengyang Brigade is so weird. How could Lin Tantan’s ability to absorb other people’s luck be so strong
His expression became more and more solemn day by day. The wrinkles on his face, which had become thinner due to Qin Han's daily torture, became deeper and deeper, as if he was facing the most severe and difficult problem.
Qin Han couldn't understand him more and more as he saw that he looked worried about the country and the people all day long, as if the sky was about to fall.
Is this guy mentally ill? The "torture" that works so well on others doesn't work on him.
Zhang Jiujiu also tried to brainwash him, but it was useless.
This person seems to have his own firm beliefs. His thinking is different from that of ordinary people and he simply won't listen to anything.
"When will you let me go?" Lu Xin asked again, grabbing the iron bars. He seemed to be on the verge of collapse after being locked up for so long, and his expression was anxious and gloomy.
Qin Han said, "When can you say something useful, we'll consider it."
Lu Xin stared at him coldly and turned back. Qin Han felt something was wrong. He didn't see him move for the whole afternoon. He went to knock on the door at dinner time, but he didn't come to get the meal. The person who delivered the meal looked inside and shouted, "Team leader, he's dead! He's dead!"