Chapter 148: The Wasteland Caravan

From Xie Han's perspective, the entire late October and early November proceeded with remarkable smoothness. First, Zhou Ruomeng finally announced her resignation as the president of the American Chinese Company to assume the presidency of the Hong Kong Yuke Biopharmaceutical Company. Subsequently, leveraging her years of connections, she poached several seasoned teams and began assembling the biopharmaceutical enterprise. The company focused primarily on acquiring pharmaceutical plants and carrying out technical retrofitting on them, with production expected to commence by early December.

Putting aside modern society for a moment, under Xu Qiang's leadership, the hunting brigade's harvest grew increasingly abundant. Within a month, utilizing the mobility of automobiles, they swept through almost all towns with populations under fifty thousand within a two-hundred-kilometer radius. Supplies piled up in the storage facilities of the experimental base, but more importantly, many of these towns possessed moderately scaled factories. Given ample time, Xu Qiang unhesitatingly hauled them back.

Throughout early November, more than a dozen factories were successively established in the New City, spanning hardware manufacturing, daily necessities, and other sectors. The arrival of this factory equipment greatly alleviated the shortage of livelihood supplies in the New City. Daily necessities like toothpaste finally made their way into thousands of households. According to the plan, when these relocated factories were fully established, their numbers would reach over sixty. What brought a sigh of relief to Xie Han was that, provided an adequate power supply to the New City, these factories possessed a high degree of automation and digitization, requiring relatively few workers. Otherwise, the current population of the New City would fall short of the demand. On another front, the earthen kilns would be progressively shut down before December, as Xu Qiang's efforts had finally succeeded in retrieving three modern brick-making plants from the apocalypse. Though not massive in scale, these plants were incomparably superior to earthen kilns. In particular, their brick production cycle took merely two and a half hours to complete steps that required three and a half days in an earthen kiln. Moreover, their single-batch output reached five thousand bricks. The combined daily output of the three brick plants was projected to reach one hundred twenty thousand bricks.

Like the other facilities, apocalyptic brick plants did not require a large workforce. Compared to the earthen kilns, each of which demanded over a thousand workers, these brick plants—equipped with extensive machinery and requiring only dozens of personnel—would free up a vast amount of human resources in the New City, allowing them to be deployed to new workstations.

For the New City, a policy of blindly plundering town resources would undoubtedly echo the defunct development model of the Wangtian Base. Therefore, at Xie Han's repeated insistence, the New City also occupied two small mineral plants and one coal mine located a little over a hundred kilometers to the north, beginning the inflow of raw materials into the New City. After processing through a small steel-refining plant and an oil refinery, the New City finally achieved small-scale self-sufficiency in metallic materials and industrial coal, significantly easing the metal demand pressure placed on the New City by the manufacturing sector.

The residential zones planned for the New City were also completed and put into use successively over a period of two months. Consequently, everyone in the New City moved into brand-new houses and new homes. According to the original regulations, these residences were built in the style of modern villa communities, ranging from a minimum of two stories to a maximum of three. They uniformly featured red tiles from the brick plant, and residents were required to plant various trees and vegetation in their vacant courtyards.

Driven by this mandatory regulation, once the entire residential area was completed, a glance from the guard towers along the high walls revealed an endless expanse of red-roofed villa residences. These red roofs were dotted with patches of green foliage. Along the various dividing paths, elderly people and children in their early teens could occasionally be seen playing. Lighting systems along the pathways were also being intensively installed; once completed, the entire residential district would glow brightly through the night. No matter who witnessed this scene, it was impossible to associate it with the chaotic era of the apocalypse.

Of course, this was merely the first phase of the residential zone project. Currently, the entire residential area occupied fewer than twenty thousand housing plots, leaving vast room for development compared to the initial blueprint's projection of thirty thousand residential plots for the first phase. Moreover, a second residential zone had already been scheduled for planning. Its location would be established on a vast expanse of sandy gravel adjacent to various mountain ridges. This site selection maximally ensured that the New City's arable land area would not be compromised by residential land use.

The former civilian base now began its relocation and clearance; its area of five square kilometers would be completely rebuilt according to the planning map previously provided by Xie Han. After reserving two square kilometers for a government plaza, the remaining space would be entirely dedicated to the construction of administrative office buildings.

Following a proposal by Chu Tianhe, the Chief of Logistics, the gold stored in the gold reserves began to be segmented into units of one to ten grams. Furthermore, the New City's labor-point system was abolished and replaced with a new labor law to safeguard the interests of every individual. However, wages began to be paid in a format of half food and half gold, aiming to stimulate economic activity through gold, form a monetary circulation, and accelerate the New City's economic construction.

For the New City, all current factories and enterprises were controlled and managed by the New City administration. While this gold appeared to be disbursed, through the consumption made by every citizen, the gold would ultimately find its way back into the hands of the New City. The New City leveraged this virtuous cycle to achieve the goal of invigorating its economy. In Xie Han's words, it was merely passing gold from the left hand to the right.

Regarding population growth, through the efforts of Amu and An Xiaowei, who agitated several small gathering points facing economic hardship—where people struggled to secure even a single meal a day—the population of the New City finally rose to over forty thousand. Out of wariness toward the New City's terrifying plundering capacity, several large gathering points had nearly come to blows with Amu's vehicle convoy on multiple occasions. In response, Xie Han had no choice but to halt Amu's operations of this nature. After all, the New City's current objective was the surrounding area of Wangtian City; until Wangtian City was fully integrated, there was no need to spark friction with factions from other cities.

The New City resembled a massive construction site, transforming with every passing moment. The bustling factories guaranteed every New City citizen a job. The quiet, tidy residential villa communities provided every laboring citizen with a comfortable resting haven. It could be said that the current cohesion of the New City was utterly incomparable to the past. Xie Han also believed that under any crisis, the citizens of the New City would rise up in resistance to defend their homeland.

Driven by the need for the New City's future development, gritting his teeth, the military was expanded to ten thousand personnel, divided into three regiments. The first regiment was assigned to safeguard the security of the New City, the second regiment was tasked with hunting, and the third regiment served as a mobile backup force. Since raw materials like artillery shells could not be acquired casually like livelihood supplies, a two-month reserve had yielded fewer than two hundred artillery shells. Rocket-propelled grenades could not be produced at all due to equipment limitations.

The entire New City currently appeared to be operating virtuously. However, after consulting several economists through modern channels, the feedback Xie Han received was that this operational model could only yield short-term results. If maintained long-term, potential flaws and various hidden dangers would surface successively. A closed economy would only become increasingly backward—just like why China had strived so hard and paid a certain price to join the World Trade Organization back in the day.

Therefore, Xie Han raised this issue at the core meeting, immediately plunging everyone into deep thought. Having spent nearly half a year groping their way forward, the experience of everyone present was incomparable to the past. With just a single prompt from Xie Han, the others immediately grasped the underlying logic.

"You should all know that the factories we are successively putting into production are currently in an almost semi-stagnant state. Why is that? It is because the market of our New City is too small. Even if every person purchases a single unit of a product, given the scale of the factories, running them for just half a month is enough to completely saturate the New City market. More importantly, while our gold reserves can certainly activate our New City economy, this is not a long-term solution. Citizens can spend their wages for the first and second months, but once there is nothing left to acquire, all the gold will simply be hoarded by them. Over time, our New City will inevitably face the awkward predicament of having no circulating currency to use. Furthermore, we do not yet possess the conditions to establish a bank."

What Xie Han stated was not alarmist talk. He continued, "If it reaches that point, and our New City can no longer even afford to pay wages, what will the consequences be? Someone once suggested stopping the distribution of food and gold and simply having our New City provide for their room and board instead. However, this approach is like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs; it will only lead our New City toward decline. We cannot imitate other rulers, because our stance differs from theirs."

"Yet how should we resolve this predicament?" Qi Flywu played with the palmtop computer resting before her. With the increase in harvests, palmtop computers of this sort, which had achieved widespread penetration in the apocalypse, had long been distributed to every administrative official, with surplus units even kept for sale.

The issue raised by Qi Flywu was something Xie Han had also considered, and he already possessed a vague blueprint. He stated, "To resolve this predicament, the key lies in trade. Through trade, products from two different regions can undergo mutual circulation and complement one another. Around Wangtian City, there are as many as seventeen gathering points, housing a surviving population of nearly six hundred to seven hundred thousand. This is a massive market. However, the gathering points are closed off from one another. Engaging in trade undoubtedly requires immense strength as a backing, as well as peerless courage to shatter this stalemate."

Xie Han's plan truly exceeded everyone's expectations. Chen Liu expressed concern, asking, "Are you saying that our New City should form a trading team to conduct commerce with various gathering points? Wouldn't that be too dangerous? Besides, from my perspective, our New City's advantages in front of them only amount to a little bit. What will we use to trade?"

Xie Han smiled and said, "Perhaps you still do not truly understand the New City. Don't look at the fact that we only have a little over forty thousand people and ten thousand soldiers. When real strength is calculated, we are far beyond what they can compare to. First, regarding weapons, everyone knows how strict the former government's management of firearms was, making it difficult for civilians to own guns. Consequently, their military equipment is relatively backward and scarce. Our New City's foundation is the Wangtian Base, and the vast majority of our weapons are standard military-issue gear. Moreover, we can produce our own weapons. With our current reserve of over three thousand machine guns of various types and twenty thousand assault rifles, we have left them far behind."

"This doesn't even account for our various artillery pieces and our military strength. By comparison, our New City's strength is equivalent to a gathering place of around one hundred thousand people. In truth, trade is a form of invasion. In the apocalypse, surviving humans are dwindling. Four years ago, there might have been seven or eight billion survivors, but over these past four years, amid zombie sieges, starvation, and other harsh conditions, surviving humans have become scarcer by the day. Think about it: even if we possess military might, can we simply rely on it to occupy and plunder more populations? Amid such mutual slaughter, what will even the victor ultimately obtain?"

"I have always believed that when it comes to the plundering of populations and the occupation of human gathering points, force is not necessarily the only way to resolve things. What was the purpose of my establishing the broadcasting station back then? It was to win human hearts. As long as people's hearts yearn for our New City, what we will need to face when the time comes is not an endless sea of civilians, but the rulers of each gathering point. We can annex and absorb other gathering points at a minimal cost."

"The broadcasting station merely gives them an impression, whereas establishing our New City's trading system will deepen their understanding of the New City and genuinely ignite an impulse within their hearts to live such a good life. When that impulse takes hold, do you think the sudden eruption of power from tens of thousands of citizens can be suppressed by a mere few thousand armed personnel? I imagine that even among the armed forces, under our New City's material offensive, the number of turncoats will not be small."

The unveiling of Xie Han's series of plans left everyone drawing in a cold breath. This terrifying soft knife was countless times more brilliant than guns and ammunition. No wonder during the historical Cold War era, the number of lives claimed by this economic soft knife far exceeded that of World War II. One only needed to think of the complete collapse of the Soviet Union to understand the true potency of this soft knife!

Seeing the shocked expressions on everyone's faces, Xie Han knew his plan had dealt them a profound impact. "Of course, reaching this step cannot be accomplished in a short time. Moreover, in this apocalypse, our New City is not the only entity developing. There may be bases with immense strength that abandoned their former territories long ago and entrenched themselves in smaller cities. How should we cope with these clustered cities? In reality, this requires our New City to continuously grow stronger and crush them with an economy superior to theirs."

"This planning cycle is very, very long. However, I believe that for the surroundings of Wangtian City, this plan may take a year or two to take effect. As long as we unify the population and material resources of the entire Wangtian City by then, under unified coordination and integration, our New City will possess sufficient strength to shake all the zombies within Wangtian City. Therefore, for this objective, our New City must establish a trading department and organize our trading convoys."

At this point, Xie Han seemed to recall something and added, "During this period, we do not rule out the possibility that some disloyal rulers will grow envious of our New City, raid our trading convoys, or even daringly attack our New City. Therefore, we must formulate an emergency response plan so that if such an event truly occurs, our New City will not be thrown into chaos."

The prospects of this plan were far too alluring; no one could refuse it. As long as it succeeded, the New City could unify the entire Wangtian City without shedding blood. Precisely because of this, at Xie Han's proposal, the New City Apocalyptic Caravan was officially established. Given the dangers of the first trading expedition, Xie Han did not wish for any casualties among personnel during this high-speed development phase of the New City, so he strongly insisted on leading the team personally. After all, his abilities could provide a reaction time when danger struck.

Once the establishment of the Apocalyptic Caravan was confirmed, the entire New City sprang into bustling activity. First was the creation of the New City Mechanical Maintenance Department, with Yang Huayuan personally serving as the department head, responsible for conducting a comprehensive inspection of all New City vehicles and beginning to train maintenance personnel to bolster the New City's logistical capabilities.

Regarding vehicle selection, the undisputed entry was the Wild Base Command Vehicle, which possessed terrifying firepower. The reason was simple: while its speed was somewhat sluggish, its firepower could guarantee the safety of the Apocalyptic Caravan. Also selected were five modified Hummer Kings retrofitted with eight-barrel heavy machine guns, along with five armored vehicles. Even the forty cargo trucks were uniformly modified, with a machine gunner equipped on the roof of every single vehicle.

Humans were not zombies; they possessed diverse emotions. Against such firepower, it was enough to deter assaults by forces under five thousand personnel and instill a psychological panic within them.

The final preparations involved all the products of the New City—from livelihood goods to military-grade bullets, anything possessed by the New City was listed. However, the primary trading target remained vegetables. The New City was at closest a little over two hundred kilometers away from other gathering points, and at furthest under five hundred kilometers. Calculated out, this distance was sufficient to ensure the vegetables remained fresh. To be safe, the New City racked its brains over preservation technology. It could be said that these vegetables would absolutely show no signs of rotting or yellowing within three to four days.

Regarding firearm ammunition, everyone initially opposed listing it as a trading commodity due to the obvious crisis it could bring to the New City. Yet in Xie Han's view, he was not selling firearms, but mere bullets, reducing the risk to a minimal level. Furthermore, while items like food and daily necessities held prospects, one must not forget that high-value items like gold within gathering points were generally concentrated mostly in the hands of rulers.

Expecting them to bleed heavily relying solely on the first two categories was completely unrealistic. Only weaponry—this fundamental pillar of survival—was what rulers desired most. For this sake, even if it meant bleeding, they would be more than willing to hand over their gold in exchange for these gleaming bullets.

(The horn to unify Wangtian City has sounded; cast your monthly tickets for this book! Thank you! PS: The chat groups are full, but many friends are still applying. I am making a special note here: because Tencent is upgrading its group system, new groups cannot be created at the moment. Friends wishing to join, please wait a short while. As soon as a new group can be created, I will immediately post it in the book introduction and chapter notes. Thank you all for your support!)