Chapter 303 This is obviously not something that people do

   If he hadn't been convinced that he didn't get the wrong map, Ulun almost thought he had gone the wrong way.

   He was silent for a while, and said in an uncertain tone.

   "...this is Xizhou?"

   "It should be." Dimite nodded, squinting and looking into the distance, "The southern suburb of Xizhou City should have been called Qingshi County before the war."

  The county seat is surrounded by mountains on both sides, under the ridge, surrounded by lush vegetation and overgrown trees.

  There are no high-rise buildings here, only gardens, townhouses and villas. It can be seen that the people who lived here before the war were quite pursuing the quality of life.

There is a highway and a maglev station to the east of   , connecting Xizhou and Qingquan, but now these infrastructures have been arched into a pile of concrete garbage and debris by savage vegetation.

   In the prosperous era of convenient transportation, it was just an inconspicuous small county town, but now it has become the southern gate of Xizhou City.

   Obviously, the Ya clan stationed in Xizhou City also realized this. If they can't deal with their neighbors to the south, at least they have to take good care of their front teeth.

   Looking at it with a telescope, Ulun noticed that there were a lot of looters stationed here, at least one or two thousand troops.

   Not only that, they also reinforced the field.

Half-collapsed townhouses and villas were sealed with wood and aluminum panels, concrete buildings with more than three floors were transformed into bunkers and gun towers, and the streets were filled with barricades made of concrete stones and wooden piles. The windows seem to be hidden sentries, bright or dark.

  The whole town has been transformed into a fortress.

   I didn’t expect this group of rabble to have this ability.

   Demeter couldn't help but glance at them.

   "How do we contact them?"

"use this."

   Ulun answered succinctly, took out the flare gun and fired a shot in the sky.

   A red flare goes up.

   After waiting for a long time, dozens of figures appeared in front of them.

   These people were dressed in animal skins, and many were even topless, looking uncivilized, but without exception, they were holding the sharp weapon of a civilized man—automatic or bolt-action rifles.

   Watched vigilantly at the group of soldiers wearing jet-black exoskeletons, and the ten commander headed stared at Ulun who was walking at the front, and asked cautiously.

   "Who are you?"

   Helmet eyepieces faced him, Ulun took out the iron card to prove his identity, shook it, and answered with a blank face.

   "torch."

   Torch?

   There was a commotion among the looters behind the ten commander, with surprised expressions on their faces, whispering to each other.

   The Ten Commander's face was also full of surprise, but it soon turned to ecstasy.

   "Please come with me!"

   After the two groups of men and horses converged, the group continued on their way.

  The ten commander walked ahead and led the way, and soon led Ulun, Dimit and his party through the checkpoint at the entrance of the county town.

   However, after entering this fortress, Demeter immediately retracted his previous evaluation of these "allies".

   The sanitation here is so bad it's like a **** dump.

  The street is filled with the stench of rotting, corpses and excrement are dumped at will, and rats with big fists roam the streets wantonly, as if they regard this place as their home.

   Dimit lowered his voice and whispered in the communication channel.

   "There may be a plague outbreak here."

  Ulun's gaze roamed the street and replied softly.

   "It's an obvious thing."

   Aware of Ulun's gaze at the corner of the wall, the ten commander who led the way graciously smiled.

   "Never mind, just a few mice... We'll be there soon."

The headquarters of the   ya clan is located in the bluestone department store center on the west side of the county.

In terms of concealment alone, it is definitely not a good idea to use this as a headquarters, however, the building uses a lot of steel structure on the outer wall, and there are two floors of underground commercial area and a garage with direct access to the surface, from a defensive point of view In other words, this is the most suitable choice.

   On the first floor of the department store, Ulun and Dimit met the supreme commander here - Lion Fang.

   "Welcome! Friends from afar! I am the lion's tooth of the Tooth Clan, you can treat this as your own home."

  Lion Fang greeted him with an overjoyed look on his face, and opened his arms to hug his ally, but after seeing the other party's indifference, he changed his embarrassment to a handshake.

   Ulun reached out and shook his hand.

   "Ulun, the apostle of the Son of God."

"I wish the old man good health, please say hello to him for me..." Feeling a trace of unkindness in the eyes of the person in front of him, Lion Fang quickly stopped his lame greeting, and quickly ended the topic with a light cough, "Then Lord Apostle, Excuse me, why did you come here so far?"

   didn't care about his offense, now is not the time for extravagance, Ulun said succinctly.

   "The blue coat in the northern suburbs of Qingquan City took our things, and I need you to help us get them back."

   "Take... your stuff? From the coast of death? That's far enough." Lionfang looked at him in confusion and continued, "May I ask what it is?"

   "A box, and a set of power armor. We need the former. As for the latter, you can take it."

   Power Armor!

  Lionfang's eyes flashed with greed for a moment, but soon he calmed down.

   "They have power armor?"

"Yes," Ulun continued, seeing the hesitation in the eyes of the predator in front of him, "don't worry, that power armor has no shield, so it is a living target with stronger defense. If it appears on the battlefield Come on, just leave it to us to deal with it."

   Hearing this sentence, Lion Fang finally breathed a sigh of relief, and a comfortable smile appeared on his face.

   "Great, my friend, although we caught a few monsters and brown bears with the equipment you provided, but when it comes to power armor... I'm really not sure."

   "It's not the power armor that you need to worry about, it's that these blue jackets have planes."

"airplane?!"

   Those blue jackets have planes? !

   Did Boulder sell them the plane?

  Lion Fang's eyes were full of surprise, and his face was full of disbelief.

impossible……

   That thing is the same as power armor, but everything inherited from before the war, whichever survivor colony is placed, is a treasure.

   What's more, the people from Boulder City were the ones who took over the equipment from the post-war reconstruction committee.

"That's right," Ulun almost squeezed out the second half of the sentence, looking at the surprised Lion Fang, "although it's just a ridiculous propeller plane, it has two machine guns on it after all. Be careful."

  Lionfang looked blank.

He didn't know what a    propeller plane was, but if these people weren't joking, the group of blue jackets in the northern suburbs of Qingquan City might be more troublesome than he imagined.

   "Thank you for your reminder, I will discuss countermeasures with my staff later... how to strengthen our defensive positions."

   "Reinforce the defensive position? How else do you reinforce it? This place is almost turning into a turtle shell," Demeter, who was standing beside him, looked at him in amazement. "Are you planning to continue going south?"

   "Of course we thought that this piece of fat had reached our lips, but we didn't expect that the situation in Xizhou City would be so troublesome."

   With a helpless expression on his face, Lion Fang continued.

"The survivors here are not our opponents, but they sneaked into the subway cunningly, relying on their familiarity with the terrain to fight against us, plus there was a recent outbreak of plague here, those rats were gnawing around like crazy , we're going to sleep and even lock our shoes in the closet... there's no extra energy to go south."

   Ulun's face was a little ugly.

   "How long will it take you to sort out these troubles?"

  Lionfang said in an uncertain tone.

   "Should be ok by this winter."

"It's been too long!" Ulun shook his head, "We can't wait so long! Those blue jackets are absorbing the refugees nearby, and when they gain a firm foothold in the local area, it will become more and more difficult to deal with! Now focus on all your strengths. Destroying them is your only chance, you can't wait for winter."

   A hint of displeasure appeared on Lionfang's face.

   After all, they are just allies, not subordinates. The reason why I respect them so much is because the missionaries of the Torch Church can control the alien species, and those charging monsters, brown bears, and even death claws have helped them solve many difficult opponents.

   In exchange, the Bonebiter tribes allowed them to preach on their own turf, spreading their beliefs to raiders in the Valley Provinces and beyond.

   However, this does not mean that you have to obey their commands.

   Can't wait for winter?

   jokes.

  What is there to fear from a group of refugees.

   He admitted that the group of blue jackets were indeed not weak, but they were limited in number after all.

   In just a few months, the predators who came to defect to them have doubled the size of the Ya clan.

   When autumn comes, their tens of thousands of troops will march together, and a single spit can drown the blue gophers!

"We have our own plans. I can't take my people to die just because you are looking for a broken box. The winter has just passed a few months, and their wheat has only grown a bunch of green shoots. Let's kill them and eat them now. What? Eating turf?"

"What's more, the black snake has already been planted in their hands. I can't deal with those people alone. If you are in a hurry, go to our leader. Lord Jinya is in the urban area of ​​Xizhou. I am stationed here. order, only he has the right to command me!"

   Negotiations failed.

  Lionfang did not hesitate to reject the suggestion made by the Torch Church apostles to go south immediately. He will continue to strengthen the fortifications here, and together with his staff, the entire county will be repaired to the ground.

   But the commander also said that if he got the order of the leader, he would send a centenary to support them.

   A centurion...

   Ulun just smiled after hearing this proposal.

   What can a hundred barbarians do?

   These people are cannon fodder on the battlefield, and they don't seem to have this consciousness at all.

   However, after learning that these people stopped because of the leader's orders, Ulun knew that he might have to meet their leader to convince them to take action.

After    came out of the department store, Demeter glanced at his teammates.

   "Let's go downtown now?"

"Well," Ulun nodded, his index finger swiped in the air, "It's only more than 30 kilometers from here to Xizhou, and we're going along the corridor under the ridge... If we hurry up, we should be there by tomorrow evening. "

   raised his foot and trampled to death a mouse that slipped by his feet. Ulun rubbed the sole of his shoe in disgust, frowning into a ball.

  These **** rats...

Where did    come from?

  …

  Where did these mice come from?

   The strong man is also confused.

   He admits that he may have been a little bit of a catalyst, but that's about it.

  To be honest, there are already many rats and cockroaches in the wasteland, and any corner of the dirt can become a breeding ground for them.

   Those untreated corpses and insufficient numbers of natural enemies are the root causes of the plague.

  Compared with mutant cockroaches, although the mammalian mice are slightly inferior in reproductive ability, they have the upper hand in terms of intelligence and combat power, and soon became the real masters of Xizhou City.

  They move in swarms, gnawing at everything they encounter, whether it's on the surface or underground, predators and survivors have nothing to do with them.

   The difficulty of being a strongman is that he has not tried to restrain his subordinates and clean up the discipline of the team, but found that the set he thought was completely unworkable.

   First of all, the language is different.

   Next, rats are cunning by nature and have no loyalty at all.

   Even the younger brothers who were subdued by him did not always obey his orders, and it was common for them to act against the yin.

   The generator that burns the wood is whimpering, and the thread next to it has been repaired several times.

  These **** mice always gnaw at the end of the wire while he is sleeping, and they electrocute several of them and don't know how to learn their lesson. Fortunately, the radio and the dormant compartment are not bad, otherwise it will be called blood loss.

  The most loyal ones are only those female mice.

   After obtaining enough food and living space under the "artificial intervention" difficult for the strongman, the mice lined up to multiply and frantically expanded the size of the population.

   It's just that their affectionate eyes made the strong man feel a little scared.

  Thank goodness!

   Fortunately, it doesn't have that stuff.

   This is the first time he has come up with an idea, even without a handle...

   "Respect, esteemed administrator... I really didn't do the plague in Xizhou City!"

   A lair under the ruins.

   The strongman standing next to the radio station trembled nervously after hearing the manager's question.

  Although he has been reporting the situation in Xizhou City to the rear, he has selectively concealed the plague, whether on the forum or on the phone.

   He is not afraid of other NPCs, but managers are managers after all.

   This guy has the authority of the GM in the setting, and can physically punish illegal game behavior.

   Who doesn't panic?

   And the ghost knows what punishment logic is AI.

  Aguang has emphasized to them more than once on the forum that there are many problems with the server in the packaging and testing stage. If the GM cancels the packaging and testing qualification, there is no manual appeal and unblocking channel, and the recovered packaging and testing qualification will be inherited by new players.

   A serious voice came from the other end of the phone.

   "I don't mean to blame you, I just want you to tell the truth about the situation there."

  It is difficult for a strongman to know that he can't hide it after all. After hesitating for a while, he finally chooses to explain honestly and tell all the things he had concealed before.

   After listening to the description of the strong man, Chu Guang was dumbfounded for a while.

   This guy is really talented, and he can think of artificial breeding.

  No, it should be said that he is a rat.

   After all, it’s not what people do.

   "...Lord Manager?" Seeing that there was no voice on the other end of the phone, the strong man's heart was even more uneasy.

   "...Cough, nothing, I'm just a little surprised, let me think for a while."

   Time passes by every minute and every second.

  For the strongman, every second is as long as a year.

   Finally, the manager on the other end of the phone spoke again.

"...You have done a good job. The plague has slowed the pace of the Ya clan's southward movement, and it has bought us precious development time. But on the contrary, you really failed to restrain your subordinates. The indiscriminate plague has no effect on the local survivors. The resistance movement has had a serious impact.”

   Strongman said with a look of frustration.

   "You can't really blame me. I tried to restrain them, and they all listened to me on the surface... but one thing in front of me, and another behind my back."

"I know, so I didn't blame you, but I can't publicly commend you," Chu Guang paused and continued, "The new alliance will remember your contributions, but won't acknowledge your credit, we You will be rewarded in other ways, you know what I mean?"

  嗐.

   scared me to death.

   That's it.

   Strongman was relieved.

It doesn't matter if    is a commendation or not, anyway, he doesn't understand what the NPC is saying, it doesn't affect the quest rewards, nor does it affect his pretending to be on the forum.

   And it sounds like you triggered a hidden mission?

   The strong man was not only not disappointed, but became excited, and swore excitedly in his voice.

   "Don't worry, my esteemed administrator, I will be tight-lipped about what I have done! There must be shadows under the light, and I would like to be the sharp blade under your cloak! Clear all obstacles for you!"

  Chu Guang's embarrassed toes quickly cut through the ground.

   But in order to take care of the players' gaming experience, he finally held back, cooperated with this guy's performance, and finished the plot seriously.

"...I'm glad you can think so. From now on, I need you to find out the information on our way forward, and mark the other side's ammunition depot, firepower, command post, military station, as well as dark passages and trenches on the map as much as possible, Cooperate with our ground and air forces to clear out the looters in the area."

   "Can these things be done?"

   The strong man said excitedly: "Don't worry, leave it to me! I can still do this little thing!"

   "Well, I look forward to your good news!" After explaining these things, Chu Guang hurriedly hung up the phone.

   Communication ends.

   Qiangren had a sigh of relief, and the expression on his originally frowning face was now full of happiness.

Up!

   is definitely up!

   Just like the tone of the manager's last few words, the favorability level has definitely increased!

   The little mouse brothers around him chatted for a while. Although he didn't know what the boss was excited about, his plump belly was definitely full of bad water.

   turned to face his younger brothers, and the strongman who couldn't wait to show off stood up straight and shouted in a shrill voice.

   "Little ones, call your brothers up."

   "Follow your grandfather rat to do things!"

  …

  Although mice can't speak, strongmen have their own way.

   Having lived with mice for so long, he has long figured out their living habits and the way they usually exchange information.

  These cunning mice may not strictly follow his orders to die, but there is no problem in helping him detect the enemy.

  Dangerous place means a lot of people, and a place with a lot of metal means that weapons or ammunition may be stored. After confirming the approximate location, he will smell it and take a look in person.

   Even if you don’t find valuable information every time, at least six out of ten times you get something.

   Once he finds a high-value target, he will not do anything immediately, but mark it on the map with VM, and then quietly withdraw.

   At this time, hitting the grass to startle the snake will only make the enemy alert.

   When the war begins, the planes and artillery of the new alliance will give these raiders a big surprise.

   Unaware of what happened under his feet, Lion Fang is further strengthening the position in Qingshi County with the cooperation of Staff Officer Bernie.

   They hid fixed machine guns on the roofs of buildings, used water tanks, power distribution boxes, ventilation ducts and other facilities as bunkers, and installed high-power searchlights on some roofs to search for nearby airspace and mountains at night.

   Of course, Liontooth did not come up with these ideas.

   But he had the Legion's staff in his ranks.

  Although Lion Fang didn't think that those blue coats dared to take the initiative to run over to trouble him, the tragic death of Black Snake taught him a lesson.

   Even if there is only a 1% possibility, he will kill it in his infancy!

  …

   Early April.

   It has been a whole week since the high-level meeting of the Northern Expedition Plan.

  Dawn City is like a running water pump, madly absorbing resources from all directions along the open trade route.

  Steel and aluminum are the bulk of the demand.

   Not only is it necessary to manufacture light and heavy equipment, but the railway being laid is a black hole that devours resources and can hardly be seen to the end.

A steel factory has been unable to meet the development needs of the new alliance. In order to meet the growing demand for steel in the industrial zone, not only the No. 81 steel factory has opened a branch, but Chuguang has also signed an administrative document, instructing the logistics department to establish the first new alliance. A steel mill.

   This is also the first steel plant in the new alliance that is run by NPC and collectively controlled by the alliance.

   is different from Factory No. 81, which mainly produces military equipment.

  The steel produced by the No. 1 Iron and Steel Plant is mainly used for infrastructure construction. Some of its equipment is processed by machine tools, and some of its equipment is purchased from Boulder City. The technicians include life professional players and unemployed engineers hired from Boulder City.

As for the A3-type aviation aluminum produced by the Bachi Aluminum Factory, most of them are supplied to the "electric mule" production line, and the rest of the production capacity is basically eaten by the Liszt factory, which is used to produce stronger KV-1 exoskeleton improvements. type.

  Before the war, Chuguang needed enough trucks to deliver supplies and troops to the front line, and used the KV-1 exoskeleton to ensure the mobility and combat capability of the players.

   Before the end of the month, the number of players can reach 2500+, but there are only about 1500 professional combat players on the front line.

   The disadvantage in numbers can only be made up for with mobility and firepower.

  Besides steel and aluminum, the second largest resource in the new alliance is copper and sulfur.

  Copper is mainly used for making bullets and laying power grids, needless to say.

   Cannonballs can be made of steel, but copper is best for bullets, which is not only easier to store, but also has excellent shooting performance. Compared with steel-cased ammunition, it can effectively reduce the jam rate and rifling wear.

   As for electricity, it is even more critical. Whether it is an exoskeleton, a truck or a player's save point, they all need the support of the power system.

   The use of sulfur is mainly to make sulfur. acid.

  This thing is not just related to a production line. From steel plants to chemical plants, few industrial chains can leave this thing.

  With the start of the war machine, the production capacity of the industrial area has been continuously expanded, and almost all resource requirements are rising steadily.

   At this moment, Charlie, the president of the Trade Union, brought bad news to Chu Guang...

"While you may have noticed something from the inventory data, I have to tell you, just in case, that our industrial scale is expanding faster than expected, and the copper and sulphur ore produced by the surrounding survivor settlements have already We bought it and the price went up.”

   The reception room of the base.

   After listening to Old Charlie's report, Chu Guang raised his head after thinking for a moment.

   "How much has it gone up?"

   "The price of copper in Honghe Town has risen by 20%, and the price of sulfur has risen by at least 30%. This is the latest data."

  Chu Guang nodded thoughtfully.

   "Similar to what I know."

   Last night, players discussed this in the forum, not only copper and sulfur ore, but some rare metals are simply out of stock.

   This situation was actually expected by Chu Guang before.

  The tickets issued by the Honghe Town Mine are essentially a kind of futures. This trading model is not only for them to buy commodities from other survivors, but also for them to coordinate the production capacity of the mine.

   In other words, they will not produce a pile of ore that is not needed at all and store it in inventory, but decide the production of the next quarter based on the tickets issued in the previous quarter.

  If someone suddenly needs a large amount of spot, the price increase is natural.

but……

   The speed of this price increase is a bit sudden.

The    Northern Expedition plan has only been launched for a week. No matter how fast the demand growth is, Chu Guang does not believe that the warehouse in Honghe Town does not even have such reserves.

  Chu Guang had reason to suspect that someone guessed something through some information, and played with him to stock up and sell.

  Old Charlie obviously guessed what might be going on, and said vaguely.

   "Our resources are controlled by others, and the impact of this problem will become more and more obvious. Either we can open up more business routes and reduce our dependence on a single source of raw materials, or I can have my own source of raw materials and solve part of the resource needs myself."

   "I think so too. In fact, one of the purposes of this Northern Expedition is to solve the problem of raw materials."

  Chu Guang nodded and looked at the map on the wall.

   "The scientific research team of the New Alliance has investigated the data of Qingshi County. The Qingshi Geopark in the western mountainous area was formerly the mining area of ​​Qingshi Mining Company, and the reserves of porphyry copper-molybdenum deposits below it are rich, which are estimated to be at least one million tons."

  Charlie had a surprised look on his face.

   "Hasn't it been mined there?"

   "It has been mined, but only a small part of it has been mined. According to the data, the mine was shut down due to cost issues in the early prosperous era, and was later transformed into a geopark with a practice base and a geological research institute next to it."

   smiled faintly, and Chu Guang continued.

   "In fact, it's not just copper-molybdenum deposits. According to the analysis of our scientific research team, there are many resources that have been explored but not developed in the surrounding areas. As long as we have built Xizhou City, the problem of resources will naturally be solved."

   "But what about the current problem? Even if we occupy Qingshi County, mining will take time—"

   As soon as he said this sentence, Old Charlie's eyes suddenly had a hint of enlightenment.

"I see……"

   "I probably understand what you mean."

   (end of this chapter)