Foreign Legion

Upon hearing Annie's explanation, Xiao Fan asked in response: "Then will the foreign soldiers I produce occupy the personnel quota of my current platoon?"

"The Commander-in-Chief can set up an external unit that will not take up the quota, but the upper limit of the external unit must be at least two levels lower than the main unit. You are currently a platoon leader, so the external unit can have at most one squad."

"A squad... eight people."

Xiao Fan pondered for a moment, some ideas coming to mind.

With only one squad, there would not be many people left in the main troop, but their foreign identity might allow them to do some things he was not very convenient to do himself.

"Alright, let's first produce a foreign reconnaissance soldier, a... Briton, I guess. Annie, I remember you introduced to me that the soldiers we produce will all have real identities, right?"

"That's right, the system can choose the identity of any deceased person."

"Then set this reconnaissance soldier's identity as a guard at the Consulate."

"Confirmed. System generating... Recon Soldier John, identity: captain of the guard at the United Federation of America Consulate in Yan Yun."

A few minutes later, a white young man appeared before Xiao Fan.

"Recon Soldier John, reporting for duty, Commander."

This young man had golden hair, dressed in jungle camouflage, clearly different from the uniforms of China's own soldiers.

With his tall, muscular build, he lacked some of the disciplinarian aura of China's own troops, appearing more casual instead.

But Xiao Fan knew these were only surface differences, and Red Alert soldiers were essentially not that different.

"You are from the Consulate?" Xiao Fan asked.

"Yes Commander. I can only say I inherited the memories of that consulate guard, he is me, but I am not completely him."

"Very good. Later, go communicate with Smith and find an excuse to get into the gym today to scout out the situation inside."

"OK!"

John came to Guo Wei's side and took over the walkie-talkie.

As a reconnaissance soldier, he also knew the basics of operating a radio. Soon, he was conversing with the grumbling Smith.

The two spoke in English as the communications officer translated for Xiao Fan on the side.

"Oh! This is unbelievable. I didn't expect there to be compatriots of mine here. Mr. Smith, where did you say you were?"

"Chishui No.1 Middle School? What a coincidence. My companions and I are also in Chishui. Yes, there are too many zombies around the Consulate in Yan Yun for survival. Don't even think about the Consulate. Other than a few of my companions, including Ambassador Fred, everyone else is dead. We are just pitiful wanderers in this foreign land now."

"What is your situation over there? Oh! Over twenty of you are controlling over two hundred students. That's quite impressive. But let me give you a word of advice. Make sure you keep the situation stable before we arrive, hmm... Give them a little something to eat, don't let them starve."

"Yes, yes, we'll be right over. I have one, two, three, four... a total of eight people here."

"Alright, it's decided then. Hmm, my hometown is in Xiyatu. Yes, there is a steel factory there. I used to often play in the park behind it when I was little. Yes, you can see the President's statue from there."

After conversing at length, John put down the transceiver and said to Xiao Fan: "Commander, I've gained his initial trust. Next, you should assign me some men, I lack sufficient manpower by myself."

Without John saying so, Xiao Fan was already producing soldiers on his end.

He still had over a thousand gold left. He produced three infantrymen, four riflemen, with both whites and two black men among them.

He also assigned a military dog to John's team. Nationality did not matter for the dog, they all looked similar anyway.

Spending all the funds he had just gathered again, this temporary foreign legion was now complete.

Xiao Fan gave John two jeeps from what they brought along, for their transport needs.

He had already decided that in the future when funds allowed, he would gradually expand this foreign unit, perhaps until one day it could play an unexpected role.

"Go carry out your mission."

Led by John, the seven soldiers departed upon receiving their orders.

Xiao Fan watched as they gradually approached the activity center, turning on John's shared vision.

********

Smith felt this was his lucky day.

He was just an ordinary foreign teacher. Without proper teaching qualifications in his home country, he had somehow lucked into coming to China to become the foreign language teacher at Chishui No.1 Middle School.

The school administration here blindly worshipped foreign teachers, believing that foreigners teaching foreign languages must be better than domestic teachers.

At that time, this could be considered a social phenomenon. It resulted in many people without useful survival skills in their home countries flooding into China, forming a special group of foreign teachers at Chishui No.1 Middle School.

When doomsday arrived, it was precisely because this group of foreign teachers were having a private gathering that allowed them to escape disaster.

With teachers gone and unable to contact parents, many students could only follow these foreign teachers, obeying their commands.

Smith was quite shrewd. He decisively chose the spacious Activity Center with ample water sources and few people as their foothold, successfully gaining a steady position.

In the days before doomsday fell, they still treated the students decently.

Discovering that zombies could not move in the rain, they had charged out several times to collect supplies, obtaining a good amount of food and medicine. They even found several guns in the ruins of the school security office.

But after continuous sunny days for over half a month after the rain stopped, their lives became difficult.

The food for students began being given out bit by bit. Often, there was only one meal a day, and it was watery rice clearly visible at a glance.

As this went on, conflicts gradually emerged between the students and teachers.

The high school boys had grown into adults. Feeling somewhat unable to control the situation, Smith and the others simply took violent action against several ringleading troublemakers among the male students.

After successively shooting dead several male students, these high schoolers were finally cowed for the time being.

But Smith also knew that once China's side had rescued them, things would definitely not end well for them few dozen foreigners.

Thus, in later broadcasts, he did not even dare to speak Chinese. He only communicated externally in his native language, hoping to get rescued by his own countrymen.

But broadcasts had limitations. After doomsday, they could only receive signals within the range of their city.

This made Smith somewhat despairing. Yan Yun was located in the north, with few foreigners to begin with. He did not know when his compatriots would hear his broadcast.

He didn't expect that just now, a consulate security captain called John had contacted him!

After repeatedly verifying each other's identities, Smith was certain of the other party's status.

Although the other side also didn't have many people and had temporarily lost contact domestically, with the addition of these soldiers, their odds of surviving this apocalypse had doubtless greatly increased.

Even if China's people discovered them one day, the consulate side could refuse to accept China's legal trials by citing international conflicts.

Smith deliberately changed into his best suit, sprayed on perfume from his hometown, tidying his hair meticulously.

He ordered his men to organize the students in line at the entrance to welcome the most distinguished guests!