Yunzhou is located north of Yan Yun City. The two cities' main urban areas are over one thousand five hundred kilometers apart.
Yunzhou is also the northernmost city in Shenlong Province. From here, just across the Shenlong River is Boliya Country.
Xiao Fan's high-speed train traveled for two days on the railway before reaching Yunzhou's territory.
It was already September, and the further north one goes, the colder the temperature becomes. Upon entering Yunzhou's territory, the temperature had already dropped to the teens, and it was still daytime.
Many people followed Xiao Fan on this trip to look for a new settlement base. For this search, Xiao Fan brought most of his military power with him.
Now there are only three platoons and an engineering platoon left in Yan Mountain Town.
Xiao Fan gave them two main tasks: to protect his father and sister, and to quickly build the base vehicle. The latter is extremely important.
According to Xiao Fan's estimate, there are no more than twenty five days until the total power failure. The base vehicle must be completed before that and leave Yan Mountain Town.
By then, not only does the base vehicle need to leave, but his family members, students, townspeople, and other survivors staying there must leave together.
Those willing to follow Xiao Fan can come to the new base together. Those unwilling can go their own way.
Of course, Xiao Fan's most urgent task is still to select the base location as soon as possible and start large-scale construction.
Xiao Fan is not worried about this. He now has one hundred and ten thousand gold that can support this endeavor for a period of time.
Everyone who came with Xiao Fan this time consists only of Red Guards soldiers without any other people. He does not need to worry about his secrets being leaked either.
Sitting on the train, Xiao Fan felt drowsy.
It wasn't until Xue Ninger woke him, “Commander, we've entered Yunzhou's territory.”
Xiao Fan rubbed his eyes awake and immediately opened the map.
The location he chose is called Kaoshan Farm. It is located in the south-central part of Yunzhou, about three hundred kilometers from the main urban area.
It is also near two county-level cities. One is Qingyang County, about one hundred and thirty kilometers away, and the other is Sishui County, about ninety kilometers away.
Several hundred kilometers south from here leads to Yan Yun City's territory.
After looking at the map for a while, Xiao Fan pointed, “Let's eat now. After passing Sishui County train station, we’ll stop the train near Baihua Town and get off there. Then we'll drive to Kaoshan Farm.”
"Understood."
Xue Ninger immediately went to arrange it. The kitchen team urgently started cooking.
By the time they finished eating, it was nine o'clock in the morning.
On both sides of the railway were desolate wilderness as far as the eye could see.
Originally, there were many crops in the fields, but they have been unattended for a period of time now, resulting in the crop fields being overgrown with weeds, looking somewhat desolate.
However, the grains in the fields had ripened. As the train passed by some places, Xiao Fan could still see some grains having been harvested, likely by some survivors.
There are survivors not only in cities, but also in towns, villages, and the countryside. The survivors there find it easier to escape, so there are actually many survivors surviving in the wilderness now.
But Xiao Fan knows the most difficult days have yet to come.
The power failure is one major factor, and another is that winter is approaching.
Once winter arrives, if these survivors don't have a warm shelter, the northern winter would be enough to freeze them to death in the wilderness.
Looking at the roadside scene, the train gradually slowed down.
"Commander, Baihua Town train station is five kilometers ahead. But our high-speed train does not stop there."
"Don't stop at the train station. Find an easy place to get off the railway and stop there."
"Understood!"
Soon, the train stopped on a ramp.
Xiao Fan immediately ordered everyone off the train. All the soldiers got off.
The engineers took out their tools and opened a hole in the fence by the railway. They then built an iron bridge to allow vehicles to come down from the carriages.
Xiao Fan brought many vehicles, including two infantry fighting vehicles, three armored vehicles, his Gyrfalcon, a Humvee, two 212 jeeps, a Mountain Cat all-terrain vehicle, kitchen and medical vehicles, and three Edge motorcycles.
Although it was somewhat crowded, they could still fit.
Xiao Fan sat in his Gyrfalcon off-roader, with the Mountain Cat leading the way.
He checked the map. It’s about thirty kilometers from here to Kaoshan Farm, not too far.
"Move out!"
The convoy roared as it started towards Kaoshan Farm.
In these wilderness areas, it is actually not that easy to encounter zombies if you don't take the highways or provincial roads or go through towns. Even if they encounter sporadic zombies, it is unlikely to have any impact on the convoy.
The journey was smooth all the way until near Kaoshan Farm.
The farm has a farm office location with about five to six hundred households that likely have some zombies. But Xiao Fan did not pass by there.
When the convoy stopped midway, he got off to look for water sources.
"Commander, what are you looking for?"
"I'm looking for the source of this river."
Xiao Fan pointed to a shiny white river not far away.
Xue Ninger checked the map beside Xiao Fan, "Commander, this river is called Haoyuan River. Its source is the not far away Xing’an Mountain Range, probably less than ten kilometers from here. As long as we follow the river upstream, we should be able to reach the foot of Xing’an Mountain Range."
"Alright, the convoy will move forward along the river. I want to see what it looks like at the mountainside."
They got back in the vehicles and continued forward, and after another ten minutes or so, they finally arrived at the edge of the Xing’an Mountain Range.
Xiao Fan got out again to take in the view.
What lay before him was the lush Xing’an Mountain Range, stretching as far as the eye could see.
A medium-sized river flowed out from between the mountains, forming a large alluvial plain here.
Beside Xiao Fan stood Red Guard officers.
Xiao Fan gestured from this side to that side of the plain.
"Look, this is where the survival base I have chosen is located. The north side borders on tall mountains, and mountain peaks also surround the west side, blocking the northwest wind, forming a small climatic zone with slightly higher temperatures than other areas."
"The east and south sides are plains, which are grain production areas. The Haoyuan River also flows through here, providing abundant water sources to sustain production and living."
"As long as we build a city here and enclose the entire Haoyuan River within the city, we will have control over the water source, without worrying about pollution."
"There is warmth, water, food, and we can retreat into the mountains at any time if problems arise. What do you think?"
"Brilliant, Commander!" All the Red Guard soldiers unanimously praised.
Xiao Fan felt a little speechless. These soldiers are good, but their blind worship and unconditional trust in him can really give him a headache sometimes.