Qingyang County

Seeing Shen Ruihui so excited, Xiao Fan's depressed mood these past few days also cheered up.

"Tell me, what important discoveries do you have?"

"It's like this, Commander. Over the past few days I scouted three places total, including the Kaoshan Farm headquarters, Baihua Town, and Qingyang County Town. I didn't go to Sishui County because I had to come back and report."

"Go on, I'm listening."

"There are a large number of building materials at Kaoshan Farm, not many zombies, we could send people to gather them."

"Good news. What else?"

"Baihua Town has abundant timber resources, and there's a lumber yard there too. The weather is nice and cool now, the timber is dry, we could also haul it back, but there are slightly more zombies there, I suggest sending two platoons."

"Good, I've noted down these two pieces of news. Now go issue the orders...."

"Wait Commander, I haven't told you the best news yet!"

"Then go ahead."

"In Qingyang County Town I discovered a building materials market, inside there's practically an endless amount of bricks, steel bars, wire, cement, marble, etc. If we bring it all back, it would basically solve our city wall construction issues."

"Is that so! You actually found a building materials market!" Xiao Fan's eyes lit up too, this really was good news.

"Of course, not only did I find the building materials market, I also discovered a jewelry store!"

Xiao Fan was stunned for a moment, then extremely excited.

What he needed most was gold and silver, usually collected off of zombie bodies.

But the efficiency of this method wasn't high, after all zombies were also getting stronger, not so easy to deal with.

And at the very least over half of the zombies didn't have any jewelry on them.

He had been thinking about taking over a jewelry store, but jewelry stores were all located in the prosperous downtown areas of cities, his capabilities weren't enough to attack a city yet. Now it seemed this opportunity had finally arrived.

Suppressing his excitement, he confirmed with Shen Ruihui: "Are you certain we can take the jewelry store without alerting the zombies in Qingyang County Town?"

"Don't worry Commander, there's a river flowing through Qingyang County Town that splits the town into two. Over half the zombies are on the other side. I saw that the area near the jewelry store doesn't have too many zombies either, with our current capabilities if we're steady and careful, we still have hope of taking it over in a few days time."

"Won't the zombies on the other side of the river come over via the bridge?"

"Normally they would, but the bridge there was blown up by someone, I don't know who did it either. Most of the zombies are on the other bank, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to find the jewelry store."

Hearing Shen Ruihui's report, Xiao Fan finally felt reassured.

Xiao Fan didn't know if zombies could drown, but he knew zombies didn't like water.

When it rained, zombies would lose their hearing, sense of smell, and most of their vision. The zombies he had seen also never took the initiative to enter water.

Since there was a river blocking them, this operation was feasible.

"Good, the news you've brought back is very timely. Since that's the case, you can take over as leader of the guard platoon for now."

"Thank you Commander!"

In his delight, Xiao Fan directly chose to fill the guard platoon to capacity, a total of thirty people.

The three newly produced scouts assumed the role of squad leaders, and Shen Ruihui was directly promoted to platoon leader.

Xiao Fan had also considered Xue Ninger, but Xue Ninger resolutely said she wished to continue as Xiao Fan's personal bodyguard.

Xiao Fan didn't force her, after all having a beautiful female bodyguard around did provide an extra visual benefit.

With the guard platoon formed, Xiao Fan prepared to embark.

He dispatched 1st Platoon, 1st Company to Kaoshan Farm to gather building materials, and 2nd Platoon, 1st Company to Baihua Town to gather timber.

As for himself, he personally led 2nd Company, the guard platoon, an engineering platoon, and many heavy firepower units, preparing to head to Qingyang County Town.

This time, it was unlikely he'd be able to return after just a couple days. Xiao Fan made arrangements before leaving.

Ensuring the security of the base, then gathering as many usable machines and vehicles as possible.

Infrastructure construction to be completed as soon as possible, so that when he returned, they could start on the enclosure walls.

With everything arranged, Xiao Fan's party of over two hundred people, driving dozens of vehicles, set off mightily towards Qingyang County Town.

Kaoshan Farm was 130 km from Qingyang County Town. Shen Ruihui was already familiar with the route, driving a motorcycle at the front to lead the way.

En route they didn't encounter any major dangers, and directly arrived at the outskirts of Qingyang County Town.

Like Chishui County, this was also practically an abandoned city, although there were probably still survivors inside, no one could rescue them out.

"Commander, the building materials market is over there, at the edge of the city, perfect for taking things."

"Good, go to the building materials market first."

The convoy arrived at the building materials market, everyone got out of the vehicles.

Xiao Fan looked around, feeling this was simply heaven.

Building materials everywhere, not just what Shen Ruihui mentioned, all types of finishing materials, plumbing supplies etc, everything imaginable was available.

Xiao Fan had brought several dozen heavy trucks this time, all gathered over the past few days. He immediately ordered loading to start.

The engineering platoon had also brought some loading/unloading equipment, many machines could even collect materials directly on site, and they began working enthusiastically.

Leaving one combat squad here to protect, Xiao Fan led the main force straight towards Qingyang County Town.

Their speed gradually slowed down along the way.

Zombies would frequently appear on the road, and Xiao Fan discovered the number of variant zombies was also gradually increasing.

"Commander, an armored zombie ahead!"

Xiao Fan looked, and sure enough, an over 2m tall hulking zombie had appeared.

"Snipers get ready, take out that big guy, remember to take out its brain crystal after killing it."

The snipers fired, although the armor was strong too, under the joint sniping of two snipers it still went down easily.

After all sniper rifle bullets were nothing to joke about, they could penetrate armored zombie defenses all the same.

The engineer went to retrieve the crystal, and Xiao Fan paid it no more attention, continuing to survey the situation ahead.

There really was a river flowing through Qingyang County Town, separating five-fourths of the town on the other side.

The jewelry store was on this side, but it was also deep inside the urban area, the road ahead wouldn't be easy.

After arriving at a crossroads at the city entrance, Xiao Fan signaled the convoy to stop.

"Commander, the jewelry store is up ahead in the urban area, about 3 km away, why have we stopped?"

Xiao Fan looked up, pointing at the road surface, "What do you see there?"

Shen Ruihui looked over, only to see several wheel ruts on the road.

Because no one had maintained the city for over a month, there was a lot of dust on the ground, the ruts were still fairly visible.

"Ah! Someone actually went into the downtown area? Who would dare, I was extremely cautious every time I went in too, and still encountered danger several times. I can't believe an ordinary person is bolder than me."

Shen Ruihui found it hard to believe that ordinary people were more capable than him.

But Xiao Fan realized there was a problem, that the people who went in were definitely not ordinary, highly likely to be mutants.

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