Chapter 0295 – The Urgent 12 Hours

Translated by: Kun

Edited by: Ulamog, Dedition

[Book 2: The Sea of Zombies]

“How much longer until the horde reaches us?” Yue Zhong asked the recon soldier in front of him in a heavy tone.

The recon soldier immediately replied: “Based on their current speed, it would take them roughly 12 hours to reach our first line of defence!”

Yue Zhong looked at the bloodshot eyes of the soldier and said: “Go have a good rest!!”

“Yes Commander!” The soldier saluted and withdrew quickly.

“Just 12 hours? It’s really too rushed!!” Yue Zhong frowned, his heart filled with anxiety.

The horde that was coming closer to SY numbered in the 800,000s. Based on the current fighting strength of SY County, they would not be able to withstand the assault of that number. Although Yue Zhong absorbed the remaining military unit and police unit, the total number of fighters reaching 1,300, they could not be deployed straightaway. The 4 battalions of Yue Zhong had engaged the zombies previously, and had to escape with their lives, followed by the internal conflicts, they were extremely tired as well. Furthermore, the heavy weapons belonging to the military had been left behind during the battle against the zombies, without heavy weaponry or fortification, trying to defend against the sea of zombies was simply impossible.

It was a situation where he had to give up SY County. However, the current 140,000 survivors inside, having to transfer them was also a huge issue.

Firstly, to gather all 140,000 was a problem in itself. As Yue Zhong had just disposed of the governing head Peng Mingde, the entire government had become paralyzed. Many officials had fled their posts, those who stayed behind were wary and unsure of their future. Since the government was ineffective now, trying to mobilize all 140,000 survivors would definitely require more time.

Yue Zhong told a signal officer to convey his orders: “Go get Tai Yiyan, Cheng Peipei, Lu Chenguang, Liu Yujiao, Yun Qiang, Shen Hongyang and bring them here. I want to see them here within 20 minutes. Tell them, if they aren’t here after 20 minutes, they can forget about finding me in the future.”

The signal officer nodded and immediately left to carry out his duty.

Yue Zhong then pulled Chen Shitou over and questioned him: “Chen Shitou! Go get the 8th Battalion and gather the survivors. Take those from Xinyang Street, Zhongshan Street, Yanjing Street and Xijian Street, and gather them up. After thats done, transfer them according to order over the riverbank bridge and get them to Ning Guang County. How much time do you need?”

Chen Shitou thought for awhile, before looking at Yue Zhong resolutely and replied: “6 hours!! Please give me 6 hours! I promise to carry it out properly!”

Yue Zhong was a little short-tempered and he shouted out: “4 hours! I will only give you 4 hours!! After those 4 hours, you better be taking those people across the bridge!! After they cross the bridge, give every single one of them a can of Type 2 Meat. Eat as they move! If you can’t complete this, you can forget about being a battalion commander anymore!!”

Yue Zhong only had 12 hours to work with, and he had to gather all 140,000 survivors within 12 hours, it was extremely difficult. What’s more, he had to get them across the riverbank bridge that was not exactly wide.

Other than those 140,000, there were the few 100,000 tonnes of rations, various other foods, precious machinery, other kinds of production materials that required transportation as well. These were all important items to be sent out of SY County.

Every minute every second counted, and time was extremely precious. If there wasn’t enough time to transport all 140,000 people over the bridge, Yue Zhong had to get his precious soldiers to fight and buy precious time for the transportation to be carried out. That kind of price where he had to put his life and his soldiers’ lives on the line, was something he was not willing to pay so easily. The immense pressure was weighing down on Yue Zhong, and it caused him to be frustrated, and his temper was shorter.

After all, Yue Zhong was only human. Even though he had gained a lot of enhancements through his own efforts, these 2 days he had been fighting on the frontline as much as he could, and his rest time was extremely short. Under that huge pressure, he was naturally less amiable.

Chen Shitou frowned, and he asked directly: “What do I do if those survivors don’t want to co-operate?”

In this world, there are many types of people, some who liked to wreak havoc under the pressure of imminent danger, and there would definitely be accidents.

Yue Zhong replied with an icy voice: “I’ll permit you to use any means to complete this mission. I only want results, I don’t care about the process!”

Chen Shitou shuddered in his heart as replied loudly: “Yes! I will perform this well!!”

After making the promise, Chen Shitou quickly ran out from the small room. 4 hours, was incredibly tough and urgent for him.

Within 20 minutes, Tai Yiyan, Cheng Peipei, Lu Chenguang, Liu Yujiao, Yun Qiang and Shen Hongyang had all gathered in front of Yue Zhong.

Yue Zhong was the controller of SY County now, a single order could cause their entire family to be razed to the ground, they could not afford to offend him.

Yue Zhong glanced at Tai Yiyan and the other 4 excluding Shen Hongyang and said: “Tai Yiyan, Cheng Peipei, Lu Chenguang, Liu Yujiao and Yun Qiang, when you go back, immediately gather all the survivors towards the riverbank bridge and await orders! The more survivors that are gathered that, the better I’ll reward you after.”

The Tai family, Cheng family, Lu family, Liu Yujiao and Yun Qiang had decent authority within SY County. Yue Zhong could only make use of these heads to quickly mobilize the numerous survivors within the city, as he was not yet the widely accepted leader unlike in Ning Guang County and Qing Yuan County.

Tai Yiyan was astute and could detect some hint of urgency within Yue Zhong’s words and asked: “Brother Yue, did something happen?”

The other 5 picked up on Tai Yiyan’s concern and also looked towards Yue Zhong. They had felt that something was wrong. Yue Zhong was never this anxious, and his words revealed that his current mood.

Yue Zhong had a dark look as he said softly: “After 11 hours, the zombie horde of SY County will reach the city. That is to say, SY City has only 11 hours left.”

Hearing Yue Zhong’s words, all of the 6 people present had a huge change in expression. They did not expect that things would be dire to this extent.

When the army was defeated, and the clash amongst the heads happened, under those conditions, the huge horde of zombies were basically unhindered and had no enemies. SY City was basically a sitting duck.

Cheng Peipei knew Yue Zhong would not lie about such a grave matter, but she still could not help and ask: “Is this real, Yue Zhong?”

“Yes!” Yue Zhong looked towards Shen Hongyang who was kept prisoner in his own home earlier, and immediately stated his terms: “Commander Shen! I apologize for the treatment earlier. I had no choice then, and I need your help now.”

Yue Zhong stared fixedly at Shen Hongyang and said softly: “As long as you send your troops and help us tide this over, I just want 10 tanks, 7 assault helicopters and their support personnel. After we’re done with this, I can let you and your troops take a fixed amount of ammo, 2 tonnes of fuel, a 100 tonnes of food and leave. Wherever you want to go, I would definitely not stop you.”

Although Yue Zhong valued the veterans under Shen Hongyang, if he were to kill Shen Hongyang now, he would not dare to utilize the troops. Shen Hongyang’s position within his troops was still very high. Killing Shen Hongyang would just force the remaining troops to take up arms against Yue Zhong.

Shen Hongyang smiled lightly, as he looked at Yue Zhong, his eyes twinkling with a little pride: “If I cannot even protect the citizens, how can my troops be called an army? This time even if I help you, it isn’t for anything else, but the citizens of SY County. After this battle, I am willing to hand my troops to you, but I hope that you will treat them fairly.”

When compared to Su Dongming and Luo Tianyi, Shen Hongyang was truly different, he valued his subordinates, and was truly a commander who fought for his country. Even in a world where values and principles were trampled upon, Shen Hongyang was still someone who stuck to his beliefs, even if it was a little naive.

Yue Zhong was surprised, and he nodded: “Fine! Don’t worry. I will definitely treat them fairly!!”

After the meeting concluded, the 6 people quickly left the place and embarked on their duties.

Yue Zhong also released all the troops under Shen Hongyang that were captured, and returned their light weapons to them. As for heavy weapons, each person was allocated a grenade only.

Without heavy weapons, Shen Hongyang’s troops did not pose a threat to Yue Zhong, the only people they had to be wary of, were the experts.

Under Yue Zhong’s orders, the entire SY City had begun moving.

The 2000-over soldiers at the forefront of SY City were currently using whatever materials they had to construct their fortifications. All sorts of barbed wires, steel wires, barricades, cones, even some old-fashioned defences were brought out.

The barricades and traffic cones were simple and crude but were extremely efficient against the ordinary zombies. To Yue Zhong’s troops, the ordinary zombies were the toughest to deal with, instead of the evolved ones, due to their numbers. The ordinary zombies gave an impression that they were endless. If it wasn’t for the huge numbers of the ordinary zombies, the military would have annihilated the evolved zombies long ago.

On the riverbank bridge, there were numerous vehicles constantly transporting food and rations over to the other side, placing them down, and then using the bridge to re-enter SY City and continue their moving.

Once the rations were transported to the other end, they were safe for the time being.

Within SY City, Chen Shitou and Tai Yiyan were gathering people near the bridge, separating them into groups of male, women, elderly and children.

After the apocalypse, there were still the elderly around, although their numbers were not high, being about 5% of the total number of survivors.

Guo Quan assigned soldiers to guard the bridge. It was after all the lifeline for Yue Zhong’s troops, if something were to happen to it, Yue Zhong and his army would be trapped in SY City. If they wanted to go to Ning Guang County from there, they would have to go by a detour of around 100 km, going into dangerous areas which they had not yet explored.

After making a series of arrangement, Yue Zhong handed over the running of the tasks to Da Gouzi. He had always been assisting Yue Zhong in overseeing affairs and transfer of goods and people. In fact was extremely familiar with all the different types of jobs. With the help of Da Gouzi, Yue Zhong could also heave a sigh of relief.

Yue Zhong walked out of the office, and felt that the horizon looked a little dark. He lifted his head, only to see dark clouds gathering, the air humid, as though it was going to rain.

“The weather, don’t tell me it’s going to rain??” Yue Zhong’s expression turned ugly as he thought.

Mobilizing troops in the rain was the toughest even for the well-trained soldiers. Not to mention those survivors who had undergone so much hardships and weren’t in the best of health.

If preparations were not made for those survivors to move in the rain, the moment it poured there would be at least a fourth of them who would fall and never get up again.

“Fuck!!” Yue Zhong could not help but swear, as he hurriedly rushed into the command centre.

Yue Zhong had a green expression as he called out: “Da Gouzi! Immediately notify Guo Quan, get him to think of a way to prepare some umbrellas and raincoats. And quickly distribute the Type 2 meat to those survivors that have gathered, make sure they eat it!! Those items that have been moved over the bridge, find some place to shelter them now!”

Da Gouzi nodded his head, and immediately conveyed the command to Guo Quan: “Yes! Commander Yue!!”

Xu Yang, who had been promoted to a deputy Commander of a company grumbled to Guo Quan: “Battalion Commander!! The leader’s orders are too rigorous! We only have a battalion’s worth of people here, how can we manage so much?”

Guo Quan’s 1st Battalion of Ning Guang County only had 400 people, not only did they have to maintain security over the bridge, they had to keep watch over those people who were being moved across the bridge, and they were in charge of distributing the Type 2 Meat as well, everyone was worked to the bone.

Guo Quan looked to Xu Yang ordered: “The orders from our Leader has to be followed, regardless of how harsh it gets! Xu Yang, take some men and get some helpers from the survivors. Tell them to help distribute the Type 2 Meat. The umbrellas and raincoats, you can assign them to other people as well, try your best to find them.”

Umbrellas and raincoats were items that were hard to find in such a short time. Guo Quan understood Yue Zhong’s desire to save these survivors, and made the best judgement, as he handed out the Type 2 meat to the survivors. As long as they ate the meat, they could recover their vitality quickly. That way, they stood a fighting chance. If they didn’t have the meat, the moment they were caught in the rain, their weak bodies might collapse from hypothermia.

“Yes! Battalion Commander!” Xu Yang replied, and he went to the survivors, and used the price of 10 jin of rice to hire over 400 survivors to help him.

The moment Xu Yang expressed that there would be free food given out, a long line formed in front of the 400 helpers.

Every survivor was given a ammo cartridge, and it was the necessary item to exchange for a can of meat. As long as they handed over a shell casing , they were given a can of Type 2 meat.

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