If he wasn't convinced that he hadn't taken the wrong map, Uren would have almost thought he had made a mistake.

He was silent for a moment, then said in an uncertain tone.

“…… This is Xizhou? ”

"It should be." Dimi lowered his head, squinted his eyes and glanced into the distance, "The southern suburbs of Xizhou City should have been called Qingshi County before the war. ”

The county is surrounded by mountains on both sides and is located under the ridge, surrounded by dense vegetation and dense trees.

There are no high-rise buildings, only gardens, terraced houses and villas, and it is clear that the people who lived here before the war were very interested in the quality of life.

To the east, there is a highway and a maglev station that connects Xizhou and Qingquan, but now these infrastructures have long been arched into piles of concrete garbage and debris by the wild 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 Tooth Clan stationed in Xizhou City was also aware of this. If they can't solve the neighbor to the south, at least they have to take care of their front teeth.

Looking through the binoculars, Urun noticed that there were quite a few marauders stationed here, not to mention one or two thousand-man teams.

Not only that, but they also reinforced their positions.

Half-collapsed terraced houses and villas have been sealed with wood and aluminium panels, concrete buildings of more than three stories have been converted into bunkers and turrets, streets are lined with barricades made of concrete stone and stakes, and every window seems to hide a sentry point, both bright and dark.

The entire town has been converted into a fortress.

I didn't expect this rabble to have this ability.

Dimmit couldn't help but look at them twice.

"How do we contact them?"

"Use this."

Uren replied succinctly, pulling out his flare gun and firing a shot into the sky.

Red flares rise.

They didn't have to wait long for more than a dozen figures to appear in front of them.

These men were dressed in animal skins, many of them shirtless, and they looked uncivilized, but they all carried the sharp weapons of civilized men in their hands, automatic or bolt-action rifles.

Vigilantly looking at the group of soldiers wearing pitch-black exoskeletons, the leader of the ten captains stared at Ulun, who was walking in front, and asked cautiously.

"Who are you?"

The helmet eyepiece was facing him, and Ulren took out the iron tag to prove his identity and shook it, and replied with a blank face.

"Torch."

Torch?

The marauders who followed the ten-captain were in a commotion, their faces showing surprise, and whispering to each other.

The face of the Centurion was similarly filled with surprise, but it quickly turned to ecstasy.

"Please come with me!"

After the two groups converged, the group continued on the road.

The Ten-Commander led the way in front, and soon led Urun and Dimmit through the checkpoint at the entrance of the county seat.

However, upon entering the fortress, Dimmit immediately retracted his previous assessment of these "allies".

It's so hygienic that it's like a garbage heap.

The stench of decay pervaded the streets, corpses and excrement were dumped haphazardly, and rats with fists roamed the streets, as if they had made it their home.

Dimmit lowered his voice and whispered in the communication channel.

"There's probably an outbreak of plague here."

Ulun's gaze roamed the streets, and he whispered back.

"It's obvious."

Noticing Ulen's gaze in the corner, the ten-captain who led the way smiled flatteringly.

"Don't care, it's just a few mice...... We arrived in no time. ”

The headquarters of the Ya clan is located in the center of the bluestone department store on the west side of the county, and the five-story cylindrical building looks like it stands out in the entire county.

It was never a good idea to use this as a headquarters for its seclusion alone, but the building's extensive steel façade, two-story underground commercial area, and garage with direct access to the surface, made it a good choice from a defensive standpoint.

On the first floor of the department store, Uren and Dimmit met the supreme commander of the area, the lion's fang.

"Welcome! Friends from afar! I'm the Thousand Captain Lionfang of the Tooth Clan, and you can make this your home. ”

Liontooth greeted him with a happy face, and opened his arms to hug his ally, but when he saw that the other party was indifferent, he changed his speech to a handshake.

Uren reached out and shook his hand.

"Urun, the apostle of the Son."

"I wish the old man the Holy Son good health, please say hello to him for me......" Sensing a hint of unkindness in the eyes of the man in front of him, Liontooth quickly stopped his lame greeting, and quickly ended the topic with a light cough, "Then Lord Apostle, may I ask why you have come here all the way far?" ”

Without hesitating his offense, now is not the time to make a difference, Uren said succinctly.

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

"Took it...... Your stuff? From the Dead Coast? That's far enough. Lionfang looked at him confused, and continued, "May I ask what it is?" ”

"A crate, and a set of power armor. What we need is the former, and as for the latter, you take it. ”

Power Armor!

There was a flash of greed in Lionfang's eyes, but he soon calmed down.

"They have power armor?"

"Yes," Uren continued, seeing the hesitation in the marauder's eyes in front of him, "don't worry, that power armor has no shield, so it's a live target with a little more defense. If it shows up on the battlefield, just leave it to us. ”

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

"Great, my friend, although we caught a few youkai and brown bears with the equipment you provided, we ran into power armor...... I'm not sure. ”

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

"Airplane?!"

That group of blue coats has airplanes?!

Could it be that Boulder sold them planes?

The lion's eyes were full of surprise, and his face was full of disbelief.

Impossible......

It's the same thing as power armor, but anything inherited from before the war is a treasure in the survivor colony.

What's more, the people of Boulder City took over the batch of equipment from the post-war reconstruction committee.

"That's right," Ulen said as he looked at the surprised lion's teeth, and the second half of the sentence that almost squeezed out between his teeth, "It's just a ridiculous propeller plane, but after all, there are two machine guns on it, so you'd better be careful." ”

Liontooth looked dazed.

He didn't know what a propeller plane was, but if these people weren't joking, the group of blue coats in the northern suburbs of Qingquan City would probably be even trickier than he imagined.

"Thank you for the reminder, I'll discuss countermeasures with my staff in a moment...... How to strengthen our defensive positions. ”

"Fortify defensive positions? How else do you need to strengthen it? It's almost a turtle shell here," Dimet, who was standing on the sidelines, looked at him in surprise, "Are you going to continue south?" ”

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

With a helpless look on his face, Liontooth continued.

"The survivors here are no match for us, but they have cunningly hid in the subway, relying on their familiarity with the terrain to fight guerrilla warfare with us, plus the recent outbreak of the plague here, those rats are gnawing everywhere like crazy, and we have to put our shoes in the cupboard when we sleep...... There is simply no extra energy to continue south. ”

Ulun's face was a little ugly.

"How long will it take you to get these things done?"

Liontooth said in an uncertain tone.

"It should be possible by this winter."

"It's been too long!" Uren shook his head, "We can't wait that long!" Those blue coats are absorbing the nearby homeless people, and once they gain a foothold in the local area, they will become more and more difficult to deal with! Gathering all your strength to destroy them now is your only chance, and you can't wait for winter. ”

A hint of displeasure appeared on the lion's face.

At the end of the day, they are allies, not superiors and subordinates. The reason why he has such respect for them is because the missionaries of the Torch Church are able to control the xeno, and the charging youkai, brown bears, and even the claws of death help them solve many difficult opponents.

In exchange, the Chewy Bone tribe allowed them to preach in their own territory, spreading their faith to marauders in the province of the Valley and beyond.

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

Can't wait for winter?

Joke.

What is there to be afraid of a group of homeless people.

He admitted that the combat effectiveness of the wolf coat was indeed not weak, but they were limited in number after all.

In just a few months, the marauders who came to them had doubled the size of the Tooth Clan.

By the time autumn came, their tens of thousands of troops marched together, and one person could drown the group of blue gophers with a mouthful of spit!

"We have our own plans, I can't take my people to death just because you want to find a broken box, winter has only been a few months past, and their wheat has only grown a handful of green seedlings, what are we going to eat now? Gnawing on the turf? ”

"What's more, the black snake has been planted in their hands, those people are not something I can deal with alone, if you are in a hurry, go to our leader, Lord Golden Tooth is in the city of Xizhou, I am stationed here is his order, only he has the right to command me!"

The negotiation failed.

Without hesitation, Lionfang rejected the Torch Apostles' suggestion to move south immediately, and he would continue to fortify the fortifications here, and together with his staff, build the entire county into impregnable ground.

However, the commander also said that if he received orders from the chief, he would send a team of 100 men to support them.

A team of 100 people......

Ulren only smiled when he heard the offer.

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 the men had been held back by the orders in their hands, Ulren knew that he might have to meet their leader to persuade them to continue south.

After coming out of the department store, Dimmit glanced at his teammates.

"Let's go to the city now?"

"Well," Uren nodded, his index finger scratching in the air, "it's only a little over thirty kilometers from here to Xizhou, and we're going along the corridor below the ridge...... If it's fast, you should be there by tomorrow evening. ”

Raising his foot and stomping on a mouse that had slipped to his feet, Uren rubbed the soles of his shoes in disgust, his frowning brow huddled together.

This bunch of damn rats......

Where did it come from?

……

Where the hell did these rats come from?

The difficulty of a strong man is also confused.

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

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

The untreated corpses and the lack of a sufficient number of predators were the root causes of the plague.

Compared with mutant cockroaches, although the mammalian rats are slightly inferior in reproductive ability, they have the upper hand in both IQ and combat effectiveness, and soon became the real masters of Xizhou City.

They move in droves, gnawing at everything they come across, both on the surface and underground, and the marauders and survivors have nothing to do with them.

The difficulty of being a strong man is not that he has not tried to restrain his subordinates and clean up the discipline of the team, but he finds that what he thought will not work at all.

First of all, the language is different.

In the second rat is cunning by nature and has no loyalty at all.

Even those younger brothers who were subdued by him did not always listen to his orders, and it was even more common to disobey yin and yang.

The wood-burning generator was whining, and the threads next to it had been tinkered with several times.

These damn rats always gnaw on the wires while he is sleeping, and several of them are electrocuted and don't know how to learn a lesson, but fortunately they can't gnaw on the radio and the dormant warehouse, otherwise it will be called blood loss.

The only ones who are most loyal are the she-rats.

With enough food and living space to be given to the "human intervention" that is difficult for the strong, the rats line up to reproduce and frantically expand the size of the population.

It's just that their affectionate eyes make it difficult for strongmen to be a little scared.

Thank God!

It doesn't have that thing yet.

This is the first time he has come up with the idea that it would be good without a handle......

"Honorable, honorable 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 inquiry.

Although he had been reporting the situation in Xizhou City to the rear, he had 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 GM access in the settings and can physically punish illegal game behavior.

Who doesn't panic about this?

And the devil knows what kind of punishment logic the AI is.

Ah Guang has emphasized to them more than once on the forum that there are many problems with the server in the closed beta stage, and there is no manual appeal to unblock the qualification that has been cancelled by the GM, and the recovered closed beta 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 the strongman to know that he can't hide it after all, and after hesitating for a while, he finally chooses to confess honestly and tell the things he has hidden before.

After listening to the description of the strong man's difficulty, Chu Guang couldn't cry or laugh for a while.

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

No, I should say it's a rat.

After all, it's not a human thing.

“…… Administrator? Seeing that there was no sound on the other end of the phone, the strong man's heart was even more worried.

“…… Ahem, nothing, I was just a little surprised and made me think for a moment. ”

Minutes and seconds passed.

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

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

“…… You did a good job, the plague has slowed down the Tooth Clan's southward march and bought us precious time for development. But on the other hand, you have not been able to restrain your men, and the indiscriminate plague has had a severe impact on the resistance of the local survivors. ”

The strongman said with a depressed face.

"You can't really blame me, I tried to write about them, and they all listened to me one by one...... But one set in front of you, another set behind your back. ”

"I know, so I don't blame you, but I can't publicly commend you either," Chu Guang paused and continued, "The new alliance will remember your contributions, but will not recognize your merits, and we will reward you in other ways, do you understand what I mean?" ”

Alas.

Scared the rats to death.

That's it.

The strongman breathed a sigh of relief.

It doesn't matter if the table is not commended, anyway, he can't understand what the NPC says, which doesn't affect the task reward, nor does it affect him pretending to be forced on the forum.

And it sounds like you've triggered a hidden mission?

Instead of being disappointed, the strongman became excited, and swore in an excited voice.

"Don't worry, honorable administrator, I'll keep my mouth shut about what I've done! There will be shadows under the light, and I will be the blade under your cloak! Clear all the obstacles that stand in our way for you! ”

Chu Guang's embarrassed toes quickly pierced the ground.

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

“…… I'm glad you think so, but from now on, I need you to find out what information is on our way, mark the enemy's ammunition depots, firing points, command offices, cantonment posts, and dark passages and trenches on the map as much as possible, and cooperate with our ground and air forces to clear out the marauders entrenched in the area. ”

"Can these things be done?"

The strongman said excitedly: "Rest assured, leave it to me!" I can still do this little thing! ”

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

End of communication.

The strongman breathed a sigh of relief, and his originally sad face was full of happiness at the moment.

It's up!

It's definitely going up!

Just the tone of the manager's last few words, the favorability is absolutely rising!

The rat brothers around him chattered for a while, and although they didn't know what the boss was excited about, their fat stomachs must have been filled with bad water.

Turning to face his younger brothers, the strongman who couldn't wait to perform was embarrassed to stand up straight, shouting at a sharp voice.

"Call out to your brothers, little ones."

"Follow your Grandpa Rat to do something!"

……

Although rats can't speak, strong people have their own way.

Having lived with rats for so long, he has long figured out their habits and how they communicate information.

These cunning rats may not strictly follow his orders to send them to their deaths, but it is still no problem to help him scout the enemy.

A dangerous place means a lot of people, and a place with a lot of metal means that a weapon or ammunition might be stored, and after confirming the approximate location, he will smell it and go and take a look for himself.

Even if you don't always find valuable information, at least six out of ten times you will find something.

As soon as he finds a high-value target, he doesn't do anything right away, but instead marks it on the map with a VM and quietly withdraws.

At this time, startling the snake will only alert the enemy.

When the war begins, the planes and artillery of the new coalition will surprise the marauders in a big way.

Unaware of what was happening under his feet, Liontooth was further reinforcing 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, distribution boxes, ventilation ducts and other facilities as shelters, and installed high-powered searchlights on some roofs to search the nearby airspace and mountainous areas at night.

These ideas certainly didn't come up with Liontooth on his own.

But he had in his ranks the staff officers of the legion.

Although Lionfang didn't think those blue coats dared to take the initiative to run over to trouble him, the tragic death of the Black Snake made him learn his lesson thoroughly.

Even if there is only a 1% chance, he will strangle it in swaddling clothes!

……

Early April.

A full week has passed since the high-level meeting of the Northern Expedition plan.

Dawning City is like a pumping machine, frantically absorbing resources from all directions along the opened trade routes.

Steel and aluminum are the main source of 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 there is almost no bottom in sight.

In order to meet the growing demand for steel in the industrial zone, not only did No. 81 Iron and Steel Plant open a branch, but Chu Guang also signed an administrative document instructing the Logistics Department to establish the first steel plant of the new alliance.

This is also the first steel plant in the new alliance to be operated by NPCs and collectively controlled by the alliance.

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

The steel produced by the First Iron and Steel Plant is mainly for the construction of infrastructure, and its equipment is partly machined by machine tools, partly purchased from Boulder City, and the technicians are both professional players and unemployed engineers hired from Boulder City.

As for the A3 type of aviation aluminum produced by the Bucky aluminum factory, most of it was supplied to the production line of the "electric mule", and the remaining production capacity was basically eaten by the Liszt factory to produce the stronger KV-1 exoskeleton improvement.

Before the start of the war, Chu Guang needed enough trucks to deliver supplies and troops to the front line, and use the KV-1 exoskeleton to ensure the mobility and combat ability of the players.

By the end of the month, the number of players can reach 2500+, but the number of combat professional players who are actually on the front line is about 1500.

The disadvantage in numbers can only be compensated for by mobility and firepower.

In addition to steel and aluminum, the second most demanded resources for the new alliance are copper and sulfur.

Copper is mainly used to make bullets and lay power grids, which goes without saying.

The shell can be made of steel shell, but the bullet is best made of copper, which is not only easier to preserve, but also has excellent shooting performance, and can effectively reduce the jamming rate and rifling wear compared to the steel shell ammunition.

As for electricity, it's even more critical, whether it's exoskeletons, trucks, or save points for players, they all need the support of the power system.

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

It's not just about a production line, from steel mills to chemical plants, there are very few industrial chains that can leave it.

With the war machine in motion, the production capacity of the industrial zone continues to expand, and almost all the resource needs are rising.

At this time, Charlie, the elder of the merchant union, brought bad news to Chu Guang......

"While you've probably sensed something from the inventory data, I'm going to have to tell you just in case that our industry is expanding faster than expected, and we've been buying copper and sulfur ore from the surrounding survivor settlements for an increase in price."

Reception rooms at the base.

Chu Guang, who listened to Old Charlie's report, thought for a moment and raised his head.

"How much has it gone up?"

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

Chu Guang nodded thoughtfully.

"It's pretty much the same as I know."

Players discussed this in the forums last night, not only copper and sulfur ore, but also some rare metals that are simply out of stock.

This situation was actually expected by Chu Guang before.

The tickets issued by the Red River mine are essentially futures, and this trading model is not only to facilitate their purchase of goods from other survivors, but also to facilitate their own coordination of the mine's production capacity.

In other words, instead of producing a bunch of unused ore and hoarding it in stock, they decide on the next season's production based on the tickets issued in the previous quarter.

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

But......

The speed of this price increase is really sudden.

The Northern Expedition plan has only been launched for a week, and no matter how fast the demand grows, Chu Guang doesn't believe that the warehouse in Honghe Town doesn't even have this little reserve.

Chu Guang has reason to suspect that someone guessed something through some information and played with him to hoard goods and sell them.

Old Charlie apparently guessed what might be going on, and said cryptically.

"Our resources are constrained by people, and the impact of this problem will become more and more apparent. Either we can open up more trade routes and reduce our dependence on a single raw material source, or I can have my own raw material source and solve some of my resource needs by 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, and the bluestone geopark in the mountainous area to the west of it was formerly the mining area of the bluestone mining company, and the porphyry copper-molybdenum deposits below it are rich in reserves, which are estimated to be at least one million tons."

Charlie had a surprised look on his face.

"It's not mined there?"

"It was mined, but only a small part of it, and according to the data, the mine was shut down in the early years of the boom era due to cost issues, and then it was converted into a geopark, with a practice base and geological research institute next to it."

With a faint smile, Chu Guang continued.

"In fact, it is not only copper and molybdenum deposits, according to the analysis of our scientific expedition team, there are not a few resources that have been explored but not developed in the surrounding area, as long as we lay down Xizhou City, the problem of resources can naturally be solved."

"But what about the problem at hand? Even if we take Qingshi County, it will take time to mine—"

As soon as he said this, a hint of realization suddenly appeared in old Charlie's eyes.

"I see......"

"I kind of see what you mean."

It's the New Year, and book friends with spiritual roots use this app to read aloud and listen to books on the road!