Chapter 183: Chapter 183: Captives
"This is a lot more than I expected... Yuqi will be so mad if she has to deal with this..."
Xiaoyun mumbled as he stepped outside the room, only to see rows on top of rows of captives.
"Sir, what should we do with the captive?" One of the Majors spoke up as he noticed Xiaoyun on the second-floor balcony.
"Everyone, move them indoors in several buildings, and have a squad watch over every building."
As the soldiers started splitting up the captives into different buildings in the abandoned town, a soldier handed him an account of all the captive goods and the number of captives.
After reading the whole thing, Xiaoyun pulled out his phone to call Yuqi.
"Hey, darling, I just want to ask, how many new people can the town handle?"
"Not over one thousand people per week now. Less space, and all the new land must be reclaimed from the forest. It's taking a lot longer now."
After Yuqi finished responding, she noticed the silence from Xiaoyun and suddenly had a bad feeling.
"Babe, come on, just tell me. How many people did you manage to capture? Two thousand? Three thousand?"
With a long hesitation, Xiaoyun states it out quietly.
"Twenty thousand."
"TWENTY THOUSAND! Are you out of your mind? There is not a single world we can handle that many people. Not to mention Shuli just drafted a new plan to take longer for citizenship."
"Citizenship? When did that get created?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"A long time ago. Remember the ID card everyone received at the beginning of the year?"
"Oh, right... anyway, what does that have to do with me moving people back to the town?" Xiaoyun asked.
"You dummy. We just implemented a new system where people have to work for at least one month under supervision to get citizenship and be able to move into the town freely.
Do you think I have allocated that much space for that many people for that system?" Yuqi raised her tone as she replied.
"Um... then what should I do? I can't just leave this many people here."
Xiaoyun tried to think of a solution, but his head was empty.
"Give me three days. I'll devise a temporary solution."
After answering, Yuqi immediately hung up the phone, leaving Xiaoyun no time to reply.
"Fuck, how the hell am I going to maintain twenty thousand people..." Xiaoyun sighed as he walked around the room in a circle.
"There must be something I can do... I need housing... no, that's not the most pressing task. They can live in all these abandoned buildings...
Those people need water and food, but how can I find enough for three days?"
Suddenly, Xiaoyun facepalmed himself as he realized something.
"What am I? A dumbass? I can make the food."
As Xiaoyun walked downstairs and left the house, two soldiers followed him as bodyguards.
"Do you guys know where there is a warehouse in this town?" Xiaoyun asked the two bodyguards.
"Um... there is a large empty barn over there." One of the bodyguards pointed in the distance.
"Great... you two can return to the house. I'll be back later." Just as Xiaoyun started walking toward the barn, the two soldiers hesitated.
"But sir, we're assigned as your bodyguard." The other bodyguard spoke up.
"Am I the commander, or are you the commander?" Xiaoyun stared back with his fierce look.
"N-No sir, we'll go immediately."
After seeing the two soldiers turn around and leave the area, Xiaoyun resumes walking to the barn.
Inside the barn was an ample space, just like he wanted it to be.
Xiaoyun started creating food boxes and stacking them on top of each other.
After creating several rows of canned food, he moved on to creating packs of bottled water.
An hour later...
"Whew, this should be enough." Xiaoyun wiped the sweat off his forehead as he looked back at the inventory he just created.
It was almost an entire barn full of food and water, with Xiaoyun forced to stand at the doorway as the inside was just packed.
With the food and water situation sorted, Xiaoyun returned to the house.
"Sir, Mr.Lingang has been looking for you." A soldier reported as Xiaoyun opened the door.
"Call all the majors to the house. I want them here no more than five minutes." Xiaoyun issued.
"Yes, sir." The soldier ran out of the house to deliver the order.
Five minutes later...
All nine Majors stood still as Xiaoyun tapped the table rhythmically.
Lingang got impatient and decided to speak up.
"Commander, what should we do with the hostages? Some have been asking for food and water... we only gave them the water so far since we only brought our rations."
"I know that already... Don't worry about the food and water. It's already solved."
All the Majors let out a sigh of relief as they heard Xiaoyun's announcement, but then they all got confused as they didn't hear any news of supply trucks delivering goods or anything.
"Commander... you aren't joking? The food and water are already here?" Lingang decided to ask again.
"Yes, they are all in that barn a minute's walk from here... You guys can direct the soldiers to bring those captives some food and water later... but do any of you have any idea what to do with the captives?"
All eight majors looked toward Lingang as if they expected him to say something, but he shook his head in return.
With no other hope, they all turned towards Han Bang as he was the one who came up with the idea behind the whole operation.
"Han Bang, you got some ideas right?" One of the majors next to him gently taps his elbow.
"Yeah, but I'm unsure if it is a good idea."
As Han Bang mumbled, Xiaoyun heard the two talking and decided to ask.
"Han Bang, do you have an idea?"
"Um, yes, commander. I was thinking, why don't we use the captives to build up this abandoned town? Even wooden barricades and roadblocks would be huge against zombie attacks and hostile factions."
All eight majors immediately started nodding in agreement with the idea, especially Lingang, who had the same idea but was too afraid to speak it up.
"Great idea, I should have thought of that... Let's go with your plan. You nine can direct the captives to chop down the nearby trees and construct a defense line."
"Yes sir!" The majors yelled out in unison.
As all nine majors left the house, Xiaoyun looked towards the map again.
"First step down... now three more to go," Xiaoyun mumbled to himself as he crossed out the bottom entrance of Guangzhou.
---
Xiaoyun watched the captives build the town defense as the soldier directed with a rough outline that each major created in their designated parts.
Although the fences looked unorganized, being all over the place, they were sturdy and connected around the entire town.
"Commander, they had finished the fences, and we had passed out the food," Lingang reported as he stood behind Xiaoyun.
"Good, we just need to wait two more days, and we'll be out of here. You can go back to your camp now... Also, don't forget to schedule the night patrol."
"Yes, commander..." As Lingang turned around, he stood at the doorway and hesitated.
"What's wrong?" Xiaoyun asked as he turned around and noticed Lingang standing there.
"Commander... how did all the supplies appear in the barn? A few of the soldiers told me that it was empty earlier."
"What do you think?" Xiaoyun looked back with a blank face.
"Um... The town delivery would have taken at least half a day to get it here, and it can't just appear out of thin air." Lingang awkwardly scratches his head as he can't think of a solution.
"Was there a hidden basement nearby that had all the food?" Lingang came up with a solution after thinking for a while.
"Let's go with that... you can leave now."
After watching Lingang leave the house, Xiaoyun walked inside one of the rooms of the house as he lay down flat on the bed.
"Come on, Xiaoyun. I need to sleep, and sleep is the only thing I need to do... tomorrow, you still have to manage all these captives and the soldiers."
As Xiaoyun tried to fall asleep, he just couldn't fall asleep at all as the withdrawal started to kick in.
"I really can't live without them..." Xiaoyun shook his head as the image of last night started to pop inside his head.
After rolling around on the bed a few times, Xiaoyun still couldn't fall asleep.
"Whatever, I'll just sleep later."
Xiaoyun got back from the bed and walked over to the balcony.
As he looked outside, he could see several groups of soldiers patrolling the town in the distance with their lights, as the sky was completely dark from the cloud blocking the moon.
"I wonder what they are doing right now... They probably aren't sleeping this early yet." Xiaoyun mumbled as he stared at the clouds in the sky.