When dawn arrived, all the preparations had been completed. Ten large vehicles with 80% full fuel tanks, more than 40 war horses, and more than 600 men and women. Zhang Xiao Qiang's off-road vehicle was in the front, and the packed convoy followed closely behind. Very quickly, the convoy left the grasslands and drove towards the Gobi Desert in the distance.
When the reddish-brown mountain range appeared in front of everyone, Zhang Xiaoqiang let out a deep sigh of relief. The wolf flag that he had imagined did not appear. If they really encountered an ambush, just the hundreds of soldiers who had no fighting spirit, one heavy machine gun, and two 23mm machine guns would not be able to stop it.
The convoy stopped at the entrance of the ravine that was covered with corpses. Looking at the mummified corpses on the ground, Zhang Xiaoqiang led the team into the depths of the ravine. It was still the same as before. Hundreds of corpses and thousands of zombie skeletons were waiting to turn into yellow soil. People got off the vehicles and looked at their new home. Although the human corpses did not decompose, the rotten zombie smell was really unpleasant. No one dared to complain. This would be their new home that could provide them with shelter.
The corpses were pushed to the side by the forklift to be incinerated. The alert teams climbed to the highest point of the mountain range and set up a sentry position. The cannons were also set up in the crevices of the ravine. The cannons were hidden in the natural crevices, and there were several layers of thick sandbags outside. Even if they were hit by the cannons, they would be able to preserve their lives.
With the high mountains as the walls, the cannons as the defensive firepower, and the hard and fire-resistant concrete houses as residences, the hundreds of survivors finally felt at ease. Although the Golden Wolf Flag also knew about this place, they would never have thought that in the depths of the desert, where they could not graze or grow crops, there would be people willing to settle down.
Zhang Xiaoqiang did not want the Golden Wolf Flag to think that so far, his plan to attack the Golden Wolf Flag had been delayed indefinitely. There was no rear, no logistics, no place for the soldiers to settle down. Zhang Xiaoqiang did not expect them to risk their lives.
There were a lot of resources here, even dozens of tons of coal, but there was no food. There were only a few pumps that could draw water from the depths of the earth, but there was also a lack of diesel. The convoy's diesel could only be used to pump the planes for a month. If the pumps were used, there would be no more fuel for the vehicles.
Everything had to start from scratch. Zhang Xiao Qiang got them to use the cement from the warehouse to build a huge reservoir. When the time came, as long as the reservoir was filled, it could be used for a long period of time. A 24 hour supply of water was considered a luxury now.
The three-story office building became Zhang Xiaoqiang's private property. In one of the offices, Zhang Xiaoqiang found a large map of Mongolia. Although most of the maps were marked with mines, Zhang Xiaoqiang still found what he was looking for. There were small towns or villages along the highway.
Looking at the densely packed names and Sumu Towns on the map, Zhang Xiaoqiang was tempted. Although most of the villages had been looted by survivors, those towns with a certain population might not be taken down. If that was the case, they could get some food and fuel.
Thinking of this, Zhang Xiaoqiang asked the girl to find Zhao Jun and Zhou Jie. When Zhou Jie and Zhou Jie entered the office, Zhang Xiaoqiang was looking at the map on the wall. He used a red signal pen to circle a few Sumu Towns and calculated the length of the national highway.
Seeing the map, Zhou Jie and Lu Ta were incredibly excited. They didn't lack maps, but they lacked high-precision maps. These maps generally wouldn't leak out. Now that they had this map, they wouldn't have to send people to search for resource points that hadn't been cleared out by others.
"What do you guys think? What do you know about Sumu Towns?"
Zhou Jie had obviously stayed in Inner Mongolia for a long time and said:
"The main population of Inner Mongolia is Han and Mongolian. The Han's gathering place is divided by counties, while the Mongolians are divided by banners. Below the county is the township, and below the banner is Sumu. Just like the Mongolians, they only exist in Inner Mongolia."
Zhang Xiaoqiang finally understood. The so-called Sumu was the local government of that area. It had jurisdiction over dozens or several villages. There were certain public buildings, banks, and police stations. Of course, there were also gas stations.
"Zhao Jun, what unit were you in before?"
When Zhao Jun heard this, he first wanted to refuse to answer. Then he thought that it was the end of the world and there was no so-called confidentiality clause. He replied with some depression: "We belong to the border defense army, but not the border defense regiment. We should be regarded as the garrison troops of each banner county. My brothers and I are the remnants of a banner county. We escaped here and settled in the market. There are many like us on the grassland, including the border defense and customs, the border defense of the armed police, radar soldiers, checkpoints, and so on …"
Now Zhang Xiaoqiang understood that Zhao Jun belonged to the second line of troops. The border defense regiment was a field force, so Zhao Jun did not know where the border defense regiment was stationed. Otherwise, the Mongolians would not have found the large equipment first.
"Tomorrow morning, Zhao Jun will take a search team, a squad of soldiers, and a cavalry reconnaissance squad. Five trucks will follow me to search those Sumu and villages. Zhou Jie will take the rest of the soldiers to defend …"
Lonely smoke rises, long river sets, round sun. These two ancient poems described the atmosphere of the desert, but Zhang Xiaoqiang could not taste this kind of leisurely atmosphere. Outside the window, it was all desolate gravel and broken stones. Occasionally, they could see some withered grass growing in the cracks of the stones. In front of them, there was only a rough outline of the old national highway that was buried by the wind and sand.
Along the way, they could not see any green. Occasionally, they could see some cement buildings and broken yurts. When they walked forward, they found that there was nothing useful inside. The villages here were different from the inland. The villages here were called Gacha. There were not hundreds of families here. At most, there were more than ten families, and at least a few families. Even on the highway, it seemed lonely.
The buildings here were not as dense as in the inland. How long the highway was, there would be as many buildings. The buildings here were like pearls, which was rare in the monotonous landscape.
There were also vehicles on the side of the highway, all kinds of vehicles, and even a tourist bus. All the vehicles on the side of the road were looted, and the zombies on the side of the road were turned into bones. Obviously, someone had followed the highway and succeeded before Zhang Xiaoqiang and the others.
The looting was very clean. Not only did they take all the luggage, clothes, car parts that could be removed, spare tires, and the remaining gasoline. As long as they could take it, they took it all away.
At first, the cavalry scouts went forward to investigate with interest, but after a while, they lost interest. A long journey was the best way to wear down people's morale. When they arrived at a destroyed Gacha, Zhang Xiaoqiang ordered them to rest inside. They fed the horses water and food, and added water to the car engine to cool it down.
The small village was no different from other places. The only difference was that this was a semi-desert area, so there were far more sparse vegetation than other places. Many of the vegetation had a clear hint of green, which was more comforting than the withered and yellow vegetation they saw along the way. More than 30 people got out of the car and stretched their limbs. Some people found a well and used the cold well water to wash the dust off their heads.
No matter where Zhang Xiaoqiang went, he brought Meow with him. Meow had already eased the relationship with Zhang Xiaoqiang. She was no longer cold to him, but don't expect her to be good to Zhang Xiaoqiang. Meow always wanted to find her mother, and Zhang Xiaoqiang couldn't do anything about it.
After lunch, Zhang Xiaoqiang decided to let the soldiers rest more to avoid the hot sun. He asked Zhao Jun to arrange the guard point, and he hid in the air-conditioned car to take a nap.
Ever since Meow Meow fainted, it was like a different person. In the market, it usually stayed in the tent, gossiping with the girl and reading all kinds of books it could find. Today, however, was different. Without the girl by its side, Meow Meow always wanted to do something. First, it walked around the village a few times. The village was not big, so Meow Meow walked into the bushes outside, skillfully avoided a few hidden sentries, and ran outside the cordon.