Zhang Xiaoqiang brought Shanghai Qiaoyun along the lakeside and slowly walked forward. There were a few women resting by the lakeside, and there were many who were huddled under the street lamps sewing and mending their tattered clothes. The street lamp was a 100 watt incandescent lamp that Zhang Xiaoqiang had hung by the side of the path. These women were arranged by Zhang Xiaoqiang to stay in the villas, but their rooms would not have electricity at night, so these women would carry on with their unfinished work under the street lamps. Only those who had completed their tasks would enjoy the scenery by the lakeside.
There were quite a number of women in the base, including Old Frank's two sisters from the chicken farm, He Wen Bin's two women and a dozen others. In the hot spring, there were 28 that were perfectly fine, 5 that were half dead, and 37 that were found at the gathering place at the foot of the mountain. In addition to those that San Zi brought back, there were close to a hundred women and close to 300 men. In order to maintain the stability and continuity of the base, Zhang Xiaoqiang allowed all the women to stay in the villas. Other than going out to work, the women were not allowed to mingle with the men at night, afraid that the energetic men would stir up trouble. The men from the combat teams could come here to chat and curry favor with the women, but the other men were not allowed to enter. This was something that could not be helped, as the ratio of men to women was very uneven, about 3 to 1, and Zhang Xiaoqiang could only treat it carefully.
When Zhang Xiaoqiang walked into the valley, he saw that the open space in front of the five-story building was surrounded by hundreds of men. A few strong lights illuminated the front of the building, making it as bright as day. Lu Ren Yi stood in the middle of the open space. In front of him was a row of long tables. On the tables were piles of various supplies: cigarettes, alcohol, snacks, towels, teacups, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, soap, and some newer clothes and leather shoes. Lu Ren Yi held a piece of white paper and called out the names loudly. As the names came out of his mouth, the men walked out from the crowd and stood in front of him. They all had different expressions on their faces. Some looked around proudly, some stared blankly at Lu Ren Yi, waiting for him to announce their reward. Some had never been in the limelight before. They stood in front of the crowd, dodging the burning gazes of the people behind them. Some ignored the encouraging and jealous gazes of the others. They were sizing up their positions in the line, calculating how many people they had to go through before it would be their turn. There were also some who didn't care about anything. They behaved calmly and kept glancing at the supplies in front of them, calculating how many people they had to go through before it would be their turn.
Lu Ren Yi started to give out the prizes to those who worked hard. Zhang Xiaoqiang walked past the crowd and entered the building, following the stairs to the meeting room on the third floor. The idea of giving out prizes to those who worked hard was suggested by Zhang Huai An. It was similar to the model workers of the 80's and 90's, or the outstanding employees of enterprises after the year 2000. There were not many prizes, but it could raise the enthusiasm of the workers, allowing them to work even harder.
When Zhang Xiaoqiang entered the meeting room, He Wen Bin, Old Frank, and Zhang Huai An were already seated at the table waiting for Zhang Xiaoqiang. Wang Le, Fat Chef, and Wang Chong were seated at the side. In the darkest corner, there was another person who hid his entire body in the shadows. Zhang Xiaoqiang knew that it was Guo Fei, it was rare to see him, as he would usually go out with Three. Three had complained to Zhang Xiaoqiang more than once that Guo Fei was a lunatic, whenever he saw zombies, he would pounce on them and slash them, making it hard for the combat team to open fire. He did not even use the guns that were given to him, it seemed like his carbine had not even fired a single bullet.
Zhang Xiaoqiang walked to the main seat and sat down. Shangguan Qiaoyun also sat at the side and looked at Zhang Xiaoqiang quietly. Zhang Xiaoqiang knew that Shangguan Qiaoyun was looking at him, and he was already used to Zhang Xiaoqiang's stare, so he did not care anymore. It was impossible to get closer to her, who asked his weakest side to be seen by her, and this was something that Zhang Xiaoqiang who believed in male chauvinism could not tolerate.
Old Frank was the first to speak. Currently, the most important matter of the base was the construction of the walls. He first reported on the progress of the day's work, then made a detailed plan for the next phase of work. Looking at the thick stack of A3 papers in Old Frank's hands, Zhang Xiaoqiang felt an itch on his butt. It was not only Zhang Xiaoqiang, other than Guo Fei and Shangguan Qiaoyun who were at the corner, everyone else was feeling uneasy.
When Old Frank started to report on the progress of the drainage, Zhang Xiaoqiang could not help but interrupt him.
"Old Frank, I know you well. No matter what mission it is, you would never complain about it or complain about being tired. You are just silently working hard.
Old ox?
Oh, right, it's the spirit of an old ox. I trust you the most. As for the construction of the walls, I won't ask about it. I trust you, but you don't have to do everything yourself. What do those high level engineers do?
It's not that I want to criticize you, but you are also a leader now. En?
You just have to keep a close eye on the things below. Err … .In short, I trust you when you do things …. "
Zhang Xiaoqiang's praises for Old Frank made Old Frank giddy. He looked at Zhang Xiaoqiang with an agitated expression, as though he was a soldier dying for someone who understood him. If Zhang Xiaoqiang asked him to jump down from the 3rd floor, he might just pull open the curtains and jump. Seeing Old Frank's agitated expression, it seemed like he had something to say. Zhang Xiaoqiang looked at Zhang Huai An and gave him a look.
Who was Zhang Huai An?
He saw the look in Zhang Xiaoqiang's eyes and immediately reported to Zhang Xiaoqiang about the people he accepted today. They accepted a total of 112 people, of which 63 were men, the rest were women. The oldest of the men was 37, the youngest was 15, and the women were not over 40. These people were the same as the people that Zhang Xiaoqiang had captured previously, they were a mix of construction workers and local civilians. These women were female workers in a small food processing factory, after the outbreak of the virus, they were trapped in the factory until they were rescued by the workers who came to look for food. Because there were enough women, the men did not care about them and would only give the women leftovers after the men finished eating. If they did not find enough, the women could only starve. In the apocalypse, the women did not have much value other than for the men to vent their frustrations. Thus, these women could only endure half starvation until Three and his men discovered the men who went out to look for food.
"Chief Zhang, now that there are close to 500 people in the base, the valley is starting to become uninhabitable. Furthermore, with so many people, the daily consumption of food is huge. Although Three can bring back some daily, it is not enough to make ends meet. There is food in the valley, but who knows what will happen in the future. Do you think we should get Three to stop bringing people back?
If he wants to bring back, he should only bring back women, honestly, there are too few of them …. "
Zhang Huai An continuously reported about the consumption of the people, he was now considered He Wen Bin's assistant and knew about the situation in the valley. Although he did not know the actual number of firearms and the amount of food stored, but seeing the hundreds of people continuously using up the bags of rice, he started to worry. He was afraid that Zhang Xiaoqiang would be soft-hearted and bring back the scattered people, which would cause the valley to collapse.
Zhang Xiaoqiang thought for a while and shook his head, he looked at Zhang Huai An and He Wen Bin and said: "If we can't fit in the valley, then we can move to the mountains, if we can't fit in the mountains, then we can ask Old Frank to dig out the mountains. If we don't have enough food, then we can go out and look for food. Now, we don't lack food, we lack manpower. Once the outer walls are fixed, we can start planting crops and vegetables outside. When we have the chance to find livestock, we can start breeding …."
Zhang Xiaoqiang dealt with Zhang Huai An's worries, then looked at Three and said: "Three, we still have to look outside, every single one of them counts, the members of the combat team are still too little. The 30 temporary engineers from before were not bad, tomorrow, we will give them equipment and guns. The bullets will be the same as before, they must be in control of their own hands, other than that …."
Zhang Xiaoqiang turned to look at Wang Le, Wang Le stood up and said: "Currently, we have already forged 50 long blades, all of them are made from car springs, and 50 thin steel composite shields that cannot be penetrated by rifle bullets within 50m. We have only replicated less than 30 of Zhang Xiaoqiang's sniper crossbow, the main problem is that the materials are not easy to obtain, but we have made 1,700 crossbow bolts."
Zhang Xiaoqiang nodded his head, and continued to instruct Three: "Your team members have to learn how to use cold weapons, there are some places where you cannot alarm the zombies, so use cold weapons to deal with the scattered zombies. Remember to protect your own strength, every single person that dies now is a huge loss …."
Three nodded his head. After instructing Three, Zhang Xiaoqiang felt thirsty, and picked up the teacup prepared for him to drink. He noticed that Fat Chef was feeling uneasy, and nodded to him.