binnovel Chapter 87 All People Join the Army
Chapter 87 All People Join the Army
After listening to Li Chenglong's words, many people standing in the hall discussed it together for a few minutes. Then Jin Hai stepped forward and said, "Captain Li has done us a great service. From now on, we will obey your orders." Li Chenglong smiled and said, "Since everyone trusts me, I will definitely not let you down. Moreover, I swear here that I will never do anything that would harm Jinlan City."
Li Chenglong continued, "I only have three things to say. First, we need to open the granaries and distribute grain to relieve the people. I've seen it outside; apart from the central city, the outer city, whether the inner or buffer zone, is filled with a large number of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition. So we must resolve this matter first. It's a little past 2 PM now. Uncle Jin, send as many people as possible. I'll have Zhao Liying go with them to open more relief points and provide food." Jin Hai immediately chatted with someone next to him for a few moments, then said, "This is our former deputy logistics minister; he knows Jinlan City inside and out. I'll have him take over a hundred people and go with Ms. Zhao."
Zhao Liying nodded: "Okay, let's go now. After all, we don't have much time, and Jinlan City is too big." After the group left, Li Chenglong continued: "The second thing is conscription, using conscription as a form of relief. Among the people I mentioned before, there are quite a few teenagers and slightly older people. I want to expand the conscription range, setting the age to 14 to 50. This way, they can not only solve their food, drink, and lodging problems, but also further increase our soldier numbers. The third thing is the zombie horde in a few days, which is one of the most urgent matters at present. Those of you who were originally military officers should take control of the troops under your command as soon as possible. Those that can be reorganized should be reorganized, and anyone who secretly sabotages should be executed. Also, the city walls. I glanced at them before. The structure of the city walls is okay, but there are still many parts that need to be reinforced. These people can also be recruited from among the refugees."
After Li Chenglong finished speaking, he asked everyone to reflect on his words for a few minutes before saying, "Alright, that's all I wanted to say. Please feel free to add anything." The crowd exchanged glances, and finally Jin Hai stepped forward and said, "Captain Li, just as a country cannot be without a ruler for a day, Jinlan City cannot remain without a leader forever. We just discussed it and are willing to nominate you as the city lord of Jinlan City." Li Chenglong waved his hand, "As I said before, I'm only temporarily using the power of Jinlan City; I have no intention of staying in this position. Jinlan City was built by Jin Zhan'ao and his family over several generations, and it played a very good role after the apocalypse. It should rightfully return to the Jin family. Now, the main branch of the Jin family has been almost entirely slaughtered by Wu Xiaoyi, but there are still Jin Dashuai's two daughters. They should be the candidates for city lord."
Immediately, a middle-aged man stepped forward and said, "But the commander's twin daughters are only fourteen or fifteen years old. If they were to take over, wouldn't they be too young, especially since we are still in the apocalypse?" Li Chenglong smiled and said, "Aren't you all here? As long as you work together and help them govern Jinlan City, they will surely become wise leaders." Seeing that Li Chenglong truly had no interest in the position of city lord, the crowd gave up.
Then everyone left to attend to their own affairs, leaving only a few guards outside the gate and Li Chenglong, Zhao Rui, Zhao Liying, and Wang Bing. The conscription notices were soon posted throughout Jinlan City, and many who met the age and requirements actively enlisted, as military service meant guaranteed food, which boosted morale. In the afternoon, Li Chenglong, guided by a soldier familiar with Jinlan City, drove around the city to check on the relief points and barracks. There were now many more soldiers maintaining order within the city to prevent sabotage or food disputes.
That evening, Li Chenglong politely declined Jin Hai's invitation to the victory celebration banquet, but still sent Zhao Rui and Wang Bing instead. He himself dined in the backyard of the Jin residence with Zhao Liying, Han Xiaoling, and the Jin sisters. The Jin sisters, Jin Linfei and Jin Mengfei, raised their glasses and stood up, saying in unison to Li Chenglong and the other two, "Thank you all for your help, allowing us to avenge this blood feud." Zhao Liying and Han Xiaoling quickly gestured for them to sit down, with Zhao Liying smiling and saying, "There's no need for thanks. We've always been partners, so of course we had to do our utmost to help." Li Chenglong even changed their glasses to juice, as they were still young and not suited for alcohol.
As the group ate and chatted, Han Xiaoling asked a question she'd been wanting to ask: "Sisters, it's been over two years since the zombie outbreak, and you said they come every three months. So why haven't we seen a single zombie corpse after walking so far?" Jin Linfei was a little surprised: "Don't you know? Zombie corpses are different from human corpses. Although they clearly look like humans turned zombies, those corpses decompose very easily, and once they decompose, even the bones rot away. In at most two months, there won't be a trace left." Li Chenglong was also a little surprised to hear this: "Oh? You know, in suitable environments, mummies can be preserved for thousands of years, but these zombies disappeared without a trace in just two months. That's really strange."
Jin Linfei: "Our father and some researchers from the Sanggu Kingdom have studied this issue, but they haven't found any clues." Zhao Liying then asked, "How far is it from Jinlan City to the southernmost state?" Jin Mengfei spoke up at this moment: "The Sanggu Kingdom covers an area of 450 million square kilometers, dominating this entire Pan-Ancient Continent. Our Jinlan State is located slightly north of the Sanggu Kingdom, about 980 kilometers from the southernmost South China Sea State." Jin Linfei said somewhat sadly, "They must have already experienced this zombie horde. Zombie hordes always move from south to north, and the further south you go, the more zombies there are." Han Xiaoling asked, "Then why don't they all move to the north?" Jin Mengfei said, "Because of the climate. The further north you go, the harsher the climate becomes. Although our temperature doesn't change much throughout the year, the further north you go, the less rainfall you get, especially in inland areas."
Li Chenglong had also gained a lot of useful information this time. After dinner, the Jin sisters went back to their rooms to rest, accompanied by their servants. Li Chenglong looked at the population table of Jinlan City that Jin Hai had sent that afternoon. The total number of people of suitable age in Jinlan City was 100,000. Even after deducting some, they could still muster an army of 60,000 to 70,000.