Wasteland Commander

Edge of Huacheng City.

Near the bank.

Little One has already made this place its lair.

It found this building very sturdy and large, capable of housing many of its underlings.

In the past few days, it has lost count of how much flesh and blood it has devoured.

It feels it has become much stronger.

It should be able to suppress that big rat now.

Little One feels that it now has two enemies.

One is the human that rampaged near the school that day. That human felt extremely dangerous to it. If those roaring artillery shells hit it, even with an iron bucket, it would probably be doomed.

Another enemy is that big rat.

Thankfully, a group of unfortunate people came over this time, providing it with a delicious feast, otherwise it would take a long time to suppress the big rat.

Little One led its large number of underlings back to Huacheng City District.

Its ability has indeed improved significantly. In the past, it could summon over ten thousand zombies a day, and now it can summon thirty thousand in a day.

It currently has nearly two hundred thousand zombies under its command. It doesn't know how many it can control, but it knows the more and the stronger the underlings, the better.

Only when it's powerful enough will it not be afraid of that group of terrifying humans. That day's roaring artillery left it with a psychological shadow.

It has a vague goal in its mind.

That is, when it becomes a bit stronger, it will return and completely eliminate the humans who frightened it that day.

But before it becomes powerful, it should stay away from those humans as much as possible.

Leading a large group of underlings, it returned again to the vicinity of that crater.

It saw that group of rats again.

The energy in this crater was basically gone, but those rats were actually digging holes here, continuing to absorb the remaining energy below.

Seeing Little One approach, that big rat jumped out again, baring its teeth at Little One.

Little One roared at the big rat!

Within its increasingly robust brain, a peculiar energy surged out.

It's an energy unique to its commander-type zombies, capable of controlling other zombie units.

It had tried to control the big rat with this trick before, but failed.

But this time it succeeded!

The big rat's eyes flashed with a red light, and then its bristling fur smoothed down, its attitude towards Little One becoming more friendly.

It could even understand the commands Little One gave it, and could do whatever was asked.

With the roars of Little One and the big rat, one rat after another gathered around the zombie horde.

This brought the number of Little One's underlings to over two hundred thousand.

But Little One is still not satisfied.

It's still far too few. It needs more and stronger underlings to possibly contend with that terrifying group of humans.

Moreover, it also discovered that not all humans are that terrifying.

For example, the convoy from the other day had no resistance whatsoever and was easily wiped out by its forces.

It needs to become even stronger, and it has identified its next target for conquest.

That's the group of mutated birds flying in the skies on the edges of Huacheng.

********

After capturing Qinghe County, Ye Fan felt a sense of ease.

This small town is filled with countless resources.

The Dawn Army couldn't possibly move all the resources. Ye Fan had clear targets in what he collected.

With the War Hawk soaring in the sky, everything in Qinghe County was laid bare beneath his eyes.

His main targets included gas stations, grain and oil stores, large supermarkets, and various factories.

Heavy trucks were activated, transporting those key resources to Dawn City one truckload after another.

As for residential neighborhoods, Ye Fan didn't even bother to visit.

There were still many scattered zombies and a lot of scattered resources there, but it was better to leave them for the survivors to gather.

The resources here couldn't be moved in just one or two days. After directing the soldiers to focus on key areas, Ye Fan's gaze turned to a certain place.

It was the television station of Qinghe County.

Ye Fan already knew there were several large bases in Divine Dragon Province. They could generate electricity and broadcast radio, but he hadn't heard of any place being able to broadcast television programs.

If Ye Fan could manage to restore television broadcasts, it would definitely be an extraordinary achievement.

Ye Fan summoned several engineers.

"Is there any way we can restore television broadcasts?"

"Yes, Captain. These devices aren't damaged, and the television signal towers are intact. We just need to do some maintenance and restore the power supply for the station to be operational."

"Can our base's power supply be connected here?"

"I'm afraid not. The base's power plant is too far from here, unless we move all the television station's equipment back and build a signal tower over there."

Ye Fan thought for a moment: "Then who will be able to receive our television programs?"

"Sir, not many people should be able to watch it, as cities have already lost power. Only some survivor bases have electricity, and they might not have installed signal-receiving antennas. Perhaps only those large bases can see it."

Ye Fan nodded. Although there might not be many people who can watch TV programs now, he still planned to do so.

To build Dawn City into a livable city, televisions are indispensable.

Although there are still no real TV programs at the moment, keeping everyone updated on the surrounding situations in this way is also beneficial.

When there's nothing else to do, playing some old movies and TV shows is also good.

Ye Fan intended to relocate people to Qinghe, but it was obviously not mature yet in practice; there are many dangers around, and it isn't safe enough.

Dawn City's area of more than twenty square kilometers can easily support the survival of hundreds of thousands of people if buildings are constructed.

"Here's the plan: move the TV station and equipment back, and also dismantle and transport the signal tower back. Ensure every household in the base has television access!"

Ye Fan gave the order, and the troops began to execute it. The grand operation of relocating the TV station started.

With engineers directing the operations of the engineers, Ye Fan wasn't needed here at all.

He called Tang Yafei, boarded the combat helicopter, and detached from the main forces, returning to Dawn City first.

After working for more than a day, the barracks had already produced the first one, and he needed to return to place it.

After arriving in the core area, Ye Fan placed the fifth barracks of Dawn City, with the sixth still under construction.

With money in hand and large supplies of food from Qinghe, Ye Fan was no longer worried about the base's food problem and could dispatch troops with peace of mind now.

First, he produced four more transport aircraft and equipped them with four hundred paratroopers.

One hundred paratroopers cannot form a scale, making it difficult to be effective in battles.

But five hundred paratroopers are different, sufficient to form an advantage in local areas and deliver swift, unexpected, and fierce blows to the enemy.

Five transport aircraft were also the limit Ye Fan could currently produce. The entire airport only had hangars for five transport aircraft.

Two barracks cost 200,000 gold, four transport aircraft cost 400,000 gold.

Four hundred paratroopers cost 80,000 gold.

Then there were helicopters; Ye Fan produced four more combat helicopters, bringing the total to five.

After spending 120,000 gold, the total had reached 800,000 gold.

But Ye Fan still had three million gold in his hand and could continue large-scale construction and production.

Initially, when setting up the troop strength, a regiment was 4,000 people, and it hadn't even reached 3,000 yet.

So, he simply added a fourth mechanized infantry battalion.

The original forces were reorganized to fully equip all four battalions.

The engineer platoon was also upgraded to an engineer company.

The guard platoon was upgraded to a guard company.

Shen Ruihui was promoted from platoon leader to company commander.

Upon learning that he was not promoted to deputy regiment commander all at once, Shen Ruihui was very grateful for Ye Fan's thoughtful consideration.

"The officer is still worried that my experience might not be convincing enough and wants me to take solid steps up one at a time. I completely understand."

The medics were also formally expanded to a company's size.

Furthermore, Ye Fan also added a direct company to the regimental headquarters.

The officer training center was restarted, and low-level officers were being trained and deployed to various units.

The War Hawk, as the aircraft's assurance for takeoff and the main aerial reconnaissance force, Ye Fan also wanted to expand the scale, increasing it to one hundred.

Coverage by radar alone, with a range of fifty kilometers, was not enough. Ye Fan wanted to have at least a two hundred kilometer radius under his oversight, which required more War Hawks.

The War Bear showed extremely powerful combat capabilities against zombies, and Ye Fan added fifty more.

Another important strategic weapon was the D-66 towed rocket artillery.

Ten rocket launchers were still too few, so Ye Fan increased them to thirty, forming a dedicated artillery unit.

Various mixed construction and production filled the production schedule almost entirely.

Currently, the full complement of six barracks, at 3,300 units, was completed before stopping.

These items could not be produced all at once; it would take about a week for all production to be completed.

Despite such large-scale military expansion, Ye Fan still had 2.3 million gold in his hands.

He chose not to use this money for now, keeping it as reserve funds for upcoming construction and technology.

Once the military expansion was complete, he also needed to construct the Air Force Heroic Battalion to see what buildings would be unlocked afterward.

New buildings come with new technology.

At that time, it would be the true leap in strength for the Dawn Army.

The construction of the TV station and the theater in the Dawn Restaurant brought a bustle to Dawn City once again.

After taking down Qinghe, the process of clearing zombies was temporarily concluded, and the next step was to search for survivors.

Ye Fan wanted to complete the integration of survivor forces in Huacheng before New Year's Day.

Because he gradually learned from War Hawk reconnaissance that a large zombie group was forming within Huacheng, over one hundred kilometers away.

Although the zombie horde had not yet shown signs of attacking Dawn City, Ye Fan had to prepare in advance and strengthen quickly.

Additionally, in this period, the number of external survivors coming to Dawn City gradually increased.

Some people came from Ice City, some from Oil City, and others from Crane City.

Even in this cold northern winter, Dawn City drew the attention of major figures across Divine Dragon Province.