Wasteland Commander

Ice City North Base.

Perhaps now it should be called Ice City Base City.

Currently, the population of Ice City Base City is less than five million, not meeting Jiangzhou's requirement of five million minimum population to establish a base city.

But Guo Zhun thinks that's not important because it's all temporary.

He is currently standing in front of a full-length mirror, looking at himself dressed in a Count's luxurious attire.

This set of clothes is extremely luxurious, with a black handcrafted velvet base and exquisite gold thread embroidery, just like before the apocalypse, all stitched by skilled embroiderers from the South, known for such craftsmanship.

The gold threads are dyed with gold water, combined with the red dark patterns on the black background, it looks both splendid and high-class.

Since his return, he has only taken off this outfit while sleeping, and it never leaves his side during the day.

After adjusting the two military medals awarded by Grand Duke Zheng Jinnan on his chest, he tucked the pocket watch into his jacket pocket, tidied up his mustache, held his gentleman's cane, looked at his shiny calfskin boots, and felt he had never been so handsome.

What does it matter if the population is less than five million? With the legitimacy of the Empire, in a few days, a large number of survivors will come to Ice City to join his forces.

Now, within the province, it's Ye Fan stirring up trouble, causing many people to remain on the sidelines, or else he would have unified it long ago.

However, Ye Fan won't be able to cause trouble for many more days; after tomorrow, Ice City will issue a new currency. It will be further consolidation of legitimacy, and he believes most people will see the reality then.

Only by following him will they have money to use. The old-fashioned ways of gold and silver transactions, point systems, and barter will be abolished. He doesn't believe these people will be foolish enough to continue them.

By then, as long as he removes Ye Fan, he will be the de facto local emperor of Divine Dragon Province.

Thinking of this, Guo Zhun couldn't help but be full of ambition.

He glanced around and looked at Yan Zhihuan, who had followed him for a long time, and his secretary, and couldn't help but frown slightly.

Far from it!

Compared with that masked girl beside Zheng Jinnan, it's like heaven and earth, simply incomparable.

He wondered if, after unifying Divine Dragon Province and taking credit from Zheng Jinnan, he might give that girl to him.

With these thoughts, Guo Zhun came to his dining table, ready to start his meal.

At this point, the secretary walked over and turned on the TV for Guo Zhun.

Guo Zhun wanted to see the situation in Ice City, see the jubilant celebrations, see the scenes of people's support for him, which would make him very satisfied.

However, as the channels were being switched, he suddenly signaled the secretary to stop.

"Wait, watch Dawn Platform."

On the TV screen, Dawn TV Station reporter Ye Luo was speaking.

"Hello everyone, I'm Ye Luo, and I'm currently at Dawn City Bank. In two days, Dawn Bank will officially issue the currency Light Yuan, and now the workers are printing them in haste."

"According to a little insider information, the first issued amount of Light Yuan is about five billion Light Yuan. All operating branches of Dawn Bank will conduct Light Yuan exchange business, so everyone, please take your gold, silver, and points to the bank for conversion..."

Crash~~~!

A decorative vase on Guo Zhun's dining table was smashed to pieces by him with a lift of his hand.

"What a Ye Fan! He has such nerve!"

Guo Zhun was so angry that his mustache trembled. Since becoming a Count, his temper had significantly escalated, and he permitted no such defiance against him.

Clearly, he already represented the Empire officially, yet Ye Fan was so brazen as to ignore him. This behavior was tantamount to rebellion.

"It's rebellion! Rebellion! Even though Li Yuntian is arrogant, he wouldn't dare say half a word of 'no' to me at this time. Ye Fan simply doesn't regard me! Doesn't regard the Empire!"

"Call Ye Fan, I want to ask him what exactly he intends to do!"

After Guo Zhun roared for a while, Yan Zhihuan, beside him, saw him calm down a bit and cautiously spoke: "Leader...!"

"Count!" Guo Zhun coldly corrected him.

"Yes, yes, my mistake!"

Yan Zhihuan lightly slapped himself and continued: "Count, now calling Ye Fan is probably useless. Since he dared to issue currency himself, he no longer accepts our leadership. Calling him will only anger you more, so why bother."

Guo Zhun let out a long breath: "I know, I'm just unable to swallow this. Ye Fan is too arrogant, and without teaching him a harsh lesson, I don't feel comfortable."

"Then does the Count intend to attack Dawn City?"

Guo Zhun considered for a long time this time, and then slightly shook his head: "It's not the time yet; at least I need to wait for the population here to increase, for weaponry to be in place, and for the military to complete training before taking action. Now, without the cooperation of Hai Shan Wei, I can't be sure; don't forget the last air battle incident, the new planes were shot down."

Yan Zhihuan listened and quickly nodded: "Since you have no intention to proceed immediately, then we cannot help but delay for a bit first. The new coin is a very useful weapon. As long as we completely crush Light Yuan, survivors will naturally know who to follow."

Guo Zhun's eyes lit up: "That's right, so Dawn Army issued currency, so what? They can only circulate in their small city. Deliver my order; this time, we'll release fifty billion new coins, ten times the scale of Dawn City. Everyone in Ice City must subscribe to the new currency and must not accept Light Yuan payment. I want their currency to become paper here!"

"Understood, I will handle it immediately."

"Hmm, also notify other survivor bases within the province, asking them to join us in boycotting Light Yuan, or they will not receive any supplies from Ice City."

"Might this be a bit... likely to prompt some adventurers to develop a rebellious mentality?"

"We can't care that much now; currency is war. There is us, not Dawn City; with them, there isn't me; no one should try to sit on the fence! Anyone playing dirty with me is an enemy of the Empire!"

Guo Zhun had already learned the art of labeling, effortlessly using a big label to intimidate other survivors effectively.

.......

Ye Fan, upon learning about Guo Zhun's moves in Dawn City, did not take them to heart.

This situation had long been anticipated, and Ye Fan had his countermeasures ready.

Although Guo Zhun had many people on his side, his fatal flaw was the lack of supply of high-end materials.

Mutant Beast Meat, Crystal Cores, and firearms were things he absolutely couldn't bear to sell.

This might not matter much to ordinary people, but don't forget, the truly active and wealthy in the post-apocalyptic world are the Adventurers.

Most of the wealth is concentrated in the hands of Adventurers. Right now, in Dawn City alone, there are over five hundred Adventurer Squads, totaling more than twenty thousand people, who collect more resources than the Dawn Army.

And these are just the Adventurers within Dawn City; many more Adventurers come and go from Dawn City, and they are the main consumers.

You, Guo Zhun, can't offer anything, and just by oppression, can you make these Adventurers buy into it?

So Ye Fan wasn't worried at all; if you want to absorb survivors, go ahead, as long as the funds flow to me.

The first issuance of five hundred million in currency was the result of careful consideration.

Ye Fan currently had over three million in funds, which he was reluctant to touch lightly.

To establish a new base in the south, he needed at least fifty million, or even a billion in funds, to make it worthwhile.

Otherwise, if he went south and couldn't afford to build the urban framework, it would be better not to go.

This time, by issuing five billion Light Yuan, exchangeable at the rate of ten Yuan per gram of Gold, it can normally exchange to fifty million.

Of course, in reality, it wouldn't be so much; part of the money was for paying wages to everyone working, and another part was needed to buy back previous contribution points. If he could retain around over a million in system funds, it would be considered good.

So the financial pressure on Ye Fan was still significant, with a huge gap, leaving him no time to pay attention to matters over in Ice City.

Ye Fan was confident, with the accumulation over so long a time, plus the last Zombie Siege and the attack on Hai Shan Wei, which brought him an extremely rich supply of resources, he could completely afford to wait it out.

Even though Guo Zhun had many people on his side, with so many mouths to feed, their resources could not be as abundant.

......

Two days passed by quickly.

March 20th was the day for the simultaneous sale of the New Coin and Light Yuan.

There was no lingering smoke of war from the financial battle in the pre-apocalyptic times; it was just normal sales, appearing to not interfere with each other.

Guo Zhun issued fifty billion New Coins for the first time, while Dawn City issued five billion Light Yuan.

To ensure the smooth sale of New Coins, Guo Zhun put in a lot of effort.

He approached many celebrities in the city, having them subscribe to the New Coin, often even assigning them half-forcefully.

For this, he even offended quite a few people, but he finally completed the task of selling the New Coin.

Initially, he thought that with a tenfold scale, he should be able to crush Ye Fan's Light Yuan. But unexpectedly, Dawn City's news reported on the day that the exchange rate between New Coin and Light Yuan was ten to one!

Unlike Ice City, which did not recognize Light Yuan, Dawn City recognized the New Coin, but it could only be spent by exchanging it for Light Yuan at a rate of ten New Coins for one Light Yuan in Dawn City.

This news almost blew Guo Zhun's mind.

He had hyped up fifty billion, while Ye Fan's five billion was sold out successfully; the fifty billion scale had the same purchasing power as the five billion!

That day, Dawn City also reported on the bustling scene in the trading market.

Adventurer squads from all over were flocking to Dawn City.

Because the shelves in Dawn City had been restocked.

Ye Fan, that madman, had actually taken out tanks seized from Rashana to sell!

Those Adventurer Squads were going crazy, selling all they had to be able to afford a tank.

Such things were unthinkable before the apocalypse, and even after, if any base leader had such good equipment as tanks, they would first equip their army with it.

Even a big city like Jiangzhou Base City wouldn't possibly sell tanks to Adventurers.

After getting the news, Adventurers rushed from all directions to Dawn City. Today, the trading market on Ice City's side was evidently desolate.

Guo Zhun's ban on Light Yuan seemed only effective on ordinary people; those Adventurer Squads, who wandered outside long-term, fighting zombies and risking their lives, didn't care at all.

Guo Zhun was furious about this, knowing that Ye Fan had reached a point where he must be eliminated.

This was not just his opinion but the collective opinion of the upper echelons of Ice City.

Among them, Yan Zhihuan from Daqing Mountain even gave Guo Zhun an idea.

"Count, since Ye Fan is arrogantly selling firearms, we can give him a taste of his own medicine. We can go to Dawn City and buy a large amount of firearms, and since we have ample manpower, as long as we bring the weapons back, arm them and train them a bit, we'll have an army. Then, with our army attacking Dawn City, wouldn't Ye Fan then suffer the consequences of his actions?"

Guo Zhun's eyes lit up immediately, seeing the logic in it!

Such a giant arms order should be able to topple the market in Dawn City, right?