"Ay, damn it."
Wang Xingui's eyebrows furrowed into a knot, feeling more than a little frustrated inside.
"I'm telling you, Guizi, what are you complaining about? Your boss wanted to bring people to the village, right? Now I've brought you more than ten folks: sensible elders, won who can work, and clever kids. Shouldn't you thank ?"
Zhang Su spread his hands, teasingly.
"Brother Zhang, look at that little kid, what can he do besides eat? And those old folks, can they work? They can barely walk. In the past, they might have caused a scene on the roads; now, what can they do?"
Wang Xingui actually looked down on these people—had all twelve been actual labor, he'd be grinning ear to ear.
"Boss Wang, don't think like that. Our old bones aren't as useless as you say; we can carry water and fertilize without a problem, guaranteed to work more than we eat."
The elder, despite enduring harsh treatnt for long, was ntally much stronger than ordinary folks, quickly recovering and starting to promote himself. The others nodded along, recounting experiences of working at ho before the disaster.
Zhang Su patted Wang Xingui's arm and said, "Look, United Village is hitting it big. You ca with nothing and got twelve laborers for free—not to ntion a twenty percent share of the spoils. I'm jealous!"
Wang Xingui smiled wryly, realizing his camp of sixty survivors was becoming a refugee shelter.
After handling the people, it was ti to check the spoils. Zhang Su didn't need to personally oversee this—his subordinates quickly sorted the items brought from Beita Camp.
Living in a countryside village ant there's always enough food. At Beita Camp or Xiang Village, they never lacked food: rice, flour, potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, and other crops totaled over three thousand pounds.
Thankfully, the village had two usable motorized tricycles, easily loading the food onto them.
Zhang Su believed this wasn't all of Xiang Village's stock, but he had no ti to slowly raid it now. He would send people later, just needed to give Wang Xingui a heads-up; otherwise, United Village would surely co too.
"Guizi, I'll help you get these people back to the village. Later, you can call people over to unload two thousand pounds of grain—consider it the full paynt for this task. As for what's left in Xiang Village..."
"No, no, United Village won't touch it—it's all yours, Brother. Hehe..." Wang Xingui was quite sensible, waving his hand repeatedly, then shifted the topic, "But, I don't want that much grain. Brother Zhang, you said you could exchange it for equivalent items, right?"
"That's right. What do you want to exchange for?"
Zhang Su asked straightforwardly.
"Hehe..." Wang Xingui awkwardly touched his head and pointed behind Zhang Su, "Brother Zhang, you have those high-tech rifles, right? Share so of those firearms with us."
"Well, no problem. Five hundred pounds of grain for one gun—I'll give you four guns."
Zhang Su readily agreed to Wang Xingui's request, although the price was sowhat a rip-off.
Wang Xingui's face went dry, eyebrows dancing, "This—grain may not be a worry now, but it isn't that worthless. Brother Zhang, don't be like that... just you and are left in Beidong Town, give a little brother so leeway, please."
Considering twenty percent of the spoils left twelve firearms, he should get at least two, but Zhang Su didn't offer, so he couldn't demand outright.
"But isn't there still West Camp Village?"
Zhang Su didn't answer right away but expressed his confusion.
"West Camp Village guards that precious bridge without dealing with us—why care about them... uhm, the guns?"
Wang Xingui was fixated on the firearms.
Zhang Su thought for a mont and said, "You don't want grain, right? Then leave one firearm, and the rest to you, plus haul a ton of coal from your village!"
Coal scavenged from Niuquanzi Town wasn't much; with winter officially arriving, temperatures would surely drop further. Heating energy stockpiles were essential.
United Village naturally needed coal too, but Wang Xingui prioritized arming villagers, reluctantly agreeing to Zhang Su's deal.
Once all was done, two motorhos left Xiang Village, leaving bullet holes, bodies, and collapsed houses behind. Those visiting later would surely know what had happened here.
At half-past ten at night, Zhang Su and his group returned to Celestial Horse Island safe and sound. On the way back, Yuwen had tallied the expenses of this battle.
Bullets used: 462, grenades: one, incendiary sticks: one, and most importantly, one Great Granade!
"Hey, Brother Su, there are fewer zombie bodies on the road!"
The motorho wound up the mountain road as Zheng Xinyu pointed out the roadside illuminated by lights.
"They must've been idle at the camp and moved so down, ha, the crowd's here!"
In conversation, Zhang Su saw lookouts lining both sides welcoming them at the mountain gate.
"Hey, buddy, blew your bragging, right? You wanted to emulate Master Guan's leisurely wine slaying Hua Xiong—go take a look at the food, it's long gone cold, hahaha."
Zhao Dezhu saw the motorho loaded with food bags, knowing the battle was won triumphantly, and joked cheerfully.
Zhang Su got off the car, patted the trailer, "Delayed by coal transport from United Village, but Beita Camp is settled—it's safe now!"
"Oh! Yeah!"
"That's great."
With the hidden enemies dealt with, the stones weighing down everyone's hearts lifted.
Zhang Su saw Yu Qing in the crowd with a complex expression, suddenly realizing sothing and said, "Yu Qing, your Great Granade made great contributions; otherwise, Xinyu and I would've been badly ambushed. We also rescued twelve slaves from Beita Camp, and they're all sent to United Village as labor!"
"What? Beita Camp controlled so many slaves?"
"Damn it, that's really scummy!"
"Luckily, Brother Su is fair—otherwise, with soone unreasonable, they'd wipe them clean, leaving nothing behind!"
The crowd fell slightly silent, and then many looked at Zhang Su with respect.
True restraints from killing aren't about being soft on enemies, but not dragging innocents in—and in the apocalypse, one can only strive for this. Everyone understood Zhang Su's difficulty.
"Alright, don't just stand there—hot dishes, dinner!"
At Zhang Su's command, Celestial Horse Island ca alive again.
Post-disaster, except needing sentry duty, almost nobody could stay up late; the lack of civilized entertainnt made everyone easily drowsy. But today was different—eating and drinking, the buzz lasted until 2 a.m. before gradually calming down.
User Comments
0 comments from readers