Chapter 74: Establishing Communication with the Base (13)

General Liu was deeply concerned about the survivors organizing armed forces, and he understood their grievances well. Without the display of overwhelming military strength, the risk of returning to a fractured world ruled by rival factions seemed imminent. At this point, if they rashly joined the Huairou base, their strength might only drag them into a vortex of conflict.

The United Front Department believed that, apart from the bases living on the edge of survival, most others held similar attitudes: they focused on developing their own power, maneuvered between alliances and rivalries, and sought to establish their status amidst the struggle for dominance. The absence of national-level institutions suggested that, aside from the possibility of being wiped out, these groups were also quietly building their own power. If the weak revealed themselves too early, the best outcome would be to become pawns under others’ control.

Those who could establish a base in the apocalypse were certainly people of conviction and responsibility; none would lightly submit to forces incapable of protecting them.

The Special Committee hastened its steps. Given the complicated terrain of the mountains, it issued orders forbidding its troops from entering mountain regions—neither the Mentougou nor the Huairou mountains. The United Front Department was also instructed to accelerate its operations, with their personnel and material needs placed on the priority list. Ye Liujun already began picturing himself among the heroes of humanity in this new world.

Each day, hordes of zombies were lured into ambushes and destroyed. With every passing day, new districts were reclaimed. As the map’s safe zones expanded, the headquarters base and Base No. 2 resolved to open up a route along the Jingtong Expressway to the Eastern Second Ring Road. The zombie horde blocking the area between the Northeast Third and Fourth Ring Roads had again gathered to over a million, reverting to the largest zombie group yet. Despite countless provocations by the field forces, the horde refused to disperse. The Armed Forces Department considered it unreliable to eradicate such numbers in open battle without preset positions; lacking powerful firearms, relying solely on hand-to-hand combat—even with armored vehicles in support—was no easy task. Most worrying was that no one could understand why this horde remained impervious to lures; unknown risks always caused the greatest anxiety.

Gradually, in the outskirts of Beijing, apart from the northern and western mountains, only this million-strong zombie horde remained. Within the city, the cleanup had reached Beitaipingzhuang in the north and Chaoyangmen Inner Avenue in the south. The dense architecture and reduced vehicle obstacles diminished the likelihood of zombie hordes appearing, but greatly slowed the clearing process.

The headquarters base began concentrating forces southward, aiming first to open up the area to Chang’an Avenue. Base No. 2 also started clearing the expressways; highways outside the city were easy to clean, mainly involving vehicle removal. But inside the Fourth Ring, dense pileups from car accidents began to appear, along with situations where main and side road entrances merged—places likely to harbor masses of zombies.

There was no particular difficulty, only sheer workload. After a day and night of simultaneous progress, the headquarters base’s shield-and-steel-pipe soldiers suffered no less than five hundred casualties; Base No. 2’s losses were mainly from exhaustion. Their troops wore chain mail, which was cumbersome, and bore the brunt of the main clearing sectors. Ultimately, the two forces met at Yong’anli between the Second and Third Ring Roads.

The moment of the meeting was truly moving. Both sides waved red flags and embraced warmly. Soldiers from the headquarters curiously touched the chain mail worn by Base No. 2’s fighters; the deep looks exchanged gave Li Qiang and Li Fengyi, who personally oversaw the scene, goosebumps. Thankfully, there was no live video feed; otherwise, rumors might have solidified about the nature of their camaraderie.

The atmosphere was jubilant, yet no voices of celebration were raised—like a film from the silent era. Everyone feared attracting zombie hordes; strict orders forbade making any unnecessary sounds.

The Propaganda Department broadcast the meeting live and predicted, “This heralds the beginning of humanity’s great revival. Our warriors will embark on the path to liberate mankind.”

The publicity was so effective that, for a moment, every human base seemed to set aside their disputes and share in the joy.

Li Fengyi and Sun Xiaoshan went home to visit their mother and family, but that is another story.

With the mass transport of chain mail, casualties among the headquarters base’s troops quickly declined, and the clearing pace accelerated again. Except for a handful of parks, zoos, and plazas, which were cordoned off with roadblocks—places that never lacked crowds throughout the year, especially in Beijing’s spring tourism season—the city was steadily reclaimed.

Meanwhile, the military academy received orders to rapidly train several units equipped with thermal weapons. Although the armories found outside the city held strategic reserves and were not very advanced, those discovered within were more modern, though limited in quantity. Still, thermal weapons were formidable in human conflicts, far superior to chain mail and steel pipes.

Within a week of the meeting, the area inside Beijing’s Fourth Ring was reclaimed, except for a few major parks, the zoo, and the zombie horde in the northeast Fourth Ring. Many national reserve warehouses and laboratories were discovered, with countless underground facilities—testament to Beijing’s decades of concentrated war preparedness, given the world’s turbulent circumstances in the previous century. The Special Committee base reached a population of three million, a survival rate so high it astonished even the committee.

The Special Committee felt little need to worry about the parks; the military had plenty of ways to eliminate clustered zombies. Only the zoo and the massive horde in the northeast Fourth Ring remained concerning. The zoo’s animals had grown huge, and Beijing Zoo was the largest in the country, with the most diverse and numerous species—a highly complicated situation. The northeastern horde, since converging, no longer wandered, but lingered in that area, heightening anxiety.

The Ministry of Science and Technology split from the industrial sector. Sun Xiaoshan stepped down as Minister and was succeeded by Liu Cheng’an, a middle-aged man from a national laboratory. This master was a prodigy, a genius whose every intellectual marvel seemed to describe him. He specialized in strategic science—not responsible for specific research, but endowed with foresight and excellent coordination, able to guide the direction of many scientists’ work. He was a leader among researchers, though, in truth, not many scientists remained.

An old expert in the Ministry of Science and Technology pointed out that Beijing actually housed two hydropower stations: the Yuyuantan Park Hydropower Station and the Beihai Park Hydropower Station. The Yuyuantan facility was still operational and very advanced, serving as an experimental base. The Red Scarf Hydropower Station in Beihai Park had been dismantled and was mainly for science education for children, but its basic infrastructure remained and could be restored with new equipment. Lighting was revived in the inner city, and Sun Feigang resumed his role as a water and electricity engineer, taking charge of hydropower in the Industrial Department—everyone agreed that scientists were still of some use.

Research on zombies within the Health Department was also handed over to survivors in the Ministry of Science and Technology’s virus lab. Though the soldiers guarding them captured many zombies for study, their progress was limited. Much of their reporting echoed Minister Ou’s favorite phrase: “The cause remains unclear.”