Zombie Apocalypse: Creation-Chapter 729: ICBM and A New Opponent
"Xiaoyun, what do you think they killed them for?" Yiming suddenly asked as he put the bottle on the floor.
"Um, did your son find out something the officer did in private that wasn’t legal?" Xiaoyun guessed.
"You’re god damn right. My son, who had been raised to be a man all his life, found his superior smuggling more food than they are allowed to."
Seeing him wanting to drink but hesitating over and over again, Xiaoyun remained silent as he remembered the doctor had told Yiming not to drink in the past.
But hearing the story alone was making him frustrated as well. In his head, he just couldn’t imagine how valuable a few food items were to kill someone over.
"They didn’t investigate or punish the officer or anything? They really just let him get by with killing a soldier like this?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"Investigation? Punishment? They shielded him in the name of ’unit cohesion,’ my fucking ass. I didn’t even figure it out until he was long gone."
As Yiming tried to reach for the teapot instead, Xiaoyun quickly reached it first and poured him a cup.
"Then what happened when I sent to Zhongxiong? Was your intention just to get back at the officer there?"
"What? No. I had already long put my personal feelings aside. I knew the order you gave me was to get those missiles for those giant mutants.
If it weren’t for Zhongxiong, who suddenly brought it up in a meeting, I wouldn’t even bother with it at all." Yiming answered.
"But it did bother you, right?" Xiaoyun questioned.
"It did. But that’s before I was about to sign the deal with Zhongxiong for the missile and the whole production line."
"Why did you try to negotiate for the whole production line? And why did you keep my letter away from Houqin?"
This time, Yiming couldn’t answer back right away. His face looked a little uneasy, as if Xiaoyun had caught him in the middle of something.
"I thought it would be better for us to produce our own missiles. They had the production line, but had no raw material actually to make them.
It was a no-brainer for us to make it. Houqin refused to increase the oil payment to match the production line cost."
"So you thought the best course of action was to isolate Houqin and coerce her into agreeing to it?"
As Xiaoyun stared dead in the eyes at Yiming, he continued to remain silent as if he still believed what he did was right.
"You could have just sent a letter back to me. This could have ended badly if those giant mutants had attacked."
"But in the letter you sent Xiaoyun, it didn’t sound urgent at all."
After a few seconds of silence, Xiaoyun let out a small sigh as he had no choice but to accept that Yiming made the right call in that moment.
"You’re right... But what the hell happened next? How did you entangle yourself in the whole mess in Changsha?"
"To be honest, I don’t know either... Zhongxiong never told me why he picked me as his successor rather than any of his officers."
"He didn’t say anything at all? Nothing during the negotiation showed any hints of him wanting to give it to you?"
As Yiming shook his head, the question eluded Xiaoyun. Maybe Zhongxiong just felt guilty shielding the officer who killed Yiming’s son.
"How about how Zhongxiong died? Don’t tell me he really died from a heart attack out of nowhere."
Xiaoyun questioned, as he could still remember how vigorous that old man looked the last time he saw him.
"Zhongxiong really did die from a heart attack. There was no foul play or anything. he died in his office when everyone was asleep."
Seeing his face still not trusting it, Yiming added another piece to the puzzle.
"Xiaoyun, you do know that Zhongxiong is almost 80 years old, right?"
"80 years old? What? He looks like a 60-year-old like you. There’s no way you’re telling me he’s 80 years old."
"I don’t know what else to tell you."
As Yiming shrugged his shoulder, Xiaoyun had no other choice but to accept once again the fact that Zhongxiong really did just die from ’natural’ causes.
"How about what happened after you got control of Changsha? How did everything go so wrong?" Xiaoyun questioned.
"Commander. This is what I apologized for at the beginning. When I learned that the officer who killed my son was in Liling, I made an irrational choice."
Despite Yiming not speaking up any further, Xiaoyun already knew the rest of the story as it finally tied back to what Houqin had stated.
"How did you get out of Changsha when they had you surrounded?" Xiaoyun questioned, changing the topic to avoid the awkward silence.
"They got scared."
"Scared?"
Xiaoyun’s face was a little puzzled as he couldn’t imagine what possible weapon Yiming had to make them give up completely.
"One of the missiles that Zhongxiong left behind was an ICMB," Yiming answered as his face looked a little proud.
"An ICBM?"
As he looked back at Yiming with a confused face, Yiming quickly added an explanation that finally made sense to him.
"Intercontinental ballistic missile. We managed to coordinate the exact coordinates of their emperor’s palace, and they backed off."
"Oh. That... is some serious weapon."
"Shame it’s not a nuclear warhead. But it’s still more than enough to deter anyone from threatening us in the future."
"For sure... Yiming, you had given me such a big surprise that I don’t even know where to begin at this point."
"Thank you——"
"But. Now we also have a new enemy in Jiangxi. I hope you don’t get too ahead of yourself like this."
"I understand, sir."
"Since you are the one who created the mess, I want you to be the one who also cleans it up. Do you understand me?"
"Commander... you’re?"
"I want you to bring the 5th and 6th Army Corps up to standard. You’re the only one I’m certain who could deal with actual human-to-human combat."
"Yes, sir!"
Yiming didn’t hesitate to accept the order as he immediately understood Xiaoyun was giving him the chance to exact revenge.
"Han Bang and Wuli will take over your old works in Jiangmen and Zhongshan. You don’t have a problem with that, right?"
"No problem, sir."
"Good..."
---
As the dust settled in Hunan, the next day was even busier for Xiaoyun as he had to drive back to Luoping to resettle everything to normal.
All of the reservists were finally being dismissed within a day, much faster than the originally planned three days in Shaoguan.
Despite being a single day, it had racked up a massive bill that Yuqi refused to make up for, which meant Xiaoyun needed to print out more food.
Outside of the contradicting order that left many confused, Xiaoyun arranged a press conference on the same day he went to warehouses to create more food.
He was once again back on live TV.
This time, rather than debating random people, he was just giving a short explanation of what happened in Changsha.
Most of the public didn’t think too much about it as it didn’t affect their lives. Even the reservists who were called up were happy to get an extra paycheck.
Everything seemed to return to normal, stabilizing back to a few weeks before the whole affair in Hunan and in Zhaoqing.
The only thing that was stopping things from going smoothly, unfortunately, was Yuqi’s refusal to his idea.
Xiaoyun’s plan to continue expanding the army size up to a full strength 6th Army Corps was met with heavy pushback, more than he had ever imagined.
----
"Xiaoyun, you’re not going to expand to a 6th army corps. Yiming already has more than enough with his new 5th Army Corps."
"5th Army Corps isn’t even new. That thing was like... 4 months ago. Isn’t it perfect for us to soak up some unemployment with more army recruits?"
As Xiaoyun tried to argue back, Yuqi only rolled her eyes as she ignored his attempt to persuade her.
"We’re having a labor shortage. Not an unemployment shortage... Quite frankly, I had been thinking of telling you to cut back on the number of soldiers."
"What? That’s never happening. We need all those soldiers to protect our borders. Or else zombies are going to come knocking in."
"We already have the 1st army corps in Zhaoqing, 2nd and 3rd army corps in Jiangmen and Zhongshan, and 4th army corps in Dongguan and Shenzhen.
Combined with the 5th Army Corps in Shaoguan right now and the 11th Division in Luoping... almost 600,000 soldiers alone."
"Come on, we already have half of the recruitment done for 6th. Why not just let it be a full army group?" Xiaoyun pleaded.
"Oh, and I almost forgot to add, your friends in Hunan that came to Guangzhou, and the whole logistic department that adds up to almost a million at this point."
