Zombie Apocalypse: Creation-Chapter 767: Bandit soldiers

"What did Lingang have to do with this?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.

"Although none of them met Lingang personally, the past rumor of soldiers working in Guangzhou getting good benefits was still in their minds.

Seeing the food we brought as a part of the plan while we were at Changsha, I think they might have realized we aren’t actually just traders from Guangzhou."

Wuli paused for a second to think, then continued.

"The whole reason I called them bandits, besides the whole robbing their superior, was due to their looks."

"Looks?" Yiming questioned, looking a little confused by what she could mean by it.

"Yes, looks. They had no matching uniform, no matching rifles, nothing... And the 3rd in charge had a scar on his face that looked a little intimidating."

"If I’m understanding this correctly, you managed to make hundreds of enemy soldiers desert their superiors.

And then you manage to bring all the civilians on board at once, rather than needing to make multiple trips back to Changsha?"

Wuli nodded her head, which still managed to blow away Xiaoyun’s mind, as he just couldn’t believe how much she had accomplished in two days.

"I don’t even know what to say... Yiming, what do you think?" Xiaoyun asked as he looked over to the old man.

"These kinds of achievements are once in a lifetime. It takes extraordinary bravery and genius to pull it off."

As Yiming complimented Wuli, she shyly scratched her head, as she felt she didn’t accomplish much to deserve this level of praise from him.

"I don’t think I did that much... It was more of just luck and everything coming together at the right time."

"Don’t be so humble. If I were you, I would be supercilious and boast about the thing I had achieved to everyone."

The continued praises started to make Wuli blush a little, especially when Yiming was much more senior than her.

"This is well worth praise. Lieutenant—No, General Wuli. From now on, you’ll be in charge of the 4th Army Corps proper."

Wuli fell into complete shock. She couldn’t believe her ears as her rank jumped twofold from a Lieutenant Colonel to a General.

At the same time, both Yiming’s and Houqin’s faces were shocked as well, as the announcement fell out of nowhere.

"You... You serious?" Wuli asked quietly.

"There is no room for levity in the army... Your new rank will be effective immediately, and you no longer need to serve as a reserve army group."

As Xiaoyun looked back at her dead in the eyes, Wuli’s mind finally came back to her senses as she immediately bowed down.

"Thank you, sir!"

"You earned it... Ahem, but your other half of the army will continue to stay in the south until Han Bang is done clearing the south."

Wuli didn’t question his command, saluting him right back as Xiaoyun turned over to the other side.

"Houqin, if I remember correctly, we were supposed to have a 6th army corps that never actually formed over in Qingyuan, right?"

"I believe so. Mayor Leifeng did gave me a list of recruits... But it was merged into existing armies after a lot of soldier chose not to renew their contracts."

Xiaoyun sat there for a few seconds before an idea popped into his head. One that he had been thinking about for a while.

"I want you to set up a new plan to re-create it as a reserve unit... I’ll talk to Yuqi myself later for the funding."

Houqin nodded, noting it in a sticknote as Xiaoyun turned over to Yiming, whose face looked weirdly grumpy towards Wuli.

"Yiming, I want you to take extra precautions. I’m not sure what they’re going to do as retaliation after they learned what we did."

"Yes, sir."

---

A few hours later...

As Xiaoyun, Wuli, and Houqin relaxed in the back of the car after eating a celebratory dinner, Xiaoyun’s phone suddenly started to ring.

"Hello?"

"Xiaoyun! What the hell? You could have given me a warning that there were a bunch of armed men among the refugees."

"Oops, sorry. I completely forgot about that. Ahem, just send them over to the training field, I’m coming back to deal with them."

"You’d better."

"Isn’t my soldiers there to watch over them?"

Wuli suddenly chimed in, using Xiaoyun’s answer to conclude who and what he was talking about over the phone.

"Yes, but there are only a hundred soldiers against thousands of armed men. If I didn’t call the SWAT teams, things could have seriously gone wrong."

Yuqi answered as she seemed to have overheard Wuli’s voice, and her anger started to subside a little.

"Sorry, sorry... Everything is under control now, though, right?" Xiaoyun questioned.

"I wouldn’t be making this phone call if I didn’t have everything under control... How long are you guys going to take to come back?"

"About an hour or so before we reach Qingyuan. It probably be around nine or ten o’clock when we get back home—"

As Yuqi hung up the call from her side, Xiaoyun put it back down as Wuli looked back at her with curiosity.

"Everything is fine back home, right?" Wuli nervously asked as she had completely forgotten about the soldiers.

"Everything is fine. Yuqi got it all sorted out... You two can go to sleep. It’s going to be a few hours before we get back to Luoping."

"I’m fine."

"Me too."

Despite both Wuli and Houqin rejectingit, their eyes slowly closed on their own as food coma from the celebratory dinner started to kick in.

"You don’t have to drive so fast, driver. It’s late at night already." Xiaoyun whispered after noticing the speed of the car.

The car immediately slowed back down, making what was supposed to be somewhat of a bumpy ride into a much smoother one.

Looking over, both girls were fully leaning onto each other, sound asleep as if they hadn’t slept properly for days.

"How’s Houqin so tired? Did she not have a proper sleep last night?"

Xiaoyun wondered as he understood Wuli’s mission probably made it hard for her to sleep, but Houqin, on the other hand, had been just following him around.

"Commander, you aren’t going to sleep?" The driver quietly asked as he noticed him sitting there fully awake.

"I’m fine..."

---

"Wake up. We’re home."

"Hm?"

As the two of them slowly opened their eyes, the moon was high up in the sky as they still sat in the back of the car.

"You two can go to sleep in the house. Come on, don’t waste the driver’s time like this."

Xiaoyun forcefully dragged the two out of the car, walking them to the door before it opened on its own.

"Welcome back."

"Leyan, can you take care of them? I need to meet with the soldiers over in the training field first. I’ll be back home later."

"Okay."

Leyan didn’t stop him as she took the two of them over, helping them walk into the house as Xiaoyun headed back into the car.

"Where are we going now, sir?" The driver asked.

"To the training field."

A few minute later...

As Xiaoyun stepped foot into the training field entrance, no one was there. However, he could visibly see the cafeteria’s light being on.

Walking closer towards the light, he could hear more and more noises coming from inside the building.

"Must be in here..."

The moment he opened the cafeteria door, it fell into complete silence. In front of Xiaoyun was a room full of people.

Uniformed soldiers were sitting sparsely alongside thousands of men who wore various kinds of casual clothes.

"Commander!"

All of the men and women in uniform immediately saluted him, with the one wearing casual clothes remaining seated, looking confused.

"Evening. I should introduce myself... Ahem, hello everyone, I’m the commander-in-chief and the Governor of Guangdong."

"You look a lot younger than I had imagined."

As a man sitting on the far right of the bench spoke up, Xiaoyun immediately noticed the massive scar on his face.

"A lot of people had said that to me. But rest assured, I had more experience than any of you fighting zombies and dealing with internal affairs." 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

With a quick jump, Xiaoyun lands right on top of the cafeteria stage, standing before them as he cleared his throat.

He could feel the look of admiration coming from the soldier. At the same time, he could feel the distrust in the non-uniform men’s eyes.

"I’m going to make myself quick since it’s already late at night. Tomorrow, I’ll come back and explain what your duties are as a soldier.

I’ll also be here to offer you guys the option to sign a military contract, assuming you pass all of the standards of being a soldier.

Or you can take the option to retire and return to civilian life. Your previous military service will still be counted as your retiree bonus.

For now, please stay at the training field... There should be rooms for you guys to stay in temporarily for tonight."