Chapter 35: Fortification and Division

As the morning had arrived, Yanyan woke up early to prepare breakfast and then wake the three up from bed.

After everyone was ready, they got into the car and drove to 309 as Yezi moved a while ago.

Xiaoyun knocked on the door and waited for a second.

"You guys ready?" Yezi opened up the door ready to go.

"Yep... can I ask who is watching the base?" Xiaoyun asked.

"Lingang and Qingtian is going to stay. So its just me and you guys going." Yezi got inside his car and started it.

"Okay, you led the way." Everyone got back into the car as Xiaoyun followed behind Yezi to the gates.

Qingtian was on duty today as he opened the gates in the security room.

As the two drove on the road, after few minute they were approaching the city outskirt.

Yezi finally stopped in front of a half finished building, with many building material and tools laying on the floor.

"Let's get moving." Yezi got out of the car.

"Okay!" The four of them got out of the car and started carrying bags of concretes to the back of Yezi's pickup truck.

After loading most of the building material, the car was almost full.

"Okay lets stop here before it get too heavy for the car to start.' Yezi stopped them from loading more onto the car.

---

After arriving back to entrance at the gates, the five of them started unloading the material next to the security room. Then they drove back to get all the tools and rest of the building material.

With everything uploaded on the ground, the three drove back home while Yezi and Xiaoyun drove toward 308.

The two got off the car and knocked on the door.

"Good morning Renqin, you guys ready?" Xiaoyun asked.

"Yeah we are ready." Renqin walked back in to call them.

When Renqin walked back out, fourteen people were behind him.

"The rest are elderly or children, this is as much people as we got that can work." Renqin explained.

"No problem, um you can send women back if you want. It's going to be back breaking work." Xiaoyun suggested.

"Come on Xiaoyun, when did you got so sexist? I thought you are younger than me, when did you got stuck with gender norms? They still can help mixing the concrete even if they can't do hard work." Yezi patted Xiaoyun on the back.

"You're right. Let drive them there." Everyone got onto either Xiaoyun's car or the back of Yezi's pickup truck.

After arriving back to the front gate, everyone got off the car and stood in front of the building material.

"Hey Yezi, do you have any experience with construction?" Xiaoyun sudden realized something and asked.

"Um... I don't have any experience." Yezi scratched his head.

"Hm... Renqin do you guys have anyone that work in construction before?" Xiaoyun walked toward Renqin and asked.

"Let me ask... Does anyone here ever done construction before? If so come here and raise your hand." Renqin yelled to the crowd.

Three of them raised their hand and walked up.

"Well these three had done construction before." Renqin brought the three to Xiaoyun and Yezi.

"What your name? What's your occupation?" Xiaoyun asked the left side.

"My name is Mi Qijian, I am a construction foreman." Qijian randomly saluted Xiaoyun.

"You used to be soldier?" Yezi noticed the scar on his neck.

"Yes sir! Infantr—— Um, sorry force of habit." Qijian finally realized what he was doing.

"Congrats, you are going to be the head of the construction crew. Here a bag of rice and a extra can of food for you." Xiaoyun patted Qijian on the shoulder and then dig through his backpack to pretend he had it inside the whole time.

"Thank you sir—— I mean boss." Qijian quickly fixes himself and step back.

"How about you, what your name and occupation?" Xiaoyun asked the one in the middle.

"My name is Chen Jingming, I am a civil engineer, but most of the time I am a construction engineer." Jingming replied.

"What the difference?" Xiaoyun asked.

"Both design the building, but construction engineer are also on field." Jingming added.

"Well, then can you plan out how to build a wall here?" Yezi pointed at the entrance.

"Hm... that entrance ground is pretty flat, but I need to examine if the soil below is too soft. As well as the material we have and the size you want. Also do you want me to——" Xiaoyun interrupted him before he continue.

"CONGRATULATION, you are now the head of the operation. I give you full control of the project okay? I just want you to work with Qijian here to build a wall that can block the zombies in the city." Xiaoyun realized how naive he was thinking that a wall was simple to build.

"Thank you boss!" Jingming bowed down as thanks as Xiaoyun hands him two bag of rice and two cans of food.

"Okay, now you. What your name and occupation?" Xiaoyun asked.

"M-my name is Li Dan, I am a miner." Li Dan responded.

"Huh? Miner? I thought I asked for construction." Xiaoyun looked over to Renqin.

"Well mining is close enough to construction. I just wanted to make sure we got everyone that have any experience." Renqin scratched his head.

"Whatever, lets go back to the crowd." The six of them walked back.

"Okay everyone, these two over here is going to be the head director of the project. His name is Jingming, I assume you guys already know each other. And on the right is Qijian, he is the construction foreman, he is going evaluate everyone here... and the three people who are working the hardest will be rewarded extra food on the top having a can to bring home everyday!"

After Xiaoyun introduced the two, the crowd was completely silent. But as soon as he added the last part, everyone clapped as if something amazing happened.

"Wait we never discussed this part." Yezi looked confused at Xiaoyun.

"Don't worry, that how to get people excited to work. Bare minimum isn't enough. If you ever ran a company you will know.?" Xiaoyun whispered to Yezi.

"What? I never had that problem when I was smuggling." Yezi still looked confused.

"Oh right of course you don't. Who the hell is going to complain to arm dealer." Xiaoyun facepalmed himself.

"Whatever, as long as they are working. I am gonna stay and watch." Yezi went inside the security room and sat down.

Xiaoyun stay for an hour, but then got bored and drove back home.

---

A week has passed since the start building of the wall.

The wall wasn't build near the gates as Xiaoyun thought, rather it was several hundred meter in the front of the gate.

When Xiaoyun asked Jingming why, he explained a bunch of technical term that Xiaoyun couldn't understand at all. The only thing that Xiaoyun understand was it can use the steep slope to avoid needing to build a longer wall as the steep slope didn't need a wall to cover.

Beside that wall question, Xiaoyun had came to security room everyday to fulfilling his promise as he asked Qijian for the three hardest worker and gave them a small pack of rice and small box of canned food. When Xiaoyun give it away, Qijian reported next day how everyone was working five times as hard.

Construction material was slowly running out but Xiaoyun simply brought more out of the car. Despite looking the same, everyone just thought its rest of the building material from the same place at the construction construction site.

Xiaoyun was slowly getting to know the people working on the wall as he talked to them individually asking them if they needed anything basic needs from cigarettes to even pads. Simply put, any item that wasn't food, Xiaoyun gave them as a gift.

Just as Xiaomi planned a week before, Renqin's groups was slowly getting sick of living with each other. Leading to Xiaoyun getting a phone call from Renqin requesting for more housing units.

Xiaoyun granted his wishes and separate the groups into few individual families between the houses at 304 to 308.

By the time Renqin realized what Xiaoyun and Yezi was trying to do, he simply disbanded the group as he realized the group wasn't beneficial to anyone and he hated being the leader.

---

As Xiaoyun was relaxing at home, suddenly a door knocked.

It was Yezi and Yiyi outside the house.

"The wall is finished." Yezi happily announced.

"Oh really? i haven't checked it for few days. Let me go call them." Xiaoyun walked back inside the house and called everyone.

Everyone got inside the car and Xiaoyun droves behind Yezi to the security room.

When they arrived, Jingming and Qijian was standing outside the security room.

"Boss, the wall is finished." Qijian said out loud.

"Well let see how it is." The group followed Jingming and Qijian toward the wall.

When group saw the wall, they were completely stunned.

"T-this wall is really under two weeks? Is it sturdy?"Yunyun looked at the three meter wall, with stairs on the side in front of her.

"Yes, it can withstand several car crashes and it will still not move or break. We built it thick enough that a person could stand on top of it or crawl down while shoot down zombies." Jingming introduced the wall as he got up to the top.

The group followed up to Jingming, looking down they could see a small moat that was dug between the wall and the outside.

"The moat is to make the wall taller than is appears, since the ground is lower on outside, the wall is more than just three meter on the outside. Although we can't put water as it might damage the wall and the foundation."

After walking for a minute, they finally saw the entrance.

"Here's the entrance boss. It a simple draw bridge. We dig a moat deeper in front to create a gap so that when zombies do try to enter, they would simply fall down and wouldn't be able to reach the door."

"What if the zombie build a ladder with their body?" Yanyan asked.

"Um, there no way to avoid that... The best we can do is either build the wall higher or dig the moat deeper. If that does happen, the door would be the last concern. We can't dig any deeper as the soil is completely pack solid. Unless we got an excavator." Jingming answered her question.

"Yeah, we suppose to kill them before they get to the wall or door. The wall is more to prevent them from sneaking in." Yezi stated the wall's intention.

"So what do yo think boss?" Jingming asked.

"This is amazing! You guys had done a great job! We finally done with the walls now." Xiaoyun patted the two on the back.

"Um Xiaoyun, I think you forgot we have two entrances... we only got one side of the road done." Yezi reminded Xiaoyun.

'Oh right... Jingming and Qijian, can you build another wall on the other entrance?" Xiaoyun asked.

"No problem boss, as long as there enough material." Jingming replied.

"And enough food for everyone." Qijian added.

"Don't worry about that, I will give it to you tomorrow. You guys deserve a break." Xiaoyun dismissed the two and walked back down.

---

"What do you guys think about the wall?" Xiaoyun asked.

"Well it certainly is sturdy. I couldn't leave a mark when I punched it." Yunyun commented.

"Beside the issue I mention earlier, I think its a fine wall." Yanyan replied.

"The wall is so tall, its like triple Lily's size." As Xiaomi said it, Lily nodded in agreement.

"What do you think darli—— Xiaoqi?" Xiaoyun almost forgot Yezi was right next to him.

"Um... I think this wall is fine, but I am just thinking, isn't there a small forest between the two entrance? Are we going to need to build an entire wall to connect the two entrance? I don't think some trees isn't going to stop a zombie running right through the center." Xiaoqi stated her worries.

"Of course we got two steep slope that cuts the left and right side of the entrance, and behind us is bunch of forest that nobody lives in. So we don't have to worry about three direction except the side road that connect us to the main road to the city." Xiaoqi finally finished stating her thoughts.

"I-I really didn't thought of that... I mean we can afford to build the wall as long as we need to, so lets connect the two walls then." Xiaoyun agreed.

"But there's no way we can surveillance the entire wall." Yezi argued.

"I doubt zombies are going to walk into a forest randomly when there is a road right in front of them. Miss Xiaoqi, I think you are just worrying too much. But its still fine to build the entire wall to connect them I guess." Yezi dismisses Xiaoqi's worry as impractical.

"You're probably right." Xiaoqi nodded in agreement.

"Well then lets go home then!" Yezi and Yiyi got into their truck and with Jingming and Qijian on the back, they drove off.

"Lets go home as well." The six of them got in the car and drove back home.