The Walking Dead: Rebuild

Chapter 172 Coal Burning Problem
A few days later, after such long negotiations, the AUM and federal envoy Roget finally reached a deal and signed an employment agreement.

Under the escort of soldiers, hundreds of tons of food, mainly large amounts of good-power compressed biscuits, were divided into several times and loaded onto the train to Miami. Roget and the federal soldiers also followed and embarked on the journey. Journey to Miami.

This is the result of discussions between the two parties.

Out of sincerity for the first large-scale cooperation, Lyon decided to send troops to help the Federation deal with the pirates, and at the same time, also transport the food they purchased by sea.

Next time, if such goods are transported by sea, corresponding remuneration will need to be paid.

This can be regarded as opening up a seaborne trade route with the federation. In the future, large transactions between the two parties can be carried out in a safer and more convenient way.

As the second largest sub-base of the People's Federation, Miami City once had the largest port in the organization. There were nearly a hundred ships of various sizes, mainly ordinary fishing boats, and there were nearly a thousand survivors. Work near the port.

A large amount of marine food and various marine resources can be provided to the residents of the People's Alliance every day.

The role it plays is no less than that of many farms and plantations.

Although fuel oil can basically no longer be used as fuel, the survivors have spent a lot of manpower and material resources to find many coal-burning ships from decades ago.

Although it is dilapidated, its tonnage is not outstanding, and it cannot carry too many goods and people.

However, after being repaired and improved by the Scientific Research Department, it is still barely adequate as a fishing boat and transport ship.

Every day after the sun comes up, residents of Miami can see billowing black smoke rising from the port.

In this combat mission to wipe out the marauders and pirates, Lyon planned to wait for the soldiers of his brother-in-law, Colonel Frank, to return, and then send a thousand soldiers and various special units to assist in combat, and he would continue to carry out this mission.

After so many years of getting along with each other, Leon has deeply realized that his brother-in-law is indeed a combat talent. Every time he performs a mission, he can accomplish the combat objectives well and cherish the lives of the soldiers very much. It can be said that he loves soldiers. Like a child.

A large part of the reason why so many soldiers were sent out at one time was because the soldiers in the military department were only good at land combat and basically had never experienced sea combat.

Except for some officers who had learned the corresponding knowledge of naval warfare in the military academy, most of them were novices at sea.

Although it was not clear whether the predator pirates were strong or not, in his opinion, their size should not exceed 1000 people.

After all, if you want to maintain a combat force of more than 1000 people, you will need at least several times more civilians to be able to support them.

And even if they have so many soldiers, it is basically impossible to discharge them all at once.

Moreover, with Teacher White's research results, some of the fuel can be reused. Although the reserves are not large, in an emergency, they can still dispatch armed helicopters or other aerial units to suppress the situation.

With the departure of special envoy Roget, Lyon returned to his daily busy life. A large stall with tens of thousands of people. Fighting was not all of life. The residents' eating, drinking and littering were the main theme of his daily work.

Just like now, before he could focus on the sea team that was about to set off, Miss Avril put two more problems in front of him.

“Coal burning has bottomed out?”

Staring at Leon's frown, the little secretary nodded aggrievedly and said with a bit of complaint:
"Yes, boss."

"I told you this news last month, and I reminded you once. Have you forgotten it?"

Leon coughed lightly to cover up his embarrassment and fell into thinking at the same time.

At the beginning, coal mines were a resource that was not commonly used. Although they collected a lot and stored them in warehouses, they did not pay too much attention to this heavy material that was difficult to transport.

But since fuel oil was contaminated with a fungal virus a few years ago, coal and wood have become the main sources of portable energy sources off the grid.

However, as the scope of nuclear radiation continues to spread, the natural environment has been severely eroded. All kinds of green vegetation are dying rapidly, and land loss is serious.

Even for timber resources, if we don't want the entire territory to turn into a dry desert area, we can't exploit it as uncontrollably as in the past.

However, the current problem faced by the People's Federation organization is that the power system of the People's Federation base can only cover the surrounding areas of the base, and it is difficult to continue to expand outwards.

Without fuel, fuel-fired generators and large-scale mining equipment cannot be used. All mineral and metal resources must rely on the most primitive human resources to collect them.

Not only is it time-consuming and labor-intensive, but the efficiency is extremely low, the location of those mineral resources is also very far away from the People's Federation base, and there are even no large-scale coal mines in the entire state of Georgia.

So even if you find a mineral, after mining it, you not only have to guard against the attacks of monsters wandering in the wild, but you also have to travel across mountains and rivers to transport the materials, which is really difficult.

“What is the think tank’s recommendation regarding the coal mine?”

Avril elegantly turned over the notebook in her hand, read the record she wrote on it, and said:
"The think tank's suggestion is to choose a mine with relatively large reserves and easy collection. It is best to be relatively close to us, or a place that can be connected by road and has convenient transportation conditions."

"First invest resources and build a small power station there, and then slowly develop it into a self-sufficient mining stronghold."

"Only in this way can we provide mineral resources for our base without adding more burdens to our production and protection."

Leon nodded. According to his understanding, this should be the case, and these mining strongholds must also be equipped with a certain number of soldiers to guard the stronghold and resist monsters in the wild, which may even appear at any time. Predators.

And according to the current situation, I am afraid that in a few years or decades, after the resources collected in their warehouse are used up, if they want to continue to survive, they cannot let everyone stay in one base for intensive operations. Produced in style.

Instead, many people must be dispersed into different resource bases, allowing them to mine resources, produce goods, and feed back to the main base.

Leaning on the soft leather sofa, Leon took a sip of the iced Coke produced by Renlian, thought for a while, and said:
"That's it, let the engineering department write a report on this plan for me and select a suitable mining site as soon as possible."

"At the same time, let the Human Resources Department pay attention to select some residents who are willing to work outside, or directly select a group of people from among the prisoners with good performance and let them work as miners."

Avril nodded and wrote down the boss's words in her notebook, preparing to execute the order later.

Taking another sip of ice-cold Coke, Leon did not forget to remind:
"In addition to coal mines, the construction of other resource bases should also be on the agenda. Don't deal with it in a hurry."

Hearing this, the little secretary secretly rolled her eyes. She had clearly reported this matter a month in advance, but in the end she was forced to take the blame.

After passing the blame on to his subordinates, Leon stretched himself with peace of mind and asked again curiously:
"Didn't you say there is another bad news?"

"What's the matter?"

Avril glanced at her boss, was silent for a few seconds, and said: "Virginia stronghold, sent a message."

"The transport they sent to their stronghold in West Virginia has disappeared."

Leon frowned and asked:

"Is everyone missing? How many people are there in total?"

Avril nodded, looking at the information she recorded, her brows furrowed.

"Yes, boss."

"That team, including carriages, transporters and soldiers, totaled 25 people."

"According to the message sent by Mr. Albert, the local person in charge, the soldiers he subsequently sent to search for the transportation team only found the supplies that needed to be transported, and all the people were missing."

"Based on the blood stains on the ground and some signs of fighting, they are most likely killed."

Leon leaned on the desk, tapped the desk with his fingers, and expressed his guess.

"Since no supplies were taken from the convoy, there is a high probability that they were attacked by monsters or mutated zombies."

Avril also nodded, but also raised her own questions.

"There should be very few monsters that can annihilate all our soldiers without letting anyone escape."

Leon nodded. As he said before, the People's Federation implements an elite soldier policy. Every soldier of the People's Federation has undergone professional training, is well-equipped, and has combat capabilities far beyond those of ordinary survivors.

If the disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves is too great, the soldiers are allowed to retreat first to save their own lives. After all, in the end of the world, population is the most precious wealth. This is something that Lyon has always advocated.This situation of total annihilation really shouldn't happen.

Although he was a little irritable, Leon knew that it was impossible to deduce the truth based on these clues alone. He waved his hand to Avril and said:
"I have written this down. I will arrange for someone to investigate this matter later. You don't need to worry about it anymore."

After reporting the two bad news, the little secretary Avril also reported good news to President Leon.

"Colonel Frank's team will be able to return to the base tomorrow."

"Little Clementine did a lot in this battle, so you have to praise her."

………………

The next day, Leon met Dr. Mason again with a happy face, and Negan, the boss of the Salvation Army who had been famous for a long time but had never met before.

The old man Mason hopes to dedicate the biochemical army in the institute to Lyon as a certificate of surrender in exchange for his status and life in the Human League organization.

However, there are still two problems to achieve this, namely the external armor and combat chips of these biochemical weapons.

Of course, without external armor, these biochemical weapons can also participate in battles, but in this case, their combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced, not even one-tenth of the original level.

What's more important is the combat chip. If the combat chip is not installed in the brains of these biochemical weapons, then even as their manufacturer, Mason will have no way to control these weapons.

However, according to Mason, before the nuclear war broke out, they had completed the experimental version of the combat chip and installed it on the Tyrant. Although the function was relatively simple, it was considered the initial template.

With the current strength of the People's Federation, even if it is unable to innovate in this area, it should still be able to make batch copies based on this initial template.

At that time, they will have a large number of biochemical armies that do not need food, are not afraid, and are tireless.

Of course, Leon still maintains a skeptical attitude towards Dr. Mason's big picture, but with an attitude of preferring to believe what is there, he decided to let Professor Thomas from the engineering department and a major in software engineering Take Professor Amlin and take charge of this matter.

And as Dr. Mason described, if you want to equip this batch of biochemical armies with all-metal external armor, you will have to consume a lot of metal mineral resources, electricity and energy resources, etc., which is expensive.

With the current industrial strength of the People's Federation, although production can be completed, the required cycle is also calculated in years.

But Lyon felt that if after some finished products were produced and tested in actual combat, this biochemical army was really as powerful as the old man said, it would indeed be worth investing industrial resources in this project.

Seeing Dr. Mason's cooperation, Leon was not stingy. He temporarily gave him the title of research director and asked him to work under Professor Mallock's nose for a while. After the preliminary manufacturing of the combat chip was completed, he would consider whether to let him work. He returned to his old profession.

After sending the old man away, with a hint of bad taste, Leon called Negan and the Dwight couple over.

He wanted to see what this outstanding figure in his past memories would say when he reached this point.

Soon, following his order, an old man in tattered clothes with a child tied to his body was escorted in by the soldiers, and not long after, a man with half of his face covered in burn scars and a pretty-looking blonde woman, He was invited in with a somewhat nervous attitude.

Leon, who was sitting on the office chair, looked down at the sloppy old man in front of him, and found that his spirit and body were very weak. After entering the office, he didn't lift his head, and just lowered his head, wondering what he was thinking. Something.

He turned his attention to Dwight and his wife Shirley, who were standing aside. This was the first time they met, and both of them looked at Leon with a hint of surprise.

Obviously, he did not expect that the handsome and very young man in front of him would actually be the leader of this huge force.

When Leon turned his attention to the two of them, Dwight secretly took a breath and said:
"Dear President, may I ask what your orders are when you summon us?"

His wife Shirley was also a little nervous. After hearing her husband's question, she also followed suit and bowed her head slightly to salute.

Leon nodded kindly to the two of them, and did not deliberately use his aura to oppress them.

"The guy next to you is Negan from the Salvation Army. I heard that you were in the same organization as him before, and there are still some grievances. I invite you to come over and ask a few questions together."

In fact, Dwight spotted Negan as soon as he walked in, but now both the couple have joined the Human League and are out of Negan's shadow. Although they still hate this man, they are not as reckless as before.

Seeing that the top leaders of the People's Federation were so kind and just wanted to ask questions, Dwight felt relieved and said with a slightly stiff smile on his face:

"No problem, Your Excellency the President, you can ask us any questions about the Salvation Army?"

"We will tell you without reservation."

(End of this chapter)