Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

Meanwhile, Xiaoyun and Kate immediately headed back just a week into March, as there wasn\'t much to do at that point.

However, just as he arrived in Guangzhou for a stop, he was stunned by how much it had been resettled.

The few hundred people in three different buildings had drastically expanded to several blocks, with stalls and even massive smoke in the distance, indicating factories that have been running on the outskirts of the city.

When he approached Han Bang for a report, he was stunned to hear Guangzhou had outgrown Luoping, with half a million people living scattered throughout the city.

Without any hesitation, Xiaoyun granted him quadruple the number of division units, allowing him to recruit up to his colonel rank of 100,000 instead of 20,000 soldiers to assist in enforcing laws in the city and protecting the city.

But when Xiaoyun asked how the city had grown so much, Han Bang hesitated, directing him to the administration building for an answer instead.

Xiaoyun quickly ran over to the head of the civilian in Guangzhou, then busted into the room, scaring the person inside before realizing who Xiaoyun was.

"M-Mr.Mayor, did you have to come in like this?" The man nervously asked.

"Sorry about that. I just got a little impatient. Can I ask how Guangzhou grew so fast?" Xiaoyun asked.

"Um, has Mrs.Co-mayor not told you about it?"

"About what?"

The man hesitated for a second but eventually revealed the truth.

"Mr.Yiming in Shaoguan... They had evacuated everyone here. So that\'s why there are so many people here."

"Oh shit..."

As Xiaoyun turned over to Kate, her brain also froze as she began to realize why Yiming evacuated in the first place.

"Is it because of a zombie horde?" Xiaoyun curiously asked as he turned back around.

"Yeah, at least that\'s what everyone that came here said. It was in almost several million zombies all at once.

It was so bad that the entire highway was filled with it. One of them told me they had never seen so many zombies heading up north like this."

Hearing the man\'s explanation, the two knew they fucked up.

"Fuck, how did I forget to tell Yiming about this... Did Yiming move everyone to her safety?" Xiaoyun asked as he murmured the first part to himself.

The man nodded in agreement, pulling out a document indicating that Yiming had sent a report long ago showing an evacuation plan for Guangzhou.

"Thank god it could have been so bad," Kate murmured as they both let out a sigh of relief.

"Okay. Keep up the good work, um, Leifeng, right?"

With a nod, Xiaoyun patted him on the shoulder before giving him the power to triple the size of the police department.

Then Xiaoyun ran all the way back to Han Bang, revoking his original order to grant him 80,000 soldiers as it reverted to the original 20,000.

It disappointed Han Bang a little, but he didn\'t argue back, knowing he was in the wrong for hoping that he would get away with it.

With everything settled, Xiaoyun took a little detour to the next destination—the breadbasket city that produced most of the foods.

Unlike Guangzhou, there were much fewer people in Qijing. Even fewer people than the last time he came over.

Despite that, almost triple the amount of farmland was being tilted for spring preparation as the temperature warmed back up for certain plants.

Tractors and machines were constructed throughout the entire field, running down the field as Kate drove the car closer and closer to Qijing proper.

When he finally arrived at the front gate, it was almost like a ghost town, as only ten people were patrolling the wall.

After Kate showed her passport, the gate quickly opened, allowing the two to drive straight to Li Miao\'s place.

To their surprise, Li Miao wasn\'t in base, causing them to wait for an hour before he finally showed up.

"Commander! Good afternoon." Li Miao saluted as he panted for breath, almost as if he had gone out to run a marathon.

"What happens to you? Where is everybody?" Xiaoyun curiously asked as he signaled Li Miao to take a seat before handing him a bottle of water.

"I was just farming outside along with the soldiers... Sorry, commander, I shouldn\'t have done that."

"I didn\'t say something is wrong with that... But what made you all go out and work like that?"

Li Miao hesitated for a second but eventually confessed the truth.

"There\'s nothing to do here. To our north are Guangzhou and Foshan, which have already been cleared, and to the south are Luoping, which has zero threats.

To the east is a massive river that separates us from Dongguan, and to the west, we have already gone over it to clear it.

So um... Some of us wanted to earn a little cash on the side, so they hired us as workers——But we had made sure that we did our duty first before going there."

Xiaoyun remained silent as he tapped on the table with his finger, making Li Miao more and more nervous.

He knew that what he did was technically against what a soldier should do, as it was competing directly against civilians for jobs and taking a double salary.

"Who\'s the mayor of this town?" Xiaoyun suddenly asked.

"Um, it\'s Lu Ming." Li Miao instantly replied.

"Can you bring him here? I just want to talk to him for a second."

As Li Miao left the room to get Lu Ming, Kate immediately chimed in with her question.

"What are you going to do with him?"

"He\'s definitely going to be assigned a tough bone for his job next. He\'s been too relaxed in Qijing for too long."

After waiting for a few minutes, Li Miao finally came back with a young man in casual clothes and a summer hat on his head.

"Good afternoon, Mr.Mayor." The man spoke out first as he awkwardly saluted Xiaoyun.

"Good afternoon, Lu Ming. I just wanted to ask who owns all the land here," Xiaoyun said as he signaled for Lu Ming to sit down.

"You, sir. Land ownership cannot be sold, only rented." Lu Ming replied instantly, not wasting any time, as he thought it was a test by Xiaoyun.

"Sorry, I should have framed my question better. I mean, who owns the produce that comes out of this land?" Xiaoyn asked again.

Lu Ming thought for a second, then replied.

"Cai Zhu Agricultural Company and Gou Tian Agricultural Company... They used 95% of the land."

"So two companies own that much of the land... How about the 5%?"

"Independent farmers," Lu Ming replied, his face becoming increasingly nervous as he realized what Xiaoyun was trying to imply.

"What was the share of the independent farmer when I first came here?" Xiaoyun coldly asked.

"75%... Sir, I know what you\'re trying to imply. But they rented that land away from those farmers legally."

"What do you mean legally?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.

"They pay them with food stamps. Then, they hired several salvage groups to find tractors and brought them all the way to Qijing.

If they were able to triple the economic output, shouldn\'t I be incentivizing them over having people farm by themselves?"

Hearing Lu Ming\'s argument, Xiaoyun fell into silence.

He knew the harm a monopoly or a duopoly could cause, especially since history has shown what happens when farmers are pushed out, with no other jobs being a possible replacement.

At the same time, Lu Ming\'s point regarding the economic aspect was valid, especially as it was a technological trend even before the outbreak to centralize farms into food giants rather than small-scale farms.

Especially in Western Europe, which he had once visited, such as Songming, before the outbreak.

It was the only fitting choice, considering how labor was in high demand in all three cities that he owned.

"Industrial agriculture is fine... But I don\'t want only two companies to have control over all of it.

I want at least five different companies and thirty percent to remain under government produce."

"Yes, sir."

"Anything else?" Xiaoyun asked.

"Um, those farmers had left for Guangzhou a long time ago after they got their one-time payment... I\'m not sure how to attract other companies to join in to break——"

"Do I have to teach you everything? Just hit them with anti-trust law and break it up instead."

Before Xiaoyun could finish talking, Kate suddenly leaned over to his right ear and whispered.

"Xiaoyun, I don\'t think you ever implemented that..."