Within a day, the entire town was mobilized as mandatory training was prolonged to three hours instead of one.
All of the construction was put on pause to refocus on reinforcing the wall, making it thicker and taller with as much concrete as possible.
The commercial district plan was put on pause for now, and even the administrative building was mostly empty as all the office workers were called up to garrison.
Nobody in the town complained out loud, as it was one of the main rules of the town, not to mention many of them knew how bad the outside was.
The last thing they wanted was for Luoping to fall. Everyone was working overtime to get as many things done as possible.
As Yiming began scouting for the hit-and-run plan, Xiaoyun and several of the militias were busy laying down TNT along the narrow path leading up to Luoping.
After a week of planning, everything was finally set up as the wall grew a few inches taller than before.
Oddly enough, the zombies continued to remain on the outskirts. They refused to move out of it even as the soldier poked at it with drive-by attacks.
It was almost as if the zombie themsleve didn't have any sort of plan. They simply wanted to stay on the outskirts rather than in the city center.
An idea began to develop in Yuqi's mind—a thought to demobilize some of the civilians back to their posts.
The farmland was being unattended, and factories and stores were running empty. It was starting to strain the fragile economy of Luoping.
Just when she was about to pressure Xiaoyun to give in to her demands, the zombie hordes finally made their first move.
----
"Unit one here, the zombies are exiting the outskirts, over."
The moment the walkie-talkie spoke up with a soldier's voice, Xiaoyun could hear Yiming's voice instantly responding to it.
"All units, begin retreating to the wall, over."
"Copy that."
As the transmission ended, Xiaoyun quickly got up from his seat before looking back at the Yuqi and Yueyue one last time.
"Well, looks like it's time for me to go... You two should go back home. Don't argue with me, you guys can't go there."
Yuqi easily accepted Xiaoyun's decision, but Yueyue wanted to argue back. But she quickly accepted reality as her leg struggled to stand up for a second.
"Be safe out there, okay?" The two of them whispered, looking a little worried as they both walked over for a hug.
"I will."
Before Xiaoyun could leave, Yueyue suddenly whispered something to his ear at the very last second.
"I-I grant you a wish t-that, j-just come back home safely, okay?" Yueyue faced blushes as the two separated.
"Don't worry, I'll get home safely."
---
"How's the situation going?" Xiaoyun entered the security room as both Yezi and Yiming were already inside.
"All the units outside have returned to base, and some of the zombies should arrive in an hour or so," Yezi replied.
"All we can do is now wait."
Yiming replied next as the three of them headed back outside before heading up to the walls once again.
"How tall is the wall now?" Xiaoyun curiously asked, getting a little scared as the height felt drastically different than before.
"From three to seven meters. And with these battlements, the soldiers don't have to stand behind a stair to dodge for cover awkwardly."
Just as Yiming finished explaining, everyone nearby could suddenly hear a loud sound coming from a distance.
Yezi was the first to take out his binoculars as he caught just a glimpse of what had just flown above them.
"What was that?" Xiaoyun asked.
"It's a jet... but I'm not sure what they are doing here," Yezi replied with his limited knowledge.
"It's the 8th Air Division, most likely the H-6 Bomber... They finally decided to do something."
Yiming answered as he took out his own binoculars, his voice sounding a little grumpy as if he had some sort of beef with them.
Thirty minutes later...
As Xiaoyun and everyone else garrisoning the wall waited, they could feel the ground shaking several times in a row.
"Unit One, go check outside." Yiming ordered as he sent his message through the walkie-talkie.
After five minutes, the car drove back with only a very small horde chasing right after them.
The garrison on the wall easily took care of them as the bridge was lowered for the car to re-enter.
"What happened outside?" Yiming urgently asked as soon as the two soldiers stepped out of the car.
"Most of the zombies outside are extremely thin out. And there's a massive Explosion crater in the distance."
One of the soldiers explained as the people on the wall started clearing the small zombie horde further down the road.
"They did a bombing run, huh... I guess the zombies are out of the city." Yezi murmured, looking a little concerned as he didn't elaborate any further.
"Well, good news for us, fewer zombies to deal with."
As the three of them got back onto the wall, the rest of the horde only came in a few smaller swarms that only took three hours to take care of fully.
With Yiming sending several units out to scout and double-check, they all return with the news that the massive horde on the outskirts had vanished.
In its place were just smaller groups of zombies sitting on the outskirts, around a few hundred in groups rather than in the tens of thousands.
---
"What happened? Is everything fine out there?" Yuqi curiously asked as all three of them came into the office together.
"The military stepped in and bombed the zombie hordes for us. We only had to clean up the leftovers.
We didn't even get to use the explosive or anything. Didn't even need to mobilize civilians to shoot their guns," Xiaoyun explained.
"That's good to hear... Now we can demobilize everyone back to their original jobs... So many jobs were put on hold because of this."
Yuqi murmured as she pulled out a small file over to Xiaoyun, which instantly made him widen his eyes when he opened the cover.
"What? We really spend that much to mobilize everyone?" Xiaoyun asked in confusion as the cost of the mobilization was right in front of him.
"Calling everyone on duty for a week is going to cost a lot, not to mention the construction crew working overtime for those walls to get taller.
And this is not including the soldiers and the militia's active duty pay and the building material lost in building the wall."
Hearing Yuqi's explanation, Xiaoyun was only getting a bigger and bigger headache as Yiming and Yezi both stood on the side with a smile.
"Whatever, I guess I'll go print more money and food to back this up."
Just as Xiaoyun was about to leave for the storage unit, Yuqi suddenly spoke up again with a reminder.
"Wait! We don't need to worry about water being cut off, I think. The military is most likely guarding it since they need it too!" Yuqi pointed out.
"You're probably right... Anyway, off I go."
---
A week has passed since the military bombing of the road near the city's outskirts.
Everyone in the town was back to their job as there was no longer an outside threat, at least big enough for another town mobilization order.
Yezi was back to rescuing people from the city outskirts, but fewer and fewer people were being rescued.
The town's side of the city outskirts was practically all cleared of survivors, forcing Yezi to go further every time to find more people.
Soon, he was forced to make a brand new plan, one that required a manual review as he stood in front of Yuqi's desk.
Going further to the other side of the city outskirts, expanding the rescue team, and allowing soldiers to gather resources from outside to sell.
These I can understand, and I will give it to you... But starting to send a scouting mission into the inner city is not going to happen."
Xiaoyun paused for a second, then continued.
"There are almost fourteen million people inside the city. Those zombies that walked are out of only a tiny fraction of it."
"But don't you want to see what's happening inside the city? We have almost zero information on it."
Yezi argued, wanting to convince Xiaoyun to agree with the second part of his plan, as he felt the lack of information was even worse than losing a few soldiers.
"All I know is that even the military failed to go to the inner part of the city. You know what happened to Yiming, it's just not worth the risk."
As Xiaoyun refused to back down from his position, Yezi had no choice but to accept the decision in the end.
"Fine, you won...."
With Yezi turning back with the paper in hand, he soon left the room and closed the door behind him.
"Hey, Yueyue, can you bring the head of the trade department here?"
Yuqi asked as she continued to read the financial report in her hand, sitting on the side where Xiaoyun usually was.
"Okay."
As Yueyue left the office, she soon came back with the head of the trade department that had been newly created.
"Hello, boss, what do you need me for?" A middle-aged office worker asked.
"Has trade dropped over the last few weeks?" Yuqi asked as she put the report back down on the table.
"Yes, a lot fewer people have been coming here and trading due to the zombie hordes blocking most entrances and exits.
But since it's clear now, I believe it's going to increase even higher than before to make up for the loss." The man replied.
"I see... Ahem, I want you to ask those traders if they have anyone who has experience with manufacturing.
Specifically, someone who knows how to make firearms... Do you understand what I'm trying to find?" Yuqi requested.
"Yes, boss, I'll tell my workers to ask that."
"Good. You can leave now."
As the head of the trade department left the office, Xiaoyun quickly turned over to Yuqi with an intrigued look.
"It's going to take forever to find someone with that qualification... Most heavy industry is up north, you know."
"Yeah, I know that. But we need to start making guns somehow rather than depending on you for everything." Yuqi argued.
"I guess..." Xiaoyun murmured.
"Anyway, thank god the farms are fully self-sustaining now, as long as the population doesn't suddenly increase massively."
Yuqi stated as she checked past the financial report and onto the agricultural report for this week.
"Finally, I don't have to go make canned food constantly," Xiaoyun murmured as he let out a small relief in his head.
"Well, not just yet, we only got self-sustaining with vegetables... We still have no livestock or any form of meat.
So you still going to need to continue making canned food until we find somewhere with animals to get meat from." Yuqi reminded.
"Never mind then."
As Xiaoyun got up from his seat and headed towards the sofa, he dramatically fell onto Yueyue's lap before she pushed him away.
"Oh, the signal came back," Yueyue murmured as her phone suddenly shook a little with old messages.
"Looks like the military must have taken back the cell tower..." Yuqi murmurs as she checks her phone.
"But the signal still can only call people within the same city."
As Yuqi dialed one of her business partners, she got no response. Not even voicemail or anything at all.
"That's good enough for us. Not like we're going to a different city or anything." Xiaoyun pointed out as he slowly sat back up from the sofa.
"Mhm..."
---
November quickly flew by as December arrived.
The days have been getting colder and colder, as late fall's piercing wind made everyone start wearing jackets and long pants.
Although it felt much colder than last year, it wasn't as cold as the northern part of the country, where it would probably be snowing right now.
Back over to the commercial sector, it has massively expanded as many people who returned from the demobilization had a massive amount of cash from overtime.
Combined with an influx of raw resources and goods from the outside, and more survivors joining the town with Yezi's rescue missions.
It was a perfect time for more job opportunities and expansion. However, due to the massive growth of the town, Yuqi and Xiaoyun soon ran into trouble again.
"We had cleared the entire center of the forest now, we have nowhere else to expand into, but people need more space to live and work."
Jingming complained as he stood in front of Yuqi and Xiaoyun, his face looking extremely frustrated with the limited residential area.
"What do you think we should do then?" Xiaoyun asked as he could tell Jingming already had an answer.
"Expand away from the center and towards the back here. All the way to the river over here."
Jingming pointed at the forest behind the mansions and cabins, all the way to the river, as the map was laid out on the desk.
"You sure this is going to work? Last time I checked, there's an overgrown forest there, not to mention the wild animals and uncharted areas." Yuqi warned.
"Yes, I'm confident we can do it. We got some power tools with chainsaws and even an excavator from Yezi's scouting missions a few days ago."
"Well then, come back tomorrow and we will give you a zoning map that will roughly outline what you can work with," Xiaoyun replied this time.
"Thank you, boss."