Song Hong's words.
Made the expressions of the other two super city leaders present also turn rather unpleasant.
No matter how much power they wielded in their own cities.
It couldn't change the fact that they had already been abandoned by the capital of the Eastern Continent.
The key was that this abandonment hadn't been made public, but had been deliberately concealed until now.
And they had only accidentally found out about it.
In essence.
This behavior by the capital of the Eastern Continent was almost indistinguishable from betrayal.
"Our current situation is very dangerous."
"So I hope."
"That within the alliance, we can further strengthen the exchange of intelligence and technology."
"Additionally, if it really comes down to it."
"I still have connections in the capital of the Eastern Continent."
"We can secure a piece of land in the Western Wasteland Plateau."
"At that time, perhaps we can jointly develop it."
"As a fallback for the alliance."
After disclosing the intelligence he had in detail.
Song Hong made a proposal.
Clearly wanting to pool the strength of the entire alliance to build a new sanctuary thousands of miles away.
"The difficulty is too high."
"And it probably can't accommodate many people, right?"
Su Wu frowned, somewhat skeptical.
Even in peacetime.
Moving the population and resources of several super cities would be extremely difficult.
Not to mention after the apocalypse.
Crossing thousands of miles to a plateau with thin air and a harsher environment.
Plus having to build a sanctuary from scratch there.
Just thinking about it slightly, one can know the difficulty.
It would be almost impossibly high.
Not much simpler than landing on the moon.
"There is some difficulty."
"But the place I found has a large natural cavern underground."
"As long as the supplies are in place, we can settle down."
"The rest can be improved gradually later."
"But the scale indeed can't be increased."
"The estimated final population capacity won't exceed 500,000 people."
Song Hong explained in detail.
His plan did have a certain degree of feasibility.
But pooling the strength of the entire alliance, several super cities.
Only to ultimately build a small city-level sanctuary for 500,000 people.
In essence, it's not much different from abandoning most of their assets and fleeing alone.
And the nearly 200 million ordinary people within the alliance.
Would also become the sacrifices of this escape.
"The cost is too great."
"There's no need."
Su Wu shook his head, directly vetoing the proposal.
No matter what disaster they faced, he couldn't abandon the farmhouse he had managed for so long.
And if even the farmhouse couldn't withstand the disaster.
To be honest, Su Wu didn't think hiding in the Western Wasteland Plateau would really be worry-free.
Besides Su Wu.
The other two people present also weren't very interested.
The governor of Fuhai Province, Chai Zeyang, had an indifferent expression.
Neither expressing support nor opposition.
Qiang Yiqiu of Yu'an City, initially seemed a bit tempted.
But after hesitating, he ultimately showed an apologetic expression to Song Hong.
Politely declining his proposal.
"Alright, it seems everyone has their own fallback."
"Don't think much of my plan."
Song Hong was also a shrewd person.
Although no one said much.
He could vaguely guess that everyone present had their own confidence.
Unwilling to dilute resources for his plan.
However, this meeting was not without its gains.
At least the first proposal to strengthen communication was unanimously agreed upon.
After the meeting.
Song Hong privately sought out Su Wu.
They had a brief conversation.
"You want to purchase caravan trains?"
Su Wu fell into contemplation.
Caravan trains capable of freely traversing the frigid ice plains were treasures in the post-apocalyptic world.
No one could remain indifferent to them.
For Su Wu, although the caravan trains were his core assets.
They were, after all, mass-produced models that could be manufactured with sufficient resources.
It wasn't impossible to sell them.
The key was whether Song Hong could offer a sufficient price.
"Although you don't quite agree."
"Building an alternative shelter on the Western Wasteland Plateau is the only choice for our Changming City."
"And to cross such a vast distance for large-scale construction."
"The land trains you possess are the best transportation tools."
Song Hong sighed.
In the current post-apocalyptic era.
The railway tracks, which had been repaired several times, were mostly buried deep beneath the ice.
In the foreseeable future, there was almost no chance of them seeing the light of day again.
Although air transport hadn't been completely cut off.
The number of aircraft suitable for environments of minus 70 degrees was ultimately quite limited.
The only remaining tool for safe long-distance travel was Su Wu's caravan trains.
"I can't offer much more in terms of price."
"How about this."
"I'll use all the civilian and official shelters in the Xiaojiang Province where Changming City is located, along with the mineral mining rights in the province."
"To exchange for two caravan trains."
"Xiaojiang Province is a populous province, with about 70 million people in addition to Changming City."
"The stored finished resources exceed 100 million tons, and there's also a large copper mine with reserves of over 10 million tons."
"The value should be sufficient."
Su Wu's endless demand for population was no secret.
Using the population and resources of an entire province, excluding the provincial capital, as a price.
To exchange for two caravan trains.
From any perspective.
The value offered was already sufficient.
And it demonstrated sincerity.
"So generous?"
Su Wu was somewhat surprised.
From Song Hong's past behavior, he didn't seem like Yu'an City, indifferent to the surrounding subordinates.
To act against the population of his own province.
Was essentially akin to taking money from his own home.
"No choice but to be generous."
"When disaster strikes."
"Not to mention other places in the province, even Changming City itself."
"Probably won't be able to take care of too many people."
"It's better to let them join you early, for a better chance of survival."
Song Hong's eyes showed some weariness.
It was clear that the news he had obtained from the Eastern Capital had dealt him a heavy blow.
Causing him to abandon a large part of his illusions.
"Then there's no problem."
"Tomorrow, I will dispatch two newly produced caravan trains to Changming City for delivery to you."
"As for receiving the population."
"Let's take action in a week or two."
Currently, even the population of Zhenhai City is still stranded along the coast.
The resources taken over from Zhenhai City, except for the most expensive and rare portion, had already been airlifted back to the farmhouse. The vast majority remained.
In fact, most of them hadn't even been moved out of the crumbling Zhenhai City shelter yet.
Su Wu currently lacked the capability to transport the population of Xiaojiang Province.
However, with the rapid assimilation of Zhenhai City's resources.
This situation would soon change.
April 5th.
Location of Zhenhai City.
The ice layer that had once frozen everything had, at some unknown time, shattered into countless floating ice chunks.
Mixing with the seawater.
Forming surging waves in the storm.
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Occasionally, through the churning seawater and floating ice.
One could see faint red lights emerging from the depths.
That was the glow from the magma beneath the sea.
At this moment.
The Zhenhai City shelter located at the seabed.
Was almost entirely surrounded by magma.
And frequently subjected to earthquakes so intense they were visible to the naked eye.
Yet, in such harsh conditions.
The main body of the shelter, already split in two, miraculously didn't disintegrate further.
It continued operating.
With efficiency no less than its initial state, transporting the stored materials.
In an endless stream.
"The fuel is almost depleted."
"There's still about 100 million tons of other resources left to move, it feels like we've barely made a dent."
Looking at the statistics of materials remaining in the Zhenhai City shelter.
Su Wu was both amazed by the astonishing speed of fuel transportation and headache by the remaining material transfer.
However, although it seemed slow.
In reality.
With the subway trains on six undersea tunnels and trucks traveling on the seventh undersea highway working together.
In just one day.
They had transported over 12 million tons of materials to the coastline.
This staggering amount of materials.
Almost matched the total resources Su Wu had scavenged from the entire Kuanjiang River basin.
The feeling of slow progress.
Was purely an illusion caused by the exaggerated inventory of Zhenhai City itself.
The so-called 12 million tons of materials.
Was just barely scratching the surface of that billion-ton resource pool.
Of course, this was just from a quantity perspective.
Considering that the higher-value materials had been prioritized for transport.
In terms of value.
Su Wu had actually already secured more than half of Zhenhai City's assets.
Various high-end mechanical creations.
With the support of these high-value materials.
Were about to experience a massive expansion.
"With these resources."
"The merchant train fleet can increase by over 100 units in a short time."
"The sixth-generation fighters can also expand production by another 100 units, bringing the total to over 500."
Su Wu made a quick estimate.
Among these, the merchant trains aside.
The reason for only adding 100 sixth-generation fighters.
Wasn't due to insufficient resources, but because Su Wu believed that 500 sixth-generation fighters were temporarily sufficient.
He needed to reserve enough resources.
For when, not long from now.
The seventh-generation fighter was born in the laboratory.
Then he could continue mass-producing seventh-generation fighters.
"And unlike sixth-generation fighters."
"The technology of seventh-generation fighter jets can now be used to attempt the construction of larger near-Earth orbit aircraft carriers, or aerospace carriers."
"Although the aerospace carriers made using seventh-generation fighter jet technology."
"Have questionable mobility and combat capabilities."
"But at least in terms of pure transportation, they can undoubtedly bring about a transformative change."
"By then, it might truly be possible to gather global resources to build the Farmer's Courtyard."
Looking forward to the development of this technology.
Su Wu couldn't help but feel a sense of clarity and optimism about the future.
Shifting his gaze back to the holographic map, he focused on the coastal shelter.
After Su Wu dispatched 200 merchant train fleets back to Jianghe City, transporting 4 million people in one go.
The area around the coastal shelter.
Completely returned to its former state of emptiness from the bustling activity.
Only a large number of robots and unmanned engineering vehicles remained.
Silently working in the severe cold, processing the supplies transported from Zhenhai City.
A single merchant train fleet.
Can carry up to 40,000 people under extreme conditions.
But such conditions are too challenging for human physiological limits.
Especially during long-distance transportation, it can easily lead to very adverse effects.
Therefore, in the current situation which doesn't seem too urgent.
Su Wu chose to reduce the carrying capacity by half.
Leaving buffer space so that passengers inside the trains wouldn't have to stand the entire journey, allowing them to take turns sitting and resting, and even sleep for a certain period.
This modification also has another advantage.
During long-distance travel, there's no need to stop at a subsidiary shelter periodically for rest.
They can reach the destination in one go.
In terms of overall efficiency.
The longer the distance, the less it differs from full capacity.
"The current scale of the merchant train fleets is large enough."
"A few round trips will be sufficient to transfer all the people from Zhenhai City to the Farmer's Courtyard."
"Considering that the 10th underground level of the Farmer's Courtyard is nearing completion."
"With all of it being constructed as standard dormitories and plantations."
"That single level alone can almost accommodate the entire population of Zhenhai City."
"At most, there will be a remainder of two to three million people, who will need to be placed in the subsequent 11th underground level."
"So, moving forward."
"The pressure isn't as heavy as it was yesterday."
"We can proceed step by step at a steady pace."
However, all this optimism is based on the premise.
That no major disasters will intervene midway.
On the holographic map, Su Wu pulled up a camera feed from the surface of the coastal shelter.
He turned it towards the direction of the deep sea, where Zhenhai City is located.
From over 100 kilometers away.
He could faintly see.
The end of the ocean, transformed into a white icy plain, shrouded in a deep black.
There, it has become a hellish place with nightmare-level survival difficulty.
No one can guarantee.
Whether it will continue to spread over at some point in the future.
After gazing at the ocean on the screen for a while.
Su Wu shifted his focus to a range of mountains near the coastal shelter.
In the valley there, within temporarily erected massive warehouses.
Tens of millions of tons of fuel have already been stored.
It's foreseeable that transporting them to Jianghe City.
Will undoubtedly be a protracted endeavor.
And considering their low unit value.
In the transportation sequence, it still ranks behind the hundreds of millions of tons of ordinary supplies that have yet to be salvaged from Zhenhai City.
Such a long time.
It's almost impossible for things to go smoothly.
If luck is on their side, the final estimated volume of fuel could reach 80 million cubic meters.
Perhaps there might even be a small legacy left for Su Wu.
If luck is not on their side, all efforts will be in vain.
All that will remain for Su Wu is a desolate ruin with nothing left.
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