Chapter 196: Deal with the foreign friends!

Very quickly, Yue Zhong reached the western district's square, only to see that 43 foreigners stood there. There were both men and women among those 43 foreigners and they were all well-dressed; like dogs, their appearances hadn't been 'baptised' by the 'end of the world' in the slightest. Before, when the base was in its most difficult time, it didn't let these foreign friends suffer any hardships.

Seven of Yue Zhong's official members stood at the side armed with rifles, coldly staring at those foreigners. If they moved in the slightest, a bullet would mercilessly penetrate through their bodies.

Yue Zhong walked up to the center of the square, overlooked the 43 foreigners below and said icily,

"I am the one called Yue Zhong. If you have anything to say then quickly speak, as you only have this one chance."

Yue Zhong did not actually hate foreigners. It was just that the base's treatment towards the foreigners was much better than to the country's people themselves. Whilst a large number of compatriot survivors were starving, those foreigners were living carefree in the specialty region. It was this that made Yue Zhong feel very uncomfortable. Receiving worse treatment than the foreigners upon their own country's ground, Yue Zhong really didn't know whether this country was the foreigners' or his own.

"Chief Yue Zhong, hello. I am Choi Min-ho, chairman of South Korea DY Group's Asian Division! I hereby submit a request on behalf of the following friends from Japan, America, Italy and the United Kingdom. We hope that you can comply with international practice and provide us with humanitarian assistance."

"We are very fond of China, this beautiful, mysterious, friendly and culturally advanced country. We have always followed the rules of your country China and have not done anything that has violated your country's laws. Therefore we hope that you protect our private property and give us fair treatment." Choi Min-ho lightly smiled towards Yue Zhong and said.

Foreigners as despotic and arrogant as Toshi Kameda were not that many; the reason he could behave that way was because he was closely colluding with the base's senior officials. Toshi Kameda had the resources to be arrogant. The 43 foreigners gathered on the square basically did still abide with China's laws. Even within the base, their behavior was still much better than that of the senior officials and their children. This was also something they relied on to dare to come up with a request for Yue Zhong.

(Note: Previously, chinanovel translated Toshi Kameda as Gui Tianshou, which is what it is in Chinese. However, it's said that he's Japanese, so I tried my best to translate the name into its Japanese version. To remind any readers, Toshi Kameda was a Japanese VIP who was 'trampled over' by Yue Zhong and later assassinated or something.)

"I say this with much regret, Mr Choi Min-ho! All things like international practice and humanitarian aid don't work here in my place. The only thing I can do is be fair and treat you and other people equally. If you want enough to eat, then you must do the same as other people and work. If you don't work, then you can only receive an amount of rations that will not be able to fill up your stomach."

"Of course, if you think that the treatment at my place is harsh: as compensation for you abiding with China's laws, right now you can all take your personal belongings with you and leave. I will not stop you. Wang Shuang, you can just follow this principle to deal with them. If they make trouble again, send the men to the scum battalion and the women will be incorporated into the third labor camp." Yue Zhong lightly said those words, then turned around and left.

After the 'end of the world', order collapsed and morality fell. Many men released the dark incarnation from their hearts and committed various crimes. The majority of women were weak but in the same way, many of them also cruelly* committed various felonies like eating, killing and abusing people. These women were dealt with mercilessly by Yue Zhong in the same way: those who deserved death were directly killed, whilst the women who didn't quite deserve the death sentence were put into labor camps.

(*Note: the idiom used here literally means 'with a cruel heart and poisonous hand', basically 'cruel'.)

These slave laborers had no human rights- not only were they held in prisons, they also had to do heavy labor. If necessary, they would be given to soldiers who had made great merits to enjoy. One of the most important reasons for the existence of females was that they could give birth. As long as there were offspring, the race would be able to continue.

With the keynote that Yue Zhong had set down, Wang Shuang's courage was boosted. He looked at Choi Min-ho and the other foreigners, all of them looking rather pale, and said loudly,

"All of you, come over here to report your specialty. We will allocate jobs to you depending on your specialty and those without any ability will become laborers. Of course, if you take your private property and leave this place right now, we will also not stop you."

(Note: the original phrase for 'laborers' was actually 'coolies'. 'Coolies', which is a proper word, just sounds kind of strange to me, so I stuck with 'laborers'.)

At this time, there were still many zombies littered around Qing Yuan County. Without any methods of transportation, if normal people left the city, they might immediately be devoured up completely by those zombies. Choi Min-ho and those foreigners naturally weren't stupid and could only go up sensibly to report their own specialty one by one, then let Wang Shuang make arrangements.

As he watched the foreigners who, before the 'end of the world', had a social status far above him obediently come up to him one by one and report their specialty, a sense of superiority spontaneously welled up in him. There was even a French woman who threw him a flirtatious look. By now, Wang Shuang had already grown to become a Level 13 Evolver and he kept two beautiful women. Back then, if he hadn't been determined to follow Yue Zhong, right now, he would either have landed in the mouths of zombies or he would be the lowest level survivor bitterly struggling amidst cold and hunger.

Yue Zhong had just returned to the shooting gallery when Xu Zhenggang came up to him. Looking at Xu Zhenggang, he felt a bit surprised and asked,

"What happened?"

After Xu Zhenggang had accepted Yue Zhong's recruitment and joined his forces, as always, he didn't have the intention of improving their personal relationship. He always stayed among his own squad members and trained them; during battle he was also the first to rush up to the front line with a very strong desire to fight. Xu Zhenggang really was the perfect role model of a soldier, the best knife.

(Note: 'best knife' sounds somewhat strange but I couldn't think of any other way to put it than to literally translate the term. Its meaning should be clear though.)

With a straight face, Xu Zhenggang slowly said,

"Captain Yue! I believe that there is a problem with the current establishment of our armed forces! Not including the scum battalion, our current armed personnel have already exceeded 500 men. Using the crude establishment of teams, squadrons, brigades and the like to command the troops to launch a coordinated attack is very problematic. If our armed forces continue increasing, this sort of model is not conducive to our command and control over them. Personally, I think that we should initiate a formalized reorganization of the troops whilst our armed personnel are still not that many in number."

When Yue Zhong had originally reorganized the teams at Always Bright Village, he didn't think too much at the time. It was just that he had wanted to organize an elite squad, pass through the zombie hordes and go back to Guangxi to find his loved ones. Yue Zhong didn't have a military background and he also didn't have much experience, therefore he only ended up forming a bizarre, crude establishment consisting of a team, squadron and brigade.

(Note: Always Bright Village was where Yue Zhong overthrew Tiger, before he headed to Longhai City Base.)

For searching for supplies and battles on a small scale, this type of crude establishment didn't have many problems. However, with one glance, professional military officers like Xu Zhenggang would be able to make out the shortcomings of an establishment as such, that it wasn't conducive to the control and mobilization of a large force. Also, the prospects of promotion for the squad members wasn't clear enough- being promoted to the official team meant already reaching the peak.

Yue Zhong understood everything instantly.

(岳重一点就透?)

"You mean to carry out a reorganization of the troops in accordance with the establishment and model of the regular army?"

Xu Zhenggang rigidly handed a copy of the information to Yue Zhong.

"Right! The current military establishment has already undergone the test of time and practice. There are basically no major oversights. I believe that we should reorganize according to the establishment and model of the regular army. This is the establishment that is able to emerge from our current military strength, please have a look."

Yue Zhong received that copy of information to have a look, only to see that upon the copy, it was written clearly that the military strength of his powers could be reorganized into a reinforced battalion, with four reinforced companies under its management. Even the number of people in each company and the basic equipment required was clearly written down. It was only for the military officers of the individual companies and platoons that nothing was written.

After Yue Zhong finished reading that information copy, he said towards Xu Zhenggang,

"I know now! I will consider it, you withdraw first!"

"Yes!" Xu Zhenggang performed a standard military salute towards Yue Zhong and then withdrew.

The rumor of Yue Zhong preparing to reorganize the troops spread very quickly among the captains of each team. Many people had their hearts heat up and people began walking around in Yue Zhong's area more frequently.

In the establishment of that battalion, Yue Zhong himself would naturally serve as the commander. The person he chose as deputy battalion commander was Chi Yang, which no one objected. However, regarding the officer positions below battalion commander- company commander, deputy company commander, platoon commander and deputy platoon commander- people couldn't help but be tempted.

Three days later, Yue Zhong summoned all of the main personnel under his command to Qing Yuan County to have a meeting.

The seats in the meeting room had long been filled up with the captains of each team under Yue Zhong's command, all of them from different social classes. Before the 'end of the world', some were farmers, some were villagers, some were soldiers, some were prisoners, some were students... there were all kinds of people gathered together here due to a strange combination of circumstances, yet between them, they still formed small groups in accordance with their status and motives.

Sitting beside Liu Yan, Kong Tianyu cracked a smile and said,

"Captain Liu, this time I will congratulate you first. You began following Captain Yue the earliest, it looks like the position of a company commander won't escape from you."

(Note: Kong Tianyu is a ruthless guy under Yue Zhong's command. I have no idea when he appeared- if anyone does know, please tell me in the comments. Liu Yan is an ex-gunman of Tiger, whom Yue Zhong overthrew.)

Liu Yan glanced in the direction of Chen Shitou and slowly let out a sigh,

"Not necessarily. Chi Yang can definitely become the commanding officer of a company. Ji Qingwu will maybe become the commanding officer of a company as well. Captain Yue always holds Da Gouzi in high regard, maybe he can also become the commanding officer of a company. There is also Chen Shitou, whose daughter has an ambiguous relationship (affair) with Captain Yue. He also isn't weak in strength and so he is another candidate for the company commander positions. Wang Shuang is actually Captain Yue's classmate and his earliest follower. That fellow Xu Zhenggang has outstanding military accomplishments and puts his whole heart into developing the armed forces. He has the support of Wu Guang and others from the former army as well, and is also a candidate for the company commander positions. Ah, the competition is fierce!!"

Kong Tianyu's eyebrows furrowed and he thought for a moment: it really was as Liu Yan had said, the competition for the company commander positions truly was fierce to the extreme.

The captains of the other individual teams were also discussing between each other in low voices, mainly about the four company commander positions. One company commander would be able to have 100 subordinates. Even amid Yue Zhong's influence, they would be a vital officer.

Just then, Yue Zhong strode into the meeting room, with Guo Yu, who was wearing a professional suit, following behind him as if she were his shadow.

As soon as Yue Zhong entered the meeting room, all of the captains quietened down, their eyes full of glows as they looked towards him.

After he sat down and observed the surroundings, Yue Zhong said to Guo Yu,

"The meeting officially starts. Guo Yu, come read out my decision."