Chapter 75: Chapter 75: Second Platoon in Production
When John quietly handed the gold and silver to Ye Fan, it was the time when Ye Fan was making money the fastest.
After the heavy machine gun displayed its power, all the enemies in the trading hall were swept away by Ye Fan.
Only Chen Hao and his two men were left huddled in the corner. They were allies, so they were naturally spared.
The leaders of the five major forces—Xing Hai, Liu Long, Wu Xiao, Zhao Xiaohao, and Wang Huai—were eliminated here, and the people they brought along had no chance to resist.
The machine guns on the three vehicles took their toll. Several people who attempted to resist were shot dead on the spot, without the defense of buildings, they had no chance to retaliate.
Only more than twenty people from Daqing Mountain brought by Xing Hai were huddled in a room on the first floor, putting up a last-ditch resistance. With the cover of several army soldiers, the flamethrower warrior Wang Aiyu moved to the window, and a flame shot into the room, immediately silencing the scene.
Everyone trembled as they watched this powerful Dawn Army, fearing they would initiate a mass purge.
Of course, Ye Fan wouldn’t conduct a massacre; killing all these people would not be a good thing. Without leaders and guards, the bases might not survive in the face of zombies.
If those desperate survivors ran to his territory and wouldn’t leave, Ye Fan would indeed find it troublesome.
The five major forces still had nearly three hundred armed personnel, all squatting obediently in the corner, waiting for Ye Fan’s disposition.
Without their leaders’ guidance, they were even more docile than little lambs.
Ye Fan had no time to bother with them for now and kindly helped keep their supplies and firearms, starting to trade with ordinary survivor groups.
Just according to the price cut in half plan set by Ye Fan afterwards.
The survivors had collected some gold, but it was useless to keep it. Someone from the Dawn Army was broadcasting the trading information, and eventually, someone couldn’t resist and went over to trade with Ye Fan.
When the first person successfully exchanged with Ye Fan for two guns and some spices, all the survivor teams rushed up, competing to trade with Ye Fan.
Ye Fan’s team didn’t have many people in Coal City. If it weren’t for his powerful armed forces, he wouldn’t even be qualified to enter the hall and trade with those leaders.
Among those present, there were as many as thirty survivor groups with several hundred members, all comparable in number to Ye Fan’s Chengguan Town survivors.
The amount of gold each group might not be much, but combined it was very considerable.
Ye Fan retrieved quite a bit of gold from Wu Xiao, Zhao Xiaohao, and Wang Huai—nearly twenty kilograms combined.
Adding up the rest from other survivors, it reached thirty kilograms. When John brought back the gold from Xing Hai and Liu Long, the total amount of gold in Ye Fan’s hands exceeded one hundred kilograms!
All were packed in the Commander’s pouch, yet to be converted by Ye Fan.
After almost finishing the trade of supplies, Ye Fan had some food and diesel left.
The firearms he confiscated from the five major forces were also half exchanged out.
The previous powers in Coal City had committed many atrocities; it was time for new forces to rise.
Those small survivor groups, getting weapons, would certainly develop and grow, and everyone would have a favorable impression of Ye Fan.
The remaining bit of food and diesel was exchanged from other survivors for other supplies.
Right now, he was generally not lacking in regular items, but in food and fuel.
The Red Alert soldiers are extremely powerful in combat, but each is a big eater.
One outdoes the other in appetite; a company of 130 people, plus the engineer platoon, totaling less than two hundred people, ate more than four hundred survivors of Chengguan Town combined.
No idea whom these guys took after—Ye Fan was really helpless about this.
So food consumption was high, and all his vehicles burned diesel, leading to high diesel consumption as well.
With food and diesel loaded on the vehicle, this transaction was essentially complete.
The survivors were still trading other supplies among themselves, and Ye Fan no longer wanted to participate.
The Hardware Mansion’s base was essentially abandoned; those oppressed by Liu Long all joined other survivor teams, ironically strengthening other forces.
As for the henchmen of the five major forces, they were merely followers of their leaders. Ye Fan refrained from wiping them out completely, letting Xiaotian sniff each one. Those with malicious intentions were shot on the spot, and those who became compliant had their weapons confiscated and were left to find their own way.
Some people reluctantly set foot on the way back, while others straightforwardly turned to other forces on the spot.
Ye Fan returned to the Hardware Mansion to tally up the spoils.
This trade conference made Ye Fan the biggest winner, with gold and silver piling up in his pouch.
He arrived in a separate room, heavily guarded outside. After opening the pouch, Ye Fan took out all the gold and silver.
"Beep~~! Precious metals detected, can be converted to System Money, do you want to convert?"
"Convert it all!"
"Conversion successful, congratulations Commander, you’ve obtained 135,890 gold!"
Hearing the number, Ye Fan was hit with a wave of immense joy.
He had unexpectedly acquired over 130,000 gold in one go!
This far exceeded the total amount of gold Ye Fan had collected before.
Just before the base construction, this influx of funds would undoubtedly give Ye Fan’s strength a tremendous boost!
Ye Fan even momentarily didn’t know how to spend this money.
With over 100,000 gold, building the base infrastructure, like walls and watchtowers, should provide a significant support, but the troops also needed expansion.
With the advancement of technology and the increase in construction units, forming a company already cost a lot.
He calculated that, not including vehicles, forming a company would require at least over 30,000 gold.
Air Defense Infantry, rocket launchers, heavy machine guns, mortars, snipers, engineers, scouts—each was an expensive troop type.
Moreover, there were vehicles, armored cars, ambulances, food trucks, transport vehicles, and the company and platoon commanders’ rides, all needing money.
To fully equip a company, at least 50,000 gold was required.
Although Ye Fan had a large amount of money in hand, fully arming even a battalion was not guaranteed.
"Arming two companies?"
Ye Fan calculated; this over 130,000 gold, plus over 10,000 gold obtained from Chen Hao, added to less than 150,000. If he armed two companies, the base construction would fall far short.
Additionally, feeding all these people was a big problem. In the current situation where he didn’t need so many people, he also wanted to save some food.
Very soon, Ye Fan formulated a plan.
First, produce his own second company!
A company of 130 people, the expenses were indeed not little.
army soldiers, 7,200 gold.
conscripts, 3,600 gold.
military dogs, nine of which were allocated to each squad, and two belonged to the company, requiring another 3,300 gold.
Eight medics and eight logistic support team members, 2,400 gold, plus the vehicles for those two squads, costing 4,500 more.
Mortar, 1,800; three scouts, 1,500; three snipers, 2,400; three rocket artillery, 3,600; three flamethrowers, 1,500.
Security squad of eight, 1,600; an armored vehicle costing 4,000 that comes with two soldiers.
Ye Fan then equipped the second company with two engineers and two air defense infantry, already exceeding 40,000, and the numbers were nearly full.
Finally, Ye Fan added two more vehicles.
Two Tigers, as the platoon leaders’ rides.
The company commander’s Manglong wasn’t needed, as he still had one for the company commander. Xing Hai, this little cash-flow infantry, eventually brought the Tiger back, so producing two more Tigers was enough.
No transport vehicles were allocated by Ye Fan for now; heavy trucks were used to cope temporarily; whenever he had extra money, he would then fully equip each company with vehicles.
Just these alone had already cost Ye Fan 45,000 gold!
All selections completed, production began.
"Confirmation complete, total cost 45,000 gold, requires seven and a half hours, please patiently wait, Commander!"
After spending this money, Ye Fan still had 100,010 gold left.
"Alright, we’ll stay here today. Once the second company is built, we depart for Kao Mountain Farm first thing in the morning to start base construction!"