Chapter 171 - Betrayal
Bai Zemin really did not want to kill the group of soldiers inside the vault as he felt it would be a pity to lose men who certainly had enough courage to fight to the death.
Therefore, he was relieved that Fu Qigang was not a small-minded person and managed to keep at least some logical reasoning in his head. After all, if Bai Zemin wanted it, he could end all of their lives in a second.
Fu Qigang probably also noticed this when he saw how Bai Zemin was fine even after taking so many direct shots so he decided to bet; bet that the person who had opened the vault was a friendly human and not a hostile one or some kind of strange monster.
"It's Bai Zemin." Bai Zemin replied in a deep voice.
Seeing that there was still room to chat, Fu Qigang involuntarily let out a sigh of relief before regaining his composure and continuing, "Bai Zemin, how are you? I apologize on behalf of my men for what happened just now. But as you probably know better than I do, the world is no longer what it used to be in the past."
"Forget about that." Bai Zemin waved his hand even though he knew he could not be seen and continued with a frown, "Do you know the situation outside? What happened here? From what I have seen outside, there are several parts of the military camp that were destroyed and there are several lifeless bodies lying all over the place."
This was a question that Bai Zemin had hovering in his mind from the very beginning. The collapsed places might have been made by a beast, but the problem was that many military men had been massacred by gunfire! Such a thing was not something a beast could do.
Before Fu Qigang could respond, the wind howled and Bai Zemin appeared like a ghost in front of him, only five meters away.
"Now we can chat better." He smiled and nodded.
The military men's faces turned white as their eyes glittered with disbelief and fear. Involuntarily they took a step back and aimed their guns, but they didn't dare fire and just eyed the young man before them cautiously.
He is fast! Fu Qigang's pupils contracted slightly and for the second time, he accepted that the world had indeed changed. After all, such frightening speed was not something a human from the past could possess.
"Put down your weapons."
Fu Qigang sighed and waved his hand behind him. However, seeing that the soldiers did not lower their weapons and still looked at Bai Zemin in the same cautious manner, his expression began to slowly sink.
Seeing this, the soldiers slowly lowered their weapons and stopped aiming. But they still held on to them as if their lives depended on it.
"So?" Bai Zemin insisted with a friendly smile.
Fu Qigang sat down on a closed metal box and gestured for Bai Zemin to sit down, which he did. Then, Fu Qigang began to explain the situation of the military camp and what he knew so far.
...
It turned out that in the past, this military camp had a total of five thousand armed men. It was not a particularly strong base as it was actually destined to store and protect vintage rather than modern weaponry and while there was some heavy weaponry, it wasn't too much either.
Hearing this, Bai Zemin couldn't help but feel a little bitter inside. However, upon further thought, such a thing was only natural. After all, Yanqing District was not known for its large population, but rather for its forested areas and large mountains; therefore, it did not make sense to have so much firepower in such a place.
Besides, even if it was vintage weaponry it was more than enough to deal with hordes of zombies and groups of Unclassified monsters.
At first, while it had been a bit difficult to have to shoot at their zombie-turned comrades, the soldiers who managed to resist the wave of mana that entered their bodies managed to recapture the military camp.
Because the military camp was deep in the forest, the military had to contend with several mutated animals arriving alone. With the weaponry present, this had been a fairly simple task.
"However, everything changed after the first eight days." Fu Qigang sighed and his eyes seemed to flash with irreconcilable pain and hatred.
He gritted his teeth and continued, "Three strange beasts attacked us on the ninth day. All three were wolves, but the size of those wolves was like that of a horse! Fortunately, in the hangar there were some battle tanks and with them we managed to kill the three wolves, but the cost was enormous. Over two hundred of our brothers were killed worse than rats and we consumed 1/5 of the ammunition to load the tank cannons."
"Wait a minute, Fu Qigang." Bai Zemin interjected with a frown and asked worriedly, "Why do you say there were tanks? Tanks were destroyed?"
Battle tanks!
The absolute lords of the land, the true kings of the battlefield!
Even First Order existences couldn't resist the attack power such machines possessed and just one was enough to wipe out an army of zombies as long as it had ammunition!
When he heard that there were war tanks, Bai Zemin felt his heart skipped a beat. However, the more he listened, the uglier his expression became.
The military men behind Fu Qigang clenched their guns so tightly that their fists turned white. Their eyes were filled with anger and pain as they recalled events from the past.
"It was the Commander- No, it was that dog surnamed Jin and named Shun!" Fu Qigang spat with hatred and even referred to his immediate officer by his name with a thirst for revenge.
"Due to the attack of the giant wolves, Jin Shun wanted to take us all out of the forest, but several of us refused because we had received orders from the central government to protect and guard this area from any enemy attack. As soldiers, our duty is to follow orders from the highest." Fu Qigang said demurely before continuing.
"At first, the conversation had apparently only been Jin Shun's casual idea as he never mentioned the matter again. However, two days later, he along with more than fifteen hundred men left during the night, taking with them the tanks and most of the vehicles mounted with guns, leaving behind some five hundred who were unwilling to follow him. They even killed many brothers on their way out!
The only thing they could not take with them was this weapons vault because when we sensed something was wrong, I and part of my platoon closed in and let no one into the place.
In fact, the only reason we have managed to hold out so far is because there was some compressed food here or else we would have been forced to leave in search of food." Fu Qigang finished and his face sank even more.
Bai Zemin looked at the empty plastic bags in the corner and understood the matter.
It turned out that they were betrayed, abandoned, and due to the lack of heavy weaponry were forced to hide like rats since they did not have the power to fight the First Order beasts that ran rampant like the supreme lords of the forest.