Chapter 214 - 143: Taking Over, Tier Two Corps, Two Lure Fishing Rods
Chapter 214: Chapter 143: Taking Over, Tier Two Corps, Two Lure Fishing Rods
He then had Li Ran reorganize and consolidate this batch of newly joined soldiers.
The junior commanders left behind by the previous division commander had mostly been Qin Hu’s former subordinates and were naturally acquainted with Li Ran. Faced with the reshuffling and reassignment, they showed no resistance.
By the time this was sorted out, it was high noon.
Lin Feng used a nearby university as a temporary base. He called in a group of soldiers and had them unload the canned combat rations, which had been transported back from Jin City, from the rear of the Battleship.
Using the university cafeteria’s facilities, they supplemented the standard field rations to prepare a relatively hearty lunch for the five thousand soldiers.
The only downside was that the texture of the meat was somewhat poor.
A little after one, once everyone had eaten their fill, the order was given for these soldiers to return to the defense line and relieve the ten thousand new recruits currently stationed there.
Now that the Hai City Zerg Race had retreated to the city’s eastern suburbs, the second line of defense was not under much pressure for the time being.
However, a certain level of patrolling and surveillance was still required.
When the remaining ten thousand-plus men were assembled on the square, led by their junior commanders, Lin Feng observed their sloppy and somewhat chaotic formations. He spoke only a few brief words before handing them over to Li Ran and the others.
These new recruits, who lacked the courage to fight outside the city, could only be assigned to logistical duties.
They wouldn’t be stopped if they wanted to leave, but the front lines were fraught with danger, and food was scarce in the rear.
There was no way for them, as Low-level Enhanced People of only Level 3, 4, or 5, to traverse the hundreds of kilometers back to the safe zones in the deep rear.
Besides, even if they did make it back safely, their lives wouldn’t necessarily be any better than they were now.
Of course, many among them had impulsively joined the Thirteenth Division after simply seeing recruitment ads. But with the annihilation and collapse of the first line of defense, they had personally experienced the capricious, cold, and merciless nature of the battlefield...
Some were already harboring thoughts of quitting.
As a result, a few hundred people chose to quit on the spot, leaving the unit and distancing themselves from the front-line battles.
In the end, the final tally came to 10,230 people, who were designated as logistical Support Soldiers for the Thirteenth Division.
As the lowest-level personnel, they no longer had to fight on the front lines. And while they would receive rations, there was no shortage of work for them to do.
Aside from cataloging and storing the supplies and equipment left behind by the Thirteenth Division...
That afternoon, after lunch, more than eight thousand people, led by Li Ran, all headed to the Taihu Lakefront a few kilometers away.
Li Ran picked up a bullhorn and, together with the other junior commanders, shouted to the Support Soldiers:
"See Taihu Lake? Your mission today is for every one of you to catch at least fifty-five pounds of fish—and the bigger, the better!"
"As for how you do it? That’s up to you!"
"Whether you use platform rigs, raft fishing, or Lure Fishing—hell, even just casting and dragging nets—as long as you can get the fish up, they’re not poisonous, and they’re edible, you can do it however you damn well please!"
After he finished, the more than eight thousand people gathered on the eastern shore of Taihu Lake erupted in a staggering cheer!
Hunting is an instinctive desire etched into humanity’s genes. Since fishing was one of the few things not completely forbidden in the age of peace, it naturally spawned a massive number of avid anglers.
Now, with open season on hunting...
Immediately, many set their sights on the vast number of abandoned electric scooters within the city, lining the roads and parked in residential complexes.
The batteries inside couldn’t take a scooter very far anymore, but they could still hold four or five kilowatt-hours of electricity.
As the saying goes: Two Lure Fishing rods, and your catch will reach the gods.
But release three kilowatt-hours into the lake, and the Buddha himself will grant you a hundred-pound take.
However, this method only worked in the shallow water near the shore. Ten-odd meters out, in depths of seven or eight meters, lurked massive fish weighing dozens or even hundreds of pounds...
And that’s when the angling teams took the stage.
After they had cleared out more than a dozen tackle shops, the spectacular scene of several thousand people fishing at once unfolded on the Taihu Lakefront.
Many were still faithfully manning their posts late into the night.
The catch piled up like a mountain outside the cafeteria...
In a single afternoon, they had acquired over a hundred tons of fresh fish.
Another thousand people had to be assigned to process it all as quickly as possible: slitting open the fish, gutting them, and salting them to be preserved and dried.
The cafeteria was soon filled with grilled fish, poached fish, and braised fish, covering every single table.
And this all-you-can-eat fish feast had everyone rubbing their stomachs and burping, shouting that they’d never eaten so well.
Unfortunately, for the next two weeks, the mere sight of any fish-based product would induce a powerful, physical sense of revulsion in everyone...
But it was also their only source of high-quality protein.
......
「Late at night」
Lin Feng gathered everyone to report on the situation.
That afternoon, Chen Yanyan had piloted the Land Patrol Battleship, leading the fleet to attack directly beyond the first line of defense. They continued to annihilate the Swarm hiding at the mouths of the Wormholes while simultaneously using shotgun cannons to blast and obliterate all surface-level openings, thus increasing the Zerg Race’s digging workload.
The goal was to keep them so busy repairing the Hive that they had no energy to expand.
During this period, the five thousand defenders from the second line of defense were also rotated out. They either boarded Tanks or entered the ruins of the Wu City East District to mop up the battlefield.
Their job was to take care of any stray, low-level Red-Armored Beetles and any heavily wounded but still living Black Spine Zergs, as well as to collect scattered materials.
After taking over the remnants of the Thirteenth Division, the new organizational structure, as planned by Lin Feng, had begun to take shape.
Aside from the command system composed of high-level members, the other Tier Two Awakeners would form the elite Tier Two Guard Corps, responsible for following Lin Feng to wage war inside the Hive.
Next were the five thousand defenders from the fortress line, who would serve as second-echelon Warriors. A portion of them was currently following Chen Yanyan’s fleet to strike the greater Swarm, with the goal of first raising their own Awakening Levels while simultaneously whittling down the Zerg Race’s living forces.
The remainder were responsible for cleaning up the battlefield and collecting Biological Materials from the Zerg Race corpses—especially the Giant Mandibles of the Black Spine Zergs.