The off-road vehicle continued to drive slowly along the cement road. After a few minutes, Fan Haizhou pointed to Liu Shiba not far ahead:
"Look, our gathering place is ahead."
Liu Shiba came back from his thoughts and looked up, and couldn't help but be startled, because in his imagination, the core settlement mentioned by Fan Haizhou was mostly composed of a group of slightly better and larger tents.
But at a glance, Liu Shiba didn't see the tent areas on both sides of the road. Instead, what caught his eye was a huge wall that looked very thick and nearly ten meters high. What was behind the wall? Sitting in an off-road vehicle, Liu Shiba looked at it from the outside
Can't see it at all.
"It seems like this gathering place is quite large, doesn't it?"
Liu Shiba's dull mood improved slightly and he asked with interest.
Seeing Liu Shiba's interest, Fan Haizhou couldn't help laughing and said:
"Originally, I didn't quite believe you when you told me that you had lost your memory, but now I do."
Liu Shiba rolled his eyes and asked curiously: "Why do you say that?"
Fan Haizhou pointed to the tall wall in front and explained:
"You really know nothing about everything now. You see, the wall is very high, right? But let me tell you, among the several gathering places I know, ours is the smallest and weakest.
.”
Liu Shiba was stunned, pointed at the tented area behind the off-road vehicle, and then pointed at the huge wall in front of him and said strangely:
"On this scale, is it still the smallest one? I think there are quite a lot of people."
Fan Haizhou smiled bitterly, nodded and explained:
"It is indeed the smallest one. This gathering place, including the tent area outside, has a population of less than 30,000.
In these days, how many people can be gathered together to feed means how strong it is, and when everyone in our gathering place is trying to support themselves, we can only survive for 10,000 people at most."
Liu Shiba picked his forehead and said in surprise:
"Only enough for 10,000 people to survive? Then why do you say the population is less than 30,000? How can the extra 20,000 people survive?"
Hearing Liu Shiba's question, Fan Haizhou's face turned gloomy, and he sighed before saying:
"There are only 10,000 people inside the wall, and those who are qualified to live there are those with some ability and strength. There are 20,000 people who are not qualified to live inside the wall, which is the huge tent area you just saw built along the road.
"
This place was originally a small industrial town with a population of less than 3,000. I was born here. Later, it was occupied by an army that was defeated here and a temporary gathering place was established.
Because this place is far away from densely populated big cities, huge zombie groups rarely affect this area. Later, after decades of development, the population gradually increased, and it took a huge amount of manpower and material resources for more than ten years to build this huge wall.
wall.
But as far as I know, there are several larger and larger population gathering places hundreds of kilometers away, ranging from hundreds of thousands of people to the largest ones with more than a million people."
"A population of one million? How do they live in this world with nothing?"
Liu Shiba opened his mouth in surprise and said in confusion.
Fan Haizhou looked at Liu Shiba and explained with a smile:
"Perhaps, they have developed a piece of land suitable for planting after the nuclear explosion. In addition to the most basic self-sufficiency, it also depends on the ability of the leadership of the gathering place. Otherwise, it is impossible to gather a million people with huge walls alone.
of."
Liu Shiba pointed at the wall and said to Fan Haizhou:
"There are tents set up everywhere inside the wall just like outside, right? But with the protection of the wall, I feel more at ease."
Fan Haizhou was stunned when he heard this, and after a long time he smiled bitterly and said:
"There are two worlds inside and outside, one is heaven and the other is hell. There are nobles inside and untouchables outside."
Liu Shiba asked curiously:
"Do the people living inside not care about the life and death of the tented areas outside?"
Fan Haizhou shook his head helplessly and said:
"The people who manage the gathering place now are no longer the troops who were stationed there in the first place. Over the past few decades, the dynasties have changed. The huge power will make people forget their original appearance and become greedy and shameless.
However, as long as people stay within the gathering place and do not break the rules set by the gathering place, especially if they do not challenge the authority of the management, generally speaking, no one will cause trouble."
Liu Shiba nodded, no longer asking about this or that, but turned to pay attention to the huge wall.
The wall is about ten meters high, with gaps at the top like stacks of walls. Every hundred meters there is a bastion that protrudes two or three meters outside the wall. Soldiers wearing uniform camouflage uniforms can be vaguely seen on duty.
The bastions are probably equipped with heavy weapons such as heavy machine guns. Each bastion can attack in three directions and respond to each other.
Outside the wall, the only building within the wall that Liu Shiba could see was a huge chimney emitting thick smoke.
When Fan Haizhou saw Liu Shiba noticing the chimney, he introduced him:
"As I said before, this place is an industrial town, and the only industry in this town is the small arsenal that manufactured standard guns customized by the military at that time, as well as bullets.
Right now, this arsenal is the core of the entire gathering place. All the guns and ammunition bought and sold in the gathering place are all produced by the arsenal.
As long as someone has the ability to go out and obtain bone drills, most of the bone drills will be used to buy firearms and bullets, leaving a small amount to buy necessary rations. In this world, having weapons and food means that a person has the right to survive.
.”
When Liu Shiba heard this explanation, he thought about it secretly, then looked at Fan Haizhou and said softly:
“Can I understand that adventurers who have access to guns and ammunition and go out to hunt and obtain bone drills also enjoy the power of being exploited by others?
And the only people who can sit back and enjoy the delicacies of mountains and seas without doing anything are the so-called leaders who have actual rights to occupy, manufacture, and buy and sell the arsenal?”
Fan Haizhou did not answer whether this question was right or wrong, but there was a hint of helplessness and sadness in his eyes...
Behind the envious looks of many people in the tent area, these people driving off-road vehicles and carrying automatic rifles are actually the ones who are most exploited.
In the eyes of the powerful people in the gathering place, small teams like Fan Haizhou are nothing more than tools for obtaining bone drills. They are not only exploited for their time and hard work, but more cruelly, their lives are exploited.
……………………
In a blink of an eye, the off-road vehicle drove near the city gate entrance under the city wall. Xiao Zhong, who was driving, turned to Fan Haizhou and said:
"Brother, let's stop here, right? We have to throw this guy with cerebral palsy out of the car here and let him survive in the hut area.
If we pay a price to bring him into the city, he will be a burden, and we can't afford to support such a big idler just waiting for food and drink."
Fan Haizhou frowned, looked at Liu Shiba strangely and asked:
"Do you have anything to support yourself? If you really don't have anything, I will only take you to the city for two days to watch the excitement, and you will be discovered and kicked out in the end."
Liu Shiba bulged his eyes, raised his finger and pointed at himself:
"Of course I have the ability, I can read Feng Shui, eh! I can also read faces, palmistry..."
In the car, Fan Haizhou, Xiao Zhong, Zhang Sheng, and Zhou Haiping looked at Liu Shiba with their faces full of dementia.
Finally, Fan Haizhou gritted his teeth and asked:
"It is said that this profession has been extinct for a long time - the magic stick?"
