Chapter 68 - 65: Strengthening the Base
Several people drove back under the surrounding wall, and Second Uncle and others on the wall had already seen the vehicles of Li Yu and his group.
Although seeing five vehicles raised some doubts, seeing Li Yu in the forefront
prompted them to come downstairs to open the gate.
Li Yu got out of the car and noticed that there were still a few scattered zombies around the wall,
although not enough to pose a significant threat, if the number of zombies were to increase.
If they were to go out one day and, upon returning, found many zombies surrounding them, it would be very difficult to re-enter.
Even after Li Yu realized this problem, he later added another gate behind the original one, as a double precaution.
However, if they returned and found more zombies, entering through the wall would still pose a great risk.
This problem must be resolved! Li Yu thought.
After getting out of the car, Li Yu first took care of the few zombies lingering around.
The gate opened.
Li Yu and others drove in.
Second Uncle and others skillfully closed the gate, then opened the second gate.
"Yu, why are there a few more cars this time?" Uncle asked.
"Just saw them near the driving school, they are new energy vehicles, quieter and easier to charge. We've already brought back a charging pile, I'll have Li Hang install it another day."
"By the way, today we also found some car repair equipment. Fourth Uncle used to work in a car repair shop, so it will come in handy."
Upon hearing this, Uncle was somewhat delighted. Then he followed the car to the warehouse.
After everyone had moved all the items off,
Li Yu called over his father and Second Uncle and others, proposing his idea of fortifying the base.
"Dad, you work in construction, give us some advice on how we could better fortify our base,
Every time we go out, we use these two gates, and it still feels a bit risky."
Li Hongyuan thought for a moment.
"How about building a Weng City? We could add a Weng City on top of the wall, then use reinforced concrete after laying the foundation!
It's convenient and fast, and if we want it to be even harder, we can add some steel plates inside. But this option is quite expensive... well, money doesn't matter much now."
Li Yu felt this was a good idea, so he sought opinions from others, and everyone agreed it was feasible.
However, there was a problem they now faced.
Cement, steel bars, the doors to use, where would they come from?
Thinking about this, Li Yu asked, "Dad, do you know where the nearest cement factory is? And where can we get steel bars from around here?"
Li Hongyuan replied: "Our own family also manufactures culverts. Before the apocalypse, we had just stocked up 5 tons of cement, but that's not nearly enough. Next town over has a Wan Nian Qing Cement branch, they have a lot. As for steel bars, there's a building materials market towards the outskirts in the southern part of the county..."
Hearing that these issues could be resolved, Li Yu breathed a sigh of relief.
The cargo trucks, along with the ones they drove back from outside, now resulted in several large trucks.
There were also two forklifts originally bought for handling cement culverts, which had always been at the base.
So they discussed a bit more, brainstorming together.
Everyone brought up ideas to address some vulnerabilities in the base.
Li Yu was very reassured seeing everyone working hard to improve the base.
Time slowly passed.
Dinner was ready, and after a busy day, Li Yu and the others were starving.
Today's meal: scrambled eggs with tomatoes, stir-fried carrots with bacon, stir-fried cabbage, spicy eggplant, and a seaweed soup.
Four dishes and one soup.
The communal dishes still tasted good.
The base wasn't heavily populated, but Li Yu had not only bought a massive amount of unhusked rice before but also stockpiled a lot of bacon, which could last a very long time.
Originally built breeding sheds still housed livestock like pigs, cows, and sheep.
The cows and sheep grazed on grass, as they had contracted over a hundred acres of forest initially.
Thus every day, the younger children in the family,
besides studying, also had to take out the cows and sheep to graze.
In addition to the yellow cattle, Li Yu had also specifically purchased a few milk-producing cows from a company in the neighboring county that specializes in producing high mountain green grass milk.
Besides the fruit trees in the forest, there were also some grasses.
His family had been leasing the Mountain Pond for many years.
Li Yu learned swimming in this Mountain Pond during his childhood.
Every summer, one could fish for crayfish in the Mountain Pond.
In autumn, when the water level was low, one could catch crabs in the many bubbling holes along the shore of the Mountain Pond.
After the apocalypse, Li Yu's Grandpa still maintained his previous lifestyle habits; he would go up the hill every day to cut some grass and throw it into the Mountain Pond.
The fish in the Mountain Pond were still plump, unlike those raised on fish feed which had large heads but small bodies.
Perhaps only the diligent older generation could raise such big fish.
Several thousand trees were planted in the forest, including the original navel orange trees, some decades-old pine trees, and many other types of fruit trees that Li Yu had transplanted initially.
...
After eating, Li Yu went to the forest where there was a small ditch between two mountains.
Above the Mountain Pond, the babbling water flowed downwards.
The stream was very small, just a trickle, but it continually flowed.
Li Yu had a thought, recalling the time he purchased photovoltaic equipment, he also considered other power generation equipment.
Thus, he bought a few sets of simple hydraulic power generating equipment, diesel generators...
But after installing solar photovoltaic panels in the forest, he found...
that with the current electricity usage, it was more than sufficient.
So, he simply did not install them.
Li Yu continued climbing the mountain, and there were some solar street lights installed along the road.
Under the street lights, Li Yu could see the road ahead clearly.
The stream flowed, the dim yellow street lights illuminated, and the forest in the distance was dark and dense.
Behind him was the plain, and in front were two mountains.
The evening breeze blew, and Li Yu felt completely relaxed.
He lay down on a large rock by the roadside.
Today the sun was quite hot, and the large rock still retained some warmth.
Through the warmth, Li Yu's muscles relaxed even further.
This made him think of more things:
The construction of the base, currently thinking of building a Weng City, along with some other minor details.
The base currently has less than 40 people. Although they are not lacking in firearms and weapons, if they were to expand,
how could they ensure that newly incorporated individuals would not upstage the original members?
But if they do not incorporate new members and a more powerful force learns of Li Yu's base and comes to seize it, what then?
Although Li Yu knew that many of the groups he encountered before his rebirth were actually not very large,
Li Yu had always struggled to survive before rebirth, and with the inconvenience of transportation after the apocalypse, he had not visited many places.
...
Shaking his head, he decided to leave this matter for later.
There will always be a solution to any problem.
If suitable and reliable candidates are encountered, he would not mind incorporating them.
However, caution is the priority, having seen too many groups
fall into internal strife due to blindly incorporating some members,
ultimately leading to mutual destruction.
He must take this as a warning! Li Yu sternly reminded himself.
...