Chapter 1103 Operation Clear 2

"set off!"

The voice of Zhao Jie, commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade of Yezhou, rang out and was transmitted to every vehicle via radio.

The next moment, a torrent of steel flowed!

The leading armored vehicle drove out of the airport first and rolled over the temporary paved road.

Immediately afterwards, one military vehicle after another followed in an orderly manner like a torrent of water, dividing into several groups along the main road and heading towards the wilderness outside the gathering place, shrouded in morning mist and the unknown!

buzzing-

The wheels kicked up dust and the roar of the engine was deafening.

The convoy stretched for miles, majestic and imposing, like a giant steel python leaving its lair and pouncing on its prey.

The survivors watched in silence until the taillights of the convoy disappeared around the corner of the road and the roar gradually faded away. Many people were still in shock for a long time.

The air was filled with the smell of gunpowder and dust, and a complex emotion called "hope" and "awe" was quietly growing.

.....

The actions of the 1st Infantry Brigade of Yezhou perfectly illustrate what a rapid assault by "motorized infantry" is.

Their goal was clear: according to Du Yuming's plan, they would use companies and platoons as units to comb out all known threats and potential forces within a 50-kilometer radius around Gucheng Lake like a comb.

..

About 20 kilometers away from the Gucheng Lake gathering place, Qixia Mountain Shelter

The gathering place is located in the Qixia Mountain Scenic Area and surrounding areas in the eastern suburbs of Jinling City. In the early days of the apocalypse, some survivors (including former scenic area staff, teachers and students from the nearby university town, and some fleeing citizens) relied on the relatively easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack terrain of Qixia Mountain, some stored materials in the scenic area (such as food reserves in temples and hotel inventories), and mountain streams to establish the initial shelter.

After nearly a year of development in the last days, merging with surrounding small groups and absorbing refugees, it has grown to its current size of about 5,000 people.

The management team is mainly composed of former local street office officials, scenic area managers, several retired military and police officers, and leaders who later rose to power through force or technology.

In the core management area, inside an antique building of the original scenic area, in a smoke-filled conference room, seven or eight senior executives of the gathering place sat around a long mahogany table in a solemn atmosphere.

Leading the group was Sun Deming, the former director of the subdistrict office and current chairman of the gathering place management committee. He was a man in his fifties with thinning hair and shrewd eyes.

"Everyone saw and heard what happened yesterday afternoon." Sun Deming knocked on the table and said in a deep voice:

"So many big planes, coming from the north, heading... roughly southwest. Tell me, what do you think?"

"What else can we see? They are definitely heading for Gucheng Lake!" A burly man with a face full of flesh and a gold chain around his neck said in a rough voice. He is Lei Bao, the captain in charge of the armed forces.

"They've been building the airport for a while now. Now the planes are coming. They must be reinforcements!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a middle-aged man wearing glasses, who was formerly a university professor, pushed his glasses and said cautiously:

"Captain Lei's words make sense. The news of the arrival of regular troops at Gucheng Lake has been circulating for quite some time. They built the airport specifically to receive airlifted supplies and personnel. Logically, these planes are most likely headed for Gucheng Lake."

"Regular army? Humph!" A man with a gloomy face and wearing a washed-out security uniform snorted coldly. He was the former security captain of the scenic area and is now in charge of internal discipline.

"Old Liu, don't be so naive. The Eastern Theater was quite formal back then, wasn't it? Didn't they just leave without saying goodbye, leaving us here to fend for ourselves?"

When he mentioned this, one could clearly feel the strong personal emotions in his tone, like an abandoned woman with deep resentment.

"Now suddenly there's this 'Zhongzhou War Zone', who knows who they are? Maybe they're just some defeated stragglers, using this as a pretext to deceive people! Are all these transport planes coming for Nanjing? I doubt it!"

This remark instantly resonated with many people present. A fat woman in charge of logistics spoke worriedly:

"President Sun, everyone, we have to think about ourselves. If we really defect to the army, can we still keep the little power we have?" She lowered her voice.

"What kind of lives are those people living? What kind of lives are we living? Without power, what difference will our fate be? Maybe it will be even worse!"

The fat woman's words undoubtedly touched upon everyone's deepest fear.

In the end times, power means the priority distribution of survival resources and security. Losing power means the possibility of returning to a precarious situation or even being liquidated.

Another former government official, who had remained silent until then, added timidly, "Also... in order to maintain order here, we have to do some things... which wouldn't be justifiable according to the old rules..."

He didn't dare say it explicitly, but everyone present understood that for the sake of stability, resource allocation, and suppressing resistance, their hands were more or less stained with some "dirty" things. According to the laws before the end of the world, those present would be sentenced to life imprisonment at the very least.

Therefore, what they are most worried about when the army arrives is that they will be "retaliated against later."

As for order, they are very satisfied with the current order and do not want any more changes.

So much so that some people present even prayed in their hearts that the army of Gucheng Lake was just a facade and that it would be all talk and no action.

However, the bad-tempered Lei Bao became impatient and slammed the table:

"What are you afraid of?! They just arrived and are unfamiliar with the place. How capable can they be? So many people in the Eastern Theater Command couldn't handle the mess in Jinling City back then, so how can they do it?"

"I think we should wait and see how long this storm lasts! Maybe their logistics can't keep up, and they'll collapse soon!"

"Wait and see? I'm afraid they won't give us time to wait and see!" Professor Liu, the man with glasses, retorted:

"If they are truly a powerful legitimate force, sweeping the surrounding area with lightning speed and integrating resources is inevitable. If we want to remain unscathed, I'm afraid..."

...

For a while, the entire conference room was filled with endless debate. Some advocated cautious contact, some were firmly opposed to surrendering, and some, like Lei Bao, were confident in their military strength and were ready to fight head-on.

Some people firmly believed that the planes were reinforcements for Gucheng Lake, while others were still hoping for the best and were unwilling to believe that Gucheng Lake had such a powerful backing.

And just as the argument was going on and the atmosphere was becoming increasingly tense—

Woo-woo-woo-!