Chapter 950: Hometown is still so friendly

Chi-

Half an hour later, a dusty military jeep covered with yellow-brown mud, with a sharp brake sound, suddenly stopped in front of the entrance of the 76th Corps' temporary security zone built of sandbags and barbed wire.

The car door opened and retired Captain Zhang Ziming jumped out with a slightly stiff smile.

Almost at the same time, the retired veterans of the 77th Army Corps, who had been standing guard with guns and tense expressions beside the modified convoy, immediately surrounded them and spoke with concern like bullets:

"Captain! Are you okay?"

"Captain! Where did they take you? Did you see the leader of the 76th Army?"

"What did the commander say? Do we still need to surrender our guns?"

.....

Looking at the faces filled with worry and tension, Zhang Ziming felt a surge of warmth in his heart. Just as he was about to speak to comfort them -

"Dear comrades!"

A clear and apologetic voice sounded before him. Major Staff Officer Su Xunyun got out of the car right after him. With just the right amount of shame and sincerity on his face, he quickly stepped forward and saluted the veterans solemnly:

"I'm so sorry! What happened just now was entirely due to our unit's negligence, which led to such a big misunderstanding and unpleasantness!"

He swept his eyes over the crowd and said in a firm tone: "The head of the corps has personally ordered that I will be fully responsible for the follow-up matters! Please rest assured that the violators involved will be severely punished and will not be tolerated!"

He paused, then adopted a gentler, more sincere tone: "You are all veterans who have shed blood and made contributions for the country. Speaking of which, we are all from the same Western Theater, which means we are brothers who are connected by bones! Please, for the sake of being a fellow soldier, forget the previous unpleasantness and give our 76th Corps a chance to make amends, okay?"

After the words were spoken, the veterans looked at each other, with doubts still in their eyes, but their hostility had obviously diminished a lot.

They didn't say anything, but they all turned their eyes to their backbone - Zhang Ziming.

Zhang Ziming faced these inquiring gazes, although he was also wondering in his heart... that Commander Gao did not personally promise anything...

But the staff officer Su in front of him was sincere and humble, and the other party was the head of the corps and a personal staff officer... He wouldn't set up such a big trap just for their equipment and a few broken cars, right? The cost was too high.

Thinking of this, Zhang Ziming nodded slowly in the face of everyone's gaze. This nod seemed to have relaxed the veterans' tense nerves.

Once the trust was reestablished, the wariness quickly dissipated. The tension on their faces gradually dissipated, replaced by a sense of relief that "family members are indeed trustworthy".

Seeing this group of veterans happily and even a little embarrassedly put down their weapons, Su Xunyun's eyes quickly flashed with an indescribable complex emotion...

There was struggle and helplessness, but in the end, they were all covered by a cold, unshakable sense of "duty", turning into a rock-hard firmness.

"OK OK!"

Staff Officer Su's face was instantly filled with a warm smile, as if the slightest bit of strangeness just now had never existed: "Let's go! Don't hang around here. I'll arrange for the brothers to go to the safe zone and have a good rest! It's already so late, I'm sure you're all starving!"

He greeted her without hesitation, his tone was full of intimacy that could not be refused:

"I'll order the canteen to open fire and prepare a proper hot meal for the brothers! Eat and drink to your heart's content, and have a good sleep! In this damn apocalypse, it's a great fate to be able to meet you alive! Tonight, I, as the host, must entertain you all! No one can refuse, this is the chief's order!"

Driven by his enthusiasm, everyone climbed back into their modified cars in a daze.

Military jeeps driven by the security zone guards cleared the way with short whistles blaring, and the route was unimpeded as they drove straight in, leaving behind the survivors who were still queuing at the entrance and undergoing strict inspection.

Sitting in the bumpy carriage, the veterans looked out the window at the survivors shivering in the cold wind with numb eyes or full of envy, and a subtle warm current of feeling mixed with a sense of privilege and being valued quietly grew.

"Tsk tsk, the guards are leading the way, what a grand ceremony... this is the first time in my life that I can enjoy the treatment of a big leader!"

"Hey, I told you, one bad apple doesn't spoil the whole barrel! The 76th Army is still our old unit and is reliable! For us retired veterans, there is really nothing to say!"

"Alas, I don't know how Lao Wang, Lao Li and the others who went to Jincheng and Wuwei to visit their relatives are doing now..."

In the front passenger seat, Su Xunyun had been listening the whole time. When he heard the old soldier in the back row muttering, he suddenly became interested. He turned slightly to the side with a natural inquiry on his face:

"Oh? Are there other brothers? You are not the only ones who retreated from the 77th Army and came to our Gansu Province?"

The veteran being asked was immersed in the warmth of "coming home" and the feeling of being valued by the "chief". He was so fond of this "Staff Officer Su" that he blurted out without even thinking:

"Report to the Chief..." As soon as the words came out, Su Xunyun smiled and waved his hand to interrupt:

"Hey! Stop! I've already told you, why call me Chief? That's too strange! We are all brothers, and you guys have retired. There is no superior-subordinate relationship here today! I am a few years older than you, so you can just call me Brother Su, it will sound so comfortable!"

These kind words flowed directly into the hearts of several veterans like a warm current. They looked at each other, their eyes full of emotion and touched that "the troops in my hometown are still humane".

"Okay, Brother Su!" The crew-haired old soldier grinned and said, "When we were discharged from Shengwu County, Shu Province, the 77th Corps divided us into groups according to our hometown provinces and cities, so that we could take care of each other on the road and have a better chance of survival. In total, there were about fifty brothers who finally set foot on the territory of Gansu Province alive!"

"But after entering the province, everyone wanted to go to different places. Some went to Jincheng, some went to Tianshui, and some went to Zhangye and Jiuquan... Now, they have gradually dispersed."

"Oh...so that's how it is." Su Xunyun nodded as if he suddenly understood something and turned his body back to the front.

In the dim light in the car, an imperceptible, cold and sharp light flashed in his eyes behind the lenses.

...

And, right now