#519 - Chapter 519: Inspecting the Oil Base

The airship had just landed and come to a stop.

Qin Jin glanced at his old subordinates, who appeared normal. He didn't detect any issues from their behavior or gazes, and even his own danger perception showed no signs of warning.

He was somewhat relieved.

"You've worked hard during this time."

"This isn't the place to talk. Take me to your office. I brought a lot of good things for you this time. Let's have a good get-together and chat!"

Cutting off their desire to exchange pleasantries there, he suggested moving to a better location to understand the situation here.

Just kidding.

It was over fifty degrees Celsius outside. Qin Jin could withstand it, but the others had ordinary constitutions. If they stood there any longer, they might get heatstroke.

The group didn't linger there. Except for some personnel who had to stay in the airship to guard it, the others returned to their posts after receiving their leader.

Passing through the higher inner walls, Qin Jin walked ahead, seemingly familiar with the place. The architectural style of the oil base was still similar to what it was when he had come before. The main changes were in the defense aspects.

After a while, everyone arrived at the office on the first floor.

It was still the same as before, with sofas and a coffee table in the middle.

It seemed that Wang Bin, the manager of the oil base, really liked this setup.

"Come on, tell me about your situation here! Although I've received recent updates from you via radio, it's still not as direct as talking face-to-face."

After Qin Jin sat on the sofa, he took the initiative to fiddle with the tea set and kettle on the table, looking like he was going to make tea himself.

"Don't be polite, I'll do it myself. You've worked hard here, so I should personally make you a pot of tea."

Stopping Wang Bin from coming over to make tea, Qin Jin signaled the two base cadres to start describing the development of the oil base during this time.

The two didn't insist and began to explain slowly.

Let's rewind to a few months ago.

Back then, the geomagnetic anomaly hadn't arrived yet, and the oil base was still carrying out daily production at a rate of about 10 tons of fuel oil per day.

It was considered to have initially met the headquarters' requirements.

Every few days, a transport convoy would take the refined fuel oil back to the headquarters base and bring back corresponding food and supplies.

However, after the geomagnetic anomaly appeared, many electronic devices malfunctioned. At that time, the fuel production here was briefly halted.

Fortunately, thanks to Qin Jin's advance warning, some precision instruments were wrapped in tin foil and aluminum foil, which prevented many devices from being damaged.

In addition, the oil base had absorbed many technical talents in this field from the outside, and production quickly recovered.

Then, it was a matter of steadily engaging in production while strengthening the defense here.

The outer walls, which were not originally intended to be heightened and reinforced, were slowly built up by people with the surplus manpower.

Because they found that more and more forces were coming from the outside to spy on this oil refining area!

"That's how it is. During that time, almost every few days, new forces would come to our side to inquire about the situation."

"Most of the survivors were wary of us and didn't dare to rob us openly. Those who didn't know our details at first and dared to mess around have been wiped out by Zhang's team."

"Now, as the reputation of the base headquarters spreads and becomes more and more prominent, almost no forces or scattered survivors outside dare to offend us. Instead, they propose to trade with us."

"According to your instructions, boss, we released a portion of the fuel oil produced to trade for the materials in their hands. For the time being, it's been peaceful."

Wang Bin was flattered to receive a cup of tea that Qin Jin had just made and repeatedly thanked him.

Qin Jin waved his hand, signaling him to continue.

"Also, there's the Zhushi Shelter. Now, their relationship with us here is very harmonious. We can't accept too many scattered survivors' material transactions, so we transferred the needs of these scattered survivors to them, allowing the Zhushi Shelter to earn some price difference."

That was indeed the case.

Qin Jin had never fully opened up recruitment at the oil base, to prevent it from turning against the headquarters and taking over. He had basically kept the number of people under control at about one-tenth of the headquarters' total.

That was about one hundred and fifty people.

Most of them needed to engage in fuel oil production, and the rest had to defend the oil base. There really weren't many extra people to deal with the swarms of survivors from the outside.

Therefore, Qin Jin agreed to directly trade some of the fuel oil produced to some forces that came looking for it.

This prevented them from besieging the oil base and allowed them to use their manpower to obtain some needed resources. It was simply a win-win situation.

As for those scattered survivors, their base number was even larger.

If they were refused fuel oil, it might not be a problem in the short term, but sooner or later, something would happen in the long run.

Prevention is better than cure.

So, after Qin Jin and the base cadres held a meeting and discussed it, they decided to hand over the task of dealing with these scattered survivors to the Zhushi Shelter, which was in its honeymoon period with the oil base.

They had a large number of people, with several branches adding up to thousands.

It was much easier to deal with these survivors who came to get fuel oil.

After negotiating the transaction ratio with the Zhushi Shelter, they only needed to compile and integrate the materials needed by Green Source, and the oil base would pay for the fuel oil uniformly.

By the way, the Zhushi Shelter could earn a price difference, which was a win-win situation for everyone.

"Boss, that's roughly the situation. Currently, things are relatively stable here. Many forces outside know that our headquarters is Green Source and don't dare to act rashly. The Zhushi Shelter is also happy to help us deal with those scattered people."

Wang Bin and Zhang Tiankai's narration roughly ended here.

Qin Jin had also learned about the situation of the oil base again during this time.

It wasn't bad.

At that time, he just wanted to have his own base to obtain fuel oil steadily and continuously, so he started planning the Zhushi Oil Refining Area from the peaceful era, and he successfully took it down after the apocalypse.

As for the many complex things that followed, he really hadn't considered so many of them.

He was just taking things one step at a time, meeting soldiers with generals and water with earth.

The guns and cannons deployed in the oil base were not for show.

"I won't say any more words of thanks. Next, I will continue to trouble you to provide more blood for the development of our headquarters here!"

"This time, I brought two tons of grain and vegetables, as well as various daily necessities, and several water purification equipment. Everyone should know that it is unusually dry outside now, and I don't know how long it will last."

"You can obtain purified water here by the sea by evaporating seawater. Having more equipment is also safer."

Qin Jin briefly introduced some of the materials he brought this time.

As the drought continues to worsen, the convoy may not even be able to travel back and forth later, so it is indeed necessary to make some preparations here as well.

After saying this, he once again said to the two cadres:

"Alright, now that we've talked about these things, take me around the entire oil base."

(End of chapter)