#1834 - Open up the tunnel! (5300 words long chapter)

Gather all the current food and supply it to five people.

The question now is, which five people to choose?

After hearing Chang Yichang's words, everyone looked at each other.

Chang Yichang continued:

"After these five people have enough food, they will dig at the bottom, break through the ice and snow, and head to the trading market."

"Digging through the ice and snow consumes a lot of energy, so you have to be in good physical condition. You will have to walk five kilometers to the trading market, and you may encounter zombies on the way, so combat capabilities are also required."

Under these two premises, the range of personnel selection suddenly becomes much smaller.

The advantage for people who carry out this task is that they can eat their fill temporarily, but the disadvantage is that it will be very tiring, as they have to dig through the ice and snow day and night.

Moreover, there was snow everywhere outside, and because the trading market was very popular, they might encounter zombies on the way and might die on the way.

"I'm willing to go." Biaozi was the first to raise his hand.

Chang Yichang looked at Biaozi and nodded, "Count you in, who else is willing to go?"

"I'll go too." Shunfeng threw a piece of firewood into the middle of the fire and said in a muffled voice.

"good."

Liu Guodong and Zhao Dongbao looked at each other and said in unison: "I'll go too."

"Four."

Chang Yichang thought for a moment and then looked towards Nanshan and said, "Nanshan."

Nanshan looked up, thinking that the boss wanted him to go too.

Unexpectedly, Chang Yichang said, "After the snow below is dug through, you will lead everyone, and I will go to the market with them."

"Oh, okay." Nanshan felt a little disappointed, but relieved at the same time.

There are pros and cons to carrying out this mission, and he was struggling with that just now, but now he doesn't have to worry about it anymore, as the boss has made the final decision.

Chang Yichang looked at everyone and continued:

"Others should still follow the minimum food ration. We are all on the same page now. Only by working together can we get through this difficult time. We have no other way out now. If we stay here, we will only starve to death. Instead of starving to death, we might as well give it a try. Maybe we can still have a chance to find a way out."

Ding Meng nodded and said:

"Boss is right, this is all for everyone. I support your decision!"

“I support that too!”

"I agree."

Chang Yichang was delighted to see that everyone agreed with his decision. Although their team was small, they were very united.

"Let's get started now without delay. The sooner we dig through the ice and snow, the sooner we can get out."

“Shunfeng, take these two tortillas and cook them. After we finish eating, everyone can start working!”

Chang Yichang took out two tortillas from his backpack and handed them to Shunfeng.

These two tortillas were given to them by the people at the trading market. They have never been willing to eat them. There are only two left out of the fifty tortillas given to them.

Two tortillas were not enough for more than thirty people.

When they saw the tortillas, everyone's eyes lit up.

Sister Wang looked at her daughter in her arms, then looked at the two tortillas, and seemed to be hesitant to speak.

The key reason why their team can be so united is that Chang Yichang is able to be relatively fair.

Everyone has a basic food ration, and the greater the contribution, the more food.

At the same time, Chang Yichang would often take out part of his own food to subsidize some weak people in the team. Influenced by him, those who contributed more and received more food would also take out part of their food to give to the weak.

Behind absolute fairness, there is also full of human care.

He did this so that no one in the entire team had any complaints.

It's impossible to say that you are hungry and ask for more food when it is distributed, right?

It’s this time of year, who wouldn’t be hungry?

Shunfeng got another small piece of brown bear meat and cut it on the tree stump with a sharp dagger.

The tortilla was also divided into several pieces. After cutting, he did not even leave out the crumbs on the wooden stake, and poured them all into the boiling hot water in the iron pot.

Aunt Gollum.

The hot water is bubbling, softening the tortillas and meat slices.

Shunfeng stirred the iron pot with a dagger, and the fragrant food entered the nose of everyone in the room.

Gulp gulp!

Many people stared at the food in the iron pot, wishing they could eat it immediately.

But they couldn't, because the food was prepared for those who were going to go down and dig the ice and snow.

They were so hungry that they couldn't do any heavy work without eating something to fill their stomachs.

soon.

The meat slices and tortillas in the iron pot were cooked into a paste. Chang Yichang took out a wooden spoon and distributed the food into five iron cans one spoonful at a time.

He even scraped the bottom of the iron pot with a wooden spoon and scooped it into the iron can.

Originally, he wanted to get some water to rinse the iron pot, wash the food off the wooden spoon, and pour the water into the iron can.

But after seeing the looks of the people around him, he gave up.

"These five cans, you choose first."

Biaozi took a can without hesitation, and without caring about the scalding heat, he wolfed down the paste.

But when he just scooped it out of the pot, the paste was too hot, so hot that his tongue stretched out and he subconsciously wanted to spit it out.

But the food was too precious, so he forced himself to swallow the hot paste in his mouth.

Then he opened his mouth and took big gulps of cold air, "It's so hot, it's burning me to death."

Shunfeng and others nearby silently took away a can of food that belonged to them.

Seeing that everyone was looking at the food in their hands with eager expressions, Shunfeng sighed and said, "Why don't I share some with everyone?"

"no."

Before he could finish his words, Ding Meng said with a firm look in his eyes:

"We've distributed it to everyone, but we're still hungry. Just like the boss said, we need to focus on doing big things. We can hold on. You'll have to do hard labor later. How can you have the energy to work if you don't have enough to eat? We've all been hungry for so long, so we can afford to wait a little longer."

"That's right, hurry up and eat, this is what you deserve," Nanshan added.

Seeing everyone like this, Shunfeng, Biaozi and others instantly felt a huge pressure.

This is food that everyone shares. They are just as hungry as I am.

Now everyone is enduring hunger and pinning their hopes on them.

Shunfeng was in mixed feelings. He didn't dare to look at everyone's eyes. He lowered his head and ate all the food in the jar mouthful by mouthful.

Chang Yichang also picked up the last can of food, pointed at the spoon and the unwashed iron pot and said:

"Nanshan, boil some hot water, rinse the spoons, and share some soup with everyone."

When everyone heard the boss say this, their eyes lit up instantly.

At least I can drink the soup. Even though it's too watery, at least I can taste it.

It’s much better than just watching Shunfeng and the others eat.

Nanshan got up, got some snow, and put it in the iron pot to melt.

"I haven't felt this comfortable in a long time." After finishing a full can of corn and pork porridge, Biaozi moaned softly, feeling that he was finally alive.

I felt extremely hungry, my whole body was weak, my legs were weak when I walked, and my hands and feet were cold.

Now he could clearly feel that the food he had eaten was being converted into calories needed by his body, and his body was slowly becoming stronger.

Warm.

Only his tongue and the roof of his mouth had just been burned by the boiling porridge and they still hurt a little.

Seeing that Shunfeng and Biaozi had finished eating, Chang Yichang said:

"Let's split into two groups. Biaozi and Shunfeng, you two will go down first and start digging."

"In an hour, it will be our turn."

"good."

Biaozi licked the food residue in the jar clean with his tongue, stood up, stretched his arms, and walked downstairs with a shovel in hand.

Shunfeng also took an engineer shovel. This military multifunctional engineer shovel is Liu Guodong's treasure. It can be folded twice, and the handle is a triangular streamlined shape. It has the functions of a shovel, pickaxe, crowbar (thorn), saw and knife.

In the production process, we use high-quality quenched high-carbon steel, which is resistant to wear, corrosion and high temperature.

Liu Guodong found it on a zombie's corpse in the third year after the apocalypse. When he discovered this engineer shovel, he was extremely happy.

This thing can be used as a knife to chop zombies, it can also be used to dig up roots in the mountains and forests to find edible root foods, and it can also be used as a saw to cut down trees.

In order to dig out the ice and snow, Liu Guodong took the initiative to lend it to Shunfeng.

Shunfeng waved the engineer shovel in his hand twice, and Liu Guodong next to him walked over and said, "No need to fold it, just fix it in this place."

"I know how to use it." Shunfeng took the engineer shovel from Liu Guodong and said with a smile:

"This thing has a simple structure and I know how to use it."

Liu Guodong couldn't help but said, "Then be careful, don't break it."

This is a treasure he has used for several years. He usually takes it out to wipe and maintain it from time to time.

"Brother, let's go down then." Shunfeng said holding the engineer shovel.

"Wait a minute."

Chang Yichang reminded them: "When you dig, you must dig out a slope. You can't just dig forward blindly, otherwise we will never be able to get up."

"I know." Shunfeng nodded.

After saying that, he and Biaozi went downstairs.

When passing by the third floor, Shunfeng and Biaozi deliberately avoided the corpses as they couldn't bear to see them.

Second floor.

There were a lot of ice lumps frozen inside, which were their excrement over the past period of time.

Even though it was frozen, it still smelled terrible.

Shunfeng and Biaozi covered their noses and hurried down to the first floor.

Ding Dong!

Biaozi threw the shovel in his hand to the ground casually and said to Shunfeng:

"Let's open the door first."

"Um."

Shunfeng also put the engineer shovel on the ground and walked forward to pull out the chain on it.

"Come and pull it open together."

The two of them grabbed the handrails and pulled back with all their might.

They opened and closed this door frequently, and although the back was frozen, it was not completely frozen.

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As the two men pulled, the door was suddenly opened, and outside the door was a layer of white ice, with ice covering the entire length of the door.

Frozen very solidly.

Originally these were also accumulated snow, but under the pressure of gravity from above, they gradually hardened over time and finally formed ice.

Biaozi spat twice on his hands, rubbed them, picked up the shovel and started working.

Click, click, click!

Ice fragments flew everywhere. The indoor temperature was already relatively low, still more than 50 degrees below zero. Soon, Biaozi's palms were full of ice fragments, and his hands were shaking with cold.

"I'm freezing to death!" Biaozi threw the shovel in his hand to the ground.

He shook off the ice chips on his hands and put them under his armpits to warm them.

After a long pause, he took out a pair of gloves from his pocket and put them on.

Shunfeng next to him had already put on gloves. Not only that, he also wore a mask to prevent the ice fragments from splashing onto his face and then sliding down his neck and under his clothes.

Click, click!

The two men, one on the left and one on the right, continued to hit the ice hard.

The ice cubes are frozen very hard, and the current temperature is actually not much different from that of a natural refrigerator, or even colder than a refrigerator.

The sounds of the two people hitting the ice alternated with each other, forming a sense of rhythm.

Half an hour later.

They looked at the ice layer that was less than half a meter deep and felt like crying but had no tears.

It’s so damn hard!

If they hadn't eaten the food just now, they would probably have fainted from exhaustion.

Tap tap tap——

There was a sound of footsteps behind them; it was Chang Yichang and his two companions coming down.

Chang Yichang was quite satisfied after seeing their progress.

"At this rate, we will be able to dig up in less than a day. There is still snow on the top and only ice below. The digging will get faster and faster as we go on."

"That's still fast, brother? This is so tiring!" Biaozi took off his mask and said while exhaling white mist.

"We spent so much time destroying it and only managed to destroy half a meter."

Chang Yichang smiled and said, "It's already much faster than I thought. The ice layer is not that easy to break through."

As he said this, he walked forward, looked at the ice behind him and said, "It might be easier to break the ice if we use the spear together. After we make a hole, we can use the shovel to extend it around, which will be faster."

"I'll get it." Liu Guodong, who was behind him, heard Chang Yichang's words, then said this and hurried upstairs.

In less than a minute, he came down carrying two of the thickest spears.

This spear is three centimeters wide and has an extremely sharp tip. It is a weapon that is more suitable for stabbing zombies to death in the apocalypse.

Biaozi took it and used it for a while, "Brother, it's really useful. Hey!"

Whoosh——

"I can't do it anymore, someone come and replace me." Shunfeng said to Chang Yichang behind him, breathing heavily.

Digging and breaking the ice is hard work and extremely physically demanding.

You must use force every time you hit the ice, otherwise the weak force will not be able to break the ice, which is equivalent to not hitting it at all.

Shunfeng and his friends had been hungry for too long. Even though they had just eaten a can of food, their physical fitness could not be compared to their peak state.

Chang Yichang saw that Shunfeng was not pretending to be tired, so he stepped forward and said:

"Let me do it. You take a break."

He took the engineer shovel from Shunfeng and started digging with Biaozi.

bite!

The first time the engineer shovel hit the hard ice, the reaction force of the ice made his hands tremble slightly.

It’s not that easy after all!

He endured the numbness in his hands and punched the ice again and again.

After a few minutes, Biaozi was breathing heavily, indicating that he could not bear it anymore.

Liu Guodong took over.

They did not follow the previously agreed rotation of one person per hour and a half. Instead, whoever could not hold on would withdraw and take a rest.

Breaking ice at a high density requires a lot of strength, which is similar to the feeling of the brain being deprived of oxygen after running at full speed for five kilometers.

What's more, their physical condition is not very good now. If they continue to break the ice for a little longer, they will feel dizzy, see stars, and feel dizzy.

After they smashed out a one-meter width, they began to smash upwards at a forty-five-degree angle.

If you smash it vertically, when you reach the highest point, it will be difficult to use force and it will be difficult to keep in position.

So even if they have to hammer a longer distance, they have to create a slope.

Time passes slowly.

They didn't know how many rotations they had.

"It should be about three meters, right?" Chang Yichang stood up from the moisture-proof mat and gestured the length.

"Almost done, boss. I feel dizzy. I have digested the can of food I just ate." Biaozi said, holding on to the container board.

Chang Yichang looked at his watch and realized that they had been smashing things for five hours.

They were very fast at the beginning, but they became slower and slower as time went on.

Even after smashing the ice for a long time, my whole hands were shaking.

"You guys go up and have something to eat first, and then come down and replace us." Chang Yichang looked at the ice in front of him and said, "We will try to break through this ice today!"

Shunfeng nodded and said, "Okay, big brother, Biaozi and I will go up first and come down later."

"Go ahead."

After the two men left, Chang Yichang stepped forward, took over their tools, and started breaking the ice with Zhao Dongbao.

Night falls quietly.

They had been working on it for twelve hours and had broken through nearly 6 meters.

Almost every one or two hours, they had to eat something to have the strength to continue working.

The corridor was dark, so they brought torches to light it.

Wipe, wipe, wipe!

Shunfeng dug out snow with his shovel. He shouted excitedly to the back:

"Brother, we have shoveled the snow and cleared all the ice."

"Great!" Chang Yichang walked over excitedly.

Joy flashed in his eyes. "It's already three o'clock in the morning. It will be daybreak in three hours. Let's get through before daybreak so that we can go directly to the trading market during the day."

They have reached the end of their rope. The sooner they go to the trading market, the better chance they have of finding a chance to survive while they still have strength.

If it is delayed too long, they will become even more exhausted, and by that time they will not be able to walk, and will not be able to resist the zombies at all if they encounter them.

"continue!"

Seeing hope, Biaozi, who was about to give up, became energetic again.

Digging violently into the snow.

Although the snow on top is somewhat solidified, it is much easier to dig than the ice below.

There are some frozen ice blocks mixed in the snow, just like when you dig in the sand, you will hit the stones in the sand.

Two hours later, they extended the corridor from six meters to eighteen meters.

Logically speaking, the thickness of the snow outside is only about 11 or 12 meters at most.

Their angle is correct, they should be able to reach the top.

Because the snow has been deposited for a long time and has become very solid, it is not easy to sink and slide.

Zhao Dongbao pushed the shovel upwards with force, directly to the top.

sand!

Zhao Dongbao pushed the snow upwards and directly used his hands to push the snow off his head.

But the snow on top was falling down with a loud noise.

Shunfeng, who was responsible for clearing the snow below, was covered with snow.

"What's going on?"

Zhao Dongbao wiped the snow off his face and the fresh air from outside blew in.

He shouted excitedly to the back:

“It’s connected!”

"Keep your voice down. It's still daybreak now. It will be troublesome if zombies hear you and come over." Chang Yichang reminded from behind.

"What should we do now?" Zhao Dongbao asked, suppressing his excitement.

Chang Yichang thought for a moment and said:

"You all come back first. Let's eat something and rest before it gets light. Then we can go to the market directly after daybreak."

"Okay." Zhao Dongbao put away the shovel, stepped on the dug steps, and walked down little by little.

(Seeking monthly ticket) (End of this chapter)