Recruitment in Progress

Xiao Fan sneered when he heard the broadcast from the North Wind Army.

The Alliance was simply using this as an opportunity to express their dissatisfaction with his recruitment efforts and to announce to the entire Yunzhou region that no matter how impressive the City of Dawn was, it would still fall under Alliance jurisdiction.

Xiao Fan could disregard them now and defy them openly, but he didn't want to go that far yet.

After all, the Alliance still owed him fifty kilograms of gold, and he hadn't taken a hefty bite out of that juicy morsel yet, so he couldn't turn against them just yet.

Ignoring the Alliance's silent warning, Xiao Fan continued to organize the people to begin work.

It was currently the harvest season, so the first priority was to gather the crops.

Over the next few days, the City of Dawn entered a period of rapid, vigorous development.

With over two hundred survivors joining, there was now a workforce to harvest the crops.

In the outer districts of the City of Dawn, prefabricated houses were rapidly rising from the ground.

Everyone was engaged in construction, and the roads within the city were truly entering the final stages.

Outside the city gates, survivors had begun to arrive one after another.

At this time, not every base was willing to accept large numbers of survivors.

After all, every survivor needed to be fed, and many bases were already overcrowded and couldn't support any more people.

Xiao Fan's City of Dawn was openly recruiting people, which went against Alliance policy, yet many still chose to join.

A registration office had been set up at the city gates of the City of Dawn.

Each survivor had to register their information, and engineers would then issue them an identity card for ordinary survivors.

With this identity card, they became temporary residents of the City of Dawn.

To become an official resident, they had to pay the City of Dawn 500 grams of gold.

If they didn't have gold, they could earn credits through labor to offset the gold amount.

After becoming an official resident, they could purchase temporary housing in the city, and once the buildings were completed next year, they could exchange their temporary housing for a permanent home.

Almost everyone who arrived at the City of Dawn and saw the towering, magnificent city instantly wanted to become a resident.

So the new arrivals didn't feel exploited at all, but rather more motivated.

The first day, 150 survivors were accepted.

The second day, over 130 survivors were accepted.

On the third day, the number of arriving survivors skyrocketed to 290!

Some survivors had come with the intention of investigating, but upon arriving, they regretted their decision and hurried back to find their people before returning with their families in tow.

As more and more people came to the City of Dawn, some with ulterior motives inevitably slipped in as well.

Xu Qingshan and Diao Yuan were among them.

A few days earlier, their convoy returning to the Film City Base had encountered a group of inhumane bandits.

They were foreigners speaking broken Eastern Federation Language, armed with powerful firearms, and had nearly killed Xu Qingshan and Diao Yuan.

If Diao Yuan hadn't reacted quickly and rolled them down a hillside, they likely would have been killed.

They survived, but all their supplies were taken by the foreigners.

Xu Qingshan and Diao Yuan didn't dare return to the base, so they used the radio on their battered Land Rover to contact the base and report the robbery.

They decided to atone for their failure by at least gathering new intelligence, if not finding the foreigners' trail, to save their lives.

So they disguised themselves and decided to return to the City of Dawn for reconnaissance.

According to Xu Qingshan's professional intuition, he suspected the City of Dawn was involved in the foreign bandit attack.

He had no evidence, but he figured he might uncover some insights here, which would help his report to the Alliance.

The two men disguised themselves as survivors, smearing their faces with dirt and wearing tattered clothes, and made their way back to the City of Dawn.

The return journey took them two days, but to their surprise, the City of Dawn had completely transformed!

The heavy city gates were open, with crowds gathered outside for registration.

In the distance, another gate allowed heavy trucks to enter and exit, seemingly transporting supplies, but ordinary people were prohibited from approaching.

To the southeast, the Haoyuan River flowed out from within the city. They hadn't paid much attention to it last time, but this time, while pretending to wander aimlessly, they took a look at the water gate.

Seeing the massive, sturdy water lock, Xu Qingshan made an assessment.

He turned to Diao Yuan and said, "Let me tell you something to record."

Diao Yuan was responsible for protecting him and following his orders, so he nodded and took out a small notebook to record.

"Observation of the City of Dawn, point one: The city defenses are formidable, with nearly impregnable walls and gates. However, the water gate is a security vulnerability. If one could infiltrate via the waterway, they could reach the city interior."

Diao Yuan recorded the first point, and the two men returned to the area near the city gates.

Xu Qingshan didn't immediately go to register, fearing that someone who had seen him before might recognize him from too close a distance.

So he lingered nearby, hoping to chat with an unfamiliar face.

And he did manage to find one.

A young officer, accompanied by a few soldiers, returned dusty and travel-worn.

Xu Qingshan was certain he had never seen this man before.

Seeing the man's military attire, Xu Qingshan's eyes lit up, and he approached with a smile.

"How should I address this officer?"

The young officer glanced at him, seeming pleased that Xu Qingshan had called him an officer, and responded courteously, "Acting Company Commander, surname Shen."

"Acting Company Commander? Is that even a position?"

The young officer scoffed, "Of course it is. A Platoon Leader is an Acting Company Commander, and I'm the first in line for promotion, practically a Company Commander already. Ah, nevermind, you wouldn't understand. Did you need something?"

"Ah, nothing major. I just wanted to ask if one must pay gold to become a resident of our City of Dawn?"

"Of course. You've seen the state of our City of Dawn - 500 grams of gold is extremely cheap. Besides, what use is gold if you can't eat or drink it? Let me tell you, a household registration in the City of Dawn is equivalent to a capital city registration in the past. If you don't get it now, no amount of money will let you get it later."

Xu Qingshan nodded vigorously, "Yes, yes, of course. Oh, I heard our Leader Xiao Fan is quite young. I wonder if he has a girlfriend? I have a sister, an absolute beauty. It would be great if I could introduce her to the Leader."

Hearing this, the young officer scoffed disdainfully, "You underestimate our Commander-in-Chief far too much. To achieve such great things, the Commander-in-Chief is no ordinary person to be compared to. He has no interest in women - you can forget about that idea."

With that, the young officer hurried off.

Xu Qingshan and Diao Yuan were left staring at each other.

After a moment, Xu Qingshan asked Diao Yuan, "You're good at observation - do you think this Acting Commander Shen was telling the truth?"

Diao Yuan nodded solemnly, "Based on my observations, he spoke sincerely."

"Very well, record this important clue. According to Acting Commander Shen, the Commander-in-Chief of the City of Dawn's forces, Xiao Fan, has no interest in women. We'll report this back to the Alliance, so they don't waste efforts in that area."