Construction Begins

Xiao Fan's convoy returned to the base. He could hardly recognize the place after being away for nearly four days. Great changes had taken place.

First, an underground passage had been dug several kilometers southward.

There were vast stretches of farmland to the south of the base, but about ten kilometers from the site where they planned to build the south city wall stood several hillocks that were part of the Xing'an Mountain Range.

Ai Yin planned to build the exit of the underground passage in a mountain gap in one of those hillocks.

When Xiao Fan returned, he saw over twenty excavators working day and night ceaselessly.

The underground passage was dug very quickly. Every worker was a skilled operator who worked the machines at a professional pace.

When the tunnel reached about eight meters deep, they would stop digging and cover it over with soil to finish a section faster before moving on.

Sections of the passage took shape rapidly. Down below, workers were also laying bricks and stone pilings to support the structure so large vehicles could travel through it.

All the ground clutter in the base had been cleared away cleanly. Drainage engineering for the city streets was proceeding intensely yet orderly.

The outlines of streets criss-crossing neatly had already been laid out.

Vehicles constantly transported materials back and forth. Though there were only about a hundred people working here, Red Alert soldiers only needed four hours of sleep per day and would not shirk their duties, so a hundred of them had the efficiency of three hundred men.

Convoys of transport trucks had been coming and going for days, yet the base did not seem chaotic because most of the building materials were deposited into the resource recycling station, where they were converted into numbers in Xiao Fan’s system.

Of course, some materials were not taken to the recycling station, such as paint, plumbing supplies, decorative materials, etc, which were still piled up in the base, now covered by tarps.

Xiao Fan even saw two huge tower cranes already erected in the center of the base. Ai Yin said they were for constructing apartment buildings for the residential areas in the future.

With the Red Alert system, buildings were no problem as long as there was money, but residential towers were different in needing to be constructed bit by bit.

When Xiao Fan returned with his men, two hundred more laborers appeared out of thin air. These Red Alert soldiers put down their guns and immediately threw themselves into the intense work.

With more manpower, they could start digging a second underground passage.

In the past few days of coming and going, they had not only collected materials but also gathered more heavy machinery. There were now dozens of heavy trucks and forty to fifty excavators in the base.

There were also considerable numbers of road rollers, bulldozers, drill rigs and so on, just lacking people to operate them.

The combat troops took over the physical labor while the engineers began operating all the machinery.

When Xiao Fan got back, he also saw the mess unit’s food trucks occupying an area, with piles of reclaimed grain stacked around them.

Seeing Xiao Fan approach, mess sergeant Niu Ben immediately reported: “Commander, our two mess units used this time to collect some grain, mostly rice, flour and vegetable oil from people's homes, but most of the grain was piled up in the fields and we lacked enough hands to gather it.”

“Alright, I’m aware. We can’t let all that grain go to waste. We have to store up enough before winter sets in.”

After chatting with the mess sergeants for a bit, Xiao Fan took Ai Yin to inspect the south wall site.

“Commander, we have ample resources now and enough funds, so construction of the wall can begin,” said Ai Yin.

“Yes, I hurried back mainly to start on the city wall. Otherwise, give me a month and I could clean out the small area of Qingyang County City River this side—that would also be quite a sum,” said Xiao Fan.

“Commander, before you build the wall, it’s best to plan out locations for the machine gun pillboxes and watchtowers to avoid having to redo work later,” Ai Yin reminded.

With this reminder from Ai Yin, Xiao Fan realized he had nearly forgotten something important.

Building the wall was not just the wall itself, but also the gates, the floodgates, machine gun pillboxes, and watchtowers.

And even on top of the basic wall they could set up an electric grid.

Xiao Fan checked the prices of machine gun pillboxes and watchtowers in the system.

[Machine Gun Pillbox: Price 2000 gold. Comes equipped with one 12.7mm heavy machine gun, three operators, and 3000 rounds of ammunition. Non-upgradable. Note: Machine gun pillboxes can be built inside advanced-level walls without affecting their defensive strength.]

[Watchtower: Price 2500 gold. Equipped with one 12.7mm dual purpose machine gun for anti-personnel and anti-air roles. Comes with two searchlights, three crewmen, and 3000 rounds of ammunition. Non-upgradable. Note: Watchtowers can be erected atop mid-level and advanced walls.]

Seeing these two defensive buildings delighted Xiao Fan.

The expansive wall would need defending, which could pose a problem for everyday security, but with machine gun pillboxes and watchtowers that issue was halfway solved.

Just set up some searchlights and let’s see who still dared sneak in.

After reviewing the two options, Xiao Fan decided to build the gates first.

He had originally planned for six gates total: four land gates and two floodgates, but seeing the resource recycling station now, he felt another gate should be added—one situated right in front of the recycling station so transport vehicles bringing in materials would not need to take a detour.

With that decided, Xiao Fan first went to the front entrance of the resource recycling station.

In the Defensive Buildings section he chose Advanced City Gate.

[Advanced City Gate, width 20 meters, height 15 meters, thickness 5 meters, matches advanced wall, price 3000 gold. Commander has sufficient resources, so 90% discount applied; actual price 300 gold.]

As Xiao Fan tapped to select it, a rumbling sounded as the first gate finished construction!

A gigantic gate reaching fifteen meters high and twenty meters wide appeared.

Five meters thick, built from green bricks and mortar. The exterior was reinforced concrete structure.

On top of the wall was a crenelated parapet for the garrison to conceal themselves behind.

In the middle of the gate stood two massive iron doors.

The doors were a full fifty centimeters thick. Even armored zombies could not leave a mark on them.

The doors could be easily opened by a hoist.

There were also two smaller doors set in them that could be used instead of the main doors.

After completing this city gate, Xiao Fan immediately headed south to the central area to build the South Gate of the city, identical to the resource station gate.

Then he went to the Haoyuan River bank.

The riverbank had already been cleared. He promptly built a floodgate here.

The price for floodgates was much higher than land gates, up to 1500 gold, because the river was so wide, requiring a gate width of one hundred meters.

It had an arched design to easily support the wall atop it. The gate here was a large flood barrier.

The flood barrier was almost seventy meters wide. It could be raised and lowered, allowing boats to pass beneath when raised.

However, there was an issue—the gaps between the iron bars of the flood barrier were rather wide, enough for a person to slip through. Xiao Fan considered that some people might exploit those gaps in the future.

He would need to come up with countermeasures in advance.

Construction continued.