Chapter 87: Random Battle

On the bumpy, potholed road, an old 212 sped through the night.

The aging headlights could barely illuminate the road, but the driver pushed himself to the limit, his foot pressing down hard on the accelerator.

Yang Tai gripped the door frame, praying constantly that a fight wouldn't break out.

Chen Yonggui was not a rash man; he would surely do his best to stabilize the situation until Yang Tai arrived.

Yet with so many people from the surrounding villages swarming around, he couldn't recall any deep-seated grudges or old feuds.

Just as he was pondering this, the 212 suddenly slammed on the brakes, nearly throwing Yang Tai from his seat.

Looking up, he saw a convoy of seven or eight trucks ahead, their cargo beds either piled high with goods or filled with workers wearing hard hats.

He knew Dawan Village was under construction, but what were they doing so late at night?

The trucks weren't moving fast, but it was clear the drivers were revving their engines, causing the workers in the cargo beds to sway left and right.

The rural road was narrow, so the 212 could only follow behind; upon reaching Dawan Village, he saw people everywhere on the small path, all converging toward Dawan Port.

The 212 found an opportunity to drive off the road and overtake in the wild fields, narrowly flipping over a small hill before seeing the brightly lit port packed with a dense crowd.

Yang Tai jumped out of the car and ran three steps as if taking two, sprinting all the way to the front.

"Qingshui Village has 52 households, totaling 4,784 square meters; here is the ledger."

The village head of Qingshui Village handed a thin notebook to Wu Long, who sat behind a rickety table; behind him stood a huge crowd of villagers holding or carrying rolls of colorful tarpaulin on their shoulders, all having come for the price of five yuan per square meter.

They had expected Wu Long to inspect the goods, but after a single glance, he started working the abacus:

"23,920 yuan; let's round it up to 25,000, but you must sew them into large pieces 20 meters wide; figure out the tools yourselves. Can you do it?"

"Yes, absolutely yes!"

The village head of Qingshui Village quickly patted his chest; selling a pile of tattered colorful tarpaulin at such a high price, what effort would sewing them require?

"Then hurry up and get to work; don't waste time here."

Hu Li, standing beside Wu Long, counted the money on the spot and shoved it directly into the hands of the Qingshui Village head.

With the crisp green banknotes in hand, the Qingshui Village head immediately raised his arm in a cheer, holding up the money and leading the villagers to find an open space to sit down and start sewing the colorful tarpaulin.

Behind him, village heads from other villages also approached one by one.

"We have 6,200 square meters, absolutely no holes, just like new!"

"32,000; give us the money, and we'll go sew immediately!"

"..."

Wu Long glanced at the ledger; the five villages combined had a total of over 23,000 square meters of colorful tarpaulin.

Adding what Chen Yonggui had already purchased, it was basically enough.

A little over 100,000 in cash was thrown out like sprinkling water in the blink of an eye.

Watching hundreds of people working feverishly under the lights, the stone in Yang Tai's heart finally settled, and he hurried forward to ask what was going on.

Upon hearing that Dawan Port needed to build a shed capable of completely covering the berths within 24 hours, he was also full of questions.

But when he asked what it was for, Wu Long could only stammer out a single phrase: "Commercial secret."

Just then, the truck convoy that had been ahead of him arrived; Chen Yonggui jumped down from the lead truck, sweating profusely, and walked up to Wu Long:

"The construction team from Xiaohe Township is here, hired at 800 yuan per person; three trucks of steel pipes. Is that enough?"

Only after speaking did he notice Yang Tai beside him and instinctively asked:

"Township Head, why have you come?"

"If I hadn't come, you would have rebelled!"

Just the numbers Yang Tai had heard since arriving totaled over a hundred thousand; adding the workers Chen Yonggui had hired at 800 yuan a day, tens of thousands more had been spent.

What kind of madness had possessed these dogs to spend money so lavishly?

But seeing the construction team, Wu Long felt relieved; the thirty-plus hired men were skilled builders from the city, and they had all the necessary tools.

Chen Yonggui negotiated a price with the foreman, and the workers shouted and rushed over, already starting to unload machinery and begin work.

Combined with others who could help, there were at least a hundred people available to assist.

At this moment, lights shone everywhere in the port; even several ten-wheeled large trucks had been brought over with their headlights on to provide illumination, lighting up the scene as much as possible.

Shortly after, a wholesale dealer of colorful tarpaulin from the city personally arrived in the dark with several trucks, unloading ten rolls of extra-wide colorful tarpaulin weighing several tons each.

Seeing the scene of hundreds of people working together in Dawan Port gave him a start, but seeing Wu Long pay so readily, he was glad to have made another big profit.

Tang Wen's 500,000 had been almost entirely spent in one afternoon, but the results were quite significant.

Under the silver bullet offensive, Chen Yonggui had managed to mobilize nearly a thousand people, gathering all the necessary personnel and supplies in an impossible timeframe.

Especially the construction team brought in; climbing heights was no problem for them, and they had already started measuring dimensions by the berths at the port, preparing to erect scaffolding.

For a moment, the entire port was brightly lit, bustling with noise and excitement.

Although people didn't understand why, with money thrown down at several times the gold value, everyone was straining every muscle to get to work.

Chen Yonggui, whose legs had been running all day, could finally relax for a moment; as he sat by the roadside about to rest, Yang Tai grabbed him and pulled him up:

"You've spent hundreds of thousands and gathered so many people just for this? What are you doing? What is Little Tang doing?"

He had just gone to inquire; even used colorful tarpaulin was being bought back at five yuan per square meter; it was truly "throwing money around."

Chen Yonggui nodded weakly; he had been tense all day long, and now he had done everything he could; the rest was up to fate.

He lay down directly, resting his head on the road shoulder, looking like a dead fish:

"Commercial secret; asking is pointless anyway. In any case, we aren't stealing or robbing; this is distributing benefits to the locals.

Don't ask; let me sleep for a while."

"You..."

Yang Tai seemed to think of something; his expression suddenly softened, and he crouched down, lowering his voice:

"Did Little Tang transport something via water route again that isn't suitable for daylight?"

Chen Yonggui said nothing, closed his eyes, and began to snore.

"Stop pretending. Tell me, this whole thing today was just rushing to speed up progress; I'll take full responsibility for you all."

"I know little Tang. Is it the machinery and equipment from outside, the engines, or what?"

The snoring response to him grew even louder, like thunder.

Yang Tai cursed these dogs in his heart; they clearly counted on him to protect Dawan Village and the shipyard, so they were deliberately playing dumb right in front of him.

But curses aside, he truly had to clean up the mess.

Fortunately, it was indeed not a malicious incident, so smoothing it over wouldn't be troublesome.

He looked toward the port where the greenhouse was being constructed; the hired construction workers had already started erecting scaffolding on the welded foundations, moving various equipment and materials like diligent ants.

And not far from them, scraps of colorful tarpaulin were being sewn into large, wide sheets; the villagers delivering the cloth were all lying on the seams, stitching them.

This trip, every household made at least a few hundred yuan, which was a huge windfall for the countryside.

"These guys, they only know how to cause trouble!"

On the high seas, the Fudong had already spotted two fishing boats, both belonging to the country.

During the day, sunlight drove the fish schools to deep water, while at night they rose for shallow oxygen, so the early morning was the golden time for operations; the ship's searchlights would also attract the fish.

Now the Fudong was stationary in the operational zone less than 10 nautical miles from the other two fishing boats, maintaining contact from time to time.

Unlike the fierce resource struggles near the coast, once out in the deep sea, domestic fishing boats would spontaneously unite to resist other fishing boats and patrol boats.

The thousand-ton Fudong was huge; both domestic fishing boats were happy to maintain contact, and mutual cover in case of trouble would be even better.

In the bridge, Tang Wen made a satellite call once every hour, constantly confirming progress.

Hearing Wu Long's latest report, the progress on sealing the ship shed was more than half done; the speed of over a hundred people working together was much faster than expected, and it was estimated to be completed by dawn.

The total time consumed was about 18 hours; Tang Wen was already very satisfied.

And at this moment, a map suddenly lit up in his mind; within the surrounding 100 nautical miles, besides two friendly green targets, a red target lit up.

Then another.

【Enemy target detected: NZN003: 2800/2800】

【Enemy target detected: NZN204: 2620/2620】