Chapter 196: Triumphant Return

"Oh my god."

Wang Xin's eyebrows directly knitted into a knot, and his heart couldn't be more depressed.

"It's not that I'm saying, Guizi, what do you have to complain about? Didn't your boss want to pull people into the village before? Now I've helped you recruit over ten people at once, including sensible old people, women who can work, and clever children. Shouldn't you thank me properly?"

Zhang Su spread his hands and teased.

"Brother Zhang, you say that, but look at those little brats, besides eating, what can they do? And those old men and women, can they work? Walking two steps is a struggle. In the past, they could go to the road to pull a scam, but now what can they do?"

Wang Xin actually looked down on these people. If all twelve were true laborers, he would be grinning from ear to ear.

"Village Head Wang, don't think like that. Our old bones aren't as useless as you say. Carrying water and applying fertilizer are no problem at all. We guarantee we'll do more work than we eat."

The leading old man, even after suffering inhuman treatment for a long time, had a stronger mentality than ordinary people. He soon recovered and started self-promoting. The people beside him also nodded repeatedly, recounting some experiences of working at home before the disaster.

Zhang Su patted Wang Xin's arm and said, "Look, you Lianhe Village made a big profit this time. You didn't do a damn thing, and you got twelve laborers for nothing, plus twenty percent of the spoils. Even I envy you!"

Wang Xin smiled helplessly. He was, after all, the boss of a survivor camp with fifty or sixty people. Now he had become a refugee shelter.

Wang Xin's expression was dry, and he grimaced: "This, although grain is not a worry now, it's not that worthless, right? Brother Zhang, don't be like this. In this area of Beidong Town, there are only two forces left, ours and yours. Give your little brother some care, please."

After dealing with the people, it was naturally time to count the spoils. This kind of thing didn't need Zhang Su to be busy personally, and his subordinates soon organized the items brought by Beitaziying.

"Guizi, I'll help you send the people back to the village. Later, you call someone to unload two thousand catties of grain directly, as the full reward for this mission. As for the rest of the things in Xiangzhuang..."

Zhang Su believed that this was definitely not all of Xiangzhuang's inventory, but he didn't have time to sweep it slowly now. He would send someone over after finishing recent matters. He just needed to give Wang Xin a heads-up in advance, otherwise, Lianhe Village would definitely come too.

"About this matter. No problem, five hundred catties of grain for one, I'll give you four."

"Hehe..." Wang Xin touched his head a bit embarrassedly and pointed behind Zhang Su, saying, "Brother Zhang, you guys all have such high-end automatic rifles, why don't you share some of those fire-muskets with us?"

"Isn't there still Xidaying Village?"

Calculated by twenty percent of the spoils, there were twelve fire-muskets left, and he could at least get two. However, Zhang Su didn't say he would give them to him, so he was embarrassed to ask for them hard.

"That's right, what do you want to trade for?"

Living in the countryside, the reserve of grain was always sufficient. Whether it was when they were at Beitaziying or after coming to Xiangzhuang, they were never short of food. Rice, flour, potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, and other common crops added up to a full three thousand catties.

Zhang Su asked readily.

Zhang Su waved his hand and agreed to Wang Xin's request, but this price was a bit of a pit.

"No, no, our Lianhe Village definitely won't move, it's all yours, Brother, hehe..." Wang Xin was very savvy and waved his hands repeatedly, then changed the subject: "However, I don't want that much grain. Brother Zhang, you said before that you could exchange for equivalent goods, right?"

Fortunately, there were two electric tricycles in the village that could be used, so it was very easy to load the grain onto the car.

Zhang Su didn't immediately take the bait but expressed doubt.

"Isn't there still Xidaying Village guarding that treasure bridge? They don't interact with us, why bother with them... that, guns?"

Wang Xin was thinking about the fire-muskets.

Zhang Su thought for a moment and said, "You don't want grain, right? Then how about this: keep one fire-musket, I'll give you the rest, and pull a ton of coal from your village!"

The coal swept from Niuquanzi Town wasn't much, and seeing that winter was about to officially arrive, the temperature would definitely drop further, so the reserve of heating energy had to keep up.

Lianhe Village naturally needed coal very much, but Wang Xin felt that arming the villagers was more important, so he pinched his nose and agreed to Zhang Su's trade.

After finishing everything, the two RVs drove away from Xiangzhuang, leaving behind bullet holes, corpses, and collapsed houses. People who came here in the future would naturally know what had happened here.

At 10:30 at night, Zhang Su's group returned safely to Tianmayu. On the way back, Yu Wen calculated the consumption of this battle.

Four hundred and sixty-two bullets consumed, one grenade, one incendiary stick, and most importantly, one "Big Thunder"!

"Eh, Brother Su, the zombie corpses on the road are fewer again!"

The RV wound up the mountain road, and Zheng Xinyu pointed to the roadside illuminated by the lights.

"They must have been bored staying in the camp and moved some down. Ha, they're all here!"

While speaking, Zhang Su saw the personnel left behind standing inside the mountain gate, lining up to welcome them.

"Big brother, you blew your own horn, didn't you? You wanted to imitate Guan Yu warming wine to behead Hua Xiong, go take a look at the food, it's already cold, hahaha."

Zhao Dezhu saw the grain bags packed full in the car and knew that this battle was a complete victory, so he joked joyfully.

Zhang Su got out of the car, patted the carriage, and said, "It took some time to pull coal from Lianhe Village. The Beitaziying matter is completely resolved, we're safe from now on!"

"Oh! Yeah!"

"Great."

With the enemy in the dark resolved, the stone hanging in everyone's hearts fell.

Zhang Su saw Yu Qing standing in the crowd with a complex expression and suddenly thought of something, so he said, "Yu Qing, your 'Big Thunder' made a contribution, otherwise Xinyu and I would have been ambushed and seriously injured. Moreover, we rescued twelve slaves controlled by Beitaziying on this trip and sent them all to Lianhe Village as laborers!"

"What? Beitaziying also controlled so many slaves?"

"Damn, they really aren't human!"

"It's just that our Brother Su is particular. If it were someone unreasonable, they would have wiped them out in one pot, not even a hair would be left!"

After hearing this news, everyone was stunned for a moment, and then many people looked at Zhang Su with respectful eyes.

True "not committing too many sins" is not being soft-hearted to the enemy, but not involving the innocent. In the apocalypse, one can only say they try their best to reach this level, and everyone understood Zhang Su's dilemma.

"Alright, don't just stand there, heat the food, eat!"

At Zhang Su's command, Tianmayu became lively again.

After the disaster, unless there was a need for sentry duty, almost everyone didn't stay up late. The lack of spiritual and cultural entertainment made people very easy to get sleepy, but today was different. Eating and drinking, the noise continued until two in the morning before slowly calming down.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 197 =====