Chapter 789: The Devastating Losses of Hui Three Base

To make it easier for Wolf Lao Er to feed the fish, Xia Qing moved a few stone slabs over and laid them across the pond embankment, then converted the bamboo tube into a rack for holding baskets.

Wolf Lao Er stepped on the stone slabs and happily fed the fish, while Xia Qing and Sheep Boss continued cutting qiang grass.

She planned to spend two days finishing all the qiang grass in the northern part of her territory that could be cut with the micro-tiller, then once the ground dried a bit, have Sheep Boss hitched up to the big iron rake to drag the qiang grass roots out of the soil, and then dry and burn them.

The qiang grass in the southern part of the territory, including the two abandoned villages, could be cleared by hiring people from other territories.

Hearing the familiar sound of the micro-tiller cutting grass coming from Territory Three, Tang Huai knew Xia Qing was awake, and began posting a new message in the lord channel: "Everyone's heard by now, right? Several territories in the northern second district were blasted apart by qiang explosions. 84 dead, 45 injured."

Those injured in the qiang explosions had already had their bodies pierced through by qiang elements; without timely, effective treatment, they wouldn't last more than a few days either. While everyone's mood was heavy, they were also secretly relieved that the gale on the first day of the qiang rain had come fast enough to blow the thunderclouds away from the sky above their territories in time.

But no one dared say that out loud, because there were too many people eavesdropping in the lord channel, and word getting out would earn them hatred.

Qi Fu asked, "Brother Huai, how many territories in the northern first district got hit? Is Territory 48 okay?"

After harvesting the overwintering wheat next month, summer sowing could begin. The territories weren't short of green fertilizer, but animal manure was insufficient and needed to be purchased. The worm castings from Territory 48 were their main source of manure.

Xia Qing had already contacted Sun Zhe of Territory 48 in time and knew his losses there weren't great, but she had no need to speak up.

Tang Huai, as expected, knew perfectly well: "Seems like six. Territory 48 is fine, no one needs to worry about not being able to buy worm castings."

Zhao Ze came online: "Six territories — does that mean six qiang explosions happened?"

"Only four. Two of the qiang explosions happened in places where two territories were adjacent; if they'd blown up right in the center of a territory, the casualties would've been far worse than this." Lord Huo Lei also came online.

Because customers from the northern second district had called in to order iron shovels and plowshares, Lord Huo Lei had heard about the situation over there.

Wen Nengjie also chimed in with a sigh: "The basement where the people of Territory 35 were hiding got hit by a qiang explosion. Everyone inside died — not a single intact body left."

Kuang Qingwei asked, "Brother Huai, how many qiang explosions happened in the Safe Zone?"

Tang Huai answered, "42 times. The current count of deaths directly caused by qiang explosions is over 4,500, and that's definitely not the final number. Wen Nengjie, do you have any news from your end?"

Wen Nengjie and the group he led had been in the business of collecting and burning corpses in the Safe Zone, which was how he earned the nickname "Dead Man Jie." Although he'd come out to farm now, he was surely still in touch with his former colleagues — otherwise he wouldn't have known that the people of Territory 35 had no intact bodies left.

Wen Nengjie answered, "Less than a quarter of the areas in the Safe Zone that were bombed by qiang explosions have been cleared out. Once they're done, it would be a small miracle if the death toll didn't double or more. The casualties in our Safe Zone this time are just too devastating."

Hearing Zhu Li came online: "Put that way, the total number of deaths caused to our base by the second qiang rain of Year Eleven of the Calamity will definitely exceed thirty thousand. Our total population has dropped below 1.85 million."

From the time she left the Safe Zone until now, the number of people who had died from qiang rain and qiang snow exceeded 150,000. Xia Qing gripped the steering wheel and stared straight ahead, focused on harvesting the qiang grass.

Hearing that number, Jiang Mu, who was pulling up qiang grass in the yard, was also startled.

During the qiang rain, she had watched the wildly sprouting qiang grass and the aggressively burrowing attack plants inside the territory, scared half to death, thinking it was far too dangerous here. But now it seemed the Safe Zone was even less safe.

Because danger had appeared within Territory 15, the things the territory's people couldn't clear, the investigation team and other territories would also come help with. After an entire qiang rain, only three people in the territory had suffered minor injuries, and no one had died. Moreover, living here meant no worry about people charging in to rob them.

In the lord channel, Tang Huai continued sighing: "Our northern first district territories had the fewest casualties. This time the number of people in the Safe Zone worshipping the Divine Wolf is definitely going to climb again. I reckon the reason my family's business wasn't hit by the qiang explosions is definitely because I haven't been short on worshipping the Divine Wolf in my daily life."

Jiang Mu's eyes immediately went wide: "I'll go back and buy two Divine Wolf statues. You keep one enshrined here, and we'll keep one enshrined in our dormitory in the Safe Zone."

Jiang Ying, who was pulling weeds, stopped and discussed it with her mother: "Mom, the food and living here are both better than the Safe Zone food factory. Why don't you stay too?"

Jiang Mu shook her head: "That was a proper job that took a lot of effort to get — how could I give it up? These are calamity years; trouble can strike at any moment. If I work in the Safe Zone, we'll have one more fallback."

Jiang Ying knew her mother made sense, but she didn't want to be separated from her, so she could only fall silent and keep pulling weeds.

"Waa, waa… Uncle, please save my mommy, waa waa…" Six-year-old Tan He sobbed wretchedly over the phone, begging his uncle Tan Junjie to save his mother.

Not hearing her eldest son ask anything, Tan Mu, who was holding her grandson, could only speak up herself: "Ajie, A-Chao's wife is pregnant. Even if she made a muddled mistake in the past, for the child's sake, please help her out. The hospital is full of the wounded and sick right now; she's already showing signs of a miscarriage and can only lie in the hospital corridor. If someone accidentally stepped on her…"

Tan Junjie cut his mother off and asked calmly, "Is there anything else, Mom?"

Tan Mu was completely thrown off by her eldest son's question and looked up at her younger son. Tan Junchao gritted his teeth and spoke: "Brother, are you really that heartless?"

Tan Junjie hung up the phone directly.

Su Ming, who was clearing qiang grass, had heard every word of the phone conversation clearly and couldn't help complaining: "His wife's already in the hospital — what more does he expect the boss to do?"

Yuan Rui glared at him, warning him not to discuss the Tan family's private matters.

They might not discuss it, but Hearing Zhu Li in Territory Six didn't care. She grabbed her sickle and ran to meet up with her husband, muttering to him: "What other way is there to help? Obviously they want Captain Tan to bring his sister-in-law over to live in Territory 15, feed her well and wait on her hand and foot, and then have Captain Tan ask Third Brother to prescribe medicine to protect the pregnancy. Pfft! When she raised her knife to hack at Tan Qi, why didn't she think about whether Tan Qi was a child? Why didn't she talk about being heartless then?"

Kuang Qingwei understood at once: "They're trying to use Tan Qi's grandmother to get a handle on Captain Tan. Still this naive in Year Eleven of the Calamity — looks like over the years they've taken plenty of benefits from Captain Tan and never really suffered much."

"Well then, their good days are about to start…" Before Hearing Zhu Li could finish, she heard Yu Shou asking in the lord channel: "Sister Qing, you there?"

"I'm here."

Xia Qing came online, and everyone pricked up their ears to listen.

Yu Shou asked: "Sister Qing, is this a good time? My brothers and I can head over right now to clear the qiang grass in your territory?"

Wen Nengjie, gripping his sickle, immediately widened his leopard eyes, but what came out of his mouth was the height of politeness: "Brother Shou, after the first qiang rain, Sister Qing already booked me and my brothers to go help her clear the qiang grass. My territory lost two greenhouses to the wind — the losses are huge. I'm counting on doing odd jobs for everyone to earn points to buy seed grain and rebuild the greenhouses."

Polite as it was, Wen Nengjie absolutely would not give up this rare chance to get close to Xia Qing. Right now he was dying to rush straight into Territory 17 with his men and lay all of Yu Shou's brothers flat.

So what if they're Power Evolvers? So what if they're veterans? Why don't they go ask around in the Safe Zone — how many people who dared to steal my business are still alive!