Armored train in the apocalypse

Chapter 170 The Commander

Wang Fei's face instantly turned ferocious. He kicked his subordinate away and cursed, "You dog, you dare to bluff me!"

Not satisfied with just kicking him away, he launched another flurry of kicks.

His subordinates begged for mercy repeatedly.

"beep--"

The shrill whistle blared again, and Wang Fei's expression froze instantly. He grabbed his subordinate, his voice trembling, "Did you hear the whistle?"

"No, no, Brother Fei, I misheard," the bruised and swollen henchman quickly denied.

Wang Fei's already unbalanced mindset due to fear instantly collapsed. He delivered two powerful punches and roared, "I heard everything! You bastard, you still dare to lie to me!"

His subordinates wept bitterly.

Hearing the increasingly close whistle of the ship, he abandoned his men and desperately pushed open the window.

really.

Beneath the sprawling metal buildings, on the distant railway tracks, that familiar steel behemoth slowly approaches, belching black smoke, its menacing rams gleaming coldly in the sunlight.

"Brother Fei, the train doesn't know we're here. Maybe it's just passing by?"

The subordinate sobbed as he spoke.

It wasn't that he was a coward, it just hurt too much to be hit in the nose.

These words acted like a tranquilizer for Wang Fei, instantly calming him down. Suddenly, he remembered something, "Where are the Leopard Men?"

"I just... I'm taking some men to prepare to go down."

Wang Fei's vision went black, as if he could see again the scene of the heavy industrial zone turning into ruins under the wheels of the train that night.

He kicked open the door like a madman. In the living room of a bus, where the seats hadn't even been removed, a dozen or so of his men were looking out. They were all stunned when they turned around and saw him like this.

"Grab your weapons and stop the leopard! Quickly!"

Wang Fei's voice even changed tone from anxiety.

The men scrambled to grab their weapons, and one asked, puzzled, "Brother Fei, didn't we agree to talk about joining the group today...?"

"Fuck you!" Wang Fei slapped him across the face, gritting his teeth as he said, "That idiot definitely went down there to collect tolls! That's an armed train! The Steel Council was wiped out by the zombie horde they triggered. If those living fathers get angry, none of us can escape! We're all going to die!"

These words exploded like a bomb in the crowd.

The dozen or so survivors who had escaped from the heavy industrial area turned ashen-faced.

The terrifying zombie horde from a few days ago is still fresh in their minds.

Ignoring them, Wang Fei grabbed his shotgun and rushed out.

My heart was pounding wildly in my chest, and all I could hear was my own heavy breathing.

He knew all too well what kind of armed trains were like.

Wherever it passed, rivers of blood flowed. That was no train; it was a moving natural disaster!
He rushed out of the carriage, not even bothering to go down the stairs, and jumped down directly, flattening several makeshift platforms made from engine hoods, landing right at a narrow "suspension bridge entrance," with a dozen or so of his men jumping down behind him as well.

Ma Baozi's signature floral shirt stood out in the crowd. He was waving the assault rifle he had given him yesterday, talking and laughing with his underlings while spitting as he spoke.

Wang Fei had just jumped down from above when, even with his evolved physical abilities, he was still shaken and felt nauseous.

Seeing the leopard in this state, I felt a chill run down my spine.

This idiot is really going to do it!
Ma Baozi turned his head and saw him, grinning to reveal a mouthful of yellow teeth, "Brother Wang, you've come at the right time! Let's do something big today!"

He walked over, put his arm around Wang Fei's shoulder, and excitedly pointed to the approaching train, saying, "This fat sheep is enough for us to eat for half a year!"

Wang Fei's mind flashed with images of towering flames in the heavy industrial zone, survivors swallowed by the zombie horde, and overwhelming thunderstorms.

Fear turned into a raging rage, and he swung the butt of his rifle at Ma Baozi's face.

"Eat your mother's ass!"

With a muffled thud, the leopard collapsed to the ground, blood gushing from its nose.

Just as his men were about to make a move, Wang Fei's men raised their guns in unison, the dark muzzles of the guns frightening them into immobility.

Ma Baozi covered his face and scrambled to his feet, staring at Wang Fei in disbelief. "You fucking crazy..."

We were having a great chat these past two days, talking about building a car graveyard together, and now he's turned on us?!
"You're fucking crazy!" Wang Fei grabbed his floral shirt collar, pressed the gun to his neck, his eyes bloodshot, and snarled, "If I had come down any later today, you and your bunch of pig-brained henchmen would already be tied to the railway tracks and being squeezed for juice!"

Who? The train coming down?

The leopard was incredulous.

Wang Fei's eyes widened as he roared, pressing his face close to the man's, "The armed train annihilated a force a thousand times larger than yours in just one day and three battles!"

Ma Baozi's face twitched. "Thousands of times? That would be at least tens of thousands of people!"

Wang Fei's face was sinister, as if he wished he could bite off two pieces of flesh from this bastard.

"Where do you think we escaped from?"

Remembering the massive zombie horde the other person had mentioned at the dinner table, Ma Baozi's face turned pale. Ignoring the pain on his face, he hastily wiped the blood from his nose and glanced at the approaching train.

The sight of the Iron Rain 14.5 made him break out in a cold sweat.

Even if he and his hundred-plus men stood together, they couldn't withstand this burst of bullets.

With such a large caliber, even if you were hiding in the newly built metal city at your feet, you would be blown up.

Furthermore, the dark red stains on the car body are not rust left by acid rain at all, but bloodstains left by repeated washing!
Coupled with Wang Fei's exaggerated posture, Ma Baozi immediately believed most of it.

"Everyone, put down your weapons!" Ma Baozi said through gritted teeth.

As for the blow I suffered today, I'll have to deal with it later.

Wang Fei, that bastard, is really ruthless!

The atmosphere among the crowd eased, but more and more of Ma Baozi's group gathered, subtly surrounding Wang Fei, each with a burning rage in their eyes.

Wang Fei, however, seemed oblivious to the bizarre scene. He tugged at his already soaked shirt and let out a long sigh.

He shakily pulled out the crumpled cigarette pack, and after three attempts, he finally managed to put the cigarette in his mouth.

Turning my head to look at the train stopped in front of the gantry crane, I could see shadowy figures moving in the cab of the locomotive, and the sunlight reflected off the windshield with a blinding light.

"What should we do now?"

"I'm so gloomy," Ma Baozi asked, covering his nose.

Wang Fei took a deep drag on his cigarette; the nicotine temporarily calmed his wildly beating heart.

He stared at the slowly opening cabin door on the side of the train, from which a squad of fully armed elite soldiers filed out.

He didn't know this group of people either.

To this day, he has never met any member of the armed train.

They simply lived in the shadow cast by the train.

Did your men mention collecting protection money?

Ma Baozi hesitated for a moment, "He must have said so, he's just waiting for me to come over."

Wang Fei's hand holding the cigarette finally stopped shaking.

"Boom bang bang-"

"You fucking hit me!"

"With so many brothers here, you still dare to hit me!"

"Didn't we already fight?!"

"Why can't we talk things out properly in front of so many brothers?"

"Brother Wang..."

"Brother Fei, Brother Fei..."

……

This time, the leopard was truly paralyzed.

Surrounded by a group of men with strange expressions, the two walked toward the train heading towards the gantry crane.

The man in the leather apron was also taken aback by the sight of the two men.

Wang Fei glanced at him and asked, "Did you say anything to the people on the train just now?"

"They didn't say anything, they just wanted to collect a toll."

"You didn't say anything swearing, did you?"

"No, we charge in a civilized manner, we don't swear."

"That's good."

"boom!"

The man in the leather skirt collapsed to the ground with a thud.

Ma Baozi felt a chill in his heart. "What does this mean?"

"apologize."

Wang Fei's expression remained calm.

His men didn't react much, but Ma Baozi's subordinates were not happy and wanted an explanation.

Several men with guns were killed by Wang Fei's men before they could even raise their hands.

The five corpses instantly extinguished all discontent.

This group of people are all veterans who fought their way out of Mojiang with him. They might hesitate to fight zombies, but they are very skilled at taking down their own people.

Without these skills, how could one possibly escape from a horde of zombies?

As they stepped off the gantry crane, two men approached, escorted by a group of armed personnel. The man in the lead had a composed and refined air, like a lawyer or a diplomat.

The other one was big and burly, and although he was also very capable, he was obviously not as important as the first one.

Wang Fei's eyes flickered, and he vaguely made a judgment in his mind.

"The man is already dead. We'll pin the blame on him later. You better be firm, understand?"

The leopard standing to the side nodded repeatedly.

Wang Feiliang dared not play any tricks and began to plan his words for later.

The train staff were still four or five meters apart when Wang Fei was about to step forward.

The leopard beside him immediately knelt down on the ground with a thud.

She cried out, "This man forced us to do the toll collection work. We're just a bunch of ordinary people. The world is in chaos, and we just wanted to band together to survive. We never thought of doing robbery. He brought his men here a couple of days ago, and we kindly took them in. But he beat us up when he didn't like us. He said he would kill us if we dared to disobey him!"

As he spoke, he raised his head, turned around, and pointed to the corpses behind him to show Hu Shuo.

Wang Fei, standing to the side, stared in disbelief, his face trembling uncontrollably.

'When did this idiot become so cunning?!'

Not only him, but even Ma Baozi and his men were dumbfounded.

Hu said he came down to make preliminary negotiations and never expected to encounter this scene.

Looking at the leopard kneeling on the ground crying like a little wife, he fell into deep thought.

After hesitating for a moment, he said, "Let me ask the train conductor first."

……

On the second floor of the train, Su Huan was leaning against the window, watching the two people, one kneeling and one standing, with great interest.

He listened to their entire conversation.

I expected a twist, but I didn't expect it to be like this.

However, this is also understandable.

He had met Wang Fei twice in his previous life. He had wondered where the Mojiang Mutual Aid Car Team that this guy led had gone. He never expected that he and the Steel Council would be wiped out by him by some twist of fate.

If Juan is a hyena, then this guy is a jackal.

Insidious and cunning, ruthless and cruel.

Wang Fei had long harbored the intention to kill that pockmarked leader, and the pockmarked leader must have realized it too, otherwise he wouldn't have pulled this stunt.

But Su Huan was too lazy to pay attention; someone like Wang Fei was no longer worth his time.

When Hu Shuo comes to ask, just let him trade normally.

It took an hour for the train to give up about a ton of clean water in exchange for a large number of dismantled car parts and some information about the Shun'an black market.

After the transaction was completed, the train, pulled by two locomotives, once again headed into Shun'an.

The entire process was handled by the flight crew, and neither Su Huan nor any of the core members made an appearance.

At this moment, the train conductor is developing a new operational plan in the carriage.

The food cart now has two control screens, mounted on a movable bracket. Su Huan pulled one to the edge of the table and adjusted its angle. "Can you see it clearly now?"

"OK."

"no problem."

"..."

Upon hearing the answer, Su Huan looked up at both sides of the long table. Yu Yue, Xiao Ba, Liang Kuan, Lin Jin, He Jie, Qu Hang, Shan Yang, along with Lao San, Lu Xiao, and Jiang Rong, the two traitors, all the combat personnel on the train were in place.

"According to intelligence, there are four forces in the entire Shun'an, with a scale of several hundred to a thousand people. Our target is the train manufacturing base, including the researchers and factory workers there."

Su Huan pulled up the Shun'an map, and Xiao Zhao in the back of carriage 12 had already marked the location on it.

Some information was also listed next to it.

Do you have any questions?

Su Huan asked.

The dining table fell into a habitual silence.

Qu Hang is a sniper; even if you shoot him, he might not even make a sound.

Seeing that the other big shots remained silent, the goat also kept quiet.

Su Huan glanced at everyone and tapped the table lightly with his index finger. "Discuss freely before the battle plan is issued."

Upon hearing this, Lin Jin spoke first, puzzled, "I can understand researchers, but why do we need factory workers?"

Apart from Xiao Ba, who was also somewhat curious, everyone else at the table chuckled.

Su Huan shook his head inwardly; he was still too young.

However, this is not Lin Jin's fault.

This is how the division of labor in society was before the apocalypse. If you didn't drop out of school, your role in society in your twenties would be that of a student. In addition, the division of labor in society was extremely detailed, so it was normal not to understand many things.

Yu Yue, standing to the side, explained gently.

“Training a professional technician is no different from training a college student; both require a lot of time and effort. The reason why train modifications are slow is because there are not enough skilled workers. Wang and his colleagues are just workers in a single manufacturing plant, and they cannot handle certain situations.”

Liang Kuan nodded in agreement, a rare occurrence. "Take me, the train driver, for example. It's not that the train can't go on without me. Xiao Ba can drive in my place now, but he doesn't know what speed is appropriate to run over the zombie horde or what force is suitable to shovel the vehicles on the tracks. He needs more time to make judgments in such complex situations."

Lin Jin suddenly realized.

Seeing that things had gone on for a while, Su Huan timely interrupted the topic.

He continued, "Any other questions?"

“I do have a question,” He Jie said suddenly after a long pause. “The high-speed train manufacturing base is fine, it’s just a bit big. But there are more than a dozen manufacturing plants in Shun’an, and not all the workers are gathered in one place. We might not have enough manpower, right?”

Su Huan intertwined his ten fingers and clasped them together in front of his eyes.

He had actually considered this issue.

He had previously wanted to form two alternating small teams with core members, so that for missions like the armory, the train conductor wouldn't have to get off the train and risk his life.

Moreover, with a well-established squad, there is more room for tactical maneuvering.

However, manpower was too tight at the time. Even if all the logistics personnel, such as Wan Xing and Yu Jing, were added, it would not be possible to form a second combat team.

With He Jie and others now in the picture, the shortcomings in combat strength and manpower have been made up.

However, it is not hard to see from the seating arrangement that the core members are vaguely divided into two factions.

This is beneficial for quickly building up short-term combat capabilities, but not for the team's long-term development.

He Jie and other elite soldiers have higher combat skills, but their evolution potential is low. They can overpower Yu Yue and others in the short term, but they will become very weak in the later stages.

Lin Jin and the others have high potential, but in the short term, their mentality and combat power are far inferior to He Jie and the others.

If Su Huan hadn't intervened, and the two sides had been locked in a standoff, Su Huan even suspected that Yu Yue and her group would have been wiped out by He Jie.

However, he also had a headache about how to allocate these core members.

He Jie, a Tier 1 "Fireman", needs no introduction regarding the suppressive power of heavy firepower on the battlefield. Several battles have fully demonstrated his role. One person is comparable to a small army. As long as there is enough ammunition, the Metal Frenzy can completely take over the battlefield.

Moreover, He Jie himself has excellent military skills and can be trained as a commander.

The downsides are that he has a short temper and is dependent on logistics.

Another person with command ability is his aunt. Although she is a bit soft-spoken, her decisive judgments on the battlefield made Su Huan feel that she could still be trained.

The others are far inferior to them.

Qu Hang and the Goat have leadership abilities, but their evolved professions are too special, and coupled with their personality factors, they are both good talents who excel in certain areas but are not suitable to be leaders.

Qu Hang's abilities are quite unique.

It is a Tier 1 "Windwalker Archer" who manipulates domain abilities. Its core skill is lv3 "Wind and Storm Affinity".

He is also a typical example of a promising talent whose potential was wasted by the Steel Council.

It can transmit sound over short distances, open up trajectories, or glide at low altitudes using the wind, and later it can even take off from the spot.

However, their abilities overlap somewhat, and since they are both snipers, they have to work separately.

Lin Jin and Xiao Ba are two top-tier carries. They don't have much experience or support skills; they're just incredibly powerful.

It must be one on each side.

As for Liang Kuan, he was a tough guy that even Su Huan would feel at ease with.

It's a guarantee that the team will provide as a safety net.

Following this logic, the team is basically formed.

Su Huan thought for a moment and said, "The manpower issue can be addressed gradually. I will now assign the core combat members to groups: He Jie, Qu Hang, Liang Kuan, and Xiao Ba will be in one group, with He Jie as the commander; Yu Yue, Lin Jin, Shan Yang, and Lao San will be in another group, with Yu Yue as the commander."

Everyone was taken aback when they heard this arrangement.

He subconsciously looked at Yu Yue first.

The most surprising person in this appointment was her.

However, upon closer reflection, everyone discerned a deeper meaning.

Only Yu Yue bit her lip, looking somewhat troubled.

A while ago, I was thinking that I had too much free time, but now she has the most part-time jobs on the entire train.

First she was the storage car attendant, then the cook on the front train, the train conductor's secretary, and now she's added the role of commander.

She didn't refuse immediately because she was caught in a dilemma.

(End of this chapter)