In the apocalypse, I hoarded goods and handed over my storage space to the government.

The hall was deathly silent, all eyes fixed on the end of the long table.

Su Ran sat up straight, showing no stage fright whatsoever.

"Everyone was arguing for a long time, bringing up a bunch of data."

His gaze swept over several theater commanders, his voice cold and devoid of any warmth.

"The battle lines have been stretched too thin, and our troop strength has been severely diluted."

The engineering corps couldn't keep up with the wall construction, and the transportation of supplies was severely hampered.

Ultimately, it all boils down to two words: "lack of manpower."

No one can refute it; it's a bloody truth.

"But the battle on the overseas front must not stop."

Su Ran's tone became more forceful and resolute.

"Currently, the total number of foreign nationals active in various overseas security zones is around 20 million."

Those who could handle guns and do manual labor had all been assigned to auxiliary troops and engineering battalions; this workforce had long been exhausted.

He looked up at Li Guodong.

"There is only one way to further expand the fighting force and stabilize the newly captured territory."

He paused for half a second, then uttered four words.

"Reassigned from within China."

His words caused a stir throughout the room.

A glint flashed in Zhang Xiao's eyes, and he immediately picked up the conversation.

"I agree! What war doesn't involve bloodshed and casualties?"

He suddenly turned his head and looked at the Civil Affairs and Logistics section across the street.

"I, Old Zhang, will be the villain!"

"The front lines are currently in dire need of garrison infantry and engineers!"

I suggest that we immediately launch a third round of war mobilization.

We will draw another ten million people from the second-tier reserves, large state-owned infrastructure enterprises, and the working-age population!

Send these fresh troops to reinforce the overseas security zones. The main force should just push forward; they'll stay behind to build the walls!

"Nonsense!"

boom!

A laptop was slammed onto the conference table, causing tea to spill out.

Sun Desheng, the usually mild-mannered and taciturn Director of the Civil Affairs Department, suddenly stood up.

He stood up, pointed at Zhang Xiao's nose, and spoke while panting heavily.

"Zhang Dapao, do you think the domestic population is like leeks, that you can harvest one crop and another will grow right away?"

You say you'll smoke, so you'll smoke!

"Look at the mess your military has made! It's only been six months since the Red Rain began, and how many mobilizations has Great Xia already initiated?"

Sun Desheng tapped his fingers heavily on the table.

"A massive army of tens of millions was dispatched! Nearly twenty million more logistical support personnel, engineering teams, and geological surveyors were subsequently sent out!"

"A full thirty million!"

His gaze swept over every senior general in his crisp military uniform, his eyes bloodshot, his voice almost raspy.

"These 30 million people are the most energetic and vigorous generation in the Great Xia Dynasty!"

They are the backbone that supports the operation of this country!

We've sent an entire generation to the front lines!

Zhang Xiao stubbornly refused to back down.

"Old Sun, what are you yelling about! The soldiers on the front lines are bleeding every day, all to preserve the gains made by all of humanity!"

"What a load of rubbish! Are you planning to launch another round of war mobilization domestically?"

Sun Desheng stared intently at Zhang Xiao and Su Ran.

"General Zhang, Advisor Su! Go out and take a look at the newly established heavy factories and agricultural reclamation areas in various places!"

Who is currently holding down the key positions in China's agriculture, food processing, textiles, and basic equipment manufacturing sectors?

He slammed his fist on the table, his eyes reddening.

"It all depends on women over forty and middle-aged and elderly people who should be retired and enjoying their later years!"

"Almost all the able-bodied young men are already on defense posts, and the reserves have long been deployed to the front lines!"

Sun Desheng became more and more excited as he spoke, and his speech became faster and faster.

"After half a century of peace, the people in China are now facing this high-pressure war, and their nerves are already stretched to the limit!"

If you continue to carry out large-scale conscription to fill that bottomless pit overseas, you're going to drain the last drop of blood from Great Xia!

If social stability collapses, logistical support will completely fall apart!

Zhang Xiao gritted his teeth, his fists clenched tightly.

"Are we just going to stand by and watch hundreds of thousands of our brothers overseas have their captured safe zones repeatedly taken back because they have no reinforcements?"

"That's the mistake of your strategy advancing too quickly, not a reason to draw upon the lives of the elderly, women, and children within the country!"

Sun Desheng did not retreat an inch.

Su Ran sat at the end, her expression still calm as still water.

He looked at the furious Sun Desheng and slowly stood up.

"Director Sun, I understand your difficulties."

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a chilling undertone.

"But have you forgotten that the red rain only started six months ago?"

Sun Desheng stared intently at him.

"The rate of evolution of mutated organisms has exploded exponentially."

Su Ran pointed to the flashing red dots on the holographic sand table.

"They haven't fully matured yet. If we stop expanding and switch to strategic defense..."

What about the massive external population? Should we just let them fester and thrive?

Within a year, tier-three and tier-four monsters will form a large-scale beast tide.

"Advisor Su, you make it sound so easy."

Sun Desheng looked displeased and said,

"You're going to tie the 1.2 billion people of Great Xia to a war chariot and drive it off a cliff!"

I didn't say I wouldn't fight!

But I absolutely oppose this piecemeal, short-sighted tactic of draining the pond to catch all the fish!

Su Ran leaned forward, speaking slowly and deliberately, without any emotion.

"This is a moment of life and death."

"If we don't go all out and use every trump card, Great Xia won't even have a chance to be drained of its life force; it will only become food for monsters!"

Sun Desheng laughed in anger.

"Advisor Su, so you mean you wouldn't even blink an eye if you sent teenagers abroad to fill the defense line, right?"

Su Ran's gaze was as cold as frost.

"If it can ensure the continuation of human civilization, I will be the first to shove a gun into their hands."

"You're absolutely insane!"

"I'm doing this to win," Su Ran said, refusing to back down.

The two sides engaged in a heated debate, neither willing to back down an inch.

Li Guodong sat in the main seat, rubbing his temples, and steered the conversation towards the topic of material support.

He turned to look at Qian Liye, whose face was so dark it was almost dripping with water.

"Let's hear from the Supply and Logistics Department as well."

Qian Liye stood up with an unfriendly expression, his face long and his tone sharp and irritating.

"Director Sun is in charge of people, I'm in charge of resources."

"They're all clamoring to fight to the death, right?"

it is good!

"I'll show you today what the Great Xia will use to fight!"

Qian Liye retrieved the first set of data.

"Food! To support your millions of expeditionary troops, the country has already used the No. 3 and No. 5 strategic reserves!"

"Due to the impact of extreme weather, the area of ​​land replanted in domestic state-owned farms during the winter has decreased by a sharp 80%!"

He looked at Su Ran.

"Even if Advisor Su previously used his spatial abilities to empty the world's granaries, at this rate of consumption, he's basically just sitting around eating away at their resources!"

Qian Liye swiped his finger repeatedly to bring up the second set of data.

"Energy and Industry! High-energy crystal core weapons are indeed effective for bombarding the ground, but every shell is polished by domestic high-energy-consuming machine tools."

The special fuel consumed daily by the heavy armored group is equivalent to the total industrial consumption of a medium-sized province before the catastrophe!

Currently, the mining of coal, electricity, and crystal nuclei is all hampered by labor shortages.

Qian Liye was breathing heavily, his voice hoarse like sandpaper being rubbed.

"If you dare to withdraw another batch of engineering teams and reserves, the construction of half of the country's defenses will immediately come to a standstill!"

Strategy is never about simple addition and subtraction!

When the defenses are breached, you just throw out a simple "recruit another batch of people"—it's not that easy or crude!

That's what they say.

But... how do we solve this problem?

Su Ran narrowed her eyes slightly. "Without adding more people, how will you defend?"

"That's the solution you should be thinking of!"

Qian Liye slammed his fist on the table and roared.

"I'll say it again: don't forget that we need to leave people behind in the country!"

The safe zones for a second wave of recovery aren't just found overseas!

Large-scale conscription will only thoroughly weaken the defense capabilities of the Kunlun base and the border defense line.

If you send the entire nation out into the wild, what will the country do to defend itself if a large-scale mutated creature counterattack occurs?

If the Great Xia mainland is gone, what's the point of sweeping across the globe?

"Who says domestic security is being disregarded!"

Zhang Xiao panicked and, as he stood up, he overturned the teacup in front of him.

"Old Sun! Old Qian!"

According to your logic, all those millions of square kilometers of wasteland captured on the front lines are just thrown away?

Did my hundreds of thousands of brothers die for nothing?

"If you don't withdraw from those damned areas far from the core of Great Xia, your million-strong army will all be wasted and die there!"

Sun Desheng angrily retorted.

Several pro-war generals slammed their fists on the table and stood up.

"Bullshit! The soldiers of Great Xia will never retreat a single step, even if they die in battle!"

"If logistics can't keep up, we'll just dig up bugs from underground and eat them, as long as we can kill monsters!"

"Easy for you to say! If the gun barrel breaks down, are you going to bite it with your teeth? If the defense line collapses, are you going to use your bodies to block it?!"

Logistics and civil affairs officials were also shouting at the top of their lungs.

The entire Kunlun Supreme Command Center was in complete chaos, like a pot of boiling porridge.

The military commanders demanded men, weapons, and expansion, vowing to wipe out the entire world.

Civil officials held the depleted national treasury tightly, refusing to budge and allow even one more person to leave the country.

The debate over the national strategy concerns the fate of the nation, and there is no room for compromise.

Su Ran sat back down in her chair, refusing to join the group's heated discussion.

His extremely rational mind was working at full speed.

Qian Liye is right.

The machine in Daxia is nearing its physical limit.

Even if one has unlimited space and can transport equipment and resources, one cannot conjure up tens of millions of living people who can fight and build walls.

"Have you all had enough of this? Shut the hell up!"

A roar shook the eardrums of all the generals present.

The vast, highest-level command center fell silent instantly.

Zhang Xiao, his face flushed, stood frozen in place; Qian Liye, panting heavily, clutched his collar; and Sun Desheng, leaning against the back of his chair, coughed violently.

All eyes, trembling with fear, converged on the person in the main seat.

Li Guodong slowly straightened up.

His eyes, already bloodshot, now radiated an intense, suppressed ferocity.

"Did the argument reach a conclusion?"

Li Guodong's gaze swept across both sides, his voice icy and chilling.

"Zhang Xiao, if you force Old Master Sun to his death, will you be able to conjure up ten million people?"

"Qian Liye, do you think smashing the account books will stop those mutated beasts overseas from multiplying?"

No one dared to answer.

Li Guodong placed his hands on the edge of the table, looking down at the entire sand table.

"From now on, stop the pointless insults."

He raised his head, his gaze fixed on Su Ran.

"Xiao Su, massively recruiting young and middle-aged people from across the country is like draining the pond to catch all the fish; this path won't lead to long-term success."

Li Guodong made the decisive decision, extinguishing the military's last glimmer of hope.

"Domestic transfers should only be considered as a last resort, not a necessary option at this stage."

The very foundation of the Great Xia Dynasty cannot be compromised, not even by a single inch.

Li Guodong took a deep breath and then exhaled heavily.

"At the national strategic level, we cannot treat 'recruiting another batch of people' as a panacea for all problems!"

We must find technological, regional, and strategic alternatives!

This machine, Da Xia, can't withstand your kind of reckless, aggressive operation.

If you keep flooring the accelerator like that, the engine will blow up!

Su Ran listened quietly and nodded slightly.

He didn't argue further.

The goal of testing the bottom line has been achieved; forcing the issue will only backfire.

"The General Staff!"

Li Guodong shouted sharply, turning his gaze to the intelligence terminal.

"Here!" Zhao Ming immediately stood at attention.

"Give me a comprehensive strategic assessment report within three days."

Li Guodong pointed his finger at the sand table and drew a sharp line along the equator.

"A reassessment will be conducted on the four main operational directions: the African savanna region, the South Asian subcontinent insect swarm region, the Latin American rainforest region, and the European wasteland region."

His tone was extremely stern, with a hint of determination.

"I don't want to hear your reports on how many kilometers you've shot down."

I need to see the actual difficulty of controlling each area, the troop attrition rate, and the cost-effectiveness of resource production!

Zhang Xiao keenly sensed the shift in the tone of the conversation and his expression changed slightly.

"Director Li, what do you mean...?"

"My meaning is very clear."

Li Guodong looked up, his gaze as cold as the ice and snow atop the Kunlun Mountains.

"Since there are not enough troops and the logistics cannot keep up."

Great Xia can no longer spread its millions of troops across the globe like pepper.

He slammed his knuckles on the table, throwing out a question that sent chills down everyone's spine.

"The General Staff must answer one question for me."

If we are severely short of troops, we must make a strategic retreat and abandon some overseas security zones...

Which areas will be abandoned first?

Dead silence.

A suffocating, deathly silence.

Abandon the safe zone?

This means giving up the living space that humans have filled with blood, withdrawing the stationed troops, and handing over the mines that have just resumed operation to the mutated beast horde.

"This...this is like cutting off a piece of your own flesh!"

A theater commander murmured to himself.

"If we don't cut off the flesh, the entire body of Great Xia will be worn down and destroyed."

Li Guodong did not back down at all, stood up straight and fastened his top button.

"The global expansion trend remains unchanged, but future global expansion plans will inevitably require large-scale adjustments."

He surveyed the entire room, his eyes revealing a hint of weariness and awe.

"Give me this assessment report in three days."

"at the same time……"

Li Guodong's gaze swept over everyone, and he took a deep breath.

"At the next Supreme Operations Meeting, I will, in any case, invite the Commander out."

The next strategic direction of the Great Xia Dynasty must be personally steered by him.

Everyone's hearts skipped a beat.