Wasteland Commander-Chapter 438 - 129: Mountain of Gold

The Dawn Army has pressed close to Jiangzhou.

Zheng Jinnan barely had time to resent Liu Jingyan’s betrayal, hastily organizing the defense.

Even he hadn’t anticipated that the collapse would come so quickly.

Chu Yuan had already returned, only to be captured and executed by Zheng Jinnan.

No matter how much he liked this godson, he could no longer tolerate his failures twice over. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Jiangzhou still had close to three hundred thousand troops, and he hastily gathered another two hundred thousand to form a half-million-strong army, preparing for a desperate last stand.

At the same time, he needed to contact those foreign powers to urge them to quickly enter Qin Han.

Since the Alliance Army’s defeat, those foreign forces that had intended to join the Qin Han civil war had halted, lingering outside the waters, with some showing signs of retreat.

Zheng Jinnan didn’t want them to withdraw, making call after call, leveraging both threats and bribes in hopes of drawing these powers in, to alleviate the pressure on Jiangzhou.

But those foreigners weren’t so easily deceived; given the Alliance’s previous great advantage that still led to a loss, they no longer believed Zheng Jinnan could reverse the situation.

Another call disconnected, leaving Zheng Jinnan to pinch the bridge of his nose wearily.

He pondered what else could tempt these foreigners, what could make them join.

But he’d already given away almost everything he could; all of Ye Fan’s shares were ceded, even the Mountain River Base and Huaihai Base were handed over.

Was he to cede Jiangnan Base, even the territories in the Lingnan region?

If so, what was the point of being emperor even if he won?

He walked over to the window, gazing quietly at the falling flowers outside.

Unknowingly, time had already reached November.

The flowers on both sides of the Celestial River had begun to wilt, winter was coming.

In the distant sky, a few barely visible birds were circling.

The television in the room malfunctioned, emitting a bothersome static sound.

Military vehicles on the road were hurriedly deploying troops to the front, with the Dawn Army closing in within a hundred kilometers.

At this moment, Zheng Jinnan missed his adopted daughter Hua Wushuang a bit.

If Shuang’Er were still around, perhaps they could have launched an assassination against Ye Fan.

In the worst case, he could still leave with Wushuang and go to a country far from Qin Han, relying on his intelligence, accumulated wealth, and Wushuang’s skills to make a comeback.

Even conceding that he no longer had the chance to vie for the world, making a wealthy man with Wushuang was still a fine choice.

After all, such beauty as Wushuang’s was rare in the world...

But it was all too late, this battle had little chance of success.

Feeling a bit restless, he turned off the television, hoping to enjoy a moment of peace, though he knew it was a mere indulgence.

At this critical juncture, countless calls were sure to disturb him.

Yet after a while, it still remained quite peaceful.

"This shouldn’t be...."

Zheng Jinnan stared absentmindedly out the window, at those few circling black dots. Had he not reached the peak of Level 2 Mutant, he wouldn’t have even seen those things.

"Something’s not right...."

Thoughts of the problematic television signal and the unusually quiet phones brought a chill to him.

Could it be...?

An alarm bell rang in Zheng Jinnan’s heart as he suddenly saw a fiery streak rapidly approaching from the distance!

Just then, a piercing air raid siren abruptly blared!

The missile defense system around his house engaged, and two missiles soared to intercept!

Only at this moment did Zheng Jinnan realize those were no birds—they were unmistakably drones from the Dawn Army!

A decapitation strike!

With those words flashing in his mind, Zheng Jinnan could no longer care about anything else, hastily attempting to jump out the window to escape.

But everything was too late.

His intercepting missiles were ineffective; the Dawn Army’s missile accelerated in its final moments, directly breaching the missile defense system’s blockade, crashing down fiercely.

Boom~~~~!

Amid a massive explosion, a small mushroom cloud rose from Zheng Jinnan’s residence.

The area spanning hundreds of meters was instantly engulfed, and a small building was turned into ruins in an instant.

Zheng Jinnan, at the peak of Level 2 Mutation, perished in the missile strike, not even leaving an intact corpse.

Meanwhile, most of the Jiangzhou troops were still unaware of the news, as firefights had already begun near the city walls.

Zheng Jinnan’s guards ran frantically, fighting the flames. Some rescue personnel attempted to enter the burning zone to find Zheng Jinnan.

Without a body, no one dared claim he was dead, after all, he was their supreme commander.

Several of Zheng Jinnan’s adopted sons arrived, organizing firefighting on one hand, while entertaining other thoughts with the other.

If Zheng Jinnan was deceased, could they seize the opportunity to become his successor?

Under normal circumstances, they would surely have fought fiercely for the successor position. But at this moment, whoever took over Jiangzhou would have to face off directly against Ye Fan’s Dawn Army.

It’s better not to be the one who stands out, isn’t it? They believe they don’t have the skills, so they’ve simply withdrawn like turtles, directly ignoring the continuous military orders.

Everyone passes the buck around, no one willing to issue commands, leaving the army to make its own decisions.

Originally, they weren’t a match for the Dawn Army, and without a leader, the outcome is predictable.

.......

Even Ye Fan himself didn’t anticipate that the decapitation action would yield such effective results.

With Zheng Jinnan dead, Jiangzhou is leaderless and nearly paralyzed.

The battle lasted just over an hour before someone on Jiangzhou’s side surrendered.

One surrender led to a chain of others, as the new recruits in Jiangzhou were no longer willing to risk their lives for Zheng Jinnan and his godsons. Finally, those defending the east gate simply opened the city gates, welcoming the Dawn Army into the city.

In just two and a half hours, the full ceasefire took effect, the Dawn Army entered the city, took over the city defenses, and announced that Jiangzhou was under martial law, implementing complete lockdown.

A large number of Military Intelligence Bureau personnel entered the city and commenced their operations.

In the aftermath of the battle, all die-hard elements received their deserved punishment.

A pitch-black night passed, and over ten thousand people in Jiangzhou City were directly executed—these were the individuals who had long been dissatisfied with the Dawn Army, standing at the forefront of resistance against Ye Fan.

The Military Intelligence Bureau had long possessed vast intelligence and was well aware of personnel issues within Jiangzhou.

More than twenty thousand people were imprisoned directly, with all properties confiscated, awaiting investigation.

I have to say, this move of raiding homes was certainly a method for achieving rapid retaliation.

Ye Fan later heard that this raid accumulated great wealth; unable to contain himself any longer, he entered Jiangzhou City on the third day of its fall.

By the time Ye Fan entered Jiangzhou City on the third day, the situation had already started to stabilize.

No matter how many people still dislike Ye Fan secretly or hate the Dawn Army, at least openly, no one dares to oppose them anymore.

This time, Director Shen and his team exerted great effort, with special forces in cooperation, employing extremely brutal means, killing many people and intimidating many others.

After war and cleansing, the population of Jiangzhou City seemed to have decreased.

So, by the time Ye Fan arrived, everyone here was already compliant.

Ye Fan directly entered Jiangzhou’s city hall.

It had already been taken over by the Dawn Army—a thorough inspection of the city hall showed no presence of enemies, and all collected wealth had been gathered here.

Not only was there wealth from the raids, but also the wealth that Jiangzhou had accumulated over a long period, including gold bars from banks, had all been delivered here.

Because of the collection of this wealth, the Dawn Army had earned some criticism, but Director Shen took it upon himself, having nothing to do with Ye Fan.

Ye Fan never considered returning this wealth to the civilians or anything like that. In his territory, he needed to maintain the image of benevolence, but in this newly occupied area, maintaining any image was unnecessary.

Ye Fan was accustomed to the sight of gold and silver, yet he was still deeply shocked by the quantity of wealth here.

Jiangzhou was located along the Celestial River and was among the earliest established base cities. Surrounding other bases took the lead from Zheng Jinnan.

Even Guo Zhun from the Ice City, during his visit to Jiangzhou, handed over a significant amount of gold and silver to acquire a noble identity.

The saying goes, "Antiques in peaceful times, gold in chaotic times"—it’s not without reason.

Zheng Jinnan evidently followed this saying; the wealth he accumulated nearly filled half the city hall.

Of course, a great deal of wealth from other people’s homes was also piled here, now resembling garbage, forming a small mountain that, under the illumination of lights, emitted a mesmerizing glow.

Ye Fan couldn’t help but swallow hard looking at this golden mountain.

It’s too much!

As he gently reached out his hand to touch the golden mountain, a system alert immediately came through.

[Precious metals detected, convert to system funds?]

"Convert immediately, convert it all!"

[Conversion complete, congratulations, Commander, on acquiring 925,532,839 gold.]

Ye Fan counted the number and was wildly happy inside.

Over nine hundred million!

This golden mountain brought him over 920 million in wealth.

Together with the leftover funds from building the war fortress, Ye Fan’s financial resources for the first time reached the ten-billion mark!

Ten billion, the total funds acquired since obtaining the system had never reached ten billion.

If all this money were used to produce soldiers, it might directly fill the army’s ranks to full.

However, in this way, technology would fall behind—even after upgrading the Commander, subsequent tech wouldn’t be unlocked.

The path Ye Fan took was always dual—both producing soldiers and developing technology, never going to extremes, so he would make no exception this time.

Nonetheless, no matter what, this harvest was enough to significantly enhance the military strength of the Dawn Army.

Even though Jiangzhou and Zheng Jinnan were defeated, the areas around them weren’t fully secure.

The Mountain River Base and Huaihai Base have retreated to their lairs, and Ye Fan doesn’t plan to let them off.

There’s also the nearby Jiangnan Base; it cannot be tolerated beside one’s couch—it must be eradicated.

Then there’s Crescent Island, Shanshen Country, and others that will be included in the next combat plan.

Just as Ye Fan was thinking about the future, the phone rang.

Su Qiao was calling Ye Fan.