Zombie Apocalypse: Creation-Chapter 805: The Northern Report (2)

"There are over a hundred rules in the rulebook, but we picked five that stood out the most and what most of the people who had left talked about."

Before Xiaoyun’s eyes, the very first line of the rule shocked him. It was one of the harshest rules he had ever witnessed.

"Encoarchingment law... Immediate expulsion for robbery, with items valued over a hundred dollars punishable by death."

Agent Thunder didn’t wait for Xiaoyun to read the whole thing, as the next few rules all appeared at once, right below the robbery law.

"Universal Conscription Order... Child Reassignment Directive... Reproductive Licensing Law... Who in their right mind made some of these?"

The laws finally made Xiaoyun more confused than ever. He couldn’t understand why anyone would put up with these levels of restrictions.

"Most accounts from the people who left had stated some had rarely been enforced... It seems to be only enforced during the start of the outbreak."

As Xiaoyun read through each of the law’s details, it soon began to make somewhat sense to him as the explanation page appeared.

"Many of the specific laws seem to stem from needs or real cases, like this one after a zombie baby came out of a mother."

"I had never heard of that happening before," Xiaoyun murmured, his mind unable to wrap around it at all.

"We can’t really confirm the validity of this story. But based on intel we can gather, the atmosphere around these provinces is heavily rigid and restrictive."

"I can definitely see that... I almost forgot to ask, what do they call themselves?"

"In the official communications, they refer to themselves as the Government’s Army, but it seems that most survivors in the North called them Jiaotu Army."

"Jiaotu... Scorch Earth?"

The word sounded familiar in Xiaoyun’s head for a second before Agent Thunder fully revealed the meaning behind it.

"Every city they had been into, it’s been mostly scotched down to the bare bones from extensive use of artillery barrages."

As new pictures appeared on the slide, it was a whole city under near destruction. Most of its skyscrapers had fallen onto the road.

Rubbles were everywhere, completely blocking off a road running through a city. Only a few single-story buildings managed to survive.

It almost reminded him of the destruction seen in Wuzhou over in Guangxi province, where giant mutants ran through everything in the city.

"What’s the point of the city if they destroy it like this?" Yueyue questioned.

"Based on some of the people we interviewed, their objective seems to be killing as many zombies as possible while avoiding urban combat."

"Make sense."

Xiaoyun muttered to himself, his mind beginning to realize how they managed to expand so fast to control all three of the northeastern provinces.

"Ahem, moving on to its governing structure, they’re under a military restructure with the commander-in-chief named Lin Gaojian.

Each of the three provinces is assigned a civil servant who works alongside a military governor... Except for the Hubei area."

As Agent Thunder pointed his laser pointer around the zoomed-out map of the North, it included half of the Hubei province and Beijing.

"They’re under direct control, and as of our last intel report from this month, they seem to be on track to clear Tianjin city."

"Do they have any particular weaknesses?" Xiaoyun questioned.

"It’s extremely cold up north, reaching an inhabitable level of coldness. Some of those who left cited it as the main reason for leaving as well."

"How cold exactly?" Xiaoyun questioned again.

"Um, below 10 degrees Celsius? We can’t confirm it, but the record snowfall had been broken year over year based on a man we interviewed."

"I see... Continue."

---

After sitting through the entire day of the report, Xiaoyun finally figured out a rough estimate of what the situation in the north was like.

The first faction was the government faction, or the Jiaotu army. Composed mostly of the army before the outbreak, they were the de facto ruler of the north.

Second came Zhangfei’s father’s army, or the Green army.

Its name came from the trees that continued to grow along the provincial border to prevent a sandstorm from coming south.

They are composed of the army before the outbreak, just like the Government forces, except they’re based in the Northwestern part of the country.

The area they control stretches from Gansu til Zhangjiakou city in the northwestern part of Hubei, with presence scattered throughout the north of the Yangtze River.

Purely based on a map project, they had a vast area under their control that literally covered everything north of the Yangtze River.

It was even bigger than the Government Forces. However, the reality is that most of the small settlements are just using their name for protection.

The core area of the Green Army only consisted of the much smaller towns in the northern tip of Ningxia, Shaanxi, and Shanxi provinces.

Rather than a strict hierarchical structure, their governing system functions more as a loose-knit coalition between each of the bases in the rural countryside.

A replica of what Zhongxiong’s forces tried to do in Hunan, except expanded threefold across multiple provinces.

The third faction was more of a neutral party in the conflict, a civilian government whose founding had zero ties to either of the two factions.

They called themselves the People’s Commune of Henan-Anhui-Jiangsu. As the name implies, they mostly control the three provinces.

It started out as a group of small settlements fighting against zombies, a united front founded by local militias during the start of the outbreak.

Facing pressure from both Jiantu and the Green Army, they joined forces into a more centralized structure, with its headquarters being Xuzhou city.

Survivors in the north called them ’demilitarized’ in the sense of having a civilian leader. But the militia technically served under a different militia leader.

Based on some rumors gathered, the commune came into existence due to a ludicrous number of zombies that traveled in the open plains.

Neither of the two Government Forces wanted to be the one dealing with it, which could partially explain why they avoided expanding further inland.

Outside of the three mainstream factions, there was technically a fourth faction.

It was the zombies themselves who had increasingly become more aggressive and more dangerous than ever.

From all accounts of survivors and traders up north, the situation was starting to become dire as zombies mutated much faster than anyone had expected.

The difficulty up north was apparently unparalleled. Every street corner had a tank mutant of some sort that had grown immune to grenades.

Not to mention the endless number of zombies, despite the situation on the map showing progress being made by the big three.

More and more of the independent settlements, even in the rural areas, were being crushed by massive zombie hordes, being wiped off the map as refugees fled.

It was almost as if the zombies had reached a common consensus. A need for all-out push or nothing if they wanted to survive.

"That’s all we have gathered so far, Governor. Is there anything we can help you understand the situation?"

"Nope, I think that’s all I needed to know," Xiaoyun answered.

As the last agent finished giving their presentation, Yueyue took this chance to thank everyone for their hard work.

"So what do you think?"

Yueyue asked after all of the agents had left the room, leaving only the two of them inside the meeting room alone.

"I think I learned a lot today. A lot more than I had expected after asking you to work on this for a month."

"Not a month, we had been working on this before Renqin had left. We just started putting the pieces together now."

"Still extremely impressive in such a short time. You did a fantastic job." Xiaoyun complimented.

"I didn’t do that much of the work, though. The agents are the ones who are out there risking their lives."

"No need to diminish what you did. The agents carried it out, but you’re the one who brought the pieces together."

"Thanks..."

Seeing her shyly lowering her head, Xiaoyun couldn’t help but reach his hands out to pat her on the head.

"You want any rewards? Anything on your mind for doing such a good job?"

"I... I think I’m good."

Yueyue answered as her face suddenly started to blush red, and her eyes continued to stare down towards the floor.

"You sure? Nothing at all?" Xiaoyun asked again as he stopped patting her head to make her feel more comfortable.

"It’s just a part of my job, sir."

"Sir? When did you start to get so formal? No one is in this room right now... Are you scared to ask for a reward, Yueyue?"

As his face inched closer and closer, Yueyue finally got enough courage to look up as she quickly got up from her seat.

"I-I’m not scared. Excuse me, I’m going to head back to work now."

Xiaoyun didn’t try to stop her, watching her in silence as she ran out of the room. He turned around as he looked towards the blank projection sheet.

"Jiaotu Army, huh..."