On the seventh day of August, twenty miles southeast of Yuanyang.
This place is unremarkable, but it is the border between Yuanyang Prefecture and Hecheng County.
On the official road, a large number of young men were walking slowly forward holding sickles, escorted by soldiers around them.
On both sides of the official road, there were piles of corpses, apparently after they had been cleaned up, they had not had time to be burned.
If it were originally the case, after seeing these corpses, the young men would definitely run away in fear.
But now, they have been able to deal with it calmly.
The reason why they have such courage is because the palace's army is strong enough to stop almost all zombie attacks.
Meng Hai and Mashan were walking side by side. They were also in the team. They came out of the city to participate in harvesting grain.
According to Meng Hai's rough estimate, the food collected into Yuanyang City during this period was enough to feed everyone in the city for a year.
But even when there was sufficient food, the palace still spared no effort to send troops and civilians to this place dozens of miles away from the city to collect food from farther away.
"Brother, this is our third day outside the city. Apart from the corpse on the ground next to us, we really haven't seen a single monster!" Ma Shan couldn't help but say.
This is indeed something to be amazed about. Ten days ago, they thought the zombies were invincible, but now they can't even see the living shadows of the zombies.
Such a strong contrast is enough to make Ma Shan truly amazed.
Glancing at the sickle in his hand, Ma Shan continued: "Brother, I have been working day and night for more than ten days. The palace has taken back so much grain that the granary can no longer hold it!"
"How long do you think we have to work until the end of this job?"
Meng Hai glanced at Ma Shan and said, "I would like to keep it forever, but I'm afraid that I won't be able to do this job for more than ten days at most!"
"Why is this?"
"According to the season, the rainy season will come in ten days and a half!" Meng Hai explained.
Even though he was just a butcher, Mashan understood the meaning behind these words.
When the rainy season comes, the wheat that has not had time to be harvested will basically rot in the ground. Maybe new seedlings will grow in the ground next year.
"That's true. When it rains, no matter how good the wheat is, it will rot!" Mashan said with regret.
There is nothing we can do about this. With so much food outside the city, most of it will inevitably rot.
The team continued to march, and soon they were taken outside a village where the houses had been cleared.
In order to increase the absolute quantity of grain harvest, almost all the young people in the city were sent out of the city, canceling the original rotation system.
Meng Hai and others have only been out of the city for three days, but some people in this team have been outside the city for half a month.
When they stay outside the city for a long time, they all live outside the city, in small villages that have been cleaned up.
The food that has been recovered from the city is being handled by the old, weak, women and children who are left behind in the city. It can be said that the entire Yuanyang City has been mobilized.
"Stand still, all stand in line, hurry up!"
Under the shout of a hundred households, the young men leaving the city quickly stood up, and their movements were extremely fast.
In order to facilitate management, these young men who left the city were organized into teams, with each team having fifty people.
In order to stimulate everyone's fighting spirit, the team that harvests the most food every day can be rewarded with a fish.
Nowadays, almost all the zombies have been cleared on the banks of the Bahe River, so Zhao Yanxun also arranged for people to fish.
These rewarded fish will be recorded in the account and distributed together when they return to the city.
At this moment, everyone has finished lining up, and they are all looking at the hundreds of households leading the team, waiting for the lecture.
Tan Lu stood on a big rock, looked at the people below with a serious expression, and then said loudly: "It's not the first day you have been outside, you must know the rules outside!"
"But I still want to say, except for harvesting wheat every day, don't run around if you have nothing to do!"
"Damn it, if anyone dares to run out, even if the monster doesn't bite you to death, I will take half of your life!"
After stepping off the stone, Tan Lu said in a more stern tone: "As captain of your team, you have to keep an eye on your subordinates, and you are also responsible for anything that happens!"
Of course, if someone is killed by a zombie, the responsibility to protect Tan Lu will be even greater.
"Okay, I'll give you half an hour to find a place to live in the village and arrange your personal things. Then come back here to gather in half an hour, and then start working!"
"It's gone!"
As Tan Lu finished speaking, the crowd was not in chaos, but was gathered together by their respective captains.
It should be noted that the captaincy does not depend on who is big, but who is smart enough.
What the palace needs is to increase production, not to let them go to the battlefield to kill zombies, so someone needs to arrange the manpower reasonably.
The captain is appointed by the royal palace. If anyone feels that his fists are too strong and he is unruly, soldiers will naturally come to deal with him.
After ruthlessly dealing with a group of troublemakers at the beginning, everyone is now at peace.
The team that Meng Hai was in at the moment was captained by a thin man. At the moment, he was leading his men to Zhuangzi.
While rushing on the road, captain Zhang Dashi said: "You should take what Tan Baihu said just now to your heart. This is not a joke!"
"Although most of the monsters have been killed, there are always some missing. Danger may occur at any time, so everyone must be vigilant!"
Zhuangzi is not big, and it is surrounded by defensive horses, which is enough to deal with small-scale zombies. In other words, it is very safe inside.
Under the leadership of Zhang Dashi, Meng Hai and his party were led to the northeast corner of Zhuangzi, where several houses were allocated to them.
In fact, a tacit understanding has been formed among the several captains on how to allocate accommodation, at least for this group of them.
"Meng Hai, Mashan, Wu San, the three of you cook, the rest of you put things away quickly!"
Zhang Dashi Maliao arranged the task, and he had to ensure that his men would eat lunch quickly within half an hour.
In half an hour, they will be working in the fields until dusk, and they cannot bear it without eating.
After receiving the order, Meng Hai and Mashan started to prepare for lunch without saying much.
Cooking is actually not difficult, just heat up the prepared dry food and cook a pot of egg drop soup.
Only at noon can they have a bowl of egg drop soup.
Mashan was getting dry food, Wu San was lighting a fire, and Meng Hai was busy taking out eggs.
"Lao Meng, you said you are very capable, why don't you try to become a captain?"
Having said this, Wu San glanced at Zhang Dashi in the distance, and then lowered his voice and said: "The virtue of Zhang Dashi is comparable to yours!"
Hearing this, Meng Hai said with a calm expression: "I'm new here, so naturally it's not my turn to be the captain!"
This is indeed the most fundamental reason. Meng Hai has only been in Yuanyang for a few days, and the chance of being trusted and becoming the captain is too small.
"Zhang Dashi, this bastard, don't look at the upright expression on his face. This guy is not a good guy at all. You have to be on guard against him!"
Hearing this, Meng Hai glanced at Wu San, stared at it for a few seconds and then said: "Let's cook, everyone will be waiting to eat in a while!"
