Time has entered February, the weather has gradually warmed up, and spring has gradually returned to the earth.
At the southernmost tip of Yuan County, the two mountain ranges on the east and west meet again. This is the main road leading to Gu Meng Mansion.
Yang Qing and his men are stationed here at the moment. He came on the first day of February. This is his last shift in Yuan County.
According to the latest military order sent by the Privy Council, he will return to Yuan County on February 15th and return to Yuanyang after completing the mission.
The latest batch of recruitment has begun, and this time he will be promoted to 100 households.
At this moment, Yang Qing was leading four soldiers to a forest.
Their tasks include daily garrison of military vehicles and daily patrol tasks.
Every patrol mission must be led by the commander himself, and the most elite personnel must be selected from among his subordinates.
You must ensure concealment when you go out, so there are only five who come out every time, no more and no less.
They had been patrolling for an hour, and were nearly ten miles away from the military vehicles. It was time to return.
Just listen to Yang Qing say: "Eat first, and then go back!"
So everyone found a tree each, where it would be safe to eat and where they could sit and rest along the way.
After climbing to a height of two feet, Yang Qing sat on a tree branch and took off the kettle from his waist.
All they drank was cold boiled water, so they had to save the water in the kettle.
After drinking water to relieve his fatigue, Yang Qing took out two pieces of noodles from the package behind his back.
The place they were in had entered the scope of Gu Meng's Mansion, and there were zombies scattered around.
So they have to be more cautious. A lone zombie is not scary, but if it attracts ten or twenty, it will be really troublesome.
The surroundings were extremely quiet at this time, and you could still hear the chirping of birds from time to time.
"After eating, rest for half an hour and then rush back!" Yang Qing ordered to his soldiers.
Time passed slowly, their physical strength gradually recovered, and it was time to hurry up again.
At this moment, the soldier who climbed a tree three feet high went to issue a warning.
Everyone immediately became alert and drew their sabers from their backs.
"What's going on?" Yang Qing asked.
"Sir, look to the west...there are monsters!"
Looking in the direction pointed by their subordinates, everyone saw a group of zombies appearing in the distance, numbering nearly two hundred.
"It's a bit weird!" Yang Qing whispered.
Generally speaking, zombies are scattered and scattered, and the appearance of a zombie swarm will inevitably be accompanied by chaos. Most of the zombies within the zombie swarm will run wildly.
But the group we see now is moving quietly, and can be said to be extremely docile.
There must be something strange when something goes wrong. Yang Qing did not dare to act rashly at this moment, so he ordered all the soldiers to stay in the tree and observe.
At this moment, the corpse group is about three to four hundred meters away from them. Because there are relatively many trees around, they have not been discovered yet.
But this also caused Yang Qing and others' sight to be blocked, and they were never able to see the whole group of corpses clearly.
Yang Qing continued to climb the tree, hoping to have a better career if he stood high. At this time, a soldier reminded: "Sir, these monsters... stopped by the river!"
It is common knowledge that zombies are afraid of water.
Zombies falling into the water will die within five seconds of flopping. This is the result obtained by the imperial doctors at the Royal Medical Center after many experiments.
This river is only over ten feet wide and no deeper than half a person's height. There was originally a bridge, but it was destroyed long ago by Yang Qing and others in order to block the passage of zombies.
They are on the south bank now, and the zombies are also on the south bank.
"To ensure safety, let's retreat to the north bank first!" Yang Qing said in a deep voice.
Everyone has no objection to this, after all, life is the most important thing.
So everyone slowly got down from the tree, moving as slowly as possible to ensure not to make too much noise.
However, the sound cannot be completely cut off. For example, the equipment carried on the body will inevitably collide with each other.
This wouldn't be a big problem in normal times, but what they encountered now was a swarm of corpses.
"Ouch..."
Hearing the movement, the group of corpses that seemed docile just now suddenly let out a roar.
After being discovered, Yang Qing immediately urged: "Go, go quickly!"
Everyone didn't care, they all slid to the ground one by one, turned around and ran towards the river.
The distance between them and the river was probably nearly a hundred meters. The distance was not long, but it seemed far away at this moment.
"Hurry... hurry up!" Yang Qing shouted loudly.
The zombies were running very fast, and they didn't rush in all at once, but divided into three groups and attacked.
The distance between the two sides is getting closer. Although Yang Qing can run faster, the soldiers under his command cannot.
Fortunately, they were only a hundred meters away from the river. When they were fifty meters away from the nearest zombie, the last soldier jumped into the river.
The river was only over a foot wide, so they swam across the river with a few splashes, and then quickly went ashore to enter defense mode.
Yang Qing led his men back more than ten meters, and at this moment all the zombies rushed to the river.
Fortunately, the river serves as a divider. No matter how ferociously these zombies scream, they still dare not cross the river.
Huchihuchi...
The soldiers were breathing heavily. They had not experienced such danger for a long time, and now it felt like an amnesty.
But looking at the hundreds of grinning zombies on the other side of the river, they still felt numb.
Following the strange movements of the zombies on the other side of the river, the zombies wandering around are also gradually gathering at this moment.
This is not a good thing, because there are also zombies coming towards them on the north bank where Yang Qing is.
"Withdraw...withdraw into the woods!"
There are also woods on the north shore, and only by entering the woods and climbing up trees can they truly get down safely.
Yang Qing gave the order, and the soldiers immediately turned around and fled towards the forest without any hesitation.
At the last moment of escaping, Yang Qing turned around and took one last look at the corpses on the other side.
It was this glance that made him see an even stranger scene.
I saw a tall zombie holding a long piece of wood and throwing it to both sides of the river.
"What...what are you doing? Can monsters move wood?"
Yang Qing didn't have time to think too much. The zombies on the north bank were already approaching. He had to escape into the woods quickly.
Although he has been upgraded, the disparity in strength is too great, and it would be extremely unwise to fight head-on.
Soon, they escaped into the forest and quickly climbed into the canopy.
"Sir, that monster is still throwing wood into the water. Could it be that they want to cross the river?"
Hearing the words of his soldiers, Yang Qing was horrified. This damn monster also has a brain?
Seeing zombies gathering around him, although Yang Qing wanted to continue observing, he also knew that saving his life was the most important thing at the moment.
"Go, withdraw!" Yang Qing immediately ordered.
If they are trapped here, they are likely to be trapped to death in the end, and these abnormal conditions cannot be passed back.
It can be said that all the orders Yang Qing just issued are basically correct.
So everyone took out their tools and walked through the tree canopy to avoid encountering zombies.
After escaping for several hundred meters, Yang Qing and his party got down from the tree and returned to the north as quickly as possible.