Chapter 703: Cleaning up the Traitors!
"Too strong!! What a terrifying Sky Fortress!" Chen Yan, the commander within the Sky Fortress watched as the zombies below were being wasted away like nothing, his heart full of excitement and shock.
It was the first time they were utilizing the Sky Fortress for battle, and they had stocked it up with large amounts of ammunition. As they flew across, the countless bullets and explosives rained down, blasting the zombies into pieces.
The soldiers on board the Sky Fortress erupted in cheers as they watched the zombies scatter.
The moment it appeared, the advance of the zombie horde came to a stop.
The soldiers of the 3rd Brigade also became revitalized and held out for the entire night.
Early the next morning, Yue Zhong had sent out Liu Yue Mei who had rested and recovered her Spirit, sending out the 20 Thunder Fighters as they began their assault on the horde, pinpointing the Z-Types.
As the explosions rang out, the Z-Types were taken out one by one, and the entire horde soon crumbled.
The moment they defeated the zombies facing the 3rd Brigade, Yue Zhong immediately brought Liu Yue Mei and continued towards the other areas.
The rest of the zombie hordes were dealt with one by one under Yue Zhong’s strategy.
With the main commanders of each horde wiped out, Yue Zhong then left his forces on the front line to continue dealing with the rest of the horde, while he retreated to rest.
Having lost the intelligent commanders, the rest of the zombie hordes were like punching bags to be killed by the 6 units of Yue Zhong’s forces.
Every day, a large number of zombies would be dealt with by a multitude of methods, and the corpses transported back to be converted to nutrients for the Mother Tree, Rice Tree and the rest of the Mutant Plants.
Bì Lǜ, under Ji Qing Wu’s watch, led 10,000 treants to hunt the zombies as well. Each day, the Treant army was able to slaughter at least 200,000 zombies alone.
The moment the Z-types and intelligent commanders of the zombies were killed, it spelled the doom of the huge zombie horde. However, because of the sheer numbers, even if all of Yue Zhong’s forces were to go all out, they required time.
The zombies had no commander and were gathered together, it was the best situation to deal with. In order to quickly eradicate these 10 million zombies, Yue Zhong had also brought most of his forces here to deal with them.
If these 10 million zombies were to suddenly come under the control of an intelligent evolved being, even if Yue Zhong were to use another nuclear missile, he would not be able to wipe them all out. Therefore, he was unwilling to allow them to exist for a moment longer than necessary.
On a large field in Ulan City, a number of soldiers were standing around, while a thousand survivors were tied up and forced to kneel. Their faces were pale with fear. Beyond the perimeter, the other survivors of Ulan City were pointing at them and murmuring among themselves.
Yue Zhong sat on a sofa, with Zhuo Ya Tong and Yin Shuang in his embrace, as he looked at Situ Jin who was brought before him with an indifferent expression, "Why did you betray me?"
Yue Zhong had not expected that this honest and professional soldier would choose to betray him. He had been on guard against Hu-er Ran, and instead, it was Situ Jin who he valued greatly and appreciated who had betrayed him. Whereas Hu-er Ran had been the one to fight with all his might on the front lines, and even in the direst of circumstances, he had not turned against Yue Zhong nor flee.
When Yue Zhong was dealing with the 6 separate zombie hordes, it had been his weakest moment, and thus, he had left the Sky Fortress as a trump card just in case Hu-er Ran rebelled. The ironic thing was that, instead of Hu-er Ran, it had been Situ Jin.
Situ Jin’s gaze was complicated as he eyed Yue Zhong, before softly replying, "You’re unorthodox."
A lot of people valued orthodoxy, especially military men. It was precisely because Yue Zhong had been a normal person before the apocalypse, that Situ Jin chose to betray him. In every generation, there would be those who were loyal to the system, and the old order. It boiled down to a difference in beliefs.
"Orthodox?" Yue Zhong’s mouth twitched, as he let out a cold, condescending laugh, "Lian Da Zhong, convey my orders. Round up these rebels and throw them to the zombies. The women are sentenced to the Women Battalion, while the rest of the men are to be thrown into the Scum Battalion."
Being fed to the zombies alive was one of the cruelest punishments. After they were eaten alive, they would be executed to prevent the turning, then used to nourish the Mother Tree. The moment the rebels heard Yue Zhong’s order, their faces turned pale and began to curse out loud.
Beside Situ Jin were many military officers, they were his buddies and comrades and were the main culprits in this rebellion as well. The moment they heard the sentence, they were all frightened.
One of Situ Jin’s oldest friend, the owner of the restaurant, kneeled down and began to kowtow profusely, causing his forehead to bleed, "Leader!! It was none of my business!! Situ Jin had forced me!! Please spare me!! Please, Leader!! I still have a 12-year-old daughter to take care of! Please!!"
Another young officer kneeled down and begged profusely as well, "Leader!! It was all Situ Jin, it was Situ JIn this bastard who forced me!! I wasn’t willing to betray you, he held a gun against me!! Please, spare me!! I’m willing to go to the Scum Battalion to kill zombies. Please!!"
"....."
Other than 7 or 8 of them who knew they had no way out, the rest began to denounce and curse Situ Jin as they kneeled and cried out for their lives. They did not want to be torn apart alive by the zombies.
Situ Jin got down on his knees and begged, "Yue Zhong, this time, it’s my fault!! I shall take responsibility! Take it out all on me!! This has nothing to do with the innocent, please show mercy and leave their families alone!"
Yue Zhong stared at him hatefully while speaking icily, "You want me to let these bastards go? No fucking way! Our tens of thousands of brothers-in-arms had been fighting with their lives on the line, and for what? Wasn’t it to protect you fucking lot? You bastards dare to strike us in the back when we’re risking our lives if you guys had succeeded, what then? Our brothers would all have to die with no burial grounds! Our families would suffer the same fate!! And you bastards still want to live?! You want to be a hero here?! Fucking eyesore!! Drag him away!"
One soldier came up and stared at Situ Jin with hate in his eyes, smashing down with the butt of his rifle, knocking Situ Jin’s teeth out, "Bastard!! Shut the hell up!! My brother had died on the frontline, and he was harmed by you bastards who backstabbed us!!"
When Situ Jin was smashed in the face by that soldier, his eyes turned dim, filled with pain. He was also from the military and knew the pain of the betrayal of his own people. The soldier’s words caused his heart to be full of pain and regret.
The rest of the soldiers watched coldly as the traitors were dragged out one by one, thrown towards the punishment pit.
In the pit, there were a dozen zombies caught by the soldiers of Yue Zhong’s army.
One of the rebels was dragged by 2 soldiers towards the edge of the pit, before being shoved in.
"No!!!! No!!!" The rebel dropped in, his face turning pale, as he shrieked out like a pig being slaughtered.
When the dozens of zombies caught the scent of a human, they began to shamble forwards, opening their rotting mouths and bit down viciously on the body of the soldier, tearing off huge chunks of meat.
"Ah!!! AHHH!!!"
The rebel screamed out loud as he was torn apart by the zombies, the scene extremely gory.
One by one, the rebels were thrown in and screamed as they were eaten alive.
Those who took part in the protest all felt their hairs stand in fear. Many of them had never seen how Yue Zhong did things, seeing it now caused them to be filled with intense fear.
Soon after, soldiers from the Scum Battalion marched out with whips in their hands, entering the field to drag off the soldiers who took part in the protests and their families, dragging them towards the Scum Battalion, where they would be treated as cannon fodder in the first instance.
Battling on the front lines was extremely tough, plus they needed all the help they could get, that was why Yue Zhong would sentence them to the Scum Battalion, otherwise, he would have killed them all.
Yue Zhong then turned to Ying Kong who stood at one side, speaking softly, "Ying Kong, you done well this time. How would you like to be rewarded?"
This time, in spite of Situ Jin’s betrayal, Ying Kong had chosen not to follow suit, instead, he stood against his ex-superior. This pleased Yue Zhong greatly.
Ying Kong immediately got down on his knees, pleading, "Leader, I only hope for you to have mercy on the family members of Commander Situ and the rest. I do not need any rewards!"
Yue Zhong’s countenance turned frosty, as he rejected it, "No! As criminals, I cannot pardon them. Otherwise, there will be no end to such episodes."
Ying Kong sighed in his heart and knew that this person was hard to budge. He pondered a while before speaking up, "In that case, I hope to fight on the front lines, Leader!"
Yue Zhong nodded, "Ok! I promise you. From now on, you are the platoon commander of the 2nd Brigade 1st Company 2nd Platoon. Go!"
Ying Kong saluted, "Thank you, Leader!", before leaving, slightly forlorn.
Yue Zhong then turned to face Lian Da Zhong and Cha Bi Lai, speaking indifferently, "Lian Da Zhong, Cha Bi Lai, this time, you 2 have done a great service."
Lian Da Zhong immediately began to shower words of praise while being smug, "It’s all because of your amazing leadership and wise decisions, Leader. That was how we could have done this."
Yue Zhong continued mildly, "I intend to set up a 6th Infantry Brigade, the commander shall be you, Lian Da Zhong, while Cha Bi Lai shall be the vice-commander. You may select your troops from the supplementary troops."
The both of them immediately began to thank him profusely, "Thank you, Leader!! Thank you!!"