Invasion of America

Chapter 141 External Relations
A month has passed, and the season has transitioned from early summer to midsummer, with the weather becoming increasingly hot and dry.

But it seems Mother Nature forgot to send rain; Virginia is experiencing an unusually dry summer. The sun is blazing outdoors, leaves are drooping, and the ground vegetation is almost scorched.

As for when it will rain? Nobody knows. Weather forecasts have long since disappeared, and humanity's ability to combat natural disasters has drastically decreased.

Outside the town of Avoni, captured white slaves are operating a drip irrigation system that integrates water and fertilizer, with pipes mounted on wheels, slowly driving through the wheat field.

The town has readily available farmland and agricultural machinery, with a high degree of mechanization. As long as there is a supply of electricity and fuel, tens of thousands of acres of farmland can be cultivated with very little manpower.

Unfortunately, fertilizer is in short supply, and the relevant factories have stopped operating. The town has only a small amount in stock, but it will soon run out.

The most critical problem is that there are no good seeds left.

Many people curse the seed companies for being unscrupulous and deliberately preventing farmers from saving seeds.

In fact, hybrid lines are inherently impossible to preserve seeds, or like seedless watermelons, the seeds are completely degenerated and there are none at all.

Modern agriculture has long since evolved into an intertwined system with industry; if industry collapses, agriculture will inevitably follow suit.

The consequences of not having high-quality seeds are extremely serious. Even if normal survivors want to farm, they will be staring blankly at the land because they simply cannot find the seeds they need.

Even those who made advance preparations, like Zhou Qingfeng, couldn't purchase the original seeds through normal channels.

This stuff is generally used for breeding, and ordinary people have no use for it at all. In the end, it was only purchased from the 'Dongda' agricultural company at a high price, and even then, the quantity was not large.

Following the viral crisis, the world's surviving humans now face an agricultural crisis. Once the scavenged food supplies run out, there will be no use crying out to heaven and earth.

But for the 'Holy Light' team, the situation wasn't too bad; the land could still be cultivated. Many of the captured white slaves were town residents familiar with agricultural production.

They turned on the water pumps to draw water from the drip irrigation system's water tower. Once the water tower was full, the large drip irrigation machine would slowly drive out and water the wheat seedlings along the field ridges.

The wheat field in front of us covers more than 3,000 mu (approximately 200 hectares), but due to a lack of fertilizer, the wheat is not growing very well. A yield of two or three hundred kilograms per mu (approximately 0.067 hectares) would be considered good. However, given the large area planted, there will still be some harvest in the fall.

Next to the wheat field are a thousand acres of potatoes, next to the potatoes are cassava, and next to the cassava are soybeans, corn, peanuts and sweet potatoes.

Knowing their agricultural skills were lacking, the 'Holy Light' team deliberately diversified their staple crops to avoid pests and diseases that could cause them to lose their entire harvest—but instead of pests and diseases, a drought struck.

A year ago, Americans could squander energy at will, running their air conditioners without restraint in their uninsulated wooden villas.

Even if a drought comes, we're not afraid; we'll just find a way to pump water.

but now.
"The power supply is insufficient!" Zhou Qingfeng stood by the farm road on the edge of the field, sweating profusely from the sun, and sighed repeatedly in the face of the drought in the fields.

Over the past month, four 'Catalina' aircraft have been transporting people and supplies everywhere, and the population of the 'Playground' shelter has increased from just over one hundred to more than five hundred—power supply has suddenly become scarce.

But residential electricity consumption is nothing compared to production electricity consumption.

Last year, the shelter only cultivated about a hundred acres of land, planting potatoes, tomatoes, chives, broccoli and the like. Everyone felt that farming was not difficult.

This year, the 'Holy Light' team specially reclaimed several thousand acres of land, thinking of planting more rice and wheat to replenish the staple food reserves. Then everyone was surprised to find that agricultural electricity consumption was actually quite high.

To ensure the rice seedlings sprout and head, the shelter uses six to seven thousand kilowatt-hours of electricity generated daily by the photovoltaic system, most of which is used for pumping water and powering agricultural machinery, but this is still not enough.

The team is very worried about this.
-
The captured Sani, wearing a straw hat to shield himself from the sun, stood beside the wheat field with his thin body, staring venomously at Zhou Qingfeng and the others who came to patrol in an electric vehicle, his eyes filled with silent curses.

A year has passed since the apocalypse began, and death and slaughter have become a numb daily routine for the survivors, but being enslaved is still an unbearable humiliation for them.

Especially those once proud white people, they had imagined their own deaths countless times—dying from disease, starvation, thirst, being shot, or being hacked to death, but they never thought that one day they would be enslaved.

What was even more unacceptable to them was that they were enslaved by what they considered inferior "yellow-skinned monkeys," and they had to suffer the beatings of black overseers.

The 'preferential treatment' given to the white woman hurt the white man's pride even more. Yet, the surviving white woman abandoned the white man without hesitation, let alone showing any loyalty or willingness to die for love.

A bowl of beef noodles is all it takes to lure them away, and they're even more obedient than when they're with white men—Han men dislike their strong body odor, so they readily undergo 'apocrine gland removal surgery'.

It's important to know that sweat glands and mammary glands are controlled by the same gene; women with larger breasts often have more developed sweat glands. Now, the large sweat glands that produce body odor are removed, while the well-developed mammary glands are preserved.
The members of the 'Holy Light' team, young and old, were all beaming with joy, bursting with happiness, and strongly demanded to continue expanding outwards to provide humanitarian aid to more survivors.

But for the white men, it was like Paris during World War II, when French women willingly submitted to the invaders, and an indescribable sense of shame and anger grew in their hearts.

"Sani, stop looking, or Omar, that black dog, will cause you trouble." Another white slave beside him gestured towards the sky and whispered a warning.

After a month of arrests, the number of white slaves in the "Holy Light" camp exceeded three hundred, and the number of black overseers also increased to more than forty, with one overseer for every ten white slaves.

The criteria for selecting white slaves were that they be strong and healthy, possess certain labor skills, and not be useless; while the criteria for selecting black overseers were exactly the opposite—those who were thin and short were preferred, those with disabilities were also acceptable, and those who were too clever were not preferred.

To appease the Black overseers, and because Black women were not well-received in the camp, the "Holy Light" team even assigned Black women as "companions" to these overseers.

Of course, this is on the premise that IUD insertion must be taken, otherwise the little black child will be crawling all over the place.

The sweltering heat made the Black supervisors reluctant to go to the fields themselves; they preferred to stay in the shade and conduct inspections via drones.

This efficient and easy method undoubtedly intensified the white slaves' hatred for these "black dogs."

As Sani watched the patrolling electric vehicle gradually disappear into the distance, he spat fiercely onto the dry ground.

He grabbed the water bottle from his waist and gulped down the cheap salted soda. The icy liquid slid down his throat, and he finally caught his breath.

After cautiously looking around, he lowered his voice and said to the other white slaves around him, "We must find a way to escape, otherwise we will not be free even after a year."

Another white slave replied in a desperate tone, "Of course we want to escape, but how? If we could escape, I would have run away long ago."

The escape proved far more difficult than anticipated. The "Holy Light" team initially attempted to use electronic ankle bracelets to restrain the prisoners, but quickly discovered that this severely hampered their efficiency.

So the shackles were replaced with electronic collars, which were then placed around the necks of each prisoner.

This electronic collar sends a signal every minute. The "camp" receiver only needs to perform simple triangulation to determine whether a prisoner is escaping and quickly dispatch personnel to pursue and capture them.

Without a vehicle, one cannot get far on foot; without food and supplies, hiding alone is tantamount to a slow death; without external help, even if one manages to escape, one will ultimately face certain death.

Over the past month, the captured white slaves have attempted to escape more than a dozen times, but each attempt has ended in failure. This has greatly undermined their confidence in escaping and brought them a deep sense of powerlessness.

Sani looked around and whispered, "A few days ago, while scavenging, I found a car radio and a car battery and successfully made contact with outside forces."

These words immediately caught the attention of several white slaves, who were eager to know what would happen next.

One of the white slaves warned, "Don't gather together, or the black dogs will notice."

Just then, a small quadcopter drone flew down from the sky, with a loudspeaker hanging on it, from which came Omar's annoying and irritable voice.

"What are you slaves doing gathered together? Trying to escape, is that it? Don't forget, Uncle Omar is watching you."

“You should feel lucky. More than two hundred years ago, my ancestors not only had to be whipped when they worked in the fields, but they also didn’t have such good agricultural machinery.”

“Now all you have to do is run the machines and sing songs, and you’ve already planted the land. What more could you want?! I’m warning you, don’t let me find out any trouble, or you’ll all be sent to a sauna.”

"Taking a sauna" is a form of torture in the summer. It involves locking a person in a closed box and leaving them to bake in the sun. In less than ten minutes, the person can be baked into a state of shock.

The white slaves had to disperse, but they exchanged glances and finally fixed their eyes on Sani.

Sani whispered, "Don't worry, I've really made contact with the outside world. I told people outside that Awoni Town has returned to order. This place has electricity, can be farmed, and has food. There must be people interested."

The white slaves were immediately excited—yes, being able to farm was such a wonderful thing! It meant they could feed the population and gradually escape the crisis of the end times.

They realized that Sani had a scheme in mind—he certainly hadn't mentioned the bad things about the town, which would inevitably attract desperate post-apocalyptic survivors to seek refuge there, or make some powerful organizations covet it.

In short, in either case, the 'Holy Light' team controlling the town will face trouble. Only when the yellow-skinned monkeys are in trouble will the white slaves have a chance to escape.
-
Sani did indeed secretly obtain a car radio, but its power was limited and its communication range was less than 200 kilometers, which just covered the distance from Avony to Richmond, the capital of Virginia.

Richmond, a city of 200,000 people, has a metropolitan area that once housed over a million people. After the virus outbreak, more than 100,000 survivors are still struggling to survive.

These survivors operated independently, forming hundreds of factions of varying sizes, entrenched in cities and towns, creating a complex network of relationships.

Some powers control the hydroelectric power stations, while others control the waterways on the James River.
Some factions cultivated farmland and orchards outside the city to ensure food supply, while others controlled the remaining machinery processing and refining industries within the city.

These forces varied in size, with the larger ones having thousands of soldiers and the smaller ones having hundreds. Each occupied its own territory, was independent of the others, and fought against each other.

The message sent by Sani was received by at least a dozen factions.

However, in the apocalypse, it is not uncommon to receive messages via radio recruiting people and expanding one's influence. Such messages are often difficult to verify and may even contain hidden dangers; this has become commonplace.

A force called the "Richmond Guard" took notice of Sani's news.

This is a paramilitary organization mainly composed of surviving officials and soldiers, which controls a population of more than 3,000.

Over the past year, the food available for collection in the city has been exhausted, and simply consuming without producing more is clearly not an option.

Major General Borg, the head of the garrison (who was a major before the outbreak), also did everything he could to save himself, but the food shortage problem remained severe.

If supplies cannot be obtained again, the garrison of more than 3,000 men may be swallowed up by other forces, at which point the major general's title may be downgraded to second lieutenant.

Sani's intelligence report mentioned that the town of Awoni possesses "traditional oil refining" technology, is equipped with photovoltaic power generation facilities, and is capable of self-sufficient farming.

Major General Borg was not particularly concerned about the first two points, because there were also forces in Richmond that carried out "homemade oil refining" and even controlled several hydroelectric power stations in Virginia, so energy was not scarce.

The fact that they "cultivated their own crops" greatly surprised the major general: "They can cultivate crops? Where did the survivors in the town get the seeds? Could they be hybrid seeds left over from last year?"

If it is a hybrid seed, its value is greatly reduced because such seeds will lose their original excellent characteristics after one generation of planting, and may even fail to germinate.

If it is a native species, then its significance is extraordinary.

Major General Borg located the town of Avony on the map, finding it to be less than two hundred kilometers from Richmond. He immediately summoned a subordinate and ordered:
"Major Fleming, take your company, drive a few armored vehicles, and conquer a small town."

Major Fleming glanced at the map and shook his head with difficulty. "Major General, that town is two hundred kilometers away from us. Making my entire company march that far is a difficult expedition!"

The word 'expedition' broke Major General Borg's heart—when did 'two hundred kilometers' become an expedition? It's just a matter of stepping on the gas.

But the major general also knew that things were different now; two hundred kilometers was really a long distance. Even if they traveled along the highway, they would have to pass through the territories of several hostile forces.

It's hard to say whether they'll let me pass, especially if I actually make a profit; the 'wolves' along the way will definitely jump out and try to steal it.

"Then take fewer people, just a platoon, to carry out a reconnaissance mission and find out the details of this force. If it is strong enough, we can even join forces with it to attack the rebels along Highway 80 from both sides."

The Richmond Guard evolved from the Virginia National Guard and is characterized by its abundant weapons, ammunition, and equipment, as well as the strong combat capabilities of its professional soldiers.

For the past year, this group has maintained its internal cohesion by plundering everywhere, and has never thought about engaging in production. For this reason, the surrounding forces hate them very much.

As Major General Borg prepared to investigate the town of Awoni, Zhou Qingfeng was also preparing to lead a small team to conduct armed reconnaissance towards Richmond.

(End of this chapter)