Zombie Apocalypse: Creation-Chapter 720: Rescuing Houqin

Chapter 720: Rescuing Houqin
"Do we have the 11th Division in Luoping right now?" Xiaoyun urgently asked, noticing the troop stations.
"Yes, but their commander Lingang is currently acting as the temporary general for Shenzhen and Dongguan."
As the head of the department answered his question, a plan began to develop. One that was much simpler than what he had initially planned for.
"That’s fine. Tell them to be at the parade ground as well... I’m going to lead them myself personally."
"Um, how about calling for the reservist plan earlier? Who’s going to lead them when they get here?"
"Just have all those reserved stations at Shaoguan, and that’s it. There’s no need actually to move any of them to actual combat."
The head department nodded his head before going over to the loudspeaker mic again, getting ready to state the logistic worker’s job.
Thirty minutes later...
As Xiaoyun stood before the parade stage, hundreds of thousands of soldiers, fully equipped, were standing right before him.
All of their eyes were filled with fierce looks, waiting for his order as the moon began to rise high in the distance.
It was the most equipped army, the 11th motorized division with APC and pre-outbreak tanks still fully operational right next to them.
"You all might be wondering why I call you here today when you still had half of August left as your well-deserved break."
Not a single soldier spoke up, and their faces weren’t filled with frustration or anger by the sudden recall in the middle of the evening.
It was all just a blank emotion, waiting for him to speak up again as they all stared him in the eyes.
"Unfortunately, duty calls, and you guys are the only unit capable of doing this mission that I’m about to announce."
Xiaoyun could finally see the look on their faces visibly changing. It was pride as they slightly lifted their chin higher than before.
"We’ll all be going back to a place you all might find familiar... It’s the same place you guys had been fighting in for months on end."
The soldier didn’t look surprised at all, as if they were fully expecting that was what Xiaoyun was calling them for.
"However, I have some bad news... We will not be fighting zombies. Rather, we’ll be potentially fighting those who were once your friends."
This time, Xiaoyun could visibly see almost rows upon rows of soldier widening their eyes at once as if they were all fully awake by the news drop.
None of them was ever expecting to fight other humans, as almost all of their combat experience had been fighting zombies.
"I know this might be hard for some of you. This might even sound scary to some of you. But I believe what we’re doing is just."
As he paused for a second, he could see most of the soldiers looking much calmer after hearing his last sentence.
"Many of you guys know the leader in Hunan is Zhongxiong... With all the information I had received so far, he is now dead."
The sudden news drop once again shocked all the soldiers. Still, Xiaoyun chose to continue with his announcement.
"Due to the unfortunate timing, the diplomat and the men that we had sent had been trapped there.
Our mission will be to rescue them from the chaos, and that’s it. We’ll not be participating in any land conquest or any sort."
Many of the officers’ faces looked a little relieved, as they were seriously concerned that Xiaoyun was going to use them as an attempt to conquer Hunan.
In their mind, they were just too small an army to conquer a province fully. Especially one that had weapons that they could never deal with.
"I repeat, this mission is a show of force. We’ll be getting our men back and returning to Luoping no later than tomorrow morning."
"When are we going?" One of the low-ranking officers with a Major rank curiously asked.
"We’ll be going now. And I’ll be coming with you all as well. Officers, you may begin transporting your troops."
As rows upon rows of soldiers began entering various vehicles, Xiaoyun himself quickly stepped off the stage as he headed towards the armored car reserved for him.
"Xiaoyun, you sure you don’t want me to come with you?" Wuli’s voice appeared from behind just as he opened the door.
"Luoping still needs a high-ranking officer in case something goes wrong. I trust you can work with the head of logistics while I’m gone."
Closing the door, Xiaoyun didn’t give her any room to negotiate as he started up the car engine, getting ready to drive out alongside all the other vehicles.
"Stay safe... Dummy."
---
As the sign on the highway stated, ’Welcome to Hunan,’ Xiaoyun’s army finally arrived in Hunan province after three and a half hours of driving.
"Commander, where are we driving towards next? Should we continue down to Changsha, or should we go towards Yizhang County?"
"I already stated, we’re going to Yizhang County first. We’ll be going to Changsha next if the person we’re looking for isn’t there."
The walkie-talkie fell into silence as the other side didn’t try to argue back. But inside Xiaoyun’s mind, he himself wasn’t certain if it was the right direction.
There was no other clue other than the fact that Houqin herself said to drive towards Yizhang County, and that’s it.
Even though he knew it was a trap, he had to continue his troops towards it. There was not enough time to gather more information on what’s happening in Changsha itself.
"The road certainly feels a lot emptier than usual." The driver murmured as Xiaoyun sat in the back with his walkie-talkie.
"Does the road usually have a lot of zombies? I thought we already cleared the road between Shaoguan city and Chenzhou city," Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"Yeah, but we never fully clear all the nearby villages and towns. They usually have some lone zombie that wandered out onto the highway."
As the caravan of cars continued to drive down, Xiaoyun’s phone suddenly started ringing.
It was the same number as the one that Houqin had called earlier. He quickly accepts it as an unknown voice appears.
"Mr.Xiaoyun, let’s not beat around the bush anymore. We have Houqin hostage. We just want some weapons from you, and we’ll let her go."
"I want to hear her voice."
After a few seconds of silence, Houqin’s voice finally appeared on the phone.
"Commander! Please save me. I’m s-scared——"
"That’s enough. Now, do you mind having some of your soldier throw their gun out the window and leave Hunan?"
"How am I supposed to know you’re going to fulfill your side of the bargain?"
"Do you have a choice?"
As the other side catches Xiaoyun’s weak point, he had no other argument other than to agree to its demand.
"I’m willing to give a hundred guns as long as you let her go free."
"You have more than a thousand troops in those trucks and tanks, why stop at a thousand? Why not ten thousand?"
"That’s more than half of my army. I’m never doing that."
Hearing Xiaoyun’s unwillingness to compromise, the other side folded first as if they didn’t want to get too greedy with it.
"Two thousand guns and you’ll see Houqin at a hotel down in Chengguan town. Don’t you dare to turn your troops around or else I’ll blow her head off."
"I won’t."
As Xiaoyun hung up the phone, the driver immediately looked over to the rear mirror as if he wanted to say something.
"Commander... I don’t know how to put this, but giving them a gun is only going to boost those bandits’ ego."
"It’s fine. It’s only AKs. It’s less than a fraction of what we have in Luoping... 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th company, please throw your rifle out the window. Over."
The moment he issued the order out loud, rifles began to fly out of the rear view as it landed on the side of the highway.
"Commander, Xiaoyun, what’s this order for?" An officer asked in confusion over the walkie-talkie as rifles continued to be dropped.
"Don’t worry about it. We’ll get it back later."
After several Captains ed back to Xiaoyun that their rifles were out the window, Xiaoyun gave the confusing order to exit the highway suddenly.
"Everyone, you’ll all be heading back to Shaoguan’s Pingshi town. Do not question the order, over."
As more and more cars looped around the road and took the other side of the highway to begin driving back, the driver stopped his car as he looked back at Xiaoyun.
"Commander, are we going back too?"
"No. We’re staying."
"Commander... You sure?"
The driver questioned, his face starting to get a little nervous as he had already overheard the whole conversation on the phone earlier.
"I’m sure. We’re just going to watch from a distance. If they start going towards us, you can drive off."