283: Red Alert - Yueyang Port Base

"Captain Hua," Zhang Lei's voice was steady, breaking the brief silence, "immediately notify all base personnel to pack essential items and prepare for a total relocation. The destination is Yueyang Port. Our army has established a new base in the port area."

"Relocation? Yueyang Port Base?" Hua Feng was stunned upon hearing this, his eyes filled with unbelievable doubt. "Sir... it's only been a few days? You're saying that a base capable of accommodating tens of thousands has already been... built at the port?" He truly couldn't imagine how, in such a short time, facilities sufficient to take in the entire Yueyang Base could be established in the ruins of the port area. Had they merely cleared the docks and set up some simple shanties?

"You don't need to worry about the specific details." Zhang Lei waved his hand, his tone brooks no argument, carrying a sense of transcendent confidence. "You just need to execute the orders, organize the people, and maintain order. Tomorrow, a full combat brigade of our army will arrive at Yueyang Port, and they will send a large number of military vehicles and transport aircraft to assist with the relocation. Your task is to handle internal coordination and preliminary preparations." He did not intend to explain the Red Alert Base's inconceivable construction speed.

In the face of the Red Alert Legion's absolute strength, any suspicion seemed pale. Even if outsiders racked their brains, they would at most attribute it to black technology or some alien technology; it was impossible for them to think that the Red Alert Commander, Jiang Xin, possessed an inconceivable red alert system.

"Yes! I guarantee the mission will be completed!" Hua Feng snapped to attention and saluted, pushing all his doubts back into his heart. As a soldier, obedience was his duty. If the superior said it existed, then it did; since the superior had arranged a way out, he only needed to execute it unwaveringly.

After Hua Feng left, he immediately used thunderous methods, leading his Evolver team members from the Armed Police and Special Police to quickly suppress Wang Gui's remaining cronies. The ringleaders were executed in public as a warning to others; most of the remaining Evolvers and defense members who were coerced or committed lesser crimes were placed under centralized custody for forced labor reform, with their future fates to be decided based on their subsequent performance.

Subsequently, Hua Feng arrived at the area that had been tightly controlled by Wang Gui's faction. Compared to the area where the 'Order Faction' resided, this place was like a microcosm of hell. He stood on a high platform crudely assembled from scrap wood and bricks, looking down at the dense crowd that had been gathered.

With just one glance, this iron-willed man's eyes instantly turned red, and his heart felt as if it were being squeezed hard by an invisible hand.

The people below were mostly in rags, with torn scraps of cloth barely covering their bodies, revealing skin crisscrossed with dirt and scars. They were sallow and emaciated, with sunken eye sockets and dull, numb gazes, as if their souls had long been drained away, leaving only survival instincts to drive their physical shells. Many could only stand by leaning on each other, and even more sat slumped on the ground, seemingly having exhausted even the strength to lift their heads. The air was thick with the peculiar sour stench of despair, disease, and long-term malnutrition.

Hua Feng's throat felt as if it were blocked by something, and his voice was raspy and trembling: "Everyone... fellow townsfolk... elders and brothers! That Wang Gui, who oppressed everyone and threw his weight around... has been executed! He is dead!"

The area below was deathly silent, save for sporadic coughing and the weak crying of an infant. People looked at him blankly without any reaction, as if the news they heard had nothing to do with them. Hua Feng's repeated incompetence, his turning a blind eye to Wang Gui's faction, the long-term deception, and witnessing hope shatter time and again had long since robbed them of the ability to believe.

"The country... the country has not forgotten us!" Hua Feng struggled to raise his voice, trying to inject some strength into it. "The National Government has sent its most elite unit—the Red Alert Legion! They've come to save us! They... they have established a new, safe survivor base for us at Yueyang Port! In the future... in the future, everyone will be able to eat their fill, have clothes to wear, and houses to live in! As long as... as long as everyone is willing to work hard, the good days... will return!" By the end, his voice choked up again, filled with deep self-reproach and helplessness. He knew how pale and powerless these hollow promises were in the face of the human tragedy before him.

Sure enough, some faint but stubborn voices began to rise from the crowd below—not cheers, but deeper despair:

"Hungry... Mama, I'm hungry..." A little girl, thin as a dry stick, curled up in her mother's arms, her small hand weakly patting her shriveled belly.

"What's the use of saying all this... we want food... we want food now..."

"Right... food... give us food..."

The voices were sporadic at first, then spread like a plague as more and more people used their last bit of strength to let out cries or numb pleas: "Food... we want food..."

Standing on the stage, Hua Feng looked at those pairs of hollow yet longing eyes. His heart twisted like a knife, yet he was powerless. The grain reserves in his jurisdiction were already stretched thin; where could he get enough food to appease these tens of thousands of starving people?

Just then, a figure as steady as a mountain strode onto the high platform and signaled Hua Feng to stand aside. On Zhang Lei's shoulder straps, the golden star of a Major General still shimmered with a dazzling light under the dim sky.

In the crowd, some people with a bit of worldly knowledge or former public officials had their pupils contract sharply—that was the insignia of a National Government General! A symbol of true national power!

"Fellow compatriots! I am Zhang Lei, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Red Alert Legion and a Major General officially commissioned by the National Government!" Zhang Lei's voice was amplified by his Superpower, reaching everyone's ears clearly and powerfully, carrying a reassuring strength. "I represent the country and the Red Alert Legion to tell you: Xijiang Province has been fully liberated! We have established new, sturdy survivor bases in multiple locations where people can live and work in peace!"

Zhang Lei stopped talking empty words and signaled directly to Zhang Qing below. Zhang Qing understood and immediately controlled several drones carrying equipment to take flight.

In the next moment, a scene that made everyone, including Hua Feng, so shocked they forgot to breathe was presented directly on the open ground before them via holographic VR projection!

It was Longxing City!

Majestic as a mountain, the silver-gray city walls, twenty-five meters high, stretched endlessly. Atop the walls, the dark muzzles of automatic turrets, menacingly shaped pillboxes, and the prism towers flowing with crystalline energy light and filled with a sense of future technology were awe-inspiring. Fully armed soldiers with disciplined military bearing stood like spears on patrol.

The camera shifted inside the city: broad and clean streets, neatly arranged high-rise residential buildings with bright, clean windows; lush green grass in parks where the elderly strolled leisurely and children chased each other in play; the sound of rhythmic reading coming from schools; the roar of machines in factory workshops with production in full swing; in a huge cafeteria, food was a feast for the eyes, and the residents and workers queuing for meals had satisfied and happy smiles on their faces...