120: Population reorganization and the "all-out military" plan

Lu Yang felt an unprecedented pressure after accepting the highest difficulty of the 'Civilization Pioneer' mechanical train advancement mission.

In fact, he could only accept the highest difficulty mission because other difficulties did not offer a chance to retry upon failure.

Moreover, if a lower difficulty mission was chosen, it would automatically settle once the requirements were met, preventing further progress.

Only the 'Despair' difficulty could be continued until the temporary territory stone transformed into a permanent territory stone after holding out for 30 days.

Regarding the various debuff situations mentioned in the mission content, Lu Yang and Xiao Xin worked together to develop a preliminary response plan.

First, of course, was recruitment.

As long as there were people, various sustained battles could be waged.

However, the surplus population available for recruitment in Donglin Plain had significantly dwindled after the last regional clearing battle royale.

Unless it was a situation like Youshan County.

But Lu Yang had now traveled across most of Donglin Plain, and he had only seen one such case as Youshan County.

So, recruiting solely from Donglin Plain would be of little significance, and not many people would be recruited.

It seemed he would have to make another trip to the Intermediate Zone.

There was no need to go to the Inner Green Mist Forest again; according to what was learned from Zhao Silver Snake, mechanical trains and denser populations in the Intermediate Zone were mainly found in Longhe Valley.

Before the apocalypse, that area had a high population density, and although many people died, the absolute number of survivors was still the highest.

Furthermore, with the help of numerous intermediate trains, many small scattered settlements of about a hundred people had formed.

These scattered settlements had small populations and generally did not attract large-scale zombies.

Coupled with the abundance of small, scattered mining points in Longhe Valley, and their fast refresh rate,

it was very uneconomical for an intermediate train to specifically stop and excavate them.

This led to a survival model where residents of scattered settlements exchanged excavated loose ore with intermediate trains for shelter, defensive weapons, and survival supplies.

However, many scattered settlements would still perish overnight.

For the residents of those scattered settlements, their greatest wish was to accumulate resources and exchange them for a ticket on an intermediate train.

This was not an easy feat in Longhe Valley.

Because resources were limited.

Although Longhe Valley was relatively safe due to the higher number of mechanical trains, resources were not abundant; there were many small scattered mining points, but the number of standard mining points was average.

It was a typical case of too many monks and not enough porridge.

In such circumstances, most intermediate trains would only maintain a population of around 2000.

Because the minimum population size for a Tier 4 train to advance to a Tier 5 train was also 2000.

Any more often became a burden, even for Tier 4 and Tier 5 intermediate trains.

The daily expenses for 2000 people's food, drink, and sanitation were also considerable.

Unless the resources you paid could guarantee your needs for several years.

Only in such a situation would an intermediate train be willing to give you an extra crew slot, and you wouldn't have to start as a bottom-tier slave.

So, if the Xinhuo Train went there and genuinely sought passengers, it would be very appealing.

With the recruitment direction set, the second step was to acquire blueprints.

Regarding blueprints, Lu Yang primarily wanted to acquire weapon blueprints that were durable, waterproof, powerful, and preferably cold weapons.

Such blueprints were generally not popular, but if no one specifically sought them, people might not bother to bring them out.

Because if you don't want something yourself, treating it as a treasure to sell to others is purely treating others as fools!

You might even inexplicably provoke an enemy.

So Lu Yang specifically posted a new Buy (seeking to purchase) message in the Donglin Plain regional channel.

At the same time, he also released a wave of sales advertisements.

After so many days of resource accumulation, the Train Captains of Donglin Plain should have replenished their coffers, and it was time for another harvest.

After finalizing the recruitment and blueprint acquisition plans, the third and most crucial part was personnel training—a 'everyone's a soldier' type of training, including personnel dedicated to Lu Yang like Yun Qiqi, Yun Chuchu, and Luo Luo.

This might be difficult to implement on other trains, but for the Xinhuo Train, it was not a problem.

They only needed to specifically add cold weapon training topics in the Magic Net Core's combat training room and incorporate a simulated sea race combat module into combat simulations to quickly equip everyone with a certain level of combat readiness against the sea race.

After all, injuries and deaths in the Magic Net Core were not real; as long as Lu Yang, as the Train Captain, issued mandatory orders and provided work point rewards and other incentives to those who completed tasks early and trained best, he wouldn't have to worry about people not training diligently.

With the training issue resolved, the next and more important task for Lu Yang, the Train Captain, was to fundamentally improve everyone's physical fitness.

Otherwise, even if the passengers' combat skills were superb, and they could hit the enemy ten times before being hit once in battle with the sea race, it would be useless.

Because it's very likely that even if you slash the enemy a hundred times, they'll only suffer a superficial wound, while one slash from them could blow your head off.

Moreover, facing human wave tactics also required extremely strong individual qualities.

Primary combat personnel needed to be as fast, strong, and resilient as possible.

Only then could sustained combat power be ensured.

For this, Lu Yang placed his hopes on another purple-quality blueprint he obtained from Old Ode, the [Potion Crafting Station]. In the Potion Crafting Station, various magical materials could be used to craft potions.

As Lu Yang understood it, items like mutated creature flesh essence and Tai Sui White Crystal should also count as magical materials!

They all had the ability to strengthen the user's spirit or physique; as long as the most reasonable strengthening potion was formulated, it would definitely be able to significantly elevate all physical fitness indicators of the Xinhuo Train's crew members within a short period.

This was also Lu Yang's trump card for motivating the passengers to train.

What could be more motivating and captivating than genuinely making people stronger, younger, faster, bigger, thicker, more powerful, and more enduring?!