CHAPTER 361: CHAPTER 168: THE SIMPLEST EDUCATION

"The situation doesn’t look optimistic..."

Chen Jian sat in the operations command room, with a series of summarized battle reports on the screen, along with real-time information from surrounding human settlements relayed by reconnaissance balloons.

Judging from the currently collected information, most of the small towns have been attacked by monsters. Although the joint defense by the Mechanical God Sect and the Holy Blood Temple has kept most towns’ damage relatively light, with communication from Han Shui City, Chen Jian could easily draw an obvious conclusion.

That is, they won’t hold out for much longer.

The long-term coexistence with monsters has not actually made the people of this land complacent with their armaments. As a naturally belligerent species, driven by instinct, they are almost always planning for expansion.

However, with the technical and training levels failing to make effective advancements over time, and the cost of fighting monsters being so high that humans lack enough trial and error or combat opportunities, they still appear quite powerless against monsters, especially during coordinated monster attacks.

The situation in settlements with relatively enough strength from the Holy Blood is a bit better since they can at least provide some reconnaissance intelligence and combat guidance to the City Defense Army.

However, if a town has only a few or even no Holy Blood members, the battle situation immediately becomes precarious.

Chen Jian furrowed his brow and continued:

"The situation in Han Shui is relatively good, at least the Church Protection Army held the line without too much loss."

"But further south, places like Yuzhang, Qianzhou, and Hengzhou are a different story."

"Almost all the small settlements around have been devastatingly hit, and large numbers of refugees are gathering towards the big cities."

"Although these refugees carry some supplies, it’s quite clear that it’s unlikely they’ll hold out for a month."

"Thankfully, the weather is warming up; otherwise, merely keeping warm would be a problem that more than half the people couldn’t survive."

"Time is not on our side."

"He Shuo, what does the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce say?"

As his voice fell, He Shuo’s voice came through the speaker.

"The representatives from the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce reported that they have opened up a trade route from Jinling to Shencheng City."

"This route will use Hengzhou as a hub, radiating out to all nearby areas."

"After the monster in Chuansha City was eliminated, compared to their original route via Yuzhang, this trade route’s total travel time has halved, and the load capacity has more than doubled."

"Next, according to our request, they will adjust the goods configuration to ensure at least 70% of the capacity is used to transport Type-75 rifles."

"The next batch of caravans will depart in two days, bringing 6000 rifles and 150,000 rounds of ammunition to Hengzhou."

"Additionally, they will carry a large number of secondary weapons seized from Huadu, such as grenades, landmines, explosives, and a small number of rocket launchers."

"These weapons should provide some assistance to the defense of surrounding towns."

"I have already asked Fu Xi for precise calculations. If a shipment of weapons from a single caravan can protect one human town, then from a total profit perspective, we will not suffer a loss."

"After all, allowing monsters to destroy towns would result in a loss of food, productivity, and manufactured goods, which is far more valuable than the weapons themselves."

"However, the effect that weapons trade can achieve is still quite limited... We need to provide them with stronger support."

"I know."

Chen Jian nodded slowly.

He was well aware that relying solely on the weapons trade wouldn’t be enough to fundamentally change the situation. The best approach would be for the Huaxia Army to directly dispatch combat forces to support various towns.

But under current conditions, this strategy was clearly unachievable.

Not to mention dispatching combat teams, even sending an instructor or a commander was beyond the Huaxia Army’s capacity.

Thinking of this, Chen Jian spoke:

"We’ll have to hold on with weapons for now."

"As long as we hold on until the first plane is built, the pressure around us will be significantly reduced."

"Lei Jie, how’s the progress on the Mosquito Bomber?"

"The lathe has been constructed and is being assembled today."

Lei Jie waved gently, and the footage of the lathe in operation immediately flowed onto the screen.

"I have already distributed the tutorial on plywood manufacturing, and now Ji Xing is leading a team of workers to produce plywood."

"Their progress is not slow, taking wastage into account, the materials should be ready in two days, and we can start secondary processing and assembly."

"Very good."

Chen Jian nodded with satisfaction.

According to this progress, the manufacturing time for a Mosquito Bomber could be compressed to within five days.

Although the final product would undoubtedly be rudimentary, crude, and possibly shoddy, solving the issue of having versus not having is clearly prioritized over the problem of quality.

Thus, he immediately continued:

"After clearing and planting the wasteland, have Ji Xing increase personnel to expedite the material production process as much as possible."

"This group of people will be fixated from now on, responsible only for airplane material manufacturing."

"Once most of the workers become proficient, they can continue to be trained in assembly, and even design and maintenance."

"No problem."

Receiving Lei Jie’s response, Chen Jian paused briefly before continuing:

"Now, back to the main issue at hand."

"Han Shui City has asked us for assistance, and we have agreed to provide help."

"But in what form should this assistance be offered...? What do you all think would be appropriate?"