"How do you want me to help you? And what would I get from it?" Xiaoyun asked.

After a short momt of silce, Zh Ti spoke up again.

"I want troops to force the other two groups to follow command. As a compsation, I''ll sd all the resources other than food to here."

"Like what?" Xiayoun asked curiously.

"We have tons of steel, concrete, and a lot of heavy machinery for metal smelting and rolling processes for steels as well."

"Like pipes?" Xiaoyun asked, intrigued by the possibility.

"Yes. Any type of metal sheet that requires fabricating. It can roll into the perfect shape with the right metal. Things like handcraft guns and——"

"I''ll sd five regimts consisting of five thousand soldiers... I want all of those steel and construction materials transported here. And I want just a few of the rolling mill equipmt."

Xiaoyun quickly interrupted Zh Ti as he thought back to how inefficit it was seeing so many of the workers be forced to share several of the machines and need to handcraft most of the objects.

"H-How many is few?" Zh Ti nervously asked.

"A one thousand is good." Xiaoyun casually threw in a number without a thought.

"A thousand! That''s almost double what we have." Zh Ti replied in shock.

"Th what''s your acceptable number?"

"Two hundred... That''s the most I can do without having people lose all their jobs and starve." Zh Ti replied.

"How about this, I''ll only take one hundred. But I want you to prioritize us as the buyer."

Zh Ti thought for a second, th nodded in agreemt.

"Okay, let me write an agreemt and have both of us sign it."

---

Wh Zh Ti left with his soldiers along with the new troops he had gott, both of the m were happy with what they had gott.

The official agreemt had a lot more things expanded onto their original conversation, as it included a full-time station for the soldiers, with Zh Ti being responsible for feeding the troops and housing them.

"Are you sure it''s a good idea to give him that much troops?" Yezi curiously asked.

"I''m sure it won''t go whatever you are thinking... Zh Ti doesn''t have direct control over those troops."

"But having them that far away from our town... What if they switched sides?"

"I trust Lingang''s loyalty... He won''t betray the town. Besides, most of those soldiers still have family back here. I sincerely doubt they are willing to give them up just to live in some crappy apartmt in the city."

"I guess... Anyway, what was in that treaty?"

"Secret. You''ll see it soon ough."

---

As a week passed, Zh Ti fulfilled his promises as he had several trucks loaded with all the raw materials, as stated in the treaty.

More importantly, t of the rolling mills and machinery had finally arrived.

After a short consideration, Xiaoyun accepted her request, and all the civilians immediately began forming groups to buy licses to head out.

Soon, the town finally grew to over one hundred thousand people as a week was left before October came to an d.

---

"Yuqi, I''m going to expand the military to forty thousand now." Xiaoyun reminded her.

"Okay, go for it."

Xiaoyun looked surprised by Yuqi''s answer as she didn''t ask him why or push back on it at all.

"You''re not going to stop me?"

"Why would I? Everything is now running smoothly, and there''s an excessive labor pool since the influx of people is joining, and all the machines are replacing workers little by little.

I was hoping you''re going to expand it at some point. To be honest, I expected you to say fifty thousand," Yuqi replied with a differt response from the last time.

"So can I do fifty thousand?"

"Hell no. That''s way too many people out of the labor pool... Besides, I think you should really reconsider my suggestion about having elite troops."

"Why?" Xiaoyun asked curiously.

"Well, if Lingang goes into a conflict right now, do you think he''s facing zombies or humans?" Yuqi pointed out.

"I guess you''re right. I hav''t prepared for that at all. I had always be preparing for a zombie attack since they''re the only ones that we had trouble with."

Xiaoyun began tapping his finger on the table as he thought of ways to make the troops more elite and better than all the other soldiers from other settlemts.

He ev began imagining the military as an imaginary emy in the future and thought of ways to beat them.

"Xiaoyun, I need you to sign this."

Shuli walks in as she drops off a massive stack of paper on top of Xiaoyun''s desk.

"What''s this for?" Xiaoyun asked curiously as he began flipping the pages.

"This week''s report and proposal from both the factories and the bank, I think... Also, the communication departmt, too." Shuli replied as she sat down next to Yuqi.

"Wow, everything is finally going up and not in the red anymore... What a miracle."

Xiaoyun couldn''t believe all the data points across the report were in the gre.

"Let me see."

Yuqi quickly grabbed the paper and began reading it herself, forcing Xiaoyun to start reading the other two reports.

"New weapon proposal..."

It was a blueprint, with a bold letter being writt in Anna''s awkward Chinese handwriting.

"Sniper rifle... Finally, it can be done." Xiaoyun murmured.

It was using all the new steels that Qingyuan had brought, which was much higher quality than the one that Xiaoyun was able to create from what he touched in the past.

As well as all the differt fabrication machines that allowed much more precision in manufacturing.