February 22nd.
Once again, a blizzard engulfed the surface of Jianghe City.
Ice crystals formed from the condensation of water vapor in the air turned into lingering white mist.
Together with the wildly dancing snowflakes, they made the entire world dark and hazy.
In this environment, whether it was human vision or camera lenses, it was difficult to see beyond 10 meters.
Apart from the howling wind, deep within the white mist and blizzard, there were more than a dozen massive pipes, each over ten meters in diameter, constructed from rapid-setting cement.
These pipes stretched from the edge of the Farmhouse Shelter to an artificial mountain two kilometers away.
Inside the pipes, massive rotating motors and conveyor belts with grooves moved at a constant speed, continuously transporting excavated debris from underground to the other side of the mountain.
Over time, this allowed the mountain to grow bit by bit.
On the first underground level of the Farmhouse Shelter, in the control center.
"The pipe outlets need another adjustment," Su Wu said as he manipulated the holographic projection of the conveyor pipes transporting waste rock.
From different angles, he observed these massive structures that could undoubtedly be called colossal.
Currently, the engineering teams excavating the eighth underground level of the shelter produced tens of millions of cubic meters of debris daily.
Almost all of this was transported out via these pipes.
If they were to stop even briefly, the entire construction progress of the shelter would be affected.
Given their importance, even Su Wu had to personally inspect them periodically to ensure there were no hidden issues.
After completing his observations, he dispatched a convoy equipped with Spider Robots and construction materials to the artificial mountain to carry out the necessary adjustments.
Su Wu then shifted his attention to the map of Dongzhou.
Currently, Dongzhou was divided by the supercity of Chongzhou, located about 300 kilometers west of Jianghe City.
To the west of Chongzhou, closer to the Western Wasteland Plateau, was the area directly controlled by the Dongzhou government.
To the east of Chongzhou, regions like Su Wu's Jianghe City had completely broken away from the influence of the Dongzhou capital, becoming de facto autonomous local powers.
However, even in these autonomous regions, the official shelters maintained intricate connections with the federal government.
Under normal circumstances, they might not interfere with each other, but if serious issues arose—such as when Su Wu had previously raided resources on a large scale from official shelter territories—it could provoke federal intervention.
At first glance, because Su Wu couldn't target the resource-rich official shelters, his future development seemed capped.
However, the reality was quite the opposite.
The territory of Dongzhou was vast. Just by absorbing the resources from the anti-human factions marked in the civilian shelters, Su Wu had enough to sustain rapid growth.
Moreover, in the vast wilderness outside the official shelters, the harsh surface environment made it impossible for most local official shelters to develop the mines there.
But for Su Wu, these were easily accessible resource collection points.
Additionally, the merchant trains led by Icebound-class Land Battleships, capable of reaching any remote area in Dongzhou, engaged in normal trade with local shelters.
The resources obtained by exchanging the small industrial products that were almost as cheap as raw materials in the Farmhouse Shelter were no less valuable than mining income.
These three resource acquisition methods were more than enough to allow Su Wu's shelter to expand several, even dozens of times further.
Once it reached that scale, it would become the world's first super shelter, capable of housing over a billion people within a diameter of just seven kilometers, rivaling the population of an entire continent.
Even the federal capital could not compare.
Furthermore, the official shelters weren't entirely off-limits.
For example, Su Wu had previously occupied Steel City, a supercity that still housed 23 million people.
It wasn't entirely controlled by local families and gangs; there were also forces that inherited the name of Steel City's official shelter.
But the result was that Su Wu merely demonstrated his military might to the Dongzhou capital, and he gained ownership of it.
From this, it could be inferred that there was considerable flexibility.
As long as Su Wu didn't go too far, occasionally taking over a few official shelters within the autonomous regions shouldn't provoke severe consequences.
"As the apocalypse continues, the control of the Dongzhou capital and the federal government over local areas is visibly weakening," Su Wu thought.
"In the future, after consuming all other available resources, it might not be out of the question to consider launching a unification war, turning the entire autonomous region into the color of Jianghe City."
With this vague insight into his future development path, the confusion in Su Wu's heart was swept away.
Next, he turned his attention to the Kuanjiang River Basin on the map.
As one of the earliest areas Su Wu had developed, apart from the official shelters, the civilian shelters there had been completely cleared out by him.
All the population had been relocated to the Farmhouse Shelter.
However, due to the presence of numerous well-established mines in the area, which continued to produce resources, there were still nearly 30 merchant trains constantly traversing the region.
They were responsible for transporting the mined and refined resources, as well as the goods obtained from trading with local official shelters, back to the Farmhouse Shelter.
These merchant trains completed a round trip every four days on average, bringing back nearly 300,000 tons of materials.
The rare resources were used for constructing land battleships and sixth-generation fighter jets.
Most of the ordinary materials were allocated to the expansion of the underground shelter in the Farmhouse Shelter.
The remaining small portion was invested in manufacturing snow transport vehicles and other conventional mechanical equipment, including robots.
"The output from the mines in the Kuanjiang River Basin forms the foundation of our external resource income," Su Wu noted.
"Additionally, due to the large-scale relocations over the past month, the road maintenance in that area has been relatively good, making transportation costs much lower compared to other regions."
"It can be considered the backyard of Jianghe City."
Given the importance of this "backyard," even though there were almost no bandits in the area, Su Wu didn't neglect its protection.
Not to mention the merchant trains themselves, the Icebound-class Land Battleships, with their 1,500-ton capacity, were almost entirely used to carry Combat Drone Swarms, Spider Robot units, and ammunition.
The firepower they could unleash was enough to tear apart a division-level regular army without long-range heavy weapons.
Every subsidiary shelter serving as a backup supply point and every signal tower outpost along the route was also garrisoned with a certain scale of armed forces, ready to provide support at any time.
Moreover, in the hangar on the first above-ground level of the Farmhouse Shelter, more than 10 sixth-generation fighter jets were always on standby, fully loaded with ground-attack missiles, ready to take off at a moment's notice.
They could arrive at the scene to provide support within 40 minutes at the latest.
"Then, in the north near Steel City, there are also 30 merchant trains stationed permanently, responsible for transporting materials and population."
Unlike the Kuanjiang River Basin, the 400-kilometer stretch between Jianghe City and Steel City was not only blocked by treacherous mountains, making it almost impossible for conventional vehicles to pass, but the complex network of shelter forces along the way had also given rise to bandits, adding significant risk to the journey.
While it wasn't enough to threaten the safety of the merchant trains, there were indeed small-scale skirmishes from time to time.
Su Wu's strategy was to have multiple merchant trains operate together, increasing their scale to improve fault tolerance.
"The rare resources stored in Steel City had already been transported to the Farmhouse Shelter in advance."
"Now, it mainly deals with ordinary materials."
"However, as the only supercity currently under my control besides Jianghe City, Steel City also serves as a sub-base, gathering the output from several large and medium-sized mines in the surrounding area for initial refining and processing."
"Thus, it still produces a portion of new rare resources over time."
"The merchant trains there mainly focus on relocating the population, occasionally transporting back some ordinary metal materials."
"They are also the primary source of the nearly 200,000 new people the Farmhouse Shelter gains daily."
In the initial design, a single merchant train could normally carry 8,000 people.
But now, with the surface environment becoming extremely harsh, and few vehicles other than land battleships and snow transport vehicles being able to safely travel long distances, the original seats were removed, allowing passengers to stand and squeeze into the snow transport vehicles.
It was possible to fit 1.5 to 2 times the normal capacity, though the journey would be more strenuous.
However, since they could make temporary stops and rest at subsidiary shelters along the way, it wasn't too unbearable for the passengers.
"Finally, apart from these 60 merchant trains operating on fixed routes, the remaining 100-plus merchant trains are dispersed to other unexplored regions of Dongzhou."
The tasks of these merchant trains were more complex.
Some were responsible for capturing civilian shelters marked as anti-human factions, turning them into Su Wu's supply bases and using them as hubs to mine and smelt surrounding minerals.
Some engaged in trade with local shelters, exchanging materials and technical services for their surplus resources, including population.
Others ventured further out, constructing vertical takeoff and landing airports for sixth-generation fighter jets at selected large mines or small to medium-sized civilian shelters.
These airports would provide fuel for the fighter jets, extending their operational range.
Since the cost of building vertical takeoff and landing airports was high, Su Wu only planned to build six fixed airports in the outside world.
Three of them would be located in the south, north, and east, respectively, 1,500 to 2,000 kilometers away, primarily to expand the flight range of the sixth-generation fighter jets, allowing them to truly reach every corner of Dongzhou and even its surrounding areas.
The remaining three airports would be located in Steel City and two other supercities in the economically prosperous southern region.
These three airports were purely for economic purposes, mainly used for transporting materials by air.
As Su Wu's 320 sixth-generation fighter jets gradually rolled off the production line, his air transport capabilities had grown to an undeniable level.
A single sixth-generation fighter jet could transport 15 tons of materials at a time, with a maximum speed of four times the speed of sound.
This meant that within just one hour, Su Wu could transport 4,800 tons of materials back to the Farmhouse Shelter from any location within a 500 to 600-kilometer radius around Jianghe City, which included Steel City, the Kuanjiang River Basin, and most areas around Yu'an City.
These materials alone were almost equivalent to half the capacity of a merchant train.
Moreover, a merchant train would take at least four to five days to transport materials from 500 to 600 kilometers away to Jianghe City.
In that time, the sixth-generation fighter jets could make 90 round trips.
In other words, the transport capacity of 320 sixth-generation fighter jets was roughly equivalent to 40 merchant trains, accounting for one-fourth to one-fifth of Su Wu's land transport capabilities.
"Moreover, compared to the complexities of land transport, air transport is safer and more efficient."
"The farther the distance, the more cost-effective air transport becomes."
Fully aware of the advantages of air transport, Su Wu naturally aimed to maximize their potential.
Therefore, in addition to the six fixed vertical takeoff and landing airports, Su Wu also built twice as many mobile vertical takeoff and landing airports.
Each mobile airport was constructed from six snow transport vehicles, with a total weight of 600 tons.
They were attached to merchant trains and could move with them.
Upon reaching a designated location—such as a mine or shelter that needed materials transported—they could be assembled on-site into a temporary airport for a sixth-generation fighter jet to take off and land.
Once the fighter jet had transported all the materials from that location back to the Farmhouse Shelter via air, the mobile airport would continue with the next merchant train to the next destination.
If all went well, this air transport network, composed of sixth-generation fighter jets and spanning the entirety of Dongzhou, would, for a considerable period in the future, be responsible for rapidly transporting surplus rare resources available for trade from civilian shelters across Dongzhou back to the Farmhouse Shelter.
It would become Su Wu's primary method for acquiring high-end resources.
In addition to the sixth-generation fighter jets, the air transport network also inclu
ded 55 Twin-Winged Helicopters and over 10,000 Azure Sky-Class Transport Drones.
This was also a significant transport force, equivalent to more than 100 sixth-generation fighter jets.
(End of Chapter)