Snowflakes began to drift down from the sky again.
Tiny white feathers, like pear blossoms blown off, scattered sparsely.
The earth was covered in a blanket of silver, and the biting cold wind howled.
After everyone exited the electronics wholesale market, it started snowing again.
This made everyone's mood less than pleasant.
The corpse of the tiger they had encountered earlier was also nowhere to be found.
But they had no inclination to search for it now, nor did they have the energy to do so.
With heavy hearts, the vehicles slowly drove on.
They drove at a slow but steady pace.
The snow on the road was still thick, and the snowplow continuously cleared some of it, making a passable path.
The people in the car ate a simple meal.
Li Yu suddenly said, "Shang Xue'er, do you remember how many people there were when you last left Liberation City?"
Shang Xue'er paused slightly with the food in her hand, thought for a moment, and said,
"Later, after Director Zhang took in some refugees, and then some more people joined, I don't know the exact number, but it shouldn't have been over a thousand, probably eight or nine hundred.
But then a riot broke out, and many people must have died, mainly due to conflicts between the refugees and the original residents. After the riot, we couldn't control it at all.
After that, Lao Lü took us and we escaped.
At that time, Liberation City was completely chaotic, with everyone fighting and snatching things from each other."
Li Yu had never really asked why Lao Lü and the others had to flee from Liberation City.
At this moment, looking at Shang Xue'er, he actually knew why Liberation City ultimately met its demise.
The most fundamental reason was the food crisis. When the population grew too large to support, conflicts naturally arose.
In any era, once a food crisis emerges, the larger the food shortage, the greater the unrest.
The secondary reason was that with a large population, the administrators couldn't manage so many people and lacked sufficient power to control ordinary people.
The gun barrel, the pen barrel, the hoe barrel.
The gun barrel refers to the armed strength of this faction, its equipment, population size, combat power, and so on.
The pen barrel refers to the level of acceptance under governance, public opinion, allegiance, and conforming to the will of the people.
Although in this era, in the apocalypse, morality has deteriorated, sometimes gathering popular support still relies on the pen barrel.
The hoe barrel refers to food. With the most basic food, if people cannot even survive, then there is not much persuasiveness.
Li Yu was not a great man; he believed he didn't possess that kind of charisma, so he had never expanded the team size of the base too much.
The most crucial point was that in this apocalypse, it was heavy rain before, then drought, and now heavy snow.
Land was scarce, and farming conditions were so difficult, meaning it was simply impossible to support so many people.
If the land did not provide the most basic material foundation, relying solely on ideals and dreams would be nothing short of a fool's errand.
One needs to remember that back then, they also chanted: 'Beat the local tyrants and divide the land.'
People are realistic.
However, Li Hang and Da Pao probably didn't understand these things, so Li Hang asked, "What was the fundamental reason for the riot?"
Shang Xue'er said with a sigh of regret,
"Perhaps you can't imagine, but in the later stages of Liberation City, none of us could find much food. Hundreds of people were starving every day.
Even we could only eat one meal a day, let alone the ordinary people in Liberation City, some of whom simply starved to death.
Then some small group leaders had hoarded a relatively large amount of food. At that time, Director Zhang asked these people to share some food, but they refused.
Finally, they even killed Director Zhang, and then the riot broke out. Everyone started snatching food, and then everyone went crazy.
To be honest, joining our base has been the happiest time for me since the apocalypse began.
At least we can eat our fill every day, and we have a safe place. We don't have to worry about danger every night, and what's more, the environment in our base is so good."
Hearing Shang Xue'er say this, Yang Tianlong and Da Pao both recalled the time before they joined the base. It felt like a long time ago.
But at that time, they were indeed living in an environment with food shortages and dangers everywhere.
Now that they thought about it, so much time had passed.
Li Hang, on the other hand, had never experienced a food shortage. Although he often went out to kill zombies after the apocalypse began, and even faced many enemies, he had never gone hungry.
As Li Hang listened to Shang Xue'er speak, a strong sense of crisis subtly arose within him.
Li Yu nodded and said to Shang Xue'er, "Don't worry, now that you've joined us, let's work together to protect the base. I guarantee that you won't encounter such a situation again."
Shang Xue'er heard this, nodded gratefully, and said,
"Thank you, Mr. Li, thank you for accepting us.
It's just that I've always worried about one thing: our base has such a good environment and is excellent in all aspects, but what if one day, a stronger force than us appears? What should we do?"
Li Yu looked at her deeply and asked, "What do you think we can do?"
Shang Xue'er frowned and said, "Expand our manpower, enlarge our base, and increase our strength.
However, with more people, it's also easy for things like what happened in Liberation City to occur, and food supply is a problem.
So much land cannot be used now, and the weather is like this, I think it's very difficult.
I always feel that in the current apocalypse, it's hard to have a very powerful force. In fact, we are already very powerful.
It's just that I'm worried there will be something more powerful than us...
Sigh, I don't know what to do either."
Li Yu looked at her and said, "Think about how you joined us."
Shang Xue'er seemed to understand, immediately bowed, and said with some regret,
"I apologize, I said too much. You have your arrangements, and I might have thought too superficially."
Li Yu did not directly answer her words, but said calmly, "I am very happy that you can think of these things and tell me directly.
It's just that, like Director Zhang, the lessons from Liberation City's past are something you should be very clear about.
The core of everything lies in productivity. The uncertainty of zombies, weather, and environment makes productivity also full of uncertainty.
Let the bullets fly for a while. Too many people does not mean strong power. Let's take it slow."
Everyone listened, pondering Li Yu's meaning.
Li Yu suddenly looked at Shang Xue'er and asked, "Are you afraid of death?"
Shang Xue'er was suddenly asked this question and was a little stunned. Was there any necessary connection between this question and the previous discussion?
But she still had to answer, so Shang Xue'er said, "To say I'm not afraid is a lie, but it's also not that scary."
Li Yu smiled and didn't say much more.
In this apocalypse, he only believed one thing: only those who have eaten their fill can talk about reason.
The way back was slightly faster than the way there, but the speed still couldn't compare to before the snow.
They didn't encounter any other problems along the way.
At 5:30 PM, as the sun set, they arrived at the Gas Station outside the base.
