Cave Refuge-Chapter 250 - 248: Arriving at the Destination_1

The armored vehicle wasn’t filled with many martial artists, but it was filled with a considerable amount of firearms and ammunition. The vehicle was essentially a mobile fortress.

In the cab of Ye Liuyun’s truck, besides him, there was an operative personally arranged by Robinson William. Another five operatives were in the vehicle body, making a team of six special operatives. These operatives, all Inner Breath Realm Martial Artists, were armed with automatic weaponry.

When the government convoy took off first, Ye Liuyun’s truck indicated to Dong Tianyu to follow with its hazard lights.

One by one, private trucks lined up orderly, following the government convoy.

Compared to the number of trucks in the government convoy, the private fleet’s size was many times larger. Dong Tianyu hadn’t expected that so many private vehicles, around a hundred, would be accompanying them.

Besides trucks like Ye Liuyun’s, which remained almost no different from before the apocalypse, many of the private trucks had traces of a junk punk style.

In essence, these were cobbled together vehicles from various parts. Before the apocalypse, these contraptions certainly wouldn’t have been allowed on the road. But at this time, no one cared; as long as your car could move, you could freely drive.

Traffic enforcement? What traffic enforcement? Any drivable cars without certain backing would quickly change hands.

Before the apocalypse, traffic enforcement officials would at most issue fines or deduct points from drivers’ credits. If you were a bit more serious, they would tow your car to a parking lot. But now, if you don’t have any backing and decide to take your car on the road, your car will directly be taken away.

Despite his vehicle’s incredibly domineering exterior, in the private fleet, cars with similar exteriors weren’t uncommon. Some trucks even had more intimidating exteriors than Dong Tianyu’s vehicle.

These vehicles were clearly modified from military redesigns. They even maintained the shooting fortifications on top.

Leaving Pengville City wasn’t too worrisome. Even when entering the highway, old cars had been cleared to the sides of the road, which remained reasonably clear.

However, once the convoy left the Pengville section of the highway, various obstacles occasionally appeared on the road. Some of these obstacles were debris from buildings washed up by floods or dead tree trunks.

Mostly, however, they were discarded vehicles haphazardly placed in the center of the road. These vehicles, scattered by the flood, were strewn everywhere on the road without any order.

Then, the ’Headstrong’ Armored vehicle started showing its power by lining up the obstacles and pushing them out of the way, clearing a path wide enough for vehicles to pass through.

With the vanguard armored vehicle leading, their journey through the first city was relatively smooth; no mishaps occurred.

Once they passed the next city, they should be quick to reach the road under Salt City’s jurisdiction. News relayed by Robinson William indicated that survivors in Salt City had also arranged for road clearing. Once they entered the Salt City area, the rest of the journey should be smooth sailing.

Just as Dong Tianyu calculated how much material he could procure from this trip to Salt City, Ye Liuyun’s truck ahead suddenly started to slow down. Thus, Dong Tianyu also slowed his vehicle.

The vehicles following Dong Tianyu’s also started to decelerate once they noticed his vehicle slowing down.

With the speed of the vehicles in front decreasing increasingly, the truck driven by Ye Liuyun in front of Dong Tianyu came to a complete halt. Just as Dong Tianyu began doubting and planned to leave his vehicle to consult Ye Liuyun about the situation, gunfire suddenly broke out ahead.

The fierce gunfire instantly awakened Dong Tianyu. Realizing they may have run into bandits, he took out a high-powered sniper rifle from his storage space.

This weapon, which had killed several Inner Breath Realm martial artists in the past, was once again out in the open. He wondered how many bandits this rifle could kill this time.

Just as Dong Tianyu was preparing to set up his sniper through the sunroof, the gunfire in front gradually ceased. The convoy, which had stopped moving before, started up again. It seemed the government officials had resolved the situation.

However, thinking about it, it made sense. After all, the government had deployed so many martial artists to accompany them on this journey. All of these martial artists had attained the Inner Breath Realm. If they couldn’t overcome mountain bandits that barely formed a loose alliance, the order in Pengville would have already collapsed, and the government would not control Pengville.

As the convoy progressed, Dong Tianyu noticed a large roadblock made of discarded vehicles, which had an opening riggled out on one side.

When passing by this roadblock, Dong Tianyu saw numerous bare bodies.

Came naked, left naked. A more poetic way to put it would be ’born not bringing anything, die not taking anything along’.

Seeing these stripped corpses, Dong Tianyu mused whether the martial artists were genuinely poor or if the bandits had valuable possessions on them.

But after considering the options, the former seemed more plausible. Nowadays, everything was scarce. All these corpses were shot to death. After their deaths, their clothes should be only slightly dirty, and at worst have some bullet holes. If they were taken back and given to a talented tailor for mending, they would quickly become wearable.

Nowadays, having clothes to wear and fabric to use was more than enough, and few people cared whether the clothing was peeled off a dead man’s body.

Perhaps the previous battle had unleashed Pandora’s box. On the subsequent journey, the vanguard convoy frequently encountered attacks from robbers.

However, the fate of these attackers inevitably led to them becoming stark naked, their bodies casually discarded on both sides of the road.

Perhaps it was because the armored vehicles were adequately stocked with weapons and ammunition. Regardless of taking steps into the jurisdiction of Salt City, the official convoy remained methodical, proceeding according to plan.

Just when the convoy entered the area of Salt City and there were no obstacles in the middle of the road, the people’s tension began to subside somewhat.

Suddenly, several cars darted from the side, disrupting the convoy. The horizontally parked cars directly blocked the last few trucks in the convoy. Then, several figures rushed from both sides of the road. These people weren’t greedy, allowing the vehicles ahead to leave.

Ye Liuyun and Dong Tianyu’s vehicles were located towards the front of the convoy. The convoy formation was in single file, so at this moment Dong Tianyu could only hear the sounds of gunfire from behind.

However, even though the ’rat-tat-tat’ sounds were coming from behind, the leading official convoy showed no intentions of slowing down. As previously stated, no matter what problems occurred, the officials would not stop to assist the private convoys.

Even though the official convoy had issued a notice in advance, it was quite clear that during the convoy’s journey, the seemingly chaotic but secretly pre-arranged order of vehicles meant that should any private trucks close to the official convoy be attacked, the official convoy would certainly not ignore it as they were doing now.

However, Dong Tianyu, towards the front of the convoy, did not stop when he heard the sounds of a skirmish from behind, and continued to follow the convoy at a regulated speed.

As the convoy moved forward, the sounds of battle gradually faded. Although no one stopped, most of us vaguely understood what fate had befallen the last few intercepted trucks.

Who knew if we had truly entered Salt City, but subsequently not only were there no obstacles on the road, the occurrence of road robbers also ceased. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

The convoy, led by the official vehicles, met the officials of Salt City who had been waiting ahead. Under their guidance, we smoothly reached our destination: Salt City Logistics Distribution Center.

This place was well suited for bulk trading in and around Salt City. It had a high platform convenient for loading and unloading trucks, and a vast open area which could accommodate many vehicles.

Under the guidance of Salt City officials, the Pengville convoy parked sequentially in the designated area.

After everyone disembarked, official members from Pengville were received by a special person, while private car owners like Ye Liuyun and Dong Tianyu also had someone specifically to explain the local situation to them.

Before the catastrophe, most of the salt used in Pengville City was produced in the surrounding county towns. But due to the effect of the Electromagnetic Pulse, all the salt producing equipment there became scrap metal.

If Pengville were to put in professional workers, they would be able to repair those machines. However, they decided to deploy these professionals elsewhere instead of mending the salt-producing machines.

Because of this, we had to buy salt here. Known for its thriving salt industry, this city served not only Pengville but also neighboring cities, and even coastal cities. After the catastrophe, most of them came here for salt.

Additionally, Salt City made use of the salt industry to boost commerce, accelerating the city’s recovery rate. With the salt industry as a foundation, its main source of income had now shifted to taxes on trade.

In order to trade at this distribution center, all goods had to be registered first, and there were professionals who would appraise the items.

No matter how much one sold for on the outside market, once a trade had occurred here, regardless of the method of transaction, the seller was obligated to pay 5% sales tax based on the initial appraisal.

As the monetary system had collapsed, even trades involving gold were deemed as bartering, and both sides had to pay 5% tax based on the value of the trade items.

Salt City was not unreasonable, however. Taxes could be paid using items according to their original appraised value.

After the trading center staff explained the trading rules, they left right away. The private car owners began to call their friends as people tend to rely on each other in unfamiliar places.

Robinson William originally planned to introduce Dong Tianyu to a few business partners he knew, but to his surprise, Dong Tianyu waved his hand, opting not to engage with Robinson William’s social circle. Instead, he left by himself.

Dong Tianyu appreciated Robinson William’s kindness but knew that if he traded with acquaintances, he could only trade according to the black car’s load. So, how much goods could he really bring in?

Not associating with acquaintances and trading only with strangers made it hard for people to know the actual volume of Dong Tianyu’s transactions.

The trading center taxed according to the goods initially registered in the vehicles. They didn’t care if people traded inside the park. They only appraised and charged once according to the goods at entry.