Chapter 53: The Battle at Suyuan Bridge and Sude Park (1)

The terrain around Suyuan Bridge was complex, and the presence of the Side Park made the Reconnaissance Battalion proceed with extra caution. Experience gathered from survivor bases everywhere had proven that open spaces were always a headache for humans. Radio transmissions from the various survivor outposts had revealed a hard-earned lesson: in open terrain, once the zombies gained a numerical advantage, there was nothing that could stop them. More than once, hordes of zombies had overrun and wiped out survivor strongholds.

The Special Committee had begun to suspect that the reason the national-level base, which had never reappeared, might have been utterly destroyed in just such a manner.

Li Fengyi summoned the follow-up units, gathering them on the eastern side of Suyuan Bridge’s head to discuss operational plans. It was clear that unless Side Park was thoroughly cleared, even if the road was opened, it would remain unusable, for the zombie hordes could counterattack at any time.

Side Park had always been a popular destination with crowds of visitors. Standing at the bridge, Ma Xiaoshuai surveyed the scene through his binoculars for a long while. “There must be twenty to thirty thousand of them,” he estimated. The number sent chills down Li Fengyi’s spine. In the past, just a few hundred had been enough to cause casualties and force them to dart from hiding place to hiding place. Now, facing tens of thousands, the Special Committee simply didn’t have the numbers to achieve superiority. The terrain was too open, there weren’t many obstacles, and it was hard to divide up the enemy.

At that moment, the Ministry of Industry arrived, bringing a model aircraft and an operator. “Let’s try some aerial reconnaissance,” Sun Xiaoshan had sent word.

The Reconnaissance Battalion was thrilled, watching as the operator assembled the aircraft—a model of a J-20 fighter, about two meters long. Sun Xiaoshan had attached several cameras, which would record video on a hard drive and transmit in real time via a 2.4G wireless module. The transmission distance was five hundred meters, enough to barely cover short-range flights given the park’s size.

On a cleared fifty-meter stretch of road, the model plane took off, climbing to about a hundred meters and circling the park. In no time, it completed a lap while the Reconnaissance Battalion carefully marked the zombies’ location, numbers, and groupings. The buzzing overhead agitated the zombies for a while, but when they realized they couldn’t reach the source, they returned to their aimless wandering. Soon after, the J-20 model circled back.

Suddenly, a soldier shouted, “Look! What’s that?!”

Following his finger, Li Fengyi and the others saw a flock of birds burst into the air. They were large—about the size of the model plane. Everyone’s heart leapt into their throats. Clearly, the birds had mutated as well. Their sense of territoriality seemed to have intensified. One of them dove straight for the plane. The operator scrambled to evade, but failed. In the sky, birds were still more agile. In a flash, the plane was struck and sent plummeting, a wisp of smoke rising from the wreck on the ground, a few feathers swirling in the air.

The operator shook his fist at the birds, cursing loudly.

“That looked like a swallow,” Li Fengyi ventured uncertainly, unsettled by the bird’s enormous size. “Could they attack humans now?”

“The Ministry of Health said animal habits hadn’t changed much, right?” Ma Xiaoshuai shared his concern. “Why would they attack a model plane? I’ve never heard of that before.”

“There have been cases of birds colliding with planes in the past,” Li Fengyi mused. “But with their bodies enlarged, they probably aren’t as afraid of model planes as they once were. If that’s the case, we’ll have to be careful not to let our activities make them think we’re invading their territory.”

Yet none of this proved the birds would attack humans. Still, the fact that no planes had been seen since the apocalypse was indirect evidence that the skies were no longer ours to command.

Disheartened, the operator withdrew with the teams evacuating survivors and supplies. He had only just escaped the ranks of basic labor, but now he was back to his old duties, hauling endless loads.

At a loss, Li Fengyi ordered the Reconnaissance Battalion to hold “Zhuge Liang meetings” by squad and platoon, brainstorming for alternative ideas.

A traditionalist among the soldiers made a suggestion: “Why don’t we imitate Qi Jiguang’s war wagon tactics? Build armored vehicles to charge in and create mobile fortresses on the plain.”

But another quickly objected, “There are too many zombies. They’d just pile up and overwhelm the wagons. It won’t work.”

“That’s no matter,” the traditionalist insisted. “We can withdraw layer by layer, grinding down their numbers. Sooner or later, enough zombies will be fed into the meat-grinder to make a difference.”

All the proposals were collected and brought to Li Fengyi, who reviewed them with the Reconnaissance Battalion’s commander.

“The armored vehicle plan is excellent,” said the first battalion commander with enthusiasm. “Our Reconnaissance Battalion could pull that off. But with so many zombies, it’ll take ages.”

“This one’s not bad either,” Li Fengyi said, reading another proposal. “Dig pits and trenches. There are plenty of cars here—we can repurpose some as makeshift excavators, dig traps and kill a portion of them that way.”

“Block off the park entrances to stop more zombies from flooding in,” the battalion commander said, though sounding frustrated. “But this park has no walls. It’s an open, free public space. Except for the western side at Suyuan Bridge, the only separation is the surrounding buildings forming a rough barrier. How long would it take to seal everything?”

“Burn the zombies,” Li Fengyi thought aloud. “That could work too. The terrain’s open, there’s nothing of value to lose, and there’s a gas station nearby. The road is full of cars, all with gasoline.”

In the end, they decided to implement all these measures. The outcome, however, would depend on the zombies. The Ministry of Industry was notified to send technicians to modify vehicles for digging trenches and pits—a task Ma Xiaoshuai joked could just as well be called “battle pits” since the word “battle” was involved.

Upon receiving the order, Sun Xiaoshan personally led several mechanics from the auto repair shop to the site. They drove directly there, but at intervals, they stationed cars for mobility and emergency roadblocks. They brought welding equipment, acetylene, portable generators, and other gear. The General Staff was intrigued by the idea of field operations against zombies, and Minister Ou from the Ministry of Health, believing zombies in these circumstances offered greater research value, hurried over as well.

The Provisional First Army sent three trained regiments of survivors, with the rest to finish their training on the battlefield. The soldiers now wore metal dog tags around their necks, uniformly manufactured by the Ministry of Industry and engraved with blood type, unit number, and name by souvenir engraving machines they’d scavenged.

That night, all the teams camped on Suyuan Bridge. Li Fengyi and the staff officers, together with the commanders of each battalion and regiment, allocated tasks according to the map: the next day, each regiment would move to block entrances around the park, preventing further zombie influxes. The Ministry of Industry began working through the night, converting powerful vehicles by attaching ploughs to their rears—essentially turning them into makeshift ploughs. With a few more vehicles and a few more passes, the ground could be dug deep enough. Sun Xiaoshan reckoned that, since they hadn’t found proper excavators or construction equipment yet, improvisation would have to do for now.