54: Number organization

Naturally, Li Xiao did not forget to send people to take over the Xi City Chemical Plant.

Li Xiao directly stated that he wanted to claim six thousand points of the output. Having just earned a large amount of resources thanks to Li Xiao, the squad members naturally had no objections and readily accepted.

Li Xiao now had seventeen Engineers, including Ye Ming and Jiang Lang. Aside from Ye Ming, Jiang Lang and the remaining fifteen Engineers had been accumulated over the past month or so; they had basically never participated in combat and spent the entire day working hard in the resource zones.

Because of this, these Engineers now held ranks ranging from Private to Private First Class, while Jiang Lang held the rank of Corporal. Their combined Rare Ore collection rate per unit of time reached 275 points, totaling five to six thousand points per day.

"Sigh... growing military strength is just too difficult..."

In fact, if he had enough Engineers, let alone six thousand, no one in the squad would have objected even if he wanted half the output. After all, he had planned the entire operation at the chemical plant from start to finish.

After withdrawing Jiang Lang from the Banshan Steel Factory and gathering all the Engineers at the chemical plant to collect Rare Ore, Li Xiao waited for the completion of the Level 8 Base.

Two days later.

In the eastern part of Xi City, within a scenic area called Fengyu Lake, Wu Chong sat at a fishing spot by the lakeside, holding a fishing rod and staring intently at the water's surface.

The midday sun hit the lake, a gentle breeze blew, and the water and sky merged into one color. The scenery was truly beautiful.

Every now and then, fish could be seen splashing in the lake, and the shore was clustered with flowers. It was truly a fine place for leisure.

The red float suddenly bobbed down a few times. Wu Chong was quick of eye and hand, jerking the rod upward, and a two-pound crucian carp was hooked.

"Haha! We're having fish soup for lunch today!"

As he was cheerfully putting the fish into the bucket, a woman wearing a floral dress and a white sun hat walked up behind Wu Chong.

Looking closely, this was the woman in the cheongsam who had appeared at the chemical plant that day.

"Chong Ge, there's some news you might be interested in."

"Oh? What news?"

Wu Chong continued to hook some corn bait as he asked casually.

The woman then explained, "It's like this: a friend of mine met someone from the Xiaoyao Squad at a bar in Xi City yesterday. That person had too much to drink and chatted about some details regarding the battle at the chemical plant."

"Oh? Any discoveries?"

"That person mentioned a gathering point for the Xiaoyao Squad. They set out from there and attacked multiple Hellfire bases according to coordinates given by the squad Commander. So, I suspect the Xiaoyao Squad's headquarters or their main members are nearby..."

Hearing this, Wu Chong put down his fishing rod and turned around to ask, "How certain are you?"

"This... it's not clear yet, but we can send a small team over to investigate first. I believe there will be results soon."

"Excellent!" Wu Chong chuckled deeply. "Thinking about the tragic state of the Hellfire Squad these past few days has made me restless, as if the Xiaoyao Squad could attack at any moment. In that case, I'd rather strike first! Make the arrangements immediately, but keep it absolutely confidential!"

"Don't worry, no problem!"

The woman turned to leave, but Wu Chong suddenly called out to her again, "Xuan Yu, I'll be waiting for you at the East Overlook Villa tonight."

"Mm, alright..." The woman smiled charmingly and turned to leave.

...

Li Xiao waited for three days until the Level 8 Base was completed. This time, the base headquarters had transformed into a standalone modern-style office building, complete with its own garden.

The base area had also expanded to 15,000 square meters, equivalent to more than two football fields.

Although the Military Factory didn't bring any new vehicles this time, it updated the rifle ammunition production line. This line could produce three types of rifle cartridges: 5.56mm, 5.8mm, and 7.62mm.

The cost was 1 Steel and 1 Rare Ore to manufacture one round, with a production time of 1 minute per round.

Don't look down on the fact that it could only produce over a thousand rounds a day; this meant that starting from the Level 8 Base, the Transmigrators could break away from relying solely on captured supplies for weapons and ammunition.

Li Xiao estimated that this ammunition production speed would likely increase in the later stages, but the current output was actually quite good. After all, you aren't fighting every single moment; there's always time to accumulate supplies.

Of course, this base upgrade once again increased the durability of the Headquarters and unlocked a new building: the Command Center.

With this Command Center, Li Xiao could formally reorganize his troops, appoint officers, and give units their designations.

After spending a day building the Command Center, Li Xiao was surprised to find that his squad could also be organized into small teams.

So, Li Xiao quickly had Liu Nian mobilize everyone to form voluntary groups. Then, using the group list, he organized the more than 120 members of the squad into ten combat teams, each with over ten players.

This way, it would be much easier to command them during future operations.

Li Xiao also checked his own military strength; detailed information was available by simply opening the base information panel.

Currently, he had 48 Infantry including Di Yun and Yang Chao, 17 Engineers including Ye Ming and Jiang Lang, 5 Scouts including Zhao Feipeng, 3 Signalmen including Li Le, 3 Cooks including Du Ziteng, and 3 Machine Gunners including Leng He.

Additionally, there were Snipers Yan Yizhou and Xiao He, Medic Zuo Fei, and Instructor Long Ming, bringing the total strength to 83 men.

Besides that, Li Xiao also possessed eleven fierce tiger h9 off-road vehicles, two of which had durability exceeding 300,000 points. He also had twelve ATV all-terrain vehicles, one of which had a durability of over 30,000 points.

Through the unified organization of the Command Center, Li Xiao divided the infantry into the First and Second Infantry Platoons. Di Yun served as the platoon leader for the First Platoon, and Yang Chao for the Second Platoon. The First Platoon was responsible for external operations, while the Second Platoon was responsible for base defense.

The Engineers were organized into an Engineering Platoon with Ye Ming as the platoon leader. Then there was Zhao Feipeng's Scout Squad, Li Le's Signal Squad, and Du Ziteng's Cooking Squad.

As for the three Machine Gunners like Leng He, they were assigned to the First Platoon, Second Platoon, and the Scout Squad respectively.

The two Snipers, Yan Yizhou and the other, Medic Zuo Fei, and Instructor Long Ming were under Li Xiao's direct command and were not given specific unit assignments for the time being.

Since the system determined the designation units and organizational size based on the number of people assigned,

Li Xiao couldn't change the Infantry Platoons and Scout Squad into infantry companies and Scout companies just to make them sound better. He would have to wait until the number of people reached the required scale before the system would automatically update the designations.

Regarding vehicle allocation, the First Platoon was assigned five fierce tiger h9s, the Second Platoon also had five, and the remaining one went to Zhao Feipeng.

Naturally, the two vehicles with the highest durability were allocated to Di Yun and Zhao Feipeng. The remaining all-terrain vehicles were kept at the base for free distribution.

Li Le's Signal Squad was usually an independent unit, but during operations, they would be assigned to various combat units as needed to ensure the force's communication capabilities.

With the reorganization complete, Li Xiao wouldn't need to manually mix and match his forces for future battles, allowing for faster deployment.

...

That evening, Li Xiao was in the headquarters connected with Liu Nian, Yun Dongliu, Qin Luming, and others, discussing the move into the southern part of Xi City, when Li Le walked in.

"Boss! Chang Zhan, the Commander of the Tian Yu Militia Organization, is requesting to speak with you."