Shen Feng was stationed in Yuzhou and immediately began to assemble mercenaries. This was a plan left by Professor Chu. To clear out the mutated beasts in the south, sufficient troops were necessary. Without enough soldiers, clearing the southern mountains would be a joke!
The City Lord's Mansion could not afford enough soldiers. The soldiers' treatment was very high, as they were following Shen Feng. In Shen Feng's opinion, Yuzhou could support at most ten to twenty thousand soldiers. If they couldn't afford more, then forming mercenary groups was the solution. Weapons would be distributed to the people, and during their free time, missions would be assigned for them to kill zombies or mutated beasts. At critical moments, temporary armies could be assembled to venture deep into the southern forests to eliminate large-scale mutated beasts!
The most direct benefit was not having to pay salaries, thus directly alleviating the financial pressure.
During this period, Professor Niu specially came from the laboratory and said to Shen Feng earnestly, "If you are truly going to establish a mercenary guild, it must form a virtuous cycle. I suggest that the guild sell weapons and food, and purchase mutated beast and zombie corpses from the mercenaries. The guild will then settle with food coupons. This way, the laboratory will obtain research materials, and zombie corpses can be used as raw materials for plant hearts. Thus, the guild can surely sustain itself."
Shen Feng heard this suggestion and nodded repeatedly. The reason for establishing the mercenary guild was to kill mutated beasts. But why should mercenaries kill mutated beasts? At this point, the guild had to offer benefits. Using food coupons for settlement was equivalent to the guild purchasing mutated beast corpses.
However, at this moment, Chu Chaoyan asked, "But what if someone takes advantage and buys zombie corpses from other provinces at a high price to exchange for food coupons in Yuzhou? Wouldn't that disrupt the order?"
Professor Niu gently shook his head and said, "There's no need to worry about this. Food coupons are only valid in Yuzhou, aren't they? They exchange foreign zombie corpses for food coupons, but it's not that easy to redeem them for food. Everyone has a quota, and hoarding is strictly prohibited. These people will only be able to spend the food coupons in Yuzhou."
Shen Feng nodded, understanding Professor Niu's meaning.
"Oh, I get it. It's like working; you earn money in the city and spend it in the city. You can't take it home." Chu Chaoyan also nodded in admiration. He didn't expect Professor Niu to have such a far-reaching plan. He was truly cunning. Who said science students are rigid? Here's a devious fellow!
"Say less about that. Others will get angry if they hear it," Shen Feng couldn't help but remind him.
The mercenary guild needed to be in the hands of their own people. After much thought, Shen Feng set his sights on Cao Fuli, who was one of the earliest to follow him. He had made a fool of himself in Yuzhen before, but he made amends by voluntarily purchasing antibiotics, thus earning merit.
"Brother Cao Fuli, you've followed me for a long time. I'm sure you can't help but sigh. We've gone from a precarious situation a year ago to now being a regional power. You've contributed greatly to all of this. I've seen it all," Shen Feng said to Cao Fuli in his office.
When Cao Fuli heard Shen Feng say this, he couldn't help but look around. He saw that besides himself, only Shen Feng and Chu Chaoyan were in the office. He immediately became excited.
He had followed Shen Feng for a long time and knew Shen Feng's temperament. When promoting someone, he would ask them privately. Those who could stand by his side were always trusted confidants. Yang Chang was like this, and Lu Xian was also like this. Now, it seemed that good fortune had finally favored him. 138 Reading Network
Facing a private inquiry, Cao Fuli's excitement was beyond words. He knew that an opportunity for promotion had arrived.
Cao Fuli quickly said, "City Lord, I followed you not because I was lost and helpless, but because I saw the correctness of following you! From the moment I first saw you, I knew you were no ordinary person. How can a golden dragon confined to a pool remain there? It will soar once it encounters wind and clouds. Now that I have followed the City Lord to this point, I am willing, and I will certainly have no regrets in this life."
Shen Feng couldn't help but feel a little proud upon hearing these praises. It seemed his image in the hearts of many had always been very high.
"Since you work so diligently, I have a difficult task for you. That is to establish the mercenary guild and manage the future mercenaries. Do you have confidence?" Shen Feng asked with a smile.
Cao Fuli quickly nodded and said seriously, "City Lord, please rest assured. I will definitely complete this task. Once the mercenary guild is established, it will surely become an asset to you, City Lord."
Shen Feng immediately instructed, "Over the next few months, the mercenary guild must be established. Within three months, missions will be issued to kill all the mutated beasts north of Yuzhou. After three months, I will personally lead the army and mercenaries to the southern mountains for extermination. Do you understand?"
Hearing this plan, Cao Fuli was also very excited. It seemed he had entered the decision-making level. The City Lord was informing him of the plan three months in advance, which meant his position was very important!
"I understand. I will definitely establish the mercenary guild properly. By three months from now, Yuzhou will have enough mercenaries to use!" Cao Fuli said seriously.
Shen Feng patted Cao Fuli on the shoulder and let him leave the office. As for his subsequent job change, someone would notify him soon.
The mutated beasts had already threatened Yuzhou's safety. If they remained indifferent to these mutated beasts, they would descend the mountain every year, either attacking humans or ruining crops. If dealt with promptly, it would bring more trouble in the future.
Unfortunately, Shen Feng currently did not have enough strength to clear out the mutated beasts in the mountains. There were too many mountains in the south, and he only had eight thousand soldiers. Their effectiveness in clearing them would be very poor.
Since a large-scale extermination of mutated beasts was necessary, the most important thing to do was to expand the military strength. Recruiting soldiers was not feasible due to the heavy financial burden. Therefore, forming mercenary groups was the only option. During their free time, missions would be assigned to mercenaries, but when war was needed, they would be directly assembled as soldiers.
Of course, Shen Feng would not be without means of guarding against these mercenaries. Firstly, elite weapons would definitely not be provided. Firearms would only be the simplest type. Moreover, mercenaries were not allowed to carry firearms within the city to prevent them from causing trouble.
The area of Yuzhou City was too vast. The city walls only enclosed the main urban area, and many urban areas were outside the city. The areas outside the city would become the main activity grounds for mercenaries.
When the City Lord's Mansion posted notices everywhere about the establishment of the mercenary guild, the hundreds of thousands of people in Yuzhou City immediately began to discuss it heatedly. Generally, people in Yuzhou had only two options: entering factories or going out for farming. As for passing exams to enter the City Lord's Mansion, it was basically impossible. For adults, exams were truly a headache.
To enter various departments of the City Lord's Mansion, one had to pass exams. And exams were entirely the domain of the young. If the exam conditions were not standardized, there would be no place for people in their thirties. High school and university students had undergone more than ten years of exams. Middle-aged people had slow thinking and reaction times. If these people took exams, the ones who could pass were young people in their teens and twenties.
Now, with new job opportunities presented to everyone, countless people paid attention. As long as they could complete tasks, they would receive food coupons, which was equivalent to a job to make a living. As long as they registered to become mercenaries, they could accept missions.
When the announcement was posted, it immediately caused many people to cheer.
A burly man with a full beard clapped his hands and exclaimed excitedly, "Isn't this my chance? Damn it, I've taken exams more than ten times, and each time I was squeezed out by young people in their teens. They didn't even set up a special position for me. Now it's great, becoming a mercenary, I can still support my family."
This burly man's name was Yu Muhe. Before the apocalypse, he ran a small restaurant and lived a decent life. But after the apocalypse, everything changed. Except for his two children, all his family members turned into zombies. When Yuzhou was recaptured, he thought a good life had arrived, but he was under pressure from daily expenses and worked on construction sites all day, and his two children were always hungry.
Yu Muhe had intended to work in the City Lord's Mansion, but he couldn't. He couldn't compete with young people in the exam alone. It seemed his fate was to do manual labor on construction sites, or work in factories if that didn't work out.
Fortunately, notices were posted in streets and alleys everywhere, and Yuzhou's radio was constantly talking about it. Yu Muhe finally found an opportunity. As long as he became a mercenary, couldn't he support his family through his own means?
"Stop dreaming. Becoming a mercenary requires doing missions, which means fighting mutated beasts outside the city. Don't be foolish. How dangerous is it outside the city? You could die outside the city at any moment, with no compensation. This is playing with your life, not something that can be done easily!" Someone immediately began to discourage Yu Muhe. It wasn't easy to become a mercenary; one could be bitten to death by mutated beasts at any moment.
Yu Muhe, however, remained firm in his idea and said seriously, "As long as I kill mutated beasts, I can exchange them for food coupons. Although I can't deal with larger mutated beasts, I can still kill smaller ones, like mutated rats and mutated rabbits. Besides, didn't they say zombie corpses can also be exchanged for food coupons? Zombies are easier to deal with, right?"
Yu Muhe rubbed his hands together and headed towards the mercenary guild. He was already imagining the good life ahead: going outside the city to kill mutated beasts. If he couldn't kill them head-on, he would set traps, or he could gather a group to act collectively outside the city. He didn't believe he couldn't make a living by killing mutated beasts.
Besides reckless men like Yu Muhe, there were also some shrewd people observing the announcements.
The quick-witted people gathered and began to discuss, "Didn't they say zombie corpses can also complete tasks? I heard there's fighting in the south, and corpses are just thrown into the mountains. Why don't we go to the south to transport zombie corpses and bring them to Yuzhou? We can directly earn food coupons. Isn't that great?"
"Yes, yes, let's hurry up and register. We can't let others get ahead of us in such good business!"
"Nonsense, is it still timely to register now? Let's hurry out of the city and transport corpses from the southern provinces. We can register after we bring the goods back!"
"Our boss is indeed smart. If we can do this, others can too. We must be the first to act. Hurry up and prepare rations and vehicles, and head straight south."
Some people targeted the "loophole" in the mercenary guild, thinking that just by using zombie corpses, they could exchange them for food coupons. Such a good thing was like picking up money. Thus, this group of people directly took food and vehicles and headed south.
Little did they know that the "loophole" these people thought of was already within Shen Feng's calculations. Zombie corpses were worthless in the hands of others, but once they fell into his hands, they could continuously produce evolution bases. Where else could such a business be found?
When Shen Feng announced the establishment of the mercenary guild, Yuzhou City immediately caused a sensation. People flocked to sign up as mercenaries. There were also timid people who absolutely refused to leave the city. This was their own choice, and no one could force them.
In short, more than half of the bold people who had no hope of passing exams registered as mercenaries. The timid or younger people chose to continue taking exams. As long as they could pass the exams, they could support their families with their brains, and there was no risk. This was clear to everyone.
Shen Feng stood on the mountain and watched the people rushing around the city, smiling and saying, "It seems that the employment problem for a bunch of idle people has been solved. These people cannot enter the city with firearms, so they will have to live outside the city. This way, there will be people guarding the outside of the city. We've made a fortune."