The Ultimate War Of The Apocalypse-Chapter 416 - 409 Industrial Foundation

The practices of the Sanitation Workers and Graycloaks have not just been a case of failing to help those in need; they watched humanity fall into destruction but still refused to offer the vaccine they had mastered to save mankind.

Before the Serpent People released the virus on a large scale, they had conducted experiments, which gave humans a small window to react. The Sanitation Workers, or perhaps the Graycloaks, must have obtained the virus samples immediately and quickly developed a vaccine using the Ark of the Covenant.

Because if the Sanitation Workers only had the vaccine after the Serpent People released the virus globally, they wouldn’t have had time to vaccinate their own people.

Gao Yuan’s perception of these captives immediately plummeted to an extreme low.

For a moment, the atmosphere became extremely solemn, because a vaccine that was 100 percent effective against the zombie virus meant too much for humanity.

Firstly, mankind could gain time.

Gao Yuan still didn’t know how the Ark of the Covenant operated, but he knew that a vaccine could be replicated. Therefore, as long as the Sanitation Workers revealed the vaccine sample, humans could mass-produce it, and the alien attack would lose its power.

Although they held in their hands the greatest asset for humanity to resist the Aliens, the Sanitation Workers refused to share it out of self-interest. Previously, Gao Yuan knew that the purpose of his mission was to seize the Ark of the Covenant, but he could never fully grasp the value of the Ark.

But now, Gao Yuan truly understood – a 100 percent effective vaccine; just for this reason alone, the Ark of the Covenant must be in the hands of a Government that was responsible for all of mankind.

Sirte pushed the knife in a bit further and then couldn’t help but slightly twist the blade, shouting fiercely, "Speak! Where is your Ark of the Covenant! Where is it!"

It was not surprising that Sirte knew about the Ark of the Covenant since he clearly had a deep connection with Nate, the Ram, and Poseidon; of course he would be aware of these matters.

François cried out in pain, "Stop! Stop! How could I possibly know where the Ark of the Covenant is! I don’t know!"

In fact, Gao Yuan knew where the Ark of the Covenant was.

"Ask him, what do they produce in the factories at Malakal?"

This was now a more pressing concern for Gao Yuan because there was almost no industry here, no infrastructure at all. If the Sanitation Workers came to this remote place just to survive a bit longer, then there was obviously no need to build factories.

"Speak, what is produced here!"

Annoyed, Sirte asked the question, and François took a few quick breaths before replying, "Cannons, tanks, some weapons. I don’t know what specifically, but there’s definitely a basic factory. They began producing simple tanks initially, but now the production of tanks has stopped because they already have a lot of them. So now they mainly produce ammunition and bullets like consumables."

Cannons, tanks, bullets, shells; are these things just anyone can decide to produce?

The answer, of course, was impossible. Guns were one thing, but there aren’t many countries in the world that can produce artillery. To produce artillery, it needs to be an industrial nation, or at the very least, have industrial capabilities.

An artillery piece seems to have no significant technical content, but this not-so-high-tech weapon tests a country’s industrial base in all aspects.

Starting from the basics, artillery is made of steel. So does one need to mine iron ore, then smelt the iron ore into steel, and then forge the steel into cannon-grade steel that meets the requirements, before pulling it into a long rod, and finally drilling holes into the rod to make a cannon barrel. Only when this most critical core component can be produced do other ancillary facilities have a meaningful purpose for production.

Just one cannon tests mining iron ore, smelting, and mechanical processing—three fundamental aspects.

Gao Yuan knew that the Sanitation Workers had a complete production line, but that was just the production line. If you could just move an entire production line somewhere else and start manufacturing qualified cannons and qualified ammunition, then what was the need for an industrial base?

Having just a production line definitely wasn’t enough, so the Sanitation Workers also had basic industrial capabilities, which they had established right there on the grasslands of the Malakal Region. Reaching this level was far beyond what money alone could solve.

Gao Yuan voiced his concerns inwardly, "Ask them how they managed to do this, what kind of factories are there?"

François spread his hands and said, "Here in Malakal, there’s a steel plant, a chemical plant, and a machine processing factory, a precision machinery processing factory. They can make everything from fake drugs to fuses here. This place is like a big military factory complex. Right now, they can produce two types of artillery shells, one type of rifle ammunition, and... hand grenades. The technical level is from the end of World War II to the beginning of the Cold War. The bullets are M43 intermediate cartridges, the tanks are a simplified version of the T55, and the turrets are cast. But I can’t go into the factories, so I don’t know how strong the production capacity is, but I think producing dozens of tanks a month should be no problem."

After François finished, he realized that as long as he spoke, and furthermore spoke meaningfully, he would, for the moment, not be subjected to abuse. So he continued, "But now, the armories here don’t actually need to produce too much weaponry or ammunition. In fact, the existence of the tank factory is somewhat awkward because our tanks are simply not... not..."

"Not what!"

"Not a match for the Solar System Company. They have a lot of anti-tank missiles and rocket launchers, so tanks haven’t been able to play the role they should have. Also, we now have too many tanks and armored vehicles. Instead, we’re severely lacking in drivers."

Gao Yuan and Li Jingang exchanged glances, while Nate nodded and said, "You have a lot of tanks?"

François said with a wry smile, "Yes, we captured over three thousand tanks from Egypt, more than three thousand! Even now, if we need more, there’s an endless supply of tanks that can be brought from Egypt to wherever they are needed. Currently, there are eight hundred T55 tanks here, six hundred of which were shipped from Egypt. Why T55? Because there will absolutely never be a shortage of their ammunition."

Nate inhaled sharply and asked, "How do you know all this so clearly?"

"Because a large number of unused tanks are just sitting there in the city, as far as the eye can see. There are also artillery pieces—around five hundred guns of 122mm and 152mm caliber. Why only these two calibers? Because the ammunition for them can be produced here; there’s an endless supply. I know all this because I took part in the battle against Egypt, so I’m very clear on it."

After listening to François, Li Jingang sighed lightly and said, "I understand now why Ram has chosen to use guerrilla warfare to fight against the Sanitation Workers because if the Sanitation Workers were to rally, they would simply be unstoppable."