Some villagers, however, thought it was fake. How could such monsters exist in the world? Perhaps the village had made them up to scare them.
Village chief Dai Fa had previously told them to stay away from the mountains and to minimize contact with outsiders.
But some of the young women and men couldn't resist. They wanted to see the beautiful scenery below the mountain, and to flirt with attractive girls.
Humans are like that. If they were to live their whole lives in such a small village, it would be just that. But once someone forbids them from going out, everyone immediately yearns for freedom, and all sorts of rebellious emotions surface.
If you're told not to do something, you just have to do it.
Damn it, Uncle Dai Fa must have made it up to stop them from running around.
Both Dai Fa and Gu Qingcheng knew that the villagers would have all sorts of ideas after the news was released.
However, they wouldn't immediately extinguish these thoughts. Suppressing them by force at this moment would only lead to a stronger backlash later.
Fine, let the bullets fly for a while longer.
The squad leaders diligently informed all the villagers, telling them to go to the village public school to learn how to resist monsters.
Some had reservations, but when they heard they would receive half a jin of rice for attending, they grumbled but still went.
Of course, upon arriving at the venue and seeing the solemn atmosphere, these people also toned down.
They were cowards; if they were to curse, they would only do so behind people's backs.
After all, they all understood that without Phoenix Village, they were nothing. Their food and drink were all provided by the village.
Although the grain they planted themselves was almost ripe, it hadn't been harvested yet. If they had to rely on themselves for food and drink, they would have starved to death long ago.
"Everyone, today's first lesson is to inform you about a new crisis: the zombie crisis."
Gu Qingcheng decided to officially name the "monsters." Otherwise, constantly calling them monsters would only instill an inexplicable sense of fear in ordinary people.
After all, monsters have various forms, and everyone has their own image of a monster in their heart. Such a monster is what they fear the most.
By introducing the term "zombie," Gu Qingcheng gave the villagers a clear understanding.
Seeing that the villagers had gathered, Gu Qingcheng recounted their encounters with zombies when they went out.
Young Master Gu was undoubtedly an authority in the village. What she said was true and not false. When the villagers heard about real zombie monsters, they were all stunned.
Gu Qingcheng looked at the restless villagers and calmly said:
"We have observed them for several days and engaged in close combat with them two or three times, accumulating a lot of useful experience. Now, I will introduce the behavioral characteristics of zombies and how to kill them."
After a detailed explanation, Gu Qingcheng instructed every household to prepare several torches, which could be used for initial defense when combat was necessary, to protect themselves and their families.
This was because zombies feared fire; as soon as they touched it, they lost their ability to resist.
Of course, this required a strong heart, as the first time they saw a zombie lunging at them, they would surely be terrified.
After explaining everything, Gu Qingcheng distributed Tang knives and short knives to everyone and began practicing knife techniques.
Not to mention anything else, the value of this pair of knives alone was considerable. The villagers were discerning, and it was precisely because of this that they believed the talk of zombies.
If they hadn't encountered such a great crisis, the village wouldn't have invested so much to provide them with such good weapons. For a moment, everyone became serious, and the voices of opposition and resignation decreased.
From this day on, a tense atmosphere permeated the entire Phoenix Village.
Every day after work, the villagers would gather at the village public school for an hour of training.
This training involved coordinated fire attacks and techniques with long and short knives.
Gu Qingcheng knew that trying to learn too much at once was difficult to digest, and dealing with zombies was as simple as severing their heads. Therefore, she only taught them two moves and had them practice using the long and short knives according to these moves every day.
After practicing knife techniques for seven consecutive days, Gu Qingcheng had them practice chopping wood.
Of course, wood was definitely harder than human heads. Directly chopping with a long knife would damage the blade. So, she had the villagers use wooden staffs of similar weight to the long knives for practice.
Although the villagers had their own thoughts, they were content with the half jin of rice they received every day.
For the fire attack techniques, Gu Qingcheng had custom-made long-handled torches, with handles at least one and a half meters long and heads wrapped with durable fuel.
The long handles were to prevent close-range contact with zombies, reducing the possibility of them being infected.
As they only practiced these few moves, the villagers quickly became proficient, and their coordination with each other also improved significantly.
Later, even women and children joined the training.
After all, anyone who attended could receive half a jin of rice.
First, they would get a blank mahjong tile from Qin Yue. After training, they would return the tile to Qin Yue and receive half a jin of rice.
The more people who trained, the more rice they earned, so why not?
For a while, the rice in Gu Qingcheng's warehouse was consumed quickly. However, she was not worried. The experiences of killing zombies and her mother not being infected along the way had earned her a large amount of "satisfaction points."
Throughout the journey, she had gained over 50,000 satisfaction points.
She decided to use all 50,000 satisfaction points to buy rice at the Mountain Cat Supermarket.
The cheapest rice at the Mountain Cat Supermarket was two yuan and eight jiao. Gu Qingcheng had just exchanged it for fifty thousand jin of rice.
The permanent population of Phoenix Village is now around 5,000. Fifty thousand jin of rice is about ten jin per person, which, at half a jin per day, can last for twenty days. And within these twenty days, it is enough for them to master survival skills.
In addition to mobilizing villagers for training, Gu Qingcheng also had a large number of straw balls made, forming huge spheres with dry grass, mixed with oily pine wood shavings. If there was a large-scale zombie attack, these straw balls could be ignited and pushed down.
Furthermore, she provided a large supply of bows and arrows, instructing the villagers to continuously make fire arrows.
With everything arranged in an orderly fashion, the villagers gradually calmed down from their initial panic.
As their knife skills became more proficient, their fear also dissipated significantly.
The moat Gu Qingcheng had ordered to be dug was also under construction day and night.
Dai Fa even completed this project three days ahead of schedule.
On the twelfth day, a three-meter-wide moat was dug, cutting off the road into Phoenix Village and encircling it.
Gu Qingcheng had the villagers fill the moat with a large amount of flammable dry grass and firewood.
If zombies attacked, they could ignite the firewood in the moat to effectively stop the enemy.
In addition, she devised and designed a catapult for throwing firebombs, using the principle of a trebuchet to launch firebombs to a distant target.
This would create a safe distance between the villagers and the zombies, allowing for fire attacks before the zombies approached, thus gaining an advantage in long-range combat.