Not everyone in Longmen Town was a merchant attracted by the opportunities; some very unusual-looking individuals also mingled within Longmen Town.
In the wasteland, it's easy to find someone to work for you, but finding someone who can do the job well is a bit more difficult.
Perhaps they were trying to find out where Feng Jun's grain came from, or perhaps they were wary of the increasingly powerful Longmen Town.
Some low-level spies infiltrated Longmen Town, but these people had too little work experience and just wandered around near the warehouses and barracks after entering.
When Feng Jun learned that Song Zhan had already captured 95 spies, he couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
"What? You caught 95 people in twenty days, and they're all confirmed spies?"
Song Zhan was very calm. "Not completely confirmed, but a large number of them confessed. Their infiltration attempts were very clumsy."
"How did you confirm it?" Feng Jun asked.
"Naturally, by beating them up. A few idiots even tried to climb over the wall into our warehouse in the middle of the night, so it's not surprising they were captured alive. If someone was stubborn, we just beat them more." Song Zhan's method was simple and brutal: if there was a suspect, he would catch them and beat them first.
"Alright, but I remember you also sent informants to Huaicheng District. How's that going?" Feng Jun recalled Song Peng sending people to Huaicheng District.
"We've planted a few people, but the information coming back is mostly useless. My informants are very cautious, after all, we're a newly emerging force. However, there's one piece of news you should pay attention to: Chen Jianbin is very likely to make a move against you, probably with the support of the Blood Bell Gang," Song Peng said.
Since Chen Jianbin escaped, he had refused to show his face, and the few pieces of news that came back were all related to the Blood Bell Gang.
However, Feng Jun wasn't afraid of him; if he remembered correctly, Chen Jianbin had been injected with the Gene Agent for several years without any signs of evolution.
With his current strength, Feng Jun believed he could easily crush him.
But considering the Blood Bell Gang's involvement, Feng Jun still needed to be careful.
"Understood, I will be more careful." Feng Jun nodded. "By the way, when I came back, I noticed many black and white people on the street, who all looked like slaves. Are they from out of town?"
"Oh, you mean that. I forgot to tell you. Have you heard of the White Lotus Sect?" Song Peng said with a half-smile.
"White Lotus Sect? I think I've heard of it. I remember two phrases, something like 'No birth parents, Vacuum Homeland,' and so on. It should be a cult, right?" Feng Jun was not unfamiliar with this religion. The White Lotus Sect had a notorious reputation in the real timeline and often appeared as villains in movies and novels.
"You know quite a lot. Those black and white slaves were brought by people from the White Lotus Sect. And they want to see you. I originally wanted to send them away, but..." At this point, Song Zhan smiled, and his smile was a bit embarrassed, and his gaze towards Feng Jun was somewhat evasive.
"But what?" Feng Jun asked.
"But they offered too much," Song Peng said directly.
It turned out that just three days after Feng Jun left, a group of White Lotus Sect followers arrived in Longmen Town.
After all, in the Doomsday world, all social order had collapsed, and human existence itself was a torment, so the role of religion was magnified.
The White Lotus Sect has a very long history in China, dating back to the Southern Song Dynasty.
It was active during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, especially having a widespread base of believers in folk society.
In the real timeline, the White Lotus Sect remained active on the historical stage until before the founding of the nation, but after the founding of the nation, the White Lotus Sect quickly withdrew from the historical stage.
In the Doomsday timeline, the White Lotus Sect also remained silent for quite some time, but with the outbreak of the Doomsday, this religion began to rise again.
Song Peng briefly explained to Feng Jun the purpose of the White Lotus Sect's visit and what he knew about the White Lotus Sect.
Three days after Feng Jun left, a large group of about four hundred people arrived in Longmen Town; this group was the White Lotus Sect's missionary delegation.
Although the White Lotus Sect's delegation was numerous and well-equipped, with uniform mechanical exoskeletons and a certain number of powered armor, they also had many vehicles, much better than those merchant groups driving snails.
However, most of them were slaves wearing slave collars, and most of them were black and white people. The origin of these black and white people was naturally due to that war.
In the later stages of the war, the scales of victory began to tip towards the Ming Empire and the Soviet Union.
The European theater was completely controlled by the Soviet Union, and the Ming Empire even landed on the West Coast of America.
In response, the United States of America's command initiated a new campaign in the southern part of the Empire.
Due to the loss of air superiority, after gathering approximately 800,000 troops, they departed from underwater, taking large underwater aircraft carriers to bypass to the Indian Ocean, from where they launched a surprise attack on the Ming Empire's rear.
Because the early stages of the war were mainly concentrated in the Pacific Ocean in East Asia and in near-Earth orbit space, the Ming Empire was relatively negligent in its defense of South Asia and Southeast Asia, and the American forces easily succeeded in their sneak attack.
This army landed from the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, directly attacking the South Asia and Southeast Asia controlled by the Empire.
Because it was the later stages of the war, the United States of America was clearly short on manpower, so black and white soldiers wearing slave collars were used together.
However, this army did play a certain role, capturing dozens of cities in Southeast Asia and causing considerable trouble for the Ming Empire.
The United States of America's command also hoped that another attack on the Ming Empire's homeland would disrupt the Ming Army's operations in its own territory.
The Ming Army quickly reacted, and after rapidly deploying troops, they surrounded this raiding army.
However, it is unknown who the Commander sent by America was; he actually ordered the American forces to abandon their fleet and some heavy weapons and run into the mountains of South Asia to fight guerrilla warfare with the Ming Army.
The terrain of Southeast Asia is inherently complex, with rugged mountains and rainforests.
This group of American forces relied on guerrilla warfare until the end of the war, and nearly 300,000 people were still left when they finally emerged from the jungle to surrender.
Logically, after the Earth United Council was established, these prisoners of war should have been released, but they were not.
Or rather, the Ming Empire simply had no intention of releasing prisoners of war.
Because they had just experienced a major war, many places were bombed into ruins, and these places naturally needed people to repair them.
At this time, every bit of productivity was extremely valuable, after all, so many people died in the war, and now was the time when manpower was scarce, and more efficient robots were assigned to more important and dangerous tasks.
In fact, it was not only the Ming Empire government; the United States of America and the Soviet Union were the same.
Although they had ceased hostilities, they did certain things with a tacit understanding.
These 300,000 captured American soldiers became cheap labor for the Ming Empire after the war, transported in batches to various parts of the country.
Therefore, in some parts of the current wasteland, large numbers of black and white people can be found.
And the White Lotus Sect just happened to capture a great many white and black people to use as slaves.
These American prisoners of war were uniformly fitted with slave collars after the war to better manage them.
After the world government dissolved, they became private slaves of the warlords and power holders remaining on Earth, and some were directly released on the spot.
Even now, in 2261, there are still a great many white and black people active within the Empire's territory, but most are treated as slaves, and a small number of free people live by hiding.
As for the White Lotus Sect, Song Peng allowed them to do business and exchange goods in Longmen Town but prohibited them from proselytizing.
The leader of the other party readily agreed to this and promised never to preach there, but they had one request: they wanted to meet Feng Jun.
Song Peng had always been very wary of these religious fanatics, so he initially wanted to refuse the White Lotus Sect and directly drive them away.
But their leader was very shrewd, directly offering a huge amount of helium crystal points to bribe Song Peng and promising that all their activities would be confined to the trading market, and their main leaders would stay outside Longmen Town and absolutely not enter Longmen Town without Song Peng's permission.
"Fifty million helium crystal points! They just gave them to me. But I want to see what these guys are up to first. I plan to hand over all fifty million helium crystal points, not keeping a single one," Song Zhan said, patting his chest.
"Oh, then hand them over," Feng Jun said indifferently.
Song Peng was stunned when he heard this, not expecting Feng Jun to actually make him hand over everything; he thought he would at least keep some for himself.
Seeing Feng Jun's serious expression, the words he wanted to plead with were swallowed back down.
Regarding the White Lotus Sect leader's request for a meeting, Feng Jun decided to meet after some thought.
He was very curious about this religion that could exist in the Doomsday and wanted to see what their true purpose was.
The meeting was quickly arranged, and the White Lotus Sect leader immediately rushed over after learning that Feng Jun was willing to meet him.
The meeting place was in a building within Longmen Town.
Feng Jun only brought Song Peng and a few Imperial Guards; since it was on his own territory, there was no need to arrange too many people.
The other party arrived quickly; after the door opened, a middle-aged man dressed in a white Taoist robe stepped in, followed by only two women also dressed in white Taoist robes, with their faces covered by a thick white cloth, tightly tied with a rope at the back of their heads, looking very strange.
After entering the door, the middle-aged man looked at Feng Jun, clasped his hands together, smiled, bowed to Feng Jun, and then sat opposite Feng Jun.
Although the two women behind him had their faces wrapped in thick white cloth, they walked without any hindrance.
After the man sat down, they also followed him in but did not sit down; instead, they stood behind the man with their hands clasped behind their backs.
