Chapter 85: Planning
Carol smiled slightly, looking at Merle full of goodwill: "Thank you for the compliment."
"If it weren't for your stinking praise, I'm sure I would have had a perfect day."
Carol's unceremonious sarcasm—having said this, she turned her head and walked away.
Merle froze for a moment before reacting. He glanced at Daryl. Daryl smiled and also walked away.
"Fuck!"
Merle cursed twice and returned to his area of responsibility. He still had to lead people sullenly to Carol's jurisdiction area for cooperative work.
With the distribution of large amounts of work, the ranch was like a huge machine filled with fuel, emitting violent roaring as it started up.
Amy led people to record information on newcomers, confirming their family members, personal information, previous work, abilities, and so on.
Whatever skilled people Caesar needed, he could have Amy directly screen through the personal information sheets.
Amy handed Caesar several personal information sheets. The people on them all had professions like architectural design.
Among them was an old acquaintance—Jacqui, the Black woman who'd once entered Atlanta with Andrea and others to collect supplies.
Jacqui looked at Caesar, smiling as she said: "You may not remember. I was an inspector at the city government's planning department."
"I did forget a bit."
Caesar waved his hand, looking at Jacqui who was so different from before. In his heart he inexplicably felt a sense of achievement.
The previous Jacqui was always full of melancholy, always worried whether she'd die tomorrow, in a state of extreme internal consumption.
But now, ranch life made Jacqui very satisfied and kept her far from that state of living hand to mouth.
Even though Caesar had previously made everyone fight walkers, Jacqui understood Caesar's good intentions and didn't harbor resentment toward Caesar.
"Jacqui, how's life been lately?"
Jacqui sat on a chair. Caesar sat behind a table—a scene like an interview.
Caesar's tone was easygoing. Flipping through Jacqui's materials, he chatted casually.
Jacqui spread her hands. "Can't you tell from my condition? Recent life has truly let me find meaning in living. I cherish current life more than before the apocalypse."
"Plus, I found a boyfriend."
"Oh?" Caesar raised his eyebrows, lifted his head to glance at Jacqui. His words carried teasing: "Didn't expect you'd encounter new romance so quickly."
"Life is unpredictable." Jacqui's face was full of the foolish smile of falling in love: "But in the apocalypse, love is even more precious. When I encounter it, I won't let go."
After chatting a few sentences, Caesar stopped flipping through materials and instead looked at Jacqui, inquiring about her suggestions.
"Jacqui, since you were previously a planning department inspector, can you give me some professional advice? I want to build a small town here and have it possess the possibility of continuous expansion."
Jacqui restrained her previous expression, becoming serious and earnest. She lowered her head and pondered for a while, took out a notebook she carried with her, and said:
"Boss, currently speaking, the entire ranch's architectural zoning is extremely crude. It's merely divided into living area, livestock area, and warehouse."
"This kind of zoning is just simple functional zoning. It can't be considered planning, nor can it achieve some effects you want—for example, faster defense against enemies, faster response to commands."
"I can give an example."
To be more easily understood, Jacqui earnestly gestured while speaking: "For instance, a herd of walkers attacks from one side of the ranch."
"Now the ranch patrol personnel are still insufficient. Generally we can't know about walkers' arrival in advance."
Caesar leaned back in his chair, arms crossed at his chest, attitude very serious.
"Walkers begin attacking the residential area. Combat squad personnel don't live on the residential area's periphery. Only patrolling people can arrive quickly. Their numbers won't be many, and they can't handle all the walkers."
"Walkers will break into homes in edge houses, biting residents. Most of the combat personnel coming for support still can't ride horses. In the currently narrow roads, they also can't drive. Their arrival will take exceptionally long."
Caesar lowered his head. A trace of understanding flashed through his eyes. The ranch's combat capability was formidable. Usually there wouldn't be any possibility of attack. But it was hard to guarantee it wouldn't happen later.
At that time it might be those Reaper special forces, or perhaps... the CRM with helicopters.
"These shortcomings will lead to different losses under different architectural planning with the same manpower situation."
"You mean I should move combat personnel toward the edges?" Caesar inquired.
Jacqui shook her head. "It's not like that. I'm just giving an example. This only illustrates the current architectural planning's shortcomings. What we need is to rebuild the entire living area."
"It just happens that now most manpower is invested in residential area construction, so I've also made some plans."
Looking at the well-prepared Jacqui, Caesar asked puzzled: "Why didn't you bring it out earlier? You waited until I came to ask you."
"Because if the boss doesn't realize the current situation needs changing, my reminding alone is useless." Jacqui blinked, saying teasingly: "So I was originally going to tell Amy. I believe pillow talk is very useful."
Caesar wasn't the slightest bit embarrassed. He nodded: "If you had Amy tell me, I would indeed have a high probability of realizing this point."
Jacqui opened her notebook. It was densely filled with many things—things Jacqui wrote according to her own habits. Only she herself could understand them.
"My current most basic design concept for the living area has three aspects: defensibility, modularity, expandability."
"The entire newly built town shouldn't be randomly constructed, but should be able to grow, with clear levels and expansion directions."
Caesar subconsciously nodded. This very much matched his thinking.
"I suggest adopting a concentric circle layered layout. This layout is more suitable for defense and phased expansion. And with each expansion, it won't be too far from the town's very center."
"From inside to outside, divided into core zone, residential zone, production zone."
"The core zone centers on your stone house, with a council hall, hospital, core warehouse, and needs to have wells and such."
"The residential zone has various residents' dwellings, market, needs various workshops—like carpenters, blacksmiths, and leather craftsmen—also needs schools and the ranch entrance."
"The outermost layer is the production zone. Here we build cattle and sheep houses, and need patrol houses. We can also place some empty houses—not only can they supply housing for newcomers, they can also lure enemies to attack these unpopulated places first."
"The core zone is most important. Most ranch leadership activities are here, with hospitals and other important buildings."
"The living zone is where residents most commonly live. Most people with skills can display their abilities here, and it has certain production capability."
"The outermost production zone is the place for grazing and planting food, and can also be used to resist enemies."
"..."
Jacqui spoke at length, even discussing the town's road construction issues—better to make them four-lane, and so on.
After listening, Caesar looked at Jacqui with shining eyes.
Unexpectedly, Jacqui was also talented—very capable in construction planning.
"Very good. Your planned idea is excellent. I have several other people here who can participate in town planning." Caesar stood up, handed several personal information sheets to Jacqui, and tapped the sheets.
"I'll make you their group leader. Have them assist you in completing this town planning as quickly as possible."
"Okay, thank you boss." Jacqui was extremely delighted. She hadn't expected Caesar to hand such a task to her so quickly and even promote her.