To control people in these wastelands, the consortiums were used to keeping all the production resources firmly in their hands. Water, land, and everything that the people relied on for survival were all controlled.
When Zhang Jinglin was at Stronghold 113, he had profoundly said to Ren Xiaosu, "This is a world that has been meticulously designed by the consortiums."
Previously, even Zhang Jinglin did not dare to break this status quo. Fortress 178 could not even take in any refugees because if they broke this rule, everyone would start attacking them.
For example, Luoyang City had wanted to completely open its gates to everyone and sought to end any differentiation between refugees and stronghold residents. However, they were warned by the Kong Consortium, the Wang Consortium, and the Zhou Consortium as soon as they introduced those changes.