newbobooks Chapter 392 Before the War
Chapter 392 Before the War
At 7 p.m. on July 31, more than 7 people, including Li Chenglong, Yun Lan, Li Xue, Zheng Yong, Yun Qian, Wu Gang, and Zheng Aiguo, gathered in the Shuguang Tower Chinese Restaurant on the 28th floor of the Shuguang Tower, which has a usable area of 1000 square meters. In particular, when Li Chenglong and Yun Lan made their final appearance hand in hand, they were greeted with cheers and applause from the audience.
Li Chenglong said with a smile, "Everyone, please eat and drink well today. It's my treat. There are no city lords or deputy city lords here, only friends. Please feel free to say whatever you want."
After everyone was seated, various dishes were brought out from the kitchen one by one, and Li Chenglong invited everyone to start eating. Wu Gang spoke first: "There are 58 people sitting here. I think everyone already knows why these are the people sitting here. On New Year's Day 2024, the apocalypse officially began. After that, we lived in the First People's Hospital of Jinghai City for more than half a month, and then we evacuated from there. These 58 people are the ones who were in the First People's Hospital at that time and are still in Shuguang City."
Zheng Aiguo continued, "When we withdrew, I clearly remember that we had a total of 247 soldiers and 322 civilians. Later, we went to Qing'an Town, then to the original Tianqi Base, and then to Shuguang City, witnessing Shuguang City's development from Level 1 to its current highest level. We made huge sacrifices and experienced many life-and-death separations to achieve what we have today."
Zheng Yong stood up and said, "Everyone here is a comrade who wholeheartedly follows the leadership team headed by City Lord Li Chenglong to build Dawn City. I know that among us, even the worst one is a reconnaissance company commander. It can be said that without your support and dedication, Dawn City would not have reached its current level."
The reconnaissance company commander that Zheng Yong had mentioned stood up. Li Chenglong still remembered him clearly. He was the boy who had asked for milk at the First People's Canteen and was then educated by him. After more than two years of training, he not only obtained the Psionic Apple with his achievements and became a dual-elemental ability user, but also received public commendations from the Dawn Army many times.
After more than two years of training in the Dawn Army, the young man had lost his former naiveté and appeared imposing. He stood up, saluted, and said, "I will definitely continue to work hard and make my greatest contribution to the Dawn Army." He received unanimous applause from everyone present.
Liu Qingqing, who was there back then, is now the Minister of Culture of Shuguang City; Wu Suqiang is now the Deputy Minister of Urban Construction; Liu Anbang has become the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry; and Chu Kexin has become the Director of Shuguang City Television Station and concurrently serves as the Deputy Minister of Culture...
Looking at everyone, Li Chenglong carefully recalled the moments he had shared with them over the past two years and nodded. He stood up and said, "Brothers and sisters, since leaving Qing'an Town, we haven't had a single meal together. Today's meal is firstly to express my gratitude to everyone for all this, and secondly to ask everyone to continue to work hard."
Li Chenglong raised his glass to everyone, then downed it in one gulp and continued, "Today is the last day of July, and the arrival of the alien coalition is at most a month and a half away, so the situation is extremely urgent. Although China has achieved peace, and Europe has also achieved temporary peace through the efforts of all parties, there are still many zombies and zombie beasts eyeing us from our surrounding areas, and we don't know what the situation is like in the Americas. So, after we return today, starting tomorrow, I urge everyone to unite sincerely, seize every minute and second, and do our best to build up our Dawn City and the Dawn Army."
The audience erupted in enthusiastic applause, and even the restaurant staff came over to listen to Li Chenglong and his group speak. Yun Lan, Yun Qian, Liu Qingqing, and others then gave speeches, and the banquet finally ended at 11 p.m.
The next morning, good news came from the European Human Alliance: they had made contact with the American Alliance. Although the American Alliance did not agree to form a joint combat alliance, it made it clear that it would do its best to fight against the alien coalition.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government has also reached cooperation agreements with some countries in West and Central Asia, all of which have expressed their willingness to contribute. To Li Chenglong's surprise, however, there has been no response from South Korea and Japan. According to his understanding, they have not only rejected China's offers but also some cooperation requests from Europe and the Americas, as if they are brewing something.
Meanwhile, at the lunar base, Commander Ingram and Chief Science Officer Little awoke from hibernation once more. Ingram glanced at the countdown on the monitor and said, "Little, we should start expanding the base. Otherwise, once the Allied forces arrive, we won't have enough space to accommodate them. Also, how are the operations you sent out going? What's the progress of the construction of the underground base on Earth?"
Little picked up the green liquid on the table and drank it all in one gulp. He then said, "The expansion of the base really needs to start immediately, and General Firas's Mars base has already begun construction. As for the underground base on Earth, it is being built rapidly with the help of two countries. They are really stupid. We only showed a little bit of our strength, and they groveled and were even willing to send a large number of slaves to help us build it. Hahaha."
Ingram nodded: "Very good. Once the underground base is completed, we'll kill tens of thousands of slaves to kick off the conquest of Blue Star. Also, Blue Star has vast waterways. You need to think of a way to see if we can build several large underwater bases to facilitate our concealment and our attacks." Little thought for a moment and then said: "Okay, I'll go and research it immediately and give you an answer as soon as possible."
Meanwhile, on a distant, Earth-like planet, Erica and Cecily were also gathering their forces. Erica said to Cecily with some anger, "Sister, these people are completely unreliable. When they heard we were going to fight an alien coalition, they all chose to run away. Now we only have this much fighting force left, and it doesn't feel like enough."
Cecily said with a wry smile, "There's nothing we can do about it. This was agreed upon with Li Chenglong and the others before. When the alien alliance attacks Earth, our Sky City must go to their aid. Besides, only by going and fighting alongside them can we have a chance to defeat the alliance and avenge our home planet and our parents!"
Currently, Sky City still has a population of 150,000. Apart from the elderly, the infirm, the disabled, and the soldiers who must remain, there are only about 40,000 soldiers who went to support Earth. These people come from different star systems and different planets, but they all have one thing in common: their home planets have been occupied or destroyed by the alien alliance.
These 40,000-plus warriors will travel to Earth aboard more than 100 interstellar warships of various sizes equipped with space technology, following Erica and Cecily's flagship using space navigation methods.
Li Chenglong and Yun Lan arrived at the military headquarters and held an emergency military analysis meeting with a group of officers. Qi Guoan astutely suggested that the Dawn City Air Force should send Eagle reconnaissance aircraft to conduct more reconnaissance on Bangbang and Japan. For some reason, these two countries had solved their zombie problem in a short period of time and refused all external contact; there must be something fishy going on.
Li Chenglong agreed, stating that starting at noon today, the Eagle reconnaissance aircraft would conduct extensive reconnaissance of these two areas during its global patrols. Yunlan suggested taking advantage of the summer heat to conduct a concentrated operation against the sea monsters, which would serve as training and prevent them from launching sneak attacks during future battles with aliens. Li Chenglong also agreed.
After the meeting, Li Chenglong and Yunlan went to a wedding together. In order to save resources, the weddings in Dawn City and Dawn Army are held once a month, and newlyweds who register their marriage at the Civil Affairs Bureau within that month will come to attend.
A total of 236 couples got married this time, including some acquaintances of Li Chenglong. Wang Bing, the principal of the school for people with supernatural abilities, tied the knot with his girlfriend of nearly two years, Wang Xiaoli, who is also a member of the special forces. Li Chenglong and Yun Lan offered their heartfelt congratulations.