nycdaug Chapter 464 Cooperation Across Time and Space
Chapter 464 Cooperation Across Time and Space
At 2:40 a.m., Commander Liu Qiang, who had been chatting with Li Chenglong late into the night, returned to his office under the protection of Zhao Hui and Zhao Ya. After such a long conversation, all three felt that their understanding of Li Chenglong had deepened considerably, and his image in their minds was becoming increasingly vivid.
The three men sat in Commander Liu Qiang's office in silence for a long time. After a while, Liu Qiang looked at the clock on the wall and said, "It's almost 4 o'clock. You should go back and rest. Invite Comrade Li Chenglong over again at 8 o'clock this morning. I feel that the big commander should meet with him today."
The two men nodded and left. Commander Liu Qiang thought for a moment, then sat down in his office chair and dialed the red phone. The call was answered almost immediately. He asked earnestly, "Comrade Xiao Sun, is the Chief awake?" The person on the other end smiled and said, "Commander Liu, you finally called! The Chief was just saying he should have received your call by now."
After a while, Commander Xiao Ke, wearing a coat, sat down in a chair, took the phone from Sun Zhiguo, and then Sun Zhiguo went out and closed the door.
As agreed beforehand with Li Chenglong, Commander Liu Qiang told Commander Xiao Ke everything he knew, and there was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.
After a moment, Commander Xiao Ke slowly said, "I see. No wonder. Make the arrangements. I will be meeting Li Chenglong at 10 a.m. in the reception room with the protocol for foreign guests. As for the attendees, I will have someone send you the list later. According to Comrade Li Chenglong's wishes, there won't be too many people. Twenty leaders will be enough, and no other staff are needed."
At 8:30 a.m., Li Chenglong, along with the Zhao sisters Zhao Hui and Zhao Ya, arrived at Commander Liu Qiang's office. After a brief exchange, Li Chenglong and Liu Qiang went together to the reception room in central Kyoto.
Commander Liu Qiang's office is located in the central area, quite a distance from the location of the top leaders in the central command. However, due to resource shortages during the apocalypse, the roads are currently mostly used by military vehicles and supply trucks, making them relatively unobstructed.
Although it was Commander Liu Qiang's vehicle, it was still subject to inspection when passing through the inner and central defense lines. This would never happen in Shuguang City. Shuguang City now has the Skynet system and a central information management department, plus every Shuguang City resident has an ID card, so it's possible to identify the driver without inspection and there are no special circumstances.
However, Dawn City is still very large in area. It is a square city with sides of 300 kilometers, containing dozens of functional areas and residential areas, with a population of nearly 40 and combat personnel including the Dawn Army and the City Defense Army numbering 7.
Zhao Hui drove the car, with Zhao Ya in the passenger seat and Commander Zhao Qiang and Li Chenglong in the back. Before the car even reached the office building, Zhao Hui said with some surprise, "Commander Liu, it seems the top leader came out to greet us personally."
Liu Qiang looked ahead and saw that the Grand Commander Xiao Ke, two deputy commanders, and other senior officials were gathered in front of the small square of the office building, along with many soldiers and media personnel.
The vehicle traveled another thirty meters or so before stopping. Commander Liu Qiang got out first, followed by Zhao Hui and Zhao Ya, and finally Li Chenglong. This wasn't because Li Chenglong was deliberately putting on airs; it was mainly due to Commander Liu Qiang's arrangement.
As soon as Li Chenglong got out of the car, the military band began to play music, seemingly to welcome him. Liu Qiang led him quickly over, and after saluting Commander Xiao Ke, he said, "Reporting to the commander, Comrade Li Chenglong, the greatest contributor to this battle, has been brought here." Li Chenglong then gave a standard military salute and said, "Comrade, I am Li Chenglong, the battalion commander of a certain regiment of the Zhushen Base."
This was an agreement made between Li Chenglong and Commander Liu Qiang during their previous conversation; from now on, in crowded places, this would be his identity.
Xiao Ke, the current leader of Huaxia, is a level 11 dual-elemental ability user. So even though he is 71 years old, he looks like he is only 45 or 46. He has a neat buzz cut, is about 1.8 meters tall, has a slender build, and a fair complexion, just like a weak scholar from ancient times.
However, these were merely appearances. Li Chenglong had long known that Commander Xiao Ke was extremely decisive in his actions, and having truly risen through the ranks from the bottom, he had done many practical things beneficial to the people after taking power. After the apocalypse, he became even more ruthless, personally executing many corrupt officials.
Although he was ruthless to his enemies, he was also sincere to his friends and worked diligently for the benefit of the people, which is why he was deeply loved by people all over the country.
Xiao Ke carefully examined Li Chenglong, nodded in satisfaction, and patted Li Chenglong on the shoulder with a smile, saying, "Not bad, you look like an excellent soldier. Your timely intervention this time resolved the crisis in Kyoto, and at the same time, you provided so many supplies and equipment, saving the people of the base. On behalf of everyone here, I would like to express my gratitude to you."
Then, the high-ranking military officials, led by Commander Xiao Ke, saluted Li Chenglong in unison, while other government officials bowed slightly in gratitude. Li Chenglong was flattered and quickly said, "There's no need for such formalities, sirs. I was merely doing what I was supposed to do. With great power comes great responsibility; I was simply fulfilling my duty."
After a brief chat, the leaders, headed by Xiao Ke, the commander of Huaxia, and Li Chenglong went to the reception room on the third floor of the office building for a three-hour meeting. After the meeting, Li Chenglong was invited to a celebration banquet. Zhao Hui and Zhao Ya, who were not qualified to attend the meeting, also attended. Many people spoke to Li Chenglong at the banquet, expressing their goodwill.
At 3 PM, a notice was sent to all units of the army, in recognition of Comrade Li Chenglong's significant contributions, awarding him the rank of Senior Colonel and appointing him as the Chief Instructor of the Special Operations Brigade for Superhumans and the Chief Advisor of the Army's Technical Department. This was also part of the cooperation reached during the talks. From now on, Li Chenglong would spend his mornings training the superhuman warriors and his afternoons giving lectures to the technical staff, explaining the equipment.
Meanwhile, in order to facilitate Li Chenglong's ability to contact his superiors at any time, Commander Xiao Ke specially appointed the Zhao sisters, Zhao Hui and Zhao Ya, as liaisons to help Li Chenglong with various follow-up tasks.
When it was time to go back, Commander Liu Qiang had some things to do, so he didn't go back with us. As a result, the atmosphere wasn't so oppressive. Instead, it became more lively because of the two girls.
Zhao Hui introduced the Special Operations Brigade for Superpowered Individuals to Li Chenglong. This was a special forces brigade composed of high-level superpowered individuals, with 500 members divided into 5 companies, each company further divided into 5 squads. These superpowered individuals were at least level 9, all having undergone various trials and tribulations, and were loyal and powerful warriors.
When Li Chenglong came to support the Kyoto base that day, he witnessed the combat of this special operations team of superhumans and felt it was quite good. Although it was certainly not comparable to his own special forces, it was comparable to some of the superhuman assault teams in the Dawn Army. However, if they wanted to better protect the Kyoto base, their strength and combat capabilities were still insufficient. Now that he had become their instructor, he needed to train them properly so that they could truly unleash their combat power.
On the way back, Li Chenglong kept writing and drawing, and soon he formulated a teaching plan for this special operations team of superhumans. He also made a timetable, which he handed to Zhao Ya. This was the timetable for the next week, and the team should assemble at this time first thing tomorrow morning.
Zhao Ya took the timetable and saw that the meeting time for tomorrow was 2:00 AM. Li Chenglong laughed and said, "Don't tell anyone about this timetable. I need to launch a surprise attack to make it effective." Zhao Ya nodded and carefully put the form away.