nycdaug Chapter 352 The First Peace Talk
Chapter 352 The First Peace Talk
At 11:4 AM on April 24, 2026, Li Chenglong and Yun Lan led the Dawn Army into Dawn City through the south gate. Tens of thousands of Dawn City residents came out to welcome the heroes' return, while the city's defense soldiers lined both sides of the road, forming a two-kilometer-long line, saluting in unison to welcome their comrades home.
而曙光城电视台，则对破晓军入城进行了全晶石网络通讯范围内的实时直播。率先入城的是破晓军火箭团1团和2团，接着是信息支援部队、装备后勤部队、破晓军第1师、破晓军第2师、破晓军第3师、破晓军第4师，最后则是李成龙、云岚的两辆指挥车和军部的指挥车。
As Li Chenglong's command vehicle approached, tens of thousands of people shouted, "Long live the Dawn Army! Long live Lord Li!" Li Chenglong, speaking into the microphone inside the command vehicle, said, "Long live Dawn City! Long live the people of Dawn City!" Then, amidst the welcome of more than 20,000 people in Dawn Square, the various troops, riding in different vehicles, drove from west to east along Dawn Avenue. Ma Tiancheng, Shen Menghua, Yun Qian, and others stood on the viewing platform on the second floor of the Dawn Building, watching the soldiers return, their hearts filled with emotion.
At 2 PM, Li Chenglong, in the name of the Dawn Army headquarters, issued the first order upon returning to Dawn City: all Dawn Army soldiers who participated in the battle would be given a 7-day leave. At the same time, the Military Affairs Department, the Dawn Army Management Department, the Logistics Department, and other departments must properly record military merits and handle the aftermath of fallen soldiers.
Li Chenglong also planned to take a day off to stroll around Shuguang City with Yunlan, eat some good food, watch a movie, and go to the amusement park. However, there was no chance this afternoon; he had just returned to Shuguang City and had many things to take care of. He was determined that no matter how long he worked today, he would finish everything so that he could have time to spend with Yunlan tomorrow.
Yunlan had already gone home. She'd been away from her son for almost 20 days, and although they video-chatted every day, she still missed him terribly. Today, Wang Xiao, who was on duty at the Information Management Department on the eighth floor of the Shuguang Building, learned during lunch that her younger sister, Wang Jie, had become a superhuman, and a dual-elemental superhuman at that. She was overjoyed and chatted with her sister for a long time. What annoyed her was that her sister had kept her superhuman a secret for so long. Wang Jie, however, smiled and explained that she had wanted to surprise her sister.
On the Dawn Army's side, Qi Guoan and Song Tie handed over their work. With a farewell from his old subordinates Song Tie and Liu Jianye, he went to the military headquarters. From today onwards, he would be the Minister of the Political Department of the Dawn Army. Apart from Li Chenglong, who worked at the Dawn Building, officers from the military headquarters, including Feng Tian and Zheng Yong, unanimously welcomed him. However, since almost the entire Dawn Army was on leave, they could also have a good rest tomorrow.
That evening was the Dawn City victory celebration, a celebration for the Dawn Army soldiers' success. Although Li Chenglong had been busy all afternoon and hadn't finished his various tasks, he still attended the military headquarters' celebration. He was wearing his lieutenant general's uniform, which he had only worn once, while Yun Lan wore a beautiful evening gown, constantly holding Li Chenglong's arm. Those attending the military headquarters' celebration were all officers at the regimental or deputy regimental level and above. Other Dawn Army garrisons also held their own victory celebrations, all with meals prepared to the highest military standards. Moreover, Li Chenglong unusually approved allowing everyone to drink alcohol.
The couple returned home at 11 p.m., and little Li Yunhao was already asleep. Susie had been waiting for them, as a nanny for the city lord's family, she couldn't possibly go to bed earlier than the city lord. Seeing that Susie was still awake, Li Chenglong told her to go to sleep quickly, saying he would handle everything. Yunlan had been very happy that day and had drunk a bit too much, so Susie specially brought out two large cups of pre-prepared hangover tea before going to bed.
The next morning, Li Chenglong and Yun Lan had planned to spend some quality time together while the Dawn Army was on holiday. However, before he could even finish washing up, he received a personal call from General Chen Guoqiang, who said there was something very important that required Li Chenglong to come to the China headquarters in person. He added that the matter was urgent and he had to come that day.
Li Chenglong entered the bedroom. Yun Lan was still in bed, browsing the Shuguang City shopping website, looking for anything she wanted to buy. Seeing Li Chenglong enter and noticing his expression, she knew their date was definitely canceled. Before Li Chenglong could speak, Yun Lan said, "Go ahead and do your thing. I'm going shopping with Xue'er, Xiaoling, and my mom later. I heard there are a lot of new products on the shopping street; we should check them out."
Li Chenglong kissed Yunlan on the cheek: "Next time, I'll definitely go with you next time." After saying that, he walked out of the house, dialed the phone number of the Dawn City Air Force Base, and asked them to prepare an X2 spaceship for him and arrange a crew. He was going to the China headquarters.
Before heading there, Li Chenglong had the X2 spaceship visit the Qianyun base first, because General Chen Guoqiang requested that General Sun Tianlong and Political Commissar Kong Liang from the Eastern Theater Command come along. Because of the Eastern Theater Command's achievements, General Sun Tianlong had been promoted to general by headquarters. Li Chenglong felt this was perfectly reasonable; the highest-ranking officer in a theater command, having achieved so much, deserved to be awarded the rank of general.
Because Li Chenglong was present, neither General Sun Tianlong nor General Kong Liang arranged for a guard unit; each only brought one bodyguard. Li Chenglong's situation was even simpler—just him alone. On the spaceship, General Kong Liang was somewhat curious as to why headquarters had summoned them in such a hurry. Li Chenglong, however, had a better idea. After this great battle, both the zombies and humans had paid a heavy price, especially the zombies, who had lost several territories to humans. Since the fighting had dragged on for so long, peace talks were inevitable.
At 10:00 AM, General Sun Tianlong, General Kong Liang, Lieutenant General Li Chenglong, and others disembarked from the X2 spacecraft. General Yao Fang, General Fu Sen, and others personally greeted them, a gesture that greatly honored Li Chenglong. Half an hour later, everyone gathered in a medium-sized conference room. Also present were the commanders of all the theater commands, including the Northeast Theater Command and the Northern Theater Command. Because some theater commands had ended their battles earlier, they had arrived more quickly.
The meeting was personally presided over by General Chen Guoqiang, President of the Chinese People's Association, Chairman of the Chinese Military Commission, and Chairman of the Chinese Committee. At the meeting, the results and lessons learned from this battle were first systematically summarized, then some new personnel appointments were announced, and then some combat units that performed well in this major battle were commended.
Finally, General Chen Guoqiang said, "Just five days ago, we received a letter personally written by Emperor Zhao Wuji of the Zombie Empire, expressing his willingness to sit down and negotiate with us. What are your thoughts on this?" General Sun Tianlong spoke first: "Does the Zombie Empire have any preliminary plan or requirements for the peace talks?"
General Chen Guoqiang gestured to his assistant Han Fei, who then distributed a copy of the letter to everyone. Li Chenglong, upon receiving the copy, discovered that the letter was extremely long, at least tens of thousands of words. The beginning was filled with red tape, but the latter part contained substantial content.
Firstly, Zhao Wuji's willingness to negotiate is quite strong, and they are willing to pay some price for the negotiations to succeed. Of course, with price comes conditions. The zombie emperor Zhao Wuji demands that Fujian, Dongguang, Xiguang, Yunnan, Guizhou, Xijiang, Nanhu, Nanhai, and Taihai provinces of China be designated as their permanent residential areas, prohibiting any human entry. Secondly, the human army must provide an escape route for the zombie armies currently surrounded by human forces in places like Yanjing and Chongqing, and guarantee their safety.
These are the two main requirements. There are many other minor requirements, such as the location and personnel for the peace talks. Zhao Wuji also made a suggestion: during the peace talks, 12 strong individuals should be selected from among the humans, and another 12 strong individuals should be selected from their zombie empire to compete and see whether zombies or humans are stronger.