binnovel Chapter 273 Refugees
Chapter 273 Refugees
On the morning of December 11th, Wu Gang and Xu Qingming solemnly bid farewell to Li Chenglong, Xu Limin, and others before leading their troops to set off first. According to the arrangements made the previous night, Xu Limin and Wei Jing would not be going. To give the troops ahead some autonomy, Li Chenglong and Feng Tian only led a guard company, departing three hours later.
With nothing much to do in the morning, Li Chenglong and Feng Tian chatted casually with Han Feng in the all-terrain command vehicle, learning about Han Feng's background and the history of the zombie empire. No one from the special forces team came this time; Li Chenglong had sent them all to Yun Lan's location.
In fact, Feiyun Base is less than 200 kilometers away from the outskirts of Shanghai, and a section of the road has already been cleared by Feiyun Base. According to Li Chenglong's estimate, the combined forces of the two bases can reach the outskirts of Shanghai and begin their attack in a maximum of 3 hours.
After chatting for a while, Li Chenglong got out of the command vehicle and saw that the soldiers of the guard company were training under the leadership of their platoon leader and political instructor. It had been a long time since he had led the soldiers in training, and Li Chenglong was eager to try. So he called over Wang Shuang, the company commander of the guard company, and said, "I want to lead the soldiers in training. Please gather them together."
Upon hearing that the army commander was going to personally lead the training of his soldiers, Wang Shuang excitedly replied, "Yes, sir!" He immediately turned around and loudly proclaimed, "All assemble! Please give your instructions, Commander!" After the guard platoon had assembled, they were all thrilled to hear that Li Chenglong was going to personally lead their training. An hour later, under his guidance, the guard company's training concluded. The soldiers all felt that training with Li Chenglong was indeed much more rewarding than usual.
Li Chenglong glanced at his watch and said to Wang Shuang, the company commander of the guard company, "Let the soldiers rest for twenty minutes, and then we'll set off. We don't need to go that fast." At this moment, Zheng Aiguo, the division commander of the 2nd Division of the Dawn Army, sent a message, indicating that their troops had begun fighting some zombies on the outskirts of Shanghai. According to Li Chenglong's instructions, they would not entangle with this wave of zombies, but would try to reach the center first.
After a while, the all-terrain combat command vehicle, led by an off-road vehicle, slowly drove out of the temporary camp, followed by the guard platoon in five vehicles of various sizes. The convoy did not move fast, and Han Feng kept looking out the window of the command vehicle, hoping to arrive as soon as possible.
Because of her identity, in order not to cause panic, Li Chenglong made her stay with him all the time. However, she was still very free with Li Chenglong. She could eat whatever she wanted and attend some meetings with him to see the new situation of mankind.
Li Chenglong suddenly asked, "Han Feng, the Xun and Gen Protectors should be fine, right?" Han Feng shook his head: "I can't say for sure, but I estimate that there shouldn't be any major problems. Although His Majesty the Emperor didn't appear this time, each of the Protectors is a rare talent for the Empire. If internal strife leads to the deaths of Protectors, then the Empire certainly won't stand idly by. However, it's really hard to say, after all, there's the involvement of alien envoys."
After listening, Li Chenglong and Feng Tian fell into thought. Suddenly, there was a sharp braking sound. The SUV leading the way braked suddenly, and two soldiers got out and went to the front. Li Chenglong said, "Old Feng, you stay in the car. I'll go down and take a look."
Feng Tian said, "Let's go take a look. I don't think it's a zombie; it must be something else." He then followed Li Chenglong out of the car. Han Feng, on the other hand, was very interested in the crystal communication station where Lü Xin and He Siyu were working, and watched them work from the side. Although Lü Xin and He Siyu knew that this girl was a level 10 zombie, after spending the past few days with her, they found that she was not scary at all. In fact, she was like a curious child, eager to learn new things, and had a somewhat naive personality.
The two men got out of the car, and Wang Shuang immediately came over to report, "Reporting to the two leaders, a refugee suddenly darted out, so we had to brake suddenly, but the person has now fainted." Li Chenglong and Feng Tian went over and found that although it was December, the coldest time of the year, the woman was not only ragged but also dressed very lightly. Her whole body, face, and arms were covered in bruises and chilblains. Although she had fainted, she was shivering all over because of the cold weather.
Wang Shuang said, "Just as this woman was about to faint, she cried out for help and said there were bad people." Li Chenglong nodded, "Okay, let's stay here for now and see what happened when she wakes up." Then he asked He Siyu and Lü Xin to help carry the woman to the command vehicle, and then took out a lot of clothes from his psionic space and handed them over.
After a while, Lü Xin got off the command vehicle and said, "Team Leader Li, the woman's clothes have been changed. I also treated her and fed her some Flame Fruit juice as you instructed. She has now woken up." Li Chenglong and Feng Tian got into the vehicle, ready to ask what had happened.
Lu Xin smiled and said to the woman, "This is our General Li Chenglong, and the other is General Feng Tian. You can speak to our leaders if you have anything to say." The woman didn't react at first, but after realizing that these two were high-ranking officials, she immediately knelt down and cried, "My lords, my lords, we are suffering so much!"
After the woman's intermittent narration, Li Chenglong and the others learned that there was a base with fewer than 5000 people less than 30 kilometers away. Every time people from the Feiyun Base came to inspect, they would behave very well and fool the inspectors. But as soon as those people left, they would immediately show their true colors and exploit the civilians in a very cruel way.
There, ordinary people often go two days without a full meal, and in the freezing cold they have to work in very thin clothes. Every day, many people freeze to death or die from exhaustion. Moreover, the officials and military officers there, regardless of their rank, wantonly plunder the people. If they see a woman who is even remotely pretty, they forcibly take her away and wantonly humiliate her...
The woman sobbed for an hour, recounting every detail of the hellish base. Feng Tian roared, "The higher-ups of this base must be eliminated, and the people there must be freed!" Li Chenglong nodded and asked, "How many high-level ability users does your base have?" The woman thought for a moment and said, "The base's leader, Zhao Wei, is an 8th-level ability user. I've only heard of two other 7th-level users."
Li Chenglong immediately ordered the guard company to assemble and assigned them tasks. To ensure a smoother battle, Li Chenglong also sent Lü Xin and He Siyu, both at level 7, to assist.
Wang Shuang, the company commander of the guard company, was one of the first people Li Chenglong met in Qing'an Town. He is also Wang Yousheng's younger brother. However, under his brother's special arrangement, he has never held any official position. Instead, he has spent most of his time as a squad leader in the grassroots troops. Later, due to accumulating military merits, he obtained a spiritual apple and became a dual-elemental ability user of earth and water. He has now reached the late stage of level 7.
There were six people Li Chenglong encountered at the Qing'an Town Police Station. Wang Yousheng, needless to say, is now the Political Director of the 1st Division of the Dawn Army and a Level 9 water-speed ability user. Wang Shuang, while not holding a high position, is still quite strong among ability users.
Yun Lan recently became a Level 9 water-type ability user. She is currently the Minister of Security and also the Deputy City Lord of Dawn City, holding an important position in Dawn Village. Feng Li and Zhao Xin tragically sacrificed their lives while escaping from Jinghai City. Qian Hu currently works in the Police Department of the City Security Bureau as a section chief and is also a Level 6 wind-type ability user.
It is worth mentioning that the current deputy minister of the city defense department, who also serves as the deputy minister of the discipline inspection department, is also named Zhao Xin. He was previously the director of the public security bureau of Linhai City and was one of the first high-ranking officials in Linhai City to join Li Chenglong with Ma Tiancheng.
Feng Tian said, "Commander Li, you wait here for my good news. I'm a level 9 strength-type ability user; taking them down won't be a problem." With that, he led his guard company, guided by the woman, towards their objective. With Feng Tian there, things should go smoothly. The guard company also had six level 7 ability users, and the addition of Lü Xin and He Siyu further increased their fighting strength, making achieving their objective relatively easy.
However, Li Chenglong still wanted to see what the base was like, so he used the artificial intelligence on the all-terrain crystal command vehicle to automatically drive it towards the destination. Han Feng was very curious and asked Li Chenglong many questions about the huge crystal command vehicle. Li Chenglong looked at this girl who was about the same age as Chen Xiaoke and thought of Li Xue from back then, so he patiently answered them one by one.
Just now, when Feng Tian left, Li Chenglong had a conversation with him, expressing that the people there had suffered for too long, and that Feng Tian should abandon his previous style and strike harder, more severely, to completely liberate the people there. Feng Tian wholeheartedly agreed. He was a person who hated evil, and after hearing about the various atrocities committed by the corrupt leaders of that base, he was already furious. As he left, he said, "Those people must definitely be killed. In chaotic times, severe punishments are necessary; to nip the weeds in the bud, you must wipe them out at the root."
During the journey, Li Chenglong received a message from Zheng Aiguo, who reported that the combined forces of the Dawn Army and the Flying Cloud Base had encountered some resistance, but it wasn't very fierce. The combined forces were currently advancing step by step according to the original battle plan. At the same time, good news arrived: after the recent battle, the Dawn Army had gained two more Level 9 ability users.
Li Chenglong warned them to be careful and not to fall into the zombies' trap of luring them in and dividing them into groups, since the number of zombies was several times that of the human warriors, and their combat power was also higher.
A short while later, the command vehicle slowly drove up to the entrance of the base, where four large characters were clearly written: Dragon's Breath Base. The sounds of battle could still be heard in the distance, though very sparse, indicating that the fighting was nearing its end. He and Han Feng entered the base and stopped in front of a diagram.
In fact, this base was transformed from an industrial park. According to the schematic diagram, this industrial park used to manufacture laptops and also made mobile phone screens. It covered an area of 10 square kilometers and had tens of thousands of employees.
The two continued walking towards the main road. Cars still smoking lined the roadside, and numerous destroyed guns and knives lay carelessly discarded. Many residents in the upper floors watched them with a mixture of fear and curiosity. Li Chenglong glanced around and noticed that most of the people were dressed in haphazardly, their faces filthy. They were mostly emaciated, looking as if a gust of wind could blow them over.
Twenty minutes later, Feng Tian, covered in blood, walked over with Wang Shuang. He smiled and said, "Our guard company performed really well this time. We wiped out an army of more than a thousand men without losing a single one. In this battle, those who committed heinous crimes were all killed, and those rabble either fled or surrendered."
Wang Shuang also said, "Our soldiers just opened the warehouses of those high-ranking officials and ransacked the homes of some people. They found a large number of crystals in their homes. In addition, the warehouses were filled with all kinds of supplies. According to our estimate, even if these supplies are distributed equally, they will be enough to feed everyone here for half a year."
Li Chenglong nodded: "Keep some of the crystals, and hand over the rest to our Ministry of Finance when we get back. The distribution of supplies is a problem. An equal distribution won't work. If you give them all at once, there are strong and weak among the common people. Once we leave, they will definitely start fighting over them, and that will create a new class."
Feng Tian frowned: "This is indeed a problem. If we don't handle it well, it's like we've worked for nothing." Li Chenglong thought for a moment, then contacted Xu Limin and they talked for a while.
It turned out that Li Chenglong had decided to have Feiyun Base send some people to take them in. Firstly, this area was originally under Feiyun Base's jurisdiction, and he had already overstepped his bounds by destroying the base himself, so it was better to hand it over to them. Secondly, given the current freezing weather, the base was clearly unsuitable for these people to live in at the moment, and being able to live at Feiyun Base would be a good thing for them.
Li Chenglong ordered his soldiers to retrieve winter clothing and some food from the warehouses and distribute them to the remaining civilians, prioritizing their survival. Then, all those who had surrendered were moved to the small square in the center for public judgment. Those guilty of heinous crimes were executed on the spot, while those with lesser offenses were imprisoned and handed over to the Feiyun base for further processing.
After finishing his business, Li Chenglong didn't linger. The Feiyun base wasn't far, and he estimated he'd arrive in two or three days at the latest. He shared this news with the crowd in the square. To his surprise, many people expressed their willingness to follow Li Chenglong, even after he told them he was going to fight.
Only after Li Chenglong's persuasion and assurances did these people agree to stay in this place for the time being, and that Li Chenglong would take them with him when he led his army back to Shuguang City in victory.