binnovel Chapter 81 Negotiation
Chapter 81 Negotiation
Li Chenglong tidied up the room a bit, then sat down at a table and began to write and draw, summarizing the intelligence they had gathered. A short while later, Zhao Rui and his group knocked and entered. This was also arranged by Li Chenglong; after all, they were newcomers with a mission, and now that they had acquired some more intelligence, a meeting was necessary.
After Zhao Rui and the others sat down, Li Chenglong glanced at them and asked, "How are you all feeling?" Zhao Rui replied without hesitation, "It's alright, but the climate here is a bit hot, like a desert." Wang Bing, less oblivious than Zhao Rui, said, "This place is strange. First, the origin of these zombies, and second, their attack methods." Li Chenglong nodded, quite satisfied. Zhao Liying took out a small booklet: "Based on what Uncle Jin and Wang Hai said, I roughly drew a map of the surrounding area. I wonder if they have a map of the Sanggu Kingdom; if they do, that would be great." Han Xiaoling playfully added, "I talked a lot with the Jin sisters and got some information, but it's not very helpful. Most of it is about Jinlanzhou."
Li Chenglong asked curiously, "Oh? The situation in Jinlanzhou?" Han Xiaoling nodded, "Yes, Jinlan City is actually similar to our Shuguang City, but it's a square city, and its overall area is much larger than ours. There are tens of thousands of soldiers guarding the city. They have an outer city, a middle city, and an inner city. The outer city is mostly inhabited by refugees from the lower classes, the middle city is their backbone, where most of the nobles, high-ranking officials, and wealthy merchants reside, and the inner city is relatively small, consisting of the Jin family's mansions and some residences of their branch families." Li Chenglong patted Han Xiaoling's head, "Not bad, not bad, that's quite a lot."
After some further discussion, Zhao Liying finally asked, "Captain Li, just tell us what to do." Everyone turned to look at Li Chenglong. Li Chenglong shook his head and said, "Uncle Jin, why don't you come in and talk?" Everyone was taken aback; they hadn't expected someone to be eavesdropping outside, even Zhao Liying, with her strong mental abilities, hadn't noticed. "Clap, clap, clap." Applause rang out from outside, and then Jin Hai slowly walked in. "Truly remarkable. I consider my ability to hide to be among the best in Lanzhou, but I didn't expect Captain Li to still find out." Li Chenglong smiled and said, "Just lucky. I wonder what brings you here, Uncle Jin?"
Jin Hai knelt down immediately: "Please, esteemed officials, lend me your strength to kill this villain Wu Xiaoyi and avenge the deaths of over fifty members of my Jin family." Zhao Rui quickly helped Jin Hai up: "Uncle Jin, please stand up and speak. We cannot accept an elder kneeling before a junior." At this moment, Jin Hai was already weeping uncontrollably. He said sadly, "Miss Jin Linfei and Miss Jin Mengfei are young, and I haven't told them yet. Apart from the two of them, the entire main branch of the Jin family was slaughtered. Even members of several branch families were killed. Their bodies were decapitated, and their heads were hung in the square in front of the Jin mansion. It was a gruesome sight."
"How could this happen!" Han Xiaoling's face paled as she listened to the gruesome scene, and Zhao Liying quickly hugged her to comfort her. Li Chenglong slowly said, "I can help you, but what can we get in return?" Upon hearing this, Jin Hai felt a weight lifted from his heart. He said, "If you gentlemen can help us avenge this blood feud, all of us over a hundred people from the old city will be at your command from now on, and we will serve you with utmost loyalty and devotion." Li Chenglong shook his head: "That's not enough." Jin Hai thought for a moment and then said, "Today, you all seem very interested in the ruins of the South China Sea. I suppose you want to go there. Due to the zombie attack and the deteriorating climate, many places have changed their appearance. If you want to go there, you will definitely need maps and various vehicles, especially nautical charts and ships. Without those, you definitely cannot reach the ruins of the South China Sea."
Li Chenglong nodded: "You're right, but I need more. I need full command of the army. After we take over the entire Jinlan Prefecture, we really want to go there—not just go, we want to conquer it. So we need a large army and combat equipment, etc. Are you willing to do that?" Jin Hai was silent for a moment, then nodded solemnly: "Yes, we're willing. Anyway, we have nothing right now. If Wu Laogou continues to blockade us, we'll starve to death even if they don't kill us." Li Chenglong: "Good, you promised. If we are betrayed, to be honest, even if there are hundreds more of you, let alone your hundred-plus, I can wipe them out in an instant." As Li Chenglong spoke, he raised his hand, revealing a golden dragon playing in his palm. Upon seeing this, Jin Hai immediately said: "We would never do such a despicable thing as betrayal."
Then Li Chenglong said, "Uncle Jin, gather all the officials in charge of the old city together. We'll have a meeting in ten minutes to discuss how to attack Jinlan City. You can decide where to hold the meeting." Jin Hai bowed to everyone and left. Zhao Rui closed the door: "Captain Li, are we really going to help them take Jinlan City?" Li Chenglong said confidently, "Actually, I decided on this idea a long time ago. The Sanggu Kingdom is too big, 450 million square kilometers, almost half the size of our China. If we continue to proceed step by step, it definitely won't work. You know we only have 60 days. And as you just heard, without ships, without nautical charts, we can't even reach the ruins in the sea. So I thought we should quickly build up a force, organize a large-scale army, and attack south together. This will not only greatly reduce our losses but also make our operation much smoother."
Wang Bing pondered for a moment: "Then we need to be able to recruit that many soldiers in a short time. According to Jin Bo, Jinlan City only has forty to fifty thousand soldiers. If we want to fight the zombies, we also need to go on an ocean expedition, which will require at least a hundred thousand." Zhao Liying said: "We'll take Jinlan City, and then quickly take over the troops from the neighboring states. Just recruit as many as possible." Zhao Rui asked: "How do we get them to listen to me? I feel that force alone is definitely not enough." Zhao Liying replied: "We can use faith. Xiaoling just said that many people are currently on the outskirts of Jinlan City. Those people are definitely starving and freezing. We can go and liberate them, and then some people will definitely follow us. Moreover, we can also portray Captain Li as a god. In this world without superpowers, aren't Captain Li's various abilities practically miracles?" Zhao Rui slapped his thigh: "That's right, we can use that trick too. If anyone deserts or disobeys our orders, we can just kill them."
After a while, Jin Hai knocked on the door again, and then Li Chenglong and the others went to the basement with Jin Hai. According to Jin Hai, there were many such basements in the old city, all built to evade Wu Xiaoyi's search. To ensure they could stay in the basement for longer, there were also supplies and tables and chairs; some basements were even interconnected. Once in the basement, Wang Hai introduced Li Chenglong and the others to the dozen or so people who had already arrived. Everyone shook hands in greeting. After everyone got acquainted, Wang Hai unfolded a map of Jinlan City hanging on the wall. Jinlan City was located in the center of Jinlan Prefecture, with a total area of 150 square kilometers, but the outer area occupied half of the area, where many impoverished people barely survived. The middle and inner cities were the key parts.
After discussing the matter, Li Chenglong decided that he, Wang Bing, and Zhao Liying would infiltrate the city with Wu Xiaoyi's grain transport team to find an opportunity to strike Wu Xiaoyi directly, leaving them leaderless. Zhao Rui, Han Xiaoling, and Jin Hai would lead their men to storm in through the south gate, attacking from both inside and outside to capture the entire city of Jinlan. Since it was getting late, they decided to set off early the next morning, with Li Chenglong, Wang Bing, and Zhao Liying disguised as members of the grain transport team to enter the city.