Chapter 438: Changsha and Zhongxiong's Base
"True."
Just as the two relaxed on the sofa, Leyan dozed off several times as she tried to keep herself awake.
"Mom, you can just go to sleep. I can watch over them."
"Thanks..."
As Leyan headed upstairs to return to her room, Nami moved away from the sofa and sat down on the floor.
"Come and sit down here. Do you all want to hear a story?" Nami said as she grabbed a picture book nearby.
All three of the kids quickly walked toward where she was before sitting down.
"Okay. Let me see what pages you guys are on last time..."
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Meanwhile, over in Lingang\'s Division...
"How far are we to our destination?" Lingang asked, with the city of Changsha right through the back window.
"About ten more kilometers left before we arrived at the designated spots they had given us."
As the driver answered, Lingang\'s heart was starting to race a little as the road trip was finally coming to an end.
He had been sitting in the car for almost the entire day, with his division driving from Shaoguan to the outskirts of Changsha.
They were now heading towards one of Zhongxiong\'s bases in the rural area just outside of Changsha.
"Commander Lingang, there\'s a car ahead of us."
The walkie-talkie suddenly spoke up, the same scout sound that he had talked to yesterday.
"Send a unit to meet them ahead. Tell them we\'re here to fight for them. Over."
As soon as Lingang gave his answer, the car he was on soon came to a stop, along with all the cars and tanks nearby.
The only one that drove ahead in the distance was the single unit that Lingang had directed.
After waiting for a bit, Lingang\'s walkie-talkie finally received a message.
"Commander, we had confirmed it\'s indeed Zhongxiong\'s forces... They said they want to bring us to their settlement."
"Tell them they can, but we\'re going to need a space to park everything we have. Over."
This time, it only took a few seconds before the scout spoke up on the walkie-talkie again.
"They said they had big enough space for us to park... But they want to meet you personally, Commander."
"Sure... I\'ll be there after everything is settled."
As all the cars resumed moving again, Lingang\'s eyes were all over the place, trying to examine the settlement as they drove past the entrance.
Unsurprisingly, it was mostly all a few big houses, with a ton of makeshift shacks.
It was almost like a déjà vu moment, with the building reminding him of what Luoping went through when it was first founded.
Everything was still being built from scratch, despite the outbreak already gone on for almost two years.
Right at that moment, he felt proud of the things he had achieved in Luoping with Commander Xiaoyun.
"Commander Xiaoyun really is a genius..."
Lingang murmured, realizing his motorized unit was intimidating the locals a little as they drove by.
It almost felt like he was one of those Europeans who had first stepped foot on native lands.
The entire army clearly felt blind confidence, just like him. Even the driver suddenly started sitting up straight.
After driving for a bit, they suddenly arrived at a short highway up to a hill that wasn\'t on the map.
Their blind confidence disappeared as soon as they saw Zhongxiong\'s force at the airfield on the top of the hill.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers were all standing near a massive metal door built into the hill.
With all the vehicles stopping, it was clear that this airfield was where they were parking.
"Commander, should we get off our vehicles?" One of the Majors spoke up in the walkie-talkie.
"1st, 2nd, and 3rd Regiment and all tank units stay inside your vehicle. Everyone else can exit their unit. Over."
As Lingang exited the car himself, thousands of soldier exited their vehicles as well.
Within seconds, he noticed the soldiers in the distance were alerted as if they were afraid he was going to do something.
"Everyone, remain still. 1st Regiment, head to the front with me. Over."
Groups of soldiers began heading to the front, quickly surrounding Lingang in the middle as they began approaching the army in the distance.
After walking within a hundred steps, a loudspeaker voice appeared from the other side.
"Who\'s the commander of this army?"
"I am."
Lingang yelled back as the 1st Regiment stopped after noticing the other side signaling them to stop.
"Can you come with us alone? Our leader wants to meet you personally."
As soon as the other side raised their demands, Lingang\'s soldiers were immediately alerted.
"Commander Lingang, this is way too risky. You can\'t go there alone." Lingang\'s 1st Regiment\'s Major raised his concern.
But after a short consideration inside his head, Lingang signaled all the soldiers to stay back.
"I\'ll go with you all. I have always been curious about who this Zhongxiong person is."
"Colonel Lingang!"
"Am I the commander, or are you the commander?"
Lingang\'s question silenced his entire army, and none of them attempted to stop him as he approached the other side.
After arriving on the other side, a middle-aged man stepped up and walked past Zhongxiong\'s soldier.
"You are really brave, Mr.Lingang... I\'m Liu Xuan, the 2nd in charge of Zhongxiong."
"I don\'t think it\'s brave to walk up. We are allies now, aren\'t we?"
As the two men shook hands, the tension in the air finally de-escalated away from two keg barrels.
"You\'re right... Follow me, I\'ll bring you to meet with our Commander."
As Lingang followed Liu Xuan past all the soldiers standing in the front, they arrived at the giant metal door.
"What is this place?" Lingang curiously asked as the metal entrance felt out of place next to a hill and an airfield.
"A secret military base... Or I should say an abandoned military base."
After walking around the metal entrance, they arrived at a much smaller metal door that finally allowed them to enter inside.
To Lingang\'s surprise, the inside of the hill was much bigger than he ever imagined.
The ceiling was almost several hundred meters high and even more comprehensive than the entire training field in Luoping.
"Wow. This place is a lot bigger than I thought."
"Yeah, but there\'s nothing inside it... We even needed to build our ventilation system actually to live inside."
Liu Xuan\'s answer made Lingang even more curious as the two of them walked past hundreds of soldiers and civilians alike living inside.
"What\'s the history behind this place?"
"It used to be a nuclear bunker, built during the Cold War during the Sino-Soviet split.
After the Cold War, it was abandoned... until our Commander found it, and we have used it as a base ever since."
As Liu Xuan explained, Lingang could feel the people walking past looked very well-fed and energetic compared to the village earlier.
"Okay, behind this door is our Commander. You can go inside yourself."
Seeing him showing no sign of going inside, Lingang opened the door and entered it.
To his surprise, it was an extremely old man with grey hair in an officer\'s uniform.
It was completely different from Renqin\'s report of a strong, middle-aged man being the leader.
"You\'re Zhongxiong?" Lingang curiously asked as he sat down before the old man.
"I am. Are you shocked to see an old man sitting here?"
"A little bit... Are you a retired veteran?"
Lingang asked after noticing that the old man\'s uniform was completely different from Yiming\'s.
"Major General of the 78th Group Army before twenty years ago... You\'re certainly a lot younger than I imagined."
As soon as Zhongxiong finished talking, Lingang\'s respect for him was drastically raised for the old veteran.
At the same time, it raised the alarm inside Lingang\'s mind as the old man before him was clearly experienced.
"Let\'s stop beating around the bush. What do you need us to do to help you?" Lingang asked, not wanting to stall any longer.
"I want you to help us take Changsha."
The room fell into silence as Lingang expected him to say it, but his mind was a little conflicted.
"Of course, we can help you all take Changsha... Just to make sure, can you supply us with food and fuel?"
Seeing Zhongxiong nodding, Lingang let out a sigh of relief, as it was his biggest worry.
The distance for him to resupply was going to take too long, not to mention the troops needed to protect the supply route.
"But we can\'t supply with weapons or ammo. We don\'t have spare for you all." .net
"That\'s fine. Then it looks like we have a deal, Mr.Zhongxiong." Lingang stated as he got up from his seat.
"Indeed... Ahem, your name is?" Zhongxiong suddenly asked as he got up from his seat as well.
"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I\'m Lingang, the Commander of the 1st Division of Luoping."