boyutpedia Chapter 338 The Prelude to a New Battle
Chapter 338 The Prelude to a New Battle
At 2 AM, Li Chenglong, who had personally seen Qin Wan off, returned to the Shuguang Building. He had originally intended to go home, but considering it was too late and he was worried about disturbing his wife and children's sleep, he changed his mind and went to Lilith's place instead. Today, Chen Xiaoke and Jiang Xin were on the night shift. It's worth noting that Jiang Xin is not the celebrity in the story; it's just a coincidence of names. This Jiang Xin is 22 years old and, before the apocalypse, was a nurse at the First People's Hospital of Jinghai City, and one of the earliest people to start a business with Li Chenglong.
However, she and that celebrity are somewhat similar in that they both have relatively large frames, and even if they are thin, they are not the slender type. Previously, after the Central Computer Office was renamed the Dawn City Information Processing Special Mission Support Section, Li Chenglong raised the security level to 3A, the highest level. At the same time, the high-level conference room originally located on the 8th floor was cancelled, and it will be moved to a larger conference room on the 2nd floor.
In the future, the Shuguang City Central Information Management Department, composed of the central computer and other branch computers, will further increase the number of mainframes and servers to cope with the increasing information processing requirements. Meanwhile, the 8th floor is divided into two areas. One area is the Central Information Management Area, or Central Management Department for short, which contains the central computer, branch computers, and dozens of mainframes and servers, as well as a small tea bar where staff can enjoy tea and snacks. The other area is a rest area, about 300 square meters in size, divided into five rooms, fully equipped for staff who do not wish to live at home.
The main layout of the 20 floors of the Shuguang Building is as follows: The first floor is the reception hall, where all departments directly serving the general public have offices and can directly serve the people. The second floor is the main conference hall and the viewing platform in front; however, most major conferences are now held in the newly built Shuguang City People's Hall. It is worth mentioning that the reception hall for visiting dignitaries is also located in the People's Hall. The third and fourth floors are office floors, where Ma Tiancheng, Yun Qian, and Shen Menghua have their offices.
Floors 5 and 6 house the staff canteen, providing meals for employees of the Dawn Building and surrounding departments. Floor 5 serves Northern Chinese cuisine, while floor 6 offers Southern Chinese cuisine. Floor 7 contains the City Lord's office and the City Lord's assistant's office; the rest is the living quarters, where Li Chenglong, Yun Lan, Ma Tiancheng, and others reside. Floor 8 is collectively known as the Dawn City Central Information Management Special Mission Support Section, divided into the Central Management Department on the left and the staff rest area on the right. Apart from Li Chenglong and a dozen or so authorized individuals, everyone else must have authorization granted by Li Chenglong or Yun Lan to access the area.
Floors 9 through 11 are designated as entertainment and leisure areas. Floor 9 is an entertainment area where you can play billiards, video games, etc. Floors 10 and 11 are a gym. Floor 12 is a document storage room with a 2A security level, and access to the documents requires certain permissions. Floor 13 is a small library. Floors 14 through 19 are currently undeveloped. Floor 20 is an observation deck and leisure area, featuring a tea bar, observation deck, Western restaurant, and Chinese restaurant. Li Chenglong plans to further refine these features when he has time, moving the Western and Chinese restaurants from the 20th floor to the 19th floor, retaining only the tea bar and observation deck on the original 20th floor, and adding a book bar.
Li Chenglong initially intended to enter the central information management department on the left, but after sensing that Chen Xiaoke and Jiang Xin were diligently learning interstellar language and the alien operating system from Lilith, he decided not to disturb them. Of the five rooms in the rest area on the right, three were already locked, clearly indicating occupancy. According to the list, it should be Jiang Xin, He Shuangshuang, and Li Qian, since seven of the thirteen people in the information support department lived on the seventh floor, two were in the special forces, and one was Wang Xiao, who was going home. The remaining three must be those three.
Li Chenglong found an unlocked room, took a quilt from the storage area of the psionic space, and slept there until dawn.
The next morning, Li Chenglong arrived at the Information Management Department. Zhao Liying was listening to reports from Chen Xiaoke and Jiang Xin. Although she wasn't currently on the eight-person shift schedule, she would come twice a day, morning and evening, to check on the day's work. After the two left, Li Chenglong suggested hiring two more people to maintain a daily schedule of three shifts during the day and two at night. Zhao Liying thought it was a good idea and said she would take charge of handling those matters that day.
However, the main reason he arrived so early was to convene a meeting with all the high-ranking officials. Qin Wan had given him a lot of intelligence in the early morning, especially the fact that the zombie army was about to launch a full-scale attack, which was extremely urgent. After receiving Li Chenglong's instructions, Lilith immediately used the crystal supercomputer in charge of communications to send the message of the meeting at 8:30 a.m. to the crystal mobile phones of every deputy minister and above in Dawn City, and every deputy regimental commander and above in the Dawn Army.
After finishing this matter, Li Chenglong finally had time to return home. Yunlan was already up, fixing her hair, while the little one was eating breakfast with Susie's help. Seeing Li Chenglong return, Yunlan quickly leaned over to sniff carefully, then said, "There's a woman's perfume scent, but it's not the one I use. What's going on?" Li Chenglong took the breakfast from Susie, thanked her, and then explained what had happened in the early morning.
He originally wanted to tell Yunlan about what Qin Wan had told him, but Yunlan waved her hand to stop him: "You eat first, there's no rush. Aren't we going to have a meeting on the second floor later? You can tell me then and I'll know."
Li Chenglong convened an expanded meeting of the Dawn City Council, a meeting held only when matters of significant importance to Dawn City occurred, but were not extremely urgent, and which held supreme decision-making power. At 8:00 AM, half an hour before the meeting was scheduled to begin, Yun Lan, Ma Tiancheng, Shen Menghua, Yun Qian, Zheng Yong, Feng Tian, and others gathered in Li Chenglong's office to discuss the upcoming meeting's agenda. Li Chenglong also briefly introduced the intelligence he had gathered. To avoid disrupting the residents of Dawn City, this meeting was unusually closed to the public.
Half an hour later, the expanded meeting of the Dawn City Committee convened on time. Li Chenglong didn't waste any time and went straight to the point, introducing the new intelligence he had obtained. Because he had obtained a lot of new information from Qin Wan, he spoke for more than 40 minutes. At the same time, Wu Ruilan and Jin Mengqi from the special forces team also introduced the anomalies they had discovered during their investigation in the south. Coupled with the information sent by Sun Qingpeng from the Qingshui Base, all signs proved that the intelligence Li Chenglong had obtained was accurate.
Zheng Yong, the political commissar of the Dawn Army, spoke first: "Comrades, just as those comrades have said, it is certain that a new great battle will break out in a very short time. This battle will be more brutal than any before, and it will require the efforts of each and every one of us more than ever before." Feng Tian continued: "In this battle, everyone in our army will go to war with you. At that time, there will be no general staff or general political commissar, only comrades-in-arms fighting side by side."
Wu Gang, commander of the 1st Division of the Dawn Army, stood up and said, "No doubt about it. War is inherently cruel. Moreover, this battle will determine the future of humanity and the future of zombies. It's either you die or I die. When paths cross, the brave will prevail. Our Dawn Army is invincible!" Then, the three division commanders, Zheng Aiguo, Qi Guoan, and Qin Susu, each gave a speech.
On the Dawn City side, Ma Tiancheng, Shen Menghua, and Yun Qian also gave lengthy speeches. Shen Menghua and Yun Qian even made a pledge to do their utmost to provide maximum support for the Dawn Army.
Li Chenglong stood up and said, "Thank you, brothers and sisters, for your continued support of me and our big family. I hereby declare that from this moment on, Dawn City is entering a state of high alert. All personnel on leave must immediately return to their posts, all soldiers on leave in the Dawn Army must immediately return to their units, all supplies must be distributed, and all external missions are suspended..."
On the other hand, the report that Li Chenglong wrote in the early morning had been sent to the Eastern Theater Command and the Huaxia General Command. In addition to Qin Wan's intelligence, there was also some evidence from the investigation by the Qingshui Base and the special forces. Along with these reports, a large number of photos taken by the Shuguang at extremely high altitudes were also transmitted.