The Great Gathering of Chiefs

Li Dahai, Chen Fudong and Lu Wang were in the middle of a conversation when the walkie-talkie on the table in front of Li Dahai crackled to life.

"Boss, some other leaders have arrived."

"Great, I'll go greet them now."

Li Dahai said to Chen Fudong and Lu Wang, "I'm going out to welcome the new arrivals. You two just stay here and wait."

Chen Fudong and Lu Wang nodded. They stood by the window to observe the newly arriving leaders.

The first to get here was Han Dongyang, the leader from the auto repair shop base.

Han Dongyang brought four off-road vehicles, three heavy trucks, and over thirty people in total to the Agri-Products Market. His base was located at the gateway to Yan Yun City's southern region, right on the necessary path in and out. This allowed him to frequently encounter newcomers, so he had no shortage of recruits. By now his forces could be considered second-rate.

From their vantage point upstairs, Chen Fudong and Lu Wang looked down to see Li Dahai exchanging pleasantries with Han Dongyang. They sneered, "A meaningless frog trying to stand equal with us now."

"Heh, this guy has never gotten along with us. If he still doesn't listen after we take care of Xiao Fan, he's next on the chopping block."

With Han Dongyang's arrival, setup for the trading conference's periphery had already begun.

Chen Fudong's people, Lu Wang's people, Li Dahai's people and Han Dongyang's people started setting up stalls around the area.

While the leaders determined the bulk of trading goods, their subordinates also had personal needs for items to exchange, basic necessities for living.

The gathering place for the leaders themselves was set up on the third floor of the Agri-Products Market office building.

Han Dongyang had already been welcomed up to the third floor. Li Dahai and the others continued to wait for the remaining leaders.

"Here comes Zhang Peng, leader of Tongda Driving School!"

The arrival of yet another mid-tier leader livened up the atmosphere.

Chen Fudong and Lu Wang were of the same opinion that Zhang Peng was someone they could lobby to their side.

"And there's another, it's Guo Mingjie, leader of the Hot Springs Mountain Villa!"

Chen Fudong and Lu Wang also perked up. The Hot Springs Mountain Villa base was on par with theirs in scale, demanding their attention.

Guo Mingjie was a young man who used to be the boss of the mountain villa resort, quite a prominent figure in Yan Yun City.

He arrived in an armored money transport truck, leading a convoy of over a dozen vehicles and at least fifty people.

With two pistols on his waist and a hat on his head, Guo Mingjie cut quite the striking figure compared to the others.

Lu Wang said to Chen Fudong, "It'll be hard to lobby this guy. He's pretty close with An Lan from the Airport Base. If those two join forces, other powers would have to think carefully before making a move."

Chen Fudong let out a cold huff. "The Mountain Villa used to be a high end leisure venue, only the rich and powerful could go. And the Airport Base survivors must have mostly been well-off people taking flights. They see themselves as above the rest of us commoners, too hard to recruit."

Lu Wang also disdained, "Right. And they're stupid not to realize the times have changed. Past glory is useless now. Once we deal with Xiao Fan, they can't be allowed to remain either."

Sure enough, the Airport Base convoy arrived right after the Hot Springs Villa, even more dramatically at that.

The Airport Base leader An Lan actually arrived by helicopter!

It was only a small civilian model, but still an airworthy aircraft in these zombie-ridden times. What a delightful thing that was.

Even more outrageous, An Lan's convoy included a flatbed trailer that the helicopter landed right on top of.

When the aircraft door opened and the boarding stairs lowered, an attractive woman in tight leather gear with guns on her waist and sunglasses strode out. Her face even had light makeup applied, completely belying the dog-eat-dog environment.

From his vantage point Chen Fudong grated out, "An Lan was a spoiled rich girl before all this. No clue how she gets to lead an airport base."

Lu Wang's expression was equally dark. "Chen, the day we take the Airport Base, this one is mine."

"Agreed, but I want the helicopter."

The two quickly divided up the spoils in their imaginations.

After that, more mid and low tier leaders arrived, along with individual survivors without factional ties. After all, Yan Yun City had a population of 80 million. The ones showing up now probably represented just a portion. Many would have no means to traverse the infested urban zones out to the suburbs.

Chen Fudong and Lu Wang tallied up the leaders and found that everyone had arrived except Zhao Dashan from Zhao Village and Xiao Fan from Yanshan Town.

Naturally their discussion turned to the impending arrivals.

"Lu, I actually haven't seen Xiao Fan before. I've only heard some things about Yanshan Town on the radio. What kind of person do you think he is?" Chen Fudong asked.

Lu Wang contemplated briefly. "I heard people in Yanshan Town live pretty good lives. And Xiao Fan is supposedly a recent college grad, probably an easygoing guy on the surface at least."

Chen Fudong nodded, accepting Lu Wang's conjecture.

And at that moment, the final two convoys arrived.

"Zhao Dashan of Zhao Village, Xiao Fan of Yanshan Town are here!"

The two men craned their necks to observe.

Zhao Dashan's convoy arrived first, looking similar to the other bases with its mix of off-road vehicles and big transport trucks.

But it was not Zhao Dashan's convoy that seized their attention.

What stood out instead was the line of military green vehicles behind.

Leading the pack was a Lynx all-terrain vehicle. A machine gun mount sat atop the roof, manned by eight soldiers in camo wielding gleaming bayonets.

Behind the Lynx were two Humvee jeeps.

And behind those were two heavily armored vehicles with an impressive sixteen wheels each!

Taking in the rows of gun ports in the armor and the reinforced metal that could withstand machine gun fire, Chen Fudong's riot control truck looked like a toy in comparison.

And that wasn't the end of it.

Ignoring the supply and medical trucks in the back, the crown jewel was the Dongfeng Warrior armored vehicle.

The aforementioned Zhao Dashan now scrambled obsequiously to the Dongfeng, opening the door and shielding the top with one hand in a fawning gesture.

Even more exaggeratedly, several dozen soldiers dismounted from the other military vehicles to form two columns leading from the Dongfeng to the front of the Agri-Products Market building.

One ran over with a red carpet procured from who knows where, rolling it out from the Dongfeng to the building entrance.

Next, two women soldiers as pretty as models took up positions on either side of the door, awaiting their commanding officer.

All eyes were peeled for the final actor.

First jumping out were two dogs, massive as lionesses!

Only after the dogs appeared did Xiao Fan himself emerge, dressed sharply in an officer's uniform.

The two beautiful aide soldiers held onto his arms on both sides as he strode down the red carpet.

The dogs cleared the way ahead while the soldiers in the columns snapped to attention, raising rifles in salute as Xiao Fan passed!

This spectacular display stunned all the onlookers.

Up on the second floor, Chen Fudong gaped speechlessly for a good while before asking Lu Wang, "Lu, this is the easygoing Xiao Fan you mentioned?"