124: Yi Ling

"Hmm!" Chang Zhan led the girl to Li Xiao and said to her, "This is the Captain Li Xiao I mentioned to you. Currently, his team has already liberated the three cities of Xi City, Zhaoming, and Hengshui."

After speaking, Chang Zhan said to Li Xiao, "This is our famous military industry expert, Miss Yi Ling. She will be stationed at your base for six months to provide technical support."

"Hello, Captain Li. It's a pleasure to meet you!" Before Li Xiao could speak, Yi Ling extended her slender, fair right hand.

"Ah... um, oh! Welcome, Expert Yi, to my base to provide guidance!"

Li Xiao's mind was wandering as he looked left and right, and it wasn't until Chang Zhan lightly tapped his arm that he snapped out of it. He hurriedly wiped his hand on his chest and gently shook Yi Ling's fingers.

Her hand felt cool yet soft, making Li Xiao feel as if a breath of autumn wind had entered his heart.

As a man, Chang Zhan naturally knew what Li Xiao was thinking. He said with a smile, "Miss Yi is a leading expert of the younger generation in the military industry of our Tianyu Republic, and the military technology she has mastered is definitely world-class."

"Company Commander Chang is exaggerating, but Captain Li, you can just call me Xiao Ling from now on."

Yi Ling's voice was clear and beautiful, like music in a rainforest, making one feel refreshed.

After some pleasantries, Chang Zhan pointed to the military transport vehicle behind him and said, "That is the twenty sets and forty 'Stinger' man-portable air-defense missiles you requested."

"Really!"

Li Xiao quickly ran to the back of the truck and indeed saw twenty sets of Stinger missile systems stored in large, rectangular aluminum alloy containers.

"Great! Now, for at least a while, we have a decent defensive measure to deal with the Black Hawk patrol units."

"Of course. As long as they are used properly, even if an armed helicopter releases infrared decoys, it won't be able to escape the tracking and lock-on of the Stinger air-defense missiles!"

Chang Zhan looked at the equipment with great confidence and added, "As for map information synchronization and intelligence data sharing, Miss Yi will coordinate with you on that later."

"That's great! Without complete map information and the distribution of enemy and friendly forces, I didn't know what to do next."

"Then I will take my leave. Please take good care of Miss Yi Ling, Captain Li."

When Chang Zhan said this, he actually winked at Li Xiao with an "I understand you" expression.

"That goes without saying. Since Miss Yi is the most outstanding military industry expert in your Tian Yu, I naturally wouldn't dare let anything happen to her. Otherwise, wouldn't you crush my base into dust?"

Chang Zhan left quickly, but Li Xiao felt a bit worried. He had considered letting Chang Zhan enter the base over and over again for a long time.

Now that Chang Zhan knew about Li Xiao's base, it meant that he had exposed his information to the Tianyu Republic. If he were to take any action detrimental to Tian Yu in the future, it would likely be dangerous.

He also felt that this Yi Ling was not simple. She looked refined and elegant, gentle and weak on the outside, but judging from some details, she was definitely more than just a military industry expert.

Who knows, she might blow up the command center when she's asleep in the middle of the night.

"What is Captain Li thinking about?"

Li Xiao was lost in thought when Yi Ling walked up and asked, "Captain Li, I don't know where I'll be staying?"

"Oh, right. I'll take you there now."

Li Xiao led Yi Ling to the side of the military factory, where there was already a separate barrack building.

"This is a barrack building that was just built yesterday. It's only for you, and it's just a few steps away from the military factory."

"Thank you for your care, Captain Li. Then I'll go to work now."

Yi Ling took off her backpack and walked straight to the barracks, her figure around 1.6 meters tall, slender and slim.

Because she was a girl, Li Xiao didn't feel comfortable lingering there, so he returned to the command center. However, he wasn't about to let a strange woman wander around the base so easily.

"Li Le, go call Zhao Feipeng over."

"Yes!"

Zhao Feipeng usually stayed at the southern Transit Yard when he had nothing to do. As soon as Li Xiao called, he rode his all-terrain vehicle and rushed over.

"Boss, what is it?"

"It's like this: find someone to closely monitor the new military industry expert in our base twenty-four hours a day. Report immediately if there is anything unusual!"

"Understood!"

Just after Li Xiao finished giving the orders, he suddenly heard a shout from downstairs. It was Yi Ling.

"Speak of the devil, you go first."

Li Xiao sent Zhao Feipeng away, walked to the balcony, and said with a smile, "Is there something you need, Miss Xiao Ling?"

"Captain Li, should we be able to merge the map data now?"

"Oh right, I almost forgot about that."

Yi Ling came to the command center hall and inserted a USB drive into the electronic sand table data interface.

The next second, the electronic sand table, which was originally a 3D projection, directly turned into a wide, flat map.

Li Xiao stepped forward and discovered that this was the map of the entire Tianyu Republic, with a total area of 35 million square kilometers.

The eastern and southern parts of the country bordered the sea, while the western and northern parts backed onto the vast Zhongxia continent. In the surrounding seas, there were also several larger archipelagos or small landmasses.

Li Xiao glanced at it casually and discovered that Yun City State was indeed located at the southwesternmost tip of the territory.

"This is the full map of our Tianyu Republic. The red parts represent the areas still controlled by the Black Hawk Empire, and the blue parts represent the areas controlled by you, the Transcendentals. The green parts represent the territory held by the Tianyu Republic government forces."

Li Xiao looked over. Even with so many Transcendentals in existence, the Black Hawk Empire still occupied more than 70 percent of the territory. However, in addition to the colors Yi Ling mentioned just now, there were also some black areas.

"What forces do these black areas represent?"

"Those black areas are the regions currently occupied by the increasingly prosperous mercenary groups."

"I see!"

Li Xiao moved his gaze back to the Yun City State where he was located and tried to zoom in on the map. He soon found the location of Xi City.

He looked at the straight-line distance from Xi City to the southern coast and was surprised to find it was only 500 kilometers, while the complex mountain paths he had seen before were actually only about 100 kilometers long.

"Great! With the map information you shared, it will be of great use for the future development of the team."

Looking at the panoramic map, Li Xiao finally felt a sense of security. Before this, he had been crossing the river by feeling the stones, but now he could clearly deploy his offensive and defensive lines.

"The map's enemy and friendly force situation information will be refreshed on the electronic sand table every ten minutes via the satellite network. Some specific intelligence will still be provided to you by Company Commander Chang."

As she spoke, Yi Ling took out a tablet computer and showed it to Li Xiao: "Captain Li, I have just performed preliminary data processing on the military factory. Since your military factory has already been upgraded once, this efficiency improvement can reach 50 percent."