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Chapter 2539 Lebanon's Spring Festival (Second Update, Please Subscribe)

Who could refuse such a offer?

Tang Zhiheng clearly couldn't refuse, especially after the other party demonstrated their corresponding strength.

For Li Yitao, buying this game was simply to make things more convenient for himself; whether the game could make money, or how much money it could make, was completely outside his consideration.

However, this did not mean he would throw his money away. After deciding to establish a video game company, he contacted Paradise Games. After learning that his brother had bought a game from Russia and planned to establish a game company based on it, Song Mingxuan sent a deputy manager of the marketing department to assist him in his "startup" even though he did not know why.

Soon after, Blizzard Entertainment quietly went public in Silicon Valley, and its first game was Tetris, a game from "the other side of the Iron Curtain".

Soon, this game from the other side of the Iron Curtain caught the attention of players. Although the game seemed extremely simple—blocks fell randomly from above, and players moved and rotated these geometric blocks to form a complete horizontal arrangement and eliminate them to score points—the simple rules combined with electronic music created a unique gameplay.

However, it successfully attracted players of all ages and became popular worldwide within just one year.

Of course, that's all in hindsight.

Right now, the most important thing is the Spring Festival. Even Li Yitao's trip to Chang'an was to reunite with his family.

Before Lunar New Year's Eve on January 27, everyone was reuniting. As early as half a month ago, Spring Festival travel flights had already sent SEA employees scattered around the world back home to reunite with their families.

This is the most important and grandest event of the year.

From the day of Laba Festival onwards, everything seems to be preparing for the Spring Festival. Whether they are Asian, European, or indigenous, they will joyfully welcome the arrival of the New Year.

Although there are no four seasons in Southeast Asia.

But this festival has long been given a different meaning; it is a day for family reunion, the most important and lively festival.

Even in the SEA military camp in Lebanon, all sorts of festive decorations for the Lunar New Year were hung up, and the soldiers were setting off firecrackers and fireworks, laughing and joking, just like they were back home.

Of course, the cooks in the canteen also began preparing the New Year's Eve dinner. However, there would be no scene of a company making dumplings together. The harmonious and joyful scene of collective life created by rolling out dumpling wrappers and making dumplings would not be seen here.

Even dumplings themselves are a food in SEA that is not given any special meaning and is not forcibly associated with the Spring Festival.

After all, SEA is an immigrant country. Even the Chinese come from different provinces. Some eat dumplings, some eat wontons, some eat glutinous rice balls, and some eat chicken soup.

Moreover, the most important thing during the Spring Festival should be the variety of delicious dishes, both Chinese and European.

In the military canteen, you can always find a wide variety of Asian and European cuisines. The buffet-style meals allow officers and soldiers to choose what they want to eat.

However, today is a special day. The canteen doesn't just need to prepare beef and pork dishes as usual. Because it's a special day, they need to create a more abundant menu based on the usual menu, and also prepare dumplings, glutinous rice balls, and chicken soup.

But what is truly the most popular?
It's probably still barbecue. To some extent, the love for barbecue is ingrained in human genes. And compared to the military's own cooks, the locally hired cooks are better at making barbecue.

A base is like a city, and within military bases, there is also a very large group of Lebanese businessmen.

It might be hard for many to imagine that there are tens of thousands of Lebanese people in the coalition's joint operations command center headquarters. They have contracted projects, run bars, sell snacks, and do all sorts of small businesses. They can freely enter and exit any public place within the base, and some have even moved in with their entire families to live and eat here.

While the coalition bases may appear to have become a safe haven for these people, in reality, the soldiers and the Lebanese are in a state of interdependence. The Lebanese will sell the soldiers what they need in exchange for money to support themselves.

The military's logistics department is also happy to hire some local chefs to reduce operating costs. Although these chefs cannot cook Eastern cuisine, they are very good at things like grilling meat.

Starting in the morning, the entire base was filled with the rich aroma of roasted meat. They were roasting not only beef and mutton, but one of the logistics officers had even managed to get hold of a camel, which was being roasted by a local chef.

In short, on New Year's Eve and in the following days, the officers and soldiers can enjoy food that is several times more abundant than usual.

Even the beer, which is usually supplied in limited quantities, is now available in abundance, including not only local beer but also beer airlifted from Germany.

On this most important holiday, although these soldiers far from home cannot reunite with their families, the military always takes care of its soldiers in various ways.

Meanwhile, a Global Express supersonic business jet also flew from its home country to Beirut that afternoon.

When the business jet landed at the international airport, several generals from the coalition command came to the runway. They had only learned of the news a few hours earlier.

"Why has the eldest young master arrived at this hour?"

Hearing them say this, Gu Changchuan simply said softly, "This is our tradition."

Yes, it's a tradition.

There are many traditions in SEA where, during holidays, Your Excellency and others dine with the soldiers in the barracks, extending greetings and thanking them for their service during the holidays. This has always been a tradition.

As Li Yixuan stepped off the escalator, Gu Changchuan went to greet him and saluted as his feet touched the ground.

"President, welcome to Beirut."

"General Gu, you've worked hard!"

Wearing a combat uniform without rank insignia, Li Yixuan smiled and shook hands with General Gu and the others before revealing his purpose for visiting.

"I'm here to celebrate the New Year with the soldiers. I hope I'm not disturbing everyone!"

"of course not."

Gu Changchuan quickly said:
"If it's convenient for the president, he can give a speech at headquarters."

Speaking at headquarters is essentially a speech to all officers and soldiers stationed in Lebanon, although Your Excellency will, as is customary, deliver a New Year's address to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

But now that the president is here, he naturally has to give a speech.

Li Yixuan nodded. This was precisely his purpose in coming here: to extend New Year's greetings to the soldiers fighting the war on terror in Lebanon.

Not only did he come, but his wife Zhang Jiazhen and their children also came. Li Hanyu, the eldest son, brought his younger brothers and sisters along with his mother.

The youngest child, the sixth, was held in his mother's arms.

This was the first time in their memory that they had celebrated the Spring Festival abroad, and at an overseas military base no less.

Therefore, the children are curious about everything here. They are always looking around with curiosity. Of course, the boys also show a love for weapons, always staring intently at the nearby fighter jets, tanks, armored vehicles and other weapons and equipment.

Because the coalition's military base is centered around Beirut International Airport, after getting off the plane, they went directly to the camp. There was no grand welcoming ceremony; instead, they went straight to the headquarters to hear reports from Gu Changchuan and others about the battlefield situation.

"Starting in the early hours of December 12, the coalition forces concentrated their forces to capture the PLO headquarters in West Beirut, and within the following week, they recovered one-third of Lebanon's territory. They not only captured most of the PLO's bases, but also destroyed more than 400 of its warehouses in southern Lebanon, destroying a large amount of weapons, ammunition and other military supplies."

Currently, we are conducting mopping-up operations in southern Lebanon. Although the PLO and other faction-based armed remnants have withdrawn to the north, a large number of remaining terrorists remain in the south. In the coming period, the Lebanese government army will do its utmost to eliminate these remaining terrorists in the south. Only after ensuring stability in the south will we launch our offensive in the north.

Listening to Gu Changchuan's explanation, Li Yixuan simply nodded slightly. He knew why the allied forces had stopped their offensive after a week of fighting; essentially, it was to consolidate their gains.

A quick victory might seem like a solution, but in reality, it solves nothing. First, the country is home to 60 foreign refugees, who are the main force behind the civil war. At the same time, there are 100 million religious people.

It was the combination of these two factors that completely transformed this Middle Eastern country, plunging this only Christian nation in the region into turmoil and war.

Therefore, to solve the problem at its root, it is necessary to address the root cause. Moreover, years of civil war have left no room for reconciliation between them.

Furthermore, theoretically, Lebanon, with its external enemies, is easier to manipulate. Just as Israel can never do without American support because of the presence of one million Palestinians, those people are the sword of Damocles hanging over Israel's head.

If Chang'an wants to control Lebanon in the future, it will also need to place a Damocles' sword over their heads. Since the victors could seize land and expel its original owners during the civil war, now that the victors have changed, the same method can be used.

This requires both time and space, which is why the military has temporarily suspended its offensive in northern Lebanon—to allow time to eliminate the problem and space to temporarily accommodate it. Of course, there's also a deeper reason: the mountainous terrain of northern Lebanon is not suitable for large-scale, rapid offensives.

Therefore, due to various factors, Syria still controls northern Lebanon, but southern Lebanon is gradually restoring order.

"...Currently, the Lebanese government forces have taken control of all cities and towns in the south, the terrorist camps have been completely cleared, and local order has been restored."

"So, the situation in southern Lebanon is now stabilizing?"

"Yes, President. The number of attacks in southern Lebanon has dropped from 300 per day initially to less than 50. A large number of terrorists have been killed, and more and more terrorists and their supporters are retreating to northern Lebanon. It is expected that the southern Lebanon will be able to fully restore order within the next one to two months. Lebanese refugees who were originally stranded in Beirut are also returning home..."

Listening to Gu Changchuan's explanation, Li Yixuan nodded slightly. This seemingly simple report was anything but simple; behind it all often lay sacrifice and bloodshed...

(End of this chapter)