In the evening Tan Yan accompanied Wu Qiao to the soldiers' cemetery.
The cemetery is very large, and the tombstones are neatly arranged one by one. There is a kind of quietness and awe that is different from the outside world.
Wu Qiao walked over row by row. He looked carefully at the names on the tombstone with eyes full of admiration. Whether he knew them or not, it took him a long time to walk each row.
"There are still many soldiers who have not had time to be buried." Wu Qiao said to Tan Yan, "The main reason is that they died in battle in recent months."
"Yes." Tan Yan continued, "Speaking of which, more people died recently than ever before." Speaking of this, Tan Yan was a little sad—his soldiers fell at dawn when the faint sunlight could already be seen.
"I'll go back and let Ji Yao deal with it as soon as possible, so that they can all rest in peace earlier." Wu Qiao still said softly.
"Ok."
"Also, Ji Yao and I are thinking about erecting a monument in the square to commemorate these heroes. We plan to start looking for designers and craftsmen as soon as the negotiations are over, and strive to make the monument a popular place."
"Should be." Tan Yan still should and Wu Qiao.
"We are still thinking about setting up two festivals. One to celebrate freedom and the other to pay tribute to the dead. After all, the end of the Hundred Years' War is a big event." Wu Qiao said again.
"I agree too."
"..." Wu Qiao stopped talking because Sheng Chongguang's tombstone had arrived.
On the back of the tombstone is the epitaph written by Wu Qiao himself: "Recalling the past and cherishing the present, the feast is hard to come by again. It is as heavy as a hill, but its light lasts forever." The first two sentences mourn the past, and the last two praise friends. The combination of the first words is "Yi Sheng Chong Guang".
Sheng Chongguang has very few friends, and only Wu Qiao will come to the tomb. Wu Qiao looked down and found that the flowers were indeed brought over by himself last time. He bent down, took the old one in his hand, and put the new flowers on it.
"Hey, Chongguang," Wu Qiao took out a handkerchief and wiped his grave, "Peace has arrived. The Republic has surrendered."
After a pause, he said again: "You should be very happy too, right? You are also a soldier. Also, in the last battle, Leila was seriously injured and may not recover...I can't move my hands and feet. I feel sorry for her. Do you remember Leila? You must remember. You once told me that Leila is a girl who is braver than you."
Tan Yan watched silently from the side.
"Actually, I seldom dream of you, but Su Yiqing always comes to me." Wu Qiao smiled, "Chongguang, I said... you can also come to my dreams, I am not as timid and afraid of ghosts as you are." of."
At the end of the chanting, Wu Qiao sighed: "Really... I miss you so much."
"..." Tan Yan looked at Wu Qiao, and put his arms around his shoulders tightly.
Wu Qiao also went to see Su Yiqing, and then, as expected, saw Ji Yao.
Wu Qiao knew that Ji Yao often came here, because the flowers on Su Yiqing's tomb were always new.
"You're here too?" Ji Yao was laughing again.
Ji Yao likes to smile very much, and it's very beautiful when he smiles, but Wu Qiao is a little suspicious now, all of Ji Yao's smiles in the past few years have been fake smiles. In the past, Ji Yao seldom smiled, but every time he was very bright. Now... is always a little bit different from back then.
Wu Qiao also looked at Su Yiqing's tombstone. Su Yiqing likes beautiful things, but tombstones are the same as others. Su Yiqing must be unhappy when she finds out. The cemetery requires the tombstones to be unified. There is really no way for this kind of thing.
"Ji Yao will tell you everything that needs to be said." Wu Qiao patted the tombstone and placed the flowers on it, "Then... I won't bother you two for now." Interrupting a couple while chatting is a kind of wink the behavior of.
"Yes," Ji Yao also said, "I've said everything I need to say. When you came here, I was saying that Wu Qiao and the people he likes are fine. Su Yiqing must be very happy to hear the news."
"..." Wu Qiao really didn't know what to answer.
Ji Yao raised his eyes and said sincerely: "I am also very happy for you. You two are lucky people born in this era."
"..." Wu Qiao gave Ji Yao a hug.
After a few more rows, Tan Yan's speed slowed down significantly. Sometimes he would stop and stare at a certain tombstone for a long time.
The longest time was ten minutes.
"Is it your friend?" Wu Qiao asked.
"Yeah." Tan Yan said, "You've heard of it too, right? I'm the only one in our team who survived."
"right."
"Without them at the time, you wouldn't have anyone to propose to next week."
"..."
"So, you and I are really lucky people."
"..."
…
—The next day, the negotiations between the alliance, the neutral countries, and the republic officially started. The negotiation took place in the neutral countries, and each country sent its supreme leader and several other sharp-tongued representatives.
Wu Qiao brought Ji Yao and three people he trusted.
The range of matters to be discussed in the negotiations can be said to be very wide, from the trial process, to the ownership of items, to war indemnities, to post-war supervision... There will be at least a hundred agreements in the end.
The discussions on the other parts went smoothly, but the most troublesome part was negotiating the compensation.
What made Wu Qiao feel very headache was that the acting president of the Republic was always crying. It seems that when he read the book of surrender that day, his tears were not accidental. He cried every day and said how miserable the Republic is now-this war caused the Republic to lose all its money, one-fifth of its land, and one-quarter of its population.
Wu Qiao stared hard, but couldn't tell whether he was really crying or pretending to be crying. How much Wu Qiao wished that Su Yiqing was still alive, because probably only the Best Actor could analyze another Best Actor's acting skills.
Moreover, that guy not only cried, but also clutched his chest and said that he was about to have a heart attack and was about to be forced to die at the negotiating table, which confused all the representatives of the alliance and neutral countries.
Facts have proved that rolling and cheating can play a certain role no matter what time, place or occasion, the difference is only the size of the effect.
No matter how tough Wu Qiao was, the acting president of the Republic cried and said that he could not get it out, that he was going to die, and insisted that even if the Republic was smashed to the ground, it would be impossible to sign.
There was no progress in the past few days, and Wu Qiao was really worried.
He has already surrendered, so he can't take the initiative to fight again, that would be unreasonable, and he would become an aggressor instead.
Wu Qiao had no choice but to gamble.
He lowered his head to contemplate his emotions, and when he raised his head again, he also rolled out a few tears.
"...!!!" Jing Yan looked at Wu Qiao in shock.
Wu Qiao also described the tragic situation of the Allies, and proposed a new payment method to the Republic: If the treasury is really empty, the Alliance will go there to see what equipment it needs for post-war reconstruction, and if the Republic has it, it will be dismantled. Take it away, but promise not to dismantle the equipment used to ensure the basic survival of the people of the Republic; in addition, and more importantly, the Republic needs to provide some labor to help the Alliance in its post-war construction, and the Alliance will pay low wages for this. He said that the alliance also does not want the normal life of the people of the Republic to be affected by the reparations.
The Acting President of the Republic gladly agreed to this concession. Tan Yan is more restrained. The Republic did not have as many planets destroyed in the war as the Alliance, and did not need to invest too much manpower to rebuild. At the same time, the defeat led to the overall depression of all major industries. He could foresee that in the next few decades, there would be a large number of idle people in the Republic, which would become a factor of social instability. However, during the empire, countless galaxies were razed to the ground in the alliance, and the country lacked manpower of young and middle-aged people, so the situation was just the opposite of that of the republic. It is really an excellent idea to use "manpower" to offset "reparations". In this way, the alliance can replenish manpower, and the people of the republic will no longer suffer from losing their jobs and having no income - low-paying jobs are also income.
The only ones who are dissatisfied with this arrangement are the neutral countries.
The neutral country is not a battlefield, has not been bombed into ruins, and does not want any manpower.
What Jing Yan wanted was money—not just indirect war reparations from the Republic, but also the debts to neutral countries that could only be repaid by the alliance after receiving a large amount of reparations.
However... the acting president of the Republic hit it off with Wu Qiao, both weeping, and constantly selling miserably, expressing openly and secretly that the neutral country that suffered the least damage should understand them, so that he, who is already very average, can't think of a way to deal with them for a while. .
Wu Qiao repeatedly assured him that the money would be returned. The Republic has no money, and it helps the alliance rebuild, so the alliance can restore the economy as soon as possible, work hard to pay back the money, and even raise the interest rate to pay more money.
Jing Yan dragged on for three days and couldn't help it, so he had to sign the agreement bitterly.
This is truly the weirdest negotiation between nations in history.
"... Huh." While getting manpower and delaying the repayment at the same time, Wu Qiao felt that it was worth crying.
The method of shedding tears taught by Su Yiqing before seems to be very useful.
Wu Qiao decided that in the future, if he had any ideas in bed and Tan Yan refused, he would cry.
…
—Because the agreement was signed for too long, when Wu Qiao returned to the League, it was already the day before the award ceremony.
It was rare for Wu Qiao to hug Tan Yan. Instead, he carefully prepared the speech and rehearsal for the award ceremony, and did not return to Tan Yan's home from the auditorium until four o'clock in the morning.
After returning home, he was going to propose again, and determined with Ji Yao all kinds of tricks he would use, and he couldn't even sleep with Ji Yao.
The award ceremony plus the marriage proposal ceremony must be foolproof.
It’s actually okay for him, but tomorrow will definitely be the most important day in his life for Tan Yan—he will become the life-long marshal of his beloved country because of his military exploits, and at the same time, he will also become the lifelong marshal of his beloved country. man's lifelong companion.
Absolutely must not screw up.