Han Qingyu dug out the metal blocks from the four shuttle craft on the ground and tossed them over.
Lei San caught them, then turned to look at the wounds covering his brothers. "Let's go. Don't get melodramatic, and definitely don't fuss like old women and make Major Qing look down on us."
If they stayed behind, they would probably only hold him back. They thought it over—several squad members were so severely injured that they couldn't wait any longer without treatment, let alone take part in another fight.
The eighteen survivors of Squad 1923 sheathed their blades. They lifted up the comrades who would never return home, carrying them on their backs. Some carried one; others carried one on their back and held another in their arms.
Among the dead were their squad leader, their deputy leader...
"We're off! Until next time!" they called out in farewell. Lei San said, "Squad 1923 is still here. If you ever have time later, Major Qing, or if you happen to pass through, remember to drop by!"
"All right. Definitely," Han Qingyu said. His eyes were rimmed with red. He sniffled, nodding without turning around, and tilted his head back toward the sky.
High above, four black dots were expanding at once.
Standing with his back to them, twin blades strapped behind his shoulders, he slowly raised the large blue light column sword, holding it at his side with both hands as he waited.
The members of Squad 1923 looked up as well... then gritted their teeth and turned, walking into the distance step by step beneath the setting sun sinking in the far sky.
The road ahead led uphill. Wounded and exhausted, it was hard going, but they had to keep moving.
The setting sun stretched their shadows long and heavy.
*Boom! Crash!*
At last, the Great Spike craft hit the ground. Continuous, thunderous impacts echoed from behind.
The battle had begun.
The squad members halted on the slope and turned around.
Back at their former battlefield by the school gate, Major Qing stood entirely alone. Swinging his blue light column sword, he lunged into the pack of eight Great Spikes.
Gigantic black heads were crushed flat and sent flying.
"Damn, that's satisfying."
"Yeah. Suddenly feels like there's really a chance to win."
"Mm..."
Watching, talking, the soldiers slowly broke into smiles.
"All right, let's go. Stop fucking staring," Lei San called out with a wry chuckle, taking the lead as he turned around. "Watch any longer and we won't know how to chop Great Spikes anymore."
The men laughed, turned back, and continued forward.
"Xiaojie!" Lei San noticed one of them missing, turned back, and barked in exasperation.
"Ah!" Still standing where he was, watching the battlefield, Yin Xiaojie snapped out of it.
"What the hell are you still gawking at? Move!"
"Looking at the writing on the ground," Yin Xiaojie said. "Coming."
"Writing? What writing? Where?"
The squad members turned back once more, looking down from the higher ground.
Far away on the battlefield, carved into the concrete behind Major Qing like deep trenches, was a row of numbers:
[1923]
The numbers were actually enormous, but they hadn't noticed earlier, nor had Major The Qing said a word.
"No wonder he was dragging that column sword behind him the whole time as he walked."
"Yeah! If you looked at those numbers from high above, they'd definitely be crystal clear, right?"
"Definitely."
"If nobody repairs it, it looks like it'll stay there for a long time."
"Yeah. It'll stay right there until humanity's victory."
The discussion came to an abrupt halt. The soldiers stood on the slope, quietly watching for a while longer, before turning away once more into the distance.
Rumor had it that Major The Qing was someone who truly lacked any knack for expressing emotion, completely inept at the kind of profound sentiments that made people feel sappy... It was true; just now, he hadn't even let any significant wave of emotion show in front of them.
Yet today, he fought in the name of 1923.
After he had already withdrawn from Azure.
***
"Report! Following the decreasing trend of craft heading toward Linzhou, surveillance detected a sudden surge of aircraft heading west toward Wucheng!"
Less than twenty minutes had passed since the previous report on Linzhou. This time, the soldier had learned his lesson, shouting out the contents immediately after calling for attention.
Zhang Chiyuan sheathed his blade and turned around. "Wucheng? Great Spikes landed there too?"
"Yes, sir! One likely touched down in the urban area and met resistance, and then more and more followed," the soldier reported.
"Which squads are stationed nearby? What rank are they? Did you check?"
"Checked. Only one—Ninth Army, Squad 1923. Rating: ordinary squad. Their earlier distress signal said they were engaging a fourth shuttle craft, but now... more than twenty have headed that way!"
"Log it, make further inquiries, and ready the aircraft for reinforcement."
Very few aircraft were assigned under his command—only four in total—and taking off under current conditions was extremely dangerous, but Zhang Chiyuan made the tough call.
After issuing the order, he couldn't help muttering to himself, "An ordinary squad, four craft, twenty craft... What's going on over there?"
"Report!" Right then, another soldier sprinted up, yelling before he even came to a halt: "Report! Squad 1923 reports back: Major The Qing has appeared on the Wucheng battlefield!"
*Major The Qing has appeared on the Wucheng battlefield.*
At those words, Zhang Chiyuan and the soldiers beside him froze for a second. Then their brows smoothed out.
Zhang Chiyuan waved a hand. "All right. Pass down the word: if Rejecters can find a way to take a look, let them check in on it. Other than that, we don't need to worry about that area anymore."
"Continue searching for civilians. Protect the evacuation."
With that, he drew his blade and continued leading his men deeper into the battlefield.
"But he's alone! Squad 1923 reported that in all of Wucheng, it's just him now!" the soldier shouted in worry from behind.
"...Leave it be anyway. They wouldn't want us splitting our forces to reinforce them."
Saying "they," Zhang Chiyuan glanced up at the dark, oppressive swarm of Great Spikes high in the sky. A roguish grin crept across his face, and he muttered, "Thanks, you little brats."
One column of evacuating Shenghai civilians after another passed by him.
Great Spike craft slammed down along the way.
Combat squads lunged forward, fighting them off every step of the journey.
***
In Linzhou, gunfire had grown noticeably sparse. The mopping-up operation was still spreading, but its intensity was steadily declining.
"Report, the meal is ready," a soldier ran up to the side of the craft and said. "The kitchen is asking whether they should carry it over and have us eat behind the craft?"
"That..." Wen Jifei raised his gun and looked in all directions. "Let's just eat in the dining hall. Have the students and teachers head over, and assign a squad to guard the perimeter."
"Yes, sir!"
Inside the school dining hall, where one corner had collapsed, students and teachers began eating. Steaming hot rice was served from large caldrons lined up in a row. Although there weren't many side dishes...
Soldiers armed with blades guarded the building's perimeter.
Occasionally, a shuttle craft would crash down nearby, causing the dining hall to shudder faintly.
"Yao Yue," Wen Jifei said suddenly.
"Hmm?" Yao Yue tilted her head, looking at him.
"You go eat too."
"Me? I'll wait for you... for all of you. I'm not hungry."
"Bullshit. Did your hypoglycemia magically cure itself? I don't buy it. Go on, hurry up," Wen Jifei said quietly. "Truth is, the main selfish reason I told them to cook was that I was worried you'd be hungry. If you don't eat, didn't I waste all that effort?"
The way he said it sounded just like how he used to say back then: *If you won't let me copy your exam, what was the point of pairing up for study buddy tutoring?*
"Tch! Stop ruining your own image," Yao Yue chided in mock disgust, her eyes soft.
"Image? Classmate Yao Yue, you might have misunderstood something, haha. Truth is, I'm the exact same as before—I don't have an image to begin with." Cradling Elegy of the Square, Wen Jifei chuckled.
***
In Wucheng, another prolonged bombardment from the column sword gradually drew to a close.
As the battlefield quieted down, the city fell dead silent.
Stretching down the long street from the numbers "1923" carved into the pavement, amid Great Spike corpses and breached craft strewn across the ground, Han Qingyu collected the metal blocks, kicked aside a few bodies, and pulled a blanket from his backpack. Shaking it out, he spread it flat on the pavement.
*The next thing Azure ought to do is issue every squad an awl made of high-grade dead iron...* While he was thinking, his communicator beeped.
"Qingzi, how are things on your end?" Yang Qingbai asked.
"Not bad here," Han Qingyu said. "What about you? Aircraft parked properly?"
"Yeah, tucked away in a ravine. Very safe."
"That's good. In that case, get some sleep in the craft first. Call me if anything happens."
"What about you?"
"I'm sleeping right here. They'll probably keep coming, so I'll just wait here."
He lay down. The surveillance equipment Rejecters had finally managed to free up pinpointed the battlefield through intelligence tracking and transmitted back the first live image of the scene...
Azure Huaxia had almost thought he was killed in action.
Fortunately, Great Spike craft descended once again.
The footage showed him rising from the ground, walking into the center of the avenue, standing, watching, waiting... One man, two blades, one sword, bombarding and slaughtering sixteen Great Spikes right there in the street.
"Report! Surveillance indicates that craft heading toward Wucheng have begun to decrease as well!"
The transmitted images reached Zhang Chiyuan's hands, reached the desks of the Azure Huaxia Front, the Coalition, and command offices at every level.
In the pitch-black city, along the street strewn with the mangled remains of Great Spikes and shattered shuttle craft, Han Qingyu stood in the middle of the avenue, the large blue light column sword in his grip captured in crystal clarity.
And carved into the pavement behind him was the designation of a single squad:
1923.
That night, the entire world heard of the battle record of this ordinary squad, and of those names.
Chapter 610