A courtyard house; Li Yunlong, a subordinate of the deputy director of Harbin Military Engineering I

North Korea at the end of July.

Under the old pine tree outside the headquarters of the Third Corps of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, whose crown had been half-shaved off by shrapnel, several army commanders squatted or stood, enjoying a rare moment of leisure.

Kong Jie tapped the pipe against the sole of his shoe, then put it back in his mouth and exhaled a long puff of smoke.

"That was awesome! So awesome!!"

He squinted, pointed his pipe in Li Yunlong's direction, and said, "Li Yunlong, you did a pretty good job in this battle. I couldn't believe you guys crawled out of the tunnels. You actually ran into a Japanese battalion. You were cutting people down like vegetables, decapitating them. What kind of deep-seated hatred is that?"

Li Yunlong, who was squatting on another rock with his hands on his knees, suddenly stood up upon hearing this.

"Damn it, what do you mean 'not bad'? I've been fighting against elite troops, what do you know? Back when I was carrying Hanyang rifles, you were just a new recruit, still learning how to bolt!"

He got more and more excited as he spoke, then turned to look at Blind Cheng, who was watching the show, "And you, a greenhorn, can't even shoot a gun properly. If it weren't for me..."

Blind Cheng was displeased upon hearing this. "Hey, Old Li, I don't like hearing you say that. Back in northwestern Shanxi, conditions were tough. If I were in your position, I might have fought even better than you..."

"Alright, alright," Zeng Shaoshan stepped forward, waved his hand, and stood in the middle of the group, looking left and right.

"Stop arguing. Instead of bragging here, why don't you think about whether the commander will take us back to show off our power during the National Day parade?"

As soon as he said this, the eyes of several army commanders immediately turned to him.

Seeing that someone was listening, Zeng Shaoshan became even more energetic, took half a step forward, and said, "The commander-in-chief is now the supreme commander, how prestigious is that? The Central Military Commission calls him the shield of the Republic, and we are the core of this indestructible shield!! Just imagine, when we walk into the square, wouldn't that be impressive?"

Liang Daya of the 38th Army snorted, "My 38th Army fought the whole parade, so I'm sure I'll have a place in the parade."

Qin Jiwei laughed from the side and patted Liang Daya on the shoulder: "Yes, yes, yes, we have them all. Didn't you see that all the special meritorious soldiers from our corps are here? If you ask me, to evaluate the ability of a commander, you have to look at how many special meritorious soldiers, kings of soldiers, and gods of soldiers there are."

These words immediately ignited the innate competitive spirit of the army commanders.

Especially Liang Daya and Kong Jie, who were among the first to enter Korea. One fought his way up from the first battle, and the other followed the Third Army Corps from last year to this year. Who doesn't have a few heroes to be proud of?

Liang Daya spoke first, "Well, I have something to say about this. Today, dozens of soldiers from various armies have received special merit awards, but our army only has five... Guo Zhongtian from the 337th Regiment of the 113th Division, Fan Tian from the 335th Regiment..."

Before he could finish, Zeng Shaoshan interrupted, "I have something to say about that. I'll list them for you one by one. Our Hu Xiudao, a new recruit, held the No. 3 position on Hill 597.9, repelling 41 enemy group assaults in one day, and killing over 280 enemy soldiers single-handedly. And there's Li Jingsheng, Yi Caixue..."

Qin Jiwei of the 15th Army laughed, "Then I must mention my model political instructor Zhao Maochen, as well as Zhang Bingheng, the squad leader of the machine gun company, and Chai Yunzhen of the 45th Division, who killed more than 100 enemies, captured 3, and seriously wounded them all in one battle!!"

Kong Jie, with a pipe dangling from his lips, took a drag and slowly began, "My 42nd Army..."

He was interrupted by the people next to him before he could finish speaking, but he wasn't in a hurry. He just tapped his pipe on the sole of his shoe and looked at the old guys who were arguing heatedly with a smile.

Li Yunlong, however, remained unmoved for a long time. He wouldn't have reacted if Kong Jie hadn't poked his arm with his pipe.

He looked up, his expression completely different from before, his voice much lower, and he sighed:

"In the battle that annihilated the US 25th Division, our Shanxi-Northwest... Shanxi..."

His eyes reddened as he spoke.

For someone as oblivious as this, crying only means they're really upset.

Because almost all the veterans brought from northwestern Shanxi were killed or wounded!

"It's not that we didn't have any special merit awards. I'm not bragging, but we had dozens, mostly from the Liangshan Special Operations Battalion, and some were veterans from the First Division. It's just a pity they all became martyrs, like Monk..."

He paused, his Adam's apple bobbing. "That day I received a letter from a soldier's mother, just a few words—'My son...are you brave?'"