Popular Will

A moment later, Chiang Kai-shek seemed to have recovered from the standoff. He put on a gentle expression.

"Mei Ling, there's something I need you to do."

Song Meiling looked at him without speaking.

"Aren't you quite close to Gu Ruiyu, that young lady from the Gu Family?"

Gu Ruiyu was one of Zhang Xueming's fiancées.

A meaningful curve touched Chiang Kai-shek's lips.

"I'd like you to contact Zhang Xueming through her."

"Take a message to him for me."

He walked up to Song Meiling and spoke each word clearly.

"Tell him that a wise bird chooses the tree it perches in. His father's path leads nowhere."

"If he's willing to forsake darkness and embrace the light, and come over to my side, I, Chiang Kai-shek, will give him the position of Corps Commander."

"He'll start as Corps Commander!"

This was no longer an attempt to win him over. It was an outright attempt to defect him.

He wanted to poach the Feng Army's ranks—and its very core, at that.

Song Meiling listened in silence. Her long eyelashes lowered, hiding every trace of emotion in her eyes.

She neither nodded nor shook her head.

She simply said nothing.

The grasslands of Ulan Province stretched as far as the eye could see.

The wind swept over them, sending waves of green grass rolling all the way to the horizon.

A Steel Flood was slowly advancing through this sea of grass.

The tank treads crushed the turf with a deep, rumbling roar.

This was the Feng Army's Eighth Brigade, a mechanized force made up entirely of tanks, armored vehicles, and trucks.

A battle-hardened elite that had just routed the White Bear Country's troops at Xingxing Gorge, sending them fleeing in disarray.

Brigade Commander Zhang Xueming sat in the lead armored command vehicle, his expression calm.

Ahead, a vast patch of black dots appeared on the horizon.

More and more appeared, gathering into a sea of people.

They were the herders of Ulan Province.

Dressed in their finest holiday clothes, they stood waiting in silence along the road, holding horses and offering khata scarves.

"Brigade Commander, it's our herder brothers."

The driver slowed down.

Zhang Xueming raised his binoculars. At the front of the crowd, he saw their faces—and the pure admiration and joy in their eyes.

He lowered the binoculars.

"Pass on my order."

His voice carried over the radio to the entire steel column.

"All vehicles, shut off your engines. Everyone dismount and proceed on foot."

As the order was given, the engines' rumbling faded away.

The cold Steel Behemoths fell silent.

The doors opened, and Feng Army soldiers in uniform climbed out one after another. They straightened their uniforms and formed ranks.

With their weapons slung behind them, they marched in step behind Zhang Xueming toward the crowd.

They walked on their own two feet across the land they had defended with their blood.

It was the most basic respect they could show this land and the people who lived on it.

The herders erupted with excitement.

They had never expected the heroes who had defeated the White Bear troops to come toward them this way.

"Young Marshal Zhang!"

"Our heroes are back!"

Cheers soared into the sky.

The herders surged forward, surrounding the soldiers on all sides.

Hot milk cakes, fragrant mare's milk wine, sturdy cowhide boots, and sharp curved sabers were pressed into the soldiers' arms as if they cost nothing.

"Take them! Take them all! It's just a little something from us!"

"Well done! You've made the Chinese people proud!"

The soldiers' faces still bore traces of gunpowder smoke, but the warm smiles around them soon brought grins to their own faces.

A little girl with braided pigtails and rosy cheeks squeezed through the crowd and ran up to Zhang Xueming.

Shyly, she lifted a garland woven from wildflowers and held it out to him.

"Big brother, here."

Zhang Xueming bent down with a smile and let the little girl put the garland around his neck.

"Thank you."

"Big brother, can you stay?" The little girl looked up at him, her big eyes full of hope. "If you stay, the bad people won't dare come."

An old man with snow-white hair came over, leaning on his cane, and patted the little girl's head.

"Young Marshal, don't take it to heart. This child saw with her own eyes how the White Bear soldiers stole our cattle and sheep and bullied us."

The old man's voice was heavy with age.

"She's scared."

Zhang Xueming crouched down to meet the little girl's eyes and spoke earnestly.

"Big brother promises you the bad people won't come again."

He stood up and looked across every herder gathered there.

"Everyone, I have an announcement to make."

"Starting today, the Feng Army's First Division and Third Division have secretly deployed to Ulan Province. They'll take our place and guard this land forever."

The crowd fell silent for a moment, then broke into thunderous cheers.

The old man trembled with excitement. His lips quivered, but he couldn't get a word out.

Zhang Xueming steadied him.

"Elder, this is only the beginning."

He pointed toward the vast, boundless land in the distance.

"Within three years, the railway will reach here. Within five, I'll have our own woolen mills and canneries built on the grasslands of Ulan Province!"

"I'll turn our cattle and sheep into clothes and rations, and send them Inside the Passes! I'll show everyone just how rich the produce of our Northeast is!"

"I'll make sure every child here can go to school and learn to read!"

The old man could no longer hold himself up. His knees buckled, and he started to kneel.

"Please, don't!"

Zhang Xueming reacted swiftly and caught him in his arms.