Zhao Zijie

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Zhao Zijie (赵子杰)
Species/Race	Human 151 153
Gender	Male 151 153
Affiliation	Human Federation; Human Fleet 151 309
Occupation/Role	Tactical commander-in-chief of the Human Fleet; formerly commander of the First Fleet and a starship cadet captain 186 264 309
Residence	Magic City before entering starship training 47 151
Status	Alive and serving in fleet command in his latest documented appearance 970
First Appearance	Chapter 41, “The Light of Fusion Shone Across Xia Country” 41

Background / History

Civilian Life

Zhao Zijie came from an ordinary family and received outstanding-student honors throughout elementary and junior high school. As an adult, he regularly visited military forums and discussed scientific and military developments with friends in a Penguin Group. He stayed awake overnight waiting for the Pangu One fusion reactor broadcast and celebrated its success by posting, “The light of fusion shines across Xia Country!” 41 51 151.

While filming the night sky from his Magic City balcony, he witnessed the red aurora preceding a widespread blackout. Although the official explanation eased his immediate fear, he questioned whether the event was merely a solar wind storm. He subsequently doubted the feasibility of the Moon Palace, Southern Heavenly Gate, and Heavenly Court Projects, suspecting strategic deception 47 51.

His attention to public information led him to investigate Xia Country’s changing mineral trade. He discovered that exports had fallen 90% year over year while imports had risen 50%. After the government announced the Sun’s rapid aging and Earth’s impending destruction, he recognized these changes as preparations for evacuation 60 130 131.

A military-forum post of his reached Weibo’s trending list during discussion of the United States’ Mars launches. When a suspicious commenter failed to recognize his “imperial jade liquor” reference, Zhao reported the account to the Xia Country Cyber Police. The police confirmed that the user was an undercover United States operative, arrested them, and announced a reward for Zhao 97.

Starship Pilot Selection

Facing uncertainty about surviving the solar catastrophe, Zhao applied to the Human Federation Starship Pilot Training Institute. After passing the background check, he traveled from Magic City to Capital City for selection. Institute personnel secretly observed his behavior along the way 151.

During the journey, he noticed a woman carrying a baby whose posture appeared abnormal. He initially hesitated to intervene because he feared missing his interview, then suspected the encounter was a staged assessment. After seeing the woman prepare formula with ice-cold water, he discreetly alerted railway police. The woman proved to be a real trafficker, not an institute actor; learning this left him deeply guilty about his earlier hesitation 151 152 153 154.

At his interview, Zhao openly stated that he wanted to survive the crisis rather than remain at others’ mercy. The interviewer worried that this suggested a tendency to flee, but Zhao’s theoretical knowledge exceeded that of 99% of applicants. Zero’s assessment also credited him with strong observation, sound values, and a sense of justice, securing his acceptance 153.

He passed the written examination after arguing that humanity should exterminate a technologically comparable extraterrestrial civilization. Bai Yixuan approved his resolve and expressed interest in taking him on missions. Zhao accepted six months of piloting instruction and one year of space-warfare theory, with no outside contact during training 154.

Military Career

Position / Milestone	Chapter	Notes
Accepted starship pilot candidate	153 154	Passed the interview and written examination; accepted isolated piloting and warfare training.
Cadet captain and Mars mission leader	186	Assigned responsibility for Mars City construction alongside Bai Yixuan’s squad, with Gao Yang as deputy.
Luan Bird captain on Titan	239	Piloted the eight-hundred-meter starship during its planetary landing, without Zero’s direct involvement.
Commander of the First Fleet	264	Selected after Lü Yongchang reviewed his Titan service record; Lü retained overall fleet command.
Tactical commander-in-chief	309	Appointed under the dual command system after Zero rated his wartime performance the best among the commanders, despite his mistakes.

Personality

Zhao is observant and reserved in unfamiliar public settings. Since childhood, he has preferred quiet corners where he can watch people’s expressions and movements. This habit helps him notice inconsistencies, but his tendency to search for deliberate explanations also causes him to mistake a genuine trafficking incident for an assessment 151 152 153.

His initial motivation is personal survival, which he states without embellishment. Nevertheless, he reports the trafficker, worries about the child’s welfare, and later feels guilty for nearly ignoring the danger. These actions support Zero’s judgment that he possesses a sense of justice 152 153 154.

In military affairs, Zhao prioritizes humanity’s survival over the interests of extraterrestrial life. He defends killing Titan’s jellyfish even if they might eventually develop intelligence, arguing that humanity must act from its own perspective. He also opposes accepting the more advanced Lator Civilization as a vassal because humanity lacks the strength to control it 248 376.

He feels casualties keenly without refusing costly orders. During the Proxima Centauri battle, distress over losing his subordinates drives him to request the flagship’s intervention. Against the Bosa Fleet, he later orders a desperate defensive stand and authorizes a sacrificial dimensional attack, while acknowledging the soldiers’ deaths 278 560 569.

Off duty, he jokes with Gao Yang, competes over snacks, and asks for photographs during their Titan deployment. He repeatedly treats Gao Yang’s ill-timed predictions as an uncanny source of bad luck 240 241 242 246 537.

Abilities & Skills

Fleet Tactics and Command

Zhao directs fleet formations, target priorities, and coordinated attacks, adapting his orders to enemy behavior 271 277 362 363 749.

• Fire coordination: Requests support from other fleets when the First Fleet cannot adequately cover enemy evasive movements 271.
• Target selection: Orders ion-cannon strikes against the largest Proxima Centauri ships and later prioritizes vulnerable small Lator warships 277 362 365.
• Combined attacks: Coordinates plasma saturation fire with precision laser strikes against exposed shield generators 363.
• Formation planning: Proposes the Long Snake Formation to penetrate dispersed defenses, strike supply systems, and advance toward the Enrojet Alliance’s capital 749.
• Operational adaptation: Works with Bai Yixuan on a guerrilla campaign that pins the enemy flagship near its central system while dispersed human forces devastate logistical targets 776.

Observation and Threat Analysis

Zhao identifies suspicious behavior and battlefield patterns, often using Zero’s models to test his conclusions 152 360 775.

• Detects the inconsistencies that lead to the arrest of a child trafficker 151 152.
• Recognizes that the Lator forces are herding humanity toward an ambush and proposes following their route to draw out the flagship 366.
• Questions Hua’s selective account of the Gardener Faction’s motives rather than accepting its explanation at face value 333.
• Maps intercepted missiles around the Enrojet flagship and estimates its spatial weapon’s range at approximately 750–800 light-minutes 775.
• Identifies inadequate intelligence as humanity’s most serious failure in the Proxima Centauri war 309.

Starship Operation

Zhao enters training with an unusually strong theoretical foundation in the Black Lady Series’ operating procedures 153.

• Manually adjusts landing parameters for a Luan Bird’s descent onto Titan, assisted by the weaker AI One rather than Zero 239.
• Conducts electromagnetic-cannon testing against an asteroid; control difficulties require Zero to take over and recalibrate the weapon 224 225.
• Issues combat orders through a brainwave reader while inside a Deep-Sea Pod 271.
• Benefits from Zero’s targeting assistance, which greatly improves coordinated fire against evasive enemies 271.

Defensive Planning

Zhao develops countermeasures and recognizes the limits of committing forces without sufficient information 310 360 365.

• Proposes expendable drones to obstruct attacks when large ships are surrounded by small enemy vessels 310.
• Rejects splitting the fleet’s defensive formation while trapped inside an enemy encirclement 360.
• Orders giant smoke bombs against laser attacks, followed by radio silence and drone deployment during subsequent fighting 360 365.
• Recognizes an attack on antimatter transports and redirects two squads to intercept the enemy’s secondary flagships 561.
• Relies on Lü Yongchang for technological analysis, including unfamiliar shields and weapons; the dual command system formalizes this division of responsibility 309 362 567.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Luan Bird Type I Starship — Operated during the Titan assignment; supported by One 239 241.
• Deep-Sea Pod and brainwave reader — Used during high-acceleration travel and combat command 186 271.
• Holographic command interfaces — Display fleet positions, targeting information, and analytical models 264 271 775.
• Golden Crow battleships — Commanded as First Fleet commander and later through fleetwide tactical orders 264 271 365.
• Dimensional Strike Ships — Employed in his plan to conceal one aboard a Golden Crow and deliver a close-range attack against the Bosa flagship 569.

Relationships

• Lü Yongchang — Superior and fellow commander. Selects Zhao for First Fleet command, then entrusts him with fleetwide tactics while retaining technological command. Their cooperation includes frank disagreements over risk and strategy 264 309 333 360.
• Gao Yang — Dormmate, deputy, and close companion. Serves with him on Mars and Titan, then assists with fleet command; their friendship includes frequent teasing and complaints about Gao’s “jinxing” remarks 186 240 246 264 537.
• Bai Yixuan — Senior pilot and operational partner. Encourages Zhao during selection, accompanies his first Mars mission, and later collaborates on formation planning and guerrilla warfare 154 186 749 776.
• Zero — AI evaluator and command support. Helps secure Zhao’s admission, assists targeting and analysis, and delivers appointments and operational instructions 153 264 271 775.
• Officer Qi — Training superior who assigns Zhao command of the Mars City construction mission and names Gao Yang his deputy 186.
• One — Shipboard weak AI during the Titan mission. Handles monitoring and routine operations but lacks Zero’s ability to manage extreme situations 239 241.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Arc	Zhao Zijie’s Role
Mars City construction	Leads the construction mission attached to Bai Yixuan’s squad, departing aboard a ten-ship Luan Bird convoy 186.
Titan exploration and culling	Oversees operations through a methane storm and encounters organisms climbing onto the ship. Later coordinates fifty Black Lady Twos to lure jellyfish into a heated killing basin 241 242 249.
Proxima Centauri war	Commands the First Fleet in humanity’s first interstellar war. Orders close-quarters combat when withdrawal becomes impossible; his request to deploy Earth is denied, and later enemy laser fire demonstrates the danger he had underestimated 264 271 278 280.
Postwar reorganization	Calls the war a failure despite victory and peace, accepts tactical command, and recommends improvements to intelligence gathering and ship defenses 309 310.
Ross 154 and Hua	Mobilizes the fleet at level-one readiness and aims its weapons at Ross 154. Confronted with overwhelming power, he abandons immediate retaliation but challenges Hua’s account of interstellar factions 326 330 333.
Lator confrontation	Directs probe engagements and defensive countermeasures, identifies the enemy’s herding strategy, and supports drawing out its flagship for a dimensional strike. Opposes subsequently accepting the Latorians as vassals 357 360 365 366 368 376.
Bosa war	Orders the Third Defense Region held for thirty minutes, protects antimatter transports, and sends Golden Crow ships to buy time. Authorizes the sacrificial delivery of a Dimensional Strike Ship 560 561 567 569.
Enrojet Alliance campaign	Plans the Long Snake Formation, identifies the enemy spatial weapon’s limited range, and coordinates a guerrilla campaign with Bai Yixuan 749 775 776.
White Dwarf Fortress battle	Switches from ineffective spatial attacks to kinetic and energy weapons, then orders increased Curvature Missile fire when the Four-Dimensional Shield briefly destabilizes 868 869.
Gardener Faction encirclement	Suspects that the faction’s claim of a misunderstanding is a delaying tactic and identifies its developing all-out encirclement 941.
War against the Cleaners	Reports that simulations project humanity and the Neutral Faction’s victory chances falling to 40% within thirty years, even without intervention by the Gardener Faction’s five-dimensional being. Questions whether forces can be spared to attack the Cleaners’ circum-universal accelerator before Lü raises the Lost Insect Swarm as reinforcements 970.

Notable Quotes

“As an ordinary person, I don't want to be at someone else's mercy when a crisis comes.”
— Explaining his application for starship training 153.

“Lose your humanity, and you lose much. Lose your animal instincts, and you lose everything.”
— Defending the Titan culling operation to Gao Yang 248.

“Professor, these sacrifices are necessary if we're to win this war.”
— Explaining the sacrificial attack against the Bosa flagship 569.