"Xia... Ying... chun..." Du Yu read the name one syllable at a time. "So not everything recorded in history was true. This girl, Xia Yingchun, had a very kind heart."
"Looks like you won't need to descend this time."
Dong Qianqiu looked through the screen and fast-forwarded another few months.
After becoming queen, Zhongli Chun devoted herself to governing the Qi Kingdom. After rooting out many treacherous officials, she revised the laws, then spent her spare time drilling soldiers on the training grounds. She scarcely had a moment to rest.
Xiao Xia also pulled out every trick she knew. Whenever King Xuan of Qi wanted to visit Zhongli Chun's bedchamber, she would cry, make a scene, and threaten to hang herself. Over time, King Xuan of Qi gave up on Zhongli Chun. After all, Zhongli Chun always wore an icy expression, while Xiao Xia was not only eloquent but could sing and dance as well. Even if Xiao Xia's looks fell slightly short of Zhongli Chun's, King Xuan of Qi could not be bothered to invite a rebuff.
King Xuan of Qi did everything he could to please Xiao Xia, Xiao Xia protected Zhongli Chun with all her might, and Zhongli Chun threw herself wholeheartedly into politics. Peace reigned throughout the Qi Kingdom, naturally giving King Xuan of Qi even more time to spend his nights reveling with Xia Yingchun.
Had he not witnessed this peculiar yet stable triangle himself, Du Yu would never even have imagined it.
"Uh..." Just then, something seemed to occur to Du Yu. "Sister Qianqiu... if I don't need to descend this time, does that mean I'll descend when little Zhongli fights the Qin and Zhao Kingdoms?"
"That's right."
"But, Sister Qianqiu..." Du Yu looked troubled. "I think we've overlooked something..."
Dong Qianqiu said nothing. She naturally knew what the problem was.
"Even if I descend... I won't be any help... This is a battlefield in the age of cold steel. With just my own strength..."
"Du Yu..." Dong Qianqiu looked conflicted. "My advice, actually, is... don't go this time..."
"Don't go...?"
Du Yu lowered his head in silence. Sister Qianqiu had a point. Could he really help on an ancient battlefield where tens of thousands of men fought to the death?
"The technical department has revised its calculations. As long as Zhongli Chun joins the battle, her chance of dying in combat is as high as eighty percent. Our best option right now is to use voice transmission to persuade her not to fight."
Du Yu thought it over, but still felt this approach was wrong. If Zhongli Chun refused to fight, the Qi Kingdom would fall even sooner. Would her legend still hold true? Would the course of history still lead to the present they knew?
"Sister Qianqiu, how about... you prepare a few things for me?"
"What do you want?"
"A rocket launcher, grenades, and a Gatling gun spitting blue fire."
Dong Qianqiu shook her head. "Du Yu, leaving aside whether you could carry all that in one trip, even if you brought it over, how would you fight tens of thousands of men alone? The Qin Kingdom's famous crossbows, the Zhao Kingdom's famous armored cavalry-guns and cannons alone can't handle those."
"It's fine... I've still got a few clever tricks. If things get dangerous..."
"Clever tricks?" Dong Qianqiu sighed. "Do you think the commanders of these two kingdoms-Bai Qi of the Qin Kingdom and Lian Po of the Zhao Kingdom-would fall for your clever tricks?"
"Bai Qi... Lian Po..." Du Yu gaped. "Both commanders are that big a deal? They're practically two legendary figures themselves!"
"That's why I'm still advising you... try not to go... I'll find a way to get Zhongli Chun out."
"No." In the end, Du Yu shook his head. "Sister Qianqiu, let me go. If I really get into danger, just recall me immediately. After all, I made a promise to little Zhongli..."
Dong Qianqiu spent ages trying to persuade Du Yu, but ultimately had no choice but to agree to his request.
"Du Yu, let me remind you one last time: an Operator's life is absolutely more important than a grade C legend. If we detect danger, we will recall you immediately."
"I understand, Sister Qianqiu."
Era: the turmoil of the Warring States.
Location: the Qi-Lu Land.
Infantryman: descent into A-Wu.
Du Yu's eyes flew open, his face twitching uncontrollably.
At that moment, Du Yu felt as though he stood inside an enormous sandstorm, with neither sky nor sun in sight.
Hot. It was unbearably hot.
He stood in the middle of a battlefield where tens of thousands of men fought to the death. Deafening shouts, cries of battle, and clashing weapons filled his ears. The sudden onslaught of noise made Du Yu dizzy. But the great clouds of swirling dust also left him unable to tell one direction from another. He had no idea how many people were in front of him, nor where he could retreat.
Trembling, he tightened his grip on the spear in his hands and prepared to shout, but as he drew breath, he caught the stench of blood hanging in the air. It mingled with sweat, decay, and the smell of slashed-open intestines-a smell that would haunt anyone for life after a single breath.
Something dark flew toward him from a distance. Du Yu instinctively reached out and caught it, cradling it against his chest. It felt warm and sticky.
When he looked closely, a human head lay quietly in his arms. Who knew how many wounds it had suffered before being hacked off? Its face was covered in cuts, and its disheveled hair clung to its face, some strands even lodged inside the wounds.
"Bleurgh!"
Du Yu dropped to his knees and vomited uncontrollably onto the ground.
This crushing pressure, this bloody horror, this terrifying sensation of the earth shaking beneath him-these belonged uniquely to the age of cold steel.
Countless men ran past Du Yu without so much as a glance. After all, on a battlefield, there were countless reasons for a man to fall to his knees.
"Du Yu! Watch behind you!" Dong Qianqiu shouted.
Du Yu had no time to react. He heard only the whistling wind behind him. In a flash, a hand seized him and threw him aside. Du Yu rolled across the ground and looked back. A burly bald man had swung his broadsword through empty air. Before he could recover from the missed strike, several Qi soldiers drove their spears through his body.
A soldier helped Du Yu up and asked breathlessly, "Which five-man squad are you from? Did you get separated?"
"Five-man squad?"
"The five-man squad was the smallest combat unit in ancient warfare. It consisted of five men: one squad leader and four members," Dong Qianqiu explained.
"Ah..." Looking at the vast battlefield, Du Yu had no idea where to find his squad, so he shook his head and told the man before him, "Everyone in my squad died. I'm the only one left."
"Perfect, we've only got four left!" The man clapped Du Yu on the shoulder. "Join our squad. Let's stay alive first! We need to see if we can find a hundred-man commander..."
Du Yu stood and looked around. Sure enough, there were three other men nearby. With no time for introductions, they stood back-to-back and began fighting the Zhao Army.
"Brother, I'm the squad leader. My name's Di Cong. What's yours?"
"I'm A-Wu!"
"All right, A-Wu!" The squad leader swung his spear, driving back the enemies before him, then told the others, "The squad leaders received orders to head north immediately and reinforce a trapped thousand-man unit. We'll follow the command banner and gradually move north. If we can find a Ten-Man Commander or a hundred-man commander, our chances of surviving will improve greatly!"
The largest fight Du Yu had ever experienced was probably a brawl involving four classmates back in his school days. It could not compare to this situation at all. Their most formidable weapon back then had been a ruler, and none of their blows had been intended to kill.
Fortunately, their squad leader, Di Cong, was truly experienced. He did not chase kills, instead directing the squad to protect one another and work together to kill any enemies blocking their path. Since they did not get bogged down fighting others, their squad moved a little faster than the rest.
"Squad leader!" The constant movement and hand-to-hand fighting had left Du Yu drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.
"What?!"
"Can I ask where our army's commander is?"
"Who knows?!" The squad leader glanced at Du Yu and asked, "Is this your first time on a battlefield, kid? Once the fighting starts, never mind finding the commander-you might not even know which way you're facing! All our movements as squad leaders are directed by the banners."
"But..." Du Yu was worried, afraid he would not reach Zhongli Chun in time.
Still, the squad leader had a point. Flying dust and bloody mist covered the entire plain, reducing visibility to only a few dozen meters. Grasping the course of the whole battle in a place like this was far too difficult.
"Keep moving. We're almost at that trapped thousand-man unit!"
"Squad leader!" a soldier in the squad shouted. "Are we getting close to the enemy camp? Why are there Zhao Kingdom soldiers everywhere?!"
The squad leader surveyed their surroundings. The number of Zhao soldiers around them had doubled, but he truly had no idea where they were. He only knew he had to obey orders. Many squads were converging in this direction; theirs had simply moved faster. Before long, there would probably be more of their own men here.
"Don't waver! We'll cut our way out and join the thousand-man unit! We're only one squad. If we stay trapped here, we'll just be waiting to die!" the squad leader shouted. The entire squad began breaking forward. The five men acted as one, attacking only those directly before them, and soon carved a bloody path through. But with so many enemies nearby, all of them suffered wounds.
Once they broke through the crowd, what greeted the five men was an enormous mountain of corpses, piled layer upon layer.
Someone stood atop the mountain, looking down coldly. The soldiers surrounding the place were cowed by her martial prowess. Not one dared approach.
"Little Zhongli?!" Du Yu roared.
Zhongli Chun seemed to hear the familiar voice. She looked down the mountain and met Du Yu's eyes.
"A-Wu, brother, who's that? Is she one of our Ten-Man Commanders?" Seeing that Du Yu knew her, the squad leader could not help asking.
"Squad leader, have you lost your wits?!" an infantryman in the squad said. "Anyone who can beat that many enemies has to be at least a thousand-man commander!"
"What thousand-man commander? What Ten-Man Commander?! Get up there and protect her! She's our army's commander!" As he spoke, Du Yu began climbing the mountain of corpses, no longer sparing a thought for the bodies beneath his feet.
"What?! Her Majesty the Queen?!" the men exclaimed.
An infantryman looked at the tall woman before him, still unable to believe it. "Didn't they say Her Majesty was uglier than anyone alive?! This woman is so beautiful!"
"Is this any time to worry about that?!" The squad leader kicked the infantryman, then hurried up the mountain after Du Yu.
Seeing Du Yu reach the summit, Zhongli Chun smiled faintly. "Only twelve years passed this time before you appeared."
Du Yu examined Zhongli Chun carefully and noticed that she seemed wounded. "Little Zhongli, how did you get hurt?!"
Zhongli Chun gritted her teeth. "I have only my own incompetence to blame. After assassinating the Zhao Kingdom's deputy commander here, I was surrounded, ring upon ring. I killed everyone who came at me. I've been killing for three full days now."
"Three days...?" Du Yu looked down at the mountain of corpses. If there were not ten thousand bodies here, there had to be eight thousand. "Little Zhongli, you've gone on a killing frenzy..."
In a tent in the Zhao Army camp, a tall, middle-aged man sat upright in armor. Before him stood a pale-faced young general, and the atmosphere between them was rather delicate.
"General Lian, three days ago you said you had surrounded the Qi Kingdom commander's thousand-man unit. Now three days have passed, and you're still surrounding them. Don't you have an explanation for me?" the pale-faced young general asked coldly.
"Bai Qi, when I first stepped onto a battlefield, you were still wetting your bed. Do I need to report my methods to you?" the middle-aged man said with a trace of anger.
"I'm not giving you orders. I merely want to know when I can see the Qi commander's head," Bai Qi said impatiently. "The sooner her head is cut off, the sooner I can return to Xianyang and report to my king."
"Hmph. Zhongli Chun, the queen of the Qi Kingdom, is indeed as formidable as the rumors say. My army surrounded and slaughtered her thousand-man unit until she alone remained, yet she could still slaughter another thousand men single-handedly," Lian Po said.
"Spare me those excuses." Bai Qi shook his head. "All that proves is that Zhao soldiers are incompetent."
"Incompetent?!" Lian Po slammed the table in anger. "My soldiers were born to mothers and raised by fathers too! Knowing how dangerous this woman is, why would I keep sending my men to their deaths? As I see it, if we surround her without attacking, it won't be long before she dies of exhaustion and hunger."
"Which is why I say Zhao soldiers are incompetent." Bai Qi sneered. "War demands 'victory.' For the sake of those two syllables, we must make what you call sacrifices."
"What kind of talk is that?" Lian Po was furious. "As a general of the Qin Kingdom, do you not consider your men's lives to be lives at all?"
"My men's lives?" Bai Qi's expression turned cold. "Lian Po, never mind my men's lives. If we cannot win a war, the entire kingdom will suffer. What point is there in talking about my men's lives then? If your Zhao Kingdom and my Qin Kingdom went to war, as long as my king gave the order, I would kill not only soldiers but civilians too, and show you."
"You...!" Lian Po sprang to his feet. "Bai Qi, you deliberately used my Zhao Kingdom as your example. Are you trying to provoke me?!"
"I wouldn't dare." Bai Qi shook his head. "The great General Lian Po's fame reaches far and wide. Surely he wouldn't lose his temper here with a youngster like me, only recently appointed?"
Bai Qi offered a cool farewell, then walked straight out of the tent.
"This Bai Qi of the Qin Kingdom is truly frightening. If the Zhao Kingdom really faces him..." Lian Po dared not dwell on it and could only shake his head silently. He was already past middle age, while Bai Qi had only just taken office. If that day truly came, he hoped he would still be able to don his armor and take the field...
Atop the mountain of corpses, the five men, led by Du Yu, shielded Zhongli Chun behind them, facing the enemy in five directions.
"Heavens... I never thought following the command banner would bring us straight to Her Majesty..." The squad leader turned to look at Du Yu. "A-Wu, it seems you've known Her Majesty for a long time..."
"Squad leader, let's not talk about that now. My mission this time is to protect the queen," Du Yu said through gritted teeth. Though he clearly knew his objective was to protect the queen, he had no idea how to do it.
"Leave..." Zhongli Chun said. "This battle is already lost."
"Lost?!" The squad leader and the infantrymen could scarcely believe it. "How could it be lost?! Plenty of Qi soldiers are still fighting across the battlefield, and Her Majesty, our commander, hasn't fallen!"
"Although I don't know who the enemy's two commanders are, they wield their armies like gods. Their formations and deployments are in no way inferior to mine. Now I've been trapped for three days, and the army has gone a long time without orders. I imagine the Qi army is already a pot of boiling chaos. Defeat and retreat are only a matter of time." Zhongli Chun looked at Du Yu. "I can't let you get hurt. Go."
"No. If we leave, we leave together!"
Hearing this, Zhongli Chun gritted her teeth. "Even if I truly escaped this place, the Qi army would still need at least one other general well versed in military strategy to join forces with me before we could win this war. Alone, I cannot counter the formations and deployments of those two enemy commanders."
Du Yu gritted his teeth. Unfortunately, he was neither skilled in combat nor versed in military strategy. There seemed to be no hope in this war.
Before you continue