Chapter Summaries

Li Zhi and Liao Yifei flew a low-altitude reconnaissance mission along the border while two Peacock fighters monitored them. They reached the Great Snow Mountain without shaking off Sanjay, then climbed and ended the surveillance encounter at the mountain.

• Li Zhi and Liao Yifei took off together and agreed to practice a simulated low-altitude penetration near the border.
• Two Peacock pilots recognized Li Zhi and split up, with one staying high while Sanjay followed the Dragon Country fighters down.
• Li Zhi and Liao Yifei flew low enough to disappear intermittently from radar, while Sanjay tracked them by sight and struggled to maintain the pursuit.
• Sanjay snapped at his high-altitude teammate for repeatedly asking whether the Dragon Country fighters had appeared on radar.
• Li Zhi and Liao Yifei climbed as they approached the Great Snow Mountain, ending Sanjay and his teammate's surveillance mission at the border.

Li Zhi and Liao Yifei used repeated ultra-low-altitude flights to evade Peacock pilots Sanjay and Xiaerdi, who failed to locate them. After Peacock sent four fighters as backup, Li Zhi and Liao Yifei revealed their position and returned to base with low fuel.

• Li Zhi and Liao Yifei turned back over the Great Snow Mountain and vanished from radar during another low-altitude penetration.
• Sanjay sent Xiaerdi to search for them, but Xiaerdi searched the wrong area because he misjudged their speed.
• Sanjay and Xiaerdi searched at low altitude but could not find Li Zhi and Liao Yifei, so Sanjay reported their disappearance to Muhante.
• Commander Sunak dispatched four Peacock fighters as backup while Li Zhi and Liao Yifei tracked Sanjay and Xiaerdi on radar.
• Li Zhi and Liao Yifei climbed into view more than two hundred kilometers from the mountain, then ignored the six Peacock fighters and requested permission to land.

After a day and a half of rest, Li Zhi learned from Xu Feng that he had a confidential mission in two days. Dragon Country was preparing to reclaim territory seized by Peacock decades earlier, and Li Zhi’s mission would support the operation if Peacock escalated.

• Li Zhi and Liao Yifei returned to a heroes’ welcome after tricking Peacock pilots, while Xu Feng warned them not to stir up trouble.
• Xu Feng announced a day of maintenance and rest, and Li Zhi spent the break reading about air-combat maneuvers.
• Xu Feng privately told Li Zhi to rest and avoid missions for two days, then revealed he had an important assignment for him.
• Li Zhi guessed the mission involved Peacock, as Dragon Country had spent a year preparing to reclaim territory seized decades earlier.
• Dragon Country planned to avoid an outright war, but Li Zhi and other fighter pilots stood ready in case Peacock retaliated.

Xu Feng sent Li Zhi alone to provoke Peacock’s fighters and keep them occupied without firing first, while nearby bases prepared to support him. Li Zhi approached the border under radio silence and low altitude, then emerged from a radar blind spot, startling Peacock’s command center.

• Xu Feng ordered Li Zhi to stir up trouble, stay safe, and not open fire first so he could buy time for Dragon Country’s ground forces.
• Li Zhi prepared his armed Jiaolong 10 with extra drop tanks and ammunition, then took off from Chicken Coop Base in poor weather.
• Li Zhi requested radio silence and flew at extremely low altitude toward the border, evading Peacock’s radar.
• Li Zhi turned and climbed near the border to make himself detectable, and Peacock’s air force command center in Muhante was alarmed by his sudden appearance.

Li Zhi provoked Sanjay and Xiaerdi by locking onto their fighters, then lured them into following him at ultra-low altitude. In a hilly area, he illuminated Xiaerdi again and held the lock long enough to gather attack parameters.

• The Peacock controller reported Li Zhi’s brief disappearance from radar to Commander Sunak and sent two fighters to investigate.
• Sanjay and Xiaerdi spotted Li Zhi, who locked onto each of them with his fire-control radar before diving low to evade their pursuit.
• Xiaerdi chased Li Zhi, and Sanjay followed despite suspecting something was wrong, while both pilots avoided crossing the border.
• Li Zhi led the Peacock fighters into hilly terrain and turned to illuminate Xiaerdi with his fire-control radar again.
• The warning alarm in Xiaerdi’s cockpit grew more urgent as Li Zhi maintained the lock for over three seconds.

Xiaerdi used Sanjay's fighter to escape Li Zhi's fire-control lock, but Sanjay later crashed while flying too low and ejected. After the fighter exploded, Commander Sunak questioned Xiaerdi about the loss and his failure to report the radar lock.

• Xiaerdi put Sanjay's fighter between himself and Li Zhi, causing Li Zhi to switch his lock to Sanjay.
• Sanjay descended to evade the radar lock, but his fighter struck a tree and became unstable.
• Sanjay collided with another tree, lost half his right wing, and successfully ejected before the fighter crashed and exploded.
• Xiaerdi called Muhante for support as Sanjay's automatic ejection signal reached the command center.
• Commander Sunak demanded to know why Sanjay had ejected and berated Xiaerdi for not reporting Li Zhi's fire-control radar lock.

After Li Zhi drew Peacock’s fighters away to give Dragon Country’s ground forces an opening, Xiaerdi’s fighter lost control after Li Zhi repeatedly illuminated it with his fire-control radar. Peacock’s command center sought help from Eagle, while Xiaerdi warned that he would have to eject if they could not fix the problem before he reached Dragon Country.

• Li Zhi reported the enemy fighter’s crash, and Lei Hu ordered the operation to begin as Peacock focused its air power on the incident.
• Li Zhi stayed in the area as a beacon to draw enemy fighters away, while Xiaerdi avoided confronting him.
• Li Zhi locked onto Xiaerdi but did not fire, and Xiaerdi’s fighter’s flight-control system then locked him out of the controls.
• Xiaerdi told Sunak that he could not control the fighter and that its course would take him into Dragon Country in about ten minutes.
• Peacock urgently contacted Eagle for an explanation and a solution, but Eagle gave vague answers and could not fix the problem remotely.

Li Zhi discovered that a Peacock fighter jet had become unmanned after its pilot, Xiaerdi, ejected, and it was still flying toward Dragon Country with missiles aboard. He punched holes in both wings to drain its fuel and tried to preserve the aircraft, leaving it soaked in fuel and dangerously vulnerable to a spark.

• Li Zhi noticed the Peacock fighter jet kept flying toward the border without responding to his radar lock, while Liao Yifei arrived with two other Dragon Country jets.
• Xiaerdi panicked and ejected from the fighter jet, which continued flying normally across the border.
• Li Zhi reported the unmanned jet to Xu Feng and Lei Zhan, then inspected it and saw its missiles and working instruments.
• Lei Hu ordered Li Zhi to bring the jet down while trying to keep it intact.
• Li Zhi fired cannon rounds into both wings to drain the fuel, then stayed at a distance as fuel soaked the aircraft.
• When Lei Hu asked why the jet had not been shot down, Li Zhi said he was trying to keep it intact.

Li Zhi brought down a Peacock fighter intact by striking its canopy with a jettisoned drop tank, then returned to Chicken Coop Base to refuel and rearm before heading back toward the border. Meanwhile, Dragon Country forces pushed back Peacock soldiers near Great Snow Mountain.

• Li Zhi used his fighter’s drop tanks to knock the damaged Peacock fighter into a forest without destroying it.
• Li Zhi reported the intact enemy aircraft to Lei Hu, who promised to recommend him for a commendation.
• Xu Feng and the other two continued toward the border while Li Zhi returned to Chicken Coop Base to resupply.
• The ground crew refueled and rearmed Li Zhi’s fighter in under five minutes, and he took off again.
• Dragon Country ground forces drove the unprepared Peacock soldiers back near Great Snow Mountain.

Li Zhi fought two Peacock fighters over the Great Snow Mountain while Dragon Country ground troops secured the area below. Steppe Wolf arrived to relieve him, but the Peacock pilots received no support and the air battle continued.

• Peacock sent two fighters to respond to activity near the Great Snow Mountain, while Dragon Country dispatched Li Zhi and a Wolf's Lair pilot on separate routes.
• Li Zhi engaged one Peacock fighter and evaded the other's attacks, keeping both occupied as Dragon Country troops cleared the remaining Peacock soldiers and set up air defenses.
• Steppe Wolf arrived and forced the Peacock fighter behind Li Zhi to break off its pursuit, leaving Li Zhi free to attack the other fighter.
• The Peacock pilots called Muhante Base for support, but no fighters were available because the rest were facing Dragon Country's fleet near the border.