Hu Hao and Xiao Quan sat together, talking low, while the other soldiers finished their final preparations. Everyone was waiting for the word. Li Jingsong had been called away by his father, but he returned after a few minutes to find the men staring at him.
“What?” Li Jingsong asked, looking around.
“Nothing. Your old man’s gone?” Hu Hao asked.
“He’s gone! Why?” Li Jingsong looked puzzled, while Xiao Quan simply turned his head away, cursing the Army Commander in his heart.
“Never mind. If he’s gone, he’s gone.” Hu Hao didn’t want to dwell on it. He sat down, disassembled his rifle, gave it a quick wipe with gun oil, and snapped it back together.
“Commander, call for you!” A guard sprinted over with a radio. Li Jingsong took it immediately.
“Good evening, Commander!” “Yes!” “Understood. Moving out now. We’ll hold until dawn!” “Yes, sir!”
Li Jingsong handed the radio back and looked at Hu Hao.
“Brothers! Do you remember the attack routes and the shelter locations?” Hu Hao stood up, his voice echoing through the bunker.
“REMEMBERED!” they roared.
“MOVE OUT!” Hu Hao shouted. He shouldered his rucksack and led the way. The soldiers streamed out of the entrance, sprinting toward their assigned APCs. The 28th Army units received their orders at the same time, mounting up for the drive to Sector 9.
“Dammit, they won’t even let us make a phone call,” Sima Xuankong grumbled from inside the armored vehicle. “I just wanted to hear my parents’ voices one last time. This total blackout is bullshit.”
“Yeah,” Hu Hao muttered. “Bullshit.”
He felt a pang of longing for his own grandparents. He had been raised by them in the countryside while his parents ran their business in the city. Once they became successful, they didn’t bring Hu Hao to live with them; they only took his younger brother and sister.
The thought of his siblings brought a small smile to Hu Hao’s hardened face. His sister was at a university in the Northwest—a brilliant student. His little brother was still in high school, with another year until college. His grades were terrible, and he was a slacker, mostly because their mother doted on him to make up for Hu Hao not being around.
Hu Hao pulled out his wallet. Tucked inside was a photo of three children. Hu Hao stood in the middle, about eight years old. To his right was his sister, about six, and he was holding the hand of his two-year-old brother.
“That’s you? The big one?” Huan Xingtao asked, leaning over.
“Yeah.” Hu Hao nodded.
“You have a brother and sister?” Huan Xingtao asked, and the other soldiers nearby leaned in to look.
“Mmh. Haven’t seen them in years,” Hu Hao said.
“Years? Don’t you get leave from the Academy? Winter break, surely? I know you spend summers with the units, but winter too?” Huan Xingtao asked, confused.
“Ha. It’s a long story. I grew up with my grandparents in the village. My parents were busy, and my siblings had tutoring and classes in the city, so they never had time to come back. During the New Year, our family was always split. I stayed in the old house with Grandma and Grandpa, and my parents stayed in the city to run their hotel—business is always best during the holidays, you know?” Hu Hao gave a bitter little laugh.
To this day, Hu Hao didn’t even know exactly where his parents’ house in the city was. He had never been. As a teenager, he had been angry that they left him behind; after joining the Academy, he simply refused to go. When he had leave, he went straight to the village.
Because of that stubbornness, he didn’t have a single photo of his entire family together. He flipped to another slot in his wallet, showing a photo of his grandparents. They were sitting down, and Hu Hao, in his first-year cadet uniform, was standing behind them with his arms around their shoulders.
“Your grandparents look healthy!” Huan Xingtao said with a smile.
“Yeah. In their seventies and still tending the garden,” Hu Hao replied, nodding.
“Nice. Look at mine—my parents, my little nephew, my big brother and his wife. Took this during my leave last year.” Huan Xingtao pulled out his own photo.
“Good looking family. Your parents look young,” Hu Hao noted.
“Not that young! Fifty-two. Only a few years until retirement,” Huan Xingtao said. He was smiling, but his eyes were full of a deep, aching homesickness.
The other soldiers began pulling out their own photos, staring at them in the dim light of the APC. Everyone knew that if they didn’t look now, they might never get another chance. The reality of the coming battle—the high probability of death—was finally settling in.
Hu Hao didn’t say anything. He just watched the city flash by outside. In the distance, flashes of light from other sectors pulsed against the night sky. The war was raging all around them.
Thirty minutes later, the convoy reached the edge of Sector 9.
“DISMOUNT! EVERYONE OUT!” Hu Hao barked.
“ALL HANDS, OUT!” Huan Xingtao relayed the order over the comms.
The vehicles screeched to a halt. The men, bristling with weapons and ammo, threw themselves into the surrounding ruins. Ahead, the cacophony of war was deafening—heavy machine guns and rhythmic rifle fire punctuated by the boom of explosions. The 29th Army was currently holding the line here, but they were being pushed to the breaking point.
“GO!” Hu Hao roared as soon as the last man cleared the ramp. The 27th Army surged into the darkness.
“Reinforcements! Brothers, help is here! Hold the line!” an exhausted soldier from the 29th screamed when he saw the approaching uniforms. They had been told relief was coming and were hanging on by their fingernails.
“PUSH UP!” Hu Hao yelled. He found a 29th Army officer huddled behind a wall. “What’s the situation? Friendly and enemy positions?”
“I don’t know! I don’t know anything!” the officer stammered, his eyes glazed with shell shock. “We’re being hammered. There’s too many of them!”
“Dammit, useless!” Hu Hao cursed. He signaled his men to move, staying low and using the rubble for cover as they infiltrated the sector.
Rat-tat-tat! BOOM! BOOM!
Nearby, the other reinforcement units had already made contact.
“Stay tight!” Hu Hao shouted to Huan Xingtao and the others.
He could see the enemy muzzle flashes in the distance. They needed to get closer to make their fire effective. Hu Hao led a company-sized element, leapfrogging through the ruins with practiced ease.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
They hadn’t moved a hundred meters before an Allied heavy machine gun spotted them and opened up. Hu Hao’s men dove for cover; they knew the drill by now.
Hu Hao crouched behind a slab of concrete, pulled two grenades, and yanked the pins. He hurled them one after another toward the nest. CRASH! The machine gun went silent.
“KEEP MOVING!” Hu Hao stood and vaulted over the debris, his squad right behind him.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Rat-tat-tat!
Realizing the counter-attack was underway, the Allied tanks began to fire into the ruins. Machine guns from Allied APCs joined the chorus, a wall of lead chewing up the masonry.
Hu Hao reached for more grenades. “I need illumination! Light ’em up!”
“Understood!” Whish… POP! A flare arched into the sky, bathing the shattered street in a harsh, flickering white light.
Rat-tat-tat! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The moment the light hit, every Allied gun in the sector opened fire.
“Hao-ge! There’s a whole company in that building!” a soldier yelled from cover.
“I see them! Watch the tanks! Don’t let them roll up on us! Rocket teams, stay sharp—if they move, you end them!” Hu Hao roared.
“We’re ready, but the fire’s too heavy! We can’t get a line of sight!” a gunner yelled back.
Hu Hao didn’t reply. He began a rhythmic barrage of grenades, hurling them 100 meters down the street. The airbursts rained shrapnel onto the Allied infantry, forcing them to scramble for cover.
BOOM! BOOM!
“More grenades!” Hu Hao shouted, reaching back.
“Here!” A soldier thrust a bag into his hand.
“Rocket teams! Now! Target the armor while they’re suppressed!” Hu Hao yelled before throwing another explosive.
“GOT IT!”
“UP AND FIRE!” Hu Hao roared. The rocket teams popped up from the ruins.
Whish… Whish… Two armor-piercing rounds streaked across the street, slamming into the leading Allied tank and APC.
BOOM! CRASH!
“DIRECT HIT!” a gunner cheered.
“CHARGE!” Hu Hao surged forward, rifle up, lead singing as he cleared the way. The 27th Army roared and followed him into the fire.