Chapter 1258, The Darkest Hour (On the Grand Finale)
Last Day.
178 in the fortress.
All the residents were guarded by the radios, wanting to hear about the present-day battle.
Those who didn’t have radios at home, they gathered together as a family at their neighbors’ houses, and together they waited with bated breath for a piece of news that was interjected from time to time.
The male announcer had a good voice, but the news on the radio was always bad news.
Troops of the Northwest Army, whole formations are dying in battle, sometimes everyone listens and falls into infinite silence, and sometimes when they hear a piece of news that says which troop has been killed en masse, the radio resounds with earth-shattering wails.
Because their family members, might be among this fallen unit.
178 The streets of the fort were silent.
The weather was getting a little chilly after an autumn rain, and everyone couldn’t help but shrink their necks as they walked along the road.
Qing Zhen looked at his watch at his residence, there were only 12 hours left in the countdown.
He put on his white suit, then said to Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, and Xu Concealment, “Let’s go, it’s our turn to do something, don’t fail the Northwest Army’s hopes.”
After saying that, he turned around and left the residence, and there was already a Northwest Army vehicle waiting at the entrance.
After the four of them got into the vehicle, the vehicle drove straight to a certain quarry west of the fortress.
Since when, this quarry has been under martial law, surrounded by soldiers wearing quarry uniforms, quietly vigilant.
Xu Xian Chu was waiting outside the quarry gate, and after he received Qing Zhen, he turned around without saying a word and led the crowd towards the inside.
Inside the plant, a woman in a red dress was waiting there early, she was the person who negotiated with Zhang Jinglin on behalf of Qing Zhen, and was also the executor of the entire plan.
At this moment, there was no mechanical equipment used to blow up mountains and quarry stones in the quarry’s plant, although the outside looked very simple, the inside was extremely rich in technology.
To enter the plant, you need to change into a white dust-free suit, and inside are a large number of precision instruments, as well as 1,374 researchers who are busy.
Qing Zhen, wearing the dustproof suit, asked the woman in the red dress beside him, “Is everything ready?”
The woman in the red dress nodded, “Everything is ready.”
Xu Xianchu asked Qing Jin, “You said that there was a possibility of a missile attack here, so I came here to guard this place, but as far as I can see, there is no missile attack.”
Qing Zhen shook his head and said with some puzzlement, “Calculating the range of Wang’s missile force, this place should already be within range, and the AI should be able to analyze that there’s an abnormality here, so there’s no reason why it wouldn’t bombard this place. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but someone must have put in the effort to help us.”
Luo Lan on the side thought about it and said, “Can we really make this plan work?”
“Whether it will work or not depends on whether or not Ren Xiaosu can make it through the 12 hours,” Qing Zhen said, “If he can’t, then all of our previous efforts will be for naught.”
“Do you think he can last until then?” Zhou Qi asked.
Luo Lan shook his head, “I’m not sure, but he has never let me down yet.”
For this day, Southwest had similarly paid a huge price.
Some people had died in battle on the Three Mountain Defense Line, such as Qing Yi.
Some died trying to deliver a message, such as Tang Zhou.
But there were too many other nameless horsemen who had died for the same goal, for the same hope.
They had accompanied Qing Zhen up Gingko Mountain to see the gingko trees cascading down the mountainside, and they had died with emotion for the glory of the Qing Clan.
Outside of the war, there were Qing’s 1,374 researchers working in absolute secrecy, no one knew what they were working on, not even their families.
Qing Zhuan felt that if the plan failed, then no one would really know the effort these people had put in.
So they couldn’t fail.
……
On the evacuation path.
“The AI Southwest Force isn’t blocking us,” P5092 was a bit puzzled, according to his time projection, in fact, by this time they should have almost met the enemy troops blocking the front path.
However, at this moment they were still empty in front of them, not even a single figure.
Someone must have stopped the enemy army in the south, but P5092 couldn’t figure out who on earth had this ability to block the AI’s nearly ten million troops?
At this time, it was Ren Xiaosu who suddenly reacted, “If someone really blocked Zero’s two southwestern troops, then excluding all the unlikely boosters and calculating the only one left, it would be Li Shentan.”
Ren Xiaosu did the elimination method because the only person left who could possibly appear and help the Northwest at this time was Li Shentan.
When all impossibilities were ruled out, then the only option left, was the truth.
Previously, Nonsense had said that Li Shentan had gone to do what he had promised Ren Xiaosu.
What did Li Shentan promise? Li Shentan had promised Ren Xiaosu that he would use the devil’s salvation in exchange for Chen Wuxi’s return.
Therefore, Ren Xiaosu suddenly had a realization in his heart that his disciple Chen Wouyou might have returned!
When he thought of this, he felt some excitement in his heart, but in an instant, Ren Xiaosu’s mood was gloomy again, because he knew very well what the meaning of the devil’s salvation stood for.
Earlier when Nonsense was talking about Li Shentan, there was some despondency in his expression, so he thought that Nonsense also knew this answer very well.
“Another friend has left,” Ren Xiaosu suddenly said.
At this time, a soldier ahead suddenly shouted, “To Fort 178!”
Ren Xiaosu turned back towards the front, and suddenly saw the shadow of the towering fortress in the distance, so familiar and so dear.
The broad walls were like the solid backbone of a giant, making people feel secure just by looking at it from afar.
Although everyone knew that today, they were only seeing the fortress, and if they continued to retreat, it would take at least another six hours to get there.
Because Fort 178 was too lofty and tall, when its outline appeared in the field of vision, there was still a fairly long way to go between each other.
But no matter what, seeing Fortress 178 meant seeing hope.
But before the soldiers could rejoice, news suddenly came from the rear, that enemy mechanized troops had appeared on the horizon, and that enemy infantry land troops were expected to catch up soon.
When this news was delivered, Ren Xiaosu looked around and suddenly realized that many people had a look of despair in their eyes.
It was clear that they only needed to stall for nine days, but it was this last day that they were looking at failure.
Everyone knew that it was impossible for them to hold off the enemy army in this kind of plains terrain, because the opponent’s numbers were simply too much.
With just one day, or just half a day, they might be able to obtain the final victory.
Although everyone didn’t know what kind of plan Qing Zhen and Commander Zhang had, since Commander Zhang had said that he believed in Qing Zhen, it meant that the plan was feasible.
However, it seemed as if everyone couldn’t wait for that moment anymore.
Ren Xiaosu stood silently in the crowd, watching the fading hope in everyone’s hearts, suddenly wanting to do something.
This war had been fought too gruesomely.
On the three mountain defense line, Qing’s troops were killed in whole formation, but Qing’s fighters were thinking about how to pull a few more enemies on their backs before they died, and they fought for the Northwest Dawn defense line to get the most crucial data and time.
The fighters of the 6th Field Division were guerrilla attacking behind the enemy’s back just to buy two more days for the Dawn Defense Line.
The generals on the first echelon and second echelon defense lines on the Dawn Defense Line died before and after, and even when they were wounded, they were unwilling to follow the retreat of the First Group Army.
All of them were just for a ray of hope for the final victory, but seeing that this hope was also going to be gone.
He must do something.
He must do something.
He had to defend this hard-won hope.
P5092 said, ”Wang Yun, help me convey the order that the entire First Group Army stops advancing and finds cover on the ground to prepare for battle! Commander Zhang, Ren Xiaosu, you guys continue to advance with the wounded, I’ll stay behind and lead them in a blockade battle!”
“Staying behind to fight a blockade will kill you,” Wang Yun said seriously.
P5092 laughed, “So what?”
“No need,” Yan Liuyuan, who was sitting on the Wolf King’s back, jumped down and laughed, “You guys continue to retreat, leave the rest to me.”
Everyone was stunned, everyone did not expect Yan Liuyuan to suddenly say that.
Yan Liu Yuan smiled and said, “What, don’t you believe me, I am also a demigod level transcendent ah.”
Sister Xiaoyu on the side nervously grabbed Yan Liuyuan’s arm, “Liu Yuan, you can’t use your ability anymore, you really can’t use it anymore or you will die.”
Yan Liu Yuan silently looked at Sister Xiaoyu, the only thing he could not let go of was Sister Xiaoyu, in his heart, Li Xiaoyu had long been his own sister.
As a result, just at this moment, the Wolf King suddenly looked up to the sky and whistled.
In the next moment, the Wolf King turned towards the enemy army to meet them, while the wolves slowly followed behind it.
Yan Liuyuan called out twice, but the Wolf King never turned around.
Only the silver-colored wolves ran, faster and faster, their fur moving against the wind, looking extremely radiant.
P5092 calmly said, “Continue evacuating, don’t stay!”
Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu summoned the steam train to come and drove towards Fortress 178 alone at full speed.
The soldiers of the first group froze, what was the situation, how did the Major go alone when he heard that there was enemy at the rear? Is he running away or something else?
Only to see that steam train rolled up a huge gale on the wilderness and whistled away.
No one knew what Ren Xiaosu was going to do.
Wang Feng Yuan looked at the departing steam train, he was surprised and looked at Zhang Jinglin: “Commander, this ……”
Zhang Jinglin shook his head, “I don’t know what he’s going to do either.”
On the way to continue the retreat, there was a lot of discussion within the First Group Army, everyone was speculating why the Major had left alone.
Some people guessed that the marshal had another plan, but there wasn’t any reinforcements on the 178th fortress side, what could the marshal do even if he rushed to the 178th fortress.
The steam train was traveling at full speed and getting closer and closer to the 178 fortress, when the guard soldiers on the wall of the 178 fortress saw the train, they hurriedly shouted, “It’s the marshal, hurry up and open the gates!”
The gates slowly opened, but Ren Xiaosu’s steam train didn’t stop, and directly shuttled through the city gates and drove towards the Bronze Bell Square.
It just so happened that the time came to 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the copper bell on the Copper Bell Square was struck 3 times, the bell sounding mellifluous and vicissitudes.
178 The inhabitants of the fortress li voluntarily gave way to the street when they saw the steam train, and they saw the Major sitting alone on the head of the car, with a cold face and not a word.
“It’s the Major General, why did he suddenly come back by himself?”
“The direction of this steam train is Copper Bell Square; what is the Major doing in Copper Bell Square?”
But see the steam train in front of the copper bell square came to an abrupt end, more and more unknown residents under the curiosity of the chase over, copper bell square outside the gathering of more and more people, in the attention of all the people in the Ren Xiaosu jumped off the steam train, striding to the copper bell before.
Ren Xiaosu looked at the bronze bell and said: “Before you asked me how old I was, I said more than two hundred years old. In fact, I wasn’t joking, you guys might not believe me when I say it, I’m really over two hundred years old this year.”
“I am Experiment 001, who had fallen asleep due to cancer and genetic mutation more than two hundred years ago, and my father is Knight Founder Ren Wo. Therefore, I am a bit older than all of you.”
“I once saw the most glorious era of human civilization, where almost everyone had food to eat, and the people on the land of Kyushu lived in peace and enjoyed a brand new era.”
“In that era, the internet was developed, technology was advanced, and it seemed like everything was better than what we have now.”
“In today’s era, many people can’t even eat a full mouthful of food, TV sets don’t have LCD’s, and most people’s entertainment life is to hug the radio and listen to the broadcast. Those so-called rich people’s lives don’t seem worth mentioning to me, and no one has ever traveled farther than that; back then, it was only ten hours or so to travel from one end of the world to the other.”
“I used to say don’t let the sadness of the times, be your sadness, and that’s because I thought the times were utterly rotten.”
“However, when I saw people dying one after another for that ray of hope, I suddenly realized that in fact, this era isn’t that bad. In absolute darkness, there really is a new light that has been birthed.”
“I don’t have much ambition, I always used to think that it would be good for me to have a small family, I don’t want to be the Major Commander of the Northwest Army, and I don’t want to be the Commander of the Northwest Army in the future either. I always felt that just a person like me is not the material to be a commander.”
“But if someone wants to take away this last ray of hope now, then I would like to ask …… the more than 200,000 human pioneers under this bronze bell if they are willing to become Yingling to kill back with me.”
“Although becoming a Yingling is a bit unfair to you all, after all, you have already given so much to the Northwest, and now you are going to become subordinate to someone else’s abilities. Moreover, once you become a Yingling you will have the possibility of dying again, and at that time it will be eternal silence, and you won’t even be able to read the newspaper.”
According to Luo Lan, Ying Spirits were not immortal, and would still dissipate once they suffered more damage than they could bear.
This was also the reason why Ren Xiaosu and Luo Lan had always shown restraint towards this ability.
However, Ren Xiaosu continued, “But I really want to show the AI what human pride is.”
Ren Xiaosu stood alone on top of the Copper Bell Plaza silently waiting for a response from the two hundred and seventy thousand.
At this moment, the residents outside the Copper Bell Plaza were also astonished and bewildered as they looked at Ren Xiaosu.
They didn’t know exactly what had happened, they only knew that after entering the 178th Fortress, this Young Marshal suddenly ran to the Copper Bell Plaza and inexplicably said a whole lot of things.
Being far away, they didn’t even know what Ren Xiaosu had said.
The residents of Fortress 178 were unclear as to what Ren Xiaosu was doing here.
However, in the very next moment, a voice suddenly rang out from the center of the Bronze Bell Square, “We are willing to go.”
“Duty calls for duty.”
“We have long been waiting for this moment.”
It was no longer a voice that only Ren Xiaosu could hear, but one that everyone could hear.
A golden figure walked out from the center, it was Commander Li, who had the highest reputation among the two hundred and seventy thousand Ying Spirits.
Then the second, the third, the thousandth, the ten thousandth, the hundred thousandth ……
Ren Xiaosu originally thought that his ability to summon ten thousand Ying Ling was the limit, however, he himself did not expect that his limit was just no limit.
More and more golden spirits came out from the Copper Bell Square, like a golden sea.
Gradually, Copper Bell Square could not accommodate the huge number of spirits, and the residents were crowded towards the next street.
The residents had no idea what was happening, nor did they know where these golden figures were coming from.
At this time, suddenly a young-faced Yingling said to a woman around thirty years old, “Nui Nui ……”
The woman looked dumbfounded at the young soldier in front of her, the other looked extraordinarily handsome in the Northwest Army’s standard uniform, she had seen this heroic father in photos more than once.
Seventeen years ago, she was about to go to school when her father slipped her a candy and then told her that he was going on a long trip.
As it turned out, the other person had been gone for 17 years and had never returned.
When she was young, she hated the other person, but when she grew up, she didn’t hate him anymore, because her lover was also a Northwest Army man.
Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar face in front of her, the woman burst into hot tears, she finally knew what was happening at this moment.
On the other side, a middle-aged man in his forties looked at a young Ying Ling in front of him and asked with some confusion, “Fang Yuan?”
The Yingling called Fang Yuan suddenly turned his head to look at him and recognized him for half a minute before hesitantly asking, “Lin Ke?”
Lin Ke, who was in his forties, suddenly burst into tears, “You’ve come alive, ah, I’ve been dreaming every day for the past seventeen years, dreaming that I wasn’t transferred away from the post on the day the war started, dreaming that I died in battle together with you guys!”
Fang Yuan grinned, “Then you are damn miserable.”
Gradually, everyone understood.
The young marshal in the center of the Bronze Bell Square was resurrecting all the past pioneers of the Northwest Army!
“The pioneer martyrs of the Northwest Army have all been resurrected.”
“Martyrs, follow the Major General to save Fortress 178!”
Huge cheers erupted outside the Bronze Bell Square, and almost everyone in the cheers had only one expression, tears of excitement to the extreme.
Those martyrs who had thrown their heads and spilled their blood for the Northwest had all come to life.
Ren Xiaosu felt as if the blood in his body had rekindled and began to boil.
He turned around and walked towards the outside of Fortress 178, and all the golden-colored Ying Spirits then followed behind him.
Some Ying Spirits shouted loudly to the residents behind him, “Anyone who knows Liu Xu from Wei Zilu, tell him that his old man has come to life and is about to go into battle to kill the enemy.”
There were also Ying Ling muttering, “Originally thought that this kid was easy to pin down, but it turned out to be an old monster of more than two hundred years old, this is a fucking recognition of an ancestor ah!”
“So now that we’ve become Spirits, can we beat him up after the battle? This bastard hasn’t been disgusting us before ……”
“Yes, don’t forget that!”
Ren Xiaosu didn’t bother to listen to what the Yingling behind him said, his pace grew faster and faster until he was running.
The golden torrent then followed behind him, killing all the way out of the city, facing the direction the enemy was coming from, and charging from a distance.
This was the first time Ren Xiaosu had used the ability of the Yingling Temple, the first time he had his own Yingling, although Luo Lan’s Yingling had a certain increase in physical quality, the fact was that the increase was also very limited, only about 1.5 times of the original, after all, Luo Lan’s own strength was really not very good.
But Ren Xiaosu was different, he himself was too powerful than Luo Lan.
The spirits felt their brand new bodies, they just felt their bodies filled with power, this was a powerful experience they had never had before, almost everyone’s power had tripled.
This was a T3 force that numbered two hundred and seventy thousand, and all of them were also the most valiant warriors in the history of the Northwest Army.
Ren Xiaosu ran wildly at the forefront of the golden torrent, looking down from the sky, the golden torrent behind him was so grand and magnificent.
The murderous aura was steaming.