Chapter 68

Later on, when En Xiao recalled the Battle of Huang Ze, what he remembered most was the star explosion.

He even felt something beautiful when the first red meteor fell.

He was no more than a patrolman at the fortress, staring dully at the rain of fire that rained down on it. Fortress Hwangtaek was already a drowsy old man, and most of the soldiers were still in a deep sleep when they realized that enemy warships had attacked.

However, unlike the imagined attack, it is hard to imagine that the heat weapon triggered cluster explosion was so small in scope that it was not enough to threaten the Huangze Fortress, so there are often conspiracy theories that the Alliance attack was faked by the Empire, but the evidence is no longer available.

But En Xiao knew that it was the Empire itself that was responsible for that one time.

Alliance's warships weren't trying to invade the Yellow Zephyr Fortress at the time, instead they were trying to avoid the massive Cluster Blast, their warships were too centrally located for a future raid, of course, if Alliance hadn't already been eyeing the borderline, they wouldn't have been forced to Imperial territory by this Cluster Blast.

What happened next was a matter of course, as the Alliance was forced to move ahead and enter the Huang Ze Fortress, and the Ranger Mech Division, under the command of Imperial Admiral Shuo Yan, counterattacked.

As for why En Xiao would know ...... is because he's the only one who didn't get an internal notification, and as soon as he saw the Alliance's warships, he went straight for it with a rush of blood and drove a small combat ship with no intention of killing himself.

Until his combat ship was yanked back by one of his own, he was at a loss for words with red eyes.

"He's a good soldier."

"Well ...... yes, in the form of a body?"

The unauthorized combat was his own mistake, and when he realizes his mistake, En Xiao doesn't intend to back down, bluntly stating that the legendary Admiral Shuo Yan turned out to be nothing more than a man who was afraid of death and gave up his land.

It was not until the handsome young man beside the Admiral had soothed him with tears and laughter, and explained the circumstances, that he realized in a trance what a mistake he had made.

"I'm sorry, but we didn't do a very good job of controlling the cluster explosion this time." That young man's voice was cold and nice, "But it sort of achieved the imagined result, since the Alliance's warships have already stepped into the Yellow Zephyr, it's already a call for war, no matter how you look at it, it's the Alliance that violated the regulations first."

"The total number of large starships in this Alliance is twelve, fifty-seven medium-sized combat ships, and twenty-three small combat ships, and that's the data we've gotten from our current cruise."

And how nice it was that, more than a decade later, Col. En Xiao recalled the battle to his young grandson, still remembering every word that young man had said.

"Apparently, this is also an advance force, now they are docked in the center of the Yellow Zephyr, they are in the light and we are in the dark, encircling them is the best, but the starships have a lot of firepower, and if we are not careful, we will destroy the entire Yellow Zephyr."

"I don't know if any of you have heard of the Trojan Horse, well ...... I'd like to make a furtive attempt to infiltrate the inside of an enemy ship."

"Wait ...... wait, you're alone?"

"Well, I'm alone."

En Xiao recalled the scene as if his eyes were again reflecting the rain of fire that had prevailed.

"Oh, you know, there won't be that man in the history books, after all, even Admiral Shuo Yan has become a node of history, but only those who were actually involved in the center of that battle will know what an ...... unparalleled genius that was."

To this day, he does not know the name of that youth.

"They call him Shen."

That night the entire Yellow Zephyr Fortress retreated, and all that was left of the silent fortress was a half-finished mech. Perhaps it was because the Yellow Zephyr Fortress was simply too old, too old to pose any threat in the eyes of the Alliance advance team.

They accepted the mech as a trophy of the first day without question.

"Destroyed the center power source of twelve starships, we don't even know how he did it, even General Yan doesn't know, speaking of which ...... when he initially made that offer, General Yan looked too angry."

"After all, it was too dangerous and too unbelievable, but he just did it."

"Shen looks about the same age as me... Grandpa was really ashamed at the time."

"Well, for now too."

He narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brow slightly.

"If ...... they didn't die back then, they might have grandchildren as big as you now."

"It's been, like, thirty years."

The great victory of the Battle of Huang Ze was not the end of the war, but the beginning of the war, as if to wash away the shame of that year, and as if they had received a boost from the Land of Machinery, the Alliance swelled up to the point of going straight to war despite the loss of twelve starships.

The war, which lasted eight years, ended in seven hundred and forty-one years of the Interstellar Calendar.

The history books have always been light on words, and the values of deaths and injuries don't visualize how much upheaval and life and death there is.

Most coincidentally, the first battle began and ended in Huang Ze.

Imperial Eagle Admiral Shuo Yan piloted the mech " Feier La " with the Alliance seven-seat topside mechs at Fortress Huang Ze and disappeared into the vast sea of stars.

This great and brutal one-for-seven was another great moment for Admiral Shuo Yan, but unfortunately it was one he would never see again.

It was also this one-for-seven that cost the Alliance a complete loss of high war power and the signing of the second armistice agreement.

The Alliance is always so unlucky, but the Empire isn't much better, they even lost their Imperial level Admiral.

"That's just it, that's all."

Colonel En Xiao touched his hair, in fact he wasn't really old, sixty years old was still a prime age for humans nowadays, he was just much older in mind.

Then he touched his grandson's cheek again.

"It's been thirty years, so it's been a long time coming."

The river of stars turns, the morning star breaks, and no matter how stunning a person is, he or she is ultimately a speck of dust rippling under the sea of time.

The child blinked, not a trace of the war's haze visible between his clear pupils.

An extremely cryptic red dot flickered in the flowers for a moment, then dimmed.

"This is G54. No other information on Admiral Shuo Yan has been detected."

"This is H32, same as no probe."

The no-longer-young Queen interlaced her hands, looking less than pleased.

"After thirty years, do you believe Shuo Yan is really dead."

"No matter which way you look at it, Shuo Yan doesn't have much of a chance of surviving, we've been analyzing this for thirty years ...... sire, if he's still alive, why doesn't he show up?"

"He is the Eagle of the Empire, the First General, countless honors await him, why doesn't he come back?"

The Queen took a drag on her cigarette.

"Because he's a really obnoxious guy."

And on a certain country star hundreds of thousands of light years away from the center of the Empire, the same people were reminiscing about the past.

"What is this magazine, Mechanical Hawk? Damn, cool!"

Tong Shen swept a thick layer of dust away from the magazine, almost ten years old and still in his inquisitive years, and looked up at the two adults who were blowing off steam.

"Hey, guys, where did this come from?"

Zhifan Shen stretched out a hand to rip the mechanical eagle out, "A few years ago casually bought, this kind of long discontinued magazines in the L galaxy even chained, it is difficult to imagine on the way to buy two nostalgia."

"Mecha? Mecha? I want to see it!"

Tong Shen is like a cat that has eaten a fish and won't let go.

Shuo Yan, who was reading a newspaper, lifted a hand and grabbed him up.

"Mechs, are pretty pointless things."

"No!" Tong Shen dared to defy his father once in 800 years, "We have a mech teacher in our school, and I dare say that mechs are the greatest creations in this world!"

Qiu Yan, who was looking in the mirror next to her, shook her head and said, "Yes!"

"Right what right, confiscate her mirror, she can't look good in any more pictures."

Qiu Yan was eight years old when she looked at her whole family, then at herself, and wailed, "I'm not even your biological child!"

Tong Shen follows with a howl, "Yes, not at all!"

Shuo Yan glanced coldly, "It wasn't supposed to be."

The two children looked at each other, deeply feeling the iron heart of the eldest, held back the tears that welled up in the corners of their eyes, and hopped out.

Zhifan Shen laughed, "Why are you always messing with children?"

Shuo Yan thought for a moment and came up to his ear and breathed out, "Because you don't want to mess with me."

"Our mecha teacher is from the Central Galaxy side, he knows everything." Tong Shen hugged the mechanical eagle he had snatched back, smug, "If I get good grades, he said I can get into a school in the Central Galaxy, and then I might be able to see a real mecha."

Qiu Yan combed her pigtails pathetically, she had failed to confess to her little brother next door for the eighteenth time yesterday.

"Grades don't matter to me anymore, I've even looked past the red and the men."

"Well ...... I still look pretty much like Dad," Tong Shen concluded as he took one look at his stoned sister, "You might actually be a hugger."

"Our teacher even told us about the Battle of Huang Ze, which was also the second all-out battle between the Empire and the Alliance." Tong Shen straightened up and pondered as he flipped through the Mechanical Eagle, "There's a man named Yan in there too, with the same name as our father."

When he finished he tsked again.

"Other people's dads drive mechs, our dads drive grilled fish."

Qiu Yan thought for a moment, "But our dad is still handsome."

"Okay," Tong Shen nodded, he had to admit that his dad was handsome, had to be the most handsome in the grilled fish store. After all, he had grown a pair of azure-colored eyes after Shuo Yan, and his silhouette after Zhifan Shen, and at a young age, he was already a sought-after commodity among the girls, "I seem to have just seen this magazine on top of it, with a description of that general."

"There it is, this photo ...... hmmm ......"

Qiu Yan peeks over, "Huh?"

"Look, is this our father?"

"...... didn't run."

"Hey, what kind of pirate magazine is that? It's trashy as hell, and the pictures don't even stick up right."

Tong Shen sighed.

"General, I want to be a general in the future!"

Zhifan Shen picked the cub up from behind.

"Well, well, well, future General-sama, please finish your homework first, as well as why did you only get sixteen points in your favorite mecha subject?"

General Shen Xiaogong died before his master, hung his head and said, "I've never seen it for real, I can't learn it."

Zhifan Shen thought for a moment and touched his head, "Really want to learn?"

Tong Shen's eyes light up, "Super want to learn!"

Zhifan Shen said, "Well, you've got to get rid of the fact that you turn into a cat when you're scared first."

"Dad, I can't control it," Tong Shen shriveled up and jumped into his arms. It's a physiological reaction. "What did our family do before we opened the barbecue fish restaurant?"

"Well, let's see," Zhifan Shen spoke in a serious manner, "Your father is the Empire's First Admiral, with infinite splendor, and I'm the Empire's Mecha Alliance's First God of Man, with a thousand favorites."

"Well," Tong Shen said, "I know where I got the gene for bragging."

Zhifan Shen didn't have the heart to put him down, "Get lost, kitten."

Shen Kitten bounced and rolled away, thinking better of it than picking up his magazine and preparing himself ambitiously for his mecha dreams.

"Thinking about what?"

Shuo Yan finished reading the paper and got up to look at his partner who was lost in thought.

"Think I used to seem like that."

"Why don't we enroll him in an intergalactic mecha class, it's just a bit more expensive, but the money has been saved over the years."

"Why are you suddenly so nice to him?"

"Well, because they can't do a lot of things in ......"

"Mr. Shen, let them decide about the kids, let's get busy with the two of us now, shall we?"

"...... Yes," Shen lost his smile, "my Lord General."