31: Raise the flag! Salute!

The sky was just beginning to brighten.

A hoarse yet firm command shattered the oppressive silence inside the warehouse.

"Raise the flag!"

It was the voice of Xie Jinyuan.

All the Soldiers dozing in the corners snapped their eyes open as if pricked by a needle.

They looked toward the headquarters in confusion.

Raise the flag?

Here?

Xie Jinyuan stepped out of the crude headquarters, his military uniform still meticulously buttoned, his face showing no emotion.

In his hands, he solemnly carried something wrapped in oilcloth.

Everyone could recognize it; it was the national flag that the brave girl had risked her life for last night.

"Company commanders, platoon leaders, gather here!"

Shangguan Zhibiao and the others quickly assembled.

"Go, find several of the longest bamboo poles, tie them together, and make a flagpole." Xie Jinyuan's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an unquestionable power. "Today, we will let the blue sky with a white sun and a fair earth fly over the Sihang Warehouse!"

These words were like a thunderclap thrown into a pool of stagnant water!

All the Soldiers were stunned.

Immediately after, an indescribable, scorching surge rushed from the soles of their feet straight to the crowns of their heads!

Raise the flag here?

Under the heavy siege of the Japanese Army? On this ruin scorched into charred earth by the flames of war?

This is too damn bold!

It's too damn inspiring!

"Yes, sir!"

Shangguan Zhibiao's back instantly straightened, and his voice roared like thunder.

He turned around and kicked the backside of a Soldier who was still dazed nearby.

"What the hell are you all standing around for! Go find poles! Move!"

The entire warehouse instantly came to life.

Soldiers threw down the half-eaten flatbreads in their hands, put down the guns they were halfway through cleaning, and scrambled to search through the ruins.

They brought bamboo poles used for reinforcing fortifications and bound them tightly with thick hemp rope, loop after loop.

They found the strongest wire and firmly fixed it to the top of the flagpole.

A Bugler, who looked only seventeen or eighteen, tremblingly pulled out the shiny brass bugle he had polished from his chest.

Chen Xi stood in the corner, silently watching it all.

He watched those Soldiers, their faces wearing a nearly sacred and solemn expression, as they carefully tied that national flag—stained with river water and still carrying the warmth of the young girl—to the flagpole.

In his livestream room, the bullet comments also carried a hint of confusion.

[What are they doing so early in the morning? Arts and crafts?]

[Raising the flag? In a place like this? Did I hear that right?]

[Host, is this a hidden quest? Are there any rewards?]

Chen Xi ignored them.

His gaze simply followed that flag.

Everything was ready.

Xie Jinyuan personally hoisted the heavy flagpole, made of three bamboo poles tied together, onto his shoulder.

"To the roof!"

Several Soldiers carried the other end of the flagpole, while Shangguan Zhibiao and a few brothers with the best marksmanship guarded the perimeter. Step by step, they ascended the stairs leading to the roof, which had been blasted into fragments.

On the roof, the cold wind howled.

Broken bricks and tiles were beneath their feet, and ruins emitting black smoke were in the distance.

Under the grey sky, the entire world looked like a faded, desperate funerary portrait.

The Soldiers worked together to insert the crude flagpole into a deep crater blasted into the center of the roof by a shell, then used rubble and sandbags to ram the base firmly into place.

The flagpole stood.

Though it was slightly tilted, it pointed straight toward the sky.

Xie Jinyuan adjusted his military cap and took two steps back.

He turned his head and glanced at the Bugler, whose lips were trembling with nerves.

"Sound the bugle."

"Yes, sir!"

The Bugler took a deep breath and placed the cold mouthpiece to his lips.

"Wuuu—"

A hoarse, even slightly out-of-tune bugle call abruptly rang out over the silent ruins.

The sound lacked the usual clarity and majesty of a flag-raising ceremony.

It was like something squeezed with difficulty from a throat choked by thick smoke, carrying the scent of blood and fire, and an endless sense of sorrow and defiance.

Accompanied by this hoarse bugle call...

Two Soldiers slowly pulled the ropes for the flag-raising.

That blue sky with a white sun and a fair earth flag, soaked by river water and even bearing several tears...

...began to rise inch by inch against the morning sun and the cold wind, over this land scorched by war.

It rose steadily.

Inside the warehouse.

Every Soldier who was busy stopped what they were doing the moment they heard the bugle call.

As if by prior agreement, they put down their weapons and sandbags, turned, and faced the direction of the roof.

In the infirmary.

The wounded who were still groaning on the ground also struggled, trying to sit up.

A Soldier with a severed arm used his remaining hand to prop himself up, his gaze passing through a bullet hole in the wall to look toward that patch of sky.

An old veteran whose legs had been blown off couldn't sit up, so he used his elbows to prop himself against the ground, struggling to lift his upper body.

Every Soldier who could still move stood ramrod straight.

The moment that flag appeared in their field of vision...

*Shua!*

Shangguan Zhibiao snapped his arm up in a perfectly standard military salute.

Then came the second, the third... inside and outside the warehouse, every Chinese Soldier who could still stand offered their highest respect to that flag fluttering amidst the smoke at that moment.

Their eyes turned red.

Tears silently slid down their cheeks, which were blackened by gunpowder smoke.

Chen Xi stood among the crowd.

He looked at the flag snapping in the wind and at the figures around him, standing as straight as statues.

As a former special forces Soldier, he had participated in countless flag-raising ceremonies.

But he had never felt like he did today—his heart felt as if it were being gripped tightly by an invisible hand, aching and burning, yet filled with power!

Subconsciously, he snapped his feet together, straightened his back, and raised his right hand.

A standard military salute, etched into his very bones.

His livestream room went completely silent at that moment.

Not a single bullet comment appeared.

On the screen, there was only that snapping red over the ruins.

Three seconds later.

Bullet comments flooded the entire screen with an unprecedented, uniform stance.

[Salute!]

[Salute!]

[Salute!]

...On the opposite bank of Suzhou Creek.

The people in the concessions were also drawn by the sudden bugle call.

They looked in confusion toward that warehouse, which was still emitting smoke and looked like a ghost town.

"What is that?"

A sharp-eyed newsboy was the first to discover that exceptionally bright color in the grey sky.

He pointed at the roof of the warehouse, his voice cracking with excitement.

"A flag! It's the national flag! Our national flag!"

In an instant, everyone's gaze focused there.

They saw it.

They saw it clearly!

Above those ruins representing death and despair, a blue sky with a white sun and a fair earth flag was fluttering proudly against the morning sun and the gunfire!

After a brief, dead silence...

The crowd completely erupted!

"Long live the Republic of China—!!!"

No one knew who was the first to scream it out with all their might.

Immediately after came a response like a mountain tsunami!

"Long live the Republic of China!"

"Long live the 88th Division!"

The thunderous cheers shook the heavens, even drowning out the sporadic sounds of gunfire in the distance!

Countless people raised their arms and shouted, embracing each other and weeping.

Those foreigners in Western suits holding coffee, who were originally just watching the spectacle, now put away the contempt and numbness on their faces, took off their hats, and looked at that flag with expressions of shock and admiration.

Chen Xi looked at the boiling sea of people on the opposite bank and listened to the shouts that shook the sky.

His body was trembling slightly.

He finally understood why Xie Jinyuan did this.

Raising this flag wasn't just about the dignity of Soldiers.

It was the unyielding, proud soul of a nation in its darkest hour!