Beside him, an exquisitely dressed mother was peeling an orange and earnestly advising, "When you get abroad, study hard and do whatever it takes to stay there and get a green card. We'll give you thirty thousand Freedom dollars for living expenses every month. Later on, if there's a chance, your father and I will immigrate there too. I hear that even the air in that wonderful Freedom Country is better than ours..."
The father driving the car furrowed his brow, a flash of displeasure crossing his eyes.
"Screech!"
With a hard stomp on the brakes, the car pulled right over to the side of the plaza!
The chubby little boy, still engrossed in his mobile game, remained completely oblivious. The mother, still peeling her orange, looked up. "What's wrong?"
The man said nothing.
"Bang!"
He stepped out with a cold face, pulled open the rear door, and slapped the Apple phone right out of the chubby boy's hand.
"Get out of the car!" The man pointed at the ground, his voice low.
Dressed in foreign designer labels, the chubby boy abruptly raised his head, looking bewildered. "Dad, what are you..."
"You're not going abroad anymore. Starting today, I'm going to teach you what patriotism is first!" Pointing at the ground, the man said every word with deliberate force: "Get out of the car. Starting today, you're going to enlist in the army!"
Chapter 13: A Promise
Touching scenes unfolded one after another across the plaza.
There were parents seeing their children off to join the military.
There were fathers and sons enlisting side by side.
There were even groups of burly village men arriving on tractors, and groups of simple migrant workers in work clothes, rushing enthusiastically to sign up.
You could say they were doing it for the money or the subsidies.
Yet they also knew that such a massive military mobilization meant something important was happening!
Furthermore, it could be something very dangerous!
For all they knew, it was something threatening the safety of the entire Daxia!
Yet not the slightest trace of fear showed on their faces.
A teenager standing in line to register suddenly heard a burst of hurried footsteps. Turning his head, he froze in surprise: "Dad, why are you here?"
The middle-aged man's expression was grave. "How could I not worry about you? Your mother and I raised you this big, what if..."
A complicated look crossed the teenager's face, but he said firmly, "Dad, Mom, don't try to persuade me. I've already told you..."
"I'm not here to persuade you." The middle-aged man frowned. "I figured, if there really are bullets coming your way, maybe I could block one for you... Anyway, what you said earlier was right: when the nation is at stake, every ordinary citizen has a responsibility."
The teenager stood frozen in place.
When he was little, this man stood tall and proud in his heart like a superhero.
Yet as he grew older, he began to look down on this spineless middle-aged man, looking down on a salary of just a few thousand yuan a month, looking down on his flat, uneventful life.
Yet.
At this very moment, the man's figure suddenly towered once more, just like the superhero from his childhood!
The light shining in that man's eyes was something the teenager had never seen before.
The teenager stared blankly at the middle-aged man, his eye rims turning slightly red.
It was also at this moment that he realized this steady, mountain-like middle-aged man had once possessed a burning passion; this spineless middle-aged man he looked down upon had once been a youth just like him!
Radiating brilliance, full of bold and uninhibited spirit!
With a heart ablaze with fierce, scorching passion!
Yet why had he never noticed it before... Oh, that's right, it was for the sake of his family and for him that the man had hidden his sharp edge. But now...
The middle-aged man scratched his head. "You child, why are you looking at me like that?"
"It's nothing..." The teenager stammered, changing the subject. "Then what about Mom..."
"Don't worry, she agreed." The middle-aged man smiled, his sturdy hand patting the teenager's still somewhat youthful shoulder. "From now on, the two of us men will protect her together, and protect this family."
Looking at the middle-aged man before him, the teenager clenched his fists and nodded. "Yeah!"
The two of them, one tall and one short, walked toward the registration point.
Behind them, a woman with reddened eyes took a deep breath. As if making a certain decision, she too slowly walked toward the registration point.
"Putt-putt-putt-putt-putt..."
A tractor billowing black smoke pulled up around the plaza, and a group of men with their trouser legs rolled up leaped down.
The leader was gripping a hoe in his hand and pointed toward the registration desk. "Fellow villagers, right here!"
"Swish!"
A crowd of burly men charged straight toward the registration desk. One of them, still feeling unsure, asked someone already in line, "Little brother, is this the registration point?"
"Yes... You guys came as a group?" The middle-aged man looked at the burly fellows in front of him with a stunned expression.
He had genuinely never seen such a scene before.
"What's wrong, are we not allowed to sign up?" The burly man scratched his head. "I've got plenty of strength, and I know masonry too. How come I can't do my bit for the country?"
These ordinary people of society—they might lack high educational degrees or great wealth.
Yet.
When crisis and hardship struck, they would always be the first batch of people to stand up!
They might not know much, nor understand grand theories, but they knew they were the sons and daughters of Daxia, and that standing behind them was five thousand years of magnificent Daxia!
They might never have read foreign classics, but there was a saying in Daxia that even a three-year-old could recite with ease:
When the realm is in peril, every ordinary citizen has a responsibility!
What is an ordinary citizen?
Before the five millennia of Daxia, before the staggering population of 1.6 billion, everyone is an ordinary citizen!
Yet it was precisely these ordinary citizens who formed Daxia!
Those 1.6 billion patriotic hearts wrote the rise of Daxia!
National Chairman Zhang Maocai was hailed as the soul of Daxia, but were these 1.6 billion citizens swearing to protect Daxia with their lives not also the soul of Daxia?
Scene after scene of these unassuming stories played out across the entire plaza.
The three streets surrounding the plaza were completely jammed with traffic. Some people couldn't even wait to drive through; they simply leaped out of their cars and ran over, panting heavily.
Beneath the red flag.
All thirty-two registration points were completely swamped!
Some of the queues even stretched two streets away.
"Attention everyone, attention everyone, minors are not allowed to participate..."
The female soldier in military uniform in charge of shouting through the megaphone spoke loudly: "Minors are not allowed to participate! Get back to your classes, all of you! Only those between eighteen and forty-five are allowed to join!"
The enthusiasm of the crowd was simply too overwhelming; even though the authorities had already slightly relaxed the age restrictions, there were still many underage people demanding to sign up.
Some said that the post-2000 generation was a lost generation.
Yet.
When danger truly arrived, teenagers burning with fierce, scorching passion became the greatest hope!
"Why aren't you letting us join the army!" A group of sixteen- and seventeen-year-old boys looked up at the stage indignantly. "We want to contribute to Daxia too! Why are you erasing our patriotic right just because we're a few years younger?"
"That's right, we want to fight for our country too!"
"Big sister, can't you make an exception..."
The young woman in military uniform felt somewhat helpless, though she couldn't really be angry. She could only smile and scold them: "You kids, your bones haven't even finished growing yet. Your task right now is to study hard and build up your skills."
"Only when you grow up can you better contribute to Daxia!"
"Daxia doesn't want children like you to face danger. Unless every single one of us falls in battle, we will never let children onto the battlefield!"
"Alright, hurry back to your studies, work hard to become stronger, Daxia will wait for you to grow up, and big sister will wait for you in the military camp!"
"Big sister, you're not lying to us, are you?" a boy called out.
Seeing the slightly wavering gazes of this group of passionate youths, the young soldier immediately saluted, her tone solemn: "I swear on my status as a soldier, once you reach adulthood, as long as you still want to sign up, you can look for big sister!"
"However, you aren't allowed to just think about playing all day long, you hear?" the young woman warned. "Soldiers of Daxia cannot be softlings with weak wills! And studying is your battlefield—you are not allowed to desert!"
"Huh? We still have to study hard..." A boy immediately groaned.
After all, disliking dry and boring studies was the nature of playful teenagers.
"Enlisting in the military is far more dangerous than studying. Your current battlefield isn't nearly as terrifying as a real battlefield." The young woman said every word with distinct emphasis: "If you can't even face English vocabulary and math problems, how can you expect to face even more terrifying enemies?"
"Big sister, I get it! It's a deal!" the lead boy said loudly.
With that, the youths turned and walked away, for the first time feeling that the backpacks on their shoulders were heavy, just like a soldier's rifle.
"Number Two, I'll come over to your place to do homework later. I have some math problems I don't get, so I can ask you."
"Xiaolin, see you at the library later!"
"Alright, see you at the library!"
The shouts of the youths rang out clearly.
The young woman watched that vibrant, energetic group of teenagers and muttered under her breath, "It's a deal!"
In her eyes, fighting spirit soared.
From this point on, no matter what kind of danger appeared.
As a soldier, she would guard these flowers that had yet to bloom!
Because there was still a promise left unfulfilled.
Chapter 14: Mobilizing Fifty Million Troops, Shocking the Nations
Every individual in the plaza seemed insignificant.
Yet behind each of them lay a story.
And it was precisely these tens of millions of stories, combined together, that formed the story of Daxia!
It was precisely because of these stories that Daxia inspired so many people to rush forward to protect it.
Though the backgrounds of those eagerly registering varied, at this moment, casting aside social status, wealth, and money, they were left with only a single, shared identity.
Citizens of Daxia!
Bound to die for Daxia!
This video was only two minutes long.
Yet after watching it, whether it was Freedom Country President Puchuan or Kameda Country leader Kameda, none of them spoke.
This top-secret online conference fell into dead silence.
Although they had merely watched a video, the sea of people filling that plaza had still shaken them to their core.
Every individual clearly looked so ordinary, yet gathered together, they seemed to forge an indestructible will!
That fluttering red flag was dazzlingly harsh to the eye.
"I don't get it, I really don't get it." Puchuan rubbed the bridge of his nose. "How do Daxia's common folk have this kind of cohesion? Look at those ungrateful wretches in my Freedom Country—I kindly build a wall for them, and they curse me instead! I tell them to wear masks, and they claim we're restricting their freedom! Daxia calls for a draft out of nowhere, and those Daxia people scramble over themselves to sign up! Are we the ones who are abnormal, or have they lost their minds?"
"If you ask me, we should ship our Freedom Country people over to Daxia for some education!" The more Puchuan spoke, the angrier he grew, jabbing his finger at the table as he cursed.
"No wonder our predecessors failed back then." Kameda Country leader Kameda stroked his mustache, his brow deeply furrowed. "That kind of light in their eyes... it's terrifying!"
"It's not the same," Great Britain National Chairman John pondered. "I've studied Daxia. They possess a five-thousand-year history, and they are all descendants of Yan and Huang born from a single ancestry."
"Furthermore, countless poets and scholars have extolled the patriotic sentiment, and even martial arts novels write about how the greatest heroes of chivalry dedicate themselves to the country and the people."
"Therefore, their cohesion is simply not something we can match. They are a nation with a deep sense of identity!"
The moment his voice fell, the middle-aged man in the corner of the video window slammed his hand onto the table: "You're wrong! Clearly, we are the ones with a five-thousand-year history, and those Daxia people are just plagiarizing our history!"
"My Cosmos Country is the center of the universe and holds a five-thousand-year history! Traditional medicine is ours, Chinese characters are ours, Qu Yuan is ours, and even Confucius is ours..."
Before he could finish, Great Britain National Chairman John wore an expression of utter helplessness.
Puchuan frowned, offering a casual, perfunctory pacification: "Right, right, right, you are the center of the universe. Don't say a five-thousand-year history is yours; the entire Blue Star, the entire universe belongs to you..."
With that, Puchuan flicked his chubby hand and booted the Cosmos Country middle-aged man out of the video conference.
"Who was that just now?" Great Britain National Chairman John asked with some dissatisfaction. "In the future, low-grade little countries shouldn't be allowed into meetings like this. It's not that they aren't worthy of communicating with us, it's just... what's the point of calling in a country smaller than a single province in Daxia?"
"Ahem, let's get back to business." Kameda Country leader Kameda gave a light cough.
"Therefore, that video requires our serious attention." Great Britain National Chairman John frowned. "Word is that right now, the plazas in every single province and city in Daxia look just like that video. Those Daxia people are rushing to sign up like madmen..."
"What?" Puchuan wore an incredulous expression. "Every single one? Are you saying... Daxia is really going to mobilize fifty million troops?!"
Great Britain National Chairman John nodded. "Probably even more! According to our projections, this number will be exceeded!"
For a moment.
The conference fell into silence once again.
Mobilizing fifty million troops!
What kind of country was this, exactly?
"Have... have the people of Daxia gone mad?" Puchuan angrily tapped the table. "Are they really going to go to war with us?"
"Fifty million..."
Even the leaders of the various Western powers present felt incomparably shocked upon hearing this figure!
Fifty million—what concept was that?
It was practically the entire total population of Great Britain!
And this was just Daxia's recruitment drive over seven days!
A casual military mobilization conjured up a number equivalent to the total population of an entire nation—wasn't that terrifying as hell?
At this moment, these leaders of the Western nations all felt an indescribable fear gripping them.
As though.
A giant dragon was awakening.
A dormant male lion was lifting its spine and roaring across the mountains and forests!
"No! Impossible!"
A voice suddenly shattered the stillness.
The leader of the White Elephant Country, Ah San, pounded the table. "Daxia's population may be large, but our population is even bigger than theirs!"
"We even dare to drink cow urine—do they dare?"
"We dare ride motorcycles to perform acrobatics on the battlefield—do they dare?"
Puchuan paused. "What are you talking about this for?"
"Gentlemen, don't misunderstand, I'm not showing off anything," White Elephant Country leader Ah San said proudly. "I'm just trying to say."
"Even we couldn't pull off this kind of military mobilization, so how could they possibly do it?"
"If you ask me, Daxia is definitely just bragging this time, just like when they previously boasted about building a hospital in ten days and paving a highway in two months!"
"Therefore, we have absolutely no need to be afraid!"
Puchuan fell silent for a moment and flicked his little finger.
"Prompt: White Elephant Country leader Ah San has been forcibly disconnected from this meeting."
"Please excuse the embarrassment, everyone." Puchuan sighed. "Never imagined drinking cow urine could build up self-confidence... Truly miraculous."
"Let's continue with business." Puchuan said slowly.
"To sum it up," Great Britain National Chairman John said in a deep voice, "Daxia is serious this time."
"Therefore, we must stop them!"
"We've already dispatched diplomats to inquire about this matter." Great Britain National Chairman John said solemnly. "This time, no matter how much Daxia tries to evade us, we must force them to reveal why they are mobilizing! Are they preparing for war?"
"And then sanction them through international public opinion!"
"Mhm!" Puchuan nodded, looking toward the leaders of the other Western powers: "Do you all agree?"
"Agreed!"
"We must expose Daxia's conspiracy!"
"They are definitely mobilizing fifty million troops in order to wage war against us!"
"Stop them!"
"Fine." Puchuan waved his hand. "Since that's the case, let our diplomats unite, seize upon this point of why they are mobilizing, and force them to state the purpose of their mobilization!"
"Daxia's side has already prepared a press conference, starting in ten minutes. Now, hurry up and contact your respective dispatched diplomats!"
"We are going to expose Daxia's ambition!"
Chapter 15: Press Conference Dominance
Daxia's mobilization of fifty million troops not only drew the attention of various high-level authorities.
It also sparked an explosion of public opinion across the global internet.
Ever since Daxia officially announced the mobilization of fifty million troops, almost everyone across the globe had been glued to their phones, tracking Daxia's latest news!
The sheer scale was simply too staggering!
Moreover, the upward trajectory of Daxia's rise in recent years was something everyone had witnessed with their own eyes!
Every move made by this impending soaring dragon would attract countless gazes, let alone a sensitive event like military mobilization—and an astonishing figure of fifty million at that!
Right now, on the foreign internet, underneath the video capturing the Daxia recruitment scene, post after post kept popping up.
"Omg, is Daxia serious about mobilizing fifty million?"
"It's starting already? If this were in our country, just the preparatory work would take a month."
"Hey, poster above, stop talking. We all know it takes Great Britain two years just to pave a hundred-meter highway, no need to flex."
"No, I don't believe it. My White Elephant Country has an even larger population and we couldn't pull this off... This must be Daxia bragging!"
"Cut it out, my cousin is in Daxia, and he just said these are real-time footage. Plazas in every city in Daxia are holding recruitment drives right now, and they're packed!"
"What on earth is Daxia trying to do? Are they going to start a war?"
"Don't panic, I've known this day would come for a long time and learned Chinese ages ago."
"Actually, thinking about it, it's not bad. Will we be able to ride 400km/h high-speed rail in the future too?"
"Right, right, everything on Taobao has free shipping domestically in Daxia... Can our Zhen Dao get free shipping in the future too?"
"Speaking of which, isn't Daxia afraid of panicking other countries?"
"Panic? Haven't you noticed a historical pattern—whenever a country begins to rise, the world order gets reshuffled... With Daxia developing to this stage, it's about time..."
On the international internet, opinions varied wildly.
Some were terrified, some skeptical, some expectant.
Yet.
The next moment, another piece of news swept across the web!
[The Daxia official has released a statement: in ten minutes, at the Highest Diplomatic Reception Center, a briefing will be held to respond to this mobilization.]
[This briefing will be broadcast globally]!
In an instant, all the international netizens who had been eating melons eagerly opened the links, waiting for the briefing to begin!
Meanwhile.
Inside the country, where the bustling registration work was underway.
Every TV station, mobile phone, and livestream program popped up with text notifications.
"Ten minutes from now, our country will hold a press conference to explain this military mobilization and Daxia's recent developments, answering the doubts of our citizens and other nations."
"Please tune in."
At this moment, citizens everywhere logged into the livestream channels, preparing to witness this broadcast with their own eyes.