All of a sudden, a disturbing episode popped up.Even though Jiang Jianming insisted that he was really fine, Lai An's expression was still ugly.

"How about," Old Marshal Chen rubbed his chin, "I'll ask someone to send Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess to the General Hospital for a rest and another examination?"

Jiang Jianming smiled in surprise: "No, no, why are you so exaggerated?"

The old marshal: "His Royal Highness Lai An, stay and listen to me when I finish speaking. It will be the same when I go back and tell the princess."

Whether this matter is big or small.However, the Military General Hospital is next door, and the trip back and forth was quick. The old marshal called the guards outside and sent Jiang Jianming out.

Lai An was worried about Jiang Jianming now, and immediately grabbed the umbrella and wanted to follow. Marshal Chen called him from behind: "Your Highness, please stay."

Lai An: "I'll send him there and come back, you wait—"

Before the words fell, he was startled suddenly.The rain clouds outside the window were dark and heavy, and the old marshal had deep eyes and sat still.

Lai An and Marshal Chen looked at each other for a long time, their eyes gradually turned cold, "Are you deliberately dismissing him?"

Anger flashed across his face, "You did it to drive him away...!!"

Old Marshal Chen sighed and shook his head, "Oh, Your Highness, this is your fault."

The old man patted himself on the chest: "The lower official's newsletter was clearly sent to the crown prince's wrist phone, and he urged His Highness to keep it secret, but you brought His Highness Jiang here directly. Isn't this embarrassing the old man?"

Lai An suddenly didn't even bother to say anything, turned around and left the door with a cold face.

There was only the sound of rain in the corridor, and there was no Jinrilun patrolling. The light blue high-tech rain screen film above the head blocked the howling wind and rain.

Old Marshal Chen followed, and the two of them walked under the rain screen film one after the other.A few steps away, the aircraft was parked, which was the means of transportation used by Lai An and Jiang Jianming when they came over.

"We already know that the consciousness of crystal particles is common, Your Highness."

Old Marshal Chen continued unhurriedly, although Lai An has ignored him, "If human consciousness can contaminate one crystal particle, it can infect a large number of crystal particles; if it can directly destroy the consciousness of the mother nucleus,It can even win with one blow, more useful than to catch brigands, first catch their king."

"At the material level, we already have curing rays and tranquilizers. The former can inactivate crystal particles, and the latter directly deprives crystal particles of life. This is a weapon developed by humans to fight against crystal particles."

Lai An walked to the aircraft, reached out to open the door, and paused slightly.

He heard Old Marshal Chen say from behind: "These are the two ways of fighting between spirit and matter, Your Highness. Now, have your questions been answered?"

The silence highlighted the sound of intense rain, the crown prince's emerald eyes were cold, and his fingers tightened on the door handle of the aircraft until his knuckles turned blue.

"...after the fifth holy battle."

After a long time, Leian Keos slowly lowered his eyebrows, and he said, "The omen of the crystal chaos tide disappeared, and the price was 200,000 gold suns who went to the crystal nest and never came back. This is the answer."

Chen Hanke also turned his head to look towards the sky, and sighed: "Wrong, there has never been a fifth holy battle, my highness."

Across the rainy sky of Aslan Star City and thousands of miles away from the Milky Way, even if the old man who commanded the empire's military aircraft looked up, he couldn't see the appearance of the crystal nest.

Marshal Chen said: "After the fourth holy battle, the emperor planned a counterattack against Crystal Nest. This top-secret plan is only known to a few people, and it has been given a special name."

"The White Bird Project."

...

At the very beginning, the Black Shark base tried to use the mecha equipped with a highly intelligent brain to remotely inject tranquilizers into the crystal nest.

But the attempts all failed.The crystal particle core has a strong sense of defense. It will manipulate alien creatures to besiege the intruders, making it difficult for mecha starships to approach.

So the soldiers can only die in person.

They carried special high-purity tranquilizer weapons, which they fired into the nests like bullets.

What they will face is the frantic attack of the crystal nest. With the human power so far, the survival rate is absolutely zero.

When the weapons are exhausted, the bomb that kills with the last blow is the unyielding will.Let the body be swallowed by the crystal nest, and the spirit turn into an arrow that pierces into the depths of the crystal nest, until even self-consciousness is swallowed by the crystal particles, ushering in real death.

Once you leave the land of the empire, you can never return to your hometown.

Destined to be buried in the sea of stars, even shrouding a corpse in horse leather is still an extravagant hope.

Commander Aslan died young, and died before he knew the truth about the crystal particles.

However, in the dark, that solemn and solemn sacrificial oration has become a true portrayal of countless human martyrs who have devoted themselves to racial wars for nearly fifty years.

On the bright side, the Fifth Sacred Battle was a complete defeat, ending with the complete annihilation of 200,000 imperial elites, and it became one of the most embarrassing stains in Emperor Kaios' life.

Secretly, the first White Bird Expedition was a heroic and disastrous victory. It was the first shot fired by human beings in the face of crystal particles.Those sacrificed lives successfully delayed the arrival of the 'ultimate'.

Since then, every time Yin Beidou made an expedition to Crystal Nest, he never returned, and every time he was scolded: wasting people and money, stupid and stubborn... meaningless.

To this day, few people in the empire know what the legendary founder of the country, those soldiers who should have a bright future, shed blood and died resolutely for what.

Lai An was silent for a long time, with mixed emotions flowing from his eyes.

Finally, His Highness kicked the door of the aircraft with the toe of his boot, and turned his head in displeasure: "Why don't you let Jiang Jianming listen to this? Do you want to say something to me alone?"

Footsteps sounded, and it was Marshal Chen who walked slowly to the side of the crown prince.

"It was too difficult, Your Highness," the old man sighed sullenly, "this battle was fought too hard. Fifty-two years have passed since the first White Bird Expedition. As you can see, no matter how you look at it,The old methods are no longer sustainable.”

"The Golden Sun Wheel used to be a golden shield that was known as the Silver Beidou, but the first White Bird Expedition took away a full 200,000 elites, and everyone inside may be the future general of the empire. Since then, the Golden RidgeAfter a fall, even dandies from aristocratic families can sneak in to steal military pay."

"Isn't it difficult for the Silver Beidou? One expedition after another, one death after another. The Black Shark Base has made speculations based on the current data. When the White Bird Project is carried out to the end, even if it is positively estimated, human beings are not far from extinction."

Lai An snorted coldly: "Isn't this because you have been hiding it? The expedition to save the nation is like stealing chickens and dogs, what can be done."

They stood on the edge of the rainscreen membrane, and occasionally, the rain blown by the strong wind brushed against their faces.The cane of the old marshal happened to be at the place where it was just hit by the rain, and the original black was also dyed deeper.

Chen Hanke stared at his cane, "So we have to change, but regarding the next choice, His Majesty and I had some disagreements. I would like to take the liberty to ask His Majesty first."

"I mean? That's easy."

"First," the crown prince said with deep eyes, "publicize the true face of Crystal Cult, and first recruit the Space Pirates to solve your worries. If you can't recruit them, beat them until they serve you."

When he spoke, his tone was very calm, but his articulation was firm, so he showed a bit of unquestionable power.

"Second, it is very simple to disclose the truth to the public, enter a wartime state, and recruit soldiers, manufacture weapons, and mobilize supplies throughout the empire; give the base the same privileges, and step up the development of things that should be developed."

"Third, reorganize the Jinrilun Yinbeidou and other imperial legions, go all out to conquer the crystal nest, and kill the crystal particle mother core... There should be no doubts about this."

It seems that in the mouth of His Royal Highness, everything has become "simple".Only here Lai An paused for a second, but quickly continued speaking.

"Those who are able to join the army should also go. The tranquilizer has been upgraded to the third generation, so it's worth a try."

Marshal Chen's expression changed a few times in the middle, but he finished listening quietly.

Then the old man's gray eyebrows moved, and he said slowly: "But Your Highness, regardless of how difficult social issues such as the public panic after the disclosure are. Judging from the current situation, if all mankind is really to be put into battle, it must be the elite, geniuses and heroes die first, and the resources will be exhausted."

"At that time, after decades or hundreds of years, even if the war is won, what will be left of human civilization?"

Lai An: "..."

The old man's hand fell on the shoulder of the young prince, and he patted twice: "Your Highness, do you still remember the two proposals submitted last year?"

"One is the so-called name change proposal, which hopes to cancel the discriminatory terms of 'new human being' and 'disabled human being', and change the names to 'human beings with crystals' and 'human beings without crystals'."

"The second is the proposal submitted by His Highness Jiang with the support of Xie Yuduo and you. In response to the shortage of military personnel in today's military, it is hoped to establish a mecha pilot unit and relax the restrictions on disabled people joining the army."

Old Marshal Chen's wrinkled eyes showed a little smile: "I withheld those two proposals."

Lai An gouged him out and said coolly, "I guessed it."

It was something that was to be handed over to the emperor. It had been repeated several times by the military, and there was no one else who had the power and the courage to withhold the proposal, except for His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief.

If it wasn't for Jiang Jianming's forbearance, he would have blown up the office of his "teacher" a long time ago.

Old Marshal Chen sighed with emotion, and marked the ground with his cane: "No matter what, the new humans are still stronger than the remnant humans, not to mention that we have been implanted with crystal particles so deeply, if half of the humans were to be sacrificed,Just… let’s do this.”

"……you?"

Lai An realized something and was slightly moved.

His eyes fell, and he saw that the black cane was stained with rain, and a word was written on the ground.

"So, there is no need to change the name."

The old marshal shook his head and said, but his eyes became sharper and sharper, "After the new humans are extinct, the disabled humans will no longer have the meaning of discrimination."

Putting away the cane, there was a word "remnant" on the ground.

Old Marshal Chen raised his head, his eyes were like steel that had just been tempered: "In the years to come, they will not be the disabled, but the surviving descendants of mankind."

Click!A cluster of red-gold true crystals pierced the ground, the stone slab was shattered, and the word "remnant" was also dismembered.

Lai An withdrew his hand with an angry face: "Nonsense! You want to directly sacrifice all new humans and save all disabled humans!?"

Old Marshal Chen smiled: "Yes, what I propose to His Majesty the Emperor is to imitate the great migration of the old empire and send all disabled humans to the starship to stay away from the empire."

"!" Lai An didn't hold his breath for a while, and took a short breath.I heard the opposite continue: "And all the new humans will be left here, and then tell them the truth and force them to fight with their backs. If successful, there is a great hope that the mother nucleus of crystal particles can be destroyed in one fell swoop."

Lightning flickered in the distance, and the thick clouds on the zenith were opaque to the sun, making the outline of the old man's face bright and dark, and it was a bit scary for a while.

Chen Hanke lowered his voice: "Your Highness, we are all going to die."

"But if we can raise our army as soon as possible, and win the victory before His Royal Highness Jiang's crystal chaos is late, even if it's just to severely damage the crystal particle core..."

"The development of Crystal Chaos will also be delayed or even disappear, and he will be able to survive, at least for a longer time."

"That's why I'm consulting with you alone."

"what do you think?"

Jiang Jianming stopped suddenly.

Raindrops fell from the edge of the black umbrella like a curtain, and he saw the golden roses of the White Emerald Palace. These flowers were being slammed by the wind and rain, spreading their rich fragrance farther.

When the hospital found that the doctors were procrastinating in every possible way, he figured it out and realized that the old marshal wanted to dismiss him.

How many times is this?He thought he had finally reached the stage of not to mince words, but he was silently pushed away like this.

Exhausted, he went straight back to the palace, but stopped here.

Jiang Jianming fixedly looked at the roses in front of him, and suddenly remembered that that day Ryan came to him with a rose pinned to his chest.

Say in front of the whole empire, I love you.

So, do you want to go on like this?

Just watching silently, waiting, looking up.

Obviously he has nothing to fear.Even though the strength is weak, but now someone is willing to pull him forward.

Jiang Jianming took a few steps forward, bent down and folded off the most delicate flower.

The golden rose of White Emerald Palace must be broken by the royal family, and this is the first time he has touched this beautiful flower with his own hands.

The thorns of the rose pricked the tender fingertips, Jiang Jianming didn't care, he straightened up, put the folded golden rose on his lips and kissed it lightly.

Then he shook the black umbrella, randomly put the rose in his left front breast pocket, turned around and walked back and forth.

After walking a few steps, Jiang Jianming was stunned.

"……His Majesty?"

Lin Song stood there, in the hazy rain, the empress's scarlet prosthetic eye became more and more vivid.

Ryan Keos remained silent.

He actually felt a little strange, why did he keep silent?

It was clear that Chen Hanke had already given an option, which was exactly what he had been thinking about day and night, almost obsessively longing for - to allow Jiang Jianming to live.

But he didn't have the slightest bit of ecstasy or excitement, he was feeling another wave of emotion rising up from the bottom of his heart.

He didn't know what it was or why.It doesn't make sense, he has always been like a lonely soul wandering in the world, only Jiang Jianming is the one that he cares about.

He later learned that this kind of care is love.He only loves this one person, and nothing else in the world matters except Jiang.

But if that's all, what is the resistance in my heart at this moment?

The young crown prince was suddenly in a trance for a moment. He remembered a rare day when he and Jiang Jianming were walking on the street. The air was cool and fresh, and they were stepping on scattered snow.

It was still winter at that time, and the relationship between the two had not yet been made public, only His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and Colonel Jiang.

He obviously wore a mask and deliberately lowered his voice when speaking, but his figure and demeanor were still recognizable.

It was a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl with brown-red curly hair and wearing a cloth skirt.

With her face blushing, she held a large bouquet of snow-white flowers and presented them to Her Royal Highness the Crown Prince whom she longed for.

Lai An pressed down the mask blankly, revealing a cold face that almost scared the girl to tears on the spot.

Of course, that's what he meant.But Jiang Jianming shook him helplessly, and after realizing that he couldn't shake a better expression, the future crown princess bent down and hugged the girl, thanking him softly.

——This is even worse behavior than touching your head.He glared angrily, but Jiang Jianming picked up the white bouquet and stuffed it into his arms without any explanation.

The girl blushed and ran away, and he held the bouquet stiffly.

Jiang Jianming first pursed his lips and smiled, and then complained in a low voice: "Your Highness, can you be a little more close to the people?"

He didn't understand, frowning and sullen: "Why?"

Jiang Jianming asked back: "Isn't this your empire?"

"Isn't this your people?"

"Of course, even if you are not the crown prince, it is more comfortable to be friendly with people than to be indifferent. It doesn't matter if you are not used to it, you can learn it slowly."

All other corners of the memory have faded.I just remember that when the breeze blew across that street, the young man had gentle brows, and his black eyes were clear and far-reaching.

And the bouquet of flowers in his arms has always been very fragrant, which is different from the fragrance of roses in the palace, and this is the first time he has smelled it.

He doesn't understand.

He didn't do those things with so much love and dedication to this country.

But think about it now, if that girl with brown-red curly hair and a cloth skirt who only met once.

Deceived by this empire, abandoned by the entire human civilization.

Being trampled on sincerity and innocence, being framed blankly in front of death, and then dying.

He also doesn't seem to be sad, tearful or heartbroken.

But he……

Suddenly, in just this second, the crown prince understood what the emotion was boiling in his chest.

On a peaceful evening, when he was cuddling with his beloved, Jiang Jianming once told him this emotion.And, sadly, it was the beginning of it all.

It is to raise one's arms and shout, to roar to shake the sky; to lay down millions of corpses, or to splatter three feet of blood.

it is

anger.

War doesn't have to start with anger.Those aggression and oppression, exploitation and mutilation may originate from greed, perhaps from tyranny, and sometimes even from survival pressure or racial instinct.

But struggles often start with anger.

...

Suddenly, the atmosphere in the rain suddenly changed.Chen Hanke, who was standing opposite the crown prince, had his pupils constricted, feeling a sense of crisis!

The walls on both sides were the first to explode, as well as the poor aircraft.Amidst the roar, rubble flew wildly, and the red gold crystal bone pierced through the smoke, and then was barely supported by another smoke-gray crystal bone!

The rain screen film was broken, and the heavy rain poured down, drenching the old marshal and the crown prince from head to toe.

"Ouch, Your Highness!"

Old Marshal Chen was stunned. He folded his arms in embarrassment and yelled, "If you don't agree, just kill me!? I haven't written this suicide note yet. I'm still a marshal. I just killed the military department."There will be trouble!!"

Lai An stared at the crystal bone on the old man's arm, and suddenly burst out laughing: "You blocked it."

"Why?" He smiled, flicking his long hair happily in the rain, and said provocatively, "Teacher, if according to your theory, you can't beat me anyway, why don't you let me cut off one of your arms to calm you down, at least you can save your life.Isn't it?"

Old Marshal Chen: "..."

The crown prince proudly narrowed his eyes, and the emerald green flames almost burned through them.

Thin lips twitched, and he said: "At the time of life and death, before fighting with all our strength, we first split up internally and begged for mercy... Throughout the ages, there has been no battle that can be won by doing so."

"Your plan..." Lai An said, "I don't agree."