That night, friendly troops broke through the U.S. defenses from three directions and entered Berlik, with tens of thousands of troops pouring into the city. The national flag hoisted in front of the city hall was wet by the rain and made a rattling sound.

Before dawn the next day, the troops began to sweep the city and occupied the city of Belik by noon.

Kang Mingwei's unit moved directly into the University of California, Berkeley - the place was empty, and the soldiers lit fires everywhere to dry their clothes and slept around the fire on the classroom floor.

After a short rest, all the surviving soldiers of the company lined up to bid farewell to the remains of Captain Zhen and his comrades. Gudean lit a fire on the woodpile. After burning for several hours, he finally burned their remains into ashes. Then he picked up the remains with homemade chopsticks and put them in cloth, stuffed the cloth into a tinplate ammunition box, and then wrapped it with white cotton cloth. He placed the box in the library hall and hung their identity tags on it. Soon, these urns will be sent to the rear and then transported back to their hometowns by water. Some people found olive oil and lit a perpetual lamp in front of the ashes. Those who didn't get oil lit a cigarette and stood it in front of the urn as incense.

When night fell, the soldiers were resting in the reading room that served as the barracks. While his comrades were resting, Kang Mingwei, who had just been promoted to warrant officer, walked into the library, and then he silently put the books scattered on the ground back on the bookshelf.

Kang Mingwei picked up a book and looked at the title of "War and Peace", which is a famous Russian novel. Kang Mingwei also has a Chinese translation of the novel at home. The author of this book, Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, won the Emperor Shengde Literature Award six years ago with this novel. In the past few years, Tolstoy has been traveling around the empire.

Looking at the book in his hand, Kang Mingwei sighed. When he opened the book, he saw the seal of "University of California, Berkeley".

“If there had been no war, perhaps students would be studying here now.”

While Kang Mingwei was talking to himself, Li Hongan came over.

"Sir, are you reading a book?"

After looking at the director, Kang Mingwei shook his head, then looked at the book on the ground and said.

"I want to clean this place up. After all, after the war is over, people still have to go to school. This is a university... This is a library. We are not barbarians."

What is the difference between barbarism and civilization?

It's nothing more than how to treat words. Sometimes it's just as simple to find other solutions, just like the Qing Dynasty's literary inquisition, which destroyed Chinese civilization. It was barbaric. The Shanghai Massacre can be explained by atrocities in war, but the literary inquisition...

If this isn't barbarism, then what is?

"What the sir said is very true."

After that, Li Hongan picked up the books scattered on the ground and shouted to his comrades who were resting and chatting.

"Brothers, come and help us. Don't let people say that the imperial soldiers are a bunch of barbarians who don't know how to protect books!"

After that, Li Hongan bent down and picked up the books. Other comrades also joined in. It only took more than ten minutes for the originally messy library to be tidy again. When sorting the books, some soldiers even found a lot of Chinese works in them. Although many of them were scientific journals, there were also novels of the Empire. After all, after all these years of hard work, Chinese, like German, has long become a language for spreading science. Chinese has long become a compulsory course in many foreign schools. After all, many scientific works are published in Chinese.

The soldiers who were originally chatting there picked up their books and began to read on the desks. Soon the library became quiet, and the soldiers seemed to have returned to school again. Of course, some people did not find the books that interested them, so they gathered around the campfire outside and chatted there.

Itaro, who had just been promoted to acting platoon leader, was sitting around a fire with several soldiers in the platoon. Because his boots were being warmed by the fire, he sat there barefoot and casually, swearing.

"The skin on the back of my feet is so thick again. I really should take a hot bath and soak my feet."

Chen Lei noticed that he was wearing a gold ring on the ring finger of his left hand and asked.

"Sir, what is that?"

"What? This? Is this even a question?"

Bantaro grinned, then raised the hand of another soldier beside him and let Chen Lei see.

"This kid is wearing it too."

"Where did you get it?"

"Well, this was given to me by the Americans during the previous battle."

The soldier rushed forward.

"I traded it for bullets, Taozi, right?"

"That's what happened."

Li Tao nodded in response.

"I said no and refused, but the American insisted that I accept it no matter what. I couldn't refuse such kindness, so I had to accept it."

It seems that all Americans have to wear rings after getting married. Although there is such a custom in the empire, men often don’t like to wear rings. But Americans wear them every day. They are all made of gold and the workmanship is very delicate. Some rings are even engraved with their names and their lovers’ names.

Chen Lei looked at the rings on his comrades' hands and said with a smile.

“I want to make one as a souvenir, too!”

This made Li Tao excited and he shouted.

"No problem, Squad Leader Chen, next time we clean up the battlefield, you will definitely meet an American who will offer it to you. When the time comes, it will be hard to refuse such kindness, Squad Leader Chen, you must accept it. Haha..."

While his comrades were chatting, Kang Mingwei sat in the library reading a book. While flipping through the novel, he found it difficult to calm down, as all he could think about was going home.

The battalion commander has confirmed his battlefield promotion and has reported it to the regiment. After the regiment reports to the division headquarters for approval, he can return to the country to receive training at the military academy. This is the only way for non-commissioned officers to be promoted to officers.

However, for Kang Mingwei, what really attracted him was not the future promotion in the army, but returning to China!

Return home!

This means that they can go home. At least before reporting to the military academy, the army will definitely give them enough time to go home and see their families.

"After we take San Francisco, we can almost catch the ship back home."

For soldiers fighting in a foreign country, there is nothing more joyful than going home. Even if they just stay at home for a few days, or even just see their family from afar, it is enough to make them excited.

Thinking that he would be able to see his wife and children soon, Kang Mingwei could even hear his heart beating excitedly. In his excitement, he once again picked up the photos of his wife and children, and gently stroked them with his fingers. He looked a little excited...

Soon, I will be able to go home!