Aunt Qiu gave birth to three sons in her life: the eldest Jiang Zhicheng, the second Jiang Zhiqing, and the third Jiang Zhiyuan.

It is true that a mother loves all her children, but she usually devotes the most energy to the first one.

It would be fine if the eldest brother was just mediocre, but Jiang Zhicheng was a rare and brilliant person among the Jiang and Qiu families for generations.

Uncle Qiu's family used to live in a military compound, and Jiang Zhicheng was the king of the children in the compound at that time.

This kid has been smart since he was young, and he is born with a leadership temperament. People always listen to him. Even many children in the compound who are older than him are willing to listen to his orders.

He is loyal and responsible. Although he does a lot of mischievous things, it never affects his academic performance.

Among the schools for children of military personnel, it has always been among the best.

They are the real other people's children in the eyes of all parents.

However, Jiang Zhicheng's natural personal charm prevented him from becoming the public enemy of the children in the compound under such circumstances.

On the contrary, because of his excellence, he gained a large group of followers.

This was once Aunt Qiu's pride and her headache.

The same is true for Uncle Qiu. Every time he sees Jiang Zhicheng being naughty, he scolds him, but in his heart he can't help but feel proud of having such a smart and outstanding son.

Maybe families in the military are different from ordinary families. They don’t particularly value academic performance for boys, but instead pay more attention to brain and physical fitness.

With the natural advantage of Uncle Qiu, Jiang Zhicheng naturally followed his father's path when he turned sixteen.

He joined the army.

In order to avoid being accused of taking advantage of his father, Jiang Zhicheng did not choose the Beijing Military Region where Uncle Qiu was, but chose the Southwest Military Region.

He wanted to go to the border of his motherland and fight to protect the land where he was born and raised.

As soon as Jiang Zhicheng joined the army, it was like a fish entering the sea.

Soon, due to his outstanding performance among the new recruits, he was promoted to squad leader.

Because of his strong personal ability and organizational and management skills, he was later promoted to platoon leader, company commander, and battalion commander.

Jiang Zhicheng is the first and only soldier in the Southwest Military Region who was promoted from an ordinary recruit to a battalion commander in just five years.

He was awarded the second-class merit several times for his outstanding performance in several battles, and even the first-class merit twice.

When Jiang Zhicheng was 25 years old, he was ordered to lead a four-person team to carry out a cross-border mission, and he never returned since then.

In the end, only one person from the four-man team was rescued.

At that time, he was covered in wounds and unconscious, and after a period of rescue, he still could not be saved.

Not to mention the various toxins in the body, even the skin and flesh on the body are not intact.

After extensive investigations, it turned out that there was a traitor within our army who revealed the whereabouts of Jiang Zhicheng and several others, causing the four-member team to be captured by the enemy army that had been waiting for a long time as soon as they crossed the border.

They also greatly admired Jiang Zhicheng's personal abilities, but after repeated attempts to persuade and brainwash him failed, they finally decided to torture him.

At first, he just wanted to wear down his will and use him for his own purposes. Later, he found that this man was really tough, and in order to avoid letting the tiger go back to the mountain, he decided to kill him.

It is said that Jiang Zhiyuan's tendons in his hands and feet were severed, and his body was covered with burns and whip marks.

One of the enemy soldiers had suffered a great loss at the hands of Jiang Zhicheng in his earlier years, so when he got the chance, he planned to imitate ancient punishments.

Various tortures were used one after another. After torturing Jiang Zhicheng to the point of being on the verge of death, he was personally subjected to lingchi (slicing) by a knife.

Lingchi was one of the most cruel punishments in ancient times.

Lingchi requires a total of 3357 cuts. The last cut must kill the person to be considered successful, and the prisoner is not allowed to die in the previous 3356 cuts.

This was the first time for this man to perform lingchi on someone, so his technique was not very skilled. Sometimes he would repeatedly cut the same spot to intentionally torture someone.

Jiang Zhicheng was such a determined man that he persevered until the end before dying.

After Jiang Zhicheng died, the man threw the bones with blood and flesh hanging from them, along with the skin and flesh that had been cut off, into the crocodile pond.

Jiang Zhicheng died in a very tragic way, and his body was almost completely gone.

Because Uncle Qiu was also a soldier, the information he found out was not hidden from him. After hearing about his son's death, this strong man couldn't help crying out loud.

However, due to the circumstances at the time, the news of Jiang Zhicheng's death could not be made public.

So no matter how heartbroken Aunt Qiu and Uncle Qiu were, they had to pretend to be completely unaware and continue their work and life as usual.

But Aunt Qiu couldn't sleep every night because of the heartache. As soon as she closed her eyes, she seemed to see Ah Cheng covered in blood, crying and saying to her, "Mom, it hurts."

Her son, such an outstanding and filial son, how painful it must be when his flesh and blood are cut off by a knife!

Aunt Qiu was tortured by the pain in her heart day after day, and later the pain in her heart became a serious illness.

It was not until two years later that Jiang Zhicheng's death was finally announced, and his cenotaph was moved to the Martyrs' Cemetery, but the external explanation was that he died in the line of duty.

So neither the Qiu family nor Jiang Zhicheng’s two younger brothers knew that their eldest brother had actually died two years earlier.

A few years later, the confidentiality period of the mission Jiang Zhicheng had carried out that year expired, and the news became known to more people. Everyone admired him very much.

The army also gave a large pension, posthumously awarded Jiang Zhicheng a medal, and returned all his military medals.

But none of these could make up for Aunt Qiu's heartache after losing her son. She would rather not have these material possessions. What use were these fame and fortunes to her? She just wanted her son to come back to life and call her again, "Mom, I'm back!"

Before Jiang Zhiqing joined the army, Aunt Qiu didn't want to agree. She was afraid that one day she would also receive the news of her second son's death.

But Jiang Zhiqing took out a letter, which was the last letter Ah Cheng sent from the army before his death.

He said:

"I am also an ordinary person. I am afraid of death too."

"But some things have to be done by someone."

"If it's not me, it will be someone else."

Looking at the familiar handwriting on the paper, Aunt Qiu couldn't help but took it and burst into tears. This was her son, her son who valued national justice more than anything else!

Oh God, how could you bear to let such a person suffer and die?

Whenever Aunt Qiu thought of the torture Jiang Zhicheng suffered before his death, she felt so heartbroken that she couldn't breathe.

Later, Jiang Zhicheng became a taboo in the Jiang family.

Aunt Qiu didn't allow anyone to mention anything about him anymore. She was the only one who would reminisce about him alone at night.