After that, Zhao Chen's Eighteenth Squadron went back to fighting as usual.
That is, in flights of thirty.
Fighting as one great flight, as before, had been specially approved on request.
No one would grant such a privilege every time.
Even so, when the Eighteenth Squadron's various flights happened to be in the same combat zone.
They would form a cooperating formation as a matter of course.
For which Zhao Chen had earlier worked out flight groupings suited to various numbers of fighters.
And crammed his veterans on them besides.
And with the experience of that first action behind them, the fresh recruits no longer feared the fight.
In the actions that followed.
Zhao Chen's Eighteenth Squadron could not be called the finest, but every sortie came back with the highest survival rate.
Indeed, it became famous among all the groups aboard the mother ship.
So that when replacement pilots came in, unlike the earlier recruits who longed to join a regular squadron.
The Third Group's Eighteenth Squadron became the one everyone hoped to join.
In other units they might win more chances at merit.
But in the Eighteenth Squadron they had a better chance of living.
Set against merit, most people naturally preferred to live.
……
The Third Group's weekly meeting.
Every squadron leader came in person.
The Third Group now had an establishment of twenty-three squadrons, the extra thirteen being temporary.
The leaders of those temporary squadrons generally had the least standing at such meetings,
and sat in the outer ring around the table.
But this time was different.
A chair had been added at the table itself.
"Little Zhao, you're here. Sit here." Seeing Zhao Chen come, Lieutenant Zhang at once waved him to the place beside him.
Zhao Chen hesitated and looked around.
"It's all right; the group leader arranged it especially. You sit here." Lieutenant Zhang rose and even pulled out the chair for Zhao Chen.
The other leaders gave Zhao Chen friendly smiles too.
These leaders might look down on the leaders of temporary squadrons.
But their attitude to Zhao Chen was another matter.
For the Eighteenth Squadron's results were there for all to see!
Here, to be respected, one had to have results enough.
Soon everyone was present.
Group Leader Cao Zhenlong was the last to arrive.
As he came to the head of the table.
Every leader in the room stood.
"Sit down."
Only with Group Leader Cao Zhenlong's leave did they sit.
"This is the fifth meeting our Third Group has held since this battle began. First, let us observe a silence for the two thousand four hundred and thirty-two comrades our Third Group has lost these past twenty-eight days."
Group Leader Cao Zhenlong took off his cap and bowed his head slightly.
The other leaders bowed their heads in silence too.
Among fighter units there is a saying.
That a month's fighting will leave a unit 'made new', meaning that the dead will nearly match the unit's original establishment.
And this time the Third Group's losses were, one may say, the lightest of any campaign yet.
And everyone knew very well who the chief reason for that was.
"First I have several pieces of good news to announce. Before I do, I want to praise especially the excellent showing of the Eighteenth Squadron under Squadron Leader Zhao Chen in this period. It is a wartime squadron raised temporarily, and even so. Under Squadron Leader Zhao Chen's command, the Eighteenth Squadron's record has reached the level of ten regular combat squadrons. And surpassed no few of them! And has added a heavy stroke to our Third Group's record!"
Everyone looked at Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen sat there, nothing showing on his face.
"One of the good pieces of news I mentioned is this. For Squadron Leader Zhao Chen's outstanding showing. He is hereby granted the rank of second lieutenant!"
At this arrangement,
everyone present looked at Zhao Chen with envy.
In little over a month,
he had gone from master sergeant to second lieutenant.
Even among fighter pilots, who rise fast, that was rare.
And this battle was not over.
Zhao Chen had more chances at merit.
Those promoted in the course of a campaign like this generally showed so well that another promotion would follow at the campaign's end.
Some reckoned that when this campaign ended.
Zhao Chen might well be a captain.
And might then be given a group leader's post outright!
With promotion at such a rate, how could anyone not envy him?
After that, Group Leader Cao Zhenlong announced some other rewards.
And with the good said, the bad naturally had to be said too.
That meant criticizing some squadrons whose showing in the fighting had not been good.
He even removed one wartime squadron's leader outright, for grave faults in his command that had cost that squadron nearly nine in ten!
Rewards and punishments done.
By the usual order of things, next came the coming week's combat tasks, and reminders of points to watch.
But Zhao Chen sensed something not quite right in Cao Zhenlong's face.
Cao Zhenlong tapped his fingers on the table.
"Next, I have a classified mission to give out. But its content I will not tell you; only at a certain point before the fighting will I tell you. For the next three to five days, none of your squadrons will have any combat task. In that time a batch of replacements will come in. This is our only replacement before the classified mission. And each squadron may take on over 30% in replacements. Then, in the three to five days left, you are to get your veterans and recruits working together and fighting together. And restore the strength they have spent in this period. To be ready for our classified mission. Further. In twenty-four hours all our outward communication software will be locked. Remember the regulations for a classified mission. Anyone who defies them. Dies without mercy!"
Group Leader Cao Zhenlong's words were very severe.
"Yes!" everyone in the room answered.
Zhao Chen narrowed his eyes at Group Leader Cao Zhenlong.
A classified mission appearing at such a time was surely out of the ordinary.
What kind of classified mission could it be?
It needed three to five days' preparation beforehand.
Could it be that the true decisive battle was about to begin?