Chapter 109: Feces Bombs

The Divine Machine Battalion was advancing toward Luolong County again, and this time Zhang Chao led ten Second Grade Martial Artists to scout the path ahead.

These ten Second Grade Martial Artists had all practiced hard-body techniques similar to the Golden Bell Shield; wearing heavy armor and circulating their internal arts with True Qi to protect their bodies, they could withstand even a landmine exploding near them.

Each of these ten Second Grade Martial Artists held a large wooden hammer, striking the ground every few paces, while Zhang Chao circulated his Heaven Ear skill to listen carefully for vibrations transmitted from underground, using this to determine if a Gunpowder Barrel was buried there.

Scouting this way could indeed discover things buried underground, but the pace of the advance was very slow, and constantly circulating their internal arts consumed a great deal of True Qi.

Zhang Chao was a Third-Grade High-Level Martial Artist with deep and thick True Qi, so he could keep going, but the ten Second Grade Martial Artists could not; they had to be swapped out after walking only a few hundred meters.

However, the soldiers of the Divine Machine Battalion were all elites, and even ordinary soldiers were at least First Grade Martial Artists; there were many experts within the entire Thousand-man Unit, so even with rotating scouts, they could pull out enough manpower.

The Divine Machine Battalion had moved forward three hundred meters when Zhang Chao's ears twitched, hearing a different sound from the ground ahead, and he shouted, "Stop!"

The ten scouting Second Grade Martial Artists all halted, and Zhang Chao said, "All of you retreat; I will clear the mine."

The ten Second Grade Martial Artists retreated quickly, while Zhang Chao held his Artifact Shield, his True Qi surging as he prepared to activate the shield at any moment to resist a mine explosion; he carefully walked forward a few steps, then used his hands to push aside the soil on the ground and dig downward.

Zhang Chao had just circulated his Heaven Ear skill and heard the vibration in this area, which was completely different from the sound of ordinary soil vibrating; it was definitely a buried Gunpowder Barrel.

"Haha, it really is a buried Gunpowder Barrel." Zhang Chao had great strength, his hands vigorous and powerful, and he quickly dug through the half-meter-thick layer of soil, discovering the wooden barrel buried beneath.

"Must prevent it from exploding." Zhang Chao knew the group of rebels now buried Gunpowder Barrels using incense sticks to ignite them; this wooden barrel was covered by a wooden board, and he, Zhang Chao, did not know how far the incense stick inside the barrel had burned.

Zhang Chao held the Artifact Shield in front of him with one hand, and with the other, he opened the lid of the Gunpowder Barrel with extreme caution.

"Huh! Why is there no incense stick?" Zhang Chao was stunned, then continued to open another layer of the lid; instantly, a foul stench rushed toward his face, and as he frowned and looked inside, he discovered that what was placed in this barrel was not just gunpowder at all, but a full barrel of feces.

In this wooden barrel, there was thick, viscous feces, sloshing urine, and some wriggling maggots; it was simply unbearable to look at, and one glance was enough to make a person want to vomit up their previous night's meal.

"Bastards! I'm going to kill you all. Once I break through Luolong County, I'll let you know my power and make you taste what it's like to wish you were dead." Zhang Chao was furious and cursed loudly; he knew that group of rebels must be hiding in the distance, watching his embarrassing situation.

Zhang Chao had been a soldier for over a dozen years and had never encountered such a despicable and shameless opponent, nor had he ever hated an opponent so much; they wouldn't fight head-on, only bury landmines to ambush people, and damn it, they even buried a barrel of feces to disgust people.

The moment Zhang Chao thought about how he had brought his men, treating it like a major enemy, only to carefully dig up a barrel of feces, he was so angry he started spewing profanities.

Just as Zhang Chao was cursing, a small packet of gunpowder buried at the very bottom of this barrel of feces was suddenly ignited.

"Boom!" The power of that small packet of gunpowder was not great, but it was enough to blow the entire barrel of feces flying into the sky.

Zhang Chao was squatting right next to the wooden barrel, and this barrel of feces splashed violently, drenching him from head to toe; even his beloved Artifact Shield was covered in feces and urine.

The surrounding soldiers of the Divine Machine Battalion stared in shock at this scene; their wise and mighty Lord Thousand-man Commander was covered from head to toe in feces and urine, and some white, squirming maggots were even wriggling in the commander's hair.

"Ah! Bastards, I swear, I will tear you into ten thousand pieces." Zhang Chao was trembling with rage, circulating his True Qi to shake off the filth on his body, but that stench of urine and feces seemed to linger around him, which made him feel utterly humiliated.

"What the hell are you all standing there for? Bring me a bucket of water; I need to rinse off." Zhang Chao roared.

The soldiers of the Divine Machine Battalion had strange expressions, wanting to laugh but not daring to; they knew Zhang Chao was in a fit of rage and didn't dare to touch this bad luck, so they hurriedly brought over a bucket of water for Zhang Chao to wash himself.

Behind a large tree more than three hundred meters away, Meng Yifan, Meng Dayong, and Wang Dachui were laughing until they couldn't close their mouths.

"Haha, Yifan, you really have a way." Meng Dayong laughed and patted Meng Yifan on the shoulder; when the three of them discovered the Divine Machine Battalion was using wooden hammers to strike the ground to detect if landmines were buried, they knew it wouldn't be so easy to blow up the Divine Machine Battalion's soldiers with landmines anymore.

Meng Yifan had a flash of inspiration and thought of burying a barrel of feces underground, with a small packet of explosives buried at the very bottom of the barrel; that bit of gunpowder wouldn't kill anyone, but it was meant to disgust the generals of the Divine Machine Battalion, and now it seemed the effect was quite good.

Meng Yifan laughed: "Dad, let's go, let's go ahead and keep burying wooden barrels."

"Still burying feces? After suffering a loss once, they definitely won't fall for it again," Meng Dayong asked.

Meng Yifan said: "Bury seven or eight feces barrels, then bury a Gunpowder Barrel; truth and falsehood, emptiness and reality, keep them confused. They will have to carefully check every single one, and this will drag down their speed of advance, enough for us to dig trenches outside Luolong County."

"Brilliant, Lord Meng's move is truly brilliant." Wang Dachui gave a thumbs-up and praised endlessly; Meng Yifan's move conformed to the essence of military strategy—combining the real and the fake, ever-changing—and it would definitely give the Divine Machine Battalion a headache.

Wang Dachui looked at Meng Yifan with admiration; he knew Meng Yifan's family were hunters and it seemed he had never read a book, so how did he understand the mysteries of military strategy? Could he be a born military genius?

Wang Dachui had spent most of his life in the military camp and had heard people say that the secret to leading troops in battle was that some learn it through study, some learn it through hardship, and some are born with it; could Meng Yifan be a genius born with it?

Following such a person, perhaps he could really accomplish great things, and then he would be a founding minister; thinking of this, Wang Dachui's Loyalty suddenly increased by ten points, now reaching eighty-three, which made Meng Yifan pause, wondering what Wang Dachui had thought of to suddenly increase his loyalty so much.

Zhang Chao used a bucket of water to wash himself inside and out, but that stench of urine could never be fully washed away, which caused him great distress, especially since his beloved Artifact Shield had also been splashed with feces and was now emitting a foul odor, which made his heart ache.

"My Lord, what should we do about the road ahead?" a burly soldier asked.

Zhang Chao frowned; he didn't want to go ahead to scout the path, but the other soldiers of the Divine Machine Battalion didn't know the Heaven Ear skill and simply couldn't discover the wooden barrels buried underground; if those rebels had buried real Gunpowder Barrels ahead, the soldiers of the Divine Machine Battalion would suffer heavy losses from explosions again.

"Bastards!" Zhang Chao was so angry his teeth itched; this group of rebels was truly a bunch of assholes.

"Just like before, ten Second Grade Martial Artists will follow me to scout the path ahead." Zhang Chao was angry, but he was the commanding general and had to be responsible for his soldiers, so he could only walk in front and circulate his Heaven Ear skill again to check if there were Gunpowder Barrels buried underground.