Chapter 219: The Situation

Meng Yifan is now a Third-Grade High-Level Martial Artist, and at the same time, a Third-Grade High-Level Immortal Cultivator. If he wants to break through to a Fourth-Grade Powerhouse, he needs to achieve Enlightenment, yet he hasn't the slightest clue how to go about it.

Zhang Sanfeng once said that the Dao follows nature, and the three thousand Great Daos exist within all things in nature. Whether one can achieve Enlightenment depends entirely on personal realization; it can only be grasped intuitively and cannot be taught in words.

The Taiji Fist contains the Yin-Yang Great Dao. Zhang Sanfeng told Meng Yifan to persist in practicing the fist every day to experience the profound mystery of Yin and Yang generating each other, as this would help Meng Yifan achieve Enlightenment.

Meng Yifan has been leading everyone in practicing the Taiji Fist during this period, which is to a large extent a way of seeking Enlightenment. Unfortunately, after practicing for five or six days in a row, he still hasn't touched the Dao, which makes him feel somewhat anxious and restless, yet helpless.

Zhang Sanfeng also warned Meng Yifan that Enlightenment is not something that can be rushed; the more anxious one is, the harder it is to achieve. One can only let nature take its course, and success will come naturally when the time is right.

Because of construction tools like cement and concrete, the outer walls of Luolong County were built very rapidly.

In less than a week, the five-meter-high city walls were joined together. The walls are two meters wide at the top and appear a bluish-gray overall. They do not look very aesthetically pleasing, but they are extremely sturdy—sturdier than the original Luolong County walls.

On the city walls, soldiers of the Salvation Army are patrolling with loaded weapons at every moment, which gives the common people working in the fields a strong sense of security.

During this time, refugees have been arriving one after another to seek refuge in Luolong County, and they have brought a lot of bad news: several counties around Luolong have been successively breached by the Monster Army.

Xijin County is not far from Luolong County, only about eighty-some miles away. According to the refugees, the city defenses of Xijin County were breached by the Monster Army two days ago. The Monster Army surrounded the entire city so tightly that not even water could trickle through, and the common people inside the city all became food for the monsters.

According to the memories of the passing refugees, the scene was truly too tragic; it was literally a river of blood and a mountain of corpses, a sight too horrible to look at.

The monsters run much faster than the common people, and with the addition of avian monsters joining the battle, the common people had nowhere to escape. Even if they hid in cellars, they would be dug into and eaten by rat monsters skilled at burrowing. In the end, almost all the common people inside Xijin County were eaten.

Dongchuan Prefecture dispatched two Divine Machine Thousand-Man Units to fight a great battle against the monsters, but the result was that they were completely wiped out.

Dongchuan Prefecture only had five thousand men in the Divine Machine Battalion in total. One thousand were wiped out by Meng Yifan, and now two thousand more have been wiped out by the Monster Army. The remaining two thousand men of the Divine Machine Battalion have now all been gathered at Dongchuan City, relying on the sturdy city fortifications to hold the prefectural capital, no longer daring to come out to exterminate the Monster Army.

The counties under the jurisdiction of Dongchuan Prefecture have been asking the Prefect for help one after another. The Prefect, Zhang Yiqing, is anxious and overwhelmed, yet he is at his wit's end and can only tell them to fend for themselves and survive or perish on their own.

Zhang Yiqing also sent people to ask the Dong Prefecture Inspector for help, but the elite troops of the entire Dong Prefecture were transferred to the northwest to suppress a rebellion, and the remaining troops are only enough for defense; it is simply impossible to send more troops to Dongchuan Prefecture to exterminate the monsters.

It is precisely because the situation in Dongchuan Prefecture has deteriorated to such a terrible state that even though Meng Yifan killed an official, rebelled, occupied Luolong County, and wiped out a Divine Machine Thousand-Man Unit, the Prefect, Zhang Yiqing, can do nothing about Meng Yifan for the time being.

The presence of the Monster Army has already appeared near Luolong County, which makes all the people in the city fearful, not knowing when the Monster Army will come to attack the city.

The wind is blowing through the pavilion, signaling the coming storm; the atmosphere inside Luolong County has suddenly become tense. Meng Yifan has arranged for the Salvation Army to work in three shifts to guard the city walls and is racing against time to build city defense fortifications.

The Shenwu Great General Cannon is very cumbersome, but it has a large powder capacity and immense power, making it a sharp weapon for defending the city.

There are a total of sixteen Shenwu Great General Cannons in Luolong County, and they have all been hoisted onto the city gates, with four placed at each gate. Solid cannonballs and Explosive Shells are also ready; as soon as any monsters attack, they can immediately fire the cannons.

Meng Dayong is a hunter by trade, and he cannot forget his old profession. He led soldiers to dig many traps and mechanisms outside the city and also buried Gunpowder Barrels, threading the fuses through bamboo tubes. If a large number of monsters attack, they can be blown to smithereens.

This day, Wang Dachui came running over excitedly, holding a Flintlock, and said, "Lord, I have successfully manufactured the Flintlock."

Meng Yifan took the Flintlock and carefully examined the structure of the firearm. He felt it was not much different from the Bird Gun, mainly changing the original method of ignition by matchlock to striking a flint to produce sparks to achieve firing.

Meng Yifan had people set up targets at different distances on the shooting range and fired the Flintlock to test it. The final test showed that the effective range of this Flintlock is 150 meters, which is fifty meters more than the effective range of the original matchlock Bird Gun.

Do not underestimate this distance of fifty meters. On the battlefield, having one more meter of range allows one to crush the opponent, let alone fifty more meters.

Another point is that loading a matchlock gun is very complicated, taking about one or two minutes to fire a single bullet, whereas a skilled shooter can fire two or three times a minute. In this way, the rate of fire of the Flintlock is almost four or five times that of the matchlock gun.

The Flintlock also has a disadvantage, which is that the ignition rate is not high. Just now, when Meng Yifan was testing it, he fired ten bullets, and there were actually times when he pulled the trigger but failed to fire. The failure rate of ignition is about twenty percent, whereas although the matchlock gun is complicated to ignite, it can basically guarantee successful ignition every time.

However, considering the effective range and rate of fire of the Flintlock, this small disadvantage of a low ignition rate can be ignored. Overall, Meng Yifan is quite satisfied with the Flintlock.

The Flintlock that Meng Yifan had Wang Dachui manufacture is a Smoothbore Flintlock; there is no rifling in the barrel. If a Rifled Flintlock could be manufactured, the bullet could rotate inside the barrel, thereby ensuring stable flight of the bullet, and the effective range could reach at least 200 meters.

But considering that the gun barrels of the Great Wu Heavenly Dynasty are all handmade and uneven in thickness, forcibly carving rifling would easily cause the Flintlock to explode. Therefore, after careful consideration, Meng Yifan still did not have Wang Dachui manufacture Flintlocks with rifling.

"Master Wang, the situation outside is very tense right now. You lead the Manufacturing Department to work overtime to manufacture Flintlocks as soon as possible. The sooner the soldiers can switch to Flintlocks, the sooner they can enhance their combat effectiveness," Meng Yifan said.

"Lord Meng, rest assured. I will go back now and have everyone manufacture the Flintlocks as quickly as possible."

Wang Dachui had also heard from the newly arrived refugees about the situation outside and knew that the monsters could come to attack the city at any time. Time was urgent, so Wang Dachui did not bother with pleasantries; after accepting the order, he trotted off to rush the production of the Flintlocks.