Chapter 266

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

The time spent on aftermath was far more than the fighting.

Of all 24 heavy machine guns, 19 took part in the battle; after firing for nearly 30 minutes, they expended nearly 200,000 bullets. Not to mention 3,000 heavy infantry drawn up in neat ranks, even the sailors on the ships were mostly wiped out.

Soldiers still in the age of bows and javelins neither knew how to dodge nor scatter and crawl; worse still, they were on a riverbank with no cover to defend—the latter was especially tragic. Even the US Marine Corps of later generations, under the cover of artillery and airplanes, still had countless men killed by German and Japanese gunfire, and total annihilation was not uncommon, let alone these cold-weapon soldiers.

Half an hour after the battle ended, She Lei finally plucked up his courage and organized 50 mercenaries and natives to clear the riverbank. They carried heavy machine guns in one hand and light weapons and pistols in the other, standing guard. Nearly 20 "fuzi" held bows, arrows, and swords with trembling fear, while every fortification stood ready without the slightest slack.

Who knew what perverse things might happen on this strange continent?

A Browning heavy machine gun weighing 38 kilograms, plus a 20-kilogram tripod, weighed as much as an adult; carrying it off without disassembling it was quite exhausting. Meanwhile, Song Zhuang's hand rested directly on the heavy machine gun's trigger, and five meters away stood She Lei holding an automatic rifle. They feared being wiped out in one net.

Drawing closer, one could finally see the full horror of the slaughter. Not to mention the disgusting human fragments, just the blood pooled on the riverbank that had not drained away looked like a scene from hell, or some evil ritual.

3,000 heavy infantrymen meant they might contain 150,000 kilograms of liquid and 10,000 kilograms of blood in their bodies. On the slowly flowing riverbank at night, the near side was almost entirely blood-colored.

She Lei endured his discomfort and pressed forward, but Song Zhuang went "retch" and vomited onto the heavy machine gun, splashing the two natives carrying it all over.

Because of the heavy machine gun's might, the natives silently watched him without daring to drop their things.

When he had nearly finished vomiting, Song Zhuang stood straight and said, "Sorry."

The native on the left smiled as if flattering him: "It's nothing, sir, you really eat well. These are all white cakes, right?"

Song Zhuang looked at the half-digested white cakes on the heavy machine gun and went "retch" again.

Several natives began turning over the minced flesh on the ground. The soldiers in the front ranks had been shot into fragments by who knows how many bullets, long since reduced to three- or five-kilogram chunks of meat scattered on the ground. The soldiers behind were no better off; their armor was torn to shreds, lying haphazardly, some prone, some supine. Occasionally one or two who survived were breathing out more than in.

"What do we do?" Song Zhuang asked She Lei about those seriously wounded soldiers.

"Keep a few who can be saved, stab the rest to death." After She Lei finished speaking, he turned to one of the mercenary leaders, Fa Fei: "Can you do healing?"

"Give it a try." Fa Fei was a rare medical officer among the mercenaries. He led a small organization of over thirty people, mainly providing non-battlefield support such as transportation, intelligence, and equipment repair, and was popular among the city-states of the continent. Because of his characteristics, he was often invited by powerful organizations—of course, no matter how powerful an organization was, it was not as wealthy as the West River Water Fortress. If it weren't for the Chinese habitually distrusting mercenaries, Yu Weichao organizing a mercenary army of two or three hundred thousand would be no problem.

Some military commanders of Ma La rose up through war to sustain war.

Not many soldiers could survive, and even fewer could be saved, especially with a shortage of doctors and medicine. She Lei just wanted to keep a few who could talk; once he got what he wanted, whether they lived or didn't matter.

Fa Fei understood his intent, casually flipped through them, and said in surprise: "Third Heavy Infantry Battalion of Ma La."

"Oh? Are they formidable?"

"Very formidable." Fa Fei said with lingering fear: "4,000 heavy infantry could certainly crush us."

His voice unconsciously lowered. A heavy infantry battalion that could annihilate a whole unit—he had traveled across the West Continent and never heard of such a thing. Even the elite cavalry of the Temple, facing phalanx infantry like hedgehogs, usually only harassed them a bit; to truly wipe them out required extremely good luck.

But Song Zhuang was thinking of something else. He counted again from front to back and asked: "Does an infantry battalion have 4,000 men?"

They had all eaten third-grade konjac, and it was said there were no problems.

"That's right."

"I used to study architecture. I just counted, and I'm afraid there aren't as many as 4,000 here."

"How could that be? I thought there were at least 10,000." She Lei didn't mind losing face. He was originally a hoodlum; not to mention barely passing high school, he spent middle and elementary school playing pool and games outside. 20 times 10 was easy to calculate, but 200 times 15 had too many zeros to count clearly.

Song Zhuang smiled awkwardly, walked another circle, and said: "I'm afraid it's 3,000."

"Then where are the other 1,000?" She Lei hadn't finished speaking when he suddenly realized: "Did we find their leader?"

The mercenaries armed themselves and searched for a while, no longer caring about the disgusting minced flesh.

"Could they have run off on those few ships ahead?" Song Zhuang looked up at the remaining capsized paddle boats on the water. With. 50 caliber heavy machine gun fire, it was hard for anyone on the remaining ships to survive. But they had seen several ships escaping ahead of them. He thought it was possible and said in a low voice: "Clean up the riverbank and keep guarding. I don't know when Hall Master will arrive. If there are still enemies, we can at least defend."

"There are plenty of bullets; no need to worry." She Lei said, but ordered the heavy machine guns to be set up. Waiting only until a few half-dead heavy infantrymen were picked out, he ordered: "Go ask Village Master Yu for diesel and burn the corpses."

Judging by his manner, if anyone faked being a corpse, he would immediately make it so they couldn't even be a zombie.

Song Zhuang hurriedly stopped him: "Wait, diesel is precious and can't be used to burn corpses, and besides... disgusting."

He went "retch" again.

"You must be pregnant." She Lei covered his nose in disdain. Actually, the air was full of the smell of blood; he couldn't smell anything else.

"You're the one who's pregnant." Song Zhuang licked his lips and made himself nauseous again.

She Lei got goosebumps all over and said with a trembling mouth: "Should we dig a pit and bury them?"

"3,000 people—that would require hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of earth-moving work. You'd have to bury them at least two meters deep to avoid spreading plague." Song Zhuang knew that workload well and said with a frown: "Or just throw them in the river and let them float downstream, wherever they go."

"Even disrespecting teachers and ancestors would at least wrap them in a grass mat. No way." She Lei flatly rejected it. He had been exiled to the West Continent by Chen Yi, but the other students didn't know that. Relying on his status as a first-batch student, he was the second-in-command under Yu Weichao.

"Then..."

Fa Fei stepped forward and said: "The two... sirs, burning and throwing them away is too wasteful. They are heavy infantry, after all. Not to mention the armor, even the long spears could sell for a good sum."

"Then you handle it." She Lei was very good at ordering people around. He used to have over twenty middle-school lackeys and counted as part of the management.

Fa Fei was quite happy and led his alien-race mercenaries up to do it.

These soldiers were tall and strong, with sparse, yellowish teeth, looking as if they had been raised by tigers and leopards. Now, having received orders, they bared their teeth and rushed forward. The first thing was to remove the metal plates from the heavy infantrymen's helmets.

The most dangerous arrows were not direct shots, but those falling from the sky. Because of gravitational potential energy, shooting arrows upward and letting them fall from the air actually lost little energy. But the protection on the head was not tight enough, and it was hard to attach many layers of beast skin, so only a small amount of metal was inlaid. If the Third Heavy Infantry Battalion were not part of the Temple's organization, that bit of glittering gold metal would be unobtainable.

Besides the metal plates, the heavy machine gun bullets on the ground were also eye-catching, but Fa Fei and his men had no intention of picking them up. Long-range weapons in war were all recoverable—arrowheads from bows and arrows, shafts from javelins—all valuable combat supplies. In their eyes, those things called "bullets" must be extremely expensive. Presumably they would be reclaimed by the "Jiangning People." Hiding one or two was fine, but everyone else focused on stripping helmet leaves and searching for money carried by the heavy infantrymen.

Who could have guessed that when technological civilization developed to a certain point, it would become so wasteful as to not even want bullets?

She Lei was happy to stand idly and wait, but the natives under him had different thoughts. Not to mention how much metal to divide, even being able to secretly hide a few pieces on their bodies would be worth several days' wages. So they were all eager to try, coughing and running around, hoping to attract the attention of the "Jiangning People."

After working for a while, more flashes of fire appeared behind them, and more voices of natives speaking could be heard. The natives who arrived first worried their property would be divided and impatiently said: "Sirs, let us go clear it too."

It wasn't good to block people's path to wealth. She Lei nodded and said: "Go ahead."

The natives cheered and excitedly pounced forward.

Just in the blink of an eye, Fa Fei suddenly shouted: "Be careful!"

Kaman, who had been lurking underwater for who knows when, rushed out with a whoosh. In two or three leaps, he reached She Lei, his long fingernails extending over two inches, clawing at his neck.

She Lei strained to tilt his neck back, his finger pulling the automatic rifle's trigger as bullets sprayed out with a "tat-tat-tat," yet they failed to hit Kaman.

Kaman twisted slightly, tearing the flesh from She Lei's shoulder along with the tendons in a bloody strip. This was only because he had dodged, fearing hidden weapons; otherwise he could have gouged out She Lei's neck.

Song Zhuang also opened fire with a "tat-tat-tat-tat."

Because the distance was extremely close, a string of bullets flew over; although they did not wound Kaman, they drove him back two steps. She Lei, enduring the pain in his arm, roared as he aimed the gun barrel at Kaman.

Kaman gave a cold snort, channeling his battle qi, and actually braced against the heavy machine gun while swaying left and right forward; within a few moments, he had dazed Song Zhuang.

He leaped quickly, almost in an instant reaching She Lei's front, clearly taking him as the commander of this battle.

At this critical moment of a thousand catties hanging by a hair, only three "bang-bang-bang" sounds were heard; Kaman was shot in the forehead and, dazed, was smashed back.

It was Chen Yi, who had come to watch the front line together with the natives, drawing his "palm cannon" M500; like the machine gun bullet, it also used. 50 caliber bullets.

Song Zhuang had no time to look back; taking advantage of the moment Kaman's head was dizzy, he adjusted the direction of his Browning with its long ammunition belt and fired at him with a "tat-tat."

Kaman retreated several steps, finally unable to hold on, and plunged headfirst into the river water.

……(Unfinished, if you want to know what happens next, please log in to www. qidian. com, more chapters, support author, support genuine reading!)