Chapter 335

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

With the help of the handsome young man Barni, the slaves of the West Continent gathered the surviving soldiers and sergeants, dispatched men to surround the small building where Shi Nengren was located, and then held the fence leading to the Xima Market. The three sergeants there were also running out of bullets; fearing to harm the hostages, they had no choice but to retreat into the houses of Xima Market Phase I.

Spontaneous riots are often unsustainable, especially crowds rioting for the sake of rioting; once the riot ends, they tend to disperse naturally, unless the rioters have a new, clear objective.

For the slaves, they had a natural objective: return to their homeland, become free commoners or soldiers once more, or retaliate against their former slave masters, inflicting double the suffering they endured upon them. Just as the slaves were doing to the native soldiers of West River City Fortress right now.

Matters should have ended there, but the handsome youth Barni and the bearded Galu had a lofty goal — to liberate all suffering slaves.

Clouds gather, scenery follows!

The 150-odd surviving slaves almost all clustered in the center of the construction site, discussing the topic of "liberating slaves" with each other in the General Language or local dialects.

It wasn't that the slaves possessed some supreme ideal or equally lofty conviction; rather, Shi Nengren's management model demanded that slaves be scattered as much as possible. This meant that although there were 150 rioting slaves at the Xima Market Phase II construction site, slaves belonging to the same city-state or even neighboring city-states rarely numbered more than 10.

Ten slaves — barely enough to crew a small boat; how could they return to their homeland?

Reality dictated they would have to rescue two or even three batches of slaves of similar numbers to have any chance of returning alive.

Barni was wildly excited.

He felt he was pioneering an era, and shouted loudly: "Let us end the ugly history of slave society, let us welcome the arrival of a new era, we... we will build a society without oppression, without exploitation, where every person is the master of society..."

This time, the slaves looked at Barni foolishly.

They weren't truly foolish. Soldiers who survived the God Temple Battlefield, soldiers who survived the thousand-li great migration — besides physical strength, they needed a bit of luck and wit. Their actual combat experience was far stronger than that of two noble knights who had never seen blood; they deeply knew the difficulty of escape, and knew even better the might of an army. Once the two sides stood opposed, that would be the moment the slave army was finished.

A slave who had once been a junior officer had to step forward and say: "Barni is right; we need to muddy the waters. Only when things are chaotic here can we escape."

"Right! Yes! Well said!" Only then did the slaves cheer with raised arms.

Barni sat down dejectedly and said to Galu: "Their awareness is too low."

"None of them are city-state people; why would they stay in Ma La?"

"What about the debt slaves?" Barni lifted his head at once.

Galu, unwilling to let Barni lose heart, persuaded: "Perhaps, but there are too few debt slaves."

"Not afraid of few numbers... people with thought will all condemn the slave system."

Galu rolled his eyelids; condemnation and opposition are two different matters. Those who condemn do so to better exploit the system long-term... but he couldn't explain such profound principles, so he simply ignored Barni.

The slaves established their own command post with the utmost speed. There were 6 commanders who had been junior officers, each leading 30 men, all obeying the commander-in-chief's orders. They distributed the 3 captured automatic rifles and two bows. Some slaves chose rebar to replace spears, and some stockpiled bricks, preparing to serve as grenadiers.

Barni and Galu didn't know the others, so they surprisingly didn't manage to secure even a minor post. The handsome youth scolded in his half-baked General Language, but in the end obediently went to the Fire Dragon Temple squad — the slaves were assigned according to their temple affiliations.

The supreme commander Daba was a warrior of a small city-state subordinate to the Fire Dragon Temple; he had once served as a Fifty-man Leader, equivalent to a Platoon Leader. He had no time to rejoice at the trust placed in him; following his hometown's tradition, rebellious slaves weren't necessarily all killed — because they were property, like runaway cang sheep. But the leader of the cang sheep would certainly be done away with in the most cruel manner.

"Let's take down that small building." Barni tirelessly urged.

Daba replied: "No, we're going to liberate slaves!"

"Liberate slaves!" Everyone shouted while punching and kicking the 10-odd surviving soldiers and 3 unlucky workers.

At the time, the soldiers had to resist actively and had no chance to flee, while the workers, when they tried to flee, encountered almost no obstruction.

Shi Nengren looked gloomily at the hostages below and said to Wang Bin: "My term is ending."

"Mine too." Wang Bin pinched his automatic rifle and said: "If I had two more magazines, I'd shoot this lot dead."

"I still have two magazines." The native soldier revealed the tactical belt at his waist.

Wang Bin coughed twice and said: "Defend well."

"Yes." The soldier didn't dare ask a single question and raised his rifle again. Soldiers who could follow the chief were all evaluated as solid.

The slaves conferred briefly and ultimately decided to kill 5 heavily wounded and leg-wounded soldiers, then advance toward the other slave camps.

Barni attempted to stop it but failed. He again suggested taking down the small building where Shi Nengren was garrisoned; the proposal was likewise rejected, and he was met with a burst of ridicule.

The slave force began to move slowly.

The disheartened handsome youth tilted his dark-gray face up and said to Galu: "I regret it."

"Too late." Galu had an ominous premonition; he said in a low voice: "They don't even dare provoke two... rifles, yet they go attack a slave camp guarded by dozens of soldiers? They can't win."

Barni remained immersed in his own disappointment and replied casually: "Once we reach the camp, we'll shout for the slaves inside to rebel, then charge in during the chaos. That'll work."

The slaves were thinking the exact same thing; their success at the Xima construction site had greatly boosted their confidence, and besides this road, every other direction was only more difficult — for instance, Xima Market Phase I with the crossfire of those three automatic rifles.

One kilometer out, Sun Ruihe excitedly held binoculars, eyeing this motley crew.

Just 10 minutes ago, he had been appointed Group Leader of the Slave Incident Emergency Response Team; according to Yu Weichao, the West River Water Fortress personnel were at his disposal.

Sun Ruihe immediately got himself a high-precision M4, then brought Qin Dajiang and his two Humvee cannon vehicles, rushing toward Xima Market.

Overlooking below, Sun Ruihe deliberately laughed loudly: "Too bad we don't have sniper rifles; otherwise tear gas plus sniper fire would settle this."

Qin Dajiang calmly watched below without a sound.

Dai Adi looked seriously for a moment and said: "No Jiangning people."

"Hm?"

"None... of our people." Dai Adi blinked and said: "Shi Nengren hasn't been captured; you can attack with peace of mind."

The value tier of natives is below Earthlings — this was a conclusion the Rhombus Conference Hall reached long ago.

Sun Ruihe was unwilling, and said loudly: "Not a single one less; we must rescue all hostages, whether native or Jiangning person."

Native soldiers cast confused and friendly gazes one after another.

Sun Ruihe puffed out his chest and lifted his head, looking down on Dai Adi.

If the machine cannon fires and the heavy machine gun sweeps, what do they need a former special forces officer for? Sending Qin Dajiang or She Lei would do just fine.

His value lies in rescuing hostages. Although Sun Ruihe hadn't received relevant training, he'd eaten pork even if he hadn't seen a pig run — logically speaking, he was also the only person on the West Continent who had seen the hostage pig run.

Sun Ruihe's thinking differed from others', stemming from information asymmetry.

Now, among those in the entire West Continent who knew Chen Zhongguo's body had recovered, only Sun Ruihe knew—and even if others knew, they did not know the meaning behind it.

Only Sun Ruihe understood that once Chen Zhongguo's body was healthy again, it would be a simple matter for the Chen Family to control Jiangning; in other words, the value of West Continent people would suddenly increase.

On the other hand, Sun Ruihe did not think rescuing hostages from among a group of slaves was difficult. He believed that if necessary, Chen Yi could naturally get them enough equipment.

"Contact the slaves?" Dai Adi interrupted Sun Ruihe's fantasy with dissatisfaction.

"No."

"If you don't contact them, how do you plan to solve the hostage situation? Our soldiers aren't special forces. Major Sun Ruihe." Dai Adi spoke sarcastically.

"If we contact them, they'll propose conditions, but which condition can we agree to?" Sun Ruihe countered sharply. Although his status in the Water Fortress was slightly lower, as a former officer of the Party-State army, Sun Ruihe was very clear that students like Dai Adi, who didn't even have the "West River Defense War" medal, spoke by value just like him.

Sun Ruihe was confident his value was far greater than Dai Adi's.

Qin Dajiang thought what Sun Ruihe said made sense, so he said coldly, "So what do we do now?"

"Withdraw the people." Sun Ruihe pointed to the slave team downstairs and said, "No matter which construction site they go to, withdraw everyone on the site in advance, don't give them a chance to contact. I estimate that after at most two or three construction sites, they'll start fighting among themselves internally."

"What if they go to the ferry crossing? Stop river transport?" The ferry crossing near Xima Market was an important channel connecting to Ma La.

"I said, at most two or three construction sites, and they'll be finished." Sun Ruihe said while patting his own gun, "By then, whether it's a forced attack or demanding they release them, it'll be twice the result with half the effort."

Just two simple sentences, and he first claimed the credit for himself. Compared to the major, Dai Adi was still far too immature.

The group then followed behind the slaves. They had all kinds of advanced equipment, night vision devices, thermal imagers—everything was complete. Only Qin Dajiang worried they would get separated at night, making his machine cannon unable to function...

Two days later, when the slaves arrived at the third empty construction site, most people could no longer bear this empty terror.

At this moment, Chen Yi arrived at the West River Water Fortress once again.

... (Unfinished. If you like this work, welcome to come to Qidian (qidian. com) to cast recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)