Chapter 227: The Power of Artillery

Lu Yu arrived at the Training Room, only to see quite a few weighted vests placed in the cabinet on the north side.

These vests were all made of special materials with extremely high density, and the weight of a single vest ranged from several hundred jin to ten thousand jin.

Lu Yu looked at his Constitution attribute, which was already approaching 7000 points, theoretically allowing him to carry a maximum load of seventy thousand jin.

He walked over to a ten-thousand-jin weighted vest and easily put it on.

The last time he trained his movement technique was back at Lu Family Fort, when his load was only about five thousand jin; this time, it had directly doubled.

When he prepared to take another one, he discovered that there was only this one ten-thousand-jin weighted vest.

This left him feeling somewhat amused yet frustrated, though upon careful thought, it was understandable; after all, even for a Martial Artist at the Lian Mai Early Stage, their Constitution was mostly around one thousand, so being able to bear a load of about ten thousand jin was already quite enough.

Fortunately, after communicating with Song Tian, he also brought over the ten-thousand-jin weighted vests from the other few training rooms.

After putting on about four of them, he finally felt obvious pressure, as if several large mountains were pressing down on him.

"Let's just leave it at this for now."

Lu Yu thought to himself that once he adapted to this load, if the proficiency growth of his Basic Movement Technique was slow, it wouldn't be too late to increase the load then.

……

Early the next morning, before the sky had fully brightened, Zhou Family Fort was already bustling with activity.

Nearly a hundred guards were neatly assembled together, with seven or eight military vehicles lined up in an orderly fashion, among which two vehicles were towing two cannons behind them.

Everyone was fully armed, their gazes fixed in unison on the Fort Master, Zhou Chengsong, at the very front.

"Cousin, everyone has arrived; we can set off at any time," Zhang Yun said, walking over quickly to report.

"Mm." Zhou Chengsong nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over everyone present with a sinister look, and then he said loudly: "I presume everyone already knows what has happened. That bunch of fellows at Lu Family Stockade are simply lawless, daring to come to my Zhou Family Fort to kill, and the one they killed was Captain Guan! Tell me, should we avenge this grudge?"

"We should!" nearly a hundred people roared in unison, their voices resounding through the clouds.

"Should the people of Lu Family Stockade be killed?"

"They should!" the crowd's response was even more impassioned, like a surging tide.

"Good! Listen to my command, set off immediately!"

As the city gate slowly opened, one military vehicle after another drove aggressively toward Lu Family Stockade.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the outline of Lu Family Stockade faintly appeared in everyone's field of vision.

Looking from afar, the stockade gate was tightly shut, and the entire Zhai was as quiet as a graveyard.

"These scumbags, they're sleeping quite soundly," Zhou Chengsong said, looking at the scene before him, his teeth gnashing with rage.

He hadn't closed his eyes since learning the news of Wang Dezhi's death last night.

"Cousin, shall we send people to charge in and make arrests now?"

"No rush," Zhou Chengsong sneered, a flash of Ruthless intent appearing in his eyes, "Where are the cannons? Give me a few rounds of bombardment first, blow those bastards to death or cripple them, then go in and make arrests."

Zhang Yun nodded, feeling that Zhou Chengsong's idea was indeed reasonable.

Doing this could effectively weaken the opponent's effective strength while reducing his own side's losses.

Soon, with the concerted efforts of more than ten guards pushing them, two 75mm howitzers were slowly aimed at the gate of Lu Family Stockade.

These two cannons had a barrel weight of 800 kilograms alone, and each shell weighed nearly five kilograms.

Once fired, they could blast a large crater one meter in diameter and half a meter deep into the ground; people within a range of five or six meters would be instantly blown into powder, and the dense rain of shrapnel produced by the Explosion would have a lethal radius of as much as 75 meters.

For a mere Lu Family Stockade, a few rounds of artillery fire would absolutely cause heavy casualties.

"Fire! Blow Lu Family Stockade to smithereens for me!" Zhou Chengsong roared at the top of his lungs.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The deafening sound of the cannons was like rolling spring thunder, spreading far and wide to the surroundings.

This loud noise even startled people in Yongan City, a hundred miles away, from their sleep; they sat up from their beds in a daze, looking around, thinking an earthquake had occurred.

Dense shells fell like raindrops, and Lu Family Stockade was instantly in a state of chaos.

Countless houses were blown to pieces in the artillery fire, with shrapnel and dirt flying everywhere.

Before long, the entire Lu Family Stockade was plunged into a sea of raging flames, with firelight shooting into the sky and thick smoke rolling.

"These animals!" Under the reflection of the firelight, Zhou Chengsong's face was twisted, revealing a ferocious smile, a smile filled with anger and the pleasure of revenge.

Zhang Yun could not help but show a look of emotion on his face, secretly sighing in his heart that this was the power of artillery.

Let alone a Flesh Refining Martial Artist, even an In-Jin Martial Artist would only face the fate of being blown to pieces in the face of such powerful firepower.

But gradually, Zhang Yun felt that something was wrong.

Quiet, it was simply too quiet.

In the entire Lu Family Stockade, apart from the roar of the artillery and the crackling of the fire, one could not hear any other sounds; there were no screams from people, no panicked shouts, as if this Zhai had long been empty.

……

"What's the situation? Could it be an earthquake?" Lu Guohao woke up from his sleep with a start, his gaze looking straight ahead.

Immediately after, "Boom!" came another thunderous sound, and the entire house seemed to suffer a heavy blow, trembling violently.

"Guohao, what exactly is going on?" Geng Lian was also awakened by the commotion, subconsciously reaching out her hands to hold Lu Guohao's arm tightly, asking with a face full of terror.

"I'm not sure either," Lu Guohao said while shaking his head, "Listening to this sound, it feels like cannon fire."

"Cannon fire?" Geng Lian had just uttered these two words when there was another deafening roar outside.

"Let's go out and take a look first." As soon as Lu Guohao finished speaking, he quickly threw on his clothes, put on his shoes, and dashed out the door.

Once outside, he discovered that many people had already been awakened from their sleep by the successive loud noises, standing at their own doorways one after another, looking toward the direction the sound came from with dazed and terrified expressions.

"What on earth is this sound? Why is it so loud?"

"It sounds like the sound made by artillery."

"Artillery sound?" Many people around heard this and instantly showed expressions of shock on their faces.

One had to know that only Zhou Family Fort was equipped with artillery in this vicinity.

Could it be that the people from Zhou Family Fort were firing the cannons? But for no reason at all, why would they fire artillery?

Could it be... a Fierce Beast attack? As this thought flashed through everyone's minds, they suddenly felt a chill strike their backs, as if they were enveloped by an ice cellar.

Under normal circumstances, Fierce Beasts rarely take the initiative to attack human encampments; even in the dead of night, such a possibility is extremely slim, as those tall, thick walls are enough to block their line of sight.

However, there is one exception, and that is the outbreak of a Beast Tide!

Once a Beast Tide surges in, these Fierce Beasts act as if they have lost their minds, launching frantic, desperate attacks against human encampments regardless of whether it is day or night.

In that case, could a Beast Tide have broken out?

"Guohao." Just then, Wang Liang, Liu Tianyao, and Qin Lianjun walked over quickly.

Lu Guohao nodded at them, then said with a grave expression, "Judging by the sound, it should be cannon fire. Could something have happened at Zhou Family Fort?"

Qin Lianjun and the others exchanged glances, and everyone's complexion turned very grim.

If that were truly the case, then perhaps an attack on Lu Family Fort by Fierce Beasts was also close at hand?