Chapter 190: Interception

March 29th.

Bai Yang City.

Excluding the prefecture city, there were three cities in Datong Prefecture, which were Xingcheng, Master Ming Qi City, and Bai Yang City.

Among them, Bai Yang City was located at the southernmost part of Datong Prefecture and was the city closest to the border.

Since the day before yesterday, people from the Qingyuan City Management Company had been arriving in Bai Yang City secretly one after another.

These people were all those Li Fei had transferred from Xingcheng to Datong Fucheng before, including eleven Body-Breaking stage martial artists and two Martial Masters, as well as more than fifty elite gunmen.

They were here to pick up the goods.

From Bai Yang City to Xingcheng, there was no direct train, so the goods could only be transported by truck over a long distance, requiring people to escort them along the way.

In a residence, two Martial Masters from the Qingyuan City Management Company were gathering people for a meeting.

"In another hour, everyone go to the freight station in the north of the city."

A leading Martial Master said.

"Will Ghost Master come this time?"

Someone asked.

"This is not a question you should ask."

The leading Martial Master glared at the other party.

"But... what if the 'Beast King' really sends people to intercept and kill us? Just relying on us, I'm afraid we won't be able to stop them, right?"

Someone else couldn't help but say.

"Our operation this time is very secret throughout, and the seller side also cooperated with us to do smoke screens, misleading the 'Beast King,' so there will definitely be no problem."

The leader encouraged everyone, "Alright, disperse."

Soon, the people in the courtyard dispersed one after another, going to contact the members of their own squads, preparing to assemble at the north city freight station in an hour.

Compared to the nervousness and anxiety of those below, the two leading Martial Masters were relaxed, looking confident.

After the people in this residence dispersed, a figure on the roof of a nearby building went downstairs, entered a room, picked up the receiver, and made a call:

"That side might be starting the operation, everyone get ready."

An hour later, the freight station in the north of Bai Yang City.

All the people from the Qingyuan City Management Company arrived near the freight station.

Because arrangements had been made at the freight station beforehand, these people all successfully entered the freight station, and the gunmen also brought their guns inside.

Not long after the Qingyuan City Management Company people entered the freight station, a group of people arrived near the freight station.

These were all people of the "Beast King" Yu Longqing!

The Qingyuan City Management Company and Luo Yifu of the provincial capital cooperated to do so many smoke screens, but they were still discovered by Yu Longqing, who sent people to chase all the way to Bai Yang City.

"Wait until the convoy leaves the city before taking action."

The leader on the "Beast King" side ordered.

Taking action directly in the city would cause too much commotion, and it would soon attract the intervention of the Inspectorate and the Stop-Gore Academy, so they had to wait until the convoy left the city before intercepting and killing them.

But this wait lasted for more than two hours.

"Damn it, why are these people so slow? Still not coming out!"

The leader on the "Beast King" side was already very impatient.

At the same time, inside the freight station.

All the people from the Qingyuan City Management Company were resting in the rest hall on the second floor of the freight station.

"Aren't we going to transport goods? What are we waiting for?"

Many people had such doubts in their hearts.

But the leader above didn't speak, so they didn't dare to ask too much.

In the hall, the two leading Martial Masters sat together chatting:

"Confirmed, the 'Beast King's' people did indeed follow."

"Ghost Master is truly resourceful."

"Originally thought this errand of ours would be very dangerous, didn't expect it to be the easiest one instead."

"Hahaha, followed the right person."

The two Martial Masters looked relaxed.

They were ostensibly here to pick up goods, and Luo Yifu did indeed send a batch of goods, and it was sent secretly, done very secretly.

But in reality, the batch of goods sent by Luo Yifu was not exotic beast rations; these Qingyuan City Management Company people who secretly rushed to Bai Yang City were just pretending to pick up goods.

Of course, only the two leaders knew that this operation was fake.

Li Fei did two layers of smoke screens to successfully pick up the goods.

The first layer of smoke screen was normal concealment, and the second layer of smoke screen was the fake pickup in Bai Yang City.

Even if Yu Longqing saw through the first layer and sent people to Bai Yang City, he was destined to intercept nothing.

Gushi Town, this was a small town at the northernmost part of Datong Prefecture.

Because of its geographical location, this was a transit station; many materials transported from the outside to Datong Prefecture would pass through here.

Refueling, staying in hotels, eating... these were the main livelihoods of Gushi Town.

The streets of the small town were even wider than the streets of many cities, and heavy trucks drove through the center of the road.

Besides that, there were many horse-drawn carriages, donkey carts, and human-powered

Following the start of the Mingxin Reform, the Great Lan Dynasty gradually gained automobile and rail transport, but supplies were only shipped to major cities; the remaining villages and towns still relied on human and animal labor to transport goods.

In a tea stall by the roadside, over a dozen sturdy men were drinking tea.

One of them had hands larger than the average person, with long, powerful fingers that faintly shimmered with a metallic luster.

His name is Xiang Du, and he has the nickname "Gold-Breaking Hand" in Xingcheng; he is a member of the Qingyuan Fist Village and a capable subordinate of Shangguan Xiao (see Chapter 86, Volume 1).

Later, Shangguan Xiao handed the Qingyuan Fist Village over to Li Fei, and Xiang Du began working under Ghost Master.

This time, he brought a group of elites from the Qingyuan Fist Village to Gushi Town, truly intending to receive the cargo.

After waiting in the tea stall for over twenty minutes, another convoy drove in from the distance.

This convoy consisted of over twenty heavy-duty trucks.

The people in town were already accustomed to this, seeing many large trucks every day.

Xiang Du had sharp eyes and could clearly see the license plate number of the lead heavy truck from afar, so he made a gesture.

The other dozen or so sturdy men in the tea stall put down their teacups one after another and stopped chatting.

The cargo is here!

The heavy trucks of this era had a maximum load capacity of no more than 5 tons, and the batch of exotic beast feed Li Fei wanted exceeded one hundred tons, so it required over twenty heavy trucks to transport it.

A few minutes later, the convoy drove over slowly.

Xiang Du stood up, waved his hand by the roadside, and then made a gesture.

The convoy then began to slow down, eventually pulling over to the side of the road.

Xiang Du led his men over.

Besides the tea stall he was in, many people on both sides of the street stood up at the same time and walked toward the convoy together.

These were all people sent by Li Fei.

In addition to the elites from the Qingyuan Fist Village brought by Xiang Du, there were also people from the Zhige Academy.

In the mere half-year since Shangguan Xiao took charge of the Zhige Academy, she hadn't had time to cultivate many confidants; currently, there was only one person she could truly trust: the registered martial master Cao Mu, who had previously joined forces with her and Li Fei to deal with Zhang Shan (see Chapter 135, Volume 1).

This time, Cao Mu brought a small number of trusted confidants and arrived secretly in Gushi Town in the form of a covert mission.

Besides them, there was also a tomboy in the crowd wearing a hat and a brown leather jacket, dressed very much like a man.

It was precisely Zhao Yi.

This time, Li Fei had sent her as well.

As a Spirit Transformation mage, it would be difficult for her to win a one-on-one duel against a martial master, but if it were a group battle, she might be more useful than several martial masters combined!

In fact, there were only so many roads that could transport cargo to Xingcheng, and transporting cargo from Gushi Town to Xingcheng was one of the plans; it was impossible for Yu Longqing not to arrange for people to keep watch in Gushi Town.

Therefore, Li Fei did not count on being able to deceive Yu Longqing forever; the arrangements in Bai Yang City were meant to lure Yu Longqing's main force over. Once the opponent realized this, it would definitely be too late to mobilize personnel from both the south and the north, and the opponent would either have to give up or only be able to arrange a small number of personnel nearby to intercept and kill.

Xiang Du and the others were preparing for this.

They had to guard against the possibility that the "Beast King's" men might fail to hijack the cargo and choose to destroy it instead.

The convoy stayed on the street for about an hour.

Xiang Du and his men finished inspecting the cargo, completed the handover with Luo Yifu's men, and then refueled all the vehicles.

The convoy then set off again, and this time, the people sitting in the vehicles were all Li Fei's men.

Not only that, but eight more cars joined the convoy, with four leading the way and four following at the tail end.

Xiang Du sat in the lead car, and Cao Mu sat in the last car.

Zhao Yi sat in the passenger seat of a truck in the middle.

The convoy moved steadily forward and drove out of Gushi Town.

At the convoy's speed, if they didn't stop or rest along the way, they could reach Xingcheng in about eleven hours.

But the actual situation could never be so smooth.

The "lack of smoothness" here didn't refer to someone intercepting them, but rather that the road conditions of this era made it impossible for things to be "smooth sailing."

In the 38th year of Hongguang, the Great Lan Dynasty's Cabinet issued the "Road Repair and Maintenance Regulations," which stipulated the width of road foundations:

National highways were 5 *zhang* (approx. 17 meters), provincial roads were 3 *zhang* (approx. 10 meters), and city roads were 2.4 *zhang* (approx. 8 meters).

However, in actual implementation, when the central cabinet issued 100,000 yuan in funding, by the time it actually reached the local level, there might only be 20,000 yuan left.

Problems such as funding shortages, the use of substandard materials, and unpaid worker wages resulted in the so-called highways ultimately built being generally only 5 to 9 meters wide.

Narrow roads weren't the most serious problem; the most serious was the road surface material.

Taking Feng Province as an example, only one-quarter of the province's highways had paved surfaces. And even for this quarter of paved roads, the materials were generally coal cinder and crushed stone; the remaining highways were almost all dirt roads.

Such roads were rugged and uneven, causing great damage to the rubber tires of automobiles. On sunny days, dust filled the sky, and on rainy days, they were incredibly muddy, with some cars with high chassis getting stuck.

From Gushi Town to Xingcheng, over 80% of the highway along the way was dirt road, with the narrowest sections being only 5 meters wide. Once they encountered oncoming traffic or a vehicle ahead had a problem, it would definitely cause a traffic jam.

So from the very beginning, Xiang Du and the others were mentally prepared for traffic jams, they just didn't expect it to come so soon.

The convoy had only been driving for a little over an hour when the road ahead was blocked.

"Go see what the situation is."

In the lead car, Xiang Du instructed a subordinate.

The man was a Body-Breaking martial artist from the Qingyuan Fist Village. Hearing this, he immediately got out of the car, carrying a large saber on his back and a pistol at his waist, and ran quickly to the front where the road was blocked to check the situation.

A moment later, he ran back to report:

"Brother Xiang, a car's tire is stuck in a pothole ahead. I went to help push the car out, but their tire is ruined, and they've used up their spare tires, so they want to buy one from us."

Changing tires along the way was very common because the roads were indeed too damaging to tires; anyone running long distances had to carry several spare tires.

"What's the background of those people? Is there any problem?"

Xiang Du asked.

The man he sent was quick-witted and observant, which was why he specifically sent him to the front to check the situation.

"I asked carefully; they are from Xinyang Prefecture coming to Datong Prefecture to talk business. Their accents are indeed from Xinyang Prefecture, and they are all ordinary people, no martial artists."

"What about the other cars that are blocked?"

Xiang Du continued to ask.

There were about a dozen cars blocked ahead.

"I looked carefully when I passed by; I feel like the people in a few of the cars should be martial artists."

"Fine, sell them a tire."

Xiang Du made a decision immediately.

If they didn't sell the tire, who knew how long they would be stuck; it was better to solve this problem early.

Soon, the martial artist left with a spare tire.

"Tell everyone to be on high alert."

Xiang Du gave another instruction.

The driver then opened the car window, extended his arm, and made a gesture.

When the cars behind saw it, the drivers also made the same gesture, and it was passed down one by one.

This was to let the drivers remind the people in the cars: be on high alert!

Seven or eight minutes later, the martial artist who went to buy the tire ran back.

Seeing this scene, Xiang Du breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Then he saw this martial artist get his head blown off by a bullet as he passed a black car—

Bang!

Xiang Du widened his eyes, immediately pushed open the car door to get out, and shouted loudly:

"Enemy attack—"

At the same time, half of the people in the dozen or so cars blocked ahead got out, holding firearms and shooting at the convoy behind!

Xiang Du decisively launched a charge toward the opponent, his body radiating a dark golden glow, deflecting all the incoming bullets.

This was the Gold-Timber Force, condensed from Xin-Metal Origin Qi. Xin-Metal is Yin-dominant and favorable for defense; the Gold-Timber Force is one of the forces with excellent defensive power.

Originally, Xiang Du was only a Qi-Transformation early-stage martial master. During the battle when the Anshen Sect invaded Xingcheng, he narrowly escaped death and ultimately gained a blessing in disguise, comprehending his state of mind and breaking through his realm.

So in this team, besides Cao Mu, the peak Qi-Transformation force-training martial master, Xiang Du was also a force-training martial master.

Relying on the Gold-Timber Force to protect his body, Xiang Du charged forward through the hail of bullets.

Behind him, seven or eight Body-Breaking martial artists from the Qingyuan Fist Village charged forward holding heavy bulletproof shields, and the rest of the gunmen returned fire.

Xiang Du covered the distance of several dozen meters in the blink of an eye. Before he could charge into the crowd, a figure from the opposite side took the initiative to meet him.

*Shua*—

An earthy-yellow force collided with Xiang Du like a meteor. Xiang Du felt as if he had been hit head-on by a speeding heavy truck; he was knocked off the highway in an instant, falling into the wasteland to the side and kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Qi-Transformation late-stage?"

Xiang Du looked solemnly at the person who had attacked him; just now, the opponent had struck him with a punch from a distance.

"Kill—"

Just at this moment, earth-shattering shouts of killing came from afar.

Xiang Du turned his head to look and saw over a hundred people appearing on a dirt slope several hundred meters away; these people were launching an attack on the convoy behind!