356 Steam Locomotive

Wang Congyang was someone who was much more difficult to deal with than Ren Xiaosu had imagined.

Back at the town, Ren Xiaosu had concealed almost every detail flawlessly, but Wang Congyang still latched hard onto him.

Ren Xiaosu and the others who had thought the northwest attack would be the main battlefield were now realizing they had anticipated it wrong.

When his shadow clone encountered these bandits, Ren Xiaosu immediately determined they had at least a few hundred people in the group. As such, he believed they were Wang Congyang's main force.

However, Wang Congyang was even more ruthless. He actually used these 200 people as cannon fodder to attract the firepower of the enemy. Wang Congyang clearly knew these 200 people would die here, but he did not care!

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, 'No wonder that guy gained a foothold in the valley. Not only does he use his superpower, but he also has a cunning and vicious mind.'

At this moment, the firing of the sniper rifle suddenly stopped before the bandits in the northwest were all dead. Ren Xiaosu immediately understood that Yang Xiaojin had also noticed that something was amiss and was quickly shifting her position in search of a new commanding point for her firepower suppression.

Without needing to communicate in words, Yang Xiaojin believed Ren Xiaosu's shadow clone would finish off the remnants of the defeated bandits in the northwest.

Seeing that more than half of the 200 bandits in the northwest had already died, the remaining ones were so scared their hearts nearly exploded. This unknown shadow that had come out of nowhere could neither be driven away nor killed.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu knew that if Wang Congyang's main forces were really coming from a different direction, his village couldn't defeat them in a direct confrontation. Xu Jinyuan had said that Wang Congyang had heavy firepower on his side that included RPGs as well!

He had to think of another way! He had to avoid a direct confrontation at their settlement.

As for Jin Lan and the others, Ren Xiaosu could only bet on Yang Xiaojin arriving in time to support them.

Jin Lan looked northeast into the darkness and said, "There's a lot of gullies over there. If the enemies are hiding in them, I'm afraid that Boss Lady's sniper rifle won't be effective."

"Can they really be so familiar with the terrain?" Zhang Yiheng asked, "If they haven't been here before, they'll probably lose their way in the gullies, right?"

Xu Jinyuan sighed and said, "This is all my fault. I should've persuaded that brother to stay behind. He must have revealed our plans and informed the gang of bandits that we have a sniper. That's why their main forces purposely chose to approach from where the sniper can't spot them. Besides, he worked here for more than twenty days. He's surely familiarized himself with the area already. He always went out to explore the terrain at night."

Jin Lan was silent for a moment. "You weren't in the wrong either. We can only say that everyone makes their own choices, so there's no need to feel guilty over it. As the saying goes, 'while the general is on horseback, do as you wish.'"

"Haha." Next to him, Zhang Yiheng slotted bullets into a magazine. "Jin Lan, I didn't know you were a cultured person?"

Jin Lan said modestly, "I did attend a few years of school."

"We can't just rely on Boss Lady's sniping to hold them off. We're grown-ass men! We're holding guns in our hands, and we can kill our enemies too!" Zhang Yiheng said heroically, "Weren't you all disappointed that our enemies could not charge at us just now? We're going to be charging at them instead very soon! Don't be a coward when the time comes."

But right at this moment, metallic sounds clanged in the darkness.

The strange metallic sounds were like dagger-axes striking against each other, but it also sounded like someone was striking iron with a hammer.

This sound came abruptly, yet it sounded extremely powerful.

Suddenly, a fog started spreading. It felt like a gigantic creature was charging at them from the darkness.

Then, clickety-clacking could be heard. It grew louder in the nothingness and slowly increased in rhythm!

Right after that, a black steam locomotive sped through the fog, "shattering" it!

"Fuck!" Jin Lan roared angrily, "Where the hell did this train come from!"

The consortiums had trains as well, but they were limited to a very small number of places and were used for transporting minerals and supplies. It was not that the consortiums could not afford to build a railway system, but that earthquakes in the Northwest and Southwest happened far too frequently. As a result, it would be extremely expensive to maintain the system. Sometimes, newly built railroad tracks would get damaged by the next day.

How could anything even withstand earthquakes that could shatter two strongholds?

However, Jin Lan and the others did know of the existence of trains. Jin Lan had also seen blurry pictures of them before in the schoolbooks.

It was just that he could not figure out where this train had come from.

The metallic clanging was made by the train as it moved forward on a metal railroad track that materialized segment by segment below it. After the rails materialized, they would automatically pave themselves at the bottom of the black locomotive. As the train moved forward, the tracks behind would disappear while fresh tracks reappeared in front of it.

The train had three carriages attached to the forward engine. Jin Lan instinctively fired at the locomotive but could only send some sparks flying as the bullets hit the train!

"Dodge!" Jin Lan roared.

But the train kept charging at their simple fortifications in an attempt to completely crush their defenses.

Instead of the enemy showing up, they were greeted by a giant steel monster!

The train was zooming. Before Jin Lan and the others could dodge, the train had already crashed into a short brick wall. The brick walls crumbled into pieces like tofu.

This was the power of a supernatural being. In the era of the "Rise of Gods," the power of supernatural beings was getting more and more powerful. Who knew what kind of shocking things could happen in the future!

As many of the bandits could not avoid it in time, they died from the impact of the cold and unfeeling train. After the train brushed past Jin Lan and the others who managed to escape unscathed, they could only watch helplessly as the steam locomotive crashed into the village where the refugees were located. Over there were the mud houses, the newly built brick houses, and also their fellow villagers who had cooked for them.

Jin Lan watched this happen in a daze. He saw the new houses turn into a heap of ruins before his very eyes while the refugees inside were pinned under the bricks.

But the steam locomotive that seemed to have come from Hell remained completely undamaged.

Gunshots rang out, but it wasn't Jin Lan and the others who had fired their weapons.

Under the cover of the steam locomotive, the bandits to the northeast finally broke out of the gullies and charged at Jin Lan's group!

One of Jin Lan's squad mates next to him was shot, and blood started flowing out of his wound.

It was over! Everything seemed to be finished! They had worked hard to make the bricks and build the houses, but they ended up being destroyed so easily by the enemy.

They had been greeting each other as brothers all these days, but their brothers ended up dying here by their sides.

Xu Jinyuan hid behind a heap of broken bricks and said in a daze, "Who saw Boss?"

They only just realized that Ren Xiaosu had disappeared at some point!

"Where's Boss

"Who saw where the boss went?"

Behind the trembling voices that were asking this, the loneliness that stemmed from the fear of being abandoned and left behind started spreading. "Did Boss abandon us and run away?"

Gunfire intensified. The enemy was getting closer and closer.

Some of the bandits started fleeing into the wilderness behind them.

Although everyone felt a sense of belonging to this place, no one would risk their lives for it.

That wonderful hope ultimately could not win against their survival instincts.

Although some of them left, there were also others who remained behind.

Zhang Yiheng suddenly spat out, "I don't believe that he would abandon us and run away. He's gotta have something more important to handle."

"Then what should we do?" one of the bandits asked.

"Fucking kill them!" Zhang Yiheng roared, "Aren't we also holding guns? They actually destroyed the houses that I put in so much effort to build! Fire at them! Let's get revenge for the houses and our brothers!"