NOVPUBChapter 71: Chapter 70: Bombardment
Chapter 71 -70: Bombardment
“Interrogated alone, huh… He doesn’t seem like a regular laborer,” Zhang Zhiyuan reached for the man’s neck, “He’s still breathing, but in this state, he definitely can’t run.”
“Hey, before you go, take another look for me,” he turned his head toward Leisk, who was still standing where he was, “Do you recognize this person?”
The boy stepped forward, looked the man over carefully, then shook his head.
“I say, you aren’t planning on taking him back to Magnificent Castle, are you?” Anthony complained while rummaging through chests and cabinets.
“Sorry to say, but that’s exactly what I’m planning.”
“You don’t even know who he is.”
“No matter who he is, it’s very unlikely he’s a friend of GaoTian Mining,” Zhang Zhiyuan cut the dangling ropes with his dagger and proceeded to undo the leather straps binding the injured man, carefully hoisting him onto his shoulder. “Besides, he was locked up alone in the conductor’s room, which means he must be especially important to the company.”
“Hmph, suit yourself,” the Russian said no more.
Zhang Zhiyuan was somewhat surprised by this reaction; he had expected the other man to argue with him for quite a while.
“I found it!” Zhou Zhi suddenly shouted.
He dragged a heavy iron box from under the bedside table, and as the box slid out, there was a clanging of metal from within.
“But the box is locked!”
“Let me handle it.” Anthony raised his gun, aimed at the lock, and fired twice, blowing the lock to smithereens.
The iron box burst open, revealing its contents—seven or eight stuffed cloth bags piled together, each looking heavy and substantial. He randomly selected one, untied the rope securing it, and poured out its contents!
They were all coins the size of half a palm, each reflecting a dark gold shimmer under the dim oil lamp.
In any place, this was a fortune to be envied.
Anthony took off his coat and efficiently bundled all the bags together, “Alright, we can retreat now.”
“Be careful, something’s strange!” Qianyuan Meiko warned at that moment.
“What happened?”
“When I was watching by the window, I could still see them trying to approach the carriage, but now that we’ve been in the conductor’s room for so long, not a single person has followed us onto carriage seven.”
The conductor’s room was a completely sealed steel carriage, so they couldn’t see what was happening outside.
“Now that you mention it… I also feel like it’s eerily quiet around the train, isn’t it?” Zhou Zhi whispered.
The two sides had already clashed, and GaoTian Mining’s security team knew that the enemy had breached the carriage interior; shouldn’t they at least attempt a counterattack? And even if they were wary of their fierce firepower, what about the multitude of laborers they let go? If they couldn’t handle “bandits,” were they really going to ignore unarmed regular people too?
“No matter what trick they are playing, we just need to get the money under the bridge,” Zhang Zhiyuan pondered for a moment, “In that case, let’s not exit from carriage seven but instead backtrack to carriage three. There are more forms of cover we can use there.”
This proposal met with everyone’s agreement.
However, just as they were passing through the seventh carriage, Ailuodi, with her sharp eyes, immediately noticed a faint blue glow outside the window!
There was no doubt, it was a lamp designed to dispel fog.
“Not good…” Leisk suddenly changed color, “We can’t go any further, retreat now!”
Simultaneously, Zhang Zhiyuan saw several figures moving near the railway bridge, and then in less than three seconds, a bright red signal flare shot into the sky. Even through the dense fog, they could vaguely distinguish the unique glow it emitted!
He suddenly realized something, dashed to the window with the injured person on his back, and peered toward the rear of the train—
He saw a peculiar steel machine standing on the slope of a depression, its top also equipped with a searchlight like the one on the train, only the range dispelling the fog was a circle smaller. But even so, it was still enough for Zhang Zhiyuan to make out its entirety.
It had legs like a spider, each joint spewing steam as if it were a giant boiler itself. But Zhang Zhiyuan would never consider it a mere device for boiling water, for its upper body was clearly a turret, and its dark barrel was aimed straight at the carriage they were in!
He finally understood what the boy had been rambling about, the terrifying weapon.
“Everyone jump off—now!”
Zhang Zhiyuan bellowed with all his might, at the same time shifting the person on his back to the front and holding tight before leaping out of the carriage.
While still in midair, he caught a glimpse of a dazzling ball of flame from the corner of his eye.
In the next instant, Zhang Zhiyuan felt as if something had violently shoved him, and he was flung backwards, plummeting below the timber bridge, overhead a shower of sparks and black smoke burst open.
Only then did the thunderous explosion puncture his eardrums—
Boom!
It was as if the earth and mountains shook!
Zhang Zhiyuan plunged into a thicket of bushes, tumbling several times before coming to a stop.
“Host! Suppress the pain!”
“Pain suppression already reduced to 25%,” Chaoyang’s promptly resounding voice brought him some relief. No wonder nobody counterattacked the carriage—the Guard Squad of GaoTian Company hadn’t planned on confronting them head-on at all! The enemies had thoughtfully left many illuminated stones before leaving, clearing the fog around the carriage completely, just to facilitate monitoring their movements from a distance!
But why didn’t these people directly bombard the conductor’s car?
Could it be that they didn’t want to kill the man who had been severely interrogated?
Zhang Zhiyuan checked the unconscious person in his arms and found that he hadn’t sustained much impact damage, whereas his own left arm had gone completely numb, likely broken.
Luckily, the bridge wasn’t high, or the moment of being blown away would have been certain death.
“Can you help me check on everyone else?”
“Zhou Zhi, Ailuodi, and Qianyuan Mingzi are descending from the other side of the bridge, Anthony has gone offline,” Chaoyang quickly replied.
Zhang Zhiyuan finally let out a sigh of relief upon receiving this response. Despite facing a direct bombardment, the casualties were lighter than he expected; in such a situation, having only one fatality was fortunate within misfortune.
He staggered to his feet, dragging the unconscious man with a limp at every step toward the underside of the timber bridge. In just a short while, he saw Zhou Zhi and the others. The boy named Leisk hadn’t fled by himself; he was still following them.
“Zhang, are you alright?”
Zhou Zhi ran toward him excitedly.
“Not too bad, how about you guys?”
“We’re mostly unharmed,” Zhou Zhi patted his chest, looking quite shaken. “Seeing you jump, we jumped too, then came the explosion and flames. I thought we were goners, but the blast wave didn’t reach us. Only Anthony… he got pierced by a flying piece of iron through the stomach, he was already gone when he hit the ground. We had to leave him on the bridge, but thankfully the money is still intact. Also…”
“Also what?” Observing his hesitation, Zhang Zhiyuan pressed.
“I…,” Zhou Zhi wanted to say that the moment he jumped out of the window, he clearly saw the explosion’s firelight, but it didn’t engulf them. Instead, it stopped right at the window, as if an invisible barrier had held back the explosion’s force inside the carriage. But since it all happened in a flash, he couldn’t be sure if it was an illusion, thus he ultimately shook his head and said, “No, nothing… I guess we were just incredibly lucky.”
After all, the Russians’ fate was the exact opposite of theirs.
