The First Order

Li Shentan did not finish off the person from the Zong Consortium Wang Congyang had deliberately left alive. He squatted next to the overturned vehicle and asked with a smile, “Can you contact your boss right now?”

The man was still dangling from the backseat of the vehicle. As the vehicle was flipped with its chassis facing up, the man was unfortunate enough to have his foot stuck and could not move at all.

When Li Shentan reached out and opened his clenched fist, the squashed vehicle actually started uncrumpling as though it were an expanding balloon.

When the man could move again, he kowtowed to Li Shentan. “I have a satellite phone, so I can get him right away!”

Li Shentan nodded and said with a smile, “Give him a call then. You heard what that person said just now. Since he asked you to report back to the Zong Consortium, you should report it quickly.”

“OK, OK.” The man was traumatized and did whatever he was told. Part of it might have been the effect of Li Shentan’s hypnosis or maybe panic.

Li Shentan looked into his eyes and said, “A supernatural being who can control a steam locomotive has attacked you all. He said he wanted to take revenge on the Zong Consortium and has taken away all the gold.”

When the call went through, the man hurriedly reported the situation. The person on the other end of the line did not even grumble and just hung up in silence.

Li Shentan sighed and said, “Why isn’t there any reaction? Alright, there’s nothing left for you to do. You can end yourself now.”

With those words, the man stood up and limped quickly towards a rock on the roadside. He rammed himself into it and died.

Next to him, Hu Shuo asked, “What was the point of having him make that call?”

“Grandpa,” Li Shentan smiled and said, “wouldn’t it be fun if that starts a chain reaction?”

Hu Shuo looked at Li Shentan. He felt a sense of anguish when he heard it was about having fun. The old man understood that his grandson did not have a healthy mind, but he knew exactly what caused it. Most people who had experienced those situations would also find it difficult to live like a normal person, wouldn’t they? So all he could do was protect his grandson while he still could. Whatever he wanted to do, he would be there with him.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu, who had just reached the shore, was unaware that the big picture in the South had been decided. Li Shentan was guarding at the Zong Consortium’s escape route and saying he wanted to help Ren Xiaosu eradicate all of the Zong Consortium’s people. He also did not know that Wang Congyang had actually been hiding in the Zong Consortium’s territory for over a month after escaping from the valley, and he even pulled off a big ambush against the Zong Consortium before swaggering off.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was leading the Razor Sharp Company along the shore while moving in a crooked fashion.

When the group of thugs from the Razor Sharp Company disembarked from the ferry, they could barely maintain the wedge. However, they seriously underestimated the aftereffects of seasickness. After all, this group of people had been seasick on the ferry for two days and two nights. They did not have much to eat during this period, and even when they did eat something, they ended up vomiting it all out. The entire group was tottering around and could not even keep to a straight path!

When Ren Xiaosu asked them whether they were alright, they still answered that they were fine!

After coming ashore, they would definitely have to do something. Ren Xiaosu suggested that they change out of their uniforms first.

Zhang Xiaoman had suggested they put on the Zong Consortium’s khaki uniforms and impersonate the Zong Consortium’s soldiers to catch the enemy by surprise. But there were too many holes in the uniforms they could gather at that time, so Ren Xiaosu rejected the idea.

Right now would be the correct moment for them to put on the Zong Consortium’s uniforms. They almost certainly wouldn’t encounter any friendlies in the place they were stepping foot in. There would only be enemies here.

On the northern shore of the Beiwan River was a farming settlement. But at this moment, there were weeds everywhere in the fields, and the fields looked hardly taken care of.

In the territories controlled by the consortiums, it would not be enough to just own factories. Without a supply of food, they couldn’t support many people. So the consortiums also commanded the refugees to cluster farm like how they managed their factories. Farming was basically the same as working in a factory.

“Looks like the farmer refugees have also been recruited to fight the war,” Zhang Xiaoman muttered. “Look at all these crops. They’re dying with no one taking care of them.”

Farming was definitely not as simple as “sowing in spring and reaping in fall.” If there were no one to clear the weeds, they would end up growing even better than the crops.

“What the hell!” Jiao Xiaochen said, “Look, the corn is about to bear ears, right? We don’t even have this to eat in the fortress, yet they don’t cherish what they have.”

“However, it can also be seen how great of an exaggeration the Zong Consortium made when they claimed they had 200,000 soldiers.” Zhang Xiaoman spat on the ground. “How can a group of farmers fight a fucking battle? No wonder I thought the enemy’s marksmanship was piss-poor in the Battle of Shichuan Village. I think there’s probably a lot of similar cannon fodder deployed at Mt. Wuchuan as well.”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “If the refugees here had been recruited, they might have left in a hurry and not taken their clothing with them. Let’s look around and put on whatever we can find first before searching for the Zong Consortium’s military uniforms.”

“It’ll be easy to find clothing left behind by the refugees here,” Zhang Xiaoman replied. “What’ll be difficult is getting our hands on the Zong Consortium’s military uniforms. We have to obtain those that are clean and not bloodstained. You can’t possibly expect to capture an entire company of Zong Consortium soldiers alive, right?”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at him. “We can just look for a garment factory. The Zong Consortium’s garment factories must all be producing those military uniforms now. We can choose whatever size we like after we take one of the garment factories.”

Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. This idea had not crossed his mind before.

But before they could walk much further, they came across some simple ranch houses near the farming settlement that were neatly arranged in rows. It looked like these were the refugees’ living quarters.

There were a lot of clothes inside, but they were all filthy.

But at a time like this, they could not be particular. Everyone in the Razor Sharp Company took the clothes from the houses and changed into them.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard someone humming and approaching from behind the row of houses. It was even a girl’s voice that he heard.

Ren Xiaosu said, “Don’t worry, it’s just some normal refugees, and they aren’t carrying any weapons.”

When they heard Ren Xiaosu, everyone was relieved. They did not even care how Ren Xiaosu knew that.

Zhang Xiaoman said in a low voice, “They’re probably refugees who came here to escape from the war. Don’t alert them. We’re also refugees now. Hide the guns inside the house and then head out.”

The moment they stepped out, everyone was surprised to see an old man holding a little girl’s hand standing in front of them. The old man and the little girl were also stunned. They had not expected so many people to suddenly appear here.

Zhang Xiaoman smiled kindly and said, “Sir, we are refugees passing by this place. Do you have any food that we can eat?”

“Refugees?” The old man said in a startled manner, “I don’t think y’all’re refugees?”

Zhang Xiaoman was taken aback. “Why do you say that?”

The old man trembled while replying, “This is the first time I’ve seen refugees carrying a mortar…”

Zhang Xiaoman turned around and looked at Jiao Xiaochen. when he saw Jiao Xiaochen still carrying the mortar in a daze, he kicked him right in the crotch. Only now did the Razor Sharp Company finally snap out of their seasickness.

Zhang Xiaoman said angrily, “Why’re you still carrying the fucking mortar?”

Jiao Xiaochen climbed back to his feet and muttered, “Captain, you only told us to leave our guns in the houses. You didn’t say anything about the mortar!”