Chapter 34: The Tide Turns Chen Shaoqin Withdraws His Troops

  "What's that?" Before Liu the Cripple and his men could figure out what was happening, they heard two loud booms, "Rumble, rumble!" The earth beside Liu the Cripple erupted with tremendous force, sending him tumbling to the ground. A thick layer of dust and dirt swirled around him, covering him in a chaotic mess.

  This string of explosions, with sounds ranging from small to large and coming from far to near, directly covered Chen Shaoqin's ambush circle. The thick smell of gunpowder filled the forest, and the burning flames ignited the blasted tree branches.

  At the same time as the explosion, Chen Shaoqin was also shaken to the ground by that strong shockwave, his forehead cut by shrapnel, fresh blood slowly flowing down with gravity, the bright red blood almost covering his left eye.

  After the explosion, Chen Shaowen pushed away the dust that covered him, picked up the gun in his hand, ejected the shell, re-cocked the hammer, loaded a new bullet, and made all preparations for attack. His left eye was blocked by bloodstains and couldn't see very clearly, but his right eye had no problem at all, and he could see everything that happened in front of him clearly.

  At this time, the little devil took advantage of that string of explosions and the remaining artillery rushed into the back of the small stone where Nomura was located, started setting up cannons and adjusting angles, followed by a series of most intense bombardments.

  Chen Shaoqin clearly saw everything on the side of the little devils, and immediately held his gun and retreated to the position of Liu Waizai and others. Facing the ferocious little devils, he didn't dare to relax his vigilance for a moment, after all, this was a matter of life and death. He didn't dare to be careless at all, so when retreating to the position of Liu Waizai and others, he also didn't forget to retreat while being on guard.

  When he arrived at the edge of Liu's camp, what appeared before his eyes were craters caused by explosions, surrounded by dust and debris blown up by the blasts. Leaves and twigs were buried in the mud. He didn't see any of his soldiers, so he could only crouch down slightly and call out to Liu and his men: "Master, brothers, is anyone still alive?"

  At this time, something under a mound of earth was stirred up. Then, Liu the Cripple burst out of the ground, shaking off the dirt on his body. He seemed to still be unclear about the situation: "Damn it, I've turned into something that grows out of mud!"

  "Are you okay, old fellow?" Chen Shaoqin immediately reached out to support him and asked if he was injured. You know, the little devil's hand grenade this time had too much power, it's already a miracle that these brothers are still alive, let alone injured.

  "Director Chen, don't worry, I haven't finished killing these little devils yet, the King of Hell won't take me!" Crooked Liu saw Chen Shaoqin approaching and said to him in a nonchalant tone, as if nothing had happened. It seemed that this round of explosion hadn't affected him much, and he was fine now. He asked Chen Shaoqin, "By the way, what the hell was that thing just now? It was so fierce! Almost buried me alive!"

  "That's the little devil's hand grenade, its power is much greater than our own!" Chen Shaoqin explained to Liu while searching for other brothers around him. However, there were only a few surviving brothers, and most of them had sacrificed in this round of explosions, which made Chen Shaoqin feel somewhat unbearable. "Where's Xue Jia's servant girl?"

  "Just now she was still here!" Liu the traitor, seeing Chen Shaoqin ask about it, immediately started searching and saw the earth mound, hurriedly dug. Chen Shaoqin had placed Xue Yumei in his care, as a sign of trust, but now that Xue Yumei was gone, he felt it was his own dereliction of duty, so he frantically dug at the earth mound like a madman, but instead of digging up Xue Yumei, he dug up many brothers' corpses.

  "Cough, cough..." Just at this time, a coughing sound came from under the corpse of one of the brothers. Chen Shaoqin and Liu ran over immediately, pushed away the corpse, and only then did they see clearly that the person being pressed under the corpse was none other than Xue Yumei.

  "Stupid girl, are you alright?" Chen Shaoqin asked with a slightly trembling voice as soon as he saw Xue Yumei and immediately pulled her into his own arms.

  "Silly big guy, I...I'm fine, it was this brother who saved me!" Xue Yumei didn't resist Chen Shaoqin's hug, instead she enjoyed the warmth and told Chen Shaoqin that it was the brother who was pressed against her body who had saved him, but unfortunately, that brother had sacrificed himself to save him.

  "Brothers, you are all good men. Big Brother promises you that he will definitely wipe out the little devils to avenge for you!" Liu Ke didn't mention anything about Chen Shaoyin and Xue Yumei's affair. At this moment, he carefully counted the fallen brothers, his heart aching severely, his voice trembling as he spoke, completely losing the heroic tone from before. "Farewell on your journey!"

  The remaining brothers also followed Liu's words, they were mourning the fallen brothers, after all, they were brothers who had been through thick and thin, now that people have left, they couldn't just do nothing.

  "This is not the time for sorrow, we must retreat. The little devils across from us have already begun to test our distance, and soon this place will be covered in cannon fire!" Chen Shaoqin slightly pushed Xue Yumei aside, turning to face Liaozi Liu. His words were absolutely not meant to intimidate.

  The little devil has been disrupted by Chen Shaoqin's attack earlier, and they don't know how many people Chen Shaoqin has in his hands. To avoid losses, Nomura dare not organize troops to charge rashly. They are waiting for artillery support. As long as the artillery suppresses Chen Shaoqin's position, Nomura's charging troops will come up continuously, completely reversing the situation between the enemy and us. Therefore, Chen Shaoqin is anxious to let his brothers retreat quickly.

  "Artillery coverage?" As soon as Liu heard these words, his heart skipped a beat. Just now it was just the little devils' hand grenades, and their brothers had sacrificed so many. If the devils' artillery fire came up, how could they withstand it? Liu's heart still racing with fear, immediately ordered the remaining brothers, "Brothers, listen to Officer Chen, hurry up and retreat!"

  Thinking back to the explosion just now, Lao Liu still feels a lingering fear in his heart. This time he really ran a lap around the underworld and barely escaped with his life. However, his brothers who were by his side weren't so lucky, several of them were blown to pieces.

  The brothers listened to the order and quickly alternated their retreat. Although they had never seen the power of mortar attacks, seeing the expressions of Liu and Chen Shaoqin, they probably understood that the mortar's power was not ordinary. Therefore, they did not hesitate at all after listening to Liu's command, and quickly retreated in a westerly direction. However, before they could get far away, the whistling shells fell one by one on the ground, forming a powerful explosion that pushed the entire forest's trees forward, shaking the earth with a deafening roar...