Huang Yu gathered over three thousand people, heading towards the east of the city. Along the way, eager to snatch the ability potions, they even broke into a run, all to catch an earlier glimpse of the coveted items.
Chu Chaoyan and Chang Jianyi witnessed this scene and quickly leaped onto the rooftops, stealthily following the crowd.
Chang Jianyi had already mobilized soldiers for support. Yang Chang, who was engaged in a battle with a thousand men in a small town forty kilometers north of Jiangyang, heard of Chang Jianyi's plan and immediately rushed to Jiangyang with his troops. With a thousand soldiers at her disposal, Chang Jianyi was no longer worried about combat power. Her primary concern now was the possibility of any stragglers escaping.
Although the enemy numbered over three thousand, their true combat strength could not be solely measured by their numbers.
Should any stragglers appear, Chang Jianyi and Chu Chaoyan, as two ability users, could engage in combat at critical moments. No escaped enemy should be let off the hook.
Huang Yu led his men, using the cover of night, to quickly approach the trucks in the parking lot. He knew which truck held the ability potions and directed his men towards it. Other factions, big and small, also surged forward. Despite their apparent unity moments ago, they were all prepared to fight over the ability potions once they were secured.
Some gang members noticed something amiss. Why was such crucial matériel unguarded? Not a single soldier was in sight.
The soldiers who sensed something was wrong quietly fell back, their minds not clouded by greed.
Huang Yu and his men reached the fifth truck. As he was about to open the door, he faintly saw white writing on it. A sense of unease washed over Huang Yu, and he quickly instructed his subordinate, "Bring me a lighter. I want to see what's written on the door."
A subordinate immediately handed him a lighter. After igniting it, Huang Yu read the chalk writing on the door, character by character: "The madman dies beneath this vehicle."
A look of disdain crossed Huang Yu's face as he scoffed, "A mere curse is meant to stop us? How naive. They leave no soldiers to guard this place, yet they write curses on the doors. What's wrong with them!"
Huang Yu failed to grasp the meaning of the writing on the door, but Wang Xiao, at this moment, felt a chill run down his spine. He recalled a person, seemingly one of the protagonists of the "Besiege Wei to rescue Zhao" strategy, named Pang Juan. Hadn't he encountered a similar situation?
"Pang Juan dies beneath this tree!" It was said that this was what Pang Juan saw before his death. When Pang Juan raised a torch, a barrage of arrows was immediately unleashed from all sides, and he fell into an ambush.
Cold sweat trickled down Wang Xiao's forehead. His breathing grew rapid. He reached up and wiped the sweat from his brow, knowing that he had walked into a trap.
Huang Yu, disregarding everything, began to smash the truck door, intent on finding the ability potions. Wang Xiao, however, sensing the danger, started to retreat slowly.
Just then, a red flare shot into the sky. The vicinity of the parking lot was instantly illuminated by lights. Giant searchlights shone down on the parking lot, and countless beams of light converged on the three thousand-plus people. Soldiers rapidly emerged from nearby buildings, sealing off all access routes.
Chang Jianyi, from her vantage point on the rooftop, witnessed this and a cold smile played on her lips. "Now, the mice have scurried into the cage. The plan has succeeded perfectly!"
Chu Chaoyan sighed and sat on the railing. "How boring. Such foolish enemies actually require us to make such a grand effort to deal with them. It's like using a butcher's cleaver to kill a chicken."
Having followed Shen Feng on numerous campaigns, Chu Chaoyan naturally looked down upon such a small number of enemies. Previously, when they attacked a county town, tens of thousands of zombies would swarm out. At this moment, the enemy numbered only three thousand, and their weapons were hardly impressive. She simply didn't think much of the current scale of the battle.
Chang Jianyi said calmly, "Even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit."
Chang Jianyi also understood that even though the battle hadn't begun, the outcome was already decided. They were just a bunch of petty thugs with inferior weapons, no match for an army that had already fought numerous battles.
After Yang Chang and his men surrounded the parking lot, he nodded to a soldier beside him. The soldier immediately stepped forward with a loudspeaker and shouted, "Listen up, everyone in front! Lay down your weapons and surrender. We guarantee no harm will come to you. However, if anyone dares to resist, don't blame us for taking action!"
The people in the parking lot heard the shouts and were bathed in searchlights from all directions. They were instantly paralyzed with fear. Their earlier bravado vanished, and under a slight threat, their true colors were revealed. Those who were supposed to be afraid were indeed afraid.
Huang Yu turned his head, looking for his advisor to ask for instructions, but he couldn't find him anywhere. With a surge of desperation, he gritted his teeth and shouted, "Brothers, hold on! Once I drink the ability potion and become an ability user, we will be victorious!"
Huang Yu grabbed a crowbar and smashed open the rear door of the truck. He stormed into the interior, found a safe among a pile of specimens, and without hesitation, smashed it open, retrieving two vials of ability potions.
At this moment, a group of desperate individuals, unafraid of death, charged towards the passage. However, as soon as the soldiers saw their actions, they opened fire. Hot bullets were continuously discharged, hitting arms and severing them, hitting thighs and creating gaping wounds.
Some, refusing to believe their luck, attempted to break through. They simply didn't believe the promise of no killing upon surrender. After all, over a thousand people had been killed in Yuzhou. The remaining survivors were either sent to mine or fined and forcibly conscripted for farming, treated like prisoners. Being captured meant a fate no different from death.
Therefore, hundreds of people began to break through the surrounding passages, attempting to carve a bloody path with their weapons. However, not even one in each person had a firearm. Attempting to break through the soldiers' blockade was nothing short of wishful thinking.
"Da da da," bullets continued to fly, and those rushing towards the road fell one by one. If they were dead, it was a release. But those who were not dead writhed on the ground, crying out in agony.
"Save me, save me! My leg is broken, hurry and save me!"
"Take me with you! My intestines are ruptured, I need to have them reconnected."
"Ah, I surrender! I surrender!"
When bullets hit the human body, they create a cavity effect. This means that after hitting the body, not only is there a piercing wound, but the area around the bullet is also torn by airflow. Therefore, when a bullet hits the head, the head explodes like a watermelon, which is the cavity effect.
The still-living victims cried out hoarsely, begging for help from others. But at this moment, who would come to their aid? The soldiers watched with cold eyes, unmoved.
If these were new recruits, they might have been deeply affected by the gruesome scene on the ground. However, these soldiers had experienced the Battle of Yanjing and could fight calmly even when facing hordes of zombies. Now, facing the cries of a group of people, they showed no emotional fluctuation.
Huang Yu, inside the truck, heard the cries from outside and a cold smile spread across his face. "A bunch of fools, trying to break out of here. How could it be that easy? Just watch me!"
With that, Huang Yu picked up a vial of pale green ability potion and gulped it down. "Gulp, gulp." Huang Yu decisively drank the ability potion, licked his lips, and wondered, "That's strange. Isn't it rumored that ability potions have no taste? Why is this sweet? And it has a faint apple flavor?"
Huang Yu sensed that something was wrong. If they had truly fallen into a trap, did that mean these ability potions were also fake?
"Gulp, gulp." Huang Yu picked up the other vial and drank it. After tasting it carefully, he finally confirmed it. This was not an ability potion at all, but an apple-flavored beverage!
"Damn it, you bunch of shameless scoundrels! I'll fight you to the death!" Huang Yu went mad, smashing the surrounding items. Many specimens were ruined.
Huang Yu was now insane. He was smashing the surrounding items indiscriminately when his subordinate rushed into the truck, saying anxiously, "Boss, hundreds of people have died outside. What should we do now? Should we surrender?"
"Surrender?" Huang Yu heard his subordinate's question and flew into a rage. He drew his pistol and shot his subordinate in the chest.
"Bang." The bullet hit his subordinate, who slowly collapsed to the ground, blood gushing out.
"If we surrender, will they let us go? You speaking like this now is demoralizing the troops. You deserve to die! I would rather die than be captured by the City Lord's Mansion!" Huang Yu said coldly.
Huang Yu now only wanted to resist to the end. He had heard about what happened in the prison. There was a man named Ren Jing who, after being captured by Shen Feng, was cut once every day but never killed. Ren Jing was an evolved being, and his wounds healed quickly. Therefore, in prison, he lived a life worse than death, being kept like livestock. The mere thought of this sent shivers down Huang Yu's spine.
Huang Yu, with his subordinates, began to organize a defense. His men were armed with crude firearms. If we talk about firepower, the Dragon Slaying Gang was the most powerful among all the gangs. He led his men to defend the perimeter of the parking lot, setting up their guns. For a time, the army found it difficult to advance.
Yang Chang needed to minimize casualties as much as possible, as his soldiers were hard-won. They had not suffered any casualties when fighting zombies, and it would be too regrettable to lose them to a bunch of petty thugs.
Huang Yu left the truck carriage, and the subordinate he had killed quickly succumbed, blood flowing continuously. The truck contained many specimens, and among them were inconspicuous items, including the plant heart that Shen Feng had brought back from Fish Town.
Blood flowed onto the plant heart, and the withered plant heart immediately began to contract. The blood gradually seeped into the plant heart, and the plant heart suddenly began to beat.
"Thump, thump..." A heavy and powerful heartbeat echoed within the truck carriage. A root suddenly grew from the plant heart. The slender root extended to the corpse on the ground, burrowed into the wound, and began to absorb blood. The heartbeat of the plant heart grew faster and faster.
Finally, the thick bark on the plant heart cracked open, revealing a vertical eye.
Huang Yu, with his subordinates, had formed a defense line. He shouted loudly, "Brothers, hold on! We will definitely break through! If we are caught, it's a dead end! Brothers, we will definitely find an opportunity."
Under the desperate fight of Huang Yu and his men, the people in the parking lot were truly united for a time. No one wanted to be captured, and to survive, they could only fight.
Yang Chang was angered by their stubborn resistance. He turned and shouted behind him, "Go get the rocket launcher and give these people a taste of a shell! Let's see if they still dare to resist!"
Yang Chang had initially intended to capture these people without bloodshed, but a group of desperate individuals stubbornly resisted, which was equivalent to increasing his workload.
Therefore, Yang Chang no longer cared. If they wanted to fight to the end, he would give them a big surprise and see if they could handle it!
A soldier immediately grabbed a rocket launcher and rushed into a nearby building. He crouched down, aiming the barrel at the people in the parking lot.
"Now, let's see my performance!" the soldier carrying the rocket launcher muttered to himself.
However, at that very moment, a massive explosion erupted from within the crowd in the parking lot: "Boom..."
Flames erupted, and the explosion shook the heavens and the earth. Everyone in Jiangyang heard the explosion. Many people who were fast asleep were awakened, all looking at their surroundings with uncertainty. What was that explosion? Had a war broken out?