Watching the retreating enemy, Xue Yangping chuckled, his heart filled with gratitude for the explosives delivered by the Skinny Cat and Fat Rat this morning.
Despite the fact that they were once unemployed drifters before the Imperial invasion, they had been miners before.
Although they no longer worked in the mines, their friendship with their mine worker peers was still intact.
The explosives had come from the duo sneaking into the city in the early hours of the day, soliciting some from a former mining engineer.
After expressing his gratitude to the Cat-Rat duo, Xue Yangping, holding a lieutenant hostage, began to retreat step by step towards the nearby parking lot.
The surrounding Imperial soldiers, while alarmed by the potential of the explosives, cautiously approached with their guns up, under the command of another lieutenant.
Upon feeling the gate of a vehicle against his back, Xue Yangping held the hostage with one hand while nimbly pulling the pin on a grenade with the other.
One.
Two.
Three.
The three grenades were precisely tossed, arching over the heads of different Imperial soldiers.
"Grenades!"
This action attracted the attention of the Imperial soldiers present, all of whom scrambled to evade the explosives.
Meanwhile, Xue Yangping, the instigator, forced his hostage lieutenant to start the vehicle. As the passenger, he didn't bother to watch the chaos unfold out the window.
Being a former star basketball player, he was quite confident in his ball-throwing skills.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The three explosive sounds echoed as the military jeep carrying the captives and threat sped away.
As rest were thinking of giving chase in their vehicles, they noticed one more item on the ground of the parking lot.
"Explosives! Evade!"
"Boom!"
The dozen or so cars in the parking lot exploded in a post-impact chain reaction due to the purposeful tampering with the fuel tanks sending a black cloud of smoke shooting into the sky.
The Imperial soldiers in the camp, not having time to pursue, hurriedly searched for fire extinguishers or started forming bucket brigade for water.
They had no choice, as the city's original firefighters had all been confined to the temporary concentration camp set up in a school.
The blasting noises, as planned, reverberated ominously through the city, jolting half its residents.
...
Within the city hall, on the red dais, the clergy who were delivering sermons were startled to a halt by the commotion.
From the back row of seats, someone stood up and appeared to signal something to his subordinates.
Shen Congfei noticed this and aimed his gun at the familiar face who had just stood up.
Colonel.
In the end, however, he decided against shooting.
After all, the rescue operation was still in progress, and shooting now would only trigger their alarms, risking the safety of Tang Ke's parents.
Feeling that he had missed a golden opportunity, Shen Congfei sighed, deciding to patiently wait a little longer.
The troops at the scene had already been partially scattered; the situation at the western part of the city would be determined next.
With this thought, he turned his gaze towards that direction.
...
Meanwhile, in the west of the city, Tang Ke, also dressed in the Imperial Army uniform, had slipped into an area with only a handful of soldiers.
Noticing the disturbance at the east side of the city, he knew it was his turn to act.
Tang Ke glanced at the row of military vehicles in front of him, not knowing what they were carrying.
But since they were here, it meant they were important to the Imperial Army.
This city was located to the west of the empire's territory, laying on its border.
Therefore, these loaded vehicles were undoubtedly transporting important goods back to their homeland.
Understanding this, Tang Ke took out some explosives, preparing to attach more to these vehicles.
The logistical support from the Cat-Rat duo had also been sent to his location.
However, just as he finished attaching the explosives to one of the trucks, he paused, before leaning his ear against the truck cabin.
The expression on Tang Ke's face changed gradually.
He quickly raised his gun, shot open the vehicle's lock, and swung open the door to take a look.
The vehicle was filled with animals.
"How did you end up here?" Tang Ke was taken aback.
He recognized the animals. It was the ones that went missing from the zoo.
Unbelievably, they were here.
That would mean that the items the empire intended to transport back to their country were these animals.
"Roar!"
A beast roared loudly from within one of the cages.
This cry snapped Tang Ke out of his thoughts. Thinking of the explosives on the truck, he quickly opened the cage:
"Don't be scared, I'm here to rescue you."
The moment he unlocked the cage, a huge figure leapt out, throwing Tang Ke back in the truck cabin."
In the darkness, two glowing eyes appeared.
The creature opened its wide mouth, revealing sharp teeth and drooling saliva that dripped onto Tang Ke's face.
"Okay, stop prancing around; let me get up."
Tang Ke laughed, reaching out to pat the large head near his face."
"Swish!"
Suddenly, a big red tongue licked his face and the giant body jumped down from the truck."
Tang Ke saw this, got up and turned around."
He saw a magnificent tiger pacing back and forth outside the truck."
"Let's go, big guy, let's rescue the others."
"Roar."
Man and tiger began playing a game with the truck blind box; each time they opened a truck unit, they had to guess what animal was inside.
But soon, people were drawn to the noise here.
"What... What are you doing? It's... It's a tiger!"
"Roar!"
An Imperial soldier responsible for transporting the animals barely had time to raise his gun before he was preyed upon by the tiger.
The commotion quickly drew more soldiers from nearby.
However, these animals, who were once obedient and kept in cages, displayed an unimaginable level of combat power.
Even the herbivores were bold enough to charge, using their horns and hooves to injure people.
After quickly releasing all the transported animals, Tang Ke immediately gestured for them to leave.
In a moment, the trucks in the area exploded, along with multiple secondary explosions caused by overheated oil tanks.
Suddenly, to the east and west, two plumes of black smoke symmetrically rose into the sky.
...
In front of City Hall, the clergyman on the red podium was interrupted again. Seeing the thick smoke rising on both sides, he glanced at the colonel who had called for reinforcements and hastened to recite the church classics.
Five minutes later, the clergyman closed his book and two soldiers stepped forward with raised guns.
They pointed their guns at the couple kneeling on the red podium.
Tang's father and mother couldn't help but close their eyes when they heard the weapons cocking.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
At the sound of the gunshots, they furrowed their brows, but when they felt no pain and reopened their eyes, they found that the two Imperial soldiers were lying next to them.
The colonel who was sitting in the back row raised his head to look at the target that had killed his two soldiers.
On a five-story building not far away, Shen Congfei was aiming his gun at him.
However, at that moment, two smoke grenades were suddenly thrown onto the red podium on both sides.
A thick white smoke covered the entire podium in an instant.
"Ah!"
Screams filled the air as the sudden attack plunged the scene into chaos.
The colonel's face paled, and he quickly drew his gun and fired, trying to kill the couple himself.
However, the answering gunfire made it clear to him.
He had missed.
The colonel quickly jumped off the podium. Seeing a corner of the stage lifted, he hurried in under it.
Seeing the manhole cover under the stage being lifted, he clenched his gun, his eyes cold, and stepped out from underneath the stage.
Inspecting the chaotic scene, he fired three shots into the air.
At that moment, two armored jeeps that were waiting on the road outside the City Hall quickly drove into the scene to suppress the chaos.
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
But just then, two cannonballs followed by trails of white smoke flew down from a nearby building.
The Jeeps driving in were blown up instantly, turned into wreckage and scattered on the ground, further exacerbating the chaos.
Upstairs were Xia Wei, codenamed "Valkyrie," and Chen Yuanjia, the "Doctor."
After using up the rocket launchers, they immediately prepared to evacuate as there were already people coming up from below.
Meanwhile, on another building, Shen Congfei, having rescued the people, had his gun aimed at the colonel.
There were no more concerns now.
Come and get me.
Just as he was about to shoot, he heard a gunshot.
However, it was Shen Congfei who fell first.
"Ah..."
Covering his bleeding arm, he gritted his teeth in pain.
A sniper!
Shen Congfei quickly rolled on the ground to hide by the wall. Just as he tried to reach for his gun, a bullet flew in through the window, scaring him into withdrawing his hand.
He realized he was completely trapped here.
The enemy sniper was close and clearly had no intention of letting him leave.
Shen Congfei held his wounded hand and pondered for a solution.
However, he could already hear multiple sets of footsteps from the stairs.
All he could do was bite the bullet, draw his pistol, and aim at the entrance.
He felt a sense of helplessness.
This darned game, demanding they play until death.
Just as he was thinking, the tip of a military boot appeared in his line of sight on the stairs.
"Bang!"
As the first Imperial soldier stepped into the entrance of the stairs, his head exploded with one shot.
The other Imperial soldiers in the stairwell were so shocked by the sight that they dared not show themselves.
But Shen Congfei was stunned.
He didn't fire that shot.
Realizing the possibility, he gritted his teeth against the pain and looked out the window.
He saw the upper body of an Imperial soldier hanging halfway out of a window across the way. Clearly, the soldier was dead.
Next to the body was a shadow, its foot on the window ledge, knee supporting a gun.
This position would perfectly stabilize a sniper rifle.
When the figure noticed Shen Congfei's surprised expression, a bright smile appeared next to the sniper scope and black hair fluttered in the wind.