Munitions Empire

This battle… can it be fought like this?

Liu Zhu's eyes widened, unsure if he was dreaming. Cao Fei beside him had only fired five shots, and the fight, fast as lightning, had ended just like that.

He hadn't quite grasped what had happened when he was merely listening to the dense gunfire, then watching Cao Fei repeat actions he couldn't understand.

It all seemed like a game; he didn't even wait for the enemy's counterattack—the few dozens of Cavalry all fell on the road before him.

Even, there were hardly any horses left…

He swallowed hard, watching as Cao Fei calmly opened the chamber and let a shiny cartridge case fall at his feet.

Then, Liu Zhu saw Cao Fei take out a strip of bullets from the ammo pouch under his ribs and press them directly into the magazine, then turn back and throw the ejected clip onto the ground.

"Four, I missed one; he was lucky," Cao Fei commented with a hint of regret, seeming slightly unsatisfied, "But he didn't get away… Don't know who took him down…"

After speaking, he didn't hear a response from Liu Zhu and turned to look at him, only to find the kid staring dumbfoundedly at the rifle in his own hands.

"Hey! Now you know how formidable I am, right?" He gently patted the K3 rifle, showing off a bit, "How about that?"

Liu Zhu looked down and picked up a brass cartridge case from the ground, curiosity and awe in equal measure as he could still feel the warmth on it.

Cao Fei paused for a moment, then knelt on one knee, found the cartridge cases that had just been ejected onto the ground by his feet, and picked up the clip he had just thrown away.

Then, in front of Liu Zhu, he inserted each cartridge case back into the clip and finally held out his hand, asking Liu Zhu to hand over the cartridge case he was holding.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

After he snapped the cartridge case from Liu Zhu's hand into the clip, he handed the clip with five empty cartridge cases over to Liu Zhu, "It's yours now!"

"Gulp." Liu Zhu swallowed hard and then cradled the five cartridge cases fixed by the clip as if he were holding something incredible.

"You… you just mentioned… learning… learning what?" Finally, the boy recovered from the shock and asked Cao Fei a somewhat blunt question.

Cao Fei was taken aback, and then he laughed, "Learn everything, learn how to shoot, learn all sorts of knowledge, and when you grow up, you can earn money, get married, and live a good life."

"Can I be as formidable as you?" Even though Liu Zhu didn't know how many Zheng Country people Cao Fei had just killed, he still felt that the uncle beside him might be the most formidable soldier in the world.

"One day you will be much more formidable than I am!" Cao Fei reached out again, ruffling the boy's hair, "Grow up fast, become an adult."

"Mm." Clearly, the boy believed Cao Fei's words. There was no reason not to; he had witnessed firsthand dozens of soldiers from Shenwu Country slaughtered effortlessly by Zheng Country men, utterly powerless to fight back.

Such a powerful person surely wouldn't lie to him; he had no reason to deceive or to be so kind to him.

"They never learn their lesson and keep coming back," Cao Fei rubbed his nose with his finger, watching as a large group of Shenwu Country soldiers retreated in a black mass along the road.

These soldiers from Shenwu Country seemed to have noticed the corpses of the Cavalry lying in the middle of the road, but they pressed on regardless, directly trampling over the skeletons of the horses and soldiers.

"So many…" It was the first time Liu Zhu had seen so many soldiers from Shenwu Country. Previously, even if there were thousands of Zheng Country's military, they were basically chased and killed by two or three hundred soldiers from Shenwu Country, with no power to fight back.

Hence, Shenwu Country's troops didn't need to assemble an army for battle; they could easily defeat Zheng Country's forces with just one battalion.

But this time, the retreating troops from Shenwu Country were dense and numerous. No matter how you looked at it, there were over a thousand, and what was more shocking was that this time, it was the Shenwu Country's military that was in retreat.

Those Goblins from Shenwu Country, who once rampaged with bayonets, killing civilians at will, and saw the soldiers of Zheng Country as nothing but livestock, were now just as wretched and leaderless as Zheng Country's military, looking like a bunch of livestock themselves.

"No matter how many, they're all targets…" Cao Fei continued aiming and coldly pulled the trigger with a scoff. Bang, a Shenwu Country soldier fell to the ground a hundred or so meters in front of him. Read latest stories on empire

With that gunshot, more gunshots began to echo in the woods. One after another, Shenwu Country soldiers fell, and at that moment, the retreating soldiers finally realized something was amiss.

The enemy was not a small raiding force, but a bona fide opposing army blocking their way!

While they were still confused, that familiar, fearsome, and unstoppable volley of gunfire began to roar once again.

"Tat tat tat tat!" The Maxim machine guns resumed their relentless roaring, sweeping into the crowds of Shenwu Troops just like raindrops, reaping swath after swath of people from Zheng Country just as one would cut down wheat.

By the time Cao Fei fired his third shot, the troops from Zheng Country had already collapsed. Some were retreating non-stop, while others rushed forward in desperation.

No one bothered with the wounded on the ground, nor did they care about their comrades who were already dead. The goblins scrambled around like headless flies, and not even one returned fire.

Almost no one fired a shot! The matchlock guns they carried required too much time to prepare to fire, and this group of goblins simply didn't have the courage to stop and reload, fearing they would become just another corpse on the ground.

Shengwu Yuan rode his tall horse amongst the troops, having abandoned his muzzle-loading cannons, discarded his carriage, and even left behind his supply wagons, provisions, and materials, his mind only focused on making a swift retreat back to Fengshun City in order to save himself.

Yet, he found himself trapped at an unknown location, blocked by an enemy force he didn't recognize.

At first, he thought they were just scattered military renegades hiding in the mountains, seizing the opportunity to steal supplies and harass his retreating troops.

Only when he arrived at the front line did he realize that those blocking their path and those pursuing them from behind were the same! The tactics were identical, the sound of gunfire was indistinguishable, and the terror they inspired was precisely the same! This realization drove Shengwu Yuan into a profound despair.

For a moment, he was almost certain of one fact, which was that neither he nor his troops would be able to return to Fengshun City.

The next second, Shengwu Yuan could not quite reconcile himself to this fate. He decided to take a gamble, to attempt one last desperate struggle. After all, only after trying would he be able to give up in peace, right?

And so, he drew the sword at his waist, charged through the troops on his warhorse, slashing at the collapsed soldiers and urging the remaining ones to fight to the death to break through.

His ferocity caused the disorganized soldiers of Zheng Country to regain a semblance of order.

The flustered goblins from Zheng Country finally began reloading their weapons; among the chaos, the military band started pounding on the drums, and many of the lower-ranked officers raised their voices in slogans, trying to straighten the ranks around them.

Cao Fei, from a distance, watched a man astride a tall horse trying to reassemble his forces in the enemy's formation. He smiled and pulled back the bolt, reloaded five bullets into his rifle.

Then he smoothly pushed the bolt forward, chambering a round. He rested his cheek on the stock, peered through the rear sight on the spine of his rifle, and sighted the scrambling figure.

"Hoo..." Drawing a deep breath, his whole body relaxed, Cao Fei placed the notch on Shengwu Yuan, holding his breath to stop any minute trembling.

A second later, he acted like lightning, squeezing the trigger, the butt of the rifle kicked against his shoulder, and the dwarf mounted on the horse in the distance fell dead in response.

Shengwu Yuan felt as if something had struck his chest fiercely. He tumbled from his horse and crashed into the crowd below.

A nearby goblin officer hurried to check on him, a few soldiers gathered around, and Shengwu Yuan's Guard dismounted, not caring anymore about the slight semblance of order they had managed to restore, as chaos erupted again in their ranks.

Shengwu Yuan was a complete mess, and by the time he finally came back to his senses, he saw fresh blood flowing profusely from his chest. People tried pressing on the wound, but the blood wouldn't stop, spurting out unabated between the fingers pressed to his chest.

In that moment, he felt no pain, only a daze, and before he could even understand what had happened, he began to lose consciousness.

"My lord! My lord! Hold on, my lord!" the officer of Zheng Country holding him cried out with sobs, attempting to encourage Shengwu Yuan to hang on to life.

Shengwu Yuan's Guard also gathered around him, helplessly watching as the blood flowing from Shengwu Yuan stained his uniform red.

It was a pity that there was blood everywhere now, and the goblins had become numb to it; otherwise, this scene alone would have been enough to terrify them into collapse.

As his end neared, Shengwu Yuan reached out, attempting to point toward Fengshun City, but halfway through the motion, his arm lost all its strength.

That arm dropped suddenly, and the leader of the Zheng Country troops, Shengwu Yuan... died.

His death was quick, lying not even twenty meters from where the hundred-year-old corpse of another from Fengshun—another high-ranking commander from Zheng Country—had fallen, almost in the very same place.

And just as the troops of Zheng Country had started to rally for a few seconds, they fell back into endless disarray at the death of their commanding officer.

The fight was far from over, but even Liu Zhu knew that it was actually finished. He had seen too many Zheng Country military units fall into such chaos, only to become like lambs to the slaughter, killed one by one by the people from Zheng Country.

Now, it was the turn of the people from Zheng Country.