Chapter 23 The Massacre Begins

Seeing Duan Lei's movements, Tian Ya and Fatty exchanged a glance, and also silently pulled back the bolts of their guns. Neither of them had killed many people, let alone used machine guns to fire wildly.

But in this situation, they were clear in their hearts. Either they gave up resistance and all retreated, and could even take Qing Luan and some of her close associates with them.

But what about the others? Those warriors, and the people in the residential area, who had stayed with them through thick and thin when the base faced crisis, choosing to stand with them—were they just going to abandon them like that?

Not to mention Duan Lei, even Fatty and the others couldn't do it. They couldn't abandon those people without even fighting. Even though, because of Li Chenzhou's influence, they wouldn't risk their lives for anyone except those in their own team! But until the very last moment, until it was truly irreversible, they were still willing to stand up.

At this moment, not only Fatty, but even Tian Ya's young and delicate face looked somewhat ferocious, with extreme hatred shooting out from his eyes. What they hated wasn't the people charging towards them to surrender, but those who were driving these people, those mixed in amongst them, and the soldiers and their leader, Lin Qiang!, following behind!

Finally, those rushing towards the manor gate were only about a hundred meters away. Duan Lei controlled the war chariot and drove it outside the gate, then spat out two words:

"Fire!!!"

"Tu tu tu tu tu…"

Instantly, gunfire erupted. On the war chariot, Duan Lei, Duan Xue, Fatty, and Tian Ya—the four remaining followers of Li Chenzhou who were still together—simultaneously pulled the triggers of the heavy machine guns. Four heavy machine guns began to roar at the same time, pouring a large amount of bullets towards the distant crowd…

The kinetic energy of a 12.7mm bullet was quite powerful. Even if it didn't hit directly, just grazing past was enough to make flesh and blood fly.

Moreover, because Duan Lei had specifically instructed them before, they had to be even more ruthless than the other side, to instill fear in those surrendering, so they wouldn't dare to charge the manor, but would retreat!

That way, the surrendering would instead charge into Lin Qiang's position, ruining Lin Qiang's plan. Besides, this way, perhaps fewer of the surrendering would die!

At least, Duan Lei was certain that if the surrendering really kept charging the manor, he definitely wouldn't allow it, and would be forced to kill them all!

Lin Qiang's convoy was just a temporary position formed by vehicles, and they were also on the offensive, so as long as the surrendering charged past the convoy's direction, they would have a chance to escape. Duan Lei would also launch an attack along with them, leaving Lin Qiang's people no time to hunt them down.

Rain-like bullets shot into the crowd, instantly raising clusters of blood mist. Those hit by the bullets didn't feel any pain; their bodies were directly torn apart, and no one could leave behind a complete corpse.

Where had the surrendering ever seen such a bloody scene? Moreover, they never expected that the people of the manor would really fire on them!

Seeing the people in front being torn apart, with blood and flesh flying everywhere, everyone was about to go crazy. They immediately stopped and ran backwards with all their might.

Duan Lei's grasp of people's hearts was quite accurate. Seeing that the manor not only dared to fire, but that their weapons were also quite powerful, making them see no hope of charging through, the surrendering all began to turn back, charging towards Lin Qiang's convoy!

Before, when firing, Duan Lei and the others had focused on shooting at the warriors mixed in the crowd. Moreover, during the charge, because it was too chaotic, the soldiers who were originally supposed to be at the rear were actually trampled to death by the crowd.

And now, the even more chaotic crowd was no longer something that the soldiers mixed inside could control. Some soldiers were even knocked down by the crowd for not retreating and were directly trampled to death!

Some soldiers also fired resolutely, shooting down a few of those running back, but this had no effect, because the weapons in their hands were obviously not as powerful as the manor's!!!

"Huh? That woman in the manor actually has so much courage? No, it definitely isn't her. Then who could it be? That soldier has already disappeared with Li Chenzhou. Is there such talent in the manor?"

Seeing that the manor was actually using heavy machine guns to massacre the surrendering, Lin Qiang was also quite surprised. He had already had people investigate the manor, since it was a base, and it was easy to sneak in by finding a few survivors.

So, Lin Qiang still had some understanding of the people in the manor. At least, in his opinion, there was no military talent in the manor base at all. So he originally thought that the surrendering alone would be enough to charge into the manor and destroy their defenses.

"What do we do? They're about to charge over!"

Zhao Dahai asked nervously from the side.

"If our convoy is overwhelmed, and they then launch an attack, we might suffer heavy losses!"

"Don't worry! Although it's a bit of a surprise, the situation is still under control!"

Lin Qiang narrowed his eyes, picked up the walkie-talkie, put it to his mouth, and looked at the people turning back, lightly spitting out two words:

"Fire!!!"

As soon as he finished speaking, deafening gunfire rang out. The warriors on the convoy side, who had been prepared for a long time, immediately pointed their weapons at the crowd and began to fire wildly!

"What?"

Zhao Dahai opened his mouth wide, looking at everything in front of him in disbelief. Those running back weren't all surrendering from the manor; there were also thousands of Lin Qiang's own soldiers, half mixed in the crowd, and half staying behind the crowd as a supervisory team.

And now, the ones running back at the front were precisely the previous supervisory team, because seeing that the crowd had all turned back, they couldn't stop them, and were afraid of being submerged by the crowd, so they had no choice but to escape back.

And now, these soldiers had become the first to die under the guns—the guns of their own people!!!

"Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump…"

Before Zhao Dahai's shock could pass, another burst of artillery fire rang out. It was the mortars that had been set up a long time ago that had begun firing, and the target was precisely the crowd of surrendering.

Dozens of shells slammed heavily into the crowd. Smoke, dust, and blood mist filled the air, turning the area between the manor base and the convoy into a bloody slaughterhouse and a hell on earth.

"…"

Zhao Dahai had now lost the ability to speak. His mind was blank. He originally thought that the mortars were for destroying the manor's walls, but he never expected that this first round of firing would be aimed at the people surrendering to them, as well as those soldiers who originally belonged to them…

Zhao Dahai subconsciously looked towards the convoy, only to realize that all the heads of the soldiers who had been shouting the loudest before were still standing on the vehicles, and all the soldiers under those heads were also here.

The soldiers who followed the surrendering to act as the supervisory team were actually all combat personnel who had been selected from other bases after coming here.

"He… is taking the opportunity to clean up his team!"

Looking at Lin Qiang's calm face, Zhao Dahai suddenly understood that everything in front of him was all planned by Lin Qiang long ago. He wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to attack the manor to cleanse his own team, sending all those he didn't trust into hell…