The gunfire was coming from the other side of the hill. As they struggled to climb its not so high altitude, a village nestled at the foot of the hill appeared before them.
The village lay at the foot of the hill and was only about five or six hundred meters from them. The group exchanged glances, deciding to dismount and proceed on foot for reconnaissance. Given that most of the rebels were armed, Luo’er decided to leave Cheng Ziang behind to guard their horses.
Under his resentful gaze, Luo’er, with a stiff upper lip, led the remaining team members slowly toward the foot of the mountain. Their white hooded capes concealed their movements effectively.
Unlike the vast snow-covered landscape, the snow in the village had been swept clean, revealing some muddy roads. They stealthily made their way to a highland platform about a hundred meters from the village to observe the movements within.
The Advance Team had two telescopes, one with the sniper group, and Luo’er owned the other. These scopes had their objective lenses coated with anti-reflective material to avoid exposure due to light reflection, which also slightly compromised their performance.
Through the telescopes, they finally got a full view of the entire village. It was a typical Marsya village, built on a plain at the foot of a mountain, next to a frozen river.
The village was clearly occupied by the rebels who were searching out the villagers and dragging them out of their homes. They treated everyone - women, children – with the same brutality.
These rebels weren’t uniformed, and the old-fashioned rifles they carried on their backs were their few points of similarity. Their actions were just as atrocious. While they claimed to be a citizens’ army resisting noble rule, their conduct was no different from that of bandits. Luo’er had reason to believe that, since Marsya’s civil unrest, some robbers and ruffians began to call themselves citizens’ armies, joining this grotesque carnival.
They acted like bandits, scouring the village for riches, hunting for food and livestock. Any resistance from villagers was met with superior marksmanship. Gunfire erupted again and unknown numbers of villagers fell victim to their plundering.
Upon seeing the rebels’ banditry, Tangmo was visibly fuming. Some of the rebels found an attractive woman and dragged her, laughing malignantly, into a house. The screams from within sent chills down the spines of the Advance Team members.
"Luo’er!" Tangmo turned her head, unable to witness the scene any longer. Her desperate look pleaded with Luo’er, hoping for a course of action from him.
Yet Luo’er calmly observed the rebels, shaking his head definitively. He knew what Tangmo was thinking, but they could not afford any rash actions at this time.
The situation in this village was similar to what they had encountered in Meila Village, yet the enemy was starkly different. The troop of Beastmen attacking Meila Village had numbered mere hundreds, poorly equipped and without reinforcement. They had been able to expel the Beastmen through sheer firepower advantage.
These rebels, however, were another story. They possessed actual rifles. Based on their seemingly practiced shooting patterns observed by Luo’er, he had reason to believe this was an experienced rebel force.
Regardless of whether they were armed with weapons from the World War One, World War Two, or Cold War, the essential difference was the firing rate. Although the Advance Team was generally equipped with automatic weapons, these rebels could use their numerical advantage to make up for their shortfall in firepower.
Once the fight commenced, the situation could easily become a stalemate. What was even more alarming was that they were deep in enemy territory, and Luo’er was uncertain about the presence of rebel reinforcements. That could be problematic; after all, even a fierce tiger cannot stand against a pack of wolves. Even if all their bullets were exhausted, they would struggle to affect the rebels and might end up losing their lives here.
Taking everything into consideration, Luo’er firmly rejected Tangmo’s idea. They would first observe the situation, and if absolutely necessary, request assistance from the front line troops for resolution.
Seeing Luo’er veto her idea, Tangmo humphed and turned away, tossing her telescope towards Baiyue in irritation. She understood Luo’er’s concerns but nevertheless found such situations agonizing to watch.
Luo’er and Baiyue continued observing. The rebels looted every house in the village, seizing all the food preserved for winter, using it to sustain themselves. Regardless of the villagers’ desperate pleas, they showed no mercy. Some enraged rebels even stabbed and killed villagers obstructing their way with their bayonets.
This was a rebel-occupied area; they were draining resources like desolate predators. Luo’er couldn’t even begin to imagine how the rebel economy functioned. He couldn’t help but recall Princess Melia’s analysis of the rebellion - letting the rebels capture cities and lands would not matter in the long run, as their downfall was inevitable. Therefore, she would ignore the serious domestic unrest to focus entirely on the throne.
In this regard, the young Princess Melia was indeed very far-sighted. Crown Prince Oliver had been contemplating a Spring Offensive, capturing political capital in one fell sweep—a strategy Luo’er saw as losing sight of the forest for the trees. If Luo’er himself were the Crown Prince, he would undoubtedly prioritize the fight for the throne, even attempting to win over Melia, though he knew it was unrealistic.
Gunshots echoed through the village again, disrupting Luo’er’s train of thought. Tangmo once again manifested an agitated demeanor, her eyes fixed on Luo’er, hoping he would agree to send the Advance Team to drive away the rebels. Despite knowing that the task might be challenging, they did have combat experience from Meila village, so it should at least be not a humiliating defeat.
Luo’er looked at Tangmo and shook his head helplessly. His bottom line was that no team member could get hurt. Without assurance that the Advance Team would not bear casualties, Luo’er could not give the order under any circumstances.
Tangmo apparently fell into the trap of doctrinalism, trying to apply their battle experience in Meila Village here. But what she overlooked was that they were now in hostile territory, up against dozens or even hundreds of rebels with rifles. This was a completely different situation from what they had faced in Meila village.
Desperate for Luo’er’s approval, she forgot that she was actually the captain of the Advance Team, and Luo’er was merely an acting captain of some sort. Given Luo’er’s character, if she agreed, Luo’er’s objections would be futile.
Right now, Luo’er’s plan was to send a message via homing pigeon to the frontline corps, asking them to send troops to deal with these rebels. Their main task given by Rodney was to locate the enemy’s main force, but he didn’t specify the scale of the main force. As far as Luo’er was concerned, be it a force of a few hundred or dozens, as long as the frontline corps could eliminate these rebels, it would weaken the rebels’ power.
Tangmo was well aware of Luo’er’s intentions which made her angry. The time it would take for the frontline troops to arrive was uncertain, and in the meantime, they would have to endure the brutal actions of the rebels. For the first time, she felt averse to Luo’er, turning her head away, refusing to talk to him.
Luo’er asked Baiyue to retrieve the pigeon cage they carried with them, and took out a homing pigeon. Based on their direction of travel, the current month, and the angle of the sun’s incidence, Baiyue calculated their exact position on the map, wrote it down as coordinate mail, and tucked it into the iron ring on the pigeon’s leg.
After releasing the pigeon, they only needed to wait quietly for the arrival of the frontline troops. This could take several hours, but no matter what, once the frontline corps arrived, they could drive the rebels out of the village.
During this time, Luo’er and his team continued to observe the rebels’ actions. These men seemed intent on settling down in the village, which fell in line with Luo’er’s wishes. As long as they stayed put, they would be in store for a lot of suffering when the frontline corps arrived.
However, Luo’er seemed to forget that there was something much faster and more powerful than an army.
Several hours after the release of the pigeon, Luo’er felt suddenly uneasy. A strange thought crept into his mind about the eighteen large-caliber cannons at the frontline corps’ station. If the idea was merely to intimidate, then they probably would have left a few guns exposed while covering the rest to protect them from the elements. However, what Luo’er saw was that all the cannons were deployed at combat intervals, and none were covered with canvas.
This brought a chill over Luo’er that surged from the soles of his feet. Just as he was lost in his thoughts, a piercing whistling sound echoed through the sky. The sound was familiar to them, but they couldn’t quite place it.
Luo’er racked his mind for the source of the noise until it suddenly struck him, sending chills down his spine and he instinctively let out the loudest scream.
"Artillery fire incoming!!"
Accompanied by Luo’er’s cry were incoming large-caliber shells. Following the coordinates Luo’er provided, the shells accurately landed into the village occupied by the rebels, setting off severe explosions.
The group watched wide-eyed as the dense artillery fire easily ripped through the entire village. Rebels and villagers alike were torn to shreds by the shells before they even had a chance to react, their fragments scattering into the sky.
Luo’er watched in horror, unable to believe that the information he sent summoned a rain of shells. He unconsciously counted the number of falling shells, a total of fifty, the base number of an artillery battalion.
Following a brief silence, the shells howled again. This time, however, they did not focus on the village but spread out into the surrounding areas.
A shell exploded about fifty meters from them, startling Hu Daoke who yelled, "What the hell, are these people trying to blow us up too?"
Baiyue, standing next to him, slapped him lightly and said firmly, "Let’s go!"
Hu Daoke nodded, and the two of them, dragging the dazed Luo’er and Tangmo, left their observation point. Just as they reached the hilltop to meet with Cheng Ziang, a shell whistled down, blasting a big hole where they had just stood. The dark soil scattered on the pure white snow, like a blot of ink splashed onto a white paper.