Chapter 831: You Were Still in Diapers
The entire steel transport factory was in chaos, with workers scrambling everywhere.
Those with clearer heads immediately rushed towards the taller buildings, reasoning that a higher vantage point would offer a clearer picture of events.
Qi Cheng, Chen Ergou, and the test vehicle driver set their sights on the tall tower standing in the center of the factory. The trio swiftly ascended it, followed by a large group of ordinary workers in Yellow Hats.
From the top of the tall tower, their view immediately expanded. Looking out towards the barren plains northeast of the steel transport factory, they instantly spotted the bandit army. It was a formidable force of five thousand men, advancing majestically from the distance.
Their target was clearly the steel transport factory!
This sight thoroughly terrified the Yellow Hats, and many began to shriek.
After their initial cries, everyone’s gaze swiftly landed on Qi Cheng and Chen Ergou.
"Engineer Qi! Engineer Chen! What do we do?"
"What *can* we do?"
"Hedong City is only twenty li to our west, and Xing Honglang is stationed there with five hundred militia members. We'd be safe if we just escaped into Hedong City."
"We can run fast, but the women and children will be slow. The bandit army will catch them."
"But..."
A cacophony of voices erupted, leaving everyone dizzy with confusion.
Just then, Qi Cheng suddenly roared, "Silence! All of you, damn it, silence!"
His roar instantly silenced the Yellow Hats, who stared at him with astonished eyes.
Qi Cheng declared loudly, "What the hell are you so scared of? Don't forget who my brother Ergou and I are. Look at the 'Test' character on my hat! We used to be damn bandits ourselves! What's there to be afraid of? Are you scared of us? We're just like them—two eyes, one mouth, two ears, two legs, aren't we?"
His exclamation, however, jolted everyone awake.
"Huh?"
"That's right!"
In this particular moment, for some inexplicable reason, the 'Test' character on his hat offered a strange sense of reassurance.
Qi Cheng swiftly pulled out a megaphone—an essential tool for Blue Hats, indispensable when directing Yellow Hats to work.
Raising the megaphone to his mouth, he stood atop the high tower and bellowed down, "Everyone, don't panic! Don't panic! We regularly undergo military training, and many of you have received militia training. What exactly are you all so agitated about? Now, every damn man of you, listen to me: gather immediately at the factory's security office entrance!"
His shout immediately stabilized the workers, who had been scrambling like scattered flies.
Qi Cheng turned to Chen Ergou and said, "Ergou, hurry to the security office! Open the warehouse and distribute the militia weapons the higher-ups issued to us. Go, go, go!"
Chen Ergou nodded, promptly descended the tower, and headed towards the security office.
Qi Cheng then turned to the driver of Experimental Car No. 2: "Brother, I need you to drive immediately to Hedong and call for backup from Xing Honglang."
The driver's spirits lifted. "Ah? Yes, yes, yes! That I can do right now!"
He also quickly descended the tower, boarded Experimental Car No. 2—which had just been refueled with coal—and, with the help of the Yellow Hats who opened the factory's west gate, sped towards Hedong City.
Meanwhile, the bandit army from the northeast was rapidly closing in...
Fortunately, the factory was surrounded by open plains, offering a clear line of sight. The bandit army had been spotted by sentries two or three li away. They still needed time to cover that distance and reach the factory's perimeter.
Seizing this crucial time, the security office warehouse was flung open. Chen Ergou dragged a large wicker basket from the back of the storage room, kicked it over, and its contents—smoothbore muskets—spilled out, clattering across the floor.
It turned out that the security offices of all Gao Family Village's factories stored old, decommissioned smoothbore muskets, including bird-guns and Three-Eyed Arquebuses. Apart from cannons, their armaments were essentially on par with the Ming army's elite Divine Machine Battalion.
In fact, all the steel transport factory workers were "militia." Every single one had received basic military training, which included drills, target practice, grenade throwing, and more...
Thus, they knew how to use these bird-guns and Three-Eyed Arquebuses.
The only difference was how proficiently they could handle them.
The workers quickly crouched, snatched a musket from the ground, grabbed two handfuls of bullets from another basket, and sprinted towards the northeast.
One basket of smoothbore muskets was quickly distributed, and Chen Ergou dragged out another...
He looked for a third, but there were none!
The steel transport factory's security office only had a hundred smoothbore muskets.
Chen Ergou then had no choice but to pull out a basket of bows and arrows, followed by a basket of cold weapons: swords, spears, and halberds...
But even these were not enough to go around!
Finally, workers and their family members who hadn't received weapons had to find their own. Some circled the workshops and emerged with steel pipes in hand.
Others found heavy iron chains.
One man found an iron bar—an axle rod meant for a steam engine. He swung it once, then grimaced; it was too damn heavy to wield effectively.
If the steel factory lacked anything, it certainly didn't lack a variety of improvised weapons.
Workers who had found suitable weapons all raced towards the northeast.
Qi Cheng, meanwhile, had already reached the northeast corner of the wall.
The steel transport factory's perimeter wall was unlike a city wall; it wasn't wide and thick enough for people to walk atop.
It was just a standard factory enclosure, only dozens of centimeters thick.
Thus, the workers couldn't climb onto the wall for defense.
Some squeezed onto the watchtower in the northeast corner, but it was small; only five or six people could fit before it became difficult to even turn around.
They had no choice but to climb onto the factory buildings closest to the wall, taking up positions on the rooftops...
Qi Cheng and Chen Ergou climbed onto the rooftop nearest the perimeter wall.
The surrounding workers were still somewhat flustered, but Qi Cheng and Chen Ergou had experienced all kinds of battles—and virtually every battle they'd fought ended in one word: defeat!
They had lost battles against both rogue bandits and government troops, and even against the Gao Family Village Militia. In the first few years of their rebellion, they had hardly won a single engagement.
Consequently, Qi Cheng and Chen Ergou were quite adept at enduring humiliation.
Watching the thousands of bandit soldiers drawing ever closer outside the factory, Qi Cheng raised his tin megaphone and bellowed, "Who are you bandits, daring to trespass on my steel transport factory? Don't you know who protects this place?"
He Zonghan, Liu Haoran, and Gao Jiaji burst into laughter.
They couldn't understand why the voice of the single man on the other side was so loud, so booming, that they could hear him so clearly from such a distance.
None of the three of them possessed such a powerful voice.
He Zonghan had no choice but to find dozens of his subordinates to shout in unison: "Whose factory is this up ahead? The grandfathers are here today, so hand over all your valuables obediently. If you dare utter a single 'no,' we'll break into this wretched factory and slaughter every man, woman, and child!"
Qi Cheng retorted, "Damn it! When I was saying things like that to people, you were still in diapers!"
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