Chapter 833: Metaphysical Theories
The nearby Yellow Hat worker, seeing Chen Ergou fall with an arrow in his head, was terrified and quickly rushed over to check on him.
To their surprise, Chen Ergou rubbed his waist, sat up, and looked around in a daze. "Huh, I'm not dead?"
He took off the Blue Hat from his head, revealing the arrow still sticking out, wobbling precariously. The arrowhead hadn't managed to pierce the hat.
The hat's defenses were truly impressive!
In an era without advanced chemical engineering, Gao Family Village naturally couldn't produce the kind of safety helmets seen in later generations. However, for the workers' safety, Song Yingxing had leveraged their most cutting-edge technology.
The "Rattan Armor Soldiers" technique from Jiangnan.
This involved weaving double layers of rattan to form a cap, then encasing it in another layer of leather. Its defensive capability was essentially equivalent to a small leather shield; ordinary arrows truly couldn't pierce it.
Chen Ergou grumbled, "They shot the 'test' character right off my hat! That was utterly terrifying."
Qi Cheng burst out laughing. "That's a good omen! It means you're almost done with your reduced sentence and about to become a regular worker."
He climbed back onto the makeshift table and stool, poking his head over the wall once more. "What am I scared of? I'll be damned if I get hit by another arrow!"
No sooner had he spoken...
"Thwack!"
Another arrow embedded itself in his hat.
Chen Ergou let out a pathetic cry and toppled off the stool again.
Qi Cheng sighed deeply. "You have 'Er' (two) in your name, so of course you got hit a second time."
Chen Ergou asked, "Brother Qi, what kind of metaphysical theory is that?"
By this point, the battle had intensified.
Once both sides were within bow range, it was inevitable that some workers would get injured. Cries of "Ouch!" and "Ow!" echoed as arrows found their marks.
The workers' family members, seeing their men wounded, were heartbroken. They no longer cared about hiding, rushing into the workshop, searching left and right. Before long, they actually found large, thick sheets of paperboard.
In reality, these weren't just ordinary thick paperboards!
They were gifts bestowed by Li Daoxuan from the heavens—A4 paper, printed with a colorful array of information on steelmaking, iron refining, and the construction of various small mechanisms, covering every imaginable topic.
Important documents were locked away in the factory manager's office, but less crucial information lay scattered throughout the workshops. Some discarded sheets of A4 paper were even tossed into the trash piles, waiting to be collected, pulped, and recycled for papermaking.
To the people of that era, these discarded A4 paper sheets appeared as incredibly thick and sturdy paperboard.
They dug the paperboard out of the trash, first cutting it into sizes roughly capable of covering their bodies, then folding them in half and carving a hole at the fold.
They then sprinted to the front lines, fitting the paperboard onto their men's bodies... with heads poked through the holes, the paperboard transformed into Two-Plate Armor.
A4 Paper Armor!
These improvised shields were incredibly effective. When the bandits' bamboo-tipped arrows struck them, they made a dull "thwack" and were stopped by the A4 paperboard, with only a tiny bit of the arrowhead poking through. They simply didn't have enough force to penetrate the workers' cotton work clothes.
The workers could then pull the arrows out of their own makeshift armor and immediately shoot them back.
"The bandits are scaling the walls!"
Qi Cheng shouted, "Don't let them get over the walls! Roll down logs, throw down stones!"
"But we don't have logs or big stones!"
"What do we do?"
"Find anything we can throw to hit them!"
Several workers' family members ran over, carrying a basket full of iron balls, neither too big nor too small.
The worker guarding the wall paused, then understood: these were the smaller cannonballs used by the Heavenly Lord's two arms.
These cannonballs were precisely what the steel transportation factory was responsible for producing, with two large baskets of them stacked in one workshop.
They seemed perfect for throwing at people!
A worker grabbed an iron projectile and hurled it down towards the attackers outside the wall.
"Thud!"
One
bandit's head burst open, gushing blood.
"This works great! Everyone, throw these!"
The workers guarding the wall grabbed the iron projectiles and hurled them outwards in a frenzy.
With this demonstration, the workers' family members also caught on, bringing over every handy item they could find. Wrenches, screwdrivers, pry bars, chisels, claw hammers... an untold variety of strange tools.
The morale of those defending the walls surged!
Meanwhile, the bandits scrambling up the outside walls were suffering terribly...
What kind of fabulously wealthy factory was this?
They were flinging iron chunks as if they were worthless?
"Do you even know that a single iron hammer is worth an tael of silver? You're actually throwing taels of silver at us? Aren't you worried about your fortunes, pelting people with money like this?"
The bandits now understood the meaning of lavish extravagance; in just a few exchanges, the items the workers had thrown at them were already worth thousands of taels of silver.
One bandit couldn't help but ask He Zonghan, "Brother, why don't we just grab the iron chunks they've thrown outside the walls and run? Those alone are worth thousands of taels! Why bother rushing in to plunder anything else?"
He Zonghan retorted, "If what they're throwing out is already worth thousands of taels, then there must be even more valuable things inside the factory! If we breach this place, won't we easily snatch over a hundred thousand taels of silver? Charge!"
The bandits bravely assaulted the walls!
Outside the walls, the ground quickly piled up with discarded iron tools and bandit corpses, effectively raising the terrain. This, ironically, made it easier for the bandits to assault the factory.
Stepping on the bodies of his fallen comrades, he leaped with all his might, grabbed the wall, and swung himself over. One brave bandit finally managed to clamber inside the factory.
He drew his saber with a flourish and laughed heartily. "I'm in! You bunch of cowards, you're all dead meat now!"
No sooner had he spoken than he saw a worker charging at him, holding an iron pot in his left hand and a knife in his right.
The steel transportation factory even produced iron pots!
Holding this iron pot, it felt surprisingly reliable as a shield.
The bandit swung his knife, and the worker parried it with the iron pot in his left hand.
"Clang!"
The deafening sound grated on both their ears.
The worker countered with a backhand slash, but the bandit sidestepped, dodging it.
In terms of martial skill, the bandit clearly had the upper hand.
The worker evidently realized this; his knife was useless, unable to land a blow on the bandit. He simply dropped the blade, held the large iron pot with both hands, and pushed it forward.
In martial arts legends, they often debate how to defeat the most complex sword forms. The answer is surprisingly simple: just shove a heavy shield or a door at a master, and their intricate footwork finds no opening to exploit...
The current situation was precisely like this. Though the bandit's martial arts were impressive, facing a massive iron pot thrusting straight at him, no fancy technique would work. In this scenario, it was purely a test of strength.
He quickly braced himself, ramming his shoulder into the bottom of the pot.
"Thud!"
Their combined strength collided, mediated by the iron pot.
And then...
The bandit learned firsthand what "the might of us workers" truly meant. The force of that push sent him flying backward a considerable distance, landing hard on his backside and skidding along the ground.
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