Zhang Xiaoqiang immediately ordered Li Zhi to order the women to throw away their parcels. When the women threw away their parcels reluctantly, they still couldn't speed up. Zhang Xiaoqiang estimated that the speed of crossing the bridge was the speed that only well-trained soldiers could achieve. Only professional soldiers could coordinate with them. The women were squeezing each other as they crossed the bridge. Some of them were fast while others were slow. When some of them got on the bridge and saw the gap between the steel bars, they were so scared that their legs turned to jelly. They had no choice but to be squeezed by the crowd to get to the other side.
Without waiting for Zhang Huai An's order, three explosions rang out from the edge of the crowd, followed by a few screams. Like peeling potatoes, dozens of people fell at the edge of the crowd. Then, the sound of heavy machine guns firing rang out at the bridgehead. Two long and thick light chains flew over the crowd's heads. For a moment, the crowd retreated one after another, revealing a large open space. More than a hundred trampled corpses appeared in front of the defensive position.
Just as Zhang Huai An was jumping about anxiously because of the chaos and disorganization caused by the women crossing the bridge, there was a new situation at the wall. Thick smoke rose from the wall. Looking from the bridgehead, it looked like the wall was filled with thick smoke. Seeing this, a shrill scream suddenly came from the middle of the men. "The wall is breached …"
"We don't want to go to that hot spring base, we don't want to …"
He immediately gave the order for the soldiers on the other side of the bridge to get out of the vehicles, and all the women were herded towards the vanguard. Countless women were herded towards the main road by the ferocious soldiers with the butts of their guns, and they ran forward mindlessly. The ground was littered with trampled shoes and torn clothes. Some of the women only had a bra left on their upper bodies due to the chaos, but they didn't pay much attention to them. They just ran forward with their heads down, because they had heard a saying: only by running to the vanguard would they have food to eat, and they would have food to eat.
Tens of thousands of people were shouting in the face of hundreds of rifles. Many of them wanted to cross the bridge from the edge, but they were killed by Li Zhi on the bridge. The four assault vehicles on the other side of the bridge also moved forward and blocked the bridge.
It was already past five o 'clock in the afternoon, and it was almost six o' clock. When the sky turned dark, the speed of crossing the bridge would slow down. God knew if the wall would still exist after these women crossed the bridge.
The two thoughts in Zhang Huai An's mind repeatedly collided with each other, setting off countless fireworks. One was to let go, and the other was to kill. Zhang Huai An was not a woman. He would not hesitate to kill three hundred men, but there were hundreds of women in front of those men. These people could be considered as his own people. No matter how many outsiders died, Zhang Huai An would not frown. However, he could not bear to personally order the killing of his own people.
The crowd exploded. Countless people squeezed towards the bridgehead. Even more people were pushed down and trampled under their feet. Screams sounded from the crowd, increasing the fear of the crowd. They rushed forward with all their might. The women who were originally in a formation to cross the bridge were suddenly scattered. Cries, curses, screams, and the screams of women who were stepped on caused the order at the bridgehead to be completely chaotic.
Seeing that Zhang Huai An did not say anything, some people thought that their plan worked. Five large vehicles started to move, and the rest surrounded the vehicles, preparing to move towards the bridge. Seeing these people's arrogance, and thinking about the time they wasted and the negative impact they had on tens of thousands of people, Zhang Huai An stared at those thugs with hatred. One word exploded from his throat, "Kill …"
Just as the body of the machine gunner fell to the ground, hundreds of rifles opened fire at the small convoy. In the smoke, countless figures were shot down. When the third wave of shells exploded in the convoy, Li Zhi stood up and shouted, "Charge …" Then he took the lead and rushed out. Hundreds of soldiers behind him followed without hesitation. They did not even think that the bombs would fall on their heads.
The women continued to cross the bridge, and from time to time, they caused chaos and blocked the people behind. Even Zhang Huai An could not do anything about it. It was very simple to solve the problem. He divided the women into groups of a hundred, and they would cross the bridge one by one. There was a leader, and the women only needed to listen to the leader. Unfortunately, Zhang Huai An's people were terrible, and naturally, there was no way to implement it.
When Zhang Huai An shouted the word "kill", he did not get a response from the machine gunners immediately. They were all temporarily recruited personnel, and they could not use heavy machine guns to strafe hundreds of people. While the men were still in shock, three whistles sounded, and then three balls of sparks exploded in the middle of the convoy. More than ten men and women flew into the sky together, spraying blood.
More than three hundred thugs were lying on the burning wreckage. All five vehicles had been blown up, and out of the 120 hostages, 87 people died on the spot. The rest were all seriously injured. Looking at the thugs and women who were seriously injured and about to die, Zhang Huai An ordered his subordinates to kill all the thugs, while he used his trembling pistol to kill the seriously injured women and drivers.
"We don't ask for much. As long as you let us cross the river, we will leave. We will find our own way to survive …"
Zhang Huai An's face was gloomy as he looked at the crowd that had occupied the five vehicles. They surrounded the vehicles and pulled the women down from the vehicles to stand in front of them. Many of them waved their long and short knives, as if to boost their courage. All the women who were being held hostage were pale with fear. They did not know why something like this suddenly happened when they were only one step away from leaving. After hearing the noise, the men only wanted to cross the bridge first, but the women all looked at Zhang Huai An with pleading eyes.
Zhang Huai An could not be more anxious. The crossing of the bridge was stopped once again. All the men rushed to the front, while the women and minors waiting to cross the bridge were pushed to the side. The two sides formed a standoff. It was different from before. Earlier, there were only about three hundred thugs, but now, they were facing tens of thousands of people. Once tens of thousands of people surged forward, not to mention the hundreds of people and the mortars, even if they were ten times more people and each of them had a heavy machine gun, they might not be able to stop them. Once people were in a desperate situation, they could explode with unimaginable strength for a slim chance of survival.
As if to prove his words, an earth-shattering explosion resounded from the other side. Countless black dots flew over the eight-meter-tall mud wall and into the sky. After the earth-shattering explosion, countless corpses flew into the air. Following that, a huge crack appeared on the eight-meter-tall wall …
The sudden explosion caused the small convoy to fall into chaos. Li Zhi then rushed to the machine guns and raised the muzzle. The Type-95 Rifle fired more than 10 bullets, riddling two machine gunners with bullet holes all over their bodies. He then pointed the muzzle at the remaining gunners and shouted. Just as he finished speaking, another three explosions rang out in the convoy. One of the large vehicles exploded into a ball of fire and broke into two pieces.
Even if they managed to cross the bridge, it was not over yet. There was chaos on the other side. Before crossing the bridge, they were arranged into groups. Once they crossed the bridge, they were pushed and squeezed. They were like a bunch of loose sand on the other side of the bridge. Not only did they spread out, they even blocked the people behind them, causing Zhang Huai An who was on the other side of the bridge to stomp his feet anxiously.
All the corpses, regardless of friend or foe, were thrown into the torrent under the bridge. The flames of the wreckage of the cars were put out. It took half an hour for the cars to be cleaned up. Half an hour was wasted in vain. Zhang Huai An hurriedly organized the women to retreat. When those women carrying bags of various sizes and dressed in rags rushed across the bridge, Zhang Huai An couldn't help but want to vomit blood. These women were reluctant to part with their belongings. Carrying bags of various sizes, they were slow and squeezed the bridge into a passage that could only accommodate two people. In other words, there were less than 70 people crossing the bridge every minute.