It was a peaceful little city.
In fact, Ryan preferred to call it a town or a village rather than a city.
There were no high-rise buildings like the Federation's. Instead, there were only low-rise houses, and the few buildings were dilapidated.
It had been four hours since they entered the city.
There had been no resistance in the past four hours. Up until now, the entire team had not fired a single shot.
This was not part of their reaction. They believed that the Blackstone Security had used Sanchez's name to invade the city, and the local warlords should have stood up and fought back.
They would have built a defensive barrier in the complicated streets of the city, and everyone would have wasted their time in the slow process of advancing.
Just like what they had learned in the Navy and Land Assault Team, the advancement of street battles was very slow. Every building had to be carefully searched until it was completely safe. Only then could they advance.
This process was often accompanied by all kinds of terrifying crossfire, and there would be a large number of casualties. Everyone had considered this.
However, up until now, no one had fired a single shot.
The local warlords acted as if they did not exist at all, allowing Sanchez's men to drive the old truck into the city. They were less than two kilometers away from the city hall.
Along the way, they kept searching the nearby houses and people, but they did not find anything. There was not a single enemy in sight!
At this time, Ryan, who had come out of a house by the roadside, casually said, "Could they have run away?"
He had a stalk of grass in his mouth, and he looked very relaxed.
His companion was also very surprised, and he seemed a little relaxed. "Who knows? If we can occupy this place without shooting, then that would be the best. At least we don't have to kill everyone we see!"
The squad leader in front of them frowned. He knew that these two people were mocking him for killing the two innocent girls.
It was not just Ryan. Some of the other recruits could not accept this. They could shoot at men, but when it came to women, children, and the elderly, they did not have enough vigilance. They even thought that the veterans were cold-blooded executioners.
The squad leader swore that he thought the same two years ago, but now, he saw everyone as an attacker.
Many locals on both sides of the street looked at them numbly. Those people did not hide, nor did they do anything special. They just stood by the side of the road and looked at these people.
They watched these outsiders search their houses and check their belongings. They did not resist or struggle.
Those numb eyes made one's scalp tingle.
"We are still 1.5 kilometers away from the city hall. According to the information we have collected, the city hall has become the warlord's headquarters since a few years ago."
"There is another possibility. They have retracted their forces and arranged them around the city hall. This would explain why we have not found any enemies and exchanged fire with them."
The colonel sitting in the command vehicle gave his opinion. The people next to him supported his opinion. After all, this was the truth.
There was no problem in making a reasonable guess based on the facts. The other party had either run away or retracted their forces. This was also a countermeasure when they were in a relatively weak position.
After all, the pressure of attacking each other was obviously higher than the pressure of a fixed defense. They could choose a place that was advantageous to them and very familiar to defend it. Then, they could seek a counterattack. This was a good choice.
If they were in different positions, the colonel felt that he would do the same. He would also build some defensive fortifications to make it more difficult for the attackers to take over the city hall.
Compared to the thoughts of these officers and the recruits, the veterans who had two years of experience in the Amelia region had already noticed that something was wrong.
Someone approached the squad leader. "I think there is a problem …"
The squad leader nodded. He had always been in a state where he could fight anytime and anywhere. "I also feel that something is wrong. It is too calm. They should not be so calm."
The two of them looked at each other. They gripped the guns in their hands tightly. Their fingers were already on the trigger.
In their opinion, the two sides were not on the same level. The local warlord was obviously the weaker side.
Since they were the weaker side, they should use all the factors that were beneficial to them to make up for the gap between the two sides.
In fact, dragging the battle into an urban battle was the best choice. They might not be able to clean up the city even after a few months.
Other than that, there were many other ways. However, it did not include directly giving up space and then compressing their living space to seek a decisive battle.
That was too stupid. If the local warlords were all like this, their 3,000 people would be enough to conquer the country.
However, it was obvious that this was not possible.
If it was impossible, the other side must be playing tricks.
"Pay attention to those ordinary people. They might be hiding among these people," the squad leader ordered.
Everyone, including Ryan, heard the squad leader's order.
"I will go and tell the colonel …" Another veteran stood in place. The colonel's command vehicle was behind, not in front.
Ryan listened to the squad leader's words and imitated him with ugly expressions and movements. Although it was silent, it still caused some people to laugh.
The squad leader looked back at them. "If I were you, I would shut up now and watch the crowd on both sides. Those people might rush out and attack us at any time."
Ryan looked at the people on both sides. They were all ordinary people, and most of them were women.
Many of the men in Marillo had died in the war, and the most common people on the streets were women.
These women had to do the work that only men would do because there was a lack of men in the city.
After glancing at these women, the elderly, and the children a few times, Ryan pursed his lips and shook his head. "They are all innocent people. Why didn't we chase them away?"
The squad leader knew that Ryan did not like him, but he still answered, "Before we entered the city, we had already arranged for people to do propaganda work and persuade them to leave …"
The squad leader was stunned for a moment. He seemed to have thought of something, but when he thought about it carefully, the inspiration disappeared.
While the veterans were silent and the recruits were marching in high spirits, they were less than a thousand meters away from the city hall.
At this moment, even the squad leader was a little confused. Was the other party really so stupid as to lie on the chopping board and wait to be cut?
After walking for another 300 meters, gunshots suddenly came from the front. The whole team moved a lot faster, and after a while, the situation at the front was reported through the walkie-talkie.
They had encountered the enemy.
This news made the squad leader and many of the veterans breathe a sigh of relief. When they were wiping out the anti-government militants in the Amelia area, what they were most afraid of was not a positional battle with those people.
The locals would support these people. The locals would pass on information for them, help them hide, and provide them with supplies. This was the most terrifying and troublesome thing.
If they were to really start a fight, it would not be so unsettling.
Soon, the command vehicle's message came. A few teams were left to evacuate the people, and the others were to go to the outskirts of the city hall as soon as possible to fight.
Unfortunately, Ryan's team was left behind.
Compared to dispersing the people here, he actually wanted to go to the frontlines.
He was very dissatisfied with the attitude of the veterans, and he wanted to prove himself more and more. After all, he was the vanguard of the Navy and Land Assault Team. He had his own moral bottom line and his own ability.
The gunshots in the distance were getting more and more intense. Ryan looked into the distance from time to time, but unfortunately, he could not see anything.
"Ma 'am, it's very dangerous outside. Please go back to your house and lock the door, okay?"
There was a woman in front of Ryan who looked to be in her late twenties. Just as he was persuading the woman to go back, a little girl who looked to be in her teens revealed half of her body from behind the woman. She looked at Ryan curiously.
Perhaps it was because the child's gaze was irresistible, or perhaps it was because he was actually a very good boy, Ryan subconsciously took out a candy to replenish energy and bent over to hand it over.
In the next second, a gunshot rang out beside him. He watched in disbelief as the woman beside him suddenly fell to the ground. He turned around and looked at the squad leader with eyes full of disbelief and anger.
He actually beat an innocent woman to death, the mother of a child, and he even did it right in front of the child!
He immediately raised the weapon in his hand and aimed it at the squad leader. There was already some tension in the team, and suddenly, internal strife broke out. Before the squad leader could explain anything, Ryan suddenly tilted his body and almost fell.
The little girl beside him stabbed a sharp knife into his waist. Then, there was another gunshot, and then a second one.
The squad leader's scalp tingled, and he shouted, "Enemy attack, hide as soon as possible!"
He carried Ryan, who still didn't know what had happened, and crashed into a roadside house. In the next second, bullets whizzed past their heads, and gunshots rang out one after another outside.
"This is a trap, those passers-by are their people!"
Someone shouted in the distance, but soon, there were screams of pain.
At this time, Ryan, whose heart was beating rapidly, saw the woman lying on the ground at the door. She had already become a corpse. Her right hand was holding a pistol.
She was going to kill him when he bent over!
The squad leader tore open Ryan's clothes and looked at his wound. Blood silently gushed out of the wound at a speed that wasn't slow.
When he saw the wound, the squad leader was stunned. He knew that this was a sign of ruptured internal organs. Only ruptured internal organs and bleeding arteries could cause such a terrifying amount of blood loss.
There was no chance of survival with this kind of injury on the battlefield.
He just looked at Ryan coldly. Ryan seemed to have come to his senses. He looked at the wound on his waist and saw the blood gushing out uncontrollably. A trace of fear appeared in his eyes.
The squad leader turned around and shouted, "We need a medical team, someone's internal organs are ruptured, call for backup …"