As soon as the second transport of people was delivered, the rescue vehicle's broadcast crackled to life.
"Jiang Ye, I'm down. Come back to base and pick me up," Li Nannan's voice came through. "You'd better reorganize the troops and send them all to the hospital for reinforcement. There are still about two to three hundred rioters in the blocks near the hospital. Currently, the hospital can hold on for a while with the flat trajectory cannons, but there aren't many shells left. Without reinforcements, we won't last until tomorrow morning."
"Alright, I'll issue the order immediately," Jiang Ye replied. "The hospital still has flat trajectory cannons?"
"The police brought them. Over twenty police officers defending the hospital have been killed, and there are about thirty more. If the rioters are determined to charge, they could control the hospital in less than ten minutes," Li Nannan said. "There are already over ten thousand patients in the hospital, many of whom are influential and wealthy individuals, as well as senior engineers and scientists. Rescue everyone in the hospital and send them to Jiang Ye Star. This is an unmissable opportunity!"
"Understood!" Jiang Ye's spirits lifted. Talent was hard to come by. This was a chance to send more skilled individuals to Jiang Ye Star, and he had to seize it!
He picked up the walkie-talkie and issued an order on the team channel, "Everyone listen up, head to the hospital for reinforcements at your fastest speed! Eliminate any rioters wearing blue scarves on sight!"
Jiang Ye drove the vehicle back to the base. Li Nannan was standing at the entrance of the base, holding a four-tube rocket launcher and sitting on over a dozen boxes of ammunition.
"Move it," she said, tapping the boxes beneath her.
Jiang Ye became the porter again, grunting as he hauled ammunition boxes onto the vehicle. "Why didn't you say you had rocket launchers earlier? Assault rifles are so boring!"
"You guys don't have rocket launchers. I got this ammunition from the troops at the temporary airfield. My rank is higher, so they have to listen to me," Li Nannan explained. "Frankly, your clearance isn't high enough!"
Each box contained eight rockets. Jiang Ye loaded a total of 15 ammunition boxes onto the vehicle, totaling 120 rounds.
He drove directly to the hospital.
Previously, he had to find his way to the hospital, but now there was a recorded route. He sped along, reaching the intersection outside the hospital like lightning.
Twenty rescue vehicles had already arrived. Forty soldiers were crouched in roadside craters, firing their weapons.
Li Nannan grabbed the rocket launcher and jumped into a crater. "What are you shooting at?"
"There are rioters in the crater opposite. They just fired back at us," a nearby soldier explained. "They're pinned down by our bullets and can't show their heads, but we can't hit them either."
Li Nannan raised the rocket launcher and pulled the trigger without a word!
Thick white smoke and flames erupted as four rockets were fired in quick succession, their long fiery trails instantly burrowing into the crater across the street.
"Boom!" The entire street shook.
Gray sand and soil were blasted into the air, mixed with severed human limbs. Scarlet blood splattered everywhere. Countless stones rained down onto the street, making a clattering sound.
"Advance! Pin down any enemies you find, and I'll finish them!" Li Nannan commanded, sticking the smoking rocket launcher into the dirt to cool.
Jiang Ye had already brought over two boxes of ammunition and was nimbly reloading for Li Nannan.
The soldiers crawled out of the craters, clutching their rifles, and advanced crouched low across the street.
Suddenly, machine-gun fire erupted from a shop ahead. Bullets whizzed through the air, hitting two soldiers. The rest immediately dropped to the ground and rolled into the still-steaming crater.
Li Nannan raised the rocket launcher and pulled the trigger again!
The whistling sound of rockets echoed down the long street. Four streams of fire shot into the shop across the street, blasting the rioters inside out. They were engulfed in flames, but they didn't struggle upon landing; they were already dead from the impact. The shop then collapsed, kicking up a large cloud of dust.
"Forward!" Li Nannan roared.
The soldiers in the craters scrambled out and advanced crouched low.
Li Nannan followed, carrying the rocket launcher, with Jiang Ye close behind carrying the ammunition boxes.
The soldiers seemed to become living targets, drawing fire. For the next ten minutes, all the soldiers constantly advanced from one crater to another, running from one wall to another. Suddenly, gunfire would sweep towards them, taking down a few men. But immediately, Li Nannan's rockets would retaliate, four at a time, with deafening explosions that blasted the hidden rioters out of their cover.
Jiang Ye was the busiest of all, constantly bringing ammunition to Li Nannan, running back and forth like a dog in the summer heat, breathless.
The rioters realized something was wrong here. This small team was too much of a threat. They converged from all directions, concentrating their fire on the soldiers.
Both sides lay in the ruined walls, exchanging fire. The gunfire intensified, merging into a continuous roar, with bullets kicking up smoke all over the street. Jiang Ye judged from the noise that at least two hundred rioters had gathered.
Li Nannan stood up again and again to fire her rockets, her entire body covered in smoke, more fiery than any fire-breathing dragon, constantly blasting enemies into the sky.
But as she stood up again, her body suddenly trembled, and she collapsed without a sound.
Jiang Ye rushed to her side and saw a hole in her forehead.
"There's a sniper! Fire all the smoke grenades!" Jiang Ye shouted, ordering, and pulled out a rifle grenade from his backpack. "After the smoke grenades are out, load your bullets and charge with me! Let's push forward and kill as many as we can!"
The soldiers frantically launched the smoke grenades, explosions erupting one after another. Large clouds of milky white smoke spread throughout the block, quickly obscuring everything.
Jiang Ye shouldered Li Nannan's rocket launcher and called for two soldiers to carry ammunition boxes to follow him.
"Che Zhen, take ten men to scout ahead. Move fast and shoot accurately. The rest follow me, spread out!" Jiang Ye leaped out of the crater.
The soldiers jumped out of the craters and charged forward, instinctively dividing into small groups, advancing in different directions. Gunfire erupted intermittently, making it almost impossible to distinguish between enemy and friendly fire. Jiang Ye scanned for targets with wide eyes but saw no enemies, only those already killed by his teammates ahead.
"The bank! The bank to the east has..." a soldier shouted, but before he could finish, intense gunfire cut him off.
Jiang Ye immediately knelt and fired towards the bank. Four streams of fire shot straight ahead, followed by screams. The ammunition bearers behind quickly reloaded, and Jiang Ye raised the rocket launcher and fired again, sending another four rockets into the bank.
Che Zhen's assault team entered, followed by a burst of rapid gunfire.
Jiang Ye followed them inside. The bank's main entrance was completely blown apart, with spiderweb-like blast marks on the walls. Riots wearing blue scarves lay scattered on the ground, their bodies charred and unrecognizable, their blood pooling like a swamp. Many of the rioters' corpses still clutched money boxes, from which purple banknotes burned, fanned by the wind, setting the ground ablaze.
"It's clear," Che Zhen said, emerging from the bank after a sweep and reloading his assault rifle. "No survivors. A few bank employees are dead, but they weren't killed by us; they've been dead for days."
"From east to west, clear the other street," Jiang Ye gestured.
"Yes!" The soldiers charged out again.