usatvline Chapter 54 Taking Advantage of the Enemy's Tire
Chapter 54 Taking Advantage of the Enemy's Tire
Qian Jianeng is from Zhangjia Village. He was initially conscripted by the Spanish colonial army and has been serving in the Free Army ever since he joined the rebellion. He is one of the oldest members of the team and has now become a squad leader.
He was slightly overweight and not very tall, with a large round face, and looked honest and kind.
A look of approval appeared in Chen Feng's eyes, and he said in a deep voice, "Continue!"
"General, I was forced by my mother to convert to Catholicism for a few years when I was a child, so I know some of the inside story."
In Luzon, Spanish nobles have always served as bishops, and these people have always held a considerable amount of private property.
Furthermore, Catholicism has a rule that high-ranking church officials must be buried with great honors, and corresponding gold and silver ritual objects will be placed in this blue stone coffin along with their remains.
As soon as Qian Jianeng finished speaking, he strode to the nearest blue stone coffin, his arms suddenly exerting force, veins bulging.
"Good heavens, if your mother knew you dared to dig up the bishop's grave, she'd be furious!" Zhang Xiuwu laughed and cursed, then stepped forward to lend a hand. Several soldiers immediately surrounded him and joined forces.
Boom!
The heavy stone coffin lid was violently overturned and slammed to the ground with a muffled thud, sending stone chips flying everywhere.
Chen Feng ignored the two men and walked straight toward the red-haired corpse.
The man was tall and burly, with a gruesome bloody hole in his chest. Before he died, his eyes were wide open and his face was full of disbelief. It was obvious that he had been ambushed from behind and stabbed through the chest.
Chen Feng bent down and quickly searched himself, finding nothing on his body, not even an empty holster. He immediately looked up and stared at the narrow passage beside him.
The passageway was only wide enough for one person to pass through, and was less than 1.7 meters high. Even with his height of nearly 1.9 meters, he had to bend over to barely get in.
"It was indeed a grand funeral."
The moment the stone coffin was opened, the gold and silver artifacts inside shimmered dazzlingly in the candlelight. Goldware, silver cups, and jeweled crosses filled one side, and an exquisite gilded sword sat beside the remains.
Chen Feng glanced around and immediately gave a stern order: "Pry open all the stone coffins! Pack up everything valuable, don't leave a single grain of gold behind, this is all the hard-earned money of our Chinese people!"
"yes!"
Zhang Xiuwu responded with a loud shout and immediately ordered his soldiers to work in groups of three, some prying open the coffins and others looting them. The huge stone chamber was filled with the sounds of prying stones, and golden treasures were being stuffed into cloth bags one after another, making the soldiers' eyes light up.
Chen Feng returned to the red-haired corpse, jumped onto the stone coffin opposite the cave entrance, sat down, and leisurely played with the Mauser pistol.
He had no intention of going into the passage below to his death.
It's too cramped inside. If someone were to guard it, every person who went in would be killed!
Waiting patiently for the rabbit to run into the tree stump or catching a turtle in a jar is the best strategy.
A moment later, a series of hushed curses came from the passage ahead.
"Damn it, there are more than a dozen of them!"
"There was only one guard at the entrance; I thought they didn't have many people."
"What a wasted trip!"
"God is unfair! I emptied my savings to buy a ship ticket here, hoping to make a fortune to return home, and now I've even lost the travel expenses!"
"I even sold my house! I'll be sleeping on the streets if I go back! Marilyn, you have to take responsibility for this!"
"Fool! My mother's medical treatment has already drained our savings, and we sold the house long ago! The expenses we're covering here were only made possible by selling my necklace!"
......
Chen Feng sneered inwardly. He had seen the foreign woman wearing a gold chain when she fell into the sea, but she had disappeared afterward. Sure enough, she had sold it to pay for her journey. These desperate people were really willing to risk everything for gold.
The whispers grew louder as they approached, and soon reached the cave entrance.
Zhang Xiuwu and his five soldiers had already raised their rifles, the dark muzzles of which were locked firmly on the entrance to the passage.
As the light and shadow shifted at the entrance of the passage, Marilyn was the first to lean out.
Surprise!
Chen Feng chuckled lightly, his voice full of mockery.
Marilyn trembled, froze on the spot, and turned ashen-faced.
Seeing that she wasn't moving, Peter behind her hurriedly gave her a push: "What are you standing there for? Hurry up! Those people are coming up with the gold."
This push brought Marilyn back to her senses. Seeing the several rifles propped up at the cave entrance, she immediately raised her hands, utterly terrified and devoid of any will to resist: "I surrender!"
Peter and Jack came out one after the other and saw the dark muzzle of a gun pointed at them. They were so frightened that they hurriedly raised their hands, not daring to touch the gun at their waists.
Chen Feng leaped off the stone coffin, a smile playing on his lips: "Miss Marilyn, you didn't expect this, did you? It's me."
"Chen, were you sent by Connor?" Marilyn tried to remain calm, still wanting to find out the truth.
Chen Feng, too lazy to waste words, waved for the soldiers to step forward and coldly ordered, "Disarm all weapons, tie their hands behind their backs, and shoot anyone who resists!"
Several soldiers stepped forward and quickly searched the three men, taking away their pistols and daggers. They then tightly bound their wrists with thick hemp ropes, and the three men, with guns pointed at them, dared not even breathe.
Chen Feng leaned down, grabbed Marilyn's chin, forced her to look up at him, and asked in a cold voice, "How much gold is down there? Is it really half a ton?"
Marilyn, wincing from his pinch, quickly exclaimed, "More than that! Definitely more than half a ton! There are thick stacks of gold bricks inside, a dazzling expanse of gold, easily over a ton!"
"One ton?"
Chen Feng's eyes gleamed with excitement, and he could no longer contain his joy, bursting into laughter: "Good! A windfall! From now on, this batch of gold is mine!"
The laughter echoed through the stone chamber, and the soldiers behind them, seeing this, were greatly encouraged and quickened their looting.
After laughing, Chen Feng's gaze suddenly turned cold as he swept over Marilyn and the other two, his mind racing with calculations.
These three knew about the gold; letting the tiger return to the mountain will surely cause great trouble!
If the independence army or the Spanish army gets even the slightest hint of this, they will hunt him down like madmen. In chaotic times, eliminating the threat completely is the only way to win!
The incident of Pang Nifa's show and the trickery he had suffered last night flashed through Chen Feng's mind, and a murderous intent surged in his eyes.
Seeing the murderous intent, Marilyn cried out, "Don't kill us! We swear to God, we won't utter a single word after we get out, we'll go back to America immediately, and we'll never come to Luzon again!"
"Is that so?"
Chen Feng scoffed, his voice icy, "I only believe that the dead don't speak."
"I have information that can save my life!" Marilyn blurted out anxiously.
Chen Feng raised an eyebrow, pressed the gun to her temple, and demanded in a deep voice, "Speak! What news? Whether it's worth your three dog lives is up to me!"
"That group of men down there carried more than a dozen Spanish-made hand grenades!" Marilyn blurted out.
Hand grenade!
Chen Feng's pupils constricted, and cold sweat instantly broke out on his back.
Fortunately, Marilyn and her two companions had scouted ahead first. Otherwise, if they had confronted each other rashly, and the enemy had thrown grenades, the soldiers would have been in grave danger in this open stone chamber. Even he, who was so carefree as to guard the entrance, would most likely have met the same fate.
He abruptly pulled his gun away, turned around, and roared, "Zhang Xiuwu! Stop immediately! Move all the stone coffins to the cave entrance and stack them up to form cover, quick!"
Before the shout had even faded, he added urgently, "Send a few more men back to the church immediately to search for kerosene and gasoline! If they dare to hide in the cave and refuse to come out, pour oil inside and set it on fire, burning them all to death!"
Zhang Xiuwu dared not delay and immediately accepted the order, leading his soldiers to move the stone coffin and clear the passage.
Chen Feng turned to look at Marilyn and the other two, and sneered, "Consider yourselves lucky! This information is enough to buy three of your lives, and enough for your travel expenses! But don't even think about taking a single extra penny of gold!"