Chapter 49: What is this?

Pingdong County.

Tai City Road and Bridge Group, Third Construction Engineering Co., Ltd.

Dong Jian hung up the phone with Mayor Huang of Shiliying Township, recalled the pig-raising techniques taught by Old Yu, and immediately began writing furiously.

Combining his engineering experience, he extracted and sublimated various breeding methods.

"This is truly blue coming from blue yet outperforming blue..."

An hour later.

Sounds of engines echoed across the plaza in front of the office building.

Dong Jian walked to the window to check.

Twenty-three flatbed trucks were unloading twenty-three dump trucks, along with his own small BMW.

"No matter how arrogant Shiliying thinks it is, facing my father, you still have to grovel."

Suddenly.

The company manager rushed into the office.

"Boss, our trucks are missing three engines, twenty-three sets of transmissions, twenty-three sets of electric start systems, twenty-three pairs of headlights... Adding it all up piece by piece, the loss is over a million."

Dong Jian was slightly stunned. "Damn it, does Shiliying take me, Dong Jian, for a fool?"

With that, he contacted Old Dong.

"No matter what it takes, I'm going to strip Huang Qianchen of his uniform."

"Huang Qianchen? The mayor of Shiliying?"

"Yes!"

"Are you out of your mind? Why would you provoke that honest man?"

"An honest man?"

"Yeah. Back when Shiliying and Xiaohu Town almost had a massive fallout, we replaced the management in Shiliying. After searching for a long time, we finally found Huang Qianchen—born locally, sharp-minded, pragmatic, well-connected, yet timid and cautious. Facts have proven that he has indeed done a great job over the past few years. If those wheels hadn't gone missing, Shiliying definitely would have stayed peaceful for a decade or eight."

"Are your eyes blind, old man?"

"Is that any way to talk to your father?"

"My twenty-three dump trucks were almost completely stripped to pieces, and all four wheels of my BMW are gone!"

"I heard the Pingdong supervisor mention that it was Beihe Township that did that, and Shiliying managed to snatch them back for you with great difficulty."

"???"

"Xiaojian, Shiliying is already very poor. Stop trying to extort the township compound, and focus on figuring out how to raise pigs."

"Damn it!"

Dong Jian slammed down the phone on the spot, then lit a cigarette and sank into his leather executive chair.

When his mood had completely settled, he tapped the table. "Come in!"

The various managers, project leaders, demolition heads, and others who were aware of what had happened rushed into the office. "Present!"

"Grab your gear. We're playing big this time."

"Should we bring the demolition team?"

"Bring them. When the time comes, let a few blasts go off first to show the whole Shiliying who the real local tyrant is!"

...

Yujia Village Parking Lot.

The massive venue was in complete disarray, with various automobile components scattered everywhere.

Bearings, rear axles, gearboxes, engines, headlights, shock absorbers, power systems...

The vegetable vendors who had been watching had already dispersed.

Only Old Yu, the town mayor, the deputy mayor, Yue Donglai, Old Liu Yu, two veteran masters from the agricultural machinery station, and a few bosses from the village and town repair shops remained at the scene.

Everyone was either puffing on cigarettes, clutching insulated mugs, squatting on the ground, or rubbing engine grease off their hands with dirt.

Veteran master from the agricultural machinery station: "Without a chassis, assembling a transport truck is a bit difficult."

"I do have a few chassis over there," said Yue Donglai, owner of Quanpu Trailers. "But those were just welded for fun by me and my employees when we had nothing to do."

"How's the quality? This diesel engine packs 336 horsepower; don't install it only for the whole thing to shake apart on the road."

"Definitely sturdier than a 'Four-Unlike'."

In the Shiliying brick kilns, there was a specific type of vehicle used exclusively for hauling bricks and earth.

Blocky in appearance, its diesel engine, bearings, gears, reducers, and so on all came from abandoned tractors.

Then, the veteran masters of the agricultural machinery station would weld their own chassis, install tires, cram a multitude of automobile components haphazardly into the copilot's space, and finally mount a cargo bed before hitting the road.

Because these homemade vehicles looked neither like tractors nor agricultural tricycles, nor quite like trucks or vans, they were colloquially known as "Four-Unlikes."

Yue Donglai added, "You know how men are. Since we were welding for fun, we naturally had to add some whimsical ideas."

Everyone nodded in understanding.

The mayor asked curiously, "Could those chassis have bizarre designs?"

"How should I put it? One uses track drive, mimicking a tank chassis; another uses wheel drive, mimicking an armored chassis; and the last one is unrecognizable, looking just like a land warship."

"..."

"Are you going to use them or not? Those are my pride and joy accumulated over a decade. If converted to monetary value plus labor costs, they're easily worth five or six hundred thousand."

The mayor spread his hands. "Even if you want to sell, the township can't afford it."

"No need to buy. Just let me drive them around normally once the engines are installed."

"Deal!"

Upon hearing this, Yue Donglai pulled out his phone to contact his hometown in Quanpu, telling them to pack up and ship all the chassis and accumulated automobile components over.

An hour later.

The elderly party secretary, carrying a small stool and humming a cheerful tune, strolled across the parking lot toward the small Western-style building to bask in the sun.

Catching sight of the chassis unloaded from the flatbed and the scattered automobile components covering the ground, his once-cloudy eyes suddenly lit up.

"What are you all doing?"

"Assembling a transport truck."

"This steel frame doesn't even have a suspension system, and you call it a tractor? At best, it's just a flatbed cart. Here, let me teach you."

The mayor, Yue Donglai, and the others knew that the old secretary knew Russian and had studied armored vehicle repair manuals...

Wait, armored vehicle repair manuals?

"You'd better go play somewhere else, old man."

"You don't understand. The Brown Bear's armored vehicles were all manufactured by tractor plants. If I know how to fix armored vehicles, I certainly understand tractors. Building three heavy-duty transport vehicles will also help speed up the development of my distant grandson's company, which benefits Shiliying!"

The mayor hesitated slightly. "Then... would you care to offer some guidance?"

"Find a few laborers and come home with me first."

"What for?"

"Under the cattle trough in my old homestead, I still have two cannons buried—no, wait, I mean my insights on repairing armored vehicles are buried there."

"..."

...

The second-floor study of the small Western-style building.

The doors and windows were tightly shut, and the curtains drawn.

Yu Yang, along with his eldest, second, third, and fourth brothers, gathered together.

On the desk rested several greased submachine guns and assault rifles, alongside two meticulously maintained Lee-Enfield rifles.

In addition, there were piles of various brass ammunition.

Living in such a chaotic place, which family didn't have a few real pieces of hardware?

These items were the cherished collection of their grandfather.

To cope with various crises, ever since the day the brick kiln was reclaimed, his brothers—ranked in the top ten of the family—had begun practicing shooting inside the cave dwellings.

Though they hadn't mastered it to perfection, they at least knew how to aim and when to pull the trigger.

The reason for such a display today was entirely because of Dong Jian.

In another timeline, the clash between the two sides didn't occur until after 2006, when regulations were much stricter and methods weren't nearly as wild.

But in this timeline, it was currently 1998.

Judging by rumors from the alternative timeline, Dong Jian had employed violent tactics when annexing the Municipal Second Construction Company, and subsequently the First Construction Company as well.

Submachine guns and assault rifles were mere child's play.

He had directly used explosives to eliminate opponents, subsequently framing it as a fireworks factory accident in the news.

Now that the two sides had come into contact ahead of schedule, Yu Yang naturally had to prepare.

Of course, he also had to consider how to deal with Old Dong after Dong Jian's death.

Fortunately, in the other timeline, Old Dong faced trial, and Yu Yang vaguely remembered some of the criminal charges.

As long as he was given a bit of time to reverse-engineer the evidence, he should be able to take Old Dong down.

Just then.

Muffled explosions echoed from the nearby wheat fields, sounding precisely like thunder clapping on flat ground.

Yu Yang strode over to the second-floor corridor, lowered his gaze, and saw Dong Jian leading a massive, menacing crowd brandishing various real firearms as they flooded into the parking lot.

Old Yu, the mayor, and the others had already retreated to the northern gate.

Yu Yang tucked his pistol into his waistband and signaled his eldest brother and the others to flank around the back.

A gunfight, dangerous as it was said to be, was surprisingly manageable as long as one took cover; getting hit wasn't so easy.

Besides, he still had a 3D bird's-eye view interface, allowing him to calculate flat-trajectory lines just like playing billiards on a computer.

Yu Yang walked out of the small Western-style building, glanced at the few people guarding the southern gate of the parking lot, and turned back into Yujia Village.

Just as he intended to scale the wall into the parking lot, he saw the old secretary leading a few laborers rolling an earth-covered cannon out of his former homestead.

Judging by its silhouette, it didn't look like an ordinary piece of artillery.

It bore a strong resemblance to an anti-aircraft gun.

Yu Yang ran over. "What is this?"

"It's a cannon!"

"I mean, what kind of cannon is this?"

"Anti-aircraft!"

"Can an anti-aircraft gun shoot people?"

Unaware of what was happening in the parking lot, the old secretary looked at him with utter disdain. "Do you even carry the Yu family name?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"This is the drawback of never having served in the military." The old secretary fiddled with the breech of the artillery piece and looked up at the sky. "Let you hear a bang."

With that, he skillfully operated the steering wheel, pointing the muzzle toward the sky.

A moment later.

Boom! Bang!

Accompanied by a sharp impact sound, the muzzle spat out a plume of thick smoke.

A dozen seconds later, a massive cloud of black fireworks suddenly burst open across the sky.

The old secretary lit a cigarette, radiating supreme arrogance. "How about that? Mount this contraption on a war vehicle, and I guarantee whoever sees it will cower."

Yu Yang nodded frantically. "This is a massive AoE weapon!"

At the same time, he signaled his eldest brother and the others to drag the anti-aircraft gun to the northern gate of the parking lot and aim it inward.

Before anyone could shout a warning, Dong Jian's startled scream rang out.

"Holy shit, turning an anti-aircraft gun horizontal? Aren't you bastards afraid of facing a military court?!"

"Stop cranking the steering wheel, I surrender!"