After the three sides were ready, Liu Tiezhu's troops also entered the encirclement.
"Fire!"
Liu Zhigao gave the order, and bullets whizzed fiercely toward them.
"Everyone, fall back." Zhang Tianlong decisively commanded.
The two hundred men immediately turned around, surrounding Liu Tiezhu as they quickly retreated.
"Fire!" Ming Junke followed up with a shout.
Upon hearing the command, the men behind him rushed out and opened fire toward Liu Zhigao's side.
Bang, bang, bang...
The dense gunfire was especially piercing under the silent night sky.
Liu Zhigao and his men were all stunned, never expecting that there were people hidden opposite them.
Judging by the intensity of the bullets, the enemy outnumbered them.
"Everyone find cover and return fire!"
Snapping back to reality, Liu Zhigao shouted in panic.
"Push forward! Kill one man, get a hundred bucks reward."
Ming Junke's eyes were bloodshot as he yelled to the crowd.
Hearing this, the Ming family troops were like they'd been injected with adrenaline, charging recklessly forward with reddened eyes.
"Damn it, let's fight them to the death!"
Liu Tiezhu also went berserk, offering the same terms as Ming Junke.
In an instant, both sides plunged into a frenzied shootout.
Meanwhile, Zhang Tianlong and his men, who had withdrawn from the battlefield, were all bewildered.
For a moment, everyone turned their gaze to Liu Tiezhu, waiting for his orders.
"Retreat. We'll circle back through the western suburbs of the city."
With that, Liu Tiezhu left the battlefield first.
The job was done; there was no need for him to stay.
Hearing the order, everyone followed suit.
On Liu Jingui's side, upon hearing the gunfire, he waved his hand, and several hundred men rushed forward.
"Hit them hard! Leave no one alive except Liu Tiezhu."
As Liu Jingui's words fell, four heavy machine guns were brought out from the crowd.
Rat-a-tat-tat...
Under the relentless barrage of heavy machine gun fire, both Liu Zhigao and Ming Junke's forces, who were locked in a heated battle, suffered heavy casualties.
Both sides were baffled by the sudden appearance of several hundred men.
"Son of a bitch, where did these people come from, and with such heavy firepower?"
Ming Junke cursed loudly, dodging while asking his subordinates.
His men were closest to Liu Jingui and suffered the most losses.
On the other side, Liu Zhigao was equally puzzled.
But he reacted quickly, realizing that continuing this fight would likely mean losing all his men.
"Everyone, listen to my command! Fall back in alternating groups!"
Snapping out of it, Liu Zhigao made a decisive move.
Ming Junke also saw the situation was dire and gave the same order as Liu Zhigao.
Their decisions were sound, but too late.
When Liu Jingui made his move, he had anticipated their escape, so he had deployed several teams of thirty men in various alleys in the northern part of the city to ambush them.
Seeing Ming Junke and Liu Zhigao trying to flee, Liu Jingui ordered his forces to split into two groups and encircle their troops.
Additionally, Liu Jingui sent a signal for the teams in the alleys to come and reinforce.
In no time, the alleys in the northern city were filled with moving shadows and gunfire.
As time passed, Liu Zhigao realized he had fallen into Liu Jingui's trap.
He looked at the eighty-plus men left beside him and made a decision.
"Everyone, staying together makes us too big a target. It'll be hard to escape."
"From now on, we split up. Find civilian houses or other cover to hide, and look for the right chance to get out."
With Liu Zhigao's order, the eighty-plus men quickly dispersed.
On Ming Junke's side, they were still putting up a stubborn resistance.
Using various cover, they exchanged fire with Liu Jingui's forces.
But as time wore on and Liu Jingui's heavy firepower arrived, Ming Junke's numbers quickly dwindled to a hundred.
Liu Jingui also suffered heavy losses, but he had the advantage in numbers and equipment.
Ming Junke knew that if this continued, they would all die here.
After thinking it over, he shouted toward the enemy: "Listen up over there! We're men of Third Master Ming's family. You—"
Before he could finish, dozens of bullets flew toward him, nearly turning him into a sieve.
"I'm targeting Third Master Ming's men on purpose!"
After the gunfire, Liu Jingui's cold laugh followed.
"Damn it, these bastards planned this!"
"Death or life, let's charge them and fight to the end!"
Ming Junke roared, firing toward Liu Jingui's direction.
The hundred or so men behind him knew Ming Junke wasn't bluffing.
In this situation, their only chance to survive was to charge out and fight to the death.
Behind them was a dead end; there was no other way to retreat.
Staying put and running out of ammo meant certain death.
"Let's fight these sons of bitches!"
The men shouted in unison, raising their rifles and charging forward.
Liu Jingui was startled by their move.
The distance between them was only about twenty meters. If they broke through, his losses would likely double.
But in this situation, he had no choice but to fight Ming Junke head-on.
"Everyone, concentrate fire! Hit them hard!"
Liu Jingui gritted his teeth and gave the order.
Bang, bang, bang...
The dense gunfire sounded like firecrackers during New Year's, sparks flying everywhere.
Men fell on both sides, with cries and screams echoing endlessly.
This horrifying scene lasted for over ten minutes before finally falling silent.
Hundreds of corpses lay scattered across the ground, their blood staining the soil.
Ming Junke's men were completely wiped out.
Liu Jingui's side wasn't much better, losing over a hundred men as well.
He hadn't expected Ming Junke's men to resist so fiercely.
Even in death, they had dragged so many of his men down with them.
On the other side, Liu Zhigao and his men had escaped the encirclement.
Of the two hundred-plus men he brought, fewer than thirty remained.
After counting the survivors, Liu Zhigao didn't dare linger and hurried back to the secret camp with his men.
What was supposed to be a sure victory had ended in heavy losses.
Not only did they fail to secure the supplies they wanted, but they nearly lost their lives.
As the instigator of this chaotic battle, Liu Tiezhu had already returned safely to the camp.
Inside the barracks, Zhang Tianlong took out a ledger and reported the collected supplies one by one.
After finishing, Zhang Tianlong asked, "Captain, should we hand over all these supplies or keep some aside?"
Though he wasn't well-versed in social niceties, he understood some unspoken rules.
Handing over all these supplies would be foolish.
But this decision wasn't his to make; he needed Liu Tiezhu's input.
"Who participated in counting these supplies?"
Liu Tiezhu didn't answer immediately but asked instead.
Zhang Tianlong replied truthfully, "Seven people were involved in the count."
"Five of them died in the battle."
Hearing this, Liu Tiezhu immediately understood Zhang Tianlong's implication.
"All supplies must be handed over, but you recorded it wrong."
With that, Liu Tiezhu took the ledger from Zhang Tianlong and crossed out some entries with a pen.
A minute later, Liu Tiezhu handed the ledger back to Zhang Tianlong.
"Check if there are any issues. If not, report it as is."
Zhang Tianlong took the ledger and looked at it, his eyes widening in shock as he gasped.
"Captain, you... this... this..."