Chapter 346 Exhausting One’s Limited Abilities

"Done burying the landmine?" Ren Baqian looked at the Great Xia barracks nearby and asked in a low voice.
"Sir, it's done."
"Let's go." Ren Baqian took everyone along with him and quietly waved goodbye. He only left a landmine behind without taking the clouds away from the sky.
Ren Baqian got someone to bury another landmine a distance away before he found another place to set the mortar up. Then, he fired one shot to the east and one shot to the north of the central barracks before stopping and returning to the city to sleep.
Ren Baqian and his party went back to sleep while Great Xia was almost tormented to death. In the middle of the night, there was a sudden explosion in the central barracks. Moreover, the explosion occurred between a few tents and many were injured or even killed. Great Xia thought that Dayao had come to raid their barracks again, so the soldiers rushed out after grabbing their weapons.
After waiting for a long time, they discovered that the other party had only fired one mortar shell and nothing else happened.
Everyone waited for an hour before being convinced that the other party wouldn't come back again. Only then did they return to sleep.
The next morning, when Great Xia's soldiers just got into formation, someone stepped on a landmine. Everyone immediately focused their vision on the ground and carefully advanced. They continued walking for another 100 meters and only heaved a sigh of relief when nothing happened. In the end, another explosion occurred before they could even catch their breath and they had to retreat again.
On the third day.
There was a river north of Great Xia's central barracks with a width of 100 meters. The flow of the water there was rather rapid, and in peacetime, the Great Xia army would retrieve their water from over there.
This river wasn't far from the central barracks. In the past, it was considered safe here because the aboriginals were constrained in Liao City. As such, the Great Xia soldiers could come here to retrieve water without any pressure.
However, two explosions suddenly occurred at the riverside this morning. Thereafter, a group of laborers shouted out loudly and carried over ten people back to the barracks. Several of them couldn't be saved anymore while the remaining people were drenched in blood.
On the fourth day, the Great Xia soldiers kept thinking that there was something under their feet. After every step they took, they took a very long pause.
At this point, they finally understood what the phrase, "watch your step," meant.
Although most of the soldiers were illiterate, there would inevitably be a few of them who could read. The words on the white cloth that hung on the city wall in the day had attracted many people's attention. During the evening after they retreated, news of what the words meant was spread everywhere.
In addition, the explosions that took place every now and then caused the Great Xia soldiers to walk with extreme caution over the next few days.
However, there were no explosions on this day and many soldiers heaved a sigh of relief as they attacked the city.
It was alright to fight with real blades and spears, but not knowing when something would suddenly explode beneath your feet was something that would make people nervous.
"They have exhausted their limited abilities," Wu Shenghou said with a relaxed expression.
"How does Great General know about this?" that scholar asked an inquisitive question.
"With the exception of that particular evening's night attack, their following attacks became smaller in scale. Also, their usage of formidable weapons is starting to decrease. Even though there is a type of weapon that will explode in the ground, there aren't many of them. Furthermore, there were more than ten of these weapons deployed in each direction a few days back, but over the last two days, the number has decreased. As for today, there were none. Besides, no matter where they got this weapon from, according to the power and precision of this weapon, it must be specially crafted by skilled craftsmen. Of course, the quantity manufactured wouldn't be a large amount. It can be used to harass or attack a small number of soldiers. When both armies confront each other, it can only hurt a few more people and delay the attack. "
After Wu Shenghou explained his analysis, that scholar immediately chimed in, "Great General is indeed wise."
Wu Shenghou waved him off. "You and I have known each other for many years, so you don't have to resort to using flattery. If I can think of it, you can definitely think of it too. If they started out with more of these weapons, I would definitely have a headache. Now, however, it seems that the quantity isn't that large, so I need not worry too much anymore."
"Great General, don't forget that the other party also has a weapon that can eject numerous small steel bearings. The power of that weapon is even greater than that of the others. Even the Earth Wheel experts have had difficulty escaping from them."
"The more powerful the weapon is, the greater the restriction it has," Wu Shenghou said decisively.
"The steel bearings shot out by the other party's weapons were all extraordinary and well-made. Even if our skilled craftsmen were able to manufacture them, it would be time-consuming. The explosive speed of this weapon is fast, and several shots can be fire in a flash. The number of steel bearings used when utilizing a weapon like this will not be a small amount. In my opinion, it's unknown how long the other party took to gather such a large amount of steel bearings. After using it a few times, even if they still had more, they wouldn't have a significant amount."
"Great General's words are very true."
...
At this moment, Ren Baqian was viewing houses in Sheshan, Shanghai.
He was accompanied by a bespectacled woman in her thirties who looked professional and also spoke professionally. However, Ren Baqian felt that she was always sizing him up.
This villa had been found by his assistant, Shen Feng, whose exact gender was questionable. It was a two-and-a-half storey apartment that was about 600 square meters in size. It had four bedrooms, two halls, and two toilets. The second storey had a huge balcony as well as a 1,000 square meter garden. There were also two swimming pools, one in the garden and one indoors. In addition, there was a semi-underground car garage.
After viewing this house, Ren Baqian's first thought was that he could bring the empress here to swim. It was impossible for the empress to swim at a crowded beach, but there was a slight chance that she would be willing to swim over here.
Besides, there were many rooms as well as a large garage. In the future, any weapons or ammunition could be stored here, making it very convenient.
Moreover, the house was elaborately decorated even though the style wasn't to his liking. Yet, it wasn't to the extent that he detested it. The best thing was that he could send his bags over and move in directly.
The only thing that Ren Baqian didn't like about this villa was that it was too cold and empty. The palace was already cold enough, yet the number of rooms in this villa was more than the number of people staying in it.
He would be living alone most of the time and living in such a huge house could be horrifying.
"Can you knock down all the walls and join all the rooms together? I'm living alone and will always feel that there is someone in the other rooms. I lack a sense of security, so if all the rooms can be joined together and I can have a panoramic view, there won't be any remaining flaws," Ren Baqian said sincerely.
The real estate agent's expression immediately froze after she heard what Ren Baqian said.
Always feel that there is someone in the other rooms? Is he talking about humans or ghosts?
Lack a sense of security?
Are you here to create trouble?
"Sir, the feng shui here is excellent, and there absolutely will not be any problems. Furthermore, I will personally introduce you to a master that is very well-known in Shanghai. You don't have to worry about such issues."
"I don't mean it that way." Ren Baqian calmly waved his hand. "It's a psychological effect—do you understand? I lack a sense of security and would like to stay in a place with a panoramic view. There are so many rooms here that I feel uncomfortable!"
"If you want to hire someone, hire a psychiatrist and that might be more effective."
If it were not for the fact that he wasn't someone ordinary, she would have smashed his face with the book in her hand.
If you don't like big houses, why are you viewing a villa?
After staying in Dayao for a long period of time and dealing with high level people in the nation, he naturally had an added loftiness to him. This was the reason why the woman didn't dare to offend him.
"Sir, perhaps you can take a look at other villas which have different room configurations? There are many houses listed by our company that are suitable for a person with a status like yours."
"Status?" Ren Baqian smiled widely, just like how the big bad wolf smiled when it met Little Red Riding Hood.
"What kind of status do I have?"
The woman beat around the bush and said respectfully, "Definitely not someone ordinary!"
Could an ordinary person view a villa worth over 30 million? However, she didn't dare to casually guess the other party's status either. Even though she felt that he was a rich man's son, she might have guessed incorrectly and offended the other party. If he was overly sensitive, she would be in deep trouble.
Most importantly, Ren Baqian indeed had an imposing manner which made her felt pressured. She could also feel that this person was somewhat dangerous.
"Good foresight!" Ren Baqian gave her a thumbs up and laughed heartily.
"I will take this house," Ren Baqian clapped and said.
The woman shivered upon hearing Ren Baqian's words. He actually bought an apartment, which was worth over 30 million, just like that?
She quickly summed up the amount of commission she would receive from this.
"Wait a minute!" Ren Baqian hinted to her before giving Yang Sen a call. "Chief Yang!"
"Mr. Ren, what's the matter?" Nowadays, whenever Yang Sen answered Ren Baqian's calls, he would tremble. These days, he had been dealing with Ren Baqian very frequently. Moreover, he had to listen to Ren Baqian talk about nuclear warheads, phosphorus bombs, and napalm bombs every now and then. It reached the extent that he didn't want to answer Ren Baqian's calls anymore.
"My house is flooded, and I'm homeless now. I just happened to see a house, and it isn't expensive, only over 40 million yuan. However, I don't have enough money in my pockets right now, so I need you to loan me 50 million. This includes money for renovation."
Yang Sen was speechless.
"I believe Chief Yang can handle something this minor, right? I brought back good stuff this time." Ren Baqian laughed.
"Wait a moment. I'll ask for instructions first." Yang Sen hung up the call as soon as he finished his sentence.
Ren Baqian hummed a melody. In actual fact, he hadn't been spending much money. Previously, he had 20 million yuan, and adding the loan from the nation, he had about 100 million yuan left. However, if there was someone else willing to pay the bill, why would he want to fork out any money?
Currently, the nation could only supply him with some weapons and with money.