Mr. Qian evacuated in a hurry and only had time to cover the wooden board before running away. The female workers entered the kiln and saw the secret passage at a glance.
The team leader lit a torch and threw it down. When he found that there was no one down there, he turned around and said, "Xiumei, follow me down and take a look. Umbrella, you and the others will stay here!"
"Captain, be careful!" the vice-captain agreed and arranged for two people to guard the door.
The squad leader jumped into the secret passage with Xiumei.
The secret passage was only one meter high and one meter wide, and it was impossible to straighten one's back. The squad leader held a torch in his left hand and a loaded musket in his right hand, put his elbows on the ground, and crawled forward.
The flintlock muskets fired in such a narrow place that the people in front had nowhere to hide. Xiumei, who was following behind, was afraid of accidentally injuring the squad leader, so she put the musket on her waist and took off the crossbow.
Hold it in your hand.
The two of them, one behind the other, crawled forward along the secret passage.
After climbing about a hundred meters, the team leader who was crawling in front suddenly felt something pressing on his elbow.
The next second, the soil above his head collapsed, directly burying the team leader!
"Captain!" Xiumei, who was following behind, shouted, trying to grab the captain, but found that the collapse was still continuing, and her face turned pale with fright.
The passage was so narrow that there was no time to turn around, so Xiumei could only crawl back on her hands and knees.
However, the collapse was so fast that Xiumei could not retreat. She could only turn her head and shout to the back: "Umbrella! Help!"
Just after shouting, Xiumei was also buried by the collapsed soil.
The captain and Xiumei had just climbed out more than a hundred meters away. The vice-captain Xian'er who was guarding the entrance of the cave heard Xiumei's first call to captain, grabbed the torch next to him and jumped down from the cave entrance, following the secret.
The road crawls inward.
"Ding Ding, Liang'er, you guys guard the door, the others will come down with me!"
The captain and deputy captains all left, and an older female worker took the initiative to take over the command, leaving two female workers behind to guard the door and prepare to take the remaining female workers to reinforce.
But before they could jump off the secret passage, they heard the voice of deputy captain Xian'er: "The secret passage is about to collapse, retreat quickly!"
Just after shouting, the deputy captain's voice disappeared, and then the secret passage collapsed to the entrance of the cave.
When they heard Xiumei calling for help before, the people above thought they had encountered an attack, but now they realized that it turned out that they were not attacked, but encountered a cave-in.
"Umbrella, hold on!"
The older female worker screamed and jumped into the secret tunnel first. She didn't have a shovel, so she quickly scooped up the soil with both hands.
Other female workers also jumped down.
But the space below was too small, and there were too many people to move around. Only two people could stay, and the others jumped up first.
Fortunately, Umbrella hadn't climbed too far, and Ding Ding quickly caught her heels.
"Sister Lin, here!" Ding Ding shouted, and together with the older female worker, they grabbed the umbrella's ankles and dragged the umbrella out with all their strength.
Umbrella's face was purple and red from the suffocation. After being dragged out, she lay on the ground gasping for air.
As soon as she came back to her senses, Xianer remembered the captain and Xiumei, struggled and said: "Quickly, go save the captain and Xiumei!"
In fact, she didn't need to say anything. After Ding Ding and Sister Lin dragged out the umbrella, the other two female workers jumped down the secret tunnel and started digging up the soil.
But the soil was scraped too slowly with hands, and as they scraped, their hearts grew cold.
Umbrella was only buried for a while, and it looked like that after it was pulled out. The captain and Xiumei didn't know where it was buried. They dug out the soil so slowly. By the time they found the two of them, they would still be able to find it.
Alive?
Even though they thought so in their hearts, the two of them did not dare to stop and kept digging at the soil.
Sister Lin told Ding Ding to look at the umbrella while she jumped down the secret passage again.
"No, this is too slow!" Sister Lin raised her head and shouted outside: "Notify the airship and ask them to send some shovels and dustpans, and call some more people to help!"
The female engineer musketry team needed to carry too much equipment, and there was really no room to carry the engineer shovel.
But to refuel the steam engine, the airship needs shovels and dustpans.
"Yes!" Ding Ding agreed and ran out, waving a small flag in the air.
At this time, the airship led by Eagle was hovering over Tuyao. Seeing Tintin's semaphore, he frowned slightly, but still ordered the airship to lower its height.
When it landed more than ten meters above the ground, the airship stopped landing.
"Brother Eagle, the captain and Xiumei were buried in a secret passage. Quickly throw down the shovel and dustpan from the airship!"
Tintin raised his head and shouted.
"How could it be buried in a secret passage?"
The eagle was puzzled, but he quickly threw down the shovel and dustpan, and then climbed down the rope himself.
After entering the earthen kiln and briefly asking about the situation, Eagle quickly ran back, called a few male bodyguards to come down to help, and at the same time asked the airship to notify Jin Feng as soon as possible.
In the camp, Jin Feng and Iron Hammer were still reviewing the operation.
"Sir, overall this operation was quite successful. Not only did it successfully thwart the killer's ambush, but it also killed several falcons!"
Iron Hammer said with some regret: "Just because the rifle was exposed, it will not be so easy to hit their falcons in the future."
After hearing this, Jin Feng shook his head: "No, I exposed it on purpose."
"Why?"
"Because I want the assassination organization to know that we have a method to deal with Ying Falcon. It's best to help us spread the word to the Eastern Barbarians."
Jin Feng explained: "In this case, they will not have the idea of sending falcons to cause trouble. It will be safer to send airships out to perform missions in the future."
"I understand, sir, you want to scare them!" Iron Hammer understood instantly.
As Jin Feng's personal guard, Iron Hammer knew that there was currently no way to mass-produce rifles, nor to equip every airship with one.
But the enemy doesn't know this. If the news here spreads, the enemy may mistakenly think that all airships are equipped with rifles, and thus no longer send falcons to die.
It is indeed safer for airships.
When the enemy figures it out in the future, they might be able to mass-produce rifles.
If we plan well then, we might be able to counterattack again.
Thinking of this, Iron Hammer couldn't help but give Jin Feng a thumbs up. Just as he was about to praise Jin Feng, he saw a female worker galloping over on a fast horse.
This female worker was from the Musketeers, and Jin Feng's personal guards all knew her. Seeing the anxious look on her face, they stopped to intercept her.
Before the horse could stop, the female escort jumped off the horse and ran towards Jin Feng while shouting: "Sir, something happened. Captain Xue and Xiumei are buried in the secret passage!"
Jin Feng and Tie Zhui also knew this female worker, and when they heard her words, their expressions changed at the same time.