Among the five hundred soldiers of the Shu army near the gate of the village, there were 100 crossbowmen. They had already used their hands and crossbows in the dark.

Seeing that he could not deceive the gate of the village, Wang Cheng ordered an attack. The crossbow arrow flew towards the Zhou army soldiers on the village wall with a whirring sound of wind. The Zhou army was caught off guard, and most of the soldiers with their bodies exposed to the wall of the village were shot. The Zhou army soldiers were screaming and kept falling down the village wall. The other Zhou army on the village wall were completely suppressed by the crossbow arrows, and they dared not look up, and shouted desperately: "Someone attacks, some people attacks."

Nearly a hundred Shu army soldiers took out their crawling tools - they caught them and threw them to the wall of the village. The Shu army soldiers were not tall, but were very agile and quickly climbed up the wall of the village.

On the wall of the village, there were fifty soldiers of the Zhou army, and more than 30 were injured and killed by crossbow arrows. The remaining dozen Zhou army soldiers could not stop the rushing Shu army. After cutting over twenty Shu soldiers, dozens of Shu soldiers had already stepped onto the wall. After a brief battle, most of the Zhou army on the wall of the village were wiped out.

Duan Wuwei, the guard general of the Zhou army, was hit by a crossbow on his shoulder. Facing seven or eight Shu troops, he still fought hard with a horizontal sword in his hand. After the Shu soldiers were injured, they did not dare to approach, but just surrounded him tightly. The other Shu soldiers jumped into the camp and quickly seized the gate.

Most of the Zhou army were awakened by the sound of killing in their sleep. The soldiers guarding the Zhou army were elite soldiers of Wang Jingbian's army. When they knew someone attacked the camp, they rushed out with weapons and fought with the Shu army rushing into the village. Deputy General Zeng Shierlang, with more than 200 soldiers, was forced into several large houses by a large group of Shu soldiers. They rushed several times, but failed, and had to defend the house.

After the gate of the village opened, Zhao Wu rushed into the village with his men. The Shu army hidden behind rushed into the grain warehouse while attacking the crossbow arrows. Two thousand Shu troops rushed in. The Zhou army, caught off guard, was quickly divided and surrounded by the Shu army with the number of people, and defeated them one by one.

The Shu general Wang Cheng did not entangle with the Zhou army and led his troops into the grain warehouse. After a while, a huge fire broke out in the Zhou army's grain warehouse.

On the wall of the village, Duan Wuwei, the Zhou army guard who was entangled by the Shu army, saw the fire in the grain warehouse and knew that the grain warehouse was over, he shouted: "I will fight with you." Duan Wuwei fought desperately, and no one of the Shu soldiers dared to plunder the edge of the sword. A Shu soldiers slashed over with a knife. Duan Wuwei turned slightly, let the blade pass and slashed sideways, and hit the Shu soldiers' face. The Shu soldiers screamed and fell to the ground. Duan Wuwei opened a hole and grabbed the edge of the village wall.

Duan Wuwei slashed a few times, forcing the surrounding Shu soldiers and jumped down from the wall of the village. The wall of the village was more than five meters high. Duan Wuwei jumped down and took advantage of the downward momentum to cut a Shu soldiers beside him in half when he landed on the ground. Most of the Shu soldiers had entered the village and fought with the soldiers of the Zhou army. Outside the wall were mainly Shu soldiers serving as a warning, and they were not wary of anyone falling from the sky. Duan Wuwei slashed and killed several Shu soldiers in succession, but was actually broken out of the siege by him and disappeared into the darkness.

The Shu soldiers burned the grain warehouse and achieved strategic goals. They did not attack several rooms guarded by Zhou's deputy general Zeng Shierlang. After setting off a fire, they quickly retreated along the original path.

Captain Liu and his men saw a huge fire ignited from afar when the grain warehouse was in full swing. He knew that the grain warehouse was over. By the time he arrived, the grain warehouse was already a ruined wall. Zeng Shierlang, the deputy general of the grain warehouse, sat on the ground with more than 200 soldiers, staring at the burning fire in vain.

"What, say it again?" Wang Jing was having a meal. When he heard the grain warehouse being destroyed, his face pale and the chopsticks in his hand fell to the ground.

The soldier sent back to report the message said, "Zhao Wu and the Shu army attacked the grain warehouse at night. When Liu brought us to the scene, the grain warehouse had been burned."

"Zhao Wu, is Zhao Wu attacked the grain depot?" Wang Jing pulled out his sword and slashed at the table, "Zhao Wu, I must cut you into pieces."

The Southern Court envoy Xiang Xun, Pioneer Hou Dayong and other generals arrived one after another. They were shocked when they heard that the grain warehouse was attacked.

Xiang Xun said: "Where has the guard general Duan Wuwei gone?"

The soldier said: "According to the injured soldiers, when the Shu army attacked, General Duan was interrogating the situation at the gate of the village. Everyone knew Zhao Wu and was not wary at all. They just waited for the documents to be checked in routinely. Many soldiers at the gate of the village were shot to death by the crossbows of the Shu army. If General Duan was not killed in battle, he would have been captured by the Shu army. Deputy General Zeng Shierlang and more than 200 people guarded several large houses and were not captured by the Shu army."

Xiang Xun said: "There are only more than 300 remaining in the 1,000 defenders. More than 400 people died in the Zhou army in the village, and more than 200 people should have escaped while the chaos."

Wang Jing recovered from his initial shock. When he faced Xiang Xun, Hou Dayong said: "The grain warehouse was destroyed, and our army can only fight quickly. Shu general Li Tinggui is known as a famous general in Shu. It seems that he is not a false reputation. He must take the defensive and drag us down."

Wang Jing said again: "I have ordered Fengxiang Mansion to step up the raising of grain and take out all the old foundation. I also asked Prime Minister Li Yu for help, and strive to quickly transfer grain from all over the country."

Xiang Xun said: "Each village in Huangniu Bazhai has food, and it has been concentrated in Huangniu Village one after another. It can support the army for half a month. After half a month, the grain in various places should be transported."

Wang Jing said: "Tomorrow, the Black Eagle Army will challenge the Feilong Army and see the reaction of the Shu army. If the Shu army does not fight with all its might, it will definitely take a defensive moment. If the Shu army goes to fight, we will look for a fighter opportunity to fight it."

The next morning, Hou Dayong and Shi Hu led the Black Eagle Army to the Feilong Army camp. The Black Eagle Army's three armies remained unchanged on the left, middle and right, but He Wulang was seriously injured and Wang Jiang was the commander of the Right Army.

Allowing the challenge of the outer peripheral army in the camp, Feilong general Li Jin was firmly in the tent, hanging high-level battle-free signs, and unable to stand out.

The Feilong Army camp was built entirely according to the method of city bridles. The exterior wall of the camp was made of logs, and the fence was painted with thick mud. From the fence, there were female walls, the trapped horse pit and the resisting horse rifle. The distance between the female wall and the resisting horse rifle was exactly the range of crossbow arrows. Behind the female wall, there was a team of crossbowmen who specialized in shooting enemy soldiers who transported the resisting horse rifle. The trapped horse pit was five feet long, one foot wide, and three feet deep. Deer antlers and bamboo sticks were buried in the pit. The pit was connected with crosses, shaped like a hook lock, and used to hinder the cavalry that attacked the camp.

Guo Jiong, the left army of the Black Eagle Army, led 500 cavalry to approach the horse-refusing rifle. The crossbowman lies in the female wall raised the crossbow arrows and drew the horse-refusing rifle. He only waited for the Zhou army soldiers to dismount and carry the horse-refusing rifle to shoot.

Guo Yan led the cavalry to walk around the horse-resisted rifle, but did not launch an attack, but just stood outside the crossbow.

Immediately afterwards, five hundred infantrymen in the right army of Zhou army held generous shields to form. When they approached the sirens, the crossbow arrows of the Shu army shot like rain. Although the Zhou army had shields to protect the body, many crossbow arrows still shot into the legs of the soldiers. As soon as the Zhou army soldiers fell to the ground, the soldiers behind them used shields to protect their vital points and quickly carried them away.

The Zhou army infantry fired the crossbow arrows, moved the horse-resisting rifle, and then used a generous shield to form a shield formation. The Zhou army crossbowmen used the shield formation as a cover and shot against the Shu army crossbowmen. Guo Jiong led the cavalry to guard behind the infantry to prevent the Shu army from opening the fence to attack.

However, the Shu army had not opened the fence, but only shot at the Zhou army with crossbowmen. At this point, Hou Dayong had determined the defensive intention of the Shu army and issued an order to withdraw troops.

After the Black Eagle Army tentatively attacked, Wang Jing ordered his frontier army and the imperial guards to attack various units of the Shu army in turn. The Shu army gradually reduced its troops and gathered into a group to defend several important places, just like a hedgehog, making it impossible for the Zhou army to start. The Shu army and the Zhou army fought a protracted war.

The food of the Great Zhou army gradually became tense, and the officials of the Great Zhou court learned about the burning of the Western Expedition Army. Some ministers led by Fan Zhi asked Chai Rong to stop the army on the grounds that the army was unable to achieve success in the long term and the food was far away. Chai Rong did not agree with Fan Zhi's opinion, but took Zhao Kuangyin as the inspector to check the war in the Western Expedition. At the same time, he ordered Zhao Kuangyin to mobilize a large amount of food and grass to reinforce the Western Expedition Army.

The Black Eagle Army launched several attacks, but there was no effect. Hou Dayong felt that it was not a solution to continue this way, so he summoned Shi Hu, Guo Jiong, Chen Renyi, Wang Jiang and other Black Eagle Army generals to discuss strategies to defeat the enemy.

(Chapter 19)
Chapter completed!