The clear stream water, the lush bamboo forest, and the dead leaves blown by the cold wind have accumulated a thick layer on the ground. These dead leaves will slowly rot and turn into nutrients and return to the earth. Tomorrow, more tender bamboos will grow here.

A group of haggard Wu soldiers walked slowly in the bamboo forest. They scattered into a fan shape and stared at the depths of the dark bamboo forest with caution. They held their breath and listened to every move around them. Any sound could make their tense nerves pop up ominous sounds.

They are Lu Dai's subordinates and are carrying out the Jingyan mission.

Withdrawing from Jinping Mountain, although Lu Dai issued a martial law order and was not allowed to spread rumors in the army, the blood on the top of Wuyang City still made many people estimate the truth. After Wuyang, there was no new food in the Xuefeng Mountain Camp. The distribution of food rations changed from six liters a day to four liters a day, and then two liters a day. The rumors of food stagnation seemed to have grown wings and scraped by the ears of every soldier.

Compared with the lack of food, the enemy is actually not terrible. When encountering an enemy, you can fight and exchange your life for life. However, if the food is cut off, everyone may become someone else's food at any time in the mountains. The closest friends and the villagers may become human-eating demons at any time.

Hunger is like an omnipresent devil, making a silent grin in everyone's ears. It spreads its sharp claws, with smelly saliva, and is choosing the object of eating.

No one knows whether they can return to Xuefeng Mountain alive and what can they do if they return to Xuefeng Mountain. If it is true that something happened to the Xuefeng Mountain Camp as I guess, the result will be unimaginable.

Although this may not be too big, no one can deny that there is such a possibility in the face of an elusive opponent. Even a strong city like Wuyang can easily be lost, so what is impossible to lose the Xuefeng Mountain Camp? It’s just that the loss of the Xuefeng Mountain Camp is too serious, and everyone is unwilling to think about it. Otherwise, they will go crazy.

He was thinking randomly in his mind, his stomach was hungry, and his gurgling sound was louder than the sound of the dead leaves under his feet. He couldn't help it. This was the dilemma faced by these patrolling Wu Jun.

A "click" sound broke the silence in the forest.

"Who?" Almost all the soldiers of Wu army responded sternly, raised their weapons in their hands, and prepared to fight.

There was silence around, and there was no sound.

The leader of the slutted and cursed. Before he finished speaking, he suddenly covered his neck and took two steps back, making a roar sound in his mouth, as if something had stuck his neck. In the short time when his companions rushed over, he fell to the ground, shrank into a ball, and slowly stopped struggling.

The remaining Wu Jun looked at each other, sweating in his forehead. They formed a circle, stood back to back, looking around with caution.

But there was no sound around.

A soldier pulled away his already angry hand and took advantage of the light of the torch and found a thin bamboo stick on his neck. The bamboo stick was deeply pierced, and the wound was black.

This is a poisonous arrow commonly used by the barbarians. The soldiers of the Wu army privately called it a death needle. This poisonous arrow is very rare. However, once she is in the shelter, there is no reason to be spared.

"Be careful..." The soldiers who checked out were trembling, "It's a death needle."

The three words "Deathly Needle" are like a big stone, pressing on everyone's heart. The dead are dead. The rest of the people looked at each other and saw fear in each other's eyes. None of them spoke, and they both retreated backwards at the same time.

"Swoosh!" With a sharp roar, a crossbow arrow rushed from the forest. A soldier walking in the front screamed and fell to the ground.

With this crossbow arrow, the sound of killing in the silent forest suddenly rose. The dead leaves on the ground suddenly flew up and danced all over the sky. Countless barbarians jumped up from under the dead leaves, raised the blow tubes and crossbows in their hands, and attacked the panicked Wu army.

The shouts of killing were fierce and short. After a moment, Wu Jun lay on the ground, blood flowing.

The barbarians quickly retreated into the dense forest and disappeared without a trace.

Half an hour later, another attack occurred in the valley less than 300 steps apart, and only one of more than ten Wu soldiers escaped.

"Oh--" Lu Dai sighed, throwing the latest casualty report on the table, his hands clattering. One night, fifty-three soldiers were killed, but they didn't even see the shadow of the enemy. This result made him very angry and nervous.

As soon as the news of Wuyang's loss reached Jinping Mountain, Lu Dai decided to retreat. He asked himself that his decision was very fast, but he soon found that his estimate of the enemy was far from enough. As soon as he arrived in Wuyang, the enemy of Jinping Mountain chased after him. Such an attack never stopped again, and it became more and more intense. The enemy's purpose was very obvious, which was to delay their retreat speed, so the scouts in the direction of Xuefeng Mountain suffered the greatest losses. Ten teams went out, only two or three teams came back, and sometimes even the entire army was wiped out.

The scouts suffered heavy losses, and what was accompanied by the serious lack of the situation ahead. It was just a small matter to float a few big trees in the river to block the way. It was common to smash big and small stones from the cliffs. Almost all the enemy had used any method that could interfere with the advance of the army. Killing scouts during the day and killing sentries on duty at night was inevitable. Lu Dai strengthened the power of Jingjing for this, but unfortunately it was useless. The enemy not only came and went without a trace, but also had agility and tacit understanding, and attacks were everywhere.

Lu Dai sent barbarians who were also familiar with mountain wars to fight back. Unfortunately, the barbarians were defeated soon, some died, and some disappeared. A few days later, someone found that the missing barbarians appeared in the enemy's team, and used their familiarity with the situation of the Wu army to attack the Wu army more sharply.

Lu Dai was at a loss for this. He called Huaigen, the jing man from Xiongxi tribe, and scolded him, but it was useless. Liu Chan, who had been in charge of affairs in Xiongxi tribe, had no good idea. All he could do was to assure Lu Dai that Huaigen was loyal to the Great Wu and had no other intentions, but could not stop the barbarians from panic.

The military rations were getting fewer and fewer, but the retreat was getting slower and slower, and the number of casualties was increasing every day, which made Lu Dai feel extremely stressed. Unlike ordinary soldiers, he had already received news that the Xuefeng Mountain camp was lost and the food accumulated was destroyed. He knew that even if he returned to Xuefeng Mountain, he could not solve the problem of food outage, and his psychological pressure was greater.

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Chapter completed!