All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

How can there be such a professional sharpshooter?

Sharpshooters aren't scary; what's scary is when the opponent hides their skills and is far more skilled than the sharpshooters in the Zhen Song Army.

Battalion Commander Yang squinted and scanned his surroundings. It was still an empty loess plain. He had a vague feeling that the people who fired the sniper shots must be hiding among them. But how did they do it?

Battalion Commander Yang glanced at the sky, gritted his teeth, and decided to stop hesitating and speed up the march.

Who cares about the consequences? As long as I wipe out the bandit den in Wuzhi Mountain, I can force these people out sooner or later!

Thinking of this, Battalion Commander Yang immediately gave the order to speed up the march, leaving the corpses behind. The more than four hundred men quickened their pace and jogged towards Bailuyuan.

The army marched another seven or eight miles, and ahead were several low hills, winding like dragons. Although they were hills, they were not high, and the road was flat. Looking left and right, they could see most of the hills.

The more than four hundred men quickly reached the hillside. This time, Battalion Commander Yang did not ride a horse. He walked in the middle of the group. As he looked at the bend in the road ahead, the unease in Battalion Commander Yang's heart began to resurface.

"Damn it, are we going to be attacked again?"

Battalion Commander Yang subconsciously slowed his pace, had two guards protect him on either side, and carefully walked forward.

Battalion Commander Yang was very nervous. When he reached the bend, his body was almost tense, and he subconsciously bent over and huddled in the ranks.

Only after they had completely passed the bend and could see a flat plain ahead did Battalion Commander Yang breathe a sigh of relief.

But before he could exhale completely, suddenly, several gunshots rang out all around him.

Before any sound could be heard, several leading officers in the ranks collapsed into the crowd.

Without Battalion Commander Yang giving any orders, almost everyone instinctively dropped to the ground and began to fight back in all directions.

Suddenly, someone in the cavalry shouted.

"Four o'clock!"

This shout made Battalion Commander Yang turn around and look behind him. He saw at least 500 meters away in a small valley, several people dressed in yellowish-brown clothes were running down the mountain. Their clothes were very deceptive, and from a distance, they seemed to be the same color as the surrounding environment.

At this moment, Battalion Commander Yang finally understood why his men couldn't find this group of people before. Wearing such clothes and lying down on the low-lying ground, they would be hard to spot, let alone from a distance, even if they were right in front of him!

This wasn't what surprised Battalion Commander Yang the most. What surprised him the most was that the ambush site was about 500 meters away from his troops!

What does this mean? With a regular gun at this distance, let alone ambushing, you wouldn't be able to hit them even if you were standing still and letting the enemy shoot. Yet, the enemy only fired one shot each.

One gun per person, five people in total, every shot is fatal!

These guys are all sharpshooters!

Such sharpshooters are undeniably dangerous; we must take them out!

Battalion Commander Yang gritted his teeth, waved his hand, and roared at a cavalry unit of more than thirty people in the crowd.

"Chase them! Leave no one alive!"

Upon hearing Battalion Commander Yang's order, the cavalrymen immediately rushed out of the ranks and charged down the mountain along the path!

Although it was a mountain path, it was wide enough to accommodate five or six horses charging at the same time. More than thirty people rushed down the hillside together, heading towards the five people who had already reached the bottom of the mountain!

The rolling yellow sand quickly filled everyone's vision, and everyone watched with excitement as the cavalry charged towards the five men.

Battalion Commander Yang also revealed a cruel smile. Although he didn't know why there were so many sharpshooters in such a small place as Wuzhishan, these snipers were no match for the real main force.

Just then, they saw that the cavalry were less than 300 meters away from the group of people. Many of the cavalrymen had already raised their guns and were ready to aim, while others had drawn their long swords, ready to do a round of headshots.

In short, the fate of those five men was already sealed. Battalion Commander Yang didn't even intend to leave them alive. In his view, the bandit den of about a hundred men in Wuzhi Mountain didn't need any prisoners to be questioned. After dealing with these few men, he would go straight up Wuzhi Mountain in one fell swoop!

With the spectacle about to unfold, the soldiers on the mountain path were filled with excitement and anticipation. They watched as the cavalry charged down the mountain, and a bloody massacre was about to take place. Everyone looked on with anticipation.

The cavalryman at the head of the column was a bald, burly man. His face was flushed red as he raised his large cleaver, watching the approaching enemy with excitement filling his mind. Two hundred meters, one hundred and eighty meters, one hundred and sixty meters, hahaha, getting closer and closer!

150 meters!

almost!almost!

The bald, burly man laughed heartily, his face full of excitement. Just then, a deafening explosion rang in his ears. Before the bald, burly man could even contain his excitement, he felt his body being pushed into the sky by a powerful force, and the heat wave beneath him quickly engulfed his body!

With his last shred of consciousness, the bald giant looked down at himself and saw that he was left with only half a body, with a string of bloody intestines hanging from his head. His horse and legs had completely disappeared.

The smile on Battalion Commander Yang's face on the mountain path froze instantly. His eyes widened as he stared in disbelief at the series of explosions below.

The crowd on the mountain road turned pale at this moment. The thirty-odd cavalrymen screamed and neighed in the firelight. The scene of blood and flesh flying everywhere shocked everyone!

Battalion Commander Yang's mind went completely blank. Only after the explosions completely stopped did he squeeze into the crowd, surrounded by his guards.

Half an hour later, Battalion Commander Yang's face was bloodless. Looking at the seven cavalrymen covered in wounds, out of the thirty-three cavalrymen, only seven were able to return without missing an arm or a limp. Eleven of the others were seriously wounded, and the rest were all dead.

Those who were seriously wounded had little chance of being saved; they were missing limbs, crippled, or disemboweled. This cavalry unit was completely ruined!

Battalion Commander Yang is now facing a difficult choice: continue forward or turn back.

Looking at the ranks, where everyone wore expressions of frustration and fear, their morale utterly shattered, Battalion Commander Yang could only sigh silently. It seemed that Wuzhi Mountain was far more complex than it appeared on the surface!

Battalion Commander Yang had no choice but to withdraw his troops, hastily ending this bandit suppression operation!

After Battalion Commander Yang's men left, on the hillside behind them, in a man-made ditch, seven figures slowly rose up. One of them lifted a yellowish-brown camouflage cloth, revealing two dark machine guns.

A burly man wiped the camouflage paint off his face and grumbled somewhat discontentedly.

"They're all cowards! They ran away after only the second checkpoint! They've really disgraced the Zhen Song Army!"

A man next to the man said with a smile.

"Alright, Dapeng, let's go back. This was just a test. Knowing Liu the Blind's personality, if he knew the outcome of today's battle, he definitely wouldn't let it go. The real show is yet to come!"

The man nodded silently, then tidied himself up and left with another person, bowing low.

This burly man is Zhang Xiaopeng's elder brother, Zhang Dapeng, whose personality is completely opposite to Zhang Xiaopeng's. This time, Zhang Xiaopeng also sent him to Wuzhishan.

Zhang Dapeng is a bold man. Given his current position, he should be stationed at Wuzhishan, but he couldn't resist his curiosity and came to this ambush site to see what was so special.

After he left, five men remained to hold the fort. These five men formed a machine gun combat team, and every twelve hours, another five men would take turns with them, working day and night without interruption.

There were five such sniping squads along the way. The main task of these machine gun squads was not to launch an immediate attack.

Their daily tasks included reconnaissance and providing cover for their comrades who were carrying out ambushes.

Their real mission was to ambush the Zhen Song Army after they attacked Wuzhi Mountain and retreated, launching a pincer attack to thoroughly defeat them.

The teams that were actually lying in ambush along the way were the sharpshooters who took sniper shots and the demolition team!

From Zishui County to Bailuyuan, there is a mountain road of more than 50 li. Along this route, there are seven or eight ambush groups of all kinds. They will use the terrain to set up ambushes and inflict maximum damage on the enemy with minimal losses.

After learning that the enemy had a cavalry force of more than thirty men, they carefully set up two ambush points for them.

And this is just the first place.

Unexpectedly, the enemy fell for it immediately, and the cavalry charged without any warning!

This is just the appetizer!

Zhang Xiaopeng had prepared several plans for this. If Liu the Blind really went to his wits' end and sent tens of thousands of troops to attack Wuzhi Mountain, then the only option would be to retreat. But that was only the worst-case scenario.

Using this method of ambushing with sniper shots might scare the enemy away!

When the costs are not equal, the other party may choose to give up.

But no one can predict the human heart!

So all we can do is wait!

This wait lasted for nearly a month.

After several days of fighting, Liu the Blind's 100,000-strong army and the Xi'an garrison still failed to break into the city. Both sides suffered casualties, with Liu the Blind's forces suffering heavy losses, currently numbering in the thousands.

Despite Liu the Blind's claim of having 100,000 troops, he actually had less than 80,000. With thousands of casualties, the morale of Liu the Blind's army gradually declined.

Having paid such a high price but gained nothing, Liu the Blind was extremely embarrassed. The most crucial point was that the army's food supplies were also running low, yet the city gates still could not be opened, which made Liu the Blind extremely agitated!

But he knew very well that while he was short of food, the people in the city were even more short!

Now it's a contest of wills. He still doesn't believe that he can gather supplies outside while the other side can only wait to die. With such a comparison, how could he possibly lose?

So Liu the Blind sent even more troops to collect grain from several surrounding counties and cities.

Until that day, he received news that in Zishui County, his grain collection team was ambushed by a local bandit gang called Wuzhishan, and a battalion commander was killed!

Upon receiving this news, Liu the Blind was furious. With a wave of his hand, he dispatched a regiment of soldiers to Zishui County. His order was simple: eliminate any bandits in Wuzhi Mountain and leave no survivors!

What Liu the Blind Man didn't know was that this time, he would encounter another formidable obstacle besides Xi'an!

During this time, Bai Jiaxuan was also in a very irritable mood. His mother and Xiangcao were both in tears all day long, crying and begging to see Bai Xiaowen and Bai Ling. He was caught in the middle, which was also very difficult for him.

Although Xi'an is currently under siege, some areas are still accessible, and small-scale entry and exit are not a problem. The news coming from inside is causing Bai Jiaxuan some concern.

Ten days ago, Bai Xiaowen suffered a gunshot wound, which was very serious. If it weren't for the special medication arranged by Bai Jiaxuan, Bai Xiaowen might have died long ago.

Even so, Bai Xiaowen is still bedridden. In the current environment, the hospital is overflowing with patients, and no doctor cares about him. He can only be left to fend for himself.

Bai Xiaowen's situation worried Bai Jiaxuan greatly. He considered going to Xi'an City several times, but in the end, he gritted his teeth and stopped.

As for Bai Ling, she has also faced life and death several times and was almost killed by bombs. Most of her classmates and teachers have been killed by bombs. After experiencing the baptism of war, Bai Ling has matured a lot. She has now organized some women and formed a medical team, which often travels between battlefields.

Bai Jiaxuan was worried about his children, but in the end he didn't interfere too much in their lives, leaving everything to fate.

Bai Xiaowen is being taken care of now; whether he can pull through depends on himself.

Just then, he learned that a force of more than two thousand men was attacking Bailu Plain. Bai Jiaxuan looked towards the direction of Wuzhi Mountain in the distance and gradually had a realization.

It seems there's no escaping it; Bailu Plain still needs to be protected by ourselves, and it's time for us to take action again!

After having made up his mind, Bai Jiaxuan entrusted Lu San with all the affairs of the village, instructing him to lead Bai Xiaowu and Heizi to patrol the village thoroughly to prevent the enemy from infiltrating and causing sabotage.

He himself disappeared into the night...!

Chapter 55: Why are there no cannons when there are shells?

The Zhen Song Army has a regiment of more than 2,000 soldiers. Because of Liu the Blind's attention, he also brought an artillery company with him this time.

The carriage was carrying four 75mm field guns, as well as several heavy and light machine guns.

Among them were more than a hundred cavalrymen who went back and forth to scout the terrain and prevent another sneak attack!

Along the way, dust flew everywhere, and the momentum was overwhelming. It felt like using a cannon to kill a mosquito when such a large force was attacking a bandit group of only a hundred or so people.

However, according to the intelligence they received, the bandits on Wuzhi Mountain were far more complex than they appeared.

Battalion Commander Yang led more than 400 men, making three trips back and forth over a month. In the end, only 170 of the 400 men escaped back, and even Battalion Commander Yang himself perished.

The most crucial point is that, despite losing so many men, they didn't even get close to the gate of Wuzhi Mountain. On their last attempt, when they reached the edge of Wuzhi Mountain, Battalion Commander Yang led his three hundred-odd men to launch a final attack, only to be met with a barrage of artillery fire from afar, which wiped out most of them.