After listening to the report of the erratic soldiers, Zhao Guirong immediately ordered all soldiers to be prohibited from drinking stream water.

He was a little angry now. These natives rely on their familiarity with the terrain here and always use some unpreparable means to harass his troops, making him delayed here and unable to attack Gaoping City quickly, but it would be fine if they were poisoned and would be wiped out.

"This group of people really came up with various means to deal with us, but we couldn't be scared away by them. Everyone, you can find ways to solve the problem of water source. Without prey, we can still go to the dense forest to hunt, but without water, no one can hold on." Zhao Guirong recruited several capable subordinates and asked them how to solve the current problem.

"General, there must be enemies within a radius of ten miles. It is difficult for us to send soldiers to find new water sources, so there are only two choices now. Either we dig wells on the spot, they can't poison them in the groundwater, right? Or we wait for their poison to be used up. The stream water is living water, and they probably calculated that our cooking needs to use a lot of water, so we poisoned at this time. The toxicity in the stream water is probably more than a quarter of an hour. We don't have to worry too much. If we dig a well, we cannot be sure whether we can dig out the well water, and it may be that all our previous efforts will be wasted." A meticulous subordinate said.

"What you said is that although the enemy's methods were a bit ruthless, they could not reach the point where they kept poisoning the stream. Maybe their poison has been used up now. Digging wells is too cumbersome, so it is better to send an army to inspect the upstream and another army to support the rear. If the local people poison the upstream, they will be eliminated. Even if they are ambushed, the inspected troops can hold on and attack them inside and outside with the support troops, and annihilate them together." Zhao Guirong thought for a while and decided to choose to protect the water source upstream where there was a problem. "In case, all the water that was fed in the stream should be tasted with fish or animals in the forest before the soldiers could drink it."

"Yes." A cadre agreed.

After Zhao Guirong sent additional personnel to the upper reaches for inspection, the poisoned local people fled when they saw that the situation was not good. However, the matter was not so easy to solve. After knowing that the Jiuzhou Army sent people to protect the water, they began to frequently attack the troops protecting the water source, and also put in many traps used to catch wild animals, which made people unable to defend themselves.

This situation lasted for two days, and even the camp of the Jiuzhou Army was subjected to several small-scale attacks. However, because Zhao Guirong, who had suffered losses, did not succeed, the Tumen and Zheng family troops failed. On the third night, they also organized a large-scale night attack. The Tumen used their familiarity with the terrain to attack the camp of the Jiuzhou Army at night.

The two sides fought fiercely at night, and the Jiuzhou Army used artillery again to defeat them, but dozens of casualties were paid.

In the early morning mist, the local people and the Zheng family troops who did not get much benefit gradually retreated. But they did not know that while they were retreating under the cover of the mist, several Jiuzhou army scouts who were familiar with the terrain in the past few days followed them quietly.

"It's really unlucky. I didn't expect that they were so vigilant at night. The night attack we carefully arranged did not work, and it also damaged more than a dozen tribe members. If this continues, let alone being slaughtered by the Jiuzhou Army, we may all die in battle in advance." A native citizen complained on the small hill road where he went back.

"No, they have artillery, and they don't need to aim. With a random bomb, our brothers will always be injured by the bomb, and they will also alarm the wild beasts in the forest, causing us a lot of trouble!" said another native citizen.

Behind them, several Jiuzhou army scouts followed quietly and gestured. The training in Guilin for more than half a year was not in vain, they just lacked understanding of the local terrain.

The ghostly scouts followed the natives to turn left and right in the forest. Soon a forest path appeared in front of them. Following the dirt road for more than ten miles, a village surrounded by mountains and rivers appeared in front of them. This village is similar to the stilt house commonly found in the Yunnan Provincial Administration. It has its own village gate and a simple wooden watchtower tower. The natives patrol with bows and arrows on their backs.

The local people and the Zheng family troops who returned in vain entered the village one after another, and several scouts from Jiuzhou Army had to stop there.

"As long as the prisoners said, their village is here. And there should be a mountain road behind the village that can escape into the deeper dense forest. Let's go around and take a look." The leading scout gathered a few subordinates and gave them instructions.

"They actually dared to kill so many of our companions. After collecting their intelligence, they must show them goodbye." Several scouts quickly dispersed and tried their best to find out the situation around the village.

After the young tribe leader of the Tumin tribe and Zheng Hu returned to the village, the young tribe leader sat on his chair and picked up a kettle to drink. In order to prepare for the night attack, they did not close their eyes all night, but they even beat him up like this, which made him full of nameless fire.

"The Jiuzhou Army is really hard to deal with. We poison first and then attack at night, and we cannot shake them. The brothers in our clan died and injured. If this continues, we will destroy the clan." The young clan leader complained to Zheng Hu.

"Young clan leader, didn't you say there are a hundred ways to kill the Jiuzhou Army? Why are you discouraged after just using a few methods now?" Zheng Hu said.

"I... I'm not an exaggeration, where can I get a hundred kinds?" The young clan leader was embarrassed and said helplessly, "Is there any good way for you to deal with them?"

"They are camping next to the dense forest, and we can go and attack again tomorrow night." Zheng Hu said.

"Also play night attack? After a battle tonight, the Jiuzhou Army must have been on guard against us. How could we succeed?" The young clan leader didn't think he could carry out a night attack again.

"The Chinese military strategy is full of chaos, and soldiers are also treacherous ways. Even you don't think we can successfully attack again, nor do they think that we can use fire to attack, set fire to forests on a large scale, and annihilate them with fire." Zheng Hu said.

"Let the forest burn? This is a major event that offends the gods. If the fire is not controlled properly, it will even destroy the entire forest. Even our village will be engulfed by the fire!" The young clan leader was shocked when he heard Zheng Hu's crazy plan. In his opinion, this forest is like the land, and it is the most precious property of their village. It is absolutely forbidden to set fires in normal times, but now...
Chapter completed!