When you hear the drum, you advance; when you hear the gold, you retreat. This is the rule of combat for thousands of years. The former can inspire people to advance, while the latter makes people feel retrenched. No matter how fierce and brave the generals are, they cannot change it.

So when a rapid sound of gold suddenly came from the foot of the mountain, he was rushing forward with all his might. He was about to turn halfway through, and the momentum of the soldiers who were about to launch a head-on attack on the bandits above was discouraged. Even Suo Chao's movements were paused, and his pace stopped, showing an incredible look.

Charging and seizing the mountain is a situation where you will retreat if you don't advance. Once the indomitable momentum of the official army stopped, the bandits who were already a little panicked by them quickly made a counterattack. Stones of all sizes and large and small mixed with spears and feather arrows flew towards them like raindrops. Because of the closer distance between the two sides, the shield soldiers in front could no longer completely block these attacks, and the robes behind them were constantly hit and screamed.

Suo Chao's face turned blue with anger. He was really unwilling to work hard to reach this point, but he failed. However, he also knew the truth that one can stop and then he would lose all his strength. Since the offensive was blocked and he wanted to grit his teeth and go up, it would only increase casualties. So he could only roar with resentment: "Retreat!" and let his subordinates retreat.

These soldiers were actually already in a state of retreat, so they quickly walked down slowly when they heard the order. At the same time, they did not forget to leave with their injured or dead brothers.

With Suo Chao, Zhu Tong, Lei Heng and the other two, the two broke the back, and several archers shot up arrows to deter them, they finally failed to retaliate, thus allowing them to retreat safely. However, this time, they still returned in vain and ruined the lives of eight elite soldiers of the Daming Mansion in vain.

When he rode his horse back to the front and back of the official army formation, Suo Chao rushed to Shi Wenbin like a whirlwind, and reached out to grab his collar and shouted, "Who told you to sing Jin?" He knew that only the Yuncheng County lieutenant, who was the chief general, had the power to sing Jin to snatch the troops in the army at the foot of the mountain.

Shi Wenbin was frightened by his reaction, his face turned pale, and he quickly shouted: "General Suo calms down, the official is also thinking about your safety for the sake of your general." He was really afraid that the other party would punch him in anger.

At this time, the others were awakened and rushed forward to persuade him. Song Jiang even grabbed Suo Chao's hand and said anxiously: "General Suo cannot, the county magistrate is the imperial court's official..."

Suo Chao may not be able to listen to the words of ordinary people, but the famous Song Jiang still has to take what he said. With a change of thought, he finally let go and no longer rude to Shi Wenbin. He already understood the meaning of Song Jiang's words. The other party was a civil servant. In the Song Dynasty, even a real military general dared not be disrespectful to civil servants, let alone himself.

However, the anger in Suo Chao's heart was not extinguished, but stared at Shi Wenbin and gasped. Shi Wenbin was so angry that his pair of fire-ridden eyes were staring at him, and he could only sigh and said with a bitter face: "General, the official is also considering your safety. The thief had injured you and several soldiers with a bow and arrow just now. If he rushed up like this, the official was worried that you would make a mistake..."

He was the truth. Seeing Suo Chao from Daming Mansion fighting and being shot by the bandits, Shi Wenbin was really scared. If they died here, his own guilt would be too great. So he quickly ordered Mingjin to let them go down the mountain to ensure their safety based on the official norms that he would rather be ineffective than to have ever had.

Suo Chao also understood the other party's thoughts at this time, which made him feel angry. He stared at Shi Wenbin and said, "Prince Shi, do you know that just now, I can lead the army to kill the mountain. At that time, as long as you lead the troops to take advantage of the situation, this Hutou Village will be defeated in one battle! But because of your reign, you missed this excellent opportunity!"

"Ah..." Shi Wenbin's face changed drastically when he heard this. If this is the case, his responsibility would be too great.

At this time, Liu Yuan suddenly spoke from the side: "Although General Suo's words make some sense, after all, the thieves on the mountain are powerful and have a good geographical advantage. It is reasonable for the county magistrate to worry that the general and the soldiers have something to do."

With Liu Yuan’s help, Shi Wenbin quickly calmed down and nodded repeatedly: “Yes, yes, General Suo, this suppression of thieves is important, but your safety is also very important. If there is a case, it will be more than worth the loss. After all, there are still ways and opportunities to attack the mountain. If you keep the green mountains, you will not have to worry about burning firewood.”

Suo Chao was completely speechless at this moment. When it comes to quarrels, he was naturally far from a match for civil servants. In addition, it was already like this, and it would be useless to say anything, so he could only sigh and stop talking. Seeing this, Song Jiang quickly said, "Come and come and treat General Suo's injuries. He was shot!" In order to ease the awkward atmosphere at the moment.

Sun Tu, who was watching this farce from afar, shook his head and sighed repeatedly. He could clearly feel that he was hit by the mountain twice in succession, especially after seeing that he could attack the mountain but returned in vain, everyone's morale had fallen to the bottom of the valley, and it would be more and more difficult to attack the mountain.

After these two attacks on the mountain, Sun Tu has a preliminary understanding of the current military of the Song Dynasty. The weak combat power of the Song army is second to the point. The real fatality is that the command power is in the hands of civil officials who do not understand military affairs. It is particularly difficult to make military generals and soldiers who dare to fight against the enemy.

"What are Sanlang thinking?" At some point, Song Jiang appeared beside him. This made Sun Tu quickly calm his mind and smile bitterly: "I wonder if I still have a chance to attack today?"

"This is probably difficult. Now the morale of the entire army is low. Even if they forcefully ordered them to continue attacking the mountain, the result should be no different from the first time, just increased casualties." Song Jiang sighed in a low mood: "In fact, the previous few attacks on Hutou Village were also the same. They often suffered losses and generals, but they could not reach the mountain at all."

"Absie, do you think there are other ways to go up the mountain besides this frontal attack?" Sun Tu suddenly asked a question.

Song Jiang looked at him with praise. The boy was really smart. But then he shook his head helplessly: "Someone had thought about this before, and some people planned to climb mountains from the rear and side to raid. But although this Xishan hill is not high, it is really steep and it failed in the end."

Only then did Sun Tu realize that he could only sigh with a sigh, then his eyes were staring at the hill ahead, his mind kept turning, thinking about what could be done. Suddenly, another thought arose: "Ask, why don't you need or attack?"

Looking ahead, he found that the village and the high walls that protected the village were all made of bamboo and wood. If fire attacks were used, it would definitely cause considerable damage to the thieves.

Song Jiang shook his head again: "This plan has been used before. However, the thieves were prepared. There was a live spring in his village - so it was impossible to close the mountain and cut off the waterway - enough to extinguish ordinary fire. Moreover, our rocket range is also limited, and unless we can kill halfway up the mountain like General Suo and others before, it will be possible to cause a certain threat."

After hearing this, Sun Tu frowned slightly, as if he had thought of something, but for a moment he couldn't grasp the key point. Before he could come up with anything, a bamboo whistle suddenly sounded, and it was the order to gather these ordinary people and other powerful people.

Sun Tu didn't dare to be negligent, so he ran over quickly to see what the government meant. Do you want him to wait for him to return to the city to prepare food for the army? After all, it is almost dusk and it is almost dark.

Many people have similar thoughts, and everyone showed expectations after rushing over. After seeing those two strong attacks, these civilians were still very timid, afraid that they would have something to do.

But then Huang Si, who stood in front of them, issued an order that made everyone exclaim: "Listen, it is impossible to succeed in attacking the mountain in the daytime, so the county magistrate means night attack. However, the official army is exhausted, so some will be selected from you tonight for night attack." As he said that, he clicked people one by one, and soon pointed Sun Tu in it, which made everyone scream in fear: "We have no ability to attack the mountain, and spare our lives..."
Chapter completed!