It's the end of August in a blink of an eye. After a period of hectic work, everything in the mountains is gradually on the right track. Under Cao Ergou's rigorous training, the Thunderbolt Army faintly has the shadow of a strong army. In particular, the field battalion is not only well-groomed and disciplined, but also quite proficient in the operation of artillery and grenades. Due to production capacity, the Thunderbolt Army is currently equipped with only more than 10 Tiger Squat guns and Mother and Child Cannons, and it cannot be equipped with two companies. But seeing that the weather in this mountain was starting to get cooler day by day, and the color of the leaves on the top of the mountain was gradually showing a hint of red from emerald green, Ouyang Xuan decided not to wait for the artillery to be sufficient, and was ready to make a move against the bandits in Wanjiaping Mountain.

The reason why he was in a hurry to take action against the Wanjiaping Mountain bandits was because Ouyang Xuan wanted to open up the mountain road before the autumn grain harvest, and as much food and necessary daily necessities as possible, so that the Thunderbolt army and the people under its rule could support the coming Mongol invasion. After going to Qiongzhou to buy salt, Zhu Zhuozi also organized several groups of small-scale trading teams to go out, but the hidden trails were really difficult to navigate, and they could only sell and buy light and valuable goods, so that the daily necessities needed in the mountains were still in short supply, and a large number of ordinary mountain goods, iron ingots, agricultural tools and other industrial and mining products were accumulated in the warehouses of the trading teams.

The news of attacking Wanjiapingshan bandits made the Thunderbolt army excited. The Xiong Ben bandits have done a lot of evil, and many of the soldiers of the Thunderbolt Army have suffered greatly, and the soldiers in the field camp have been trained too hard by Cao Ergou during this time, and they are also holding their breath in their hearts, wanting to use the mountain bandits to train their hands to get angry. The commanders of the Perak Army knew that this mountain road was narrow, and the attack surface was only a few meters wide at most, and no matter how many people there were, they could not spread out, and they could not adopt the tactics of crowds. Therefore, when Ouyang Xuan decided to use only two companies, everyone had no opinion, but the commanders of each company began to secretly compete over who could undertake the task, and they privately asked Cao Ergou to fight. Cao Ergou was overwhelmed and in a dilemma, so he pushed this problem to Ouyang Xuan and asked him to make a decision. Ouyang Xuan saw that the army's heart was available, so he decided that Cao Ergou would lead the first company to be responsible for the main attack, and the remaining four companies would each draw three squads to temporarily form a reinforced company, which would be used as a reserve under his own leadership. Such a result made the first company commander Chen Hu arrogant, and although the other four company commanders were not very satisfied, they could reluctantly accept it.

Only by knowing the other can we survive a hundred battles. During this time, the Thunderbolt Army has not relaxed its reconnaissance of Wanjiaping, and Cao Ergou sent a large number of capable personnel to spy around his Wanjiazhai. The Xiong Ben bandits are also infiltrating and spying on Liuliba, and the spies on both sides have repeatedly encountered each other, and there have been many skirmishes. Overall, the Thunderbolt scouts, armed with grenades, had a great advantage and successfully suppressed the spying activities of the mountain bandits. However, the reconnaissance of the Perak army could only stop at the newly built stone fortress next to the T-junction by the mountain bandits, and could not reach Wanjiazhai to reconnoitre, so they could only wait and see from afar.

Beside the mountain road leading to Wanjiazhai, the mountain bandits originally had several wooden watchtowers, but they were burned down during the last Mongol 100-man attack, and all of them were rebuilt this time. The bandits apparently learned their lesson and changed the watchtower from wood to stone, making it much more defensible. To say that the Xiong Ben bandits are not straw bales, their new stone fortress at the T-junction is built quickly and strongly, and the location is also very particular. Although the area is only one acre square, and the wall is only more than five meters high, it is located on the hillside of the intersection of the T-shaped road leading to Wanjiaping and Liuliba, overlooking the two roads below with a condescending situation, and the road in and out of the mountain and leading to Wanjiazhai are tightly choked. The Perak Army also collected sporadic information about the Wanjiapingshan bandits from other channels, but did not find out about the military defense, only that Xiong Ben forcibly recruited some people into the gang and strengthened the gate and wall of Wanjiazhai.

To say that the newly built fortress of the mountain bandits is really a hard bone, as soon as the battle started, it showed a strong defense, and almost made the first company led by Cao Ergou break his teeth. The bandits placed two light trebuchets in the fort and formed a fire blockade on the 200-meter mountain road near the T-shaped road, so that the Thunderbolts who were moving along the narrow mountain road could not hide, and a round of flying stones hit several Thunderbolt soldiers. The impact of the dense stones thrown from the high ground was extremely powerful, although it could not shatter the iron and wooden shield of the Thunderbolt Army, but it also smashed the shield bearer to a broken arm, and even a flying stone smashed the shield bearer to roll over and over, and even the man with the shield fell into the turbulence of the Wenjing River below the mountain road.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Cao Ergou hurriedly ordered the whole company to retreat beyond the range of the trebuchet and bombarded the fortress with artillery. It's just that because the mountain next to the road blocks the firing range, the mother and child cannons that attack directly cannot be used. Although the curved tiger squat cannon can hit the fortress, the mountain road is narrow and can only be placed for one cannon to attack, and because of its low power, the projectiles fired by it can only leave shallow bullet marks on the fortress wall. The sporadic and sparse shelling could not affect the continued firing of the trebuchet, which made the arrogance of the bandits even more arrogant. Seeing that the power of the artillery was not strong, Cao Ergou chose a strong soldier to rush through the trebuchet blockade line with a shield, and braved the dense rain of arrows to rush forward, ready to throw grenades into the fortress, but was blocked by a deep trench dozens of meters from the front of the fortress and had to retreat.

In the following time, the Thunderbolts organized several more attacks, but to no avail. Seeing that it was getting late, but he was stuck on the mountain road and couldn't move forward, Cao Ergou was anxious but helpless, and decided to wait for Ouyang Xuan to come before making plans. He had already sent someone to report the news of the obstruction to Ouyang Xuan in Liuliba, and now Brother Xuan was taking a squad and walking lightly on the way here. Ouyang Xuan only took one class, not only because he was in a hurry, but also because the mountain road was really not spacious, and no matter how many people he brought, it would be useless.

At dusk, Ouyang Xuan joined the first company. After observing the situation on the battlefield and listening to Cao Ergou's detailed report, he issued the first order: all the staff retreated to five miles away, except for the vigilant personnel, the rest of the personnel rested on the spot, and extinguished the torches to remain silent. The order to remain silent and vigilant was a natural thing, but it was a bit strange to extinguish the torches, considering that the trail was below the roaring river, and the light of the torches was faint, but it would ensure that everyone would not stumble into the river. Regarding everyone's incomprehension, Ouyang Xuan, who has always advocated democratic deliberation and collective efforts, did not explain much. After everyone settled down, he directly issued a battle plan to Cao Ergou, on the one hand, it was really not suitable for deliberations on the mountain road at night, and on the other hand, it was also because it was unrealistic to ask the people of the Southern Song Dynasty to discuss a good way to attack the artillery fortification, not because Ouyang Xuan was smarter and wiser, but because he had thousands of years of experience.