An atmosphere of despair began to spread inside the Liujiapu fortified village. Liu Wentao, who was considered shrewd and capable usually, was actually captured. The family guards on the wall never discovered when someone actually hid under the sand. They just saw the family guards who went out to attack being completely beaten down and dragged away together with Liu Wentao. Someone immediately ran to report to Master Liu Ba. The remaining people stood on the wall just clicking their tongues, completely unable to come up with a way.

In the *Manual for Attacking Fortified Villages*, Chen Ke wrote, "Staying in a fortified village for a long time easily gives people an illusion that this fortified village is their own world, and the inside of the fortified village is a safe environment. The direct consequence of this illusion is that the heavier the blow they receive, the less they dare to go out of the fortified village. Once a blow is given to the enemy, pressure must be created continuously immediately to achieve the purpose of blocking the enemy to the maximum."

If the enemies inside the fortified village continuously adopted the tactic of attacking in separate groups, or even fleeing in multiple directions, the Insurance Corps definitely couldn't stop them completely. Someone would definitely escape, perhaps even very important figures. The Insurance Corps was new to Wushui County (*Wuhe County? Text says Wushui, previously Wuhe*) and had not yet established a firm foothold. If the county yamen really led an encirclement and suppression campaign against the Insurance Corps, leaving aside victory or defeat, trouble in between would definitely be unavoidable. The strategy finally decided by the Waterway Detachment was to completely eliminate the stubborn forces of Liujiapu. Not allowing them to escape.

Based on such a strategic concept, after annihilating the family guards under Liu Wentao, the refugees were immediately organized and rushed back to the front of the Liujiapu fortified village. Before the refugees arrived, the gate of the fortified village was already closed tightly, for fear that the refugees would take the opportunity to rush in. The Liujiapu fortified village also had only a north gate. Once the refugees blocked there, it would be difficult upon difficult to come out again.

The sky gradually darkened. Completely different from the silence of the first few days, the Insurance Corps and the refugees opened up their posture. Six or seven hundred refugees and five hundred Insurance Corps soldiers, more than a thousand people completely surrounded the fortified village. Many dead plants had been cut down these days. Except for the south side preparing to bury explosives, fires were lit in the east, north, and west directions. Refugees took turns to go into battle, shouting constantly outside the range of the fortified village's muskets. Or suddenly extinguishing the fire, and those bold refugees put some wooden boards on their heads and ran near the enemy's fortified village, pretending to attack the city.

With this tossing all night, the fortified village couldn't be peaceful at all. Everyone inside the fortified village knew things were very wrong, but they were powerless. People sent out during the day were solved instantly. At night, refugees lit bonfires outside that burned almost all night. Rushing out rashly, under the illumination of bonfires, would only become targets. Everyone still had this bit of common sense. As for why these bandits wanted to harass all night, it was naturally the traditional fatigue tactic.

The principle is easy to understand, but the problem lies in putting it into practice, which is very difficult. Previous fatigue tactics were generally just making noise. The sound might be loud, but when it really transmitted into the fortified village, it was already unclear. As long as ears were plugged, one could really eat and sleep as usual.

But the people outside the fortified village this time were very different. Don't know where this group of people came from, but when they spoke, they shouted collectively, and the voices were extremely neat. In the night, it transmitted directly and clearly from outside into the fortified village. Whether the family guards on the wall or the common people inside the fortified village heard it clearly.

The content of this gang's shouting was nothing more than three items. The first item was urging Liujiapu to surrender. Those guys outside claiming to be the People's Party Insurance Corps claimed that if members of Liujiapu were willing to surrender voluntarily, they would ensure the personal and property safety of the common people of Liujiapu. Such words were clichés said countless times; bandits said so when they came, and the government said so when they came. Different from the government and bandits, the People's Party Insurance Corps didn't have any threatening parts. They didn't mention a word of those ruthless words like leaving no chickens or dogs if not surrendering voluntarily.

The second item was hoping everyone would not resist when the Insurance Corps attacked Liujiapu. The Insurance Corps guaranteed to everyone that even if Liujiapu was captured, they wouldn't rob the private property of the common people. The purpose of attacking Liujiapu was to obtain grain that could allow local common people to survive the disaster year. Not for the Insurance Corps itself to profit by looting the common people.

The Insurance Corps guaranteed to the common people that as long as they hid at home and didn't come out, or knelt on the ground and raised their hands to surrender during the battle, they could keep their lives. The Insurance Corps would absolutely not settle accounts after autumn.

If it were ordinary bandits shouting in formation, the common people might just listen to it as a joke. The problem was that dozens of people shouting neatly together, although not particularly novel words, this extremely disciplined way seemed to have a natural persuasiveness. Many common people pricked up their ears to listen carefully to the content of these words.

The third item was even more incredible. The Insurance Corps guaranteed that even if people of Liujiapu fought the Insurance Corps to the end, as long as they were not killed on the spot, the Insurance Corps would give treatment. But the Insurance Corps warned these people that the Insurance Corps' regulation of preferential treatment for captives was aimed at captives who gave up resistance. If they were dishonest after becoming captives, the Insurance Corps would have to adopt tough means to deal with them.

These words were sorted out by Li Zhao based on Chen Ke's documents. The core purpose was nothing more than one thing: telling the common people of Liujiapu that as long as they were willing to surrender, they could live. The Insurance Corps treats captives well. Although while informing the common people of Liujiapu, the Insurance Corps was also secretly burying explosives. But this didn't mean the Insurance Corps was deceiving the common people. When attacking Yuezhangji, the Insurance Corps and the Zhang family fought to that extent, but Chen Ke didn't eradicate the Zhang family in the end. He just imprisoned them. No matter what kind of guys the opponents were, preferential treatment for captives was preferential treatment for captives. Since the opponent had succumbed, as the victor, one should have such a tolerant mind.

This time refugees beat more than twenty family guards to death alive. The Insurance Corps held a private meeting and conveyed discipline. Although not criticizing this practice directly, the Insurance Corps emphasized repeatedly that under the condition of ensuring the safety of soldiers themselves, abusing captives was absolutely not allowed, let alone killing captives.

This tossing lasted until more than three o'clock in the morning. All attack teams of the Insurance Corps began to rest. In the plan, the attack would officially launch at six-thirty in the morning. Words that should be shouted were shouted; explosives that should be buried were buried. With this tossing all night, people inside the fortified village were also exhausted. Being dazed in the early morning, the resistance encountered when fighting in one go would be smaller.

And on the other side, Master Liu Ba was considered coping effectively. Although his brother's whereabouts were unknown, estimated to be more ill than good. He went to the battle personally, commanding family guards and common people in the fortified village to defend strictly. Although he didn't know how the guys outside claiming to be the People's Party Insurance Corps would fight in exactly. But judging from this posture, the Insurance Corps was absolutely not in a posture of long-term siege, but prepared to take down the fortified village in one go.

More than six in the morning, the sky was already slightly bright. Family guards and common people who hadn't slept well all night felt their eyes sting from the dazzling morning sunlight. Many people even shed tears. Tossing all night, everyone felt tired and hungry. In a disaster year, everyone basically ate one meal of thin porridge and one meal of semi-dry food a day. And breakfast was not eaten. Usually sleeping all night, the body could still hold on. But busy all night, stomachs were already rumbling with hunger. But Master Liu Ba forgot about breakfast. The crowd in the fortified village stayed on the wall with hungry stomachs, simply not knowing whether to slip down to eat or continue to stay on the wall to see if there would be food to eat.

Just then, accompanied by a noise never heard before, thick smoke billowed suddenly under the south wall, and bricks and stones flew randomly. The entire fortified village trembled like a galloping fierce horse. Many people who didn't stand firmly fell directly from the wall. Even those who reacted quickly and could hug something in time, not falling from the wall top, didn't feel much better. An indescribable feeling of nausea, dizziness, and tinnitus appeared suddenly. That was the physiological reaction triggered by the shockwave reaching the human body. Those with good bodies could resist a little, while many with weaker bodies vomited directly. But everyone's stomach was empty; there was nothing to vomit even if they wanted to. They could only lie on the ground or the wall retching continuously.

Just then, the charge bugle of the Insurance Corps blew *di di da da*. The soldiers who had been lying in ambush long ago shouted and charged towards the gap in the south wall.

At least until now, everything was as planned. When the dark gap appeared on the south wall, Zhang Yu already knew that the operation was unlikely to fail. From now on, there was only the degree of success.

But Zhang Yu felt somewhat disappointed because he couldn't lead the team to rush into the fortified village personally like Chen Ke. When attacking Yuezhangji, Chen Ke led the charge personally. When those cadres and soldiers mentioned Chen Ke's heroic posture and calm and skillful combat command, they were all incomparably admiring. Zhang Yu obviously didn't have such a chance. As the current supreme commander, whether the main attack or feint attack, they were responsible by comrades from different troops. Zhang Yu had no room to intervene at all.

Although not being able to lead the charge personally made Zhang Yu somewhat disappointed, seeing the troops rush into the fortified village from the gap and the ensuing gunfight made Zhang Yu feel inexplicably lucky. Instead, Pu Guanshui, as the commander of the assault team, had already led the troops to kill their way in. The gunshots became denser and denser. Listening for a while, Zhang Yu felt he heard some clues. The crisp gunshots were relatively close, and moved from near to far. Presumably, they were Insurance Corps gunshots. While the low and heavy gunshots were always in the distance; they should be muskets fired by family guards inside the fortified village.

While judging, scouts who rushed up the south wall had already signaled with flags. As the commander of the Waterway Detachment, Zhang Yu himself was proficient in semaphore. After watching for only a moment, Zhang Yu shouted happily, "The enemy has begun to collapse."

The enemy had indeed begun to collapse. The enemies on the south wall bore the brunt of the explosion. Most of them were shaken off the wall directly, and some were even shaken to death directly. Guys falling from a height of several meters onto the ground lost half their lives even if they didn't fall to death. The family guards on the wall were the main force inside the fortified village. There were not many family guards on the south wall, but they were relatively elite ones. Being caught in one net unexpectedly this time, the entire south side of the fortified village immediately became a vacuum zone of military strength.

Insurance Corps soldiers killed their way in all the way, actually encountering no resistance. Pu Guanshui commanded the assault team personally. If according to Pu Guanshui's habit, he would definitely let the troops suppress the wall continuously with volleys, and then advance slowly.

However, there were completely different suggestions in Chen Ke's tactical regulations.

"No matter how small the weapon caliber is, and no matter how small the weapon quantity is, always use firepower to support infantry attacks."

"Whoever opens fire first and can conduct the most violent concentrated fire shooting will win."

These two sentences left a deep impression on Pu Guanshui. In Chen Ke's manual, it was suggested that as long as there were conditions, use violent firepower to eliminate enemies on the wall and commanding heights, seize commanding heights, and then control and divide the enemy from a commanding position. Finally seize victory.

Pu Guanshui proceeded exactly like this. Under the cover of the rifle team, bullets were shot at the enemies on the high ground at maximum speed. The troops inserted straight into the north courtyard wall without stopping at all. The enemy's main force gathered there; most muskets and elites gathered there. As long as the enemies in the north could be solved, the resistance inside the fortified village could basically be declared over.

Just a round of concentrated fire shooting, the enemy was immediately thrown into confusion. Actually, the shooting level of Insurance Corps soldiers was not that brilliant. Thirty-odd soldiers holding Hanyang Type 88s divided into two teams to shoot in turns. After two rounds of shooting, only seven or eight enemies were knocked down. Most bullets just hit the wall pointlessly, then creating various perhaps terrifying sounds.

Seeing the shooting effect was not good, Pu Guanshui immediately followed Chen Ke's guiding regulation, "Shoot as close as possible." He led the soldiers running towards the north. As long as they could get close to the enemy, shooting accuracy could definitely be greatly improved.

Although the enemy didn't have such military regulation guidance, they also understood these simple principles. The volley just now scared the people on the wall out of their wits; some timid ones lay on the ground daring not show their heads. Seeing blue-clad soldiers running over, completely exposed on the road inside the fortified village. The family guards immediately fired a round of muskets at this gang of blue-clad people. Such combat could actually be considered dedicated. The only problem was that this practice really lacked rationality, and was merely a subconscious imitation of those soldiers' volley just now.

Because the soldiers were still far outside the range of muskets.

When Pu Guanshui led the soldiers rushing within the range of family guards' muskets, the family guards were still frantically loading gunpowder. Soldiers who could carry Hanyang Type 88s were all carefully selected by Chen Ke. Once the distance was close, the shooting accuracy of these people improved greatly. Volleys set off bursts of blood flowers among the family guards on the wall. The enemy couldn't persist for long, and then collapsed.

But all plans have their uncontrollable side. The process of the battle so far proceeded according to the Insurance Corps' expectation, but not long after, the battle showed its other side.