C277

At the end of the set time, when the last Bingzhou Army Warrior crossed the river, Lv Bu secretly heaved a sigh of relief, and his face revealed a faint smile. The widest part of the river surface was less than a hundred Zhang, and the deepest part could just reach near the neck of a person. The Bingzhou Army soldiers would pull on ropes or branches to cross the river, and even those who could not swim would have smoothly crossed the river.

Last night, Lv Bu led a large army and suddenly stormed towards Qiao County. The result was exactly as Chen Gong had predicted, the hundreds of county soldier s inside Qiao County City were all so frightened that their faces turned pale when they saw Lv Bu coming in person. Lv Bu then stepped forward to threaten them, and promised to not hurt the people inside the city carelessly, so the county soldier did not resist and opened the gates.

After settling down, it was already early in the morning. After Lv Bu and the rest of the six thousand odd people finished their meal, they quietly left the Qiao County and headed towards the northeast. After more than four hours of travel, the large group finally arrived at this place. After another hour, everyone had finally crossed the river.

Zhang Liao stood beside Lv Bu, at this time he looked at the sky, and turned to ask Chen Gong: "Mr. Gong Tai, how far is this place from Xiao Pei?"

Chen Gong was not from the Xuzhou, but from Wu Yang from the Eastern Region (Shandong Xin County). However, he had travelled around when he was young, and after coming to the Xiao Pei, he had visited many times, so he was extremely familiar with the territory of the Xuzhou.

"Wait for me to identify the direction." Chen Gong did not reply, after saying that sentence he quickly walked towards the nearby Gao Po. He quickly returned and cupped his hands to Lv Bu, smiling: "Master, we are about forty five kilometers from Xiao Pei!"

When Lv Bu and Zhang Liao heard this, they were extremely happy, even the pain in their bodies seemed to have lessened greatly. A distance of forty five kilometers was not too far, if all of this were to go well, they would be able to return to the Xiao Pei before dusk.

Zhang Liao asked: Feng Xian, do you want to give the order to set off?

Lv Bu looked at his subordinates around him and noticed that most of their armors were already soaked. Even though they had the intent to return home, he still waved his hand and said, "Let our brothers rest here for a while, wring out all the water on their clothes, then we can speed up our journey!"

Zhang Liao nodded, and personally walked towards the crowd and prepared to pass down the order.

Lv Bu looked at the road two to three miles away, and laughed: "Liu Bei and Yuan Shu actually did not chase after them, this is all thanks to Gong Tai's brilliant plan!"

Chen Gong's expression was not relaxed at all as he said in a deep voice, "Master, this place is only seventy to eighty kilometers away from the Xuzhou City. If Liu Xuande and highway Yuan Tao had decided to chase after us, they would have definitely set off before daybreak.

Lv Bu did not mind as he shook his head and laughed: "Gong Tai, were you overthinking it? We have circled around in a big circle. Even if Liu Bei and Yuan Shu wanted to chase after us, I am afraid they would chase after them in the wrong direction, no? "

Chen Gong frowned: "The enemy has more people, it's better to be cautious! "Please send out your spies and let them move as far as they can to ensure that the enemy does not suddenly approach us!"

Lv Bu hesitated for a moment, but still nodded his head and agreed. The elite cavalry in his hands had been completely destroyed, and now he only had less than a hundred ordinary cavalrymen by his side. Thinking back to when he had commanded several tens of thousands of Steel Cavalry, he felt extremely stifled.

The soldiers of the Bingzhou Army were in a hurry to return as well. It had not even been an hour and most of them had already finished packing. Lv Bu felt that Chen Gong was being overly suspicious, when the group started to move, he had only sent out a twenty man team of scouts to the front, and immediately after, he gave the order to speed up the journey.

This time Chen Gong did not say much, because even he himself suspected that he was making a big fuss out of nothing. Maybe Liu Bei and Yuan Shu had already rushed straight to the Xiao Pei, and did not have any plans to kill them on the way there.

Moments later, the large group arrived on the road and began to speed up.

At the same time, on the riverbank fifteen kilometers ahead, Liu Bei and Yuan Shu were speculating about Lv Bu's whereabouts.

"We've already confirmed that Lv Bu took over the Qiao County last night, and he even left behind an injured number and a small amount of troops. We can see that Xuan Dexiong's guess is completely correct. The question is, has he already left our pursuit, or has he yet to pass through this place? "

Liu Bei pointed to the road behind him, and laughed: "Gong Luxiong, this is the only road from Qiao County to Xiao Pei, if Lv Bu wants to speed up, he will definitely take this road! I have looked carefully just now, and there was no trace of a large group of people walking on the road. If Lv Bu had chosen this road, he definitely would not have passed here! "

Yuan Shu frowned and asked: "What if he didn't go this way? It would be a waste of time! "

Liu Bei disagreed in his heart, Lv Bu was not riding alone, but had brought along thousands of soldiers and horses, wanting to take a detour to return to the Xiao Pei, how could he give up on the road and not go? But in order to prevent Yuan Shu from feeling unhappy, he still nodded his head, and said solemnly: "What Gong Luxiong said makes sense! How about this, we will wait here for another hour, if there is still no trace of Lv Bu, we will immediately rush to Xiao Pei, what do you say? "

Yuan Shu laughed: "That's good! Let's do it this way! "

Suddenly, Liu Bei rolled his eyes and said softly, "I have a suggestion. I would like to ask Gong Luxiong to consider it together!"

"Xuan Dexiong, feel free to speak your mind!"

"If Lv Bu chooses this path, he will definitely send out a group of scouts ahead of us. If we hide right in front of us, it is very possible that Lv Bu's men will discover us!" After Liu Bei said this, he raised his hand and pointed to the forest on both sides of the road, "It would be better to have the soldiers ambush on both sides of the road, and stay as far away from the road as possible, so as to ensure that Lv Bu's scouting party does not detect any abnormalities!"

"If Lv Bu did not choose this path, then wouldn't it be a waste of so much effort? This fellow Big Ear Buster believes too much in his own judgement, and wants us to follow along with him?" Yuan Shu criticized silently, but he did not want any unhappiness with Liu Bei at the moment, so he nodded: "Fine! I have more troops than Xuan Dexiong, so the right side of the road will be handed over to my Huainan Army. If Lv Bu leads his troops past this place, I will also cut off his retreat! "

"Very good! Then I will have to trouble Gong Luxiong! Lv Bu will be here any moment, why not give the order to hide? "

"Alright!" I will personally give the order! Xuan Dexiong, I shall leave the left side to you! "

"Gong Luxiong, don't worry. I guarantee that I won't let a single soldier escape to the left! Gong Luxiong, see you later! "

"Xuan Dexiong, after you!"

The two of them looked at each other and smiled before walking towards their respective troops.

After the time it takes for two incense sticks to burn, the large group of people from Xuzhou Army and Xuzhou Army disappeared into the forest on both sides of the road. Liu Bei personally led a small team to clear the traces on the road to ensure that no one could tell that an army of tens of thousands had appeared here.

After about an hour, a small squadron of twenty men arrived. It was the scout team that Lv Bu had sent out. After walking forward for another two to three miles, the group of scouts turned their horses around and dashed back the way they came from.

After a while, Liu Bei and Yuan Shu received the same report: "Reporting to Master, Lv Bu's scouting party has appeared!"

"He actually came!" Yuan Shu heard this and was stunned, but at the same time, his heart was filled with jealousy and hatred. Liu Bei was just a mere little brat who was more accurate than his own speculation, what virtue did he have? He couldn't help but silently make up his mind. Once he knew what was going on, he would immediately attack Liu Bei to prevent her from becoming the second Gongsun Zan when she grew up!

"He actually came!" Liu Bei let out the same sigh of relief, but he was actually very happy, and was very glad that he did not listen to Yuan Shu's words, and insisted on following his own deduction, otherwise, wouldn't he have ran over to Lv Bu's front? He ordered with a deep voice, "Have all your soldiers prepare themselves. Once Lv Bu enters the ambush, they will immediately attack. This time, no matter what, we cannot let him escape!"

Behind the forest, Yuan Fu bowed and asked: "Master, do you want us brothers to prepare for an attack?"

Yuan Shu bellowed: "Have you forgotten what I've told you before? After Lv Bu appears, tell Xuzhou Army to go up and kill him first, I will only stop him from retreating. Wait until Liu Bei and Lv Bu fight to a standstill, then we can quickly kill Lv Bu! "

Yuan Fu hurriedly cupped his fists: "Master is wise! However, this humble one was too stupid and forgot the teachings of the Lord for a moment.

"Forget it!" Enemy, why would I blame you for such a small matter? "Go give the order, let the soldiers wait for the drums to ring!"

"Here!" Yuan Fu replied loudly, then turned and ran away.

Yuan Shu laughed coldly: "Lv Fengxian, oh Lv Fengxian, I hope that you don't disappoint me. Even if I die, I will have to kill some more Xuzhou Army s before I die!"

While Liu Bei and his group were busy arranging their forces, the small team of scouts had already reported to Lv Bu, "Master, there are no signs of the enemy troops within seven to eight kilometers in front of us!"

Lv Bu panted heavily, and said in a deep voice, "We brothers have travelled for more than twenty Li in a row, it's time for us to rest! "We will rest right where we are after walking another five miles!"

How could he have known that five miles away was the place where the enemy troops were ambushing!