C341

Gongsun Zan put down his tableware and walked out of his room. When he looked up at the sky, Xiao Yu had already completely stopped.

Adding on the several dozen guards who had arrived at the village earlier, nearly six hundred of them had already gathered in the middle of the village and were on standby.

Gongsun Zan looked to the north and asked somewhat anxiously: "What time is it?"

Qian Er said in a low voice, "Reporting to the marquis, it is about fifteen minutes past midnight!"

"Light the incense!" "If no one comes after three incense sticks of time, we will give up on this mission!"

"Here!"

A stick of incense was quickly lit up and stood near the door.

Gongsun Zan returned to his room and sat down to rest. However, from his brows that were knitted from time to time, it could be seen that he had not calmed down at all.

The hundreds of people outside the room were also quietly staring at the slowly burning incense. From time to time, there would be people stamping their feet in anxiety.

Inside the houses in the village, many pairs of eyes were secretly watching the legendary bloodthirsty Youzhou Army. Even though Gongsun Zan had promised to not hurt anyone, most of the villagers were still afraid, afraid that the party would kill them before they left.

When the second incense was lit ablaze, Gongsun Zan opened his eyes and looked at the firelight emitted from the fragrant hair. From time to time, he would clench his fists and slowly loosen them.

The soldiers outside the house were also very anxious, especially the scouts waiting to the north of the village. Some of them even stretched their necks and kept looking forward, while some of them urged their horses to ride two or three miles to the front. They stood on a high slope and looked to the north, but after a long time, there was still no movement.

The third incense stick was quickly ignited. Gongsun Zan suddenly stood up, clenched his left hand into a fist, and walked out of the room with his right hand on the handle of his blade. He stared at the incense stick without moving.

The several hundred soldiers looked at the burning incense in silence. Not a single person made a sound, and the entire village's atmosphere was extremely solemn.

Halfway through the burning of the line incense, Gongsun Zan sighed in disappointment and ordered solemnly: "Set off!"

Just as Gongsun Zan's voice fell, a horse galloped over from the north of the village. The rider immediately came in front of him and whispered, "Reporting to the Marquis, they are here!"

Gongsun Zan's face relaxed, he then shouted out loud: "All villagers listen up, you are not allowed to leave your houses for more than an hour, if not, you will be killed!" After which, he waved his hand and dashed forward with large strides.

Hundreds of people followed Gongsun Zan and ran out of the village.

When the villagers saw that the group had indeed left the village and had not done anything evil, they all calmed down. Some timid women and elderly people even cried tears of joy. Gongsun Zan's shout was still ringing in their ears, so no one dared to walk out of the house without permission.

Gongsun Zan and his group quickly reached the northern side of the village. At this time, the sound of rapid galloping horses could be heard, and in a moment, a large group of cavalry soldiers appeared two to three li in front of them. Seeing a few torches lit up at the village entrance, they started to slow down, but they quickly approached. Two black-armored generals walked in front. The one on the left neatly jumped down from the horse. The one on the right got off the horse with the help of two people. Then, someone walked over.

Borrowing the light from the torches, they could clearly see that the one on the left was the scout camp's Academy Officer, Qi Qing. The one on the right had a pale face and several wounds on his body were still oozing blood.

Qi Qing and Ol 'Seven stepped forward and clasped their fists: "This lowly general greets Master Hou!"

"Forget it!" Gongsun Zan waved his hands, and asked while staring at Old Seven: "Can you still hold on? The people here are simple and honest. If you cannot handle it, you should stay here and recuperate your injuries for the time being! "

Seventh Brother clenched his teeth and laughed, "Reporting to the Marquis, I can still move!"

"Alright!" Gongsun Zan nodded his head in praise, then smiled: "As expected of the people by this old man's side, if this plan succeeds, you will remember this contribution! Once we return to the Youzhou, this old man will give you the chance to lead an army on your own! "

Seventh Brother quickly bowed and expressed his gratitude, "Thank you, Master Hou!"

"Let's go!" Gongsun Zan said as he strode towards the group of people in front.

Someone had long pulled Gongsun Zan and the other people's horses over. Everyone jumped on their horses, and gathered around Gongsun Zan as they headed towards the north.

Qi Qing and Seventh Bro had brought more than four thousand people with them. Adding Gongsun Zan's group, the total amount of people was barely enough to five thousand.

After leaving the village, Gongsun Zan turned his head and instructed Qi Qing, "Tell me about what happened over there!"

"Here!" Qi Qing promised, and started to recount what happened in the camp four hours ago.

At that time, Liu San had brought over a thousand people with him to rush into the camp, and without any obstruction along the way. When they rushed to the vicinity of Gongsun Zan's camp, the already ambushed three thousand riders suddenly rushed out from the sides. At the same time, Qi Qing and the scouts camp quickly turned around and attacked. Liu San and his men were completely wiped out, and by the time they had escaped the camp, there were only about 400 people left.

When Liu San and the rest were under the ferocious assault, Liu Zhen, who was watching from behind, turned pale with fright, but he did not dare to rush into the camp to help Liu San. He only gave the order to form a formation outside the camp, preparing to use a dense array of arrows to block the cavalry of Youzhou's charge. However, something that Liu Zhen did not expect happened. When the enemy chased Liu San's group to the edge of the camp, they only encountered a rain of arrows and suddenly turned to leave. Before Liu Zhen could react, thousands of cavalry of Youzhou s quickly left the camp and rushed towards the north.

Liu Zhen stamped his feet in regret, if he had known earlier that the enemy would escape, he would have brought his men to rescue Liu San, which would have reduced the number of casualties. He knew that he wouldn't be able to catch up even if he chased, so Liu Zhen didn't give the order to kill him. He immediately sent people to report what had happened here to Liu Bei, and at the same time had his subordinates search the entire camp, gathering everything they could.

Just as Liu Zhen's underlings were searching around the camp, something unexpected happened again. The enemy who escaped suddenly attacked! Caught off guard, Liu Zhen once again lost close to a thousand people. In his fury, he desperately ordered the surrounding enemy soldiers to attack, but it was useless as the enemy immediately fled after killing them, not bothering him in the slightest.

When Liu Bei rushed over, he saw the mess on the ground with a large number of injured people. At that time, he was so angry that he almost fainted, and personally lashed out at Liu Zhen with his whip.

Qi Qing's group of people did not leave the camp far, they stayed at the hillside watching the movements in the camp. Because they were too far away, they did not know that Liu Bei had personally brought people into the camp, and could only see the mess. However, when the large group of Xuzhou Army left the camp, not only did they not chase him, but they even turned back towards the camp, Qi Qing knew that there was no use in staying here. Thus, he quickly chased after the large group led by Ol 'Seven.

After Gongsun Zan heard this, he thought to himself, "Qi Qing and Seventh Brother's journey was very smooth, and it took them four hours to arrive at the Pure Water Village. Liu Bei has very few cavalry, even if he does not take a detour, if he were to follow the path this old man has taken, the fastest way to catch up would be around the time this old man took! In other words, in at most another two hours, he would be chasing after them with his great army! More than two hours, that's enough for me to prepare! Liu Bei, ah, Liu Bei, you were scheming against this old man, but you didn't know that this old man was just playing along, and wanted to lure you into our trap! Even if you bring twenty to thirty thousand men to chase after you, this old man is confident that he can defeat you with these five thousand men! You'd better hope that you don't fall into my hands, or else I'll put you in a life or death dilemma! '

More than five thousand men on their horses were galloping, and soon, they had covered a distance of five to six miles.

Qian Er who was leading the way rode his horse back to Gongsun Zan's side, pointed to a distant forest and said: "Master Hou, the forest ahead is the place Zhao An mentioned!"

Gongsun Zan raised his head to look, only to see that the ground in front of him was extremely flat, and the forest seemed to occupy an extremely large area, causing him to be unable to see the end of it. If he were to bring the team to enter, and be surrounded by Liu Bei's army, if the other party used fire again, he might not be able to escape!

He ordered Qi Qing in a deep voice: "Qi Qing, bring the scouts camp with you to the forest to prepare. Once Liu Bei leads the troops to chase after them, they must cause a huge commotion so that Liu Bei will believe that I am inside the forest!"

Qi Qing cupped his fists and agreed, then brought the scout camp to quickly rush to the forest.

Wang Hu was standing not far behind Qi Qing, but when he passed by Seventh Brother, he was still extremely shocked. Previously, he had clearly seen that this guard leader was already dead, so when he saw Seventh Brother coming out from the tent at the camp, he was extremely shocked. Actually, it was not only Wang Hu, but many people who saw Seventh Brother's' death 'were incomparably shocked. Many people even thought that it was the doing of some ghosts or gods, and they all appeared to be trembling in fear when facing Seventh Brother. Many people said that the Seventh Boss had come back from the dead and escaped from the hands of the King of Hell. When the Seventh Brother had the chance to lead the army by himself, his men were very respectful to him, and even the most impulsive fellow did not dare to fight against him.

Qi Qing and the scouts camp entered the forest very quickly, following the small path and walking deeper into the forest, they deliberately left many traces, making it obvious that a small, yet no small number of people were passing by.

Gongsun Zan brought the rest of the group to circle around the forest and entered into a nearby forest.