C343

The more he looked at it, the more he doubted himself – Before, he had only sent a few dozen men to the Pure Water Village, which meant that Gongsun Zan only had a few dozen war horses to use. This point, he could confirm with the footprints of the riders at the entrance of the Pure Water Village, why did the prints on the horses' hooves suddenly increase by a lot?

Liu Bei kept walking until he was sure that there were more hoof prints on the ground. He straightened his back and looked forward, his expression changing non-stop. Could it be that Gongsun Zan had already arranged for a reinforcement? Thinking about it, he shook his head, and overturned his own thoughts. From the view of the horse hooves, there were probably only a few hundred horses, if Gongsun Zan was prepared, there would definitely not be only this many people! Furthermore, it was impossible for them to be reinforcements from Qing He, because they could not have met Gongsun Zan with such accuracy! 'Could it be? '

Just as Liu Bei was about to gain inspiration, Academy Officer Chu behind him suddenly called out in a low voice, "Master, look! There's a fire in the forest!"

Liu Bei waved his hands in annoyance, temporarily putting aside the matter of the hoof prints. He raised his head and looked into the forest to the side, only to see many torches suddenly appearing in the depths of the forest. There seemed to be around a few hundred people, and they were all heading deeper into the forest. On the forehead of the pat, if the one inside the forest was Gongsun Zan and his subordinates, then who were the hundreds of people riding away?

When Gongsun Zan left Qingshui Village, he had ordered the three horses to move side by side with the soldiers so that they wouldn't be caught red-handed by the pursuers. The The Steel Cavalry of Youzhou was well-trained and had perfectly carried out Gongsun Zan's orders along the way. Only when they were around the forest did they gradually disperse, causing Liu Bei to suddenly feel like there were hundreds of war horses. In reality, there were hundreds of them, but the true number should be more than four thousand six hundred!

If it was the daytime, Liu Bei would definitely find something fishy, but the moonlight was dark, and he did not dare light a torch to alert the snake, hence he made the wrong judgement of only a few hundred horses! Just as he seemed to have grasped on to something, he was interrupted by Academy Officer Chu.

Chu Academy Officer looked at the torchlight that was burning in the depths of the forest, and said in a low voice: "Master, they will soon find out that Gongsun Xu is not here, when that time comes, they will definitely escape, please make a decision!"

Liu Bei snorted in displeasure. Right now, there were two choices in front of him, the first was to quickly surround the forest and not let the people inside escape. He had over twenty thousand soldiers and horses, the people in the forest would definitely not be able to escape! The only question now was whether or not Gongsun Zan was inside. However, he did not know how long the other party had been walking for, so using the walking soldier to chase after the riders was a little unrealistic. Furthermore, even if he was able to catch up, what would happen if the other party galloped away again? After thinking about it, he decided to take a gamble on how important Gongsun Xu was in Gongsun Zan's heart, and whether or not he was worth Gongsun Zan rushing over to rescue him!

"Send the order, surround the forest and don't let a single person escape!"

"Here!" More than ten trusted guards clasped their hands in response, turned around, and dashed off to deliver the order.

Academy Officer Chu took two steps forward and cupped his fist, "My lord, this general requests that you enter the forest first!"

"No!" Liu Bei shook his head, under the latter's disappointed gaze, he said solemnly: "I have more important things that I want you to do!"

Academy Officer Chu was overjoyed. He hurriedly said, "As long as you give me your orders, I guarantee that I will complete the mission!"

Liu Bei pointed to the direction in which the horse hoof imprint disappeared to and ordered: "Bring 400 cavalrymen to follow the horse hoof imprint and take a look. If you are still not able to catch up to anyone from 20 miles away, quickly come back!"

Xuzhou Army did not have many cavalrymen to begin with, and had lost another large portion of them in the past few days. These four hundred cavalrymen were almost half of the number that Liu Bei currently had on hand. If there were enough cavalrymen, Liu Bei would definitely leave his army behind to annihilate the people in the forest. He would personally lead a large troop of cavalrymen to chase after them, but unfortunately, he could not do anything other than choose the most conservative method.

The joy on Academy Officer Chu's face instantly disappeared. What he wanted to do even more was to capture Gongsun Zan and fish for a great merit rather than chase after a group of riders who didn't know their own identities and had walked who knows how far. However, he did not dare to disobey his lord's order. He replied in a somewhat dejected manner, and ordered 400 cavalrymen to follow the hooves of the horses in pursuit.

At this moment, the order was passed down. The ten thousand soldiers were approaching the woods from all directions. The people at the front were all carrying torches. The moment they got close to the people in the forest, they would light torches so that they had nowhere to hide.

Liu Bei stayed in the center of the troop, and with a large group of guards around him, he advanced into the forest, before entering into the forest. He suddenly stopped in his tracks and sent out a team of three thousand people to stand guard outside the forest. After making this arrangement, his apprehensive mood quickly stabilized. With over ten thousand people fighting against Gongsun Zan's few hundred people, it could be said to be like lions fighting against rabbits. As long as Gongsun Zan was in the forest, there was absolutely no chance for him to escape! Those who remained outside could also ensure that the fleeing cavalryman would not be able to do something unfathomable.

At this time, Academy Officer Chu had already chased them for three to four miles. When they passed by a dense forest, he very casually looked inside and didn't stop at all as he continued to run forward, completely unaware that this casual action of his had almost killed him.

After waiting for Academy Officer Chu and his entourage to leave, a guard with exceptional shooting skills put down the heavy bow in his hands and smacked his lips in regret. When Academy Officer Chu looked into the forest earlier, everyone, including Gongsun Zan, was shocked. They thought that person had noticed something amiss.

Seventh Brother asked in a hoarse voice, "Master Hou, do you want to chase after them and kill them?"

Gongsun Zan stared at the large group of people from the Xuzhou Army in front of him and thought for a while. Then, he nodded his head and said, "Although the number of people is small, it is still a small threat! Send five hundred people to chase after them, no need to leave anyone alive! "

Immediately, a Academy Officer brought five hundred men and stealthily descended from the forest with their warhorses, chasing after the group of riders.

Seven looked into the distance and saw that a large group of figures had already entered the forest. He asked softly, "Master Hou, the enemy troops are about to enter the forest. Do you want to launch an attack?"

"No rush!" Gongsun Zan shook his head, and said indifferently: "Liu Bei seems to have left a lot of people outside the forest, once their group enters the depths of the forest, we will kill the group that stayed behind!"

Seventh Brother hurriedly said, "Master Hou, once the enemy troops enter the forest, our cavalry can only dismount and chase them. Our fighting strength will be greatly reduced!"

Gongsun Zan sneered: "Who said this old man is chasing into the forest?"

Old Seven was startled, as he completely did not understand what Gongsun Zan meant.

Gongsun Zan reached out his palm to feel the wind as he nodded in praise, "Since it's the northern wind, it's perfect to send Liu Bei to the west!"

Seventh brother scratched his head in confusion, but his expression changed drastically as he exclaimed, "Could it be that Master Hou wants to ignite the fire in this forest?" No wonder the marquis told his brothers to collect a large amount of dried wood and dried grass! "

Gongsun Zan laughed, but there was no smile in his eyes. When Zhao An told the truth under the enormous pressure, he had never thought about fighting Liu Bei head on. He wanted to use all sorts of ruthless means to scheme against Liu Bei, so that could have a taste of his schemes and tricks!

So it turned out that Zhao An was not able to get past that hurdle in his heart, and was not willing to be a despicable person who sought for glory behind his master, and was not willing to see himself and his family and friends in Liu Bei's control over their entire lives, and would at the same time be despised by the people of the world. Thus, when he brought Seventh Brother to the Youzhou Army's camp, he quietly told them the truth. Seventh brother went with the flow and acted outside Youzhou Army's camp, successfully tricking Xuzhou Army, who was trying to chase him over.

After seeing Gongsun Zan, Zhao An told him everything. When Gongsun Zan asked him what rewards he wanted, he only mentioned a request, and begged Gongsun Zan to bring his family and friends, as well as his close friends and friends to the Youzhou, so that Liu Bei would not take revenge on them.

Gongsun Zan had always been a stone-cold person, a mere few hundred lives of villagers were not even in his eyes, but he felt that this was a good opportunity — — After besieging Yuan Shao within the Qinghe County City, he started to scheme to head south, but since he knew that his reputation was just as bad as that of the Xuzhou, he wanted to make use of this matter of Zhao An to spread his good will, as well as Liu Bei's despicability. It was precisely because of this thought that he agreed to it, and it also had the action of leading over fifty people to their respective homes to pick up their families and friends.

Seven restrained the shock in his heart and said in a trembling voice, "Master Hou, this forest seems to have a circumference of at least a hundred miles. Once the mountain and fire are ignited, it'll spread to too many places, and it'll inevitably damage Master Hou's reputation!"

"Fame? Seventh Brother, you're too stupid! " Gongsun Zan scoffed, and laughed coldly: "As long as Liu Bei dies, when the time comes, I will say what will happen. Liu Bei tried to use a fire attack to deal with this old man, but unexpectedly, the wind suddenly changed and he ended up harming himself. What of this excuse?"

Seventh Brother's body trembled, he lowered his head and did not dare to say anything else. Even though he had killed many people, but because he himself came from a poor family, he had never made a move against the innocent people. There must be many villages surrounding this forest, and when the time came, many innocent people would die! Moreover, Qi Qing and the scouts camp were deep within the forest, so once the fire started, the possibility of them escaping was very low! However, he also knew that he couldn't change the Marquis' order, and this was the best method at the moment, so he had no choice but to remain silent.

Just then, the shadows at the edge of the forest started to dwindle. The troops of the Xuzhou Army had already entered the forest, the three thousand people who were guarding outside were bored to death, they all sat on the ground to rest.

"It's time!" Gongsun Zan's right fist fiercely smashed into his left palm as he coldly bellowed, "Prepare to attack!"

Following Gongsun Zan's orders, one cavalry of Youzhou after another walked down the mountain forest with their war horses, and quickly gathered at the spacious grassland below the mountain forest.