C345

Liu Bei was busy walking, but when he heard the surprised shouts from the guards, he hurriedly looked up, only to see that not far away, a big fire had also lit up. He was shocked, and thought that Gongsun Zan had ambushed him with a large group of people in the forest earlier. However, when he looked at the size of the fire carefully, his heart immediately calmed down — the fire in front of him had formed a line and seemed to be very fierce, but in reality, it was extremely weak. It was not even three meters wide, and he could charge through with two big steps. This meant that the enemies before them were very few in number, which was why they used such a method of setting fire. Otherwise, they could have started a huge fire in all directions.

The surrounding Xuzhou Army, on the other hand, could not see any clues. They were already in a mess, and now they were panicking even more.

"Don't panic!" Liu Bei bellowed, he took out his sword and pulled out a few soldiers who were rushing towards him and stabbed them to death, using all his strength, he shouted: "The fire in front is not big, we can easily rush through it! "Hurry up and get close to me, I will kill those who panic without mercy!"

The surrounding guards also followed Liu Bei and shouted loudly. The soldiers of Xuzhou Army gradually calmed down after hearing the shouts, and one by one, they moved closer to Liu Bei's side. With someone taking the lead, the remaining people followed closely behind. When Liu Bei reached the edge of the huge fire, he was surrounded by over ten thousand people. The remaining people were still coming over.

"Retreat!" Qi Qing had originally wanted to take advantage of this situation to take advantage of the situation, but seeing that hundreds of enemies were charging towards him, he decided to give up on this idea and turned around to leave quickly.

Liu Bei stared at the indistinct figures in front of him, his eyes gloomy, the muscles on his cheeks throbbing uncontrollably, it was obvious that he was infuriated. However, he quickly regained his composure. He pointed at the flame in front of him and shouted, "Charge over!"

Twenty to thirty guards took the lead and charged into the seemingly dangerous sea of fire. In the blink of an eye, they safely stood on the other side of the fire. Aside from a few men whose hair and clothes were on fire, the rest were completely unharmed. Seeing that, the rest of the people calmed down, and before Liu Bei could give the order, they rushed over like a swarm of bees.

The few feet wide line of flame instantly vanished under the trampling of more than ten thousand people. As Liu Bei stepped on the smoke, ash, and sparks, he turned around and looked into the distance. At this time, the fire surrounding the forest had already soared into the sky. A group of cavalry of Youzhou could clearly be seen running back and forth outside the forest. Instead, it was filled with confidence and a trace of ridicule, as if the one who was in danger at this time was not him, but instead Gongsun Zan, who was outside the forest!

"Gongsun Zan, oh Gongsun Zan, even though my plan has only succeeded by a little less than half and we've lost quite a few soldiers for nothing, it's more than enough for you to be eternally doomed!" After he finished this sentence in a low voice, Liu Bei turned around and walked forward with large strides.

At the same time, Gongsun Zan rode on top of a mountain, and looked at the sea of fire happily, whether or not Liu Bei could escape the sea of fire, the anger in his heart had already been released by half. He looked to both sides and saw that his subordinates were patrolling around the forest. It was just that because the fire was too strong, they could not get close to it. He hesitated for a bit in his heart, and whether or not he should circle around this forest to block Liu Bei, but after careful consideration, he decided not to. He had already known that this forest was close to a hundred miles in radius, and as long as he escaped the pursuit of the great fire, Liu Bei could leave from any direction.

Just then, a horse galloped over from the distance and the rider immediately shouted out: "Reporting to the Marquis, Academy Officer Qi Qing and the others are safe and sound, they even set a fire in the forest, but they did not stop the enemy from escaping!"

Gongsun Zan nodded his head, Qi Qing was a very capable general, if he were to lose here, it would be too much of a pity! Since Qi Qing had successfully escaped too, there was no point in continuing to stay here. It would be better to just return to the Qinghe County City. As for the safety of Gao Shun and his men in the rear mountains of the Eagle's Castle, it was simply not under Gongsun Zan's consideration at all. Gao Shun only had a little fame at the moment, he simply did not know his potential value, furthermore, he lacked sufficient manpower. It was simply impossible for him to attack an enemy who was several times stronger than himself for the sake of Gao Shun and two thousand veterans.

"Blow!" Get the team to gather quickly, let's go back to Qing He! "

When the surrounding people heard Gongsun Zan's order, they were extremely happy. The sturdy man blew the horn, and the short and long wuwu sounds came out far away.

Hearing the sound of the horn, the scattered The Steel Cavalry of Youzhou s all turned around and rushed towards the direction of the horn. Gongsun Zan had once given an order, once he gave the order to blow the gathering horn, everyone who heard the horn would immediately return to the gathering place. Those who dared to slack off would go on the military law, and from the moment this order was given, no one in the army dared to disobey.

He had stayed in the Youzhou Army for a period of time, so he knew right away that this was a gathering horn. He stomped his feet and shouted angrily, "What exactly is Yuan Shu doing!?! It actually has not arrived yet! " He pulled out his sword and hacked at the branches around him.

For a moment, all they saw was the flying leaves and Liu Bei's heavy breathing.

The surrounding people were silent. They knew that their lord rarely got angry, and once he lost his temper in public like this, it meant that he had reached the peak of his anger. If anyone did not act tactfully, they would be punished.

Liu Bei vented for a while, then calmed himself down, he casually stabbed his sword into the ground, listening to the gradually weakening horn, he could not help but stomp his feet and scold Yuan Shu again.

Liu Bei had more than twenty thousand troops in his hands, and he had even used sinister plans, but he was still not confident enough to eliminate Gongsun Zan. Thus, when he returned to the Eagle's Castle the day before yesterday, he had seriously discussed this with Yuan Shu, and finally decided that Yuan Shu would bring the great army to deal with Gongsun Zan as well, and they had two plans — Firstly, when Yuan Shu arrived near the battlefield, they would send someone to contact Liu Bei, and if they knew that Gongsun Zan did not fall for the trap, and did not leave the protection of the great army, then Yuan Shu would bring his men to quietly circle behind Gongsun Zan and attack Gongsun Zan together. Secondly, if Gongsun Zan fell into the trap, Yuan Shu would also bring the great army along with him.

At that time, Liu Bei and Yuan Shu were both looking forward to the second scenario, which would greatly reduce the difficulty of annihilating Gongsun Zan. Now, things had not developed according to their expectations, but it was definitely an excellent opportunity — — Youzhou Army was currently gathering, and they were not on guard at all. If Yuan Shu led his army to attack from all sides, Liu Bei would bring his men to avoid the fire and rush out to assist them, and at that time, Gongsun Zan would not be able to escape even if he had wings!

Liu Bei scolded Yuan Shu, but he was unable to change anything. Even if he wanted to lead his army to go around and stop Gongsun Zan, it was impossible. After all, their road was completely sealed off by fire, and Gongsun Zan was a cavalry. By the time he led his troops to avoid the fire, Gongsun Zan had already run off to who knows where. He sighed to the sky, walked over, pulled out his sword, wiped the dirt off his sword, and sheathed it. He was ready to find a direction to leave the forest and return to the camp to plan his next course of action.

"My lord, there's movement over there!" At this time, a guard suddenly pointed in the direction the horn's sound had disappeared in and cried out in ecstasy.

Liu Bei hurriedly turned his head to listen. At the beginning, he could only hear the faintly discernible sounds of fighting, and not long after, he could clearly hear the earth-shattering cries of the Huainan s. He immediately turned his anger into joy and laughed loudly, "The highway, the highway, you did not disappoint me!" Quickly find a place to leave the forest and attack Gongsun Zan together with the Huainan Army! "

The originally low morale Xuzhou Army was instantly boosted. One by one, they used various weapons to chop at the branches and vines on the sides, and at an extremely fast speed, they forcibly opened up a path through the dense forest.

Liu Bei shouted loudly as he walked along the road: "Hurry! "Faster!"

When Liu Bei opened up a new path in the forest, he was standing at the top and looking forward, his expression extremely pleased with himself. At this time, in the wilderness in front of him, over thirty thousand Huainan Army soldiers were launching a fierce attack on the gathered cavalry of Youzhou. Because the Huainan Army had come from the back, Gongsun Zan and his subordinates had never thought of this, and thus did not take any preventive measures. Suddenly, they were met with an attack from an enemy, which they simply could not block at all, and could only force themselves to retreat step by step. Under the cover of a large number of archers, the majority of Huainan Army's soldiers, who held long spears in their hands, closed in step by step, forcibly separating the gathered cavalry of Youzhou.

When Huainan Street appeared, Gongsun Zan had already turned pale from fright. He silently cursed himself for being careless for a moment, and not sending out a team to guard the rear, even if it was just a scout team, as long as they could detect Yuan Shu's movements in time, they would be able to buy some time to deal with him! The timing of Huainan Army's appearance was just too good. Over 80% of the cavalry of Youzhou s were on the road to being gathered, their formation was extremely messy. Facing against enemies that were several times stronger than them, they had no way to retaliate. Seeing his subordinates being split up and surrounded, Gongsun Zan was anxious and furious, he only felt something sweet on his chest and under the rage and anxiety he actually spat out a few mouthfuls of blood, and his body also swayed, almost falling off his horse.

"Master Hou!" The surrounding guards turned pale with fright, and rushed forward to support Gongsun Zan.