Xiao Yao had already decided to let go of Gao Changgong's remnants and keep them as bargaining chips to ask Chen for a reward, but Gao Changgong didn't know about it, so after being defeated by Xiao Yao this morning, he ran all the way east with 5,000 remnants of soldiers, and fled into Xiapi County that afternoon!

And when he fled back to Xiapi County, and heard that Xuzhou City had been captured by Lu Guangda, and that Qi was left with only the lonely city of Xiapi County in the entire Xuzhou, he was just as Xiao Yao expected, and there was a contradiction in his heart that he abandoned the city and fled or stayed to fight to the death! So Gao Changgong immediately gathered all the generals to discuss countermeasures!

"We must not just retreat without a fight, how can we be worthy of those brothers who died to cover our retreat! Although we lost the battle first, we still have 5,000 cavalry, and there are almost 10,000 defenders here in Xiapi County, plus those stragglers who fled back from Xuzhou City, we have nearly 20,000 troops, and we can definitely have another decisive battle with Xiao Yao! Wei Xiangyuan was the first to speak.

"But now that even the most powerful artillery unit has been wiped out by Xiao Yao, what do we use to fight Xiao Yao? Not to mention that Xiao Yao's forward brigade has just defeated us, and now the morale is high, just with those very powerful weapons in their hands, even if we stay here in Xiapi County and organize all the soldiers to have another decisive battle with him, then the result will be easily defeated by him like this morning! And this morning's one is not called a decisive battle at all, but Xiao Yao's massacre of us! We didn't have a chance to fight the forward brigade at all, none of the artillery units fired artillery, and the cavalry couldn't even rush through the opponent's position! A general also objected and said that he was indeed frightened by Xiao Yao today, and he had no confidence to fight against Xiao Yao again!

"Then we will abandon the city and flee now? Where else can we escape? Xuzhou City has been occupied by Lu Guangda, and Xiao Yao led the forward brigade to chase us in the west, we can only retreat to North Xuzhou now, but Xiao Yao will attack there sooner or later, and we will still have a decisive battle with Xiao Yao at that time! If you directly cross the Yellow River and flee back to the Qi country, in this way, the prince can only return to the Qi country with a defeated general, then how does Your Majesty still look at the prince, and how will the prince lead our soldiers of Daqi to fight and kill the enemy in the future! Wei Xiangyuan said excitedly.

Wei Xiangyuan advocated another decisive battle with Xiao Yao, in addition to wanting to avenge those dead soldiers, a large part of the reason was for Gao Changgong's sake, because he knew that Gao Changgong was very unpopular with Emperor Gao Wei, and Gao Wei also wanted to kill Gao Changgong, so if Gao Changgong returned to Qi with a defeated general this time, maybe Gao Wei would take the opportunity to execute Gao Changgong!

"If we return to Qi directly, Your Majesty will hold the prince responsible, then we will return to Northern Xuzhou first! There are also a lot of defenders there, and after we lead the troops in hand to get there, the strength will be even greater, and the defense of North Xuzhou will be more certain! And at that time, Xiao Yao has just taken Xuzhou and Xiapi County, and he will definitely be busy taking over the government affairs of all parts of Xuzhou, and he should not immediately send troops to attack Northern Xuzhou! In this way, we will have more time to prepare, come up with a better way to deal with Xiao Yao, and also have the imperial court send reinforcements to reinforce us! Although this general was afraid of Xiao Yao and didn't dare to fight again, his analysis was still very reasonable.

"That's a good point! If we fight again with Xiao Yao, who is gaining momentum, we will still lose, and we will lose completely, and there will be no chance of a comeback, so I have always said that we must preserve our strength! Just like when we surrounded the Forward Brigade in Linying County last year, Xiao Yao refused to flee alone, and even did not hesitate to let himself be used as bait to try his best to distract us and let the remnants of his Forward Brigade escape! I believe that today's forward brigade is rebuilt on the basis of those remnants of the soldiers who escaped! We have all learned their strength today, and this is the effect of preserving strength! Gao Changgong said with a wry smile.

"Then, if we give up Xiapi County and give Xuzhou to Xiao Yao, will Your Majesty hold the prince responsible for the defeat? After all, Your Majesty, he... Wei Xiangyuan didn't dare to say any more.

"How's that going? It is a matter of course to be defeated and accept His Majesty's punishment! As long as we can preserve our strength, we will have a chance to make a comeback, and I will not let these soldiers of Daqi die for me for my own selfish interests! Gao Changgong said awe-inspiringly.

"Lord Wang! Alas, then, we will withdraw from Xiapi County now? Seeing that Gao Changgong was so resolute, Wei Xiangyuan no longer persuaded him, after all, he didn't want to see his soldiers slaughtered by Xiao Yao again!

"Retreat, leave Xiapi County now, and before Xiao Yao catches up, we will immediately retreat to Xuzhou in the north!" You all immediately go and prepare to organize the retreat of the army, we can't afford to sacrifice a single soldier this time! Gao Changgong immediately ordered.

"Yes!" Everyone received the order, and they all immediately went out to prepare for the withdrawal of the whole army from Xiapi County!

。。。。。。

When Xiao Yao took the 5,000 soldiers of the forward brigade and rushed to Xiapi County all the way, it was already the afternoon of the 29th of the lunar month, and Xiapi County had already become an empty city, Gao Changgong had already led his troops to leave Xiapi County overnight last night, and now he had entered Lanling County in Northern Xuzhou, which was considered to have successfully escaped Xiao Yao's pursuit!

And Xiao Yao didn't have any disappointment, but didn't care at all, and happily led the army with great fanfare and swaggered into Xiapi County!

"I didn't expect Gao Changgong to be really scared by us, and now he escaped overnight with a large army! Haha, we took it down in Xiapi County without a single shot, and now, the whole of Xuzhou is ours! Xiao Yao said with a laugh.

"When we set out on the expedition, we never imagined that we would take Xuzhou so quickly! I thought that I had to go through a hard battle to defeat Gao Changgong and take Xuzhou! I can't imagine that Gao Changgong, who is said to be the god of war of the Qi army, will abandon the city and flee and give Xuzhou to us! But to be honest, I haven't really enjoyed it yet, and I still want to fight with Gao Changgong again and cut my saber out of shape again, haha! Huang Wenyuan also said excitedly.

"Don't worry, there will be a chance for you to play in the future! It's a big world! But now our first task is to get His Majesty to appoint me as the assassin of Xuzhou, and then rightfully turn Xuzhou into my territory! Xiao Yao was very happy, after all, Xuzhou was defeated, which means that he already has a territory that truly belongs to him, and the grand goal of sweeping the Northern and Southern Dynasties and dominating the world will go further!

"Report to the Commander! General Lu Guangda rushed over from Xuzhou City and said that there was an urgent matter to discuss with the commander! The herald ran in and reported to the report.

"This Lu Guangda didn't even sit in Xuzhou City, and deliberately came to Xiapi County to find the commander, I believe he must be trying to persuade the commander to pursue Gao Changgong!" Huang Wenyuan said affirmatively.

"Of course he wants to defeat Gao Changgong, a shame! That's why he sent someone to curry favor with me before, saying that he would obey my dispatch, just to ask me to send someone to assist him in pursuing Gao Changgong! But that's okay, after all, he is a famous veteran, and he also has a lot of connections in the imperial court, so we will go through his mouth to find His Majesty for a reward! Xiao Yao said proudly.