Thundered!

It was noon, dozens of miles southwest of Chaohu Lake, on an ancient road on the border of Shu County, Lujiang County, a cavalry of about 600 people galloped like a dragon, and the horse's hooves flew and raised yellow dust all over the sky.

The leader is Zhang Liao, who is riding an elephant dragon.

Yesterday morning's battle, the bandits in the Chaohu area were basically disabled, and after the battle, Zhang Liao did not stay in Zhujiabao, but took the opportunity to go south.

Because the intercepted bandits were already scattered and difficult to achieve, the first 30 miles of the southbound journey was very smooth.

But then what Zhang Liao had been worrying about happened.

When he had traveled more than fifty miles, countless enemies came out to stop him, and he knew from the news of the shadow investigation that the enemies who blocked the way were no longer bandits, but sect thieves, and those powerful tribes, there were no less than thirty or forty thousand people.

These powerful troops are much more disciplined than those thieves, and they are equipped with bows and arrows, shields, and horse rejections, and even chariots blocking the road.

What Zhang Liao didn't know was that Jianghuai's family heroes had made great efforts this time, and the failure of the bandits made those families extremely shocked and extremely frightened, just afraid that Zhang Liao would not die this time, and they would be in trouble, so they were unprecedentedly united, and they desperately sent out all the tribes to block Zhang Liao.

At the same time, the road to the south was also more complicated, with twists and turns, which was completely unfavorable to cavalry warfare, and the time and place were favorable.

These parts are different from those bandits, the thieves are fighting for profit, and the battle is unfavorable and scattered, and most of these parts are dependent on Haoqiang, equivalent to domestic servants and doormen, and Haoqiang is both prosperous and loyal, extremely loyal, plus heavy rewards, with various equipment, and obey orders to cooperate with each other, the actual combat effectiveness is far better than that of bandits, just an engagement, Zhang Liao's cavalry has losses.

Moreover, Zhang Liao noticed that there were still many powerful tribes who actually went to the rear by boat from Chaohu Lake, wanting to cut off their back road.

Moving forward like this, I am afraid that not only will Zhang Jian not be saved, but will suffer huge losses, and even the whole army will be wiped out!

It is imperative for Zhang Liao to save his younger brother, but he can't disregard the lives of his three thousand brothers for the sake of his younger brother, and it is not his style to rush forward under such circumstances.

In the afternoon of the same day, he quickly retreated with 3,000 cavalry, turned back to the west to break through Wangjiawu, Wangjiawu is the stronghold of the bandit leader Wang Datou, Wang Datou was killed by Zhang Liao in front of Zhujiabao, his lair was in chaos, Zhang Liao easily occupied this fort, and camped around the fort.

Then Zhang Liao ordered Yang Han to sit here, use the area around Wangjiabao as a base, and fight with those powerful to attract the attention of those forces, and at the same time wait for the main forces of Zang Ba and Huang Zhong to come to help, and then wipe out these forces in one fell swoop.

Zhang Liao asked Yang Han to hang his banner and pretend that he was in Wangjiawu, and he quietly left Wangjiawu with 600 elite cavalry before dawn today, and went all the way west into the territory of Lujiang County, preparing to bypass the blocking area of those powerful forces in a roundabout way and rush to rescue Zhang Jian.

With the speed of the cavalry, the detour was much faster than the tug-of-war with those thieves in the Chaohu area.

Moreover, the six hundred cavalry is more mobile, and if it encounters a large group of enemies, it can quickly avoid or evacuate.

Avoiding the resistance of the Chaohu forces, the six hundred horsemen galloped all the way, first to the west, dozens of miles and then turned south, by noon had left the Chaohu area, entered the territory of Shu County, Lujiang County, and arrived at Longshushui.

Longshu water is one of the tributaries that flow into Chaohu Lake and even the Yangtze River, the water surface is not wide, but some places are very deep, this area is not a main road, there is no bridge, you need to find a shallow section to cross the river.

On the north bank of Longshu Water, Zhang Liao took six hundred horsemen to rest in the shade of a tree, people ate, horses ate, just waiting for the scouts to explore the way.

The scorching heat in July has not subsided, the scorching sun is shining, and the trees can't help but hiss, Zhang Liao wiped the sweat from his forehead and watched the soldiers busy.

The most important thing in the summer march is to replenish water, fortunately, there is never a shortage of water in the Jianghuai area, the war horses drink water by the river, and the soldiers also draw water from the river to boil water, fill the gourd equipped with it, and carry it with them.

After a while, the scouts came to report that they had found a shallow place where the horses could cross the river.

Zhang Liao saw that the people were ready, and immediately ordered to set off.

The war horse galloped through Longshushui, traveled for several miles, and when it came to a narrow valley road, Zhang Liao sat down like a dragon and suddenly let out a neigh.

Zhang Liao was startled, and immediately shouted, reined in his horse and stopped, and the six hundred horsemen behind him followed him and stopped.

Zhang Liao swept his eyes at the valley road in front of him and shouted: "Ride back!" ”

The six hundred cavalry were all well-trained, and when they heard Zhang Liao's sudden order, they did not hesitate to rein in their horses and ride back for unknown reasons, and turned back to the original way they came.

Zhang Liao had just turned back with the cavalry, and suddenly shouted behind him, Zhang Liao turned around, only to see countless figures rushing down from the high ground on both sides of the valley road, shouting: "Kill Zhang Liao!" ”

His face couldn't help but become solemn, there was an ambush here!

In this situation, there are three possibilities, the first possibility is that he was unlucky, and he happened to encounter a large number of enemy soldiers and horses, but judging from the shouting from the ambush soldiers, it was clearly aimed at him, and it was obviously not a chance encounter.

The second possibility is that there is a very clever strategist behind the enemy, who accurately predicted his choice in the face of Chaohu Lake, which is not impossible, such as Jia Xu and Guo Jia can do this, but there are many roads outside Chaohu, and he temporarily chose a farther road this time, and there are very few people who know, judging from the ambush in front of him, there are a lot of enemies, and there are tens of thousands. There are tens of thousands of people in ambush in this kind of place, obviously not casting a net everywhere, but it is very targeted, even if the enemy expects the enemy like a god, it is impossible to ambush on this road so accurately, so the possibility of predicting the enemy's opportunity is not high.

Then there is only the third possibility, there is a problem with the shadows in the Chaohu area! And he is also a more important figure in the shadows, because he needs to pass information back and forth, so the route he chooses The shadows know.

Judging from the current situation, this is the most likely.

The shadow is developing so fast and all over the place, it is impossible to say that it is impossible to guarantee the loyalty of everyone, especially the powerful forces of the family have a great influence in the local area, and the demagogic power is strong, it is not surprising that there is a shadow rebellion Zhang Liao in his heart, it is a precedent for the Kwantung princes to unite to crusade against Dong Zhuo, as long as there is a reason for righteousness and strictness, it is enough to make the righteous people in the world compete to die.

But the shadow mutiny appeared at this juncture to be fatal, this time Zhang Liaosheng attacked the east and the west to rescue, and had already detected the distribution of Liu Xun's troops in Lujiang in advance, and avoided it from afar, there was no problem with tactics, and even his side was safer than Yang Han's side, but if the intelligence was mastered by the enemy, it would be a big problem.

The situation that followed confirmed Zhang Liao's suspicion, and a large number of enemy soldiers also appeared on their way, pouring in from the township not far away.

Everything in front of him is enough to prove that this ambush is accurate to detect his route, and there is no doubt about the leakage of intelligence!

What Zhang Liao didn't know was that Yuan Shu had always been sure that the one who killed him was to rebel against a shadow leader under his command, coupled with Zhang Jian's exposure, it was precisely with this hole card that he could easily convince Jianghuai's family Haoqiang.

There are nearly 30,000 people around the left and right before and after this ambush, including thousands of regular troops, and the regular army that appears here can only be the soldiers and horses of Liu Xun, who is too guarded by Lujiang.

Judging from the information under Zhang Liao's previous control, Liu Xun's soldiers and horses were mainly divided into two groups, one to guard Lujiang Mansion, and the other to defend Zang Ba and Huang Zhong's main forces in the northwest of Lujiang to defend against the south.

Liu Xun's soldiers and horses appeared here, which shows that Liu Xu also participated in the planning of Zhang Liao.

It was also thanks to Xianglong's timely warning, and Zhang Liao immediately decided to ride back to the test, so that the enemy in ambush took the initiative to expose and did not really step into the ambush circle, otherwise the consequences may be unimaginable.

But even so, the situation is dire.

Facing the encirclement on all sides, Zhang Liao glanced back at Gu Dao, where a steady stream of enemy soldiers were rushing out, he turned around again, and the enemy soldiers on the road also quickly rushed over.

The crisis is stronger than ever!

Zhang Liao's heart was heavy, but he knew that there was no room for any hesitation at the moment, once tens of thousands of foot soldiers surrounded them here, the cavalry lost the depth of the charge and could not run, it would be difficult to break through.

He took a deep breath, his gaze swept across the battlefield, and the hook and sickle pointed directly at the enemy soldiers surrounding him in the direction of the road, and shouted, "Yafeng! ”

Six hundred cavalry immediately sprang into action, forming a formation in the midst of running, with four hundred and fifty lancers outside, one hundred and fifty archers, and six hundred horsemen like a sharp arrow, rushing towards the enemy soldiers in the coming way.