Therefore, Zahlah's troops were kited by a battalion of troops of the Second Division, and when Zahela walked with his people for two hours, Luo Xu, the commander of the Second Division, attacked Zahlah's barracks with 1,000 troops.

Why bring so few people? It was not arranged by Li Qingyuan, the number of troops could not be exposed, and the number of troops attacking should not exceed one regiment.

Although each regiment under his command has now swelled to more than 2,000 people, considering Li Qingyuan's order, Luo Xu did not dare to send too many people, and the battalion that attracted Zahela was only less than 1,500 people.

This move is a very common strategy to divert the tiger from the mountain, but it still caught Zahra off guard, originally he was prepared, a battalion stayed in the big camp, relying on the outer wall of the village to hold on until he came back to help.

But it's a pity that he overestimated his own strength and underestimated the enemy's means, Luo Xu didn't even use any strategy, and directly sent troops to suppress the Qing army at the head of the city.

One of the battalions left behind by Zahla lasted less than a quarter of an hour before the camp was breached, and the defenders simply abandoned the camp and fled in search of Zahra.

Destroyed the camp, took away the military rations, burned the forage tent, and disposed of a few of the happiest traitors by the way, Luo Xu retreated immediately after finishing his work.

When Zahla heard that his camp had been attacked, he hurriedly returned to his army, and when he was more than ten miles away, he saw that his camp was in flames, and when he returned, he was left in a mess.

Luo Xu felt that in this case, the Qing army had no garrison and no food, so he had no choice but to return to Xuzhou, right?

But he ignored the shamelessness of the Qing army, and the Qing army collected houses without camps, and borrowed grain from the people when there was no food.

There was already a drought here, and the little rations that the people saved were robbed, and it was immediately as if the sky had fallen.

Zahela's money was gone, and the two concubines didn't know where to go, so he simply tore up the agreement with the gentry and plundered it.

As the saying goes, bandits are like combs, soldiers are like grates, the people of Zaozhuang are considered to have poured blood mold, and they are lucky to return to abject poverty overnight, and many people have simply become a member of the homeless people, and the population of the original town of two or three thousand people has instantly decreased by one-third, and these people have fled.

Even Luo Xu's side has received dozens of people from Zaozhuang to join the army, if the gentry usually come forward to send money and goods to stabilize these plague gods, but after the gentry was repaired by Luo Xu, no one dared to come forward.

Luo Xu was really dumbfounded when he received the news, this was completely different from what he expected? Doesn't this mean that they have indirectly harmed the people of Zaozhuang?

Luo Xu waited for two days to get the news and immediately became angry, and led people to continue to harass, this time increasing efforts to harass the battalion!

But this time Zahela did not come out, and when he came to harass, he sent people to drive him away, but he did not pursue, and kept sending people for help.

Luo Xu seduced for two more days and found that Zahela had no choice but to be a shrinking turtle, Zahala was consumed, but Luo Xu couldn't afford it.

Because the reinforcements of the Qing army have arrived, and they came from the north side of Weishan Lake, the number of people is about 8,000, and they came straight to the back of Bears Ears Mountain, it seems that they plan to block Luo Xu in Bears Ears Mountain and slowly clean up.

Although Bear's Ears Mountain is the remnant of Mount Tai, but the coherence is not so strong, as long as the Qing army blocks a few mountain roads leading to Mount Tai in the north, then Luo Xu wants to go back to Mount Tai and go down the mountain from the east to detour.

And as long as the generals of the Qing army are not stupid, they will definitely station troops in the east, and when the time comes, the mountain will be surrounded in the plain, and if you don't go down the mountain, you will be surrounded on the mountain, Luo Xu can't beat it, the main thing is that there is no way to expose him.

Luo Xu called the regiment commander Liu Bao to arrange the retreat, and Liu Bao was not happy to hear it: "Division commander, where is this?" Just walked away like that? ”

Luo Xu laughed: "If you have any good way, just say it!" Say a fart and say something cold, I want to go? I just don't want to joke with your little lives! ”

Liu Bao said with a smile: "I know, I know, all the brothers know, it's not that they haven't been addicted to fighting, and many brothers haven't been able to get a job, so they train every day, aren't they just waiting to try!" ”

Luo Xu shook his head and said, "It's not a good thing to fight, how can you do it when you are surrounded?" Waiting for other divisions to come to the rescue? Isn't that what they laughed at? How can we raise our heads in front of our brother troops in the future? ”

Liu Bao said with a smile: "Surrounded by a fart, this Zahela is more like an old Wang Ba and does not show his head in a shrinking shell, isn't the south door wide open?" ”

Luo Xu glared at him: "What's the matter?" Do you still want to go to Xuzhou? ”

Liu Bao shook his head and said: "No, didn't you see that General Qingyuan said that the best way to break the enemy's encirclement is to jump out of the encirclement, knock out the enemy's stockpile of grain and grass materials, or make the enemy feel that he has jumped out of the circle, and then look for opportunities in the movement." ”

Luo Xu nodded, of course he also learned these things, but he didn't think about them for a while, and looked at Liu Bao's eager appearance and scolded with a smile: "If there is a fart, release it quickly!" Follow me, poor! ”

Liu Bao said: "I think we can fight Yancheng, and then do the appearance of going south to Xiapi, when the Qing army will definitely go south to pursue, let's go east, go back to Bear's Ears Mountain, and then this encirclement will be gone?" ”

Luo Xu frowned: "But General Qingyuan has explained that if you don't have to, don't attack the prefecture and county lightly, otherwise it will lead to a larger-scale encirclement and suppression." ”

Liu Bao hurriedly said: "Why is it not a last resort!" You see that the Qing army has sent 20,000 or 30,000 people to deal with us, which already regards us as the main enemy, if we still say that we are small bandits, this Qing court may not believe it? ”

Luo Xu was still a little hesitant, Li Qingyuan's order was the highest standard for him, and it was under Li Qingyuan's guidance and command that they had where they are today, Luo Xu was promoted by him, so he naturally believed in Li Qingyuan's words.

Liu Bao saw that the division commander couldn't make up his mind for a long time, and said hurriedly: "Look, we can use fewer soldiers, as long as I have a regiment, I can take Yancheng, and this does not violate the general's regulations!"

Besides, the general also said that if the Qing army came up to encircle and suppress, could it appropriately create a big movement in the local area to attract the attention of the Qing army and give the development of other regions time to win? Aren't we just partial? Isn't the Qing army about to encircle and suppress us now? If we retreat at this time, won't the Qing army continue to surround our central base? ”

Luo Xu was moved by Liu Bao's words, it is true that compared to the overall situation of Shandong, this is only a part, since the Qing court has planned to encircle and suppress the Tianli Council, then he really has to make sacrifices for other regions!