After discussing the retreat strategy, Yuan Tan Gongzi immediately divided his troops according to law, and separated 3,000 infantry from the defeated generals of more than 9,000 remnants who were barely collected, and handed them over to the second brother Yuan Xi and the strategist Cui Yan, so that they could return to Xuchang with Uncle Liu Huang to go south to meet with Xin Ping and Cen Bi who stayed in Xuchang City, and then decide the next plan according to the actual situation.

may have been brainwashed by Deputy Director Tao, or it may have been instigated by Guo Tu, who likes to exclude dissidents, taking advantage of the division of troops, Yuan Tan found an opportunity to call Yuan Xi and Cui Yan to the front alone, and taught them the opportunity to meet them alone, asking them to hold Xuchang and defend, if they really can't hold it, they can also give up, but they must not bring the army, the Son of Heaven and the Three Princes of the Great Yuan to Jingzhou, and when the city of Xuchang must be abandoned, they can take the team, the Son of Heaven and the Three Princes of the Great Yuan to retreat to Sili, He will arrange a team to pick up Yuan Xi and Cui Yan's team at Cheyuan Pass.

At the same time, considering that Uncle Liu Huang was good at abducting other people's teams, Yuan Tan Gongzi had to repeatedly tell Yuan Xi and Cui Yan, asking them to never entrust military power to Uncle Liu Huang, lest Uncle Liu Huang repeat his old tricks and abduct Yuan Jun from Xuchang.

Yuan Tan Gongzi and Yuan Xi and Cui Yan's secret muttering did not escape Uncle Liu's eyes that were good at sneaking peeps, although Uncle Liu Huang did not hear Yuan Tan Gongzi muttering something to Yuan Xi and Cui Yan, but probably Uncle Liu, who was used to being maliciously suspicious, could basically guess it, but it didn't matter, Uncle Liu Huang was not only mentally prepared for this, but also prepared countermeasures.

No, when the sky was about to dawn, after Yuan Tan and Yuan Xi brothers led their teams to part ways, Uncle Liu Huang immediately ran to Yuan Xi and Cui Yan, volunteered to serve as the queen of the palace, and was willing to lead the last more than 400 Huang Shu army warriors to walk in the rear, ready to resist the pursuit of Xuzhou at any time, covering the retreat of Yuan Xi's team, as a result, Yuan Xi and Cui Yan, who were more loyal to their surnames, were moved, not only resigned for a long time before accepting Uncle Liu's kindness, but also arranged for the general Han Ding to lead an army of 500 to join forces with Uncle Liu Huang to join forces with Uncle Liu. Share the pressure that Uncle Liu took during the retreat.

After arranging the team behind the palace, the retreat of Guandu, which was full of difficulties and obstacles, began, Yuan Xi personally led an army to open the way in front, Cui Yan led the Chinese army to follow, Uncle Liu Huang and Han Ding added up to a team of less than 1,000 people to the rear of the palace, the front, middle and rear three armies went south together, galloping towards Xuchang in the south, and the Xuzhou army also began to rush to the pontoon bridge to prepare for the pursuit, Deputy Director Tao also specially arranged for Xu Chu and Chang Feng to lead a new force to the ferry, ready to chase and kill Yuan Tan and Yuan Xi in two ways, Fortunately, the pontoon bridge was difficult to build in a hurry, so Yuan Tan and Yuan Xi's team still had a little time to retreat at full speed with peace of mind.

Because of Zhuge Liang's inconvenient legs and feet and stick wounds on his body, Zhuge Liang climbed in the carriage this time and retreated with the army, Uncle Liu Huang also carefully arranged four henchmen to protect Zhuge Liang with two stretchers, ready to give up the carriage and carry Zhuge Liang to flee for his life, at the same time Zhuge Liang also rejected Cui Yan's kindness to let him go to the Chinese army, under the pretext of not giving up the lord, insisted on advancing and retreating with Uncle Liu Huang, in addition, in order to escape conveniently, Zhuge Liang also quietly put a set of Yuan Tan military clothes on the road, so as not to attract the attention of the enemy with different clothes, Uncle Liu Huang, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei also secretly prepared Yuan Tanjun's ordinary military uniforms, so they naturally didn't mention it.

Hurriedly walked more than ten miles to the south, the sky was already clear, seeing that there were no pursuers in the rear, and seeing that there were no ambushes predicted by Zhuge Liang on both sides of the road, Uncle Liu Huang was inevitably a little worried, and found an opportunity to come to Zhuge Liang's ear and whispered: "Kong Ming, why haven't you seen the ambush of the pottery thief?" If the pottery thief did not arrange an ambush, then we would be in big trouble, first, we would definitely face the full pursuit of the pottery thief, and second, once Yuan Xi and Cui Yan escaped into Xuchang City, it would not be so easy for us to bring the team from Xuchang City to Jingzhou. ”

"Don't worry, there must be ambushes." Zhuge Liang, who was suffering from unbearable pain from the stick wounds, smiled hard, and whispered in an extremely confident tone: "Tao Yuanjun is not afraid that Yuan Tan will withdraw to Hanoi and Bingzhou, but he is afraid that Yuan Tan will withdraw to Xuchang, which will increase the difficulty of attacking the city and cheapen Yuan Shang in vain, so Tao Yuanjun must have arranged an ambush in the south, and there may be no ambush on the Xingyang road where Yuan Tan retreated." ”

Uncle Liu Huang nodded suspiciously, and Zhuge Liang whispered: "Remember, the lord can conclude that Tao Zhijun's ambush must be the first to attack Yuan Xi's front army and the middle army, and it is likely to ignore the rear army, inducing our army to flee the way it came, so that Tao Yuanjun's pursuers can attack our army, so at that time, the lord must not only care about preserving his strength, dare not participate in the battle, he must not hesitate to lead the army to the rescue, and then take the opportunity to retreat to the southwest, where the terrain is complicated, which is conducive to our army to get rid of the chasing troops and withdraw to Xuchang." ”

Uncle Liu Huang nodded suspiciously again, but this Uncle Liu Huang's head had just been half-pointed, and suddenly there was a thunderous sound in the mountains and forests in the remaining veins of Songshan Mountain in front of him, and the aftermath echoed, and the fierce shouting of killing sounded in the sky, and a Xuzhou cavalry in the stab took the lead in killing the front army led by Yuan Xi, and at the same time there was a Xuzhou infantry also rushed out of the mountains and forests, shouting and killing directly to the Chinese army led by Cui Yan, the Yuan army was shocked together, and the first two teams were forced to fight, and the Xuzhou army that was killing violently was mixed together, However, the Xuzhou army arranged a large number of ambushes in this area, and the cavalry alone exceeded 5,000, so the first two teams of Yuan Xi's army, which only had more than 2,000 infantry, were soon gradually surrounded, and the defeat was almost a foregone conclusion.

Seeing this scene, the Yuan army and Han Ding's team in the rear team were of course frightened, many soldiers simply fled for their lives on the road directly with their legs, and did not dare to go south to rescue, Uncle Liu Huang glanced at Zhuge Liang with admiration on his face, and then pulled out his double-strand sword and shouted: "The whole army listens to the order, the matter has come to this, only a death battle can break through, all rush with me, go to save General Yuan Er!" ”

yelled, Uncle Liu Huang, who had always cherished his surname, slapped the war horse, and it was rare to take the lead in killing the enemy, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei of course kept up with all their might, Han Ding in the back hesitated, and also stubbornly led the soldiers who could still command to follow, Zhuge Liang also abandoned the carriage and got on the stretcher, and was carried by his henchmen and soldiers to follow behind Uncle Liu, and after Uncle Liu Huang boosted his morale, he naturally did not have enough horsepower and was not fast, and retracted back to Zhuge Liang in the team, and replaced Guan Yu and Zhang Fei with two fierce men.

This is a battle without suspense, in front of the Xuzhou ambush soldiers who recuperate and occupy an absolute advantage in strength, the Yuan army team with a serious decline in physical strength and low morale has no chance of winning at all, Yuan Xi and Cui Yan's team was quickly rushed into chaos, forced to scatter to run for no one's life, although Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were brave, but they could not parry the thousands of Xuzhou soldiers to beat, and soon were forced to listen to Liu Huangshu's orders, and began to flee for their lives towards the complex terrain in the southwest, and the Xuzhou army was chased and killed with all their might in Tunqu, Desperately expanding the results of the battle, the battlefield, the mountains and forests were full of people, shouting and killing, Yuan Xijun fled all over the mountains, and the Xuzhou army also chased all over the mountains, and the Xuzhou soldiers could be seen everywhere beating and slashing the Yuan soldiers.

By the way, I would like to introduce the situation of the Xuzhou army, although it is explained that the Junzi Army is still waiting in the south, waiting to pack up the Huangshu Army, which is the best at escaping, but the Xuzhou generals Xu Huang and Lu Mian and others, who are responsible for ambushing the main force of Yuan Xi's army, are not so willing to give the greatest credit to the Junzi Army, so long before the ambush began, Xu Huang and Lu Mian had secretly agreed that once the traces of the Huangshu Army were discovered, Xu Huang would personally lead the army to assault, and strive to kill Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, capture the Huangshu Zhuge Liang alive, and give Deputy Director Tao a surprise.

The move of the imperial uncle army to change the military uniform of the Yuan army saved the lives of the self-army team, and also made Xu Huang and Lu Myanmar and other Xuzhou generals swept away, because the scout detective reported that they did not find the green clothes of the imperial uncle army, thinking that the imperial uncle army did not take this road to escape for their lives, Xu Huang and Lu Mian had no choice but to follow the original plan, give priority to blocking the front team of the Yuan army, not giving the Yuan army a chance to withdraw to Xuchang, and also forced the team to flee north.

It wasn't until Guan Yu and Zhang Fei showed their strength on the battlefield that Xu Huang and Lu Mian realized that they had fallen for Uncle Liu's evil, and when Xu Huang hurriedly led a cavalry to search and kill Uncle Liu and Zhuge Liang, Uncle Huang's army had already fled to the complex terrain in the southwest, and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei disappeared - they changed into the clothes of Yuan soldiers and mixed in the ranks of the defeated soldiers, and Xu Huang's team was of course difficult to find their traces in the chaotic army. Disappointed and furious, Xu Huang and Lu Mian could only gamble on their luck and ordered the whole army to chase and kill with all their might, and try not to let go of any Yuan army soldier as much as possible!

In this way, of course, it was the ordinary soldiers of Yuan Tanjun who suffered, and many of the lone Yuan soldiers who had the opportunity to escape were replaced by basically no one who paid attention to them in peacetime, but this time they attracted hundreds of Xuzhou soldiers to chase after them, there was no way to go to the sky, there was no way to go down, and finally they were either forced to surrender to the ground, or they died tragically under the swords, guns and arrows of the Xuzhou army, and the mortality rate of the single defeated soldiers was several times higher than usual. The three brothers of Uncle Liu and Zhuge Liang were like fish in water, while using the defeated troops of the Yuan army to cover the tracks, they specially picked places with complex terrain to drill, and soon opened the trail with the pursuers.

There may not be many people in the world who dare to compare luck with Uncle Liu, but none of the other important ministers of the Yuan army can catch up with Uncle Liu Huang in terms of luck, in the melee, Han Ding, the general of the Yuan army, was hacked to death by Xu Huang with an axe, Cui Yan unfortunately fell off the horse when he ran, and broke a leg on the spot, fortunately, Cui Yan was dressed in a scribe Confucian shirt, so that the Xuzhou soldiers knew that his identity was definitely not simple, and he did not dare to kill him after catching up with him, but just tied him up and took him to the front of Lu Burma, and became the most senior prisoner captured in this battle.

The most pitiful is Yuan Xi's son, the front army led by him first encountered the impact of the Xuzhou cavalry brigade, and the team was instantly rushed to a complete collapse, and then Yuan Xi tried desperately to break through several times, but he was wearing fish scale armor like a firefly in the dark, which deeply attracted the amorous eyes of all Xuzhou soldiers. Seeing that there was no hope of breaking through, Yuan Xi was about to dismount and surrender to his brother-in-law's team, but a stray arrow from nowhere shot Yuan Xi's throat at this critical moment. The Xuzhou cavalry who originally captured Yuan Xisheng alive had no choice but to keep Yuan Xi's body as it was and send it to Xu Huang and Lu Mian to ask for credit.

Seeing Yuan Xi's corpse, Cui Yan, who had been captured first, of course cried loudly, Xu Huang and Lu Mian were also full of helplessness - the loyal Yuan Xi had a very good reputation, and there was no conflict with the Xuzhou army, of course, taking his body back did not take a big credit for capturing him alive, and it was more beneficial for the Xuzhou army to go back without capturing him alive in politics.

No matter how helpless and depressed he was, he couldn't help it, Yuan Xi's own bad luck couldn't blame others, seeing that the battle situation had been decided, and he couldn't find the whereabouts of Uncle Liu and his party, Xu Huang simply handed over the command to Lu Mian for the time being, and he led two thousand cavalry to gallop south, under the pretext of reporting to Tao Ji that Uncle Liu Huang had escaped, and it had been determined that Uncle Liu Huang was going south, so he took the opportunity to fight for another chance to kill Uncle Liu.

When Xu Huang's cavalry team arrived twenty miles to the south, the time was already after noon, and the Junzi army guarding this open area had also killed a lot of remnants of the Yuan army who had fled here, and at the same time, in order to avoid giving the scattered enemy a chance to escape as much as possible, Tao Ji also simply divided the Junzi army into ten hundred-man teams to search for the remnants of the Yuan army, especially paying attention to the complex terrain of grass and woods, and igniting a large area of mountains and forests without environmental protection, making the western hilly area a raging fire, and it was difficult for people and ghosts to hide. Tao Ji himself led the rest of the gentleman's army to camp on the dirt hill next to the road, condescendingly overlooking the entire battlefield, and tightly sealing the road to the south, not to mention people, even a mouse could not pass through this area.

Seeing this situation, Xu Huang, who estimated that Uncle Liu Huang might not have slipped away, was secretly happy in his heart, and hurriedly rode up Tushan alone, and introduced the military information to Tao Ji in person, but Tao Ji saw Xu Huang's sinister intentions at a glance, and said with a smile: "General Gongming, to introduce an enemy situation, do you still need to bring so many cavalry over?" Are you planning to take credit from me? ”

"The three generals misunderstood." Xu Huang said without blushing: "I was worried that you don't like melee combat, so I brought the army to help you and caught the big-eared thief, of course the credit is still yours." ”

"Thank you." Tao Ji arched his hand and said with a smile: "Thank you General Gongming, but there is no need, this area is open, and the gentleman's army is competent, General Gongming should rest for a while - you see that you still have blood stains on your body, you must be tired enough, find a place to rest, if necessary, I will send someone to ask you for help." ”

Seeing that Tao Ji refused to be fooled, Xu Huang still refused to give up, and after rolling his eyes, he hurriedly asked, "What about Mr. Zhongming?" Why don't you see his figure? ”

"No, there." Tao Ji pointed to a few big trees on the side of the road and said, "I'm hiding under the trees, I really don't know what the second brother asked me to bring him for." ”

Xu Huang turned his head to look, and saw that Yang Changshi, who had abducted himself to come to Xuzhou as a cow and a horse, led Li Lang, and was really resting under the tree over there, Xu Huang did not hesitate at the moment, and immediately rushed to Yang Changshi alone, Yang Changshi, who was dozing off, was woken up by Li Lang, and saw that it was an old acquaintance Xu Huang was also a little happy, and said with a smile: "Gongming is also here, how is it?" How's the catch? Did you catch the big-eared thief who ruined our big things in Runan back then? ”

"Captured Cui Yan, beheaded Yuan Xi and Han Ding, the beheadings and prisoners have not had time to be counted, but at least one or two thousand." Xu Huang replied casually, and said: "However, the three brothers of the big-eared thief, as well as the Zhuge villager named by the lord, still haven't been caught, so I brought the cavalry here to try my luck." ”

"It's useless, it's useless." Yang Changshi yawned and waved his hand, and while handing the water bag to Xu Huang, who even had chapped lips, to moisten his throat, he scolded sleepily, "With Tao Ji, a fool here, how can a big-eared thief come over?" Gongming, you came here to try your luck, don't even think about it. ”

"How does Mr. Zhongming know?" Xu Huang asked.

"Because that idiot of Taugi lit the fire." Yang Changshi yawned, pointed to the burning mountains and forests in the west and said, "Gongming, you can think about it, if it were you, seeing such a big fireworks, would you not know that there was an army here to intercept it?" How dare you come here? ”

"That's right!" At first, Xu Huang, who still felt that Tao Ji had done the right thing to set fire to and cut off the road, suddenly came to his senses, slapped his thigh and said: "Igniting the mountains and forests in the west can indeed prevent the big-eared thieves from secretly escaping from the complex terrain where the cavalry is inconvenient, but doing so is tantamount to telling the big-eared thieves that we still have an army here, how can the big-eared thieves still dare to come here?" But Mr. Zhong Ming, why didn't you dissuade the three generals just now? ”

"That stunned young man didn't discuss it with me at all." Yang Changshi replied with a wry smile: "He was clever and prepared to set fire to it without consulting me, and when he saw the first enemy deserter fleeing, he immediately ordered to set fire to the forest, wanting to burn the road and force the big-eared thief out, I still saw the fire and only knew about it, and it was too late to stop it, so I had to let him mess around." ”

Xu Huang also smiled bitterly, it was very strange that the surnames of the three brothers of the old Tao family were very different, the eldest brother was so honest and honest that he couldn't beat a fart with three hammers, the second brother was cunning and cunning like a thousand-year-old fox, but the third brother was reckless and impulsive and a typical stunned young man, I am afraid there are no such strange three brothers in this world. After smiling bitterly, Xu Huang also asked with a glimmer of hope: "Mr. Zhongming, then in your opinion, the big-eared thief may be there now?" ”

"It's definitely still in the west." Yang Changshi didn't want to think about it and said: "The terrain in the east is too open, and the big-eared thieves are easy to be discovered, and as soon as they are discovered, they are easy to be caught up by the Junzi army, so with a hundred dares of the big-eared thieves, they don't dare to take the east side of the road to escape for their lives—at least during the day, they don't dare to take the east side to escape for their lives." Therefore, the big-eared thief must still be in the west, or flee for his life in the south around the burning mountains and forests, or hide in a safe place north of the fire and wait until it gets dark before fleeing for his life. ”

"General Xu, if I were a big-eared thief, I would definitely wait until it was dark before running for my life." Li Lang, a veteran soldier next to him, also said: "As long as I find a place with dense vegetation, dig some soil and bury myself, leaving only my nose to breathe, the people who want to find me are difficult to find even if they are close to me within ten steps, and I will have a chance to escape until it is completely dark." ”

"Li Lang, you are so familiar with the method of escaping, have you ever done such a thing before?" Xu Huang asked curiously.

Li Lang smiled a little embarrassedly, lowered his voice and said: "That is, you General Xu, otherwise the villain will never tell the truth - when the villain was in Peiguo, he once pretended to be a robber and robbed, but he encountered a hard idea, and was chased by more than a dozen hard ideas with knives to the sky and the ground, and in the end, the villain escaped with his life." ”

Xu Huang smiled and hurriedly said, "Mr. Zhongming, Li Lang, how about you go with me to search for big-eared thieves?" Mr. Zhong Ming, your luck, Li Lang, you have rich experience in escaping from the mountains and forests, and you will search for the big-eared thief with me, maybe you can really catch the big-eared thief, if you succeed, we will share the credit equally! ”

Xuzhou's most unscrupulous master and servant Yang Changshi and Li Lang stretched their faces together, because it is not a good errand to search for enemies in the mountains and forests, and they can neither ride a horse nor have to go over the mountains and mountains to overcome thorns and thorns, but they are the most guilty, but of course the pampered Yang Changshi does not do it, and Li Lang, who does not seek progress, does not have that interest - it is definitely not a progressive, otherwise with Li Lang's qualifications and merits, he would have been able to mix with a qu general or even a tooth general, but in order to follow Yang Changshi to enjoy happiness, Li Lang is willing to be a small personal captain for Yang Changshi.

"Let's go, let's go." Xu Huang couldn't help but say that he came to pull Yang Changshi, and said with a smile: "Mr. Zhongming, your good luck is famous in our Xuzhou, and we are also old friends, so let me touch you a little bit today." If this can be done, I will definitely repay you, Mr. Zhongming. ”

"Trouble, do you really want Lord Ben to suffer that living sin?" Yang Changshi was a little embarrassed, and he was embarrassed to refuse Xu Huang, who had a good relationship, but Yang Changshi was Yang Changshi after all, and after his eyes rolled, Yang Changshi had an idea, and said: "Gongming, it's not that I don't help you, it stands to reason that I can not help Tao Ji's stupid boy, and I can even not help the lord, and I can't help you, but it's useless, I can't help you if I go now." ”

"Why?" Xu Huang hurriedly asked.

"Komei, look." Yang Changshi pointed to the west again, and said vigorously: "From here to the west to Jiluo Mountain, there are no people on the road for more than a hundred miles, there are mountains and forests, and tens of thousands of soldiers are scattered into it, it is like sprinkling a handful of salt into the sea, it is useless, no matter how many soldiers you take, it is useless, and it is not half of the time now, at most there will be three hours before the sky is all dark, in three hours, how many places can we search?" And how many chances do you have of catching a big-eared thief? ”

"It's reasonable, but how do you know if you don't try?" Xu Huang was embarrassed.

"Don't worry, listen to me."

Yang Changshi beckoned, called Xu Huang and Li Lang in front of him, and whispered his plan at a very close distance, Xu Huang hesitated a little after hearing this, and said hesitantly: "Can this work?" The big-eared thief is slipperier than a fox, would he really do that? Will you really do this? ”

"Absolutely!" Li Lang next to him said happily: "General Xu, this trick is too powerful, if you change to a villain, no matter how good you are at escaping, you will definitely be fooled!" Also, the villain also has a way to help General Xu catch the big-eared thief! ”

Saying that, Li Lang also lowered his voice, and whispered that he had figured out a clever plan to take the enemy from the position of a veteran oil, Yang Changshi applauded, and Xu Huang hesitated for a moment, then also slapped his thigh and said: "That's it!" Instead of looking for a needle in a hopeless haystack, it is better to take a gamble and wait for the rabbit, maybe the hope is greater! ”

"What the hell are you doing?" Tao Ji in the distance in the mountains just turned his head and saw Xu Huang laughing with Yang Changshi and the others, he snorted coldly in his heart, and said Don't want to take credit from me, I will take the big-eared thief, and then Tao Ji also turned his gaze to the northwest and due north, raised the primitive telescope, opened his eyes to the maximum, and went to do useless work to search for Uncle Liu Huang.