Zhang Xuan's vanguard caught up with Wang Bo's team at the second watch, but they did not attack immediately, but patiently waited for the arrival of the main army, and Wang Bo's spies found that a group of Sui troops was indeed a forward cavalry, and they were ordered to go to Surabaya County to contact the local government.

It was not until the fourth watch that Zhang Xuan led the main army to the valley where Wang Bo was camping, and they launched an attack on this valley less than three miles long from the north and south at the same time.

At this time, the war drums inside and outside the valley were like thunder, the soldiers shouted and killed the sky, and the three thousand Sui army crossbowmen sealed the exit of the south valley, and the arrows were like a torrential rain, shooting a group of howling thieves who were trying to break through to the ground.

"General, it's the south wind now, and the wind direction is in our favor, so it's better to set fire to the valley!" Pei Xingyan suggested to Zhang Xuan.

Zhang Xuan shook his head, "It's too humid here, and setting fire to the valley won't have much effect, but it will produce thick smoke, but it will force them to desperately break through, and urge them to surrender after dawn." ”

At this moment, there was an uproar at the mouth of the valley, the soldiers were screaming continuously, the ground was rumbling, Zhang Xuan was slightly stunned, what happened?

"General, the herd is coming!"

A captain shouted, the soldiers dodged to both sides, and Zhang Xuan and Pei Xingyan also hurriedly urged their horses to run to the side.

In a few moments, a black herd of cattle rushed out, numbering in the hundreds, stabbed several times in the back and buttocks, bleeding incessantly, and the pain was so severe that each cow became furious, and rushed out of the valley like madness.

"Not good! Wang Bo is about to break through. ”

Zhang Xuan found that the herd of cattle was followed by more than 200 cavalry, and there was a person in the middle, galloping like a lightning speed, and he immediately realized that Wang Bo had used the herd to break through.

"Shoot with arrows!"

Zhang Xuan immediately ordered that it was too late to intercept, and the only way to kill these cavalrymen was to shoot them with random arrows.

More than a thousand arrows rained down on the cavalry behind the herd. Hearing a scream and neighing, the cavalry fell to the ground one after another, and more than 100 people fell in an instant.

But the herd had already rushed out of a path and ran into the distance, and the remaining cavalry quickened their horses and quickly disappeared into the darkness.

Jang Hyun was furious. He shouted: "Cavalry pursuit!" ”

Pei Xingyan took the lead and shouted: "The cavalry follow me!" ”

More than 400 cavalry rushed out from both sides, quickly converged into a torrent, and chased in the direction of Wang Bo's escape.

Wang Bo fled and the thieves in the valley lost their backbone, and they shouted surrender, and the soldiers took off their armor, put down their weapons, and raised their hands to run out of the valley, at this time the Sui army blocked the gap that was broken away by the cattle. Begin to accept the surrender of the thief army.

The thieves who had surrendered were pulled aside, put their heads on top of their heads, and knelt in the clearing, which was soon filled with thousands.

Gradually, there were fewer and fewer soldiers coming out of the valley, and Zhang Xuan immediately ordered: "Release the rocket, notify the Beigu army to enter the valley to search together, and the recalcitrant ones will be killed!" ”

'Whoosh-'

Several fiery ringing arrows rose into the sky, sending out a signal to enter the valley to search. Qin Yong of the South Valley and Wei Chi Gong of the North Valley each led 3,000 soldiers and began to search in the valley.

There were no thieves in the valley anymore, only hundreds of old cows and mules, and thousands of carts stacked haphazardly. The ground was littered, mostly soldiers' blankets and belongings.

"The general looks at the mountain!"

A soldier pointed towards the mountain, only to hear the chirping of frightened birds coming from the mountain, indicating that some thief soldiers had fled up the mountain.

"Second uncle, are we going to search the mountain?" Qin Yong asked eagerly.

Zhang Xuan shook his head, "There's no time to search the mountains." Leave them alone for now. ”

At this time, Wei Chigong hurried over with an official, "General, the Surabaya County Order is here." ”

The name of the Surabaya County Commander is Wei Shouli, a native of Qufu in Lu County. He was about thirty years old, short in stature, and looked very funny when he walked with the majestic Wei Chigong, but he seemed quite shrewd and capable, not like a mediocre person.

"Xiaguan Wei Shouli see the general!" Wei Shouli gave Zhang Xuan a deep salute.

The reason why Zhang Xuan wanted to find the Surabaya County Commander was mainly to consider temporarily placing the seized materials in the county seat, so as not to affect them to continue to pursue the thief army.

"Wei County's order is exempt, may I ask how far is the county seat of Surabaya from here?"

"About twenty miles or so, there is an official road outside the North Valley, which leads directly to the county seat."

Zhang Xuan nodded, turned back to the captain Gu Ping and said, "You take a thousand brothers to escort the prisoners of war and supplies to Surabaya County first, and then dispose of them when I come back!" ”

"Obey!"

At this time, there was a dense sound of hooves from behind, and I saw a large group of cattle slowly walking towards this side, it was the group of running cattle just now, but without the fury of the arrow, they became as docile as usual, and they all looked a little exhausted.

Behind the herd followed dozens of cavalry, the leader of the cavalry was Chen Xu, he stepped forward to salute Zhang Xuan and said: "General Qiyu, this group of cattle is tired of running by themselves, so they scattered on the field to graze, General Pei asked the humble officials to drive them back. ”

"Where's General Pei?" Zhang Xuan asked anxiously.

"He led the rest of the brothers to continue the pursuit, and it was likely that he would chase them all the way to Fangshan."

Zhang Xuan suddenly became a little worried in his heart, he knew Pei Xingyan very well, Pei Xingyan was extremely stubborn, and he would never give up until he achieved his goal, he was worried that Pei Xingyan would be ambushed by the anti-bandit army, Zhang Xuan immediately shouted: "The army is assembled immediately and ready to go!" ”

The soldiers quickly assembled, and Zhang Xuan said to Captain Gu Ping and Wei Shouli, the county commander: "The materials and prisoners of war will be handed over to you, and I will deal with them when I come back!" ”

The two hurriedly agreed, and Zhang Xuan led 7,000 soldiers to quickly leave the valley, changed to the official road, and rushed in the direction of Fangshan

Fangshan is a big mountain about ten miles away from Qufu, there are more than a dozen hills, a radius of about fifty miles, the mountain is high and dense, the terrain is very complicated, the ravines in the mountains are vertical and horizontal, hundreds of thousands of troops can be hidden, since Wang Bo took this place as his new base to operate, the cottage expanded rapidly, buildings were built one after another, and a large number of food materials were hoarded here.

Wang Bo was willing to think that Zhang Xuan would stop after occupying Langya County, so he transferred to Lu County and re-established his foundation here, but he forgot that Lu County also belonged to the scope of Qingzhou, how could Zhang Xuan easily establish a foundation in Lu County, Zhang Xuan did not hesitate to chase and kill.

At this time, Wang Bo had already understood that he had made a big mistake, and he should establish a foundation in Dongping County, so that Zhang Xuan might let himself go, and he felt sorry for himself while running desperately.

But the Sui cavalry behind was in hot pursuit, less than a mile away from them, Wang Bo was chased anxiously, kept looking back, he only felt that the other party was chasing closer and closer, running out of nearly a hundred miles in one breath, the time had reached noon, the front was the fork in the mountain, Wang Bo and his men were exhausted, but the Sui army's horses were indeed strong and powerful, so if they went on like this, they would be caught up after a few more miles, but they were still twenty miles away from Fangshan.

Wang Bo rolled his eyes and shouted to Xu Shunming: "I want to continue to run, Shunming will attract them!" ”

This is indeed the only way, Xu Shunming shouted, "Everyone come with me!" ”

Xu Shunming rushed into the trail with more than 60 of his men and ran in the direction of Fangshan to the north.

Wang Bo whipped his horse, rushed through the fork with more than a dozen other soldiers, and continued to flee westward, that is, in the direction of Qufu County.

And in just a moment, Pei Xingyan led more than 300 cavalry to gallop over, their war horses were stronger than the thief army, although the war horses were also tired, but they could still run.

Running to the fork in the road, Pei Xingyan reined in his war horse, and he saw the cavalry from a distance heading north, "Where does this lead to?" Pei Xingyan pointed to the trail.

"General, that way is the road to Fangshan!"

"What about the front?" Pei Xingyan pointed forward again.

"The front leads to Qufu County!"

Pei Xingyan groaned, turned his horse's head and ran north, he thought that Wang Bo was the most likely to escape to the lair.

After running for another quarter of an hour, they gradually caught up with Wang Bo's cavalry, Pei Xing stretched out his bow and arrows, and shot an arrow at the leader in the run.

The first thief will be shot in the back with an arrow, screamed, fell off the horse, the surrounding soldiers turned their horses' heads and waved their knives to kill the Sui army, Pei Xingyan waved a long lance, unstoppable, killed the thief cavalry on their backs, instantly overturned more than 20 people, and the rest of the thief army was surrounded by the Sui cavalry.

Pei Xingyan rushed to the leader of the thief army, although he had not seen Wang Bo, but he knew that Wang Bo was a black and thin old man about fifty years old, a literati, and the person in front of him was only in his thirties, very burly and strong, obviously not Wang Bo.

Pei Xingyan suddenly realized that he was chasing in the wrong direction, and Wang Bo must have fled in the direction of Qufu County just now.

He was suddenly angry and anxious, and pressed the tip of his lance against the other party's chest and shouted, "Who are you?" ”

"Under Xu Shunming!"

Xu Shunming was shot in the back of the heart by an arrow, and he was already dying, he smiled reluctantly: "It's worth exchanging my life for the lord's life!" ”

Pei Xingyan was furious, "You go to die!" He roared angrily, and a lance pierced Xu Shunming's chest.

The rest of Wang Bo's own soldiers were also killed by the Sui army, and everyone quietly waited for Pei Xingyan's order.

Pei Xingyan was so frustrated that he hated him so much that he stuck the horse lance into the dirt and chased him for most of the day, but he finally fell short and was escaped by Wang Bo. (To be continued.) )