After nightfall, Chen Zhi, the commander-in-chief of the Second Division, personally led his troops to inspect the camp.

The Second Infantry Division was stationed in the south of Shouchun City, which was the only way for Yuan's army to flee south, and in recent years, Yuan's army strengthened its tentative attack on the defense line of the Second Division. But Chen Zhi keenly felt that Yuan Shu couldn't stay in Shouchun City anymore, and he was afraid that he was planning a breakthrough operation now, and it was likely that the southern front garrisoned by the Second Division was the breakthrough point of Yuan's army, so Chen Zhi didn't dare to be careless, and personally led troops to patrol the camp and actively deploy defenses.

Just after midnight, but the sound of shouting and killing faintly came from the direction of Shouchun, Chen Zhi obviously felt the murderous aura in the air, and he felt a pang in his heart, and said secretly: It's coming! Yuan Shu is finally going to act! He ordered all the officers and men of the 2nd Division to immediately go into battle and prepare to meet the enemy.

Most of the Xuzhou soldiers were still asleep, but when the assembly drum sounded, all the people got up at the first time, and in less than a moment, they had already completed the assembly of the whole division and waited for it. The second division was a battle-hardened division capable of conquest, and it got up from the tent to complete the assembly, and there was not a single case of panic in the whole division, and the drowsiness had long since faded from the faces of these soldiers, and with it was full of high fighting spirit and eyes full of desire for victory.

The second division was in full array, waiting for the attack of the Huainan soldiers.

The attack of the Yuan army this time can be described as a desperate gamble, and Zhang Xun personally served as the main general. He led an army of 30,000 to leave Shouchun City at night and launched a night attack on the southern position of the Xuzhou Army.

After several tentative attacks, Zhang Xun set the goal of choosing to break through on the southern defense line, where only an infantry division of the Xuzhou Army was defending, although the Xuzhou Army of the two large battalions in the east and west could be reinforced at any time, but if the Yuan Army acted quickly, it was still very promising to break through the defense line of the second division before the Xuzhou Army formed an encirclement.

Zhang Xun ordered each of the forward troops to carry a cloth bag, which was filled with sand, and when the forward troops rushed to the deep trench in front of the defensive line. Order. Throw all the bags into the trench and fill in the wide trench alive.

This strategy was familiar to Zhang Xun after careful consideration, and the deep and wide trench was almost an impassable barrier for Yuan's army to break through the southern defense line. It is necessary to find a way to fill in the trench in front of the Xuzhou camp. It is estimated that it will not work by other means. Zhang Xun thought of using the tactic of a sea of people, with a cloth bag filled with sand and soil for each person, and more than 10,000 people in the forward battalion. That is more than 10,000 cloth bags, with these more than 10,000 cloth bags, it is enough for Yuan Jun to fill the deep trench.

But before the Yuan army rushed to the camp of the Xuzhou army, the camp shouted, the torches were instantly lit, as if it was day, the arrows flying out of the gap in the wooden fence of the walled wall came like rain, and shot into the defenseless Yuan army line carrying sandbags, and the Yuan soldiers who rushed in the first row screamed again and again, and the sandbags had not yet been thrown into the deep trench, and the people had already hanged.

Zhang Xun understood that tonight would be the most critical battle, and whether he could break through the defense line of the Xuzhou Army would be successful or not, so he did not care about the troops, regardless of the cost of casualties, and personally supervised the battle behind the battle, and ordered Yuan Bing to move forward desperately, and use his flesh and blood to find a way.

Yuan Bing's advantage was that there were many people, and after filling in the trenches one after another, Yuan Jun used corpses and sandbags to fill in the trenches that were ten zhang deep. Zhang Xun was excited, and ordered the army to move forward bravely and launch a full-scale attack on the position of the Xuzhou army.

Although the fence and the rejection of horses caused relatively big trouble to the Yuan army, with a huge advantage in numbers, the Yuan army still rushed into the camp of the Xuzhou army and started a melee with the Xuzhou army.

Liu Ze soon got the news that the southern front was attacked by Yuan's army at night, and this attack was not the previous tentative attack, judging from the number of troops dispatched by Yuan's army and the offensive launched, it should be a desperate breakthrough battle for Yuan's army. Liu Zeli ordered Xu Rong to lead the 1st Infantry Division and Gao Ran to lead the 6th Infantry Division to reinforce the southern front and outflank Yuan's army from the east and west flanks to break through.

Xu Rong and Gao Ran marched quickly, and soon threw themselves into the southern front, under the siege of the three full-fledged infantry divisions of the Xuzhou army, the Yuan army's front quickly collapsed, and the whole team was torn apart by the Xuzhou army. The fighting spirit of the Yuan army was completely lost, and many soldiers directly laid down their arms and surrendered, and the battle reached dawn, except for sporadic resistance, most of the more than 30,000 Yuan soldiers surrendered, and nearly one-third of the soldiers died.

From the mouth of the surrendering army, Chen Zhi learned that it was the general Zhang Xun who led the battle tonight, but in the later stage, many soldiers did not see Zhang Xun again, did they let Zhang Xun escape again? Chen Zhi had a burst of doubts in his heart, it stands to reason that he shouldn't, under the heavy siege of the three infantry divisions of the Xuzhou Army, Zhang Xun would not be able to escape even if he had wings.

In the ensuing cleaning of the battlefield, a corpse was found from the pile of dead, wearing the armor of the general, in a large pile of corpses of ordinary soldiers, it looked very eye-catching, and the soldiers immediately reported to Chen Dao, Chen Zhi found a few soldiers who surrendered for them to identify, and several soldiers identified it, this is Zhang Xun.

Zhang Xun had no other injuries on his body, but he was pierced in the critical part of his throat, apparently Zhang Xun was in the middle of the night when he was commanding the battle, and was hit by a stray arrow shot from nowhere, and the part of the shot was exactly Zhang Xun's throat, and the first general of the Emperor Zhongjia of the Great Chen Dynasty hung up so quietly, and even who died at the hands of whom, it is unknown.

Chen Zhi ordered someone to cut off Zhang Xun's head and send it to Liu Ze's big tent. However, Chen Zhi was very puzzled, since Yuan Shu was determined to break through and sent Zhang Xun to lead the army to command the battle, there was no reason to find only Zhang Xun's body, let alone Yuan Shu, even those three princes and nine Qings under Yuan Shu were nowhere to be found, it seems that Zhang Xun was Yuan Shu's cannon fodder, Yuan Shu is either still stranded in Shouchun City, or has absconded from other places. Chen Zhi sensed the urgency of the situation and presented Zhang Xun's head to Liu Ze along with this suspicion report.

The battle on the southern front was fierce, Chen Zhi and others were on the battlefield, and they did not care about the situation on other fronts at all, and Liu Ze, as the controller of the overall situation, received a report from Hao Meng, the commander-in-chief of the Eighth Division, who was stationed north of Shouchun, at the first time. At the fourth watch, an army of Yuan's army suddenly launched an attack on the northern front camp of the Eighth Division, the offensive was very fierce, and it had broken through the defense line of the Eighth Division, and Hao Meng asked for reinforcements immediately.

"Shengnan attacked the north, Yuan Shu seems to be preparing to flee north!" Jia Xu made a judgment at the first time, he pointed to the map, and said: "Yuan Shu fled north, he could only choose to defect to Cao Cao or Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu conspired to rebel against the emperor, and had decided to the Han court, Cao Cao's side must not allow him, it is estimated that he can only go to Yuan Shao, however, there is a Huaishui in front of him, even if Yuan Shu breaks through the northern defense line, it is not easy to cross the Huaishui smoothly." ”

Compared with the east, west and south, the defense of the Xuzhou Army in the north is much weaker, after the Eighth Division transferred the second brigade to Huaixi, there are only divisions and two brigades on the northern front, a total of more than 7,000 people, and the Yuan army attacking the northern front has more than 20,000 people, and all of them are Yuan Shu's guards Royal Forest Army, this is an army that has followed Yuan Shu for many years, regardless of combat experience and weapons and equipment, among the various departments of the Yuan army, it is the best, and it is normal for Hao Meng to resist the enemy.

Now the three infantry divisions of the Xuzhou Army are concentrated on the southern front to encircle and annihilate Zhang Xun's department, and it is impossible to transfer these troops to the northern line in a hurry, Liu Ze only has a mobile force in the hands of the first cavalry division of Guanhai, Liu Ze immediately ordered the first cavalry division to rush to the northern front, and be sure to intercept Yuan Shu on the south bank of the Huai River.

Yuan Shu obeyed Yang Hong's advice and decided to go north to Yuan Shao. But from Huainan to Qingzhou under Yuan Shao's control, it is also a long way, and Xuzhou will definitely not be able to go, so Yang Hong chose to take the route of Runan, but the biggest problem is how to break through the encirclement of Shouchun by the Xuzhou army, and how to cross the Huaishui.

Now the surrender faction in Shouchun City is very noisy and rampant, and many ministers are not shy of talking in public, because Chen Ji and others hold military power, although Yuan Shu hates it, he does not dare to act rashly, and Yang Hong's escape plan is even more cautious, and he does not dare to divulge half a point.

In Yang Hong's plan, it is to use the strategy of attacking the east and the west, so that an army will attack the southern line of the Xuzhou army to attract the attention of the Xuzhou army, and then Yuan Shu will sneak out of the city under the protection of the Royal Forest Army, and carry out a breakthrough operation to the northern line of the Xuzhou army. The key to this plan is not to attack the west but to sound the east, and how to make the Xuzhou army mistakenly think that the breakthrough direction of Yuan's army is the southern front, so as to mobilize the main force to reinforce the southern front and make the garrison of the northern front empty, is the top priority of this plan.

Yuan Shu and Yang Hong combined, and let Zhang Xun command the breakthrough of the southern front. Yuan Shu summoned Zhang Xun and said that Shouchun could no longer be defended, and he was determined to go south to Lujiang to defect to Sun Ce, so he wanted to entrust Zhang Xun with the important task of ordering him to lead an army of 30,000 as the vanguard to break through the defense line of the Xuzhou army, and then he would personally lead the army to meet it. Yuan Shu soothed with good words, and repeatedly said that now when Da Chen is in danger, only a minister like Zhang Xun can be reused.

Zhang Xun was grateful, thanked him again and again, and swore on the spot to die for his life, and he did not hesitate to serve His Majesty Chen. (To be continued......)