But Zhang Xun never dreamed that he would be abandoned by Yuan Shu like a shabby rag, and he willingly served as cannon fodder for Yuan Shu. When Zhang Xun led the army to rush to the southern line of the Xuzhou Army and was besieged, he still thought that His Majesty would soon lead the Imperial Forest Army to the rescue, but in the end, he was eager to see through it, and he did not expect Yuan Shu's backup soldiers. When a cold arrow pierced his throat, Zhang Xun was still there wondering why His Majesty hesitated to leave the city.

At this time, Yuan Shu not only concealed the ghost Zhang Xun, but also concealed the civil and military officials in Shouchun City, and the concubines and concubines in the harem, and only brought Yang Hong and Qiao Rui, as well as his wife, children and younger brother Yuan Yin, led 20,000 imperial forest troops, out of the north gate of Shouchun, and launched a surprise attack on the northern line camp where the Xuzhou army was empty.

Now Yuan Shu can trust, there are only Yang Hongqiaorui and other Liao Liao people, most of the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty have hooked up with Xuzhou, once Yuan Shu exposes the true intention to break through, I believe that Liu Ze will soon be able to get the news, so Yuan Shu's escape plan has been secretly preparing.

The breakthrough on the northern front was very successful, the attention of the Xuzhou army was attracted by Zhang Xun's offensive on the southern front, and the two infantry divisions of the east and west battalions were transferred to the southern front, and the garrison on the northern front was empty. Yuan's army did not dare to fight, and after the breakthrough was successful, he immediately marched north to the Huai River crossing.

On the ferry, Yang Hong secretly sent guards disguised as ordinary people to dock the fishing boats hired with a lot of money, and those fishermen and boatmen were all good people. How did he see the formation of these thousands of troops, his face turned pale with fright, and his legs trembled. Previously, these guards disguised themselves as ordinary people to hire ships, and the prices offered were not low, and those boatmen were begging for a living in the wind and waves, but now there is a reason for someone to send money to the door, and now they find out that they are dealing with the official family, and they can't help but regret it. The formerly amiable employers have now become fierce and vicious, threatening the shipowners with swords to obey their orders, or they will be cut down in the river one by one. The shipowners were already frightened. Obey orders. Don't dare to resist.

Guan Hai's movements were fast, and after receiving Liu Ze's order, he immediately led the three thousand bows of the first division to gallop towards the north of Shouchun, and after joining Hao Meng. Yuan Shu's army, which immediately fled north, launched a pursuit.

The combat power of the archers is not comparable to that of ordinary infantry. Not to mention the 20,000 Yuan soldiers who fled for their lives. Even if these 20,000 soldiers were in formation, the archers and cavalry would not be stunned, and Guan Hai heard that Yuan Shu had fled north to the shore of Huaishui. In a hurry, he immediately commanded the archers to rush to the Huai River crossing, and Hao Meng also led two brigades of the Eighth Division to pursue him.

Yuan Shu's Imperial Forest Army was originally the most elite army under Yuan Shu's account, and it was also the capital on which Yuan Shu's southern expedition and northern war depended, but at this moment, the army was defeated like a mountain, and the formation was chaotic.

Yuan Shu was shocked, Liu Ze's archers were so powerful that he had seen them with his own eyes, invincible, invincible, and now his army was swarming across the river, and he couldn't organize an effective formation to meet the archers, and now he wanted to escape from the pursuit of the archers, and only by crossing the Huaishui could he have a glimmer of life, after all, although the archers were invincible on land, they were also looking at the ocean and sighing when they got to the water.

But the guards have only a limited number of fishing boats to collect, and the amount that can carry across the river at a time is quite a drop in the bucket for the 20,000 huge army, although the Huaishui is not as vast and wide as the Yangtze River, but it is not a small ditch and a small canal, and it takes some time for the fishing boats to go back and forth on the Huai River, and the 20,000 people have to be sent to the north bank, and I really don't know when it will be crossed.

The offensive of the archers was like a tide, and it did not give the Yuan army any respite at all, and the Yuan army could not organize an effective defense, and most of them would definitely be surrounded and annihilated on the south bank of Huaishui.

Qiao Ruisheng was a general, and naturally assumed the obligation of commanding the army's defense, and he saw the offensive of the Xuzhou army like a tide, so he said to Yang Hong: "Yang Situ, you quickly protect Your Majesty Xià across the river, and the Xuzhou soldiers will resist for a while." ”

Yang Hong shook his head and said: "General Qiao, now there is only one general left by your Majesty's side, the road to Qingzhou is far away and the future is uncertain, how can there be no one to protect your Majesty, this task of blocking the Xuzhou cavalry will be carried out by a certain person, and General Qiao will quickly escort His Majesty across the river!" ”

Qiao Rui also knew that it was a heavy responsibility to protect Yuan Shu, so he had to nod and agree.

Yang Hong saluted at Yuan Shuchang and said: "Your Majesty treats Hong Grace as heavy as a mountain, Hong is willing to die to repay His Majesty's kindness, please cross the river quickly, and the chasing soldiers will be blocked by Hong!" ”

Yuan Shu couldn't help sighing and sighing, at the critical moment, there were too few loyal and upright people like Yang Hong around him, and now he stayed and broke off, facing the fierce archers of the Xuzhou army, it can be said that he was nine deaths, and basically there was no hope of returning, Yuan Shu couldn't help but say wryly: "Yang Aiqing doesn't have to go to block the pursuers, just cross the river with me." ”

Yang Hong looked at the archers who were roaring and galloping not far away, the Yuan soldiers who were scattered were not opponents at all, and now if there were no generals to come forward, the archers would soon be able to kill the ferry, and now the last wave of ferries has not returned, and if they don't block the offensive of the archers, it is likely that the whole army will be wiped out. Now there are only two senior officials under Yuan Shu, Qiao Rui and Yang Hong, if Yang Hong doesn't go, only Qiao Rui will lead the team, even if he crosses the Huai River, it is not all right, not to mention that Liu Ze may send all the pursuers to pursue, even the Yellow Turban Liu Bigong in Runan is enough to give people a headache, Yuan Shu does not have a powerful general around to protect him, how to wade through these thousands of mountains and rivers, so Yang Hong was cross-minded and decided not to lead the army to block the Xuzhou soldiers.

"Your Majesty, this goes to Qingzhou, thousands of mountains and rivers are dangerous, you can't leave the protection of the general of the bridge, although Hong is a weak man, but for His Majesty Xià to serve loyally, only death, now Xuzhou soldiers are chasing very urgently, our army is scattered, if no one is in charge, defeat is not far away, Hongyi has decided, I am willing to block the pursuers for His Majesty, Majesty Xià quickly cross the river, Hong goodbye!" After speaking, Yang Hong shook it to the end, no longer waiting for Yuan Shu's order, turned around, ordered the soldiers to lead the horses, turned over the horses, and rushed in the direction of the Xuzhou soldiers. Pikemen in formation! Shield Protection! Shield Protection! ”

The only thing that can effectively resist the impact of the cavalry is the spear array, the dense spear array can delay the cavalry to attack like a whirlwind, the Yuan army's position is scattered because there is no one to organize, and now Yang Hong took the initiative to stand up, although he is a civil official, but he also has a certain appeal, not to mention that most of these soldiers are veterans, in the face of the powerful impact of the archers, they naturally understand how to fight, what is missing is just a general who can command the armies, so Yang Hong shouted, Naturally, many Yuan soldiers gathered around him, with shield soldiers in front and spearmen behind, forming a phalanx.

After the formation of the phalanx, the impact of the archers was stopped on a certain distance, although the situation of passive beating was still not completely changed, but Yang Hong's purpose was to delay the attack of the archers rather than defeat the archers, so from this point of view, Yang Hong's strategy was still successful.

After the archers were blocked, they could no longer rampage like before, Guan Hai immediately ordered to change the way of attack, using a roundabout way to attack left and right, no longer using the method of directly rushing into the enemy formation, but using bows and arrows to eat away at this temporary phalanx little by little.

The cold and sharp arrows shot mercilessly into Yuan Bing's body, and with a scream, one by one the fresh lives came to an end. Time was passing minute by minute, and there were fewer and fewer soldiers around Yang Hong, but he still smiled when he looked back at another batch of ferries in the direction of the ferry and left the ferry.

At that time, the sky was already bright, and the Eighth Infantry Division also rushed to the battlefield, Hao Meng led his troops to line up from the front, and Guan Hai led the archers to attack from the side. Guan Hai had already seen Yang Hong, who was commanding in the formation, and when he saw that Yuan's army was defeated and retreated, he had already revealed a vacancy, so he ordered the archers to shoot at Yang Hong's direction with all their might, and arrows rained down, and Yang Hong, who had no armor protection, was immediately shot into a hedgehog.

As soon as Yang Hong died, the Yuan army's front collapsed, and under the slogan of the Xuzhou army, "those who surrender will not die", they threw away their weapons and surrendered on their knees.

Soon, the battle at the Huai River crossing was coming to an end, nearly 20,000 Yuan troops except more than 3,000 people who crossed the Huai River and fled north, more than 10,000 Yuan soldiers raised their hands and surrendered, and the remaining 6 or 7,000 people were either shot and killed or trampled on each other, and many soldiers had no boat to take and tried to swim across the Huai River, but only a few people with good water quality, most of them jumped into the Huai River and drowned alive.

Guan Hai and Hao Meng cleaned up the battlefield while sending people to report to Liu Ze, although the Xuzhou army won a complete victory in the Huaihe River crossing, but Yuan Shu fled, it can not be said to be the biggest regret, Guan Hai and Hao Meng have no boat at hand, if they want to pursue Yuan Shu, they have to ask Liu Ze to send Zhouqiao troops, and the Zhouqiao battalion is only configured in the corps-level units, so Guan Hai asked Liu Ze to send the Zhouqiao battalion to assist them in crossing the river to pursue Yuan Shu.

After receiving Guan Hai's report, Jia Xu felt a little regretful and said, "In the end, Yuan Shu was allowed to escape." Lord, Guan Hai asked to send the Zhouqiao battalion to build a pontoon bridge to pursue Yuan Shu, but unfortunately it still takes a while to build a pontoon bridge, and no matter how fast the archers are, I am afraid it will be difficult to catch up with Yuan Shu. ”

Liu Ze smiled slightly: "Yuan Shu wants to escape, I'm afraid it's not so easy." (To be continued......)