On the battlefield east of Juyuan, thousands of horses galloped, roared like tides, and the sound of war drums shocked the earth, and the battle became white-hot.

Liang Xing and Ma Wan took tens of thousands of cavalry and advanced from east to west. Their mission was to continue to kill until they defeated the enemy's central army.

Xu Rong led the cavalry soldiers like a sharp dagger, rushing left and right in the enemy army, trying to break out of the enemy formation and break out of a bloody road. Behind Xu Rong's arrow, Qu Yi and Hua Xiong led their troops to rush on the left wing, and Zhou Shen led their troops to rush on the right wing.

Sun Jian's rear army finally couldn't hold on. On the verge of collapse, the sound of war drums asking for support rang out in a hurry.

Almost at the same time, Han Sui asked Liang Xing and Ma Wan to withdraw from the battlefield to fight violently. The rebel cavalry soldiers who were fighting suddenly heard the sound of the retreating war drums, and were very puzzled, but the military orders were as high as a mountain, and they had to retreat even if they did not retreat. Liang Xing immediately organized soldiers to form a formation to defend. Ma Wan and the cavalry soldiers who rushed in the front immediately turned around and quickly passed through the defensive formation of the rear army, and sank into the night.

Xu Rong heard the sound of the enemy's retreating drums ringing in the darkness, and felt heavy in his heart, without any sense of happiness.

With complete advantage, Bian Zhang suddenly ordered the cavalry to retreat and give up the road to the east. His intention was self-evident. Now the raid has become an encirclement and annihilation battle. The government army has strong combat effectiveness, and the rebels cannot eat their opponents for a while. Even if they win with the strength of the rebels, their losses must be amazing. Of course, Bian Zhang did not want to see this happen. The troops suffered too much loss and there was little left. In the future, how could they get along in Xiliang? So he immediately changed his strategy of annihilation and was ready to annihilate the official army during the pursuit. At this time, a very correct move, a must-kill move.

Xu Rong looked at the soldiers around him and lamented in his heart. With the current physical strength and morale of the soldiers, if they were chased by the enemy, it would take less than a hundred miles. Except for the cavalry, the infantry soldiers would have to lie down. If the enemy did not fight, he would be exhausted. Moreover, the troops were out of food today, which was fatal. The soldiers had to escape the enemy's pursuit and had no food. If they had no food, it would be a miracle. He seemed to see the road to retreat filled with soldiers' wreckage. Xu Rong felt a sharp pain in his heart, and felt exhausted and extremely depressed.

The soldiers following Xu Rong cheered happily when they saw the enemy evacuating quickly.

Xu Rong immediately ordered the troops to slow down the speed of advancement and slowly approach the enemy. Liang Xing, the opposite side, commanded the cavalry troops to form formations to defend slowly retreated. It was not until all the cavalry on the battlefield evacuated that he ordered to speed up and quickly infiltrated into the darkness with the last batch of rebel cavalry.

Qu Yi and Hua Xiong chased after him with cavalry soldiers.

"Where is the general?" Xu Rong glanced at Qu Yi and Hua Xiong and said, "Where is General Zhou?"

"General Zhou was seriously injured." A Northern cavalry soldier replied loudly, "The general's attendants are guarding behind him."

Xu Rong and his friends were shocked, and under the leadership of the army Sima, they rushed to the place where Zhou Shen was injured.

Zhou Shen's war horse was stabbed to death by an enemy cavalry. He flew out with inertia, but unfortunately hit a running war horse. After being knocked by the war horse for more than ten steps, he was broken by other war horses and injured his internal organs. If his servant hadn't robbed him quickly, he would have been trampled into meat paste by the running war horse.

Zhou Shen was covered in blood and looked in pain. When he saw Xu Rong, he said tragically: "You are in command of the troops, retreat... and retreat quickly..."

Xu Rong nodded silently, looked at his injuries, and said to Zhou Shen's personal guards: "Let's find a deputy stretcher immediately and carry the general to retreat with the central army. His injuries are very serious, don't be too bumpy."

"Ziwei..." Xu Rong stood up and turned around and shouted.

"Brother Zilie..." Hua Xiong stood among a group of officers, waved at Xu Rong, and responded loudly, "What's the matter?"

"Immediately reorganize the cavalry, one team leads the way east, and one team leaves cover to retreat."

Hua Xiong agreed and flew on his horse and summoned the team to go.

"Yuntian..."

Qu Yi bowed to him and replied loudly: "Please give me instructions..."

"You lead the troops and immediately cover the retreat of the rear army."

"Order Lord Sun to take over the command of the Northern Army, follow the cavalry and quickly withdraw from the battlefield."

"Retreat...withdraw..." Xu Rong waved his big hand and shouted loudly at the generals surrounding him, "Everyone will go back to the headquarters and withdraw troops immediately."

In an instant, the sound of retreating war drums resounded through the night sky of Juyuan.

＝＝＝

In the early morning, a red sun rose slowly, and the bright morning glow was dazzling.

Li Hong watched the soldiers as he walked along the path beside the woods from afar and moved forward rapidly.

Li Hong led his troops to Pingxiang City the afternoon of the previous day. That night, he received a letter from Zhou Shen, and learned that Zhou Shen had abandoned his car and supplies two days ago and withdrew his troops from Kuishan Road. In the letter, Zhou Shen said that the rebels had a high possibility of blocking him in the Muyuan area. If Li Zhonglang had already arrived in Pingxiang City, please be sure to help and quickly send cavalry to Muyuan to respond.

Li Hong found a guide, and after carefully asking about the situation of Kuishan Xiaolu and Muyuan, he immediately ordered the troops to drop the baggage, and all the soldiers set off on the road with light loads and rushed to Muyuan.

Li Hong saw Zheng Xin galloping towards him.

"Shouyan, the scouts who rushed to Muyuan yesterday, have any news been sent back?" Li Hong asked loudly.

"No. It's more than 200 miles away from Muyuan, so they probably can come back this afternoon." Zheng Xin replied.

Li Hong didn't say anything. He looked up at the sky, pointed to the bright red sun in the sky and said, "It's another sunny day."

"The soldiers marched for seventy or eighty miles a day, and they had to hold a big sun on the road. It was very hard." Zheng Xin said, "Why must sir take 20,000 infantry with them?"

Li Hong smiled, "What? Is there any objection to Sima, another branch?"

"We took the Fengyun Iron Cavalry and rushed to Muyuan day and night. Isn't it faster?" Zheng Xin asked in confusion, "We will waste half of the time with the infantry."

Li Hong smiled and said, "Shouyan, do you want to go back to Youzhou early?"

Zheng Xin looked at him in surprise and smiled, "Sir, are you homesick?"

"Think." Li Hong said, "It's a pity that I don't know where my home is, and I can't even think about it."

Zheng Xin smiled, "My lord means he wants to take the opportunity to eat Bian Zhang and end the rebellion sooner?"

"That's what I mean. General Zhou has a very good idea. In such a bad situation, he can still think of a way to escape and evacuate safely from Yuzhong City. It is very amazing. If the rebels fail to achieve their goal, they will definitely be angry and chase them all the way." Li Hong smiled and said, "We are coming in a hurry. The rebels should not have thought that they will be considered surprises. If we catch the right time and join forces with General Zhou's troops, they can completely damage the rebels."

Zheng Xin shook his head and smiled admirably: "My addicts are getting bigger and bigger, and he is still thinking about calculating people at this time. It will take at least three days for us to arrive at Muyuan with the infantry. According to the distance, Lord Zhou is now in Muyuan and is probably fighting with the rebels." Zheng Xin looked at Li Hong who was smiling and said unhappy, "I'm afraid that General Zhou will be dying when we arrive at Muyuan."

Li Hong shook his hand at him, meaning that you are talking nonsense.

"What? I'm wrong? Is it wrong? I think General Zhou's troops will definitely withstand it?"

"Of course." Li Hong said, "The gap between the strength and number of people of both sides can be compensated for each other. As long as you are not ambushed, General Zhou's troops will definitely be able to withstand it. The key is food. If they receive the first batch of supplies sent by Lord Fu Xie, they will be safe and sound. If they do not receive the supplies and the food is robbed by the rebels in Kuiyuan Gorge, their situation will be very dangerous."

"But." Li Hong gently patted the whip on his hand and smiled, "If Bian Zhang and Han Sui gave up the pursuit in order to preserve their strength, our journey would be in vain."

"This is very likely. The rebels just lost Beigong Boyu and Li Wenhou, as well as 50,000 Qiang cavalry, which is a huge blow to their strength and morale. If they want to preserve their strength, they can take the opportunity to cross the Yellow River and retreat directly to the Qiang land in Huangzhong..."

Zheng Xin was just talking when he suddenly saw several scouts running towards him and immediately shouted loudly: "There is news..."

The scouts brought a wounded Northern Army soldier, and also brought an astonishing news: Last night, Bian Zhang led the rebels to attack Zhou Shen's army in Juyuan.

The Northern Army soldier was a night-moving secret whistle of Zhou Shen's army. After being attacked, he was not killed and ran away. He happened to meet the scouts of Li Hong's army on the way. After the scouts found out, they were very surprised. They left some of them to continue monitoring the movements of the direction of Juyuan, and some immediately turned back to report military information to Li Hong.

"If General Zhou can break out, we will see him at noon today at the latest." Zheng Xin pointed to the map and said to Li Hong, "Will the enemy chase after General Zhou break out?"

"If the rebels suffered little loss and were determined to eat General Zhou, they would definitely chase him. However, if they suffered too much loss and General Zhou's troops were left, there would be no point in continuing to pursue him." Li Hong said, "Now we know nothing about the affairs of Juyuan, and we can only expect the scouts who stayed in Juyuan to send the news back soon."

Zheng Xin said worriedly: "If General Zhou's troops have been wiped out by the rebels or still resist stubbornly in Juyuan, we..."

"Based on strength, the two sides are almost the same, and it is difficult to eat each other in one bite. Now the rebels use this kind of raid method, which is difficult to say." Li Hong looked at the map and said without raising his head, "If General Zhou breaks through and the rebels take advantage of the victory to pursue, we will attack the rebels; if General Zhou is still trapped in Juyuan, we will walk over and show our faces. At this time, don't fight, the rebels will withdraw honestly."

Zheng Xin nodded and said hopefully: "It would be better that they can catch up, we can hit them hard."

Li Hongxiao said: "Things on the battlefield change rapidly, who knows if there is such a good thing?"

"Order the divisions to speed up the advancement." Li Hong shouted loudly at the messenger, "Hurry, faster.

＝＝＝

As noon approached, Li Hong received the latest news: General Zhou Shen's troops had broken through, and the rebels followed closely behind and chased after him.

Li Hong was ecstatic and grinned.

"How far is it from us?" Zheng Xin asked the scout.

"Sir, there are about thirty or forty miles left. General Zhou's troops will be here in the afternoon."

"How many troops will General Zhou have?"

"There are probably 20,000 or 30,000 people." The scout replied, "They are in a very embarrassing situation. Many soldiers cannot run away and have become prisoners of the rebels."

Zheng Xin turned his eyes to Li Hong.

"Order the troops to turn back immediately." Li Hong said loudly without hesitation.

"Look back?"

"Yes, look back. We rushed up like this, the rebels would not fight, and they would flee. They ordered the troops to turn around and set up an ambush at Xiaoniu Mountain. When I passed by just now, I saw that the terrain there was good and suitable for ambushing."

Zheng Xin looked at him with an incredible look on his face and shouted: "Sir, we only have 30,000 people, and there are at least 40,000 to 50,000 enemies that we are pursuing, and we can't eat in one bite. I think we should save General Zhou first..."

Li Hong shook his hand and said with a smile, "There are many rebels, so we can eat a little bit. The enemy is tired of running, so it's easy to fight."

"Immediately ask Lord Xianyu and Evergrande to come to me. Hurry up."

The terrain of Xiaoniu Mountain is gentle, and the rolling hills are not big, but the woods on the mountain are very dense.

Wen Chou stood at the foot of the mountain and directed the soldiers to go up the mountain quickly. He saw Yu Shi coming with a few servants from afar.

"Master Yu, what does Master Duwei say? What are our rear army doing?" Wen Chou hurriedly met and asked loudly.

Yu Shi flew off the horse and said with a smile: "Ambushes, this time it's an ambush. Where is Junyi?"

"Junyi has gone up the mountain." Wen Chou smiled and said, "Brother Congyi, I'm not wrong. When the troops turned around, I knew that Lord Li was going to fight the ambush of the rebels."

Yu Shi patted his shoulder with admiration and praised, "It's very good. Next time I meet Lord Li, I will tell him that when the war drums of the central army sound, our Zijun will know what the troops are going to do. You and Junyi are both talented, and they will definitely be talented as generals in the future."

Wen Chou's handsome face suddenly turned red. He smiled shyly and asked, "How is the military situation?"

"It's very bad." Yu Shi gently patted his thighs with a horse whip and whispered: "Last night, General Zhou Shen's troops were attacked in Juyuan, and are now being chased by rebels."

"That would be very miserable." Wen Chou said, "General Zhou's troops must have suffered heavy losses."

Yu Shi nodded in agreement and continued, "Master Li said that not only did he defeat the enemy and rescue General Zhou, he also wanted to severely damage the rebels, so Lord Li ordered us to ambush on Xiaoniu Mountain, intending to eat some of them while the enemy was not prepared."

"The mission of the central army and the front and rear armies is to quickly cut off the rebels after attacking and divide them into two. Then we firmly guard here, on the one hand, cut off the enemy's retreat route to prevent the enemy from breaking through and escaping, and on the other hand, block the rebel's subsequent troops' rescue."

"The left and right armies of Fengyun Iron Cavalry and infantry are responsible for encircling and annihilation of the enemies within the encirclement."

Wen Chou smiled excitedly and said, "The rebels in Xiliang meet our family's general and are dead. Brother Congyi, if Lord Li takes us to wipe out the rebels, will the court signify him as a general? In that case, we..."

Yu Shi looked at him with a smile and shouted maliciously: "Zi Jun..."
To be continued...