On the official road, more than 2,000 soldiers had quickly formed a military formation. Zhang Cen was particularly nervous. Standing at a high place and looking around, he saw his soldiers constantly running from the east, all in a panic. Many soldiers even threw away their armor and weapons and ran back naked, but there were no signs of enemy attacks around.

About half an hour later, the soldiers were almost all here. Zhang Cen counted the army and had nearly a thousand people missing. This must have been attacked and killed by the officers and soldiers. Zhang Cen quickly glanced at Guan Sheng, and saw that he was sneered on his face and said nothing. Zhang Cen was secretly annoyed, but he could not have angered, so he had to shout, "Stay in place and do not act rashly anymore!"

The soldiers sat down to rest one after another, and many people were still in shock and sat blankly on the grass in a daze. Zhang Cen asked for a count of food. Although the enemy cavalry destroyed their chances of seizing food, they still grabbed a batch of food and livestock from the town, which could be eaten by 4,000 soldiers for three or four days. There was no problem going to Gaotang County.

There was no movement all night, and the officers and soldiers seemed to have disappeared. They did not appear within a radius of five miles, but the soldiers were still terrified and basically remained half-sleep, and no one dared to sleep well.

The next morning, amid the shouts of the generals, the soldiers stood up one after another, dragged their heavy bodies and continued to march northward...

Just in a forest ten miles south, a thousand cavalry were resting in the woods. Li Yanqing divided his troops into three groups this time. Lu Fei led 300 soldiers to take a boat and take a waterway to Gaotang County, while Wang Ping, the Dutou, led 500 infantry to take a small path and rush to Gaotang County first.

Li Yanqing personally led a thousand cavalry to follow the Liangshan Army soldiers and seized every opportunity to annihilate the enemy's sporadic teams. Last night, the Liangshan Army looted the troops, but Li Yanqing seized the opportunity to annihilate more than 900 people. In addition to the 300 soldiers who died in Liaocheng, the Liangshan Army had already killed more than 1,200 people.

At this time, a cavalry scout rushed over and ran into the woods and shouted, "The enemy has stood up and set off."

Li Yanqing immediately ordered his cavalry to get up, and everyone turned over to the horses, drinking water and eating dry food on the horse while rushing to the road. Their speed was not fast, basically the same as walking. On the one hand, they had to take care of the horsepower, and more importantly, they had to cooperate with the enemy's marching speed.

Behind the cavalry were hundreds of mules loaded with hay feed, with one hundred soldiers taking care of them, and the team rushed northward.

.........

On the other side of the Yellow River in Gaotang County is Yucheng County, Qizhou. There is a Yellow River wharf in both Gaotang County and Yucheng County. Last fall, Song Jiang personally led tens of thousands of troops to cross the Yellow River from the Yucheng County wharf and entered Bozhou.

Now that the imperial court has sent troops to Shandong, the situation in Jeju in the southwest suddenly became tense, Song Jiang had to be forced to shrink the front line in an all-round way and concentrate all the troops distributed in various states in Yunzhou and Jeju, preparing to fight to the death with the main force of Zhong Shidao.

All the troops in Qizhou were transferred back to Yunzhou, leaving only 3,000 people stationed in the important town of Licheng County. There were no troops stationed in Yucheng County, but there were more than 100 large and small ships moored on the Yellow River Wharf.

On the morning of that day, hundreds of soldiers rushed to the dock from Licheng County. They brought the order of the lord Song Jiang to go to Gaotang County and prepare to pick up the soldiers from Hebei to return to Qizhou. Although Song Jiang decided to give up Hebei for the time being, he could not give up the army on the other side of the Yellow River, especially two important brothers Zhang Cen and Guan Sheng. If something happened to them, it would be difficult for Song Jiang to explain to the other brothers in Zhongyitang.

"Let's go now and go directly to Gaotang County to wait!"

The soldiers boarded the boat one after another, and a commander urged the boatmen to sail north.

The boatmen had no choice but to untie the cables and pull up the sails. Cargo ships swayed away from the dock and headed to the other side of the Yellow River. At this moment, the scouts of Xuanwu Camp near the Yellow River pier sent a pigeon letter to the other side of the Yellow River.

Lu Fei led 300 soldiers to arrive in Gaotang County two hours ago on ten cargo ships. Their mission was the same as the Shen County Wharf, destroying all ships that came to pick up the Liangshan Army soldiers, making it impossible for the Liangshan Army, Hebei to take a boat to go south.

Lu Fei received news from the other shore that more than 100 ships had left the dock and set off. He immediately ordered: "The ships set off and intercept the fleet on the other shore!"

Ten large ships carried three hundred soldiers away from the dock of Gaotang County and headed towards the central part of the Yellow River. In less than a quarter of an hour, they saw small black dots several miles away, densely packed with small black dots, with hundreds of ships.

"Prepare to attack!"

Thirty soldiers on each ship were in their seats, readying turbulence and rockets, waiting for the opportunity for the two ships to intersect.

The Song Dynasty mainly used firearms in the water war, using firearms to burn the sails or hulls of the opponent's warships, causing the opponent to suffer heavy damage and have to withdraw from the battle. If you have better luck, you can return to the dock. If you have less luck, you will sink directly into the river.

Grease oil has always been a sharp weapon in water wars. Generally, warships will prepare a lot of sand, and soldiers will use sand to cover the enemy's turbulence onto the ship in time.

But the one hundred ships of the Liangshan Army were not warships, but one hundred ordinary transport cargo ships. Each ship had only a few soldiers, no firearms or fire-proof sand. They did not realize that they would encounter enemy ships. They thought they had just shipped the soldiers and returned to the other side of the Yellow River.

Each ship in Xuanwu Camp had thirty soldiers, equipped with more than 100 jars of tincture oil and a large number of rockets. At this time, a large ship in front approached the other's ships. When the two ships interlaced, the soldiers standing on the side of the ship were ready, and they threw a jar of tincture oil on the deck of the other ships.

More than twenty pottery altars were shattered, and the tincture oil flowed over the deck, and the pungent smell filled the other ships. The soldiers responsible for shooting archery were ready. They lit rockets in the burning iron bucket, and several burning and smoking arrows shot towards the other ships.

‘Boom!’ The turbulent oil on the ship was ignited, burning rapidly, and instantly burned the entire deck. The boatmen were so scared that they shouted. At this time, the sails were also ignited by the rockets. The fire took advantage of the wind and the entire ship turned into a sea of ​​fire.

The soldiers did the same thing, and the dozens of large ships sailing in the front were soon ignited. Smoke rolled on the river and flames raged. The boatmen dived and fled with wood. The ships behind saw that the situation was not good, so they turned around and sailed towards the south bank pier.

The ships of Xuanwu Camp did not stop. They continued to chase them. The boatman could spare them, but they had to burn all the ships to completely cut off the hope of the soldiers of Liangshan, Hebei to withdraw to the south bank.

.........

When thousands of Liangshan soldiers marched for five days and five nights, they finally arrived at Gaotang County, 800 miles away, were still greeted by the closed city gates and thousands of cold arrows on the top of the city. Wang Gui led 7,000 township soldiers to seize Gaotang County and pushed thousands of Liangshan soldiers who had traveled a long distance into the abyss of despair.

Two miles away, four thousand Liangshan soldiers were resting in the woods next to the official road. Each soldier was depressed and extremely depressed. He thought he could enter Gaotang County to have a good rest and report a meal. Unexpectedly, they were still one step late. Thousands of enemy soldiers had occupied Gaotang County. Unless they fought to capture the county town, they really had no way out.

Zhang Cen was also extremely disappointed. In fact, when he was in Liaocheng, he vaguely guessed that the situation in Gaotang County was similar and must have been occupied by the enemy. But he still had a glimmer of hope. Perhaps Gaotang County did not station the enemy, or perhaps the ships that came to pick them up were moored on the Yellow River Wharf.

Now half of the hope has been cut off, and there is still a little hope. Is there a ship sent by my elder brother on the Yellow River Wharf?

At this time, a team of soldiers who ran to the Yellow River Wharf to inquire about the news came back, and they brought a boatman who had been lucky enough to swim ashore.

Zhang Cen quickly approached and asked, "How is the situation?"

"General, the situation is not good!"

"Why?" Zhang Cen's heart sank, and he faintly realized something.

The boatman knelt down and cried, "We were originally picking up the general to cross the river, but we met the other party's ship. They were very fierce and fired with arrows. We could not resist it. They burned many ships and we could only dive to escape."

"What about the other ships?"

Zhang Cen asked anxiously: "Has all the ships been burned?"

"I don't know about other ships. They fled back, but the enemy ships also chased them. It is estimated that there is a lot of danger."

Zhang Cen felt like he fell into an ice cave, trembling with coldness. He felt completely desperate. All his escape routes were blocked. What should they do?

At this time, a soldier rushed over and pointed at the distance and shouted: "General, look at the cavalry!"

Zhang Cen looked back and saw a cavalry team appearing on a high ground several miles away, with more than a thousand people, just like a pack of wolves that had been following their prey, looking at their prey from afar.

What should they do? Where should they go? Zhang Cen stood there for a long time, and finally he couldn't help but sigh and ordered: "Tell me my order, and the army will continue to go north and go to Dezhou!"

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Chapter completed!