Ji Han Liu Zhang

As a fierce general under Guo Si, Gao Shuo was naturally brave and cunning. He threw Zhang Ji's head in front of Zhang Xiu, knowing that Zhang Xiu would be in a daze for a while after seeing the head of his close relative Zhang Ji.

So Gao Shuo prepared to charge into the enemy camp, intending to take advantage of the time when Zhang Xiu was in a trance and unable to command his soldiers to defend, and rush into the camp and break the camp that Zhang Xiu was defending.

However, Gao Shuo did not expect that with the support and persuasion of Jia Xu, Zhang Xiu quickly woke up from his grief, turned his grief into strength, commanded his soldiers to fight, and shot arrows at Gao Shuo who was rushing towards the camp.

"Shoot for me." Zhang Xiu's tone was as cold as a thousand-year-old ice, and the words out of his mouth gave off a chill that made people feel as if they were falling into an ice cave.

The death of his closest relative, his uncle Zhang Ji, filled Zhang Xiu with overwhelming hatred. He wished he could kill Li Jue and Guo Si right away and use their heads to commemorate his uncle Zhang Ji.

This pent-up hatred in his heart prompted Zhang Xiu to keep issuing orders, ordering his archers to shoot arrows and kill Xia Yu and Gao Shuo's troops who came to rob the camp.

"Damn it." Xia Yu dodged the arrow that was shot at his forehead. At the same time, he reined in the galloping horse under him, turned the horse's head and retreated.

Gao Shuo, who was doing the same thing as him, dodged the dense rain of arrows while constantly cursing, "Zhang Ji is dead, and Zhang Xiu refuses to surrender and instead stubbornly resists us. He really doesn't know how to live or die."

Xia Yu ignored Gao Shuo who was cursing. He looked at the drummer and ordered, "Blow the drums and horns to call the army forward."

"Woooooooo..."

The loud and wailing sound of the horn suddenly rose up and spread in all directions.

Driven by the sound of the horn, square formations suddenly emerged from the darkness in all directions, as if they had been buried deep underground and were now emerging from the earth. The two commanders, Li Jue and Guo Si, stood in the center of the formation.

When he heard the horn for the first time, Li Jue looked a little uneasy. He knew that Xia Yu and Gao Shuo's plan to trick the camp gate open had failed. He had no choice but to lead his troops to attack and take down the camp in front of him.

Guo Si on the side was also a little unhappy. Earlier, he and Li Jue had suddenly rushed forward and killed Zhang Ji during the banquet. He wanted to take advantage of the fact that the news had not leaked out for a while and ordered Xia Yu and Gao Shuo to lure Zhang Xiu into the city, making Zhang's troops leaderless and easily capturing Zhang.

But now it seems that Zhang Xiu is worthy of the title of Liangzhou's new and brave general. He was not deceived by Xia Yu and Gao Shuo and remained unmoved. When he suddenly received the news of Zhang Ji's death, he was able to organize his soldiers to defend the camp. It can be seen that Zhang Xiu is tough enough.

"What a great Zhang Xiu! Zhang Ji has a good nephew who can actually sense something strange and hold on to the camp in a trance." Guo Si sighed.

"Hmph." Li Jue snorted upon hearing this, as if he was despising Guo Si's praise for Zhang Xiu.

And Li Jue's next words showed that the object of his cold snort was not Zhang Xiu, but Guo Si.

"As I said before, we only needed Xia Yu and Gao Shuo to lure Zhang Xiu into the city alone. But you insisted on bringing Zou in as well. You wanted to lure her into the city as well... Anyone would be suspicious if you asked a woman to enter the city late at night."

Li Jue denounced Guo Si. He despised Guo Si and believed that it was Guo Si's lust that led to the failure of the plan to trick Zhang Xiu into the city.

Guo Si smiled sheepishly and weakly retorted: "Brother, am I not being sympathetic to women?"

"Think of Zou, she is so beautiful that she can make fishes sink to the bottom of the water and geese fall to the ground, and the moon hide in shame. She can be called a beauty of the country and heaven. If such a beauty is hurt, wouldn't it be a pity... In the past, beauties like Zou were in the way of Zhang Ji, so I had to restrain my love for beauty. But now that Zhang Ji is dead, I have the opportunity to evaluate her carefully."

At this point, Guo Si smiled mischievously: "If Zou had not died in the chaos of the army, then the first place would have been given to you, my elder brother. I would like to be second."

"Guo Aduo, it's already this time and you're still thinking about this. You must know that lust is a sword hanging over your head... The most important thing right now is to take down the camp in front of us. You must know that if it takes too long, something bad will happen." Li Jue looked unhappy. He was speechless about Guo Si's words, but it would be a lie to say that he was not moved at all. After all, Zhang Ji's wife, Zou, was a beauty like no ordinary woman.

Guo Si nodded and agreed, "Yes, yes, we should first take down the camp and pacify Zhang. That's the right thing to do."

Under the command of Li Jue and Guo Si, the soldiers of Liang Province attacked Zhang Xiu's camp like a tide, with wave after wave of surging waves.

At the same time, during the fierce attack, Li Jue and Guo Si played the psychological card. They ordered the soldiers with loud voices to shout that as long as Zhang Xiu surrendered, they would not pursue Zhang Xiu and would treat him as a guest of honor and treat him well. All these mistakes were Zhang Ji's fault.

Soon, Zhang Xiu felt a sense of exhaustion. He was not the commander-in-chief of the army. The commander-in-chief was his uncle Zhang Ji, who was now dead and the soldiers knew about it. The morale of the army was not very high and there were even signs of collapse.

If Zhang Xiu had not spent most of his time in the army, relying on his big spear and unparalleled riding skills, he would have won the trust and respect of officers and soldiers.

Therefore, although the commander Zhang Ji had passed away, Zhang Xiu stepped forward and was able to ensure that the troops obeyed his orders and did not scatter like birds and beasts and flee in all directions.

However, Zhang Xiu could only hold on for a while, but not for too long, because the enemy outnumbered us, and the army had just lost its commander. The soldiers were somewhat panicked and uneasy, making it difficult for them to fight for a long time.

"Young general, the situation is urgent." Jia Xu stood up and gave Zhang Xiu advice while also looking for a chance to survive for himself.

"While Li Jue and Guo Si's troops have not yet surrounded the camp and there are still loopholes on all sides of the camp, we should lead the sons of the personal guards and the bravest soldiers in the army to escape... Otherwise, although Li Jue and Guo Si may not be able to capture our camp in a moment or two, our army is weak and cannot match the strong soldiers and horses of Li Jue and Guo Si. Sooner or later, they will defeat us."

"For the sake of your life and family, young general should make a decision early."

After hearing this, Zhang Xiu pondered for a moment or two and then nodded in agreement helplessly.

In the current situation, Zhang Xiu does not have many choices. Holding on is a dead end. After all, the camp is not as strong as a city. A strong city can be held for a long time, but a camp cannot. Secondly, fighting hard is also not an option. We are outnumbered and it is difficult to win.

It is impossible to fight, and it is impossible to defend, so the only option is to escape.

As for surrendering to Li Jue and Guo Si, Zhang Xiu never thought of this option from the bottom of his heart. Li Jue and Guo Si killed his uncle Zhang Ji, who was like a father to him. He hated Li and Guo to the core and wanted to kill them as soon as possible. How could he raise the flag of surrender and surrender to Li Jue and Guo Si?

Having made up his mind, Zhang Xiu ordered the soldiers in the front camp to hold on, while he ordered Hu Che'er to gather his cavalry. When he decided to flee, he considered that the infantry was too slow and would be caught up by the elite cavalry under Li Jue and Guo Si. At this time, he had no choice but to lead the cavalry to flee. Moreover, if he wanted to escape, he must bring the brave warriors in the army with him as the foundation of his life. Otherwise, it would be useless for him to escape alone. Moreover, most of his personal guards and brave men in the army were proficient in riding skills, which was just right for the current crisis.

At the same time, Zhang Xiu did not forget to instruct Hu Che'er to bring his aunt Zou along. Zhang Ji was like his father and Zou was like his mother. As a son, he would not forget his mother.

The situation was critical, and Hu Che'er took action immediately. It didn't take him much time to gather the cavalry in the army and calculate their number, which was about 800 elite cavalrymen. He also included Zou in the cavalry formation.

"Young General, please go ahead. We are here to defend this place. We will not let Li Jue and Guo Si succeed in a short time."

Under Zhang Xiu's command, a foot soldier named Qu Chang spoke to Zhang Xiu with an indescribably heroic tone, saying that this Qu Chang intended to cover the rear and defend the camp in order to delay the pursuit of Li Jue and Guo Si.

Zhang Xiu was deeply moved when he heard this. He said, "Uncle Wang..."

"Go ahead. I have followed the Hussars for most of my life. Now that they are gone, I should go with them. Besides, my old bones will soon be ready for death... Young general, you are different. It is you who have to avenge the Hussars." Uncle Wang was ready to die. He looked at the tall and straight Zhang Xiu with a look of great lovingness. He had watched Zhang Xiu grow up since he was a child, and in a sense, he was no different from his son.

"Uncle Wang, I will remember this kindness." Zhang Xiu said gratefully.

After hearing Zhang Xiu's words, Uncle Wang just nodded and said nothing more. Then he turned around and commanded the soldiers in the front camp to hold their ground.

Looking at Uncle Wang's tall and thin back, Zhang Xiu only took a few glances and then put away his womanly kindness. He understood that now was not the time to be sentimental. Now that his life and death were hanging by a thread, he needed to shoulder the burden and face it with a firm heart.

The back door of the camp was opened, and Zhang Xiu led his elite cavalry, broke through the still sparse bandit troops outside the camp, and headed westward without stopping towards Wuzhangyuan.

The news that Zhang Xiu had abandoned his army and fled soon reached the ears of Li Jue and Guo Si outside the camp. The two responded immediately. Xia Yu and Gao Shuo led more than a thousand elite cavalry as the vanguard to entangle Zhang Xiu, while Guo Si led the crowd to follow as a reinforcement.

As for the camp that was still holding out even though its commander Zhang Xiu had left, Li Jue would be responsible for breaking through it and annihilating the stubborn troops in the entire camp.

Time passed quickly, the sky gradually brightened, and the sun rising from the eastern mountain pierced through the darkness, sweeping away the drowsiness of the night.

The camp set up by Zhang Ji and his nephew Zhang Xiu was a scene of devastation at this moment. The fences of the camp were in pieces, broken arms and corpses were scattered all over the ground, and the tents and weapons were burned. There were crackling sounds, which were the result of the high temperature of the wood. Clouds of ashes swayed in the wind and finally floated into the sky.

The camp was broken.

Li Jue rode his horse and lazily stepped into the camp, commanding his soldiers to clean up the camp. He planned to repair the camp and continue to use it as a camp for garrison outside the city.

After all, defending an isolated city is not a good idea. A camp should be set up outside the city to serve as a pincer attack.

At this moment, Li Jue saw a corpse on the ground. He had a slight impression of this corpse. From the pale face of the corpse, he recognized it. It was clearly the captain who had defended the camp and refused to surrender until death.

"Well, bury this man properly." Li Jue gave an order. Being in the army, he still admired loyal people, even though the other party had caused him some trouble, not to mention that he and the dead Qu Chang were both from Liangzhou, the same state.

"Yes." Li Huan, Li Jue's cousin, bowed and accepted the order.

After saying this, Li Jue looked towards the west, but there was no movement at the end of his sight.

The fleeing Zhang Xiu, Xia Yu and Gao Shuo who were chasing him, and Guo Si who came to help, had already disappeared from sight.

"Li Ying, you chase after him and tell Guo Aduo not to pursue too deep. We are not clear about the movements of Liu Zhang's army. It will be bad if we encounter them suddenly." Li Jue was a little worried. He was afraid that Guo Si would not know how to advance or retreat and would collide with the Shu soldiers heading towards Chang'an.

Li Ying agreed upon hearing this and rode away on his horse.

On the other side, Xia Yu and Gao Shuo, who were the vanguards chasing Zhang Xiu, were clearly the ones being chased, but they felt somewhat panicked.

There was no other reason. Zhang Xiu, as a rising star in Liang Province, was indeed quite brave. Although the two of them caught up with Zhang Xiu's troops for a while, they were unable to resist the counterattack led by Zhang Xiu's elite cavalry. They suffered casualties every time and their pursuit was hindered.

Therefore, Xia Yu and Gao Shuo had no intention of fighting with Zhang Xiu. They just chased after him slowly, blocking the progress of Zhang Xiu and his party.

As for Zhang Xiu and his group who were fleeing in the front, they did not dare to stop or slow down, but just ran at full speed on the road.

They ran into a group of elite cavalry from the side, with about a thousand people and a big "Zhang" on their flag.

Seeing how the other Shu soldiers were dressed, Zhang Xiu was delighted. He rode forward alone, intending to explain the current situation to the Shu army's generals.

However, in the eyes of Zhang Ren, who was commanding more than a thousand cavalrymen as the vanguard, Zhang Xiu's appearance was a naked provocation, and it was clear that he was challenging his master to a duel.

Zhang Ren was not to be outdone. He rode forward, also riding alone. He was in tune with the white horse under him and galloped forward. In a moment, he thrust a spear at Zhang Xiu.

"This general..." Before Zhang Xiu could even start talking, he was interrupted by Zhang Ren who was stabbing him with his spear. He had no choice but to fight two rounds with the Shu general in front of him.

But two big spears were seen flying up and then falling down. Soon, the two men had fought for more than ten rounds, but there was no winner.

"Wait a minute." Taking advantage of some free time after a fight, Zhang Xiu and the Shu general in front of him staggered their figures and slightly kept a distance. He hurriedly shouted to the Shu general.

Although Zhang Ren was still in high spirits when he met his match, he was a steady person, so he stopped thinking about fighting, tightened his grip, and stopped to listen to what the Liangzhou warrior on the other side would say. (End of this chapter)