Chapter 19: It’s just twice the number of enemies. Don’t panic, Lao Liu, we can just do it!

"My lord, the Haixi spies have urgent news!"

Another guard rushed into the hall shouting, holding a wax ball in his hand.

Yuan Shu fell to the ground, in extreme grief and anger, and was unable to react for a while.

Yang Hong forced himself to calm down, snatched the wax ball, and opened it impatiently to take a look.

"A few days ago, Liu Bei led his troops out to sea by boat, sailing southwest from the sea, and has disappeared!"

Yang Hong blurted out the contents of the secret report, with surprise showing on his face again.

Yuan Shu suddenly came to his senses, staggered to his feet, and snatched the information from Yang Hong's hand.

He finally understood.

Liu Bei did not stay in Haixi and wait for death, but took the sea route into the Huai River.

That's why they appeared unexpectedly in the waters of Xutai and killed Chen by surprise!
His beloved son Yuan Yao was also unlucky. He was escorting grain to Xutai when he ran into Liu Bei's gun.

"The big-eared thief actually escaped from Haixi?"

Yuan Shu tightly grasped the silk book, feeling a bit angry and humiliated in his grief and indignation.

He thought he had clever tactics and wanted to lure Lu Bu to eliminate Liu Bei by offering him 50,000 hu of grain.

Who would have thought that Liu Bei seemed to have anticipated his move and took the bucket and ran away first.

He appeared in Xutai like a god descending from the sky, robbed his food and killed his son!

humiliation!

Yuan Shu felt unprecedented humiliation!
"Yang Hong, which group of people is closest to Xutai right now?"

Yuan Shu stood up shakily and asked in a deep voice.

Yang Hong rolled his eyes and bowed:

"My Lord, although Ji Ling is close to Xutai, it is currently attacking the Chen family who have retreated to Huaiyin City, so it is not appropriate to withdraw troops."

"After Liu Bei killed the eldest son, he continued to sail westward. Hong speculated that he must have intended to go north along the Wo River and head to Runan or the State of Chen."

"If that's the case, Zhongli is the closest to Wokou, and the garrison commander Li Feng has 3,000 soldiers and horses. My lord, you can order him to lead his troops to pursue Liu Bei!"

Yang Hong pointed at the map and gestured.

"Send the order!"

Yuan Shu slammed the table and said sternly:
"Quickly inform Li Feng at a speed of 800 miles and order him to lead his troops to pursue the big-eared thief immediately!"

"If you can't bring back Liu Bei's head, let him bring it to me himself!"

Yang Hong shuddered and hurriedly took the order to leave.

Yuan Shu picked up the secret report again, smashed it into pieces and threw it into the air.

"How dare you, a weaver of mats and a shoe seller, kill my beloved son and humiliate me so much!"

"If I don't grind you to dust, won't I, Yuan Shu, be laughed at by the world for my incompetence?"

...

Runan County, Chengfu City.

Boats of all sizes slowly came to the shore, and teams of Liu's soldiers disembarked in an orderly manner and entered this unmanned small town.

If you go north through this city, you will be close to the State of Chen and enter Cao Cao's sphere of influence.

According to the route planned by Xiao Fang in advance, Liu Bei would lead his army to disembark here, take the land route westward, enter the western part of Runan, and thus completely break away from the sphere of influence of Yuan Shu and Lu Bu.

"The military advisor really predicted everything. We successfully evacuated Xuzhou and got out of danger."

In the county government office, Liu Bei, who had just sat down, had a relieved smile on his face and personally poured a bowl of tea for Xiao Fang.

Xiao Fang took a sip of tea and shook his head slightly:

"My lord, it's probably too early to say that we are out of danger now."

Liu Bei was stunned.

While I was still savoring the profound meaning of Xiao Fang's words.

Sun Qian hurried in, with a serious look on his face.

"My lord, my scouts have just sent back an urgent report that Lü Bu and Yuan Shu have respectively sent Generals Cao Bao and Li Feng to lead their armies to pursue our army." "Now the two armies have joined forces and are chasing us along the west bank of the Wo River day and night. They are at most half a day's walk away from Chengfu City!"

Sun Qian's words made everyone present change color slightly.

Liu Bei recalled what Xiao Fang had just said and wondered:
"Jinglue, you just said that we are not out of danger yet. Could it be that you are calculating that Lu Bu and Yuan Shu's troops will pursue us relentlessly?"

Everyone's eyes turned to Xiao Fang.

Xiao Fang sipped his tea and said slowly:
"Lü Bu wants to force the lord to surrender, and use the lord to guard Xiaopei for him and serve as his henchman to protect his house."

"Yuan Shu regards the lord as a nobody. Even if the lord did not fight the battle of Xutai and did not kill Yuan Yao, he would have wanted to kill the lord."

"Now that the lord has escaped, the two thieves' plan has failed. They will naturally send troops to pursue them out of anger and shame."

"My lord, don't be surprised. This is to be expected."

Liu Bei suddenly understood and nodded slightly, secretly praising Xiao Fang's foresight.

After calming down a little, he asked Sun Qian how many enemies were chasing them.

Sun Qian gave a word count:

Cao Bao had 3,000 Danyang soldiers, and Li Feng had 3,000 Huainan soldiers, totaling 6,000 each.

"Six thousand, twice as many as our army!"

Liu Bei frowned, showing fear, and said in a deep voice:
"The enemy is numerous and we are few. It seems that we should avoid the enemy's sharp edge and avoid a meaningless fight."

"Pass the order down, the entire army stops resting, leaves Chengfu City immediately, and marches westward to shake off the pursuers."

The purpose of this trip was to go to Runan. In Liu Bei's view, there was naturally no need to confront the pursuers head-on.

"Brother, we are bringing thousands of family members and hundreds of carts of food and money with us. The land march will definitely be slow."

"The enemy's pursuers are definitely coming with light equipment. I'm afraid we won't be able to travel for half a day before they catch up with us."

"By then, a fight may be inevitable."

Guan Yu saw the weakness and immediately gave a warning.

Liu Bei was shocked and suddenly realized.

Mi Zhu, Sun Qian and other counselors immediately became nervous.

As Guan Yu said, if they were caught up by the pursuers, how could three thousand soldiers resist the six thousand pursuers from Yuan and Lu in such a hurry?

I'm afraid it will be another disastrous defeat, and all the supplies we carry will be lost.

That’s nearly 80,000 hu of grain and hundreds of millions of coins!

If I cut my flesh like this, it would hurt...

"Yun Chang is right. We have too many military resources. We will definitely not be able to outrun our pursuers."

"In this case, we have no choice but to fight with all our strength and repel the pursuers."

"But the enemy's army is twice as large as mine, and we are outnumbered. This battle will not be easy..."

Liu Bei frowned, feeling stuck in a dilemma, and could only look at Xiao Fang:
"Jinglue, in your opinion, how should we deal with this dilemma?"

Everyone's face was filled with tension and worry to varying degrees.

Only Xiao Fang remained calm, sipping his tea leisurely and letting everyone talk.

When Liu Bei asked, Xiao Fang replied casually:
"My lord, you have survived such a desperate situation in Xuzhou. The current situation is many times better than before. Why are you so nervous?"

"It's nothing more than a pursuer with twice as many troops as ours. We just need to defeat them."

When these words were spoken, everyone was secretly shocked.

Those are six thousand elite enemy troops!

In the words of Military Advisor Xiao, they were like six thousand ants that were easily dealt with.

Such a big tone...

Liu Bei was surprised, but suddenly a look of joy flashed across his eyes, and he asked hurriedly:
"It seems that the military advisor has a plan in mind. Could it be that he has a good plan to defeat the enemy with a small number of people?"

Xiao Fang drank the tea in the bowl and waved his hand:
"Aliang, bring the map to the lord!"

(End of this chapter)