Chapter 1028 Gongsun Zan Escapes
After hearing this, Gongsun Fan knew that he was too impatient, so he stood up and said, "Okay, I will arrange the Shanggu matter now. Let's take 10,000 white horse volunteers to Ji County first to see if there is any latest intelligence."
After saying this, he stopped dawdling and immediately summoned the officials and generals of the county city to come to the prefect's mansion to discuss matters.
After arranging the Shanggu County matter, the two brothers led 10,000 white horse volunteers to Ji County in a hurry.
After Gongsun Zan occupied all the places in Youzhou except Dai County, he took over Youzhou Mu and set up his seat in Ji County, Guangyang County. Since defeating Liu Yu, Gongsun Zan has become more and more arrogant, and especially trusted his three sworn brothers, and even his two younger brothers did not believe in what they said.
This time, he sent troops to Jizhou at the instigation of the three sworn brothers. However, he still ordered his son Gongsun Xu to stay in Ji County, and left 20,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry in Ji County for defense.
When the two brothers Gongsun Fan led 10,000 white horse volunteers to Ji County, it was almost dark. The 10,000 white horse volunteers were arranged to rest in the military camp outside the city. Gongsun Fan and Lou Jing entered the city under the escort of their personal soldiers, and then went straight to the Jihou Mansion.
Outside the main gate of the mansion, the side door had already been opened. Gongsun Xu, who had already received the news, stood outside the side door waiting for the three of them to arrive. When he saw the three of them arrive and dismounted, Gongsun Xu had already left the side door and ran towards the three of them.
"Xu'er greets the two uncles!" After Gongsun Fan and the other two stood still, Gongsun Xu hurriedly stepped forward and bowed deeply.
"No need to be polite, Xu'er, has your father sent back any war reports in the past few days?" Gongsun Fan waved his hand and said;
"The latest war report was three days ago. My father said that he has entered Julu." Although Gongsun Xu looked puzzled, he still answered;
Gongsun Fan looked disappointed, but he was still on the square outside the Marquis's Mansion, so he didn't say much, but turned to look at Lou Jing and said: "General Lou, please go back and see if there is any latest war report!"
Lou Jing bowed and said: "Second General, rest assured, I will return to the station immediately. If there is any latest war report, I will send it to the Marquis' Mansion immediately."
"Thank you so much, General!" The two brothers bowed to Lou Jing together.
Even though Gongsun Xu was confused, he also felt a clue from the actions of his two uncles, and asked carefully: "Uncle?!"
Gongsun Fan stretched out his hand to stop Gongsun Xu's words and said: "This is not the place to talk, let's go into the mansion to talk." As he said that, he walked towards the Marquis' Mansion.
The three of them walked into the mansion and arrived at a side hall next to the hall where Gongsun Zan usually held meetings. This was a place specially arranged for Gongsun Xu to handle official business before Gongsun Zan left. After entering the side hall, Gongsun Fan winked at his nephew, who understood and quickly signaled the guards and maids next to him to leave.
After there were only three people in the hall, Gongsun Fan said, "Xu'er, the General Zhengdong sent someone to deliver a message saying that your father was likely to fall into the trap of Yuan Shao's army. Now the army has arrived near Jieqiao in the south of Julu. Based on your uncle's understanding of General Huangfu, this is most likely true."
Gongsun Xu was shocked after hearing this and hurriedly said, "What should we do?"
Gongsun Yue said, "The General Zhengdong has sent General Zhao Yun and General Hua Xiong to lead 15,000 cavalry to support, but they are worried that they may not be able to catch up with the decisive battle between my brother and Yuan Shao's army, so let us be prepared to respond. . "
Gongsun Fan nodded and said, "I have discussed with your third uncle and decided to lead troops to the south to support him. However, we only have 10,000 white horse volunteers, so we need to add some more troops, only cavalry."
Gongsun Xu listened and immediately said that he could take away the 10,000 cavalry from Ji County, but Gongsun Fan thought for a moment and decided to take only 5,000 cavalry from Ji County, a total of 15,000 cavalry to support him, and leave 5,000 cavalry to assist Gongsun Xu in defending Ji County. At the same time, he left his third brother Gongsun Yue to assist Gongsun Xu, and he personally led 15,000 cavalry to the south to support Gongsun Zan.
Gongsun Fan's idea was very simple.
If he could bring his brother back, it would be the best, but if he could not bring him back, then Gongsun Xu would succeed to the throne as the Marquis of Ji, and his third brother stayed in Ji just in case.
However, before setting off, he still hoped to get the latest battle report from Huangfu Chaobo. To his disappointment, half an hour later, Lou Jing came to the Marquis' Mansion, but did not bring any news. Gongsun Fan had no choice but to start preparing to set off to Jizhou in the early morning of the next day to meet his elder brother.
The next morning, Gongsun Fan led 15,000 cavalrymen and set off. He followed the route of Gongsun Zan's southward march. According to the battle report sent back by Gongsun Zan, the army went all the way south and captured several county towns. Therefore, Gongsun Fan speculated that if Gongsun Zan's army failed, they would definitely go to these county towns to seek supplies and rest.
On the afternoon of the day when Gongsun Fan was about to leave Youzhou, he received a battle report sent by Lou Jing from Jixian County, in which he learned that Gongsun Zan's 50,000 troops had been defeated. Anxious, Gongsun Fan led his troops into Jizhou. The situation in Jizhou made him even more anxious, because the cities that had been captured in the battle report sent back by Gongsun Zan were occupied by Yuan Shao's army, which made it more difficult for Gongsun Zan to return.
For this reason, Gongsun Fan sent scouts to expand the search range while advancing quickly to the south, hoping to find Gongsun Zan's defeated troops as soon as possible.
On the fifth day after entering Jizhou, Gongsun Fan finally found Gongsun Zan's defeated soldiers in a small town near Zhending. At this time, Gongsun Zan had less than 3,000 cavalrymen around him, and most of them were white horse volunteers. The other soldiers were either dead, injured or fled on the way.
With Gongsun Fan's support, Gongsun Zan finally returned to Jixian safely four days later. Soon, Huangfu Chaobo, who was far away in Changyi, received a pigeon letter from the Jixian Shadow Guard. At this time, Huangfu Chaobo breathed a sigh of relief. As long as Gongsun Zan himself was fine, it would be fine. If Gongsun Zan died, Youzhou would probably be in chaos immediately. At that time, the population of the city in his Longhua area would most likely be lost.
However, Huangfu Chaobo was only relieved about this matter. Now the war between the Zhengdong Army and Changyi and Qingzhou was not going well.
On the battlefield of Yanzhou, because of the loss of 50,000 reinforcements from Hebei, Huangfu Chaobo did not have enough troops to attack Changyi. On the Qingzhou battlefield, five days ago, except for Shuanghe City and Qingdao City, all other cities in the two counties had been captured by Cao Cao's army and the Tuberose army.