Chapter 1030: Smooth Retreat to Shuanghe City

As Xu Rong's orders came out, the soldiers in the city quickly took action. However, as Cao Cao's army controlled more and more areas on the city wall, Cao Xiu, the commander of the West City siege, immediately ordered all the remaining Tiger and Leopard Cavalry soldiers and thousands of central army soldiers to join the siege.

After 5,000 Tiger and Leopard Cavalry soldiers climbed the city wall, Xu Rong knew that he was powerless to save the situation. Fortunately, the city had been preparing to evacuate, and the evacuation of people in various counties had been going on for nearly ten days. At present, nearly 600,000 people have moved into the two port cities, which can be said to be overcrowded.

Originally, Xu Rong's goal was to hold on for about a month, but he was only a man, not a god. Due to Sun Kang's negligence, the city was eventually broken by Cao Cao's army half a month in advance, which made many of Xu Rong's arrangements fail. Moreover, if he evacuated hastily now, the losses would be much greater.

But now they had to retreat. Seeing that the western tower had been lost and the defense of the city gate was getting weaker and weaker, Xu Rong immediately called a few guards and said, "Go to the Prime Minister's Mansion immediately to inform the Prime Minister and the military advisor, and ask them to evacuate according to the original plan. At the same time, order the guards of the east and north walls to gradually retreat to the south gate according to the original strategy. Anyone who dares not obey the order will be punished by military law. Order the south gate guard General Zang Ba to guard the army and retreat, and immediately contact the cavalry outside the city to prepare to meet the team leaving the city."

A series of orders came out of Xu Rong's mouth, and then were quickly sent to various places by the guards.

Soon the whole city took action, and the families and craftsmen who had been notified left their homes and gathered towards the south gate. The soldiers in the city moved in the opposite direction of them. They had to use the streets and houses in the city to stop Cao Cao's army from entering the city and buy time for the families to gather.

At this time, there were still more than 20,000 troops in the city, but after losing the protection of the city wall, in front of the hundreds of thousands of Cao Cao's troops, these soldiers were already as vulnerable as a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

An hour later, Xu Rong finally arrived at the South City under the escort of his personal guards. As he expected, less than 10,000 soldiers successfully retreated to the South Gate in an hour. At this time, the craftsmen and their families had gathered here, and at this time, the shouts of killing in the city were getting closer and closer. Although the defenders of the east and west gates had destroyed the gates when they evacuated, after losing the threat of the city head, a large number of Cao Cao's soldiers were able to climb the city wall from under the city wall through siege ladders, cloud ladders and other equipment, and then kill into the city.

After hearing the news that the Thousand Jin Gate Gate was destroyed, the 5,000 Tiger and Leopard Cavalry outside the North Gate were immediately sent to the West City by Xiahou Yuan, preparing to enter the city from the West Gate and use the powerful destructive power of the heavy cavalry to wipe out the defenders in the city. As for the fleeing defeated soldiers, Xiahou Yuan felt that the most important thing at the moment was to first eliminate the remaining enemies in the city and control the city.

Seeing Xu Rong safely retreat to the South Gate, Cheng Huan breathed a sigh of relief and stepped forward quickly, saying, "General Xu, didn't you say that the city could be defended for ten to fifteen days? Why was it breached so quickly? There are still many things that are not ready."

Xu Rong glanced at Zang Ba and the others. Zang Ba and the others seemed to have known the reason and lowered their heads guiltily. Xu Rong said, "Let's talk about this later. Prime Minister, Cao Cao's army is not far from the South Gate. We can't delay any longer. Open the city gate and evacuate immediately."

Cheng Huan also knew that this was not the time to talk about this, so he stopped asking questions and said, "Okay, open the city gate first and let the craftsmen and the people leave the city first. The cavalry outside the city should have come to meet them."

Xu Rong nodded, turned his head and looked at the generals around him. When he was about to speak, Zang Ba stepped out and said, "General, let me wait to cover the rear. The Taishan people will make up for the mistakes they made."

Xu Rong was stunned , before he could speak, Zang Quan, Zang Ai, Yin Li and Sun Guan beside him stepped out one after another and asked: "General, I request to cover the rear of the army."

While he was speaking, Sun Kang also retreated to the south gate under the escort of several personal guards. Seeing that all the generals were there,

he hurriedly walked to Xu Rong and said: "General, I have failed your trust. Please punish me!"

Xu Rong did not even look at him and said to Zang Ba: "How many soldiers does General Zang need?"

Zang Ba thought for a while and said: "I and the Taishan soldiers of the generals have a total of 3,000 people. If the general can support another 2,000 soldiers, I will definitely buy two hours for the army to retreat!"

At this time, Sun Kang knew what the Taishan generals were going to do. When he thought that because of his momentary negligence, the Taishan generals would lead the Taishan army to make up for it together, he couldn't help but feel ashamed and angry, and hurriedly stepped out and said: "General, I request to cover the rear of the army!"

Xu Rong nodded without comment, He looked at the sky, which was almost dark, and ordered the rest of the generals: "Organize the craftsmen's families to evacuate immediately!"

"Yes!" All the generals took the order and left, each arranging soldiers to lead the assembled people out of the city.

The Taishan generals led their soldiers to quickly arrange defenses, preparing to buy time for the army's evacuation.

An hour later, 20,000 people and thousands of soldiers finally entered the city, and with the support of 10,000 cavalry, they headed towards the irrigation direction dozens of miles away with torches. They only needed to go there, and the navy of Shuanghe City had arranged boats to wait by the river. After boarding the boat, they could go down the river all the way to the dock of Shuanghe City.

At this time, the sky had completely darkened, but the city was ablaze. The remnants of the Eastern Expedition Army in the city were still fighting with Cao Cao's soldiers, and Zang Ba and other generals at the South Gate had also fought with Cao Cao's army. Because they had made as many preparations as possible, and Xu Rong left a thousand crossbowmen to Zang Ba when he evacuated, the six thousand remnants dragged Cao Cao's army to the South Gate for two hours before evacuating.

Then Zang Ba ambushed the Cao Cao army that was chasing them ten miles outside the South Gate. The final result was that only two thousand of the six thousand soldiers who were responsible for the rear guard were left, including one thousand crossbowmen. It can be said that only two tenths of the three thousand soldiers Zang Ba brought from Mount Tai were left at this time.

After confirming again and again that there were no more Cao Cao's army chasing behind him, Zang Ba led the remnants to evacuate overnight, chasing along the route of the large group of people and horses, and finally caught up with the large group of people and horses boarding the boat at the riverside in the morning. It was not until noon the next day that the large group of troops evacuated from Ju County arrived safely at the Shuanghe City Wharf. At this time, there were only 6,000 infantrymen and 20,000 family members and craftsmen.