Chapter 824: Fraudulent City

Wang Ran happily accepted the order. This was his first time leading an army alone in combat. After a little thought, he asked Huangfu Chaobo for 5,000 sets of Yuan Shu's army's armor and several surrendered Yuan Shu's army prisoners. There are also the corpses of deputy general Chen Ju and several generals. He is preparing to lead the army to Xincaiji City.

After nightfall, Xincai City, the defenders in the city had received the news that the army was ambushed, because by the afternoon, some broken troops had already fled back to Xincai, and the defenders who received the news were immediately frightened. Distraught, he quickly ordered the city gate to be closed, and the army quickly boarded the city, and then sent people to Ancheng and Huainan to report the news.

After nightfall, the army at the head of Xincai City was in a tight formation. As more and more defeated troops fled back, the army was defeated, and the news that there was no news about the generals and generals was already known to everyone. The defenders in Xincai City were panicked. At night, the defenders at the top of the city all stared into the darkness outside the city, fearing that the Anton Army's army would run out of the night in the blink of an eye.

In this way, in a tense atmosphere, the first half of the night was finally passed safely. However, in the second half of the night, a loud killing cry suddenly rang out a few miles outside the city, which made the defenders in the city suddenly nervous.

The one who stayed behind in Xincai was a captain named Liu Bo. After receiving the news of the defeat, he took up residence on the east tower in plain clothes without taking off his armor. He was soon alerted by the movement outside the city.

After he stood up, Liu Bo picked up his weapon and walked to the guardrail of the city tower with his own soldiers to look east. Unfortunately, he could only see a large fire, and then he heard the closer and closer killing shouts. . Seeing this situation, he immediately thought, could it be Vice General Chen who broke out?

Thinking of this, he quickly walked down the tower and came to the city wall. As soon as he walked out of the tower, a garrison commander who was on duty on the city wall came up and said: "General, it should be the brothers who have broken out. What should we do? Should we open fire?" Will you go out to meet me?"

The soldiers next to him also looked at him expectantly. Liu Bo glared and shouted: "Nonsense, the situation outside is unknown now. How can you be sure that you must be the brother who escaped? What if it is Anton Army pretending to be? Besides, even if it is true, They are our own brothers, and do you know how many Anton troops are behind them?"

After a lot of yelling and scolding, the village chief was stunned for a long time. After a while, he retreated. The soldiers next to him also woke up and stopped talking.

Liu Bo pondered for a while and said: "However, we have to make preparations. We have people raped down to the city, light all the bonfires outside the city, and then order all the soldiers to go to the city. If they are really our brothers, let them get close to the city. But beware of Anton’s army taking the opportunity to seize the city.”

Immediately, the soldiers took the order and left. Soon, except for hundreds of the thousands of defenders left to patrol the city, the rest had all climbed onto the city wall. Because it was night and the situation outside was not clear, Liu Bo only It was decided to deploy as many troops and horses as possible at the top of the city.

At the same time, dozens of soldiers dropped down from the city walls on each side of the city, quickly ran to a distance of dozens of steps outside the moat, and lit all the bonfires that had been prepared. For a moment, outside the city, It is clearly visible from a hundred steps away.

After they were all done, the killing cries outside the city were getting closer and closer. After a while, hundreds of soldiers wearing their own armors ran toward the city wall covered in blood. They saw that their armors were all in tatters. , head and face covered with blood. The leader was wearing a captain's uniform. He was running panting and shouting out of breath: "Brothers at the top of the city no longer shoot arrows. I am Captain Li Zhe of the C Division of the Left School of the Royal Guards." , is that General Liu Bo at the top of the city?"

Yuan Shu's Royal Forest Army was divided into five front, left, and center armies, each with 20,000 soldiers and horses. It was divided into four schools, each with five divisions. It was the two schools of the front army and the rear army that sent troops this time, totaling 30,000 people. The commander of the front army was Huang Yi, and the rear army was a general named Chen Ji, who was Huang Yi's deputy general.

And this Li Zhe is indeed the captain of the C Division of the Left School of the Rear Army, and has been persuaded to surrender by Huangfu Chaobo.

So this time Wang Ran sent him to deceive the city.

Liu Bo was a captain in Huang Yi's former army and was one of Huang Yi's confidants. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to lead the army and stay behind.

Of course, in addition to Li Zhe, there were more than 500 soldiers from the Tiebei Camp who came with him, and they had all changed into Yuan Shujun's clothes and armor. There was also the dead Chen Jiu who was being carried by the soldiers. He was covered in blood and lying on a stretcher with a pale face.

Seeing the appearance of soldiers and horses under the city, Liu Bo had already believed most of it, and he also had some impression of the captain named Li Zhe. There were only thirty or forty generals in the 30,000-strong army with more than 1,000 people, not to mention that he was very familiar with it. , I still have some impression. But I still had some doubts in my heart, so I quickly asked: "Captain Li, who are you carrying, and how many others have broken out?"

When Li Zhe heard this, he quickly said: "Has the general come back? We have less than 2,000 people in total who broke out. The Anton Army chased them all the way. By now, it is estimated that there are only more than 1,000 people. I have more than 500 people here." It’s all the troops gathered by the rear army.”

At this point, Li Zhe suddenly said loudly: "General Liu, please open the door quickly. General Chen is seriously injured. If he is not treated quickly, his life may be in danger. Besides, the brothers have been running away all day and night." Come on, Anton’s army is right behind. If you don’t go into the city, you’ll have to stay here.”

"Is the person being carried behind General Chen?" Liu Bo confirmed again: "Please carry some of them over so I can confirm it. There is no other way. Please forgive me, Captain Li. General Huang has handed the city to me, so I have to be more careful."

Li Zhe looked helpless and had to order: "You guys, carry the general to the front, be careful not to open the general's wound again, it's hard to stop the bleeding now."

The soldiers who were protected in the middle of the team carefully carried the stretcher to the side of the moat, and then Li Zhe raised the torch and walked forward to illuminate the person on the stretcher, and then went to the wall. The people above said: "General, open the city gate quickly, or it will be too late."

Liu Bo looked down at the city and saw that it was indeed the deputy general Chen Jiu, but his face was ashen. Just as Liu Bo was about to take a closer look, another one or two hundred soldiers came running behind the fleeing soldiers, led by a man in a long dress. They ran wildly while shouting: "Captain, hurry up, enter the city, the Anton army is catching up again, only a few miles away."

As if to confirm his words, a few miles away in the night, a few torches suddenly appeared, and then the number increased, and it seemed that there were at least thousands of people.