On the tenth day of April, on the bank of Baihe River dozens of miles north of Rangcheng, inside the camp of the Yuan army general Xun Zheng.

Xun Zheng's men, Nanxiang County, which left the Danshui coast, had slightly climbed up some hillsides and marched by land for two days by legs. Finally, they entered the Qingshui Basin from the Danshui Basin and camped on the Baihe River, a tributary of the Qingshui River.

When camping, Xun Zheng received another bad news. Rangcheng in the south also surrendered to Li Su. Li Su could be able to go upstream from the Baihe River at any time, encircle the rear of Wancheng, and cut off part of the retreat path of Yuan Shu army north of Nanyang.

As we all know, Wancheng, the capital of Nanyang County, is located on the shore of the main stream of the Qingshui River. Li Su surrounded Wancheng and wanted to continue to go north to cut off the return route of Yuan Shujun in Luoyang.

Then it is possible to directly block the four gates of Wancheng, and then ensure that the clean waterway is unobstructed and go directly north.

It is also possible to choose Baihe, a tributary on the west side of the Qingshui River. After all, the cities such as Rangcheng along the Baihe River are much weaker than those of Wancheng.

Before, when Liang Gang was attacked by the siege and aggression, the Rangcheng defenders were already very empty. However, Yuan Shu had not yet proclaimed himself emperor, and Li Su did not realize that Yuan Shu wanted to proclaim himself emperor and gave up Luoyang and returned eastward, so he did not list "breaking the road north" as an important matter.

At that time, Li Su was still thinking about concentrating on winning Wancheng. If he was really willing to divide his troops, he would be able to easily take down Rangcheng in early April.

After Xun Zheng arrived north of Rangcheng, he could shrink eastward according to the order he had received as appropriate. However, Rangcheng's loss forced Xun Zheng to wait for a while. He was afraid that if he walked too fast, the line on the Baihe River would be completely cut off and Qiao Rui behind him would be surrounded.

For Qiao Rui's flank and retreat route, he could only stay on the bank of Baihe River and persist for a few more days. At the same time, he sent a messenger Pegasus to report Qiao Rui urgently, asking Qiao Rui to judge whether he would speed up the retreat.

Unfortunately, Xun Zheng's messenger came back just a few hours after leaving and did not arrive in Shangnan at all (Qiao Rui should be south of Shangluo at this time)

Xun Zheng was very surprised and wanted the messenger to ask questions, but the messenger brought him a bad news: "There is no good for Captain Xun! I just rushed back to report the message today, but before I even arrived in Nanxiang County, I found that there had been occupied by the Han army! Zhang Fei's flag was planted in the city of Nanxiang!

I finally caught some people and asked, and they all said that Zhang Fei went down from Wudang County to the south and turned to Danshui to break into Nanxiang and other places. Last night, he broke into Nanxiang.

Danshui County must have fallen now. Even if Wuguan has not fallen, it must have been blocked from the intersection of the valley. Then wouldn’t the Later General (Qiao Rui) be sealed in Wuguan Road and can’t get out?”

Xun Zheng felt a little shocked, thinking that when he withdrew his troops, he would leave his superiors first and not protect his retreat, this would be a serious crime in Yuan Shu's army! If he had slipped away quickly, Qiao Rui's entire army would be wiped out.

Even if my soldiers with less than 10,000 people fled back, they would inevitably be severely punished by military law.

Xun Zheng thought about it and made a quick decision: "The whole army should take a break, and set off tomorrow's fourth update. There is no need to withdraw the camp. The camp will stay here, go lightly to fight back to Nanxiang County, waiting for an opportunity to pick up the next general!"

The deputy generals of Cao Zhu, who was beside Xun Zheng, were shocked and persuaded him: "Captain Sorry! Since Zhang Fei has been leading the Hanzhong Army for a long time, how can we be our opponents? Even if we add the troops of the latter general, it is impossible to break through the field. If we want to deal with such a strong enemy, the only chance we can rely on the Wuguan natural danger, but it no longer exists!"

Xun Zheng said with a pale face: "If we give up and run away from our general, we may not be able to escape the serious crime when we return to the 'Your Majesty'. It is better to act according to the opportunity and at least resist for a while, so as not to be liquidated in the future.

By the way, you can also observe whether Zhang Fei was a fierce and bloodthirsty person. Now I heard that most of the defenders in Jiyang and Rangcheng were called emperor because they heard that "Your Majesty" was called emperor, but their morale plummeted. There was rumors in the army that Your Majesty was in response to the "Heavenly Condemnation of the Han Dynasty" and that it was said that all the princes in the world said so that the morale of the army was disintegrated. Alas...

In fact, we, even Zhang Xun and Zhang Jiaowei, are not too serious in the eyes of the princes in the world. The latter general cooperated with His Majesty to attack Tongguan when he was emperor, and isolated the king's road, so that the King of Hanzhong could not save His Majesty from time to time. He could not spare the crime of surrendering to the King of Hanzhong. But we are different..."

Xun Zheng said this to this extent, almost as if he had made it clear: if he didn't fight, Yuan Shu would definitely not be able to escape the serious crimes of military law. It would be better to wait and see. Anyway, as long as they lead their troops to surrender, they would at most get rid of the fake position. It would be impossible to ask for a crime, and they did not do anything.

Moreover, Xun Zheng's words were quite restrained. Some of the following people were inspired by him and their thinking became more active:

After being completely defeated, put down your weapons, which is called "captured". It must be the worst treatment. Maybe you have to be punished for several years of hard labor, and officials have to work in the left school.

After a little fight, I found that I could not beat it. I put down my weapons, which was called "surrender". The treatment of surrender must be better than "captured". The official may not have to do anything, but I don't have to serve my sentence.

If both sides are about to contact and vote without fighting, then "surrender" is not even counted, and it is called "uprising in front of the formation". The treatment of the uprising is better than surrender. Maybe some official positions can be retained and demoted.

Xun Zheng's men had their own thoughts, and they rested in the middle of the night without falling asleep, and then went back to rescue their old boss without going out of the camp. At the same time, they also informed Zhang Xun, who had run earlier, and asked them to see if they wanted to save Qiao Rui. If they didn't save him, Zhang Xun would definitely be punished when he returned.

...

A day and a half later, on the banks of Danshui, Xun Zheng's troops marched to the north of Nanxiang County.

However, his actions had long been discovered by Zhang Fei. While Zhang Fei continued to surround Wu Pass, he divided his troops back to respond to the enemy behind him. Both sides ran into the north bank of Danshui.

Zhang Fei didn't talk nonsense to the other party, and rushed forward by Zhuge, shouting loudly: "It's Zhang Yide! The dog thief comes to die quickly!"

Xun Zheng looked at Zhang Fei's soldiers and horses, twice as many as him, showing his flags and his military power. The difference between the quality of soldiers and the quality of generals was huge. After Zhang Fei shouted, his mind was already buzzing.

Just as he was about to grit his teeth and order a counterattack, a deputy general next to Xun Zheng who had not spoken much, grabbed him and reminded him with a pleading look: "Captain, now he is considered an uprising! After fighting, he will surrender and be captured! That's Zhang Fei! Do you have to let the brothers die in vain?"

Xun Zheng struggled in pain for a few seconds. Seeing that Zhang Fei had already charged forward, he quickly shouted the gold while asking all the scolding soldiers to shout together, indicating that his troops were uprising in front of the formation.

Zhang Fei almost didn't stop the horse, and he felt a little angry: I was just about to kill Sifang, so why don't you show me this?

However, he remembered Liu Bei's explanation, knew the different policies of treating uprising, surrendering, and captives, and angrily stopped and shouted: "Then put down your weapons and accept the court's inventory and compilation!"

After working for half an hour, all the 7,000 people of Xun Zheng were counted and included. Those outsiders didn't know the inside story, and they thought it was Zhang Fei who shouted loudly, which scared the uprising of 7,000 people. As a result, they spread rumors and became beautiful stories.

Within the next day or two, Zhang Xun's troops, who were also desperate to be afraid of Yuan Shu's liquidation, also took the initiative to come and pretend to be a defense.

However, Zhang Xun did not get the opportunity to revolt at Zhang Fei's hands. Because he had a longer journey, he was intercepted by Li Sujun who had gone north from Rangcheng along the Baihe River as soon as he returned to Rangcheng.

Zhang Xun had already found out that Xun Zheng could still have an official position after surrender, although he was demoted. So Zhang Xun was too lazy to do anything. It was an uprising to travel more than a hundred miles. It would be better to revolt directly in front of Li Suzhen.

In addition, the defenders on the Wuguan city wall saw reinforcements surrendering one after another, and eventually they could not hold back their morale and collapsed and surrendered directly.

...

At the same time, in the Qinling Valley more than 100 miles west of Wuguan, Qiao Rui's troops were marching back frantically.

Three days ago, when Xun Zheng received the news that "Zhang Fei suddenly appeared from the flank and attacked Wuguan", Qiao Rui actually received the news.

However, Qiao Rui was still in Shangnan at that time, and was nearly 300 miles away from Wu Pass. After learning about the situation, he rushed back frantically, trying to arrive at Wu Pass before Zhang Fei broke through Wu Pass. Unfortunately, the road in the Qinling Mountains was not so easy to catch up.

In the early morning of April 13, when he was still dozens of miles away from Wu Pass, he received several bad news in succession and surrendered to Wu Pass, and Zhang Xun and Xun Zheng also surrendered.

Qiao Rui had no choice but to slow down the marching speed. Zhang Fei, who was camping on the road, was ready to appear at any time, took the initiative to fight. At the same time, after repairing it, he tried to give up his supplies and food, search for a small road to cross the mountains and escape from the Qinling Mountains, and took a small number of elite troops to abandon the army while the chaos was in the chaos.

The people below are prone to surrender, but it is difficult for him to surrender! How many of them can escape the blame for those who have been newly appointed as generals of the four directions by Yuan Shu, or even the Three Dukes and Ministers?

What's more, Qiao Rui had the crime of stopping Liu Bei from saving Jia as soon as possible. Even if he found out later that Liu Bei might not want to save Jia, he would have to severely punish Qiao Rui to prove that he "actually he really wanted to save Jia. Qiao Rui sneaked into the pass and cut off the road of the king, which led to Liu Bei's failure to save Jia."

Qiao Rui knew very well that not punishing him severely would not be enough to prove Liu Bei's loyalty to the late emperor.

Li Feng, the first fierce general around Qiao Rui, has been following Qiao Rui for many years. Faced with this situation, he couldn't help but persuade: "The latter general, since Zhang Xun and Xun Zheng have surrendered to the enemy, we have all been cut off from the front and back, why not..."

(Note: In the Three Kingdoms games, Li Feng was set to be the second only to Ji Ling in the martial arts score of Yuan Shu. But in fact, the only time Li Feng showed up was "fighting with Lu Bu, but escaped alive after being injured." In other words, by fighting with Lu Bu and not dead, he could get 80 martial arts score, and his character was similar to Wu'anguo.)

Qiao Rui shook his head sadly: "At that moment, I promise you to surrender with your soldiers, so as not to die in vain. But I cannot surrender. If I am defeated and captured, I will inevitably be beheaded. Even if I surrender voluntarily in front of the formation, at least I will be punished to work and serve my sentence.

It would be fine if my house was raided, but how can a real man let his wife and daughter be humiliated? You don’t know my two daughters, you must have become slaves. Instead of being humiliated, at that moment, it is better for me to kill them with my own hands to complete the fortunes.

What's more, when Zhang Xun informed him before, he also mentioned that a Nanyang scholar named Pang Tong came to the gate and helped our army go to Luoyang to manage the order to withdraw troops. Now that Zhang Fei is so coincidental, Pang Tong must be the one who is in charge!
Chapter completed!