On the banks of the Shu River, the sky turned completely dark.
Wan Zhong and more than 1,500 people had already walked out of Pagoda Mountain.
Because their mission was very heavy, Shen Yi gave him all the elites. At this moment, almost everyone was wearing armor and holding long swords.
Wan Zhong stood in front of the formation with a loud voice.
"Bros!"
He loudly said: "Gong Shen's general order has been passed to me. Now, the Qi people on the west side of the Shu River are fleeing eastward to us. They are still twenty or thirty miles away from the Shu River!"
"They will probably arrive at our place at dawn!"
"Our mission is to stop them for at least half a day!"
Having said this, General Wan, who had been promoted to the rank of commander, said solemnly: "This is a challenge, but it is also an opportunity!"
"Hold him for more than half a day."
He shouted: "Everyone will take credit once!"
"If we can't stop it, it will take half a day."
He looked at everyone and said coldly: "Even if Mr. Shen wants to ask for credit from us, I will stop him. Mr. Shen is kind and virtuous, but we brothers cannot be shameless!"
Among these 1,500 people, 1,000 of them were brought out by him single-handedly, and more than 500 people were elites from each battalion. When they heard this, they all shouted: "General Wan will give the orders!"
Wan Zhong nodded silently and said: "Today during the day, we cut down trees in the mountains, and now we will immediately set up wooden stakes on the road that several Qi people must pass."
He said in a deep voice: "Moreover, demolish all the bridges on the nearby Shu River."
"The stone bridge was difficult to demolish, so I blew it up with gunpowder!"
Although the Shu River is not wide, it is very long and runs north-south, which is suitable for blocking the Qi people.
However, it is unlikely that the Qi people will be held back for too long. The Qi people only have 4,000 people. If the river is not wide, they can cut down trees and build pontoons to cross the river.
But no matter what, this method can also slightly hinder the progress of the Qi people's escape eastward, while Wan Zhong and others are waiting on the east bank of the Shu River to stop the Qi people.
Soon, more than a thousand people followed Wan Zhong's instructions and went down to prepare.
It's almost midnight now.
Wan Zhong ordered some soldiers who had no mission to rest first, while he and several hundred households quietly waited for the arrival of the Qi people.
Just a few hours, for Wan Zhong, is extremely long.
I don’t know how much time passed, but finally the east began to turn white.
Wan Zhong, who was resting on a big rock with his eyes closed, slowly opened his eyes and looked to the west.
To the west, there was faint movement, and where the sky and the earth met, there was a faint black line rolling towards it.
Wan Zhong finally cheered up and shouted in a deep voice: "The enemy is coming!"
"Get ready to line up to meet the enemy, prepare to line up to meet the enemy!"
More than a thousand Huai'an army officers and soldiers immediately woke up and began to form formation according to Wan Zhong's instructions.
The formation is not very tight.
Because at this time, they need to open up their front line so that they can stop as many Qi people as possible.
The black line in the distance is getting closer and closer.
At the front of the black line is Zhou Shizhong on horseback.
At this time, General Zhou was a little embarrassed.
He was stationed with his soldiers. Before dawn, he was woken up by the messenger below, saying that the Huai'an army was surrounding him. General Zhou was so frightened that he quickly mounted his horse and led his soldiers to retreat eastward, preparing to withdraw to Haizhou.
.
After all, on the battlefield, the number of people is at an absolute disadvantage. Even Zhou Shizhong would not be able to choose to confront the Huai'an army head-on at this time.
As a result, before dawn, he was already led by Xue Wei and chased him all the way to the vicinity of Shuhe River.
Before the army reached the Shu River, a scout came over and reported in a panic: "General! All the bridges on the nearby Shu River are broken!"
"There are torches across the river!"
"You can vaguely see the southern army!"
General Zhou sat on the horse, remained silent for a few breaths, closed his eyes, and said slowly: "How many people are there?"
"It's not bright yet, so I can't see clearly."
"but…"
The scout knelt on the ground, lowered his head and said: "It seems that the number of people is not particularly large, it is estimated to be around two thousand."
Zhou Shizhong looked back at the four thousand soldiers behind him, his face expressionless.
"Send my military order to march eastward and kill the enemies blocking the road!"
"yes!"
………………
This blocking battle lasted from morning until afternoon.
It was almost late in the evening when the main force led by Xue Wei completely surrounded most of the Qi army. In order to rush on the road, Xue Wei rode all the way and camped on the bank of the Shu River. Then he jumped off the horse and led hundreds of people from the Qi people's camp.
Ran across the pontoon.
At this time, the east side of the Shu River was already flowing with blood.
The setting sun illuminated the earth into a hazy red color.
Xue Wei and others ran all the way and finally found Wan Zhong's subordinate who was still entangled with Qi Ren.
But it's no longer in formation.
To be precise, both the Huai'an Army and the Qi Army were no longer in formation.
Xue Wei gave a loud shout and shouted: "Go up and replace the brothers in front!"
So, hundreds of people rushed forward and replaced the exhausted Wan Zhong's troops.
Xue Wei even resisted the urge to rush forward and kill for a while. He found a Baihu who was under the command of Wan Zhong and asked: "Where is Wan Zhong? Where is he?"
The hundred households were also slightly injured, but not seriously. He pointed to the back, and Xue Wei looked in the direction of his finger. There were several temporary tents in the distance.
Xue Wei strode forward, walked nearly a hundred feet, and was led to the entrance of the tents. After he stooped and walked in, he saw that there were some wounded soldiers inside.
Wan Zhong was also lying in it, his face a little pale.
But fortunately, it has been bandaged and it seems that the injury has been treated.
Xue Wei breathed a sigh of relief, half-crouched in front of Wan Zhong, glanced at him, and said angrily: "You kid scared me, I thought you were dead!"
Wanzhong had stab wounds on his arms and back. Hearing this, he grinned and said, "How can you die so easily?"
Xue Wei sat down on the ground in front of him and said: "My people have caught up, and none of the Qi people who are still in the circle can escape."
With that said, he looked at Wan Zhong and asked, "What's going on here? Tell me."
Wan Zhong was silent for a while and then said: "In the morning, I was under too much pressure."
He said in a hoarse voice: "We don't have many people, and the battle line is too long. They concentrate on breaking out, and we suffer a lot."
"Mr. Shen said that we should preserve our own vitality, so I opened my mouth and let a group of Qi people out."
Wan Zhong whispered: "About five or six hundred people left."
"Many of this group of Qi people are on horseback. They should be the generals of this group of Qi people. There is a main force chasing them. They did not dare to stay for a long time and fled eastward."
"Then, I spent some effort to seal the hole."
Wan Zhong looked at his arm and said, "The injury on my arm was caused when I was sealing my mouth."
“Overall it was a success.”
He said to Xue Wei: "After the mouth was sealed, the fighting spirit of the remaining Qi people dropped a lot. They no longer concentrated on breaking out, but wanted to escape in all directions."
"They dispersed, and we could only disperse to stop them."
"Until you arrive."
Xue Wei nodded and said with a smile: "You boy, you have learned a lot from Mr. Shen. If Mr. Shen were here, he would probably fight like this in order to reduce casualties."
"What are the approximate casualties?"
Wan Zhong lay on the ground and exhaled: "There are only five or six hundred people. Most of the remaining one thousand people are injured."
"but…"
He glanced at Xue Wei and felt a little depressed: "In the afternoon, I found out that among the group of people who were let go, someone raised the Zhou flag. I guess that the general of Northern Qi, Zhou Shizhong, was among them."
Having said this, Wan Zhong clenched his fist fiercely and said with some annoyance: "If I had known, I would have left Thief Zhou behind even if I had thrown my life here!"
Xue Wei patted his shoulder and laughed: "Mr. Shen doesn't value these things. What he values is the ability to kill the enemy. Besides..."
"This Zhou Shizhong is not a brilliant general. What's the use of arresting him?"
General Xue said with a smile: "Let him go and let him continue to lead the Southern Conquest Army. Maybe it will be easier for us to fight in the future."
Wanzhong sighed, then looked up at Xue Wei, and said: "Five or six hundred people ran away, plus those who fled in all directions, it is estimated that hundreds of people escaped, and the ones who were finally surrounded were probably not enough."
Three thousand people."
Xue Wei smiled and said: "That's enough. Mr. Shen didn't say that we must keep them all. We just need to scare them away so that they don't dare to come back in a short time."
General Xue's eyes were bright: "Mr. Shen's goal has never been these thousands of Qi troops!"
Wan Zhong nodded.
"Yes, our target is Xuzhou City."
Having said this, he looked at his injured arm, but his mood was still not high: "It's a pity that we beat Xuzhou this time, I'm afraid I won't have anything to do with my brother."
Xue Wei gently patted his shoulder and comforted him: "This blocking battle is also part of the Battle of Xuzhou. Brother, you have already made the first contribution!"
After saying this, Xue Wei stood up and said, "I feel relieved to see that you are fine. I just saw a lot of people from Qi outside and my hands were itchy."
He said loudly: "I won't accompany you anymore. After I take care of them, I will come back to find you."
After that, he strode out.
Wan Zhong looked at Xue Wei's back, shook his head, and laughed dumbly.