weaving

Near noon, the left army's troops ran another thirty miles towards Xuchang.

Counting from the time they began to withdraw in the second half of the night until now, they have already fled for seventy or eighty miles. Even though they were stopped once in the middle of the journey, the infantry were already extremely tired. They only managed to hold on until now in order to escape for their lives.

The fleeing army, which had been in relatively orderly formation, became chaotic. Many soldiers fell behind and probably would never have the chance to return to the team.

However, what made Zuo Liangyu feel extremely fortunate was that although there were a small number of pursuers behind him, there were no bandits blocking the way ahead, nor did he encounter any ambush by bandits.

According to the report from the scouts, behind the thousands of bandits' cavalry, there were more than ten thousand bandits on foot, but they started late and did not need the cavalry to gallop as fast as they could, so it was estimated that they would not be able to catch up for a while.

However, the thousands of horse bandits at the back were difficult to deal with. They were still following the left army slowly and leisurely like they did in the morning, occasionally sending out small groups to harass them. Once a large group of left army came forward to meet them, they would immediately retreat.

  It was like a "dog-skin plaster", sticking to Zuo Jun tightly and never leaving. Zuo Liangyu had no way to deal with it. After all, he couldn't stop and repel it completely, otherwise wouldn't that fall into the enemy's trap?

"Right now, escaping is the most important thing. If they want to follow us, they can follow us. Just think of it as a farewell to us!"

After walking for a while, Zuo Liang Yuce saw a larger town not far ahead on his horse. Smoke from cooking fires and the sound of dogs barking could be heard from afar. It seemed that the common people did not know that the government troops were coming, so they stayed in the town as usual and did not run away.

Seeing this made him feel happy: "Since the market town ahead is safe and sound as usual, no one is alarmed, it is clear that there are no bandits lying in ambush here. If there really were 'bandits' here, the people would have fled long ago, why is it as usual now?"

Zuo Liangyu whispered to his trusted guardsmen, "People say that Blind Li is good at commanding troops, and that he has Song Xiance and others to help him plan, but today it seems that he has really exaggerated.

They didn't expect me to retreat to Xuchang, and they didn't know to set up checkpoints along the way to stop me. They just followed us from behind to see us off. How careless and ridiculous!"

Suddenly, he saw that the team in front stopped in front of the market town, while the team behind did not react for a while and continued to move forward. The road, which was not very wide to begin with, became congested in an instant, and the scene was very chaotic.

He waved his whip and shouted, "Why don't the front troops advance?"

Upon hearing this, a personal soldier immediately urged his warhorse to gallop out. A moment later, he rode back with a lieutenant. The lieutenant reported to him, "General, a deep ditch suddenly appeared ahead, about eight feet wide and nearly seven feet deep. The excavated soil was piled up to form an earth wall on the opposite side of the ditch, making it even more difficult to cross."

Zuo Liangyu was sitting on his warhorse, frowning and saying, "Why not go around?"

"Replying to the commander, the ditch winds along the road endlessly, and I don't know how long it is. In addition..."

"What else?"

"Marshal, there is a wooden sign standing opposite the deep ditch with a line of large characters written on it. It seems we have fallen into a trap!"

Zuo Liangyu was shocked when he heard this and asked him anxiously, "What is written on the wooden sign?"

The lieutenant said timidly, "Written on the wooden sign were the words 'The left camp was defeated here. Those who surrender will not be killed!'"

Zuo Liangyu's face turned pale instantly. Only then did he realize that he had fallen into Li's trap. He couldn't help but feel terrified.

But he could not show the slightest fear in front of his soldiers. He just pretended to be calm, smiled and cursed: "The blind thief is really wishful thinking. Today, I must make him watch my entire division retreat to Nanyang!"

As soon as he said this, a deputy general from the front camp rode up to him, took out a piece of paper from his bosom and handed it to Zuo Liangyu, saying, "General, please read this..."

Zuo Liangyu took it with a suspicious look on his face, unfolded it and saw the following words written on it:

"I hereby inform General Kunshan that you are a wandering spirit under the cauldron;

Quickly surrender with all your people to avoid being defeated and captured." Zuo Liangyu was immediately furious and asked, "Where did you get it from?"

The deputy general replied tremblingly: "Reporting to the commander, it was torn off from a tree on this side of the deep ditch."

"Pass the order, the left camp will become the front team, the whole army will move to the left and bypass the trench!"

Zuo Liangyu now knew that there must be ambushes nearby, so he judged that the left side would be safer, and he could also turn to Yanling and Fugu. In short, the farther away from Zhuxian Town, the better.

But the deputy general who had just delivered the note said, "No, General. There are many enemy flags a few miles to the left..."

As soon as the deputy general said this, there came a sudden "boom dong dong" sound of war drums from behind the army, shaking the sky and the earth, mixed with the sounds of fighting and roaring.

Zuo Liangyu's face was livid. He calmly ordered the rear troops to fight to the death and not to retreat even a step. At the same time, he shouted loudly: "Fill the trenches! Dig trenches immediately. The front troops must fill the trenches and quickly build a passage!"

The officers and soldiers in the front camp also wanted to fill the deep trench as quickly as possible, but they did not have the right tools to fill the trench. It was impossible to quickly fill a path in such a wide trench just by using knives and digging with their hands.

However, everyone was very afraid of the pursuers behind them and was eager to escape. Thousands of soldiers and horses immediately dispersed to the left and right. Amidst the flying dust, the deep ditch did not see much change.

After seeing this, the front camp of the left army became even more chaotic. People kept falling into the ditch due to the crowding...

The cunning bandits had inserted many wooden spikes at the bottom of the ditch. The officers and soldiers who were squeezed down let out heart-wrenching screams. Some of them were unwilling to be squeezed down, and they grabbed the people around them randomly, as if they were grabbing a life-saving straw. How could they let go so easily?

Their screams echoed the faint sound of war drums from behind, which further increased the fear in the hearts of the officers and soldiers in the front camp. As the soldiers behind continued to push forward, more and more officers and soldiers fell into the deep ditch...

However, the wooden spikes placed by the bandits in the deep ditch were not arranged in a very regular pattern. In some places, not a single wooden spike could be seen, but there were wailing sounds all around, and the bright red blood gradually gathered into trickles, flowing under the struggling people and in the gaps between the piled corpses, like a gurgling stream.

"Quick, fill the trench with corpses, hook up the corpses!"

I don't know which cruel and ruthless person was so smart, but his sudden shout immediately woke up the deserters who were so panicked that they lost their nature. At once, long hooks and short hooks were used to hook up the bodies of the officers and soldiers who had fallen into the deep ditch one by one, and then filled them up in the appropriate positions.

Although some officers and soldiers fell into the ditch, they did not die immediately. Their desperate struggle affected the officers and soldiers above who were trying to retrieve the bodies.

"Quick, stab these people to death. They are delaying me from filling the trench."

In an instant, long spears came and stabbed the officers and soldiers who were still struggling in pain in the deep ditch. Many officers and soldiers who did not fall into the wooden spikes escaped the trap of the bandits, but in the end they could not escape the spears of their own people!

Only a very small number of officers and soldiers successfully avoided the wooden spikes of the bandits and the long spears of their own people, and used their flexible and agile skills to climb up the earth wall on the opposite bank.

Undoubtedly, they were the lucky group of people, blessed by God, but "luck doesn't always come, bad luck always follows". Since withdrawing their troops from Shuipo Ji, they have not fought a battle with the bandits, and yet they lost more than a thousand soldiers in vain in front of this deep ditch.

But it must be said that filling the trench with the bodies of one's own people is indeed a clever trick.

Soon, with the joint efforts of the officers and soldiers in the front camp and at a certain cost, more than ten passages were finally filled in on the deep ditch that was more than eight feet wide.

Zuo Liangyu looked at everything in front of him expressionlessly and shouted: "Forward, quickly cross the trenches, and the whole army will rush to Xuchang." (End of this chapter)