Thief Emperor

Chapter 645 Surrender
Looking at the entire history, it is not difficult to find that the more intense the wars before the establishment of a dynasty, the more stable and lasting the dynasty established later will be, and it may also become more powerful.

In addition to completely destroying the original class, another reason is that the more intense the war, the stronger the army that finally sweeps across the world will be.

On the south bank of the Huai River, tens of thousands of Jiangdong troops rushed towards the Pinglu Army retreating northward like wolves and tigers.

At this time, more than half of the Pinglu Army had successfully retreated to the north by boat, and the remaining people had no desire to fight. Facing the siege of the Jiangdong Army behind them, the Pinglu Army only wanted to rush to board the ship and leave. Almost no one wanted to turn around to fight.

As a result, after just over an hour of pursuit, the Pinglu Army was on the verge of defeat.

At this time, the person in charge on the south bank of the Huai River was no longer Zhou Xu, but Zhou Chang, who had begun to take over the subsequent military affairs. Zhou Chang looked at the Jiangdong Army that was gradually surrounding him, and soon came up with an idea. He summoned several deputy generals and said with a heavy face: "My fellow uncles, at this time, we must have an army to cover the retreat on the south bank."

Luo Zhen shook his head slightly and whispered, "Major General, the morale of the troops is not right. If we let them stay behind to cover their retreat, there might be big problems."

He looked up at Zhou Chang and said in a hoarse voice: "It's possible that the camp would explode or that there would be a mutiny."

Xie Zhao said angrily: "Major General, leave three battalions for me. I will stay behind to cover your retreat!"

Zhou Chang frowned and said nothing. After a long while, he looked at Gongsun Hao who had remained silent all the time and said, "Uncle Hao."

Gongsun Hao looked at Zhou Chang, thought for a moment, and then said, "Major General, I can bring a group of people to stay behind to cover our retreat, but afterwards, we..."

He took a step forward and said something in Zhou Chang's ear.

Zhou Chang's expression changed slightly at first, but soon, he nodded silently and said, "Okay."

"I agreed."

Gongsun Hao bowed his head and clasped his fists to Zhou Chang, and said, "Major General, I am afraid that I will never see the general again after this departure. When you see the general, please tell him on my behalf."

"I have never betrayed Qingzhou, not before, and not in the future."

After saying that, he turned around and limped away.

General Gongsun quickly arrived at the army and gathered the soldiers stranded on the south bank.

Some of these soldiers were his old subordinates, while others were not. However, Gongsun Hao had been in the army for many years and had great prestige.

Although he has not led troops for some time, his appeal in the army is still far greater than Xie Zhao's.

"brothers."

Gongsun Hao stood up straight, full of energy: "The Jiangdong army is like a maggot attached to my bones. At this time, we need someone to stay and hold them off for a few hours so that the brothers in the rear can retreat."

At this point, he paused, and then continued, "I know that this kind of mission is extremely dangerous, and it is almost a life-or-death mission. I, Gongsun Hao, cannot promise you anything, but I can promise you that I will be the last one to board the ship that crosses the river to the north."

"Listen carefully, the Major General has already agreed,"

He said in a hoarse voice: "Everyone who steps out now, whether dead or alive, will receive 20 strings of cash, which will be sent to their homes."

"If you are not the only child in the family, stay!"

"If father and son are in the army together, the father should be killed and the son should be kept. If brothers are in the army together, the elder brother should be killed and the younger brother should be kept!"

"No one with disabilities will be allowed to stay."

Gongsun Hao said in a hoarse voice: "The rest of you, stay with me and cover the rear of the army!"

There were very few people who responded in the entire army.

After a long time, a young man of about eighteen or nineteen years old stood up, raised his hand and said, "General, I am willing to stay and cover you!"

This man is an old subordinate of Gongsun Hao and still has some trust in Gongsun Hao.

After the first one, there will soon be the second and the third.

Gongsun Hao spoke in a hoarse voice, looked at the clerk beside him, and said, "Remember the name!"

The clerk hurried forward and counted the names.

Just like that, after almost two hours, Gongsun Hao, relying almost entirely on his personal appeal and the declared relief, gathered three thousand people to stay with him.

In addition to these three thousand men, Gongsun Hao also had many of his old generals who stayed with him. Relying on these generals, Gongsun Hao quickly completed a rough reorganization of these three thousand men into units of colonels and battalions.

That night, he found Zhou Chang and decided on two crossing points with Zhou Chang. He also agreed with Zhou Chang that the soldiers who had not crossed the river would obey his orders. So he personally commanded the troops, ordering the Pinglu Army to hold off the attack of the Jiangdong Army while deploying his own 3,000 rear guard troops.

It took him only one night to build two defensive positions at the two river crossing points.

The next morning, Gongsun Hao, dressed in armor, limped towards Zhou Chang, bowed his head and clasped his fists, saying, "Major General, Li Yun has always been cautious in deploying troops, and he doesn't want to see too many casualties on his side. According to this idea, my three thousand men can at least hold them off for a day and a night."

"This day and night is the best opportunity for the Major General to retreat."

Zhou Chang looked at Gongsun Hao and felt a little touched.

It was not until now that he realized that Uncle Gongsun must be the most militarily talented among the deputy generals of the Pinglu Army.

At least, he is far better than Xie Zhao who was promoted later.

The reason why Gongsun Hao was captured was not because he made any mistakes, but because he did not anticipate Li Yun's abnormal personal combat ability.

This led to the incident of him being captured accidentally and breaking his promise to Zhou Xu.

"Uncle Hao..."

Zhou Chang sighed.

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"No need to say more, Major General."

Gongsun Hao bowed his head deeply and said, "General, please remember what you promised me. It will be worth it even if I die."

Zhou Chang said seriously: "Uncle Hao, don't worry, I will definitely remember it."

"later…"

Zhou Chang whispered: "I will definitely make Qingzhou better and better."

Gongsun Hao bowed deeply, then turned around and limped away.

Looking at Gongsun Hao's departing figure, Zhou Chang took a deep breath and said in a deep voice: "Withdraw!"

"Withdraw to Huaibei as quickly as possible!"

At this moment, the Pinglu Army still south of the Huai River should have a strength of about 8,000 people, with 3,000 people covering the retreat of 5,000 people, which was quite heroic.

However, at this time, Gongsun Hao was facing Deng Yang, the general who was most eager to make achievements in the entire Jiangdong army, and Meng Qing, the most ferocious captain in battle!
Meng Qing and Deng Yang had a tacit understanding and each of them attacked fiercely. In just one day, Gongsun Hao's two positions were almost completely lost. Of the 3,000 people in the two positions, only a little over 1,000 were left.

Gongsun Hao was covered in blood, whether it was from the enemy or his own. He walked out of the position, walked towards Deng Yang's troops in front, and said, "Gongsun Hao is willing to surrender!"

"Gongsun Hao is willing to surrender!"

Deng Yang frowned and shouted, "Pass the order down, surround these enemy troops and chase the Pinglu troops still on the south bank!"

The two positions surrendered at the same time, and the news was almost delivered to Li Yun in Fengyang at the same time. Li Yun looked at the news in his hand, and then said calmly: "Accept the surrender, all surrendered, these people, all escorted to Nanjing, I will personally reorganize them."

The messenger quickly delivered the news to the front battlefield.

As a result, the only one thousand remaining soldiers of the Pinglu Army were disarmed and surrendered by the Jiangdong Army, and of the remaining five thousand, more than four thousand had already fled back to Huaibei, leaving less than one thousand people behind by the Jiangdong Army.

When the last ship docked, Major General Zhou Chang jumped from the ship to the dock on the north bank. He looked around at the demoralized and dejected Pinglu Army soldiers and silently waved his hand: "Return to Qingzhou!"

After the Pinglu Army soldiers began to withdraw to Qingzhou, Zhou Chang was called by Zhou Gui all the way to the tent of General Zhou.

In the big tent, Zhou Xu looked up at his son and was silent for a long time before he said, "Gongsun...what did he say to you?"

Zhou Chang lowered his head and said, "Father, Uncle Hao told me that he can bring people to stay behind to cover the retreat, but each of these people who stay behind will be compensated with 20 strings of cash."

He paused, then continued, "Whether alive or dead, it's twenty strings of cash."

At this point, Zhou Chang looked up at Zhou Xu and said silently: "Even if they are captured, they should be treated as dead and their families should not be harmed."

General Zhou had an unsightly expression on his face. After a long time, he slowly exhaled a breath with a hoarse voice.

"Just do it."

(End of this chapter)