All the clans gathered outside the city.
The pursuing Xiliang army looked at the forked road in front of them and immediately reported to Li Ru: "Sir, there is a forked road ahead."
"Where do these two roads lead to?" Li Ru asked.
"One leads to Hongnong County and the other leads to Nanyang County."
"Hongnong and Nanyang..."
Li Ru dismounted and stood in front of the three-way intersection, frowning and muttering to himself.
According to calculations, the Nanyang road is definitely more likely. Because Yuan Shu, one of the princes of Guandong, stationed troops in Nanyang, Xun You and others could get support if they went there.
However, we do not rule out the possibility that the enemy may be trying to confuse us by creating suspicions, and finally do the opposite.
After a while, Li Ru asked again: "Which road has traces of travel?"
"Sir..." the soldier exploring the road smiled bitterly, "There are traces on both roads."
Hearing this, even Li Ru couldn't help but froze, and then sneered: "These thieves are smart, they know how to divide their troops and flee. In this case, we will also divide our troops to pursue them. Send my order, the thieves are not far away, the soldiers and horses are divided into two groups to pursue Go up and if you see an army of thieves, kill them without mercy!"
"As you command!"
Everyone hurriedly clasped their fists in response.
The first batch of Xiliang troops who pursued them were the thousand Xiliang troops that Li Ru temporarily transferred to the city.
As for the rest of the army, they will arrive in an hour at most. Li Ru planned to order them to search the gatherings of clans behind them before moving forward to join him.
In this way, all three possibilities were blocked, and Xun You and others would be unable to fly even if they had wings.
Sure enough, after dividing the troops and pursuing for half an hour, the pursuers on the two roads encountered Xu Rong's troops almost at the same time.
Li Ru looked happy and immediately ordered: "Kill them, no one will be spared!"
At this moment, the mobility of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry was fully utilized.
Although the Imperial Guards under Xu Rong could be regarded as elite, they had been running away for more than two hours and were already exhausted. Naturally, they were no match for the Xiliang Cavalry.
With just one charge, the Xiliang army broke through the formation of the Forbidden Army and divided and surrounded them.
Next, there is a massacre!
The two sides fought fiercely for more than an hour, and the Imperial Army under Xu Rong suffered heavy casualties. Except for dozens of people who escaped during the night, the rest were all annihilated by the troops sent by Li Ru.
After the war, Li Ru ordered people to light torches and start counting the results.
But after some inspection, neither Xun You's body nor Xu Rong's body was found, not even Cai Yong's family was seen.
"Sir...the leader of the thief might have just taken advantage of the chaos and escaped."
Seeing Li Ru's ugly face, the commander in chief quickly cupped his fists and said.
Li Ru shook his head and said solemnly: "No, it's not that he escaped, but that he's not here at all."
"this……"
The general commanding the troops was speechless for a moment and was a little confused.
But Li Ru has completely figured it out at this moment.
It looked like they were splitting up their forces and escaping, but in fact, both routes were bait, deliberately leading themselves to pursue them. Xun You, Xu Rong and other bandit leaders had already fled along the third road.
"Xun Gongda is quite capable..."
Li Ru looked at the corpse on the ground and sighed deeply.
However, there were only two forking roads just now. Where did they escape from?
Now that the clues have been cut off, there is no point in staying here any longer. Li Ru waved his hand and simply led the army back, preparing to return to the previous fork in the road and find out where the third road was.
In the spirit of preferring to kill the wrong person, Li Ru also sent two hundred elite soldiers to pursue the small group of forbidden troops who managed to escape.
Just in case it is as the general said just now, Xun You and Xu Rong are among them.
It took Li Ru another half an hour to rush back to the Zhu clan gathering. When he arrived, the five thousand troops stationed outside Luoyang City had already arrived. They turned the entire Zhu clan gathering upside down and did not see Xun You and Xu Rong. traces.
At this time, news came from the pursuers on the other side. Only hundreds of soldiers were killed, and no trace of Xun You, Xun You and Cai Yong's family was seen.
Li Ru's conjecture was completely confirmed, and there was indeed a third way that he had not discovered.
Li Ru immediately ordered the entire army to launch a search, vowing to find this third way!
So, the 6,000-strong army immediately launched a carpet-like search, but until daybreak, they found nothing.
…
So where is this third way?
The answer is not at all.
Outside the city where the Zhu clans gather is a three-way intersection, which proves that there are really only two roads. Zhang Heng is not a god, so naturally he cannot open up a third road.
But in addition to land routes in this world, there are also water routes.
Before entering the steam age, the cost of overland logistics was terrible. After all, how much could be transported on the shoulders and by hand? Even with the blessing of livestock, livestock still had to eat.
On the contrary, the waterway is much easier. Ships are called logistics artifacts. As long as the river is on the way, even if they are thousands of miles apart, they can easily arrive within three to five days.
There is a river near the Zhu clan gathering, named Yishui.
This Yishui River passes through Xincheng, connects to Luhun, and finally flows into the deep mountains and old forests of Hongnong County.
Because the river was not navigable after entering Hongnong County, Li Ru was so anxious that he did not consider it for a while.
But Zhang Heng didn’t have to go to Hongnong.
As the escaping party, he can go anywhere, as long as he can get rid of the pursuers, and then he can slowly find his way back to Xingyang.
Due to the limitations of the production conditions of this era, not to mention the 6,000 soldiers and horses under Li Ru's command, even a 60,000-strong army could not block every road.
In fact, as early as when Zhang Heng set out on his escape route, he had already sent people to buy more than a dozen boats at Zhushi Judukou in preparation for his escape.
Don't even think about building ships and warships, but merchant ships can still be purchased.
There are only a dozen boats, and they can only carry less than two hundred people at most.
So from the beginning, Zhang Heng had no intention of bringing Xu Rong's thousands of subordinates with him.
More than a thousand people fled together. The target was too big and it was impossible to cross Henan Yin who was surrounded by defenses.
As a result, those forbidden troops naturally became abandoned. In other words, with Zhang Heng's ability, he can only do this.
The four families of Zhang Wen, Xun Shuang, Cai Yong, and Xu Rong, plus dozens of Taishi Ci's soldiers, were just under 200 people, and more than ten ships were enough. In addition to this, it can even carry some dry food so that the people on the ship will not starve to death.
All the way down the Yishui River, by the time dawn broke, everyone had already left the border of Henan Yin, and in front of them was Luhun County.
Seeing that the sky was slowly getting brighter, but the pursuers were still missing, Zhang Heng knew that he was safe for the time being.
"The captain's ingenuity and ingenuity can actually think of retreating through the waterway. I admire you!" Xun You said in admiration with his hands in hand.
Zhang Heng waved his sleeves and said with a smile: "It was just a temporary idea, but it made Gongda laugh."
"Captain is too humble." Xun You said with a smile.
Zhang Heng shook his head and said to Taishi Ci: "Ziyi, it's already dawn. Let's find a suitable place to dock. Let's go to Luhun City to do some shopping. Then we will detour to Manzhong and go to Liang County. As long as we can reach Liang County , we will be completely safe."
Now Dong Zhuo is fighting outside, and the other Xiliang armies are huddled in the city. Liang County is backed by Lu Yang and is already within Yuan Shu's sphere of influence. The Xiliang army in Guangcheng Pass will never have the guts to go out of the city to pursue him.
"only!"
Taishi Ci responded with clasped fists, and immediately ordered his soldiers to find a place to dock.
It was dark last night, everyone was in a hurry to get on the boat, and they didn't care who was in the boat with whom. Except for Tai Shici who wanted to personally protect Zhang Heng, there were only a few personal soldiers of Xun You and Xu Rong on this ship.
Zhang Heng was looking at the mountains and rivers on both sides of the strait. Suddenly he glanced at Xu Rong and saw that Xu Rong was a little unhappy, so he walked over with a smile.
"General Xu..."
Hearing the call, Xu Rong came back to his senses, quickly raised his hands and saluted: "Captain!"
"No need to be polite." Zhang Heng waved his hand, "Is General Xu worried about those thousand subordinates last night?"
Xu Rong nodded and said: "The captain asked me, and the general did not dare to hide it. I am indeed a little worried."
"Those who achieve great things must always make choices. Those soldiers who eliminate thieves for the country are all loyal to me! If they return safely, I will personally ask for credit for them. If unfortunately they die at the hands of thieves... the general can record them in the roster. , when the world is settled, I will care for their fathers and elders, and show mercy to their wives and children.
I, Zhang Ziyi, swear by Yishui here that I will never let my loyal soul fall into dust! "
Zhang Heng didn't say any nonsense that they would be fine. In this troubled world, it was normal for who lived and who died. The only thing we can do is to make the living people live better and the people who must die to die as valuable as possible.
Seeing that Zhang Heng actually swore to Yishui, Xu Rong couldn't help but be moved. He cupped his hands and choked with tears and said: "I will thank the captain on behalf of my generals!"
"You are Welcome."
Zhang Heng reached out and patted Xu Rong's shoulder and sighed.
What needs to be said has been said, and the rest can only be left to Xu Rong himself.
