On the official road from Xingyang to Chenggao.
After conveying the order to withdraw his troops, Dong Zhuo's spirit became increasingly depressed, and in the end he almost fainted.
In this state, it was naturally impossible to ride a horse, so Li Jue had to get a carriage and ordered his soldiers to carry Dong Zhuo up to rest.
But as a result, the speed inevitably slowed down.
Along the way, Li Jue did not dare to neglect. While commanding the army, he also stepped forward to check on Dong Zhuo's situation every few miles.
"Prime Minister, are you okay?"
Li Jue jumped on the carriage and asked with concern on his face.
Hearing Li Jue's voice, Dong Zhuo's closed eyes slowly opened, but his condition became more and more depressed. He used all his strength to shake his head.
"I'm fine...Zhiran, how far are we from Cheng Gao now?"
Seeing Dong Zhuo's state, Li Jue was heartbroken, his eyes were full of sadness, and he almost shed tears.
Li Jue was born in a Han family. He was poor when he was young and could not even afford food. In order to survive, he joined the army at a young age. Thanks to Dong Zhuo's appreciation and promotion, he was promoted to school captain.
And his later actions were indeed worthy of Dong Zhuo's appreciation. He was usually taciturn but bravely took the lead in war.
Dong Zhuo then took him as his confidant and even gave him the command of the Flying Bear Army.
It can be said that in the entire Xiliang Army, apart from his younger brother Dong Min, nephew Dong Huang, and Li Ru, the one Dong Zhuo trusted the most was Li Jue.
The two are called master and servant, but they have a somewhat father-son relationship.
"Don't worry, Prime Minister, we are almost there. The journey from Xingyang to Chenggao is only four hours, and now there is at most thirty or forty miles left."
With that said, Li Jue knelt down and helped Dong Zhuo up, while taking off the water bag from his waist.
"Xiangguo, please drink some water first. When you get to Chenggao, you will find a doctor to diagnose and treat you."
Dong Zhuo nodded and reluctantly drank a few sips of water under Li Jue's service, and his condition improved a little.
"I'm just in a hurry. I just need to rest for a few days... When the bandit army sees us withdrawing our troops, they will definitely pursue us in large numbers. Go and send an order to the whole army to speed up."
"Yes! Prime Minister, please rest first and don't overthink. The general will definitely lead the entire army back to Chenggao."
Li Jue responded. In fact, he knew in his heart that it was already the fastest speed. If you want to speed up, you may have to throw away the carriage carrying Dong Zhuo.
Hearing this, Dong Zhuo felt relieved and signaled Li Jue to put him down.
Seeing Dong Zhuo closing his eyes and taking a rest, Li Jue didn't dare to disturb him anymore. He turned around and got out of the carriage, but asked the coachman to drive as smoothly as possible and not to make it too bumpy.
After getting off the carriage, Li Jue just wanted to check the progress of the march, but saw Jia Xu coming towards him.
In the Xiliang army, Jia Xu can be said to be a very special existence.
Although he was also a captain in his official position, he almost never led troops into battle, so he did not have his own tribe.
In terms of status, he was born in Wuwei County, Xiliang. Although the Wuwei Jia family had some reputation in Guanxi, he was ultimately looked down upon by the Guandong family.
In terms of relationships, Jia Xu has always been a transparent person. He never made friends with the generals or offended anyone. He usually kept things simple and kept things simple. Even his official position as captain was forcibly appointed by Li Ru.
In short, this guy is a collection of transparent people, connections, and own people.
Just because he never grabs credit or makes enemies, and because his composition is barely acceptable, although the generals don't hate him as much as Lu Bu does, they really can't get close to him.
"General Lee."
Jia Xu rode up to Li Jue, bowed his hands and saluted.
Seeing that Jia Xu seemed to have something to say to him, Li Jue nodded slightly, and for the sake of his advice just now, he bowed his hand in return.
"What's important, General Jia?"
There was a solemn look in Jia Xu's eyes, and he spoke slowly: "At such a marching speed, we are bound to be overtaken by the enemy. We are still dozens of miles away from Chenggao, and the rest of the way is probably not easy to walk."
Li Jue didn't know that he was slow, but he couldn't throw Dong Zhuo away.
"What good advice does General Jia have?"
Jia Xu smiled slightly and said: "I do have a plan, but it may not work, but General Li might as well give it a try."
"Speaking."
Jia Xu told him his plan, and Li Jue's eyes immediately widened. The look in his eyes was not surprise, but suspicion.
"Is this strategy... feasible?"
Li Jue's doubts were all within Jia Xu's expectation, so he still had that attitude.
"It may not be feasible, but you might as well give it a try."
"Okay, just follow what the general said!"
Li Jue nodded and said, there is nothing to lose in trying anyway.
…
Everything was as Jia Xu expected. With the Xiliang Army's current marching speed, it would be a matter of time before they were overtaken.
The army marched for another hour or so, and it was already in the middle of the day. Less than twenty miles away from Xingyang, Liu Bei's army finally caught up.
After the fire last night, the Xiliang Army, including the Feixiong Army, now only has more than 10,000 people.
On Liu Bei's side, even though Zhang Fei was left to lead 3,000 men to surround and kill Lu Bu, there were still a full 30,000 troops left.
There is a huge disparity in strength between the two sides.
"Hahaha... Thief Dong, you can't run away now!"
After seeing the enemy army, Sun Jian took the lead and laughed heartily.
Liu Bei and Cao Cao also refreshed their spirits, and their excitement replaced their original fatigue.
Keng!
Liu Bei suddenly pulled out the sword from his waist, stood on his horse and shouted loudly: "Send my order to the general, charge the whole army, and kill the Dong thief!"
In order to maximize morale, Liu Bei even doubled the original reward.
After the military order was issued, tens of thousands of troops immediately burst into louder and louder shouts.
"Kill the Dong thief!
Kill the Dong thief!
Kill the Dong thief..."
All the fatigue, patience, and persistence before were all rewarded at this moment.
As long as you charge forward and defeat the enemy in front of you, you will get what you want!
When encountering each other on a narrow road, the brave will win. Now that it has come to this point, there is no need to pay attention to any strategies. The whole army can just press forward and the enemy army on the opposite side can be killed by the sheer number of people.
Sun Jian shouted loudly, and rushed out first with the ancient ingot sword in his hand. Behind him, Cheng Pu led all the soldiers from Jiangdong to attack the Xiliang army not far away.
On Liu Bei's side, all the generals also went into battle. Even Taishi Ci was sent out by Liu Bei, focusing on one without sparing any effort.
Even Cao Cao himself could not sit still and led several strong men from the Cao clan and the Xiahou clan to rush forward.
At this moment, everyone has only one target in their eyes, and that is Dong Zhuo sitting on the carriage!
Kill him and everything will be over!
Facing the fierce coming of the coalition forces, the faces of the generals of the Xiliang Army on the opposite side changed.
It's over, it's all over!
Li Jue lamented in his heart, his expression extremely bitter.
Even though the Flying Bear Army is truly an elite ace, after losing several games in a row, morale has already been low and the soldiers are exhausted.
On the other hand, it was when the opponent's morale was bursting and their fighting spirit was rising. If you really get to grips with it, you can imagine the outcome.
Even if you can defend the opponent's attack initially, as long as the enemy forces form an encirclement, defeat will only be a matter of time.
We are now less than twenty miles away from Chenggao. As long as we give ourselves one more hour... no, even half an hour, we can reach Chenggao City and then we can escape.
But it happened to catch up at this time, damn it!
"Retreat, retreat quickly!"
Li Jue shouted and prepared to retreat with his entire army.
"No, absolutely not!" Jia Xu quickly stopped him.
He never takes the initiative to offer advice, but today he has made one exception after another, which shows that we are really at a critical juncture.
"What does General Jia mean?" Li Jue asked puzzledly.
"At this time, the enemy's morale is high. Our army must not retreat. Once we retreat, the enemy will definitely take advantage of the situation and kill us. Even if we want to counterattack, it will be difficult to form an array. We will all die here!"
When he said this, Jia Xu looked more serious than ever.
"What should we do?"
Li Jue had no idea at this time and could only follow Jia Xu's words and continue to ask.
"It depends on what kind of results the general wants to achieve." Jia Xu said solemnly, "If the general wants to defeat the enemy and win, he should reward the soldiers generously to boost their morale and form an array to fight the enemy to the death. With the elite of the Flying Bear Army, we may not have any The power of a battle. Even if you lose in the end and die in battle, it is better than being chased and killed by the enemy.
If the general is concerned about Prime Minister Dong's safety and vows to send Prime Minister Dong back to Chenggao, please leave most of the elite troops behind and order the front army to take Prime Minister Dong away first. In this way, although the remaining troops would inevitably be defeated, Prime Minister Dong could be saved. Time is urgent, please make a quick decision, General! "
Jia Xu's words seemed to give Li Jue a choice, but in fact he already knew Li Jue's choice when he spoke.
Sure enough, Li Jue immediately said loudly: "I and the soldiers have no regrets in dying, so naturally the first priority is to protect Prime Minister Dong!"
Jia Xu nodded, looking at Li Jue with a hint of respect.
"In that case, please ask the general to personally lead the army to cut off the rear!"
"this……"
When Li Jue heard this, he was stunned for a moment, but immediately understood what Jia Xu meant, and a bitterness flashed in his eyes.
At this time, anyone could see that the enemy was outnumbered and the military was inevitably in panic. In order for Dong Zhuo to leave safely, he must leave the Flying Bear Army behind, and at the same time, he, the commander, must lead the Flying Bear Army to break up the rear, in order to delay time.
If we leave it to someone else to lead it, the enemy troops may all break up or surrender if they charge.
But doing so would undoubtedly put oneself into death.
At this moment, Li Jue was full of struggle.
But the coalition forces would not give him time to make a decision. Listening to the rumble of horse hooves and looking at Li Jue who looked hesitant, Jia Xu couldn't help but urge him again.
"Where to go, please make a quick decision, General."
Looking at Jia Xu who was waiting for him to make a decision, and listening to the horn sound in the distance, Li Jue suddenly breathed a long sigh of relief, and his expression suddenly became firm.
"Pass an order from my general to order Zhang Wencheng's uncle and nephew to lead a thousand soldiers and horses and lead the Prime Minister to evacuate first. The rest of the people will stay with me to stop the enemy!"
Finally, Li Jue glanced at Jia Xu again and said, "General Jia, you can go too."
When a bird is about to die, its song is mournful; when a man is about to die, his words are also kind.
At the last moment, Li Jue decided to give Jia Xu a way out.
Hearing this, Jia Xu bowed his hand to Li Jue.
"Thank you, General. I obey your orders!"
The voice was half respectful and half grateful.
"Go!"
Li Jue waved his hand and told Jia Xu to hurry up and deliver the order.
When he turned around again, Li Jue's face was already full of solemnity, with a crazy light shining in his eyes.
Think of me, Li Jue. In the past, I was just a Guizhou head all over Liangzhou. Fortunately, the Prime Minister did not abandon me and promoted me and put him to good use, so I am now rich and noble.
Today's battle is just the right way to repay each other with death. In the end, we will live up to the kindness of the Prime Minister and the country.
Li Jue slowly raised his spear and pointed at the tens of thousands of coalition troops in the distance.
"Flying Bear Army, come with me to fight!"
