Chapter 56 The Disappearance of the Datong Army
"Should we turn back or split our forces?" Lu Bu asked.

Among the three, he was the calmest, because those who were killed were not his subordinates, those who were lost were not his soldiers and horses, and those who were captured were not his cities.

The reason why he was willing to defend Xuzhou with Liu Bei was because he was still unwilling to accept his defeat to Ji Hao.

He wanted to compete with Ji Hao in archery and military tactics.

Xuzhou itself has nothing to do with him.

Even if he could hold it, it would belong to Tao Qian. If Tao Qian did not want to establish his own army, then it would belong to Liu Bei, the King of Patrons. It would not be his turn anyway. If he could not hold it, it would only mean the loss of Xuzhou, which was still not his loss.

Of course, if he can hold on to it, he definitely doesn't want to lose it.

Because Ji Hao took Xuzhou, the first place to be affected would be Yanzhou, which is now his, Lu Bu's, territory.

Yuan Shu came to support because he was in the same boat, not entirely because of the little food and military equipment supported by Liu Bei - Xuzhou had plenty of money and food, but even if he spent money, powerful princes like Ma Teng and Liu Biao still would not come.

It’s because it doesn’t border Xuzhou.

Also bordering Xuzhou is Yuzhou, where the position of governor is temporarily vacant and is temporarily replaced by Liu Bei.

"We can't turn back, otherwise if Guangling is lost, we won't just lose a county, but the entire Yangtze River. We can't afford the loss!" Liu Bei said, "We can't divide our forces, otherwise we will be easily defeated one by one!"

In the end, Liu Bei decided to ignore Langya County.

Let them find a way to get to the territories of the aristocratic families. Anyway, those people have their own private soldiers and cannot surrender to the enemy because of Qingzhou's policies.

He is Ji Hao's natural enemy.

"Then let's fight him to the death!" said Lu Bu.

In fact, he was also very angry.

It came from the first battle. When Ji Hao’s army shouted “The world belongs to all people in the world”, although he was intimidated by the momentum, he still wanted to fight hard.

It was just because of a wrong decision before, Gao Shun was captured by Ji Hao, and the most elite trap camp was lost.

He didn't take action because he lacked the confidence.

Follow Liu Bei and retreat to Langya City.

"In a decisive battle, he only has 30,000 soldiers and horses, and he left 2,000 soldiers and horses in Langya. We now have 300,000 troops. Why should we be afraid of him?" Yuan Shu said, looking at Lu Bu, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei, and then said: "You can't beat him, but you can at least stop Ji Hao from charging into the battle and taking the commandership, right?"

In response, the three of them shook their heads.

Dong Zhuo was beheaded because he was not very skilled in martial arts, was old, and Ji Hao defeated Lu Bu.

But Liu Bei was in his prime, and although he might not be good at horse fighting, his foot fighting skills were not much worse than Guan and Zhang.

In addition, considering Guard Zhang, Ji Hao has no chance of killing him.

Don't even think about snatching the general's flag away from the army.

"Let's have a decisive battle, and the outcome will be decided in one battle!" Liu Bei said, leading the army and marching towards Guangling City in a mighty manner, and then found out... Ji Hao was gone, and Zhao Zilong was gone too.

As a result, their 30,000-strong army disappeared.

"What about people?"

"Go to Haikou and don't let them evacuate!" Liu Bei thought Ji Hao had run away, so he hurriedly led his troops to the coast to intercept him, but found that there was no army there at all.

Only the newly built "Jianghai City" stands in the middle of the river.

"Already retreated? Ji Hao, that kid runs really fast!" Zhang Fei said.

Liu Bei was also confused about this.

It was hard to believe that Ji Hao actually abandoned Guangling County, which had two-thirds of the city wall built, and withdrew so decisively - Cao Cao was also confused.

Ji Hao actually did not withdraw.

The Haotian Army has been in Jianghai City all this time and did not participate in the siege. Only Ji Hao went to Liyue Pavilion.

Ji Hao did not let them fight. Instead, he trained them for naval battles to prepare for the future attack on Dongwu: if they were not strong enough to crush them, and the casualties were too heavy, he would have wanted to take Jiangdong right now.

That old bastard Sun Jian is full of evil intentions. He is very evil.

The ones who actually withdrew were the "Chengtian Army" led by Cao Cao. It was a qualified navy and was recalled to Jianghai City by him after Liu Bei's army attacked.

"My Lord, why did you call me back? Quality is more important than quantity. I can defeat Liu Bei's army!"

When Liu Bei's army arrived, Cao Cao also wanted to fight him to decide the winner.

But he was stopped by Ji Hao.

"It doesn't matter whether you can do it or not. With only 8,000 soldiers, even if you win, there will be heavy casualties. It's not worth it." Ji Hao pointed at the sand table and said, "Why don't you take a detour, land here, and take Xia Pi directly!"

The place he was referring to was Xia Pi County, which was just separated by the county great wall.

And the target is Xia Pi City.

Xuzhou's real main city is the only place that is strong and difficult to break, and can be defended directly once it is taken! Xuzhou is a battleground for military strategists because it is surrounded by mountains and is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

"Are you going to have a decisive battle?" Cao Cao was stunned.

Ji Hao nodded after hearing this.

"After more than a year of delay, we have already established a foothold in Xuzhou. It is time to take over the entire Xuzhou in one fell swoop!"

The reason why we didn't take it before was because we couldn't take Xia Pi directly. If we tried to take other places and pull it repeatedly, there would be heavy casualties. But that won't happen now!

Of the six counties of Xuzhou, Langya and Dongguan are already in our hands, and Guangling County has been divided but will soon be completely in our hands.

Once Xia Pi was occupied again, Liu Bei would completely lose his foundation in Xuzhou.

The remaining Donghai and Pengcheng could not change the situation of the war at all, and Liu Bei no longer had the ability to fight with Ji Hao.

"Of course, there is no rush now. Once you take Xia Pi, I will launch a full-scale offensive!" Ji Hao said, "Mobilize all the armed forces behind enemy lines, all the troops, and start!"

At this point, Cao Cao finally understood.

He smiled and said, "I know you are not afraid of fighting, nor of death, but you are as still as a mountain, but when you move, you are as fast as thunder and can kill people with one blow!"

After saying that, he showed a puzzled look again and asked, "But what about Zilong?"

"Zilong? He's still repairing the city wall!"

……

On the other hand, Liu Bei was worried that Ji Hao would turn back, so he stayed by the river.

At the same time, he sent people to take back each county town. When the last county town was taken back, he was completely sure that Ji Hao really led his troops to withdraw.

I couldn't help but feel more confused.

"What does he want?"

Jia Xu discovered a problem and frowned, saying, "That's strange. Why is there only the flag of the Haotian Army in Jianghai City? Aren't the Chengtian Army and Datong Army there?"

Since the city was on an isolated island, he had no way of finding out.

But you can find out the trends.

Finally, it was learned that 8,000 Chengtian troops had evacuated from the riverside and had indeed left.

The Haotian Army never went ashore from beginning to end.

As for the Datong Army, it was they who went ashore and captured Guangling County, but after Liu Bei's army attacked, they simply disappeared - they did not withdraw, nor were they in the various counties, and the army did not move.

Just suddenly, there was no trace.

No one knows where they went!
"Could they be hiding? But how can an army of tens of thousands of people hide completely? Don't they need to eat, drink, defecate and urinate?"

(End of this chapter)