"Who?"

The sound of horses' hooves alarmed the vigilant soldiers, they shouted, there were not many soldiers on guard here, only a dozen people, Guo Song roared like a storm, instantly chopping the heads of the two, the other soldiers were so frightened that they turned around and fled for their lives, and shouted at the same time, "Someone broke into the camp!" The enemy has come in! ”

Guo Song didn't care about them, he rushed into the enemy camp, the halberd crossed from both sides, the two big tents collapsed, his men threw a fire fold to the big tent, and more than 20 big tents were ignited in an instant.

In the early days of storming the camp, there was no stubborn resistance, and it was the best time to set fire, Guo Song's men lit torches and threw them at the big tents, and soon more than 100 big tents were set on fire.

"Keep up!"

Guo Song shouted, rode his horse to kill a group of soldiers who had just escaped from the tent, and the soldiers stopped igniting the fire, urging the horses to follow the main general, waving their spears to stab the enemy troops on both sides.

There was a commotion in the camp, and the sleeping soldiers were awakened one after another, and when they came out of the tent, they saw the fire in the south, and they did not know whether it was a fire or an attack, and thousands of soldiers gathered together to discuss.

At this moment, a cavalry stabbed out of the oblique spur, killed into the crowd, thousands of soldiers were caught off guard, were killed all over the ground, heavy casualties, the soldiers were so frightened that they scattered and fled, Guo Song led his men to kill through the encirclement, to the northwest direction, there were not many troops here, the soldiers took the opportunity to take out the fire fold, ignited in the wind, and threw it to a big tent.

Their fire folds are specially made, with handles, and can be thrown twenty or thirty paces away, like small torches.

At this time, Li Zhongchen came out of the big tent of the Chinese army and found that there were fires burning in the southeast and northwest directions, and the soldiers in the camp were scattered and fled, and they were in chaos.

He was taken aback, thinking that it was the court cavalry that was following to sneak attack the camp, but it didn't feel like it, it didn't seem that the entire military camp was attacked, the south was chaotic because of the fire, and the shouts of killing were only in the northwest.

"What's going on?" Li Zhongchen asked annoyedly.

A general stepped forward tremblingly and said, "It seems that a cavalry team of several hundred people has entered the main camp, killed from the southeast, and went to the northwest. ”

"What?"

Li Zhongchen was furious, a cavalry of hundreds of people could break into the camp so unscrupulously, "Surround them for me, kill them all, and not let any of them go!" ”

Li Zhongchen's roaring orders were still echoing in front of the tent, but Guo Song had already led the cavalry out of the enemy camp, and they threw the last dozens of fire folds into the cart, and disappeared into the darkness like a gust of wind.

Not a single one of the three hundred cavalry was injured, and none of them stayed in the camp, and all of them followed Guo Song to kill.

However, the Huaixi army suffered thousands of casualties, more than 300 large tents were burned, especially the forage tent in the south was set on fire, tens of thousands of loads of forage and thousands of stones of grain were burned, and the originally sufficient military rations became strained.

This Tang Army's assault on the camp brought a huge shock to the soldiers of the Huaixi Army, greatly weakened their morale, and the morale of the army began to become unstable, and every soldier was thinking about how to keep the property they had looted.

At dawn, a piece of news came that Li Zhongchen could not accept even more: more than 100 large ships he was about to cross the Huai River were burned down by an army of unknown origin, and the 1,500 soldiers who remained behind were completely annihilated.

Only then did Li Zhongchen realize that the problem was serious, let alone going to Yangzhou now, he couldn't even go back to Huaixi now.

Li Zhongchen paced back and forth in the room with his hands in his hands, and he was now faced with a dilemma: whether to go east to Haizhou to find a way to go south, or to evacuate west and find a boat to cross the river back to Huaixi.

After a long hesitation, Li Zhongchen finally decided to evacuate westward, and he ordered several soldiers with good water skills to swim across the Huai River to ask for help from his son Li Chao, who had stayed in Hefei, and asked him to raise ships to meet him on the north bank.

However, Li Zhongchen did not expect that the news that the ship had been burned down and that he could not return to Huaixi had spread rapidly among the army, and the people in the army were suddenly panicked, and most of the soldiers were carrying the looted property, and how to bring the property home had become their greatest concern now.

War weariness quickly spread among the army.

Li Zhongchen led his army west for a day, and when he camped at night, he found that there were more than 1,000 people missing, which was definitely a bad signal, which made Li Zhongchen very frightened, and he ordered the news to be blocked, and ordered all the generals to strictly control the soldiers, and order them to be ordered every other hour.

Although the vigilance was strengthened, it was still to no avail, and the next morning, Li Zhongchen found that the army was less than 2,000 men.

Li Zhongchen's army had been reduced to 25,000 men, and the news could no longer be blocked, and the news of the emergence of a large number of deserters spread secretly throughout the army.

Li Zhongchen paced back and forth in the big tent with his hands in his hands, he stayed awake all night, and he was so anxious that his hair turned gray all night.

He began to regret the plundering of Songcheng County, if it wasn't for his momentary hot-headedness and big mistakes, how could he anger the prince, send cavalry to chase after him, and cut off his way south.

Otherwise, now that he has entered Yangzhou and realized his long-cherished wish for many years, Li Zhongchen lamented in his heart that he had made a wrong step and lost the best opportunity to seize Yangzhou.

Now these soldiers have got the benefits but want to escape, but all the consequences have to be borne by themselves, and Li Zhongchen gritted his teeth with hatred.

Another thing that made Li Zhongchen anxious was that he received a letter from his brother-in-law Zhang Huiguang last night, saying that he was collecting ships, but the hundreds of ships he had raised were taken away overnight by his nephew Li Xilie, and their whereabouts were unknown.

Two years ago, his staff Jiang Wen had persuaded him that his nephew Li Xilie was a wolf with great ambitions, and he should not be allowed to take military power, he did not take it to heart, and within two days, Jiang Wen fell into a well because of drunkenness, and Li Xilie's matter was over.

Now Li Zhongchen realized that he was afraid that Jiang Wen's death was related to Li Xilie, and his nephew Li Xilie was really a wolf ambition, and he obviously didn't want to let him go back, so he took the ship away.

If he has three strengths and two weaknesses, will his son Li Chao and brother-in-law Zhang Huiguang be Li Xilie's opponents?

Li Zhongchen was about to go crazy, as if he saw his family fall under Li Xilie's butcher's knife.

At this time, a personal soldier reported at the door of the tent: "Marshal Qiqi, General Zhu is back and has brought back a lot of wood." ”

Zhu Hui was his cavalry commander, commanding 2,000 cavalry, and he went to pursue the deserters on his own orders, how could he bring back the wood?

Li Zhongchen walked out of the big tent and saw a large number of logs piled up in the open space, including thousands of logs.

He walked up and asked, "What are you doing with such timber?" Where are the deserters? ”

Zhu Hui stepped forward and bowed and said: "Qiqi Marshal, we pursued hundreds of deserters, captured a batch, and some refused to come back, and were beheaded by us on the spot. ”

Li Zhongchen's eyes lit up, he didn't expect to be able to build a raft, the Huai River is not the Yangtze River, not to mention a raft, even if he holds a log, he can swim across the Huai River, he didn't expect it?

He saw the hundreds of deserters kneeling on the side, and coldly ordered: "Behead them all, hang their heads, and see who dares to be deserters again?" ”

The soldiers dragged hundreds of deserters down like wolves, and the deserters cried and pleaded, but in the end they could not escape death.

Li Zhongchen immediately ordered Zhu Hui to lead 5,000 soldiers to cut wood, and come back to cross the river on a raft.

Finally having the hope of returning home, the soldiers immediately mobilized their enthusiasm and went to cut down trees in the woods to the north.

Guo Song led 1,000 soldiers thirty miles north of Li Zhongchen's army, and they captured more than 50 deserters, from the confessions of these deserters, Guo Song judged that Li Zhongchen's army was on the verge of collapse, and the time was ripe for an attack, and he immediately ordered a soldier to deliver a message to the Ma Sui army that was following behind.

Guo Song and more than a dozen of his subordinates immediately watched from a distance on a small hill in the distance, watching the soldiers of the Huaixi Army who were cutting trees in the woods, and in just two hours, they cut down more than 20,000 trees.

"Envoy, do you want to take advantage of its unpreparedness and annihilate this logging army?" Captain Yao Jin next to him said in a low voice.

Guo Song shook his head, "Don't startle the snake for the time being!" ”

"I'm worried that when Marshal Ma's cavalry comes, he will miss the five thousand logging troops!"

"No!"

Guo Song smiled slightly, "They are going back soon, and they shouldn't come to cut down again." ”

Everyone looked at the felling soldiers, and saw that they were all tying logs with ropes and preparing to drag them back, Yao Jin asked again, "Then how should we prepare?" ”

Guo Song said confidently: "Let's go to the front and lay a net!" ”

.........