Chapter 85: God's Will

The scouts sent out by Zhang Kai returned to the valley with some bad news.

They encountered enemy scouts in the west and south!

After a brief encounter on both sides, they did not engage, but retreated into the mountains and forests to report back.

Zhang Kai jumped off the bed after learning of this news.

Something was wrong. Why the west and south?

Weren't Cao Cao's troops in the north and east?

Was he surrounded on all sides?

Zhang Kai felt that the development of the situation was out of control!

Damn it, even if he killed Cao Song, he wouldn't be able to escape!

He paced back and forth in the room and ordered: "Get everyone up and go to Fei County!"

The lieutenant general asked in confusion: "Fei County? Wasn't that just slaughtered by Cao Cao's army a few days ago?"

Zhang Kai was in a irritable mood and shouted: "Don't ask, leave immediately!"

He wanted to take a gamble, betting that Cao Cao's army had indeed detoured behind him in order to save Cao Song. If he retreated towards Xu Province, he would fall into an encirclement!

His only chance of survival now was to retreat into Fei County, betting that Cao Cao's army would not search Fei County again under the cover of darkness, so that he could find an opportunity to escape.

In this case, Cao Song could not be killed now, it would be best to keep him as a hostage!

Just as Zhang Kai ordered everyone to move, taking advantage of the chaos, Cao De quietly sneaked into the mountains on horseback and disappeared into the night.

About seven or eight miles east of Fei County, a long line of refugees was heading towards the city under the cover of night.

These were the people fleeing from the counties of Langya Commandery. After hearing that Cao Cao's army had entered Mount Tai Commandery and then turned to Qing Province, this group of refugees fled west all the way, wanting to enter Fei County to take refuge.

There were several carriages in the team. The largest carriage was occupied by several people: a middle-aged man, two handsome teenagers of thirteen or fourteen years old, and two beautiful girls of fifteen or sixteen years old.

The middle-aged man said worriedly to one of the teenagers: "Following your nephew Yixian's idea, we will first take refuge in Fei County, and when Cao Cao attacks Hua County and lays siege to the city, we can take the opportunity to go south, passing through Donghai Commandery to Xiapi Commandery, and then cross the river to Jiujiang Commandery?"

This young man had a face like jade, lips like rouge, clear eyebrows and bright eyes, and he had the demeanor of a noble family in every move he made.

Before he could speak, another young man next to him said: "Uncle, I think my brother's move is too risky."

"We should have gone directly south to Donghai State to avoid disaster in Langya, bypassing Xiapi and crossing the river south."

"Moreover, there are thousands of people fleeing with us. What if our whereabouts are discovered and exposed?"

The middle-aged man nodded slightly after hearing this: "Actually, Jun'er's words are very much in line with my wishes. If we take refuge in Fei County and there are remnants of bandits and outlaws inside, it will be difficult for us to escape unscathed."

The previous teenager lowered his head and pondered for a while, and said: "Uncle, brother, did you ever expect that Cao Cao's army would appear in Yangdu County before?"

The middle-aged man and the teenager named Jun'er were suddenly speechless.

If this young man hadn't noticed something was wrong in advance, they might have been killed in Yangdu County.

The young man continued: "If we had fled south directly after escaping from Yangdu, we would definitely have caught up, because this time Cao's army wanted to divide its troops into two groups. The group attacking Yangdu would go south from the east, detouring to the east of Xiapi, and our retreat would be cut off."

"The only way out at this time is to escape towards Yanzhou, going in the opposite direction, so that we can avoid the opponent's army."

"This is also a last resort. If there is no other way, how dare Liang take the risk?"

The two girls on the side nodded slightly after hearing this.

The middle-aged man sighed after hearing this: "Since this is the case, let's listen to Liang'er's words and rush to Fei County to take refuge."

The young man named Zhuge Liang turned his gaze to the distance outside the car, concealing the worries on his face.

Man proposes, God disposes.

This trip was already extremely dangerous, almost a gamble, but what if there were other forces besides Cao Cao's army?

He didn't know if God would be on his side this time.

Yuan Xi received the scout's urgent report late at night.

He endured his sleepiness and called everyone up with Zhang He, rushing to the valley overnight. When they arrived, it was already dawn.

The village in the valley was empty except for dozens of corpses lying in disorder.

Zhang He jumped off his horse, carefully observed the footprints and ruts on the ground, and finally went into the house and turned around a few times before coming out and saying: "There are a lot of people on the other side, probably more than five hundred, and they brought a lot of carts."

"According to what the son said, this is most likely Cao Song's family!"

Yuan Xi began to have a headache again after hearing this. The number of people seemed to exceed his expectations.

Along the way, soldiers were constantly having diarrhea and falling behind. Of the five hundred soldiers who came, only three hundred or so were left with combat power.

Normally, this kind of loss is very normal. Many soldiers can only exert half their strength when they go into battle.

But now he had to rescue Cao Song and his party from Zhang Kai's hands, and the soldiers might not be enough.

Zhang Kai might not be Zhang He's opponent, but if the two sides fought a war of attrition, the remaining three hundred soldiers would still have to rescue people, and the outcome was still unknown under the circumstances.

Moreover, Fei County was to the north. If the other party hid in the city and refused to defend, his cavalry would be useless, and his combat power would be weakened by several points.

He raised his head and said to Zhang He: "Time is of the essence, let's get on our horses and speed up the pursuit!"

Zhang He nodded quickly after hearing this, and led everyone out of the valley and chased north.

Although they had been rushing all night, Zhang He was not worried about the soldiers' condition. Although most of them were tired, they could take turns resting on the mule carts, and they still had the most basic combat power.

This method was so useful that he would definitely get more mules when he led troops to fight in the future!

But what surprised Zhang He the most was that under Yuan Xi's leadership, he actually managed to track down Cao Song's family!

When he left Ye City with Yuan Xi at first, he thought that rescuing Cao Song's family was just a whim of Yuan Xi, a son of a noble family.

In the chaos of war, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack to find a convoy in such a large place as Mount Tai Commandery. It was estimated that after a few days, Yuan Er Gongzi would return home discouraged.

But Zhang He didn't expect that Yuan Xi had led the team all the way for more than ten days, without making any detours, and had actually succeeded!

The crowd went all the way north, and they could see the dilapidated city wall of Fei County from afar.

But what made everyone feel bad was that several wisps of black smoke were rising from the city, and there were screams and shouts of killing.

Yuan Xi and Zhang He were both a little dazed. Hadn't Fei County already been slaughtered? Why were they still fighting?

Zhang He hurriedly sent out scouts, and everyone vigilantly slowed down and headed towards the city gate. After a while, the scouts returned.

"There's a fight in the city. An army of several hundred people had a dispute with the people inside and is killing people!"

Yuan Xi and Zhang He looked at each other. What was going on?

On the main road in the city, the previous middle-aged man stood on the carriage and said angrily: "You are subordinates of Tao Zhoumu, why are you attacking the people of Langya in this state?"

"I am Zhuge Xuan of Langya, who was recommended by Yuan Gonglu (Yuan Shu) as the Prefect of Yuzhang, and now I am about to go to Jiujiang!"

"Yuan Zhoumu and Tao Zhoumu are friends, not enemies, retreat quickly!"

Zhang Kai stood in the distance, his face uncertain. How could Zhuge Xuan appear here?

He had originally wanted to find an opportunity in the city to kill Cao Song's family before leaving, but he didn't expect that there were nearly a thousand refugees here!

With so many eyes staring at him, there was no way to hide it.

Or should he kill them all?