"Unexpectedly, Thief Tan got here!" Wang Shangli was shocked when he received the scout's report. Then he saw streaks of smoke rising one after another on the hilltop in the southwest. Those temporarily deployed sentries could only simply raise their weapons. Smoke warnings cannot convey complex information like beacon towers, but judging from the speed at which the smoke is lit one after another, Tan Xiao's advancement speed is very fast. "The whole army is armored and ready for war!" Wang Shangli quickly realized that Tan Xiao originally planned to attack him secretly, but after being discovered by Miao Zhenzong, he changed it to a surprise attack. He was hoping to catch the Western Army off guard by chance. In fact, no matter whether it was a sneak attack or a surprise attack, , they all use the extraordinary method of attacking more with less, and they take such risks because of insufficient troops. Therefore, although Tan Xiao's attack is fierce, it is not terrible. "The Chu thieves only have 20,000 soldiers at best. Excluding the troops guarding Guiyang City, Tuyun Pass, Yaguan and other places, they can only send 10,000 soldiers to ambush our army. Five thousand Chu thieves have been discovered by the King of Shu. Zhou Guodong He and Liu Tichun must be in that direction. Tan Xiao is just a partial force, so his military strength is the same as what the scout said, about two to three thousand people. " Wang Shangli concluded that Tan Xiao was a lone army venturing deep, with only a few troops. One-third of his own, in this case, he should be given a head-on blow! The Art of War says that if you surround an enemy ten times, attack it five times, and fight it if you double it, Wang Shangli believes that his military strength is three times that of Tan Xiao, and there is no suspense in winning the battle. If he wants to eliminate him all, he has to find a way. After thinking about it for a moment, he decided to use his strategy to lure the enemy deeper, blocking both sides to support the encirclement. The main force would retreat slightly and set up a pocket formation for Tan Xiao. "Stand still for the time being. Wait for my firework call and then attack together. We must capture Tan Xiao alive!" Wang Shangli's former army originally had 14,000 soldiers. After excluding the more than 3,000 soldiers guarding the river beach at the foot of the mountain, they were given Liu Wenxiu sent two thousand reinforcements, and there were more than eight thousand soldiers left. There was no doubt that these eight thousand soldiers were enough to deal with Tan Xiao's two or three thousand men. He sent four thousand soldiers to ambush in the mountains on both sides. Afterwards, he divided the remaining more than 4,000 people into two teams, the front and rear. He personally led 3,000 elites to hide behind the auxiliary troops, and ordered more than 1,000 people from the front team to fight against Tan Xiao, promising defeat but not victory. Introduce him into the encirclement. The general responsible for luring the enemy was named Zhou Wuding. It was said that he was a descendant of Zhou Yu, a famous general of the Three Kingdoms. He was wise and brave and had the style of his ancestors. After he was ordered to set off, he thought about it and felt that simply deceiving the enemy by deceiving defeat was too blunt and might not be deceived. After passing Tan Xiao, he added a few hundred soldiers to hide in the woods, waved more flags, pretended to be suspicious soldiers, and used a fake trap to cover the real trap. "My sons, follow me to kill the traitors and rescue General Miao from danger!" After all arrangements were made, Zhou Wuding led the remaining 1,000 armored soldiers towards the direction of the smoke to face Tan Xiao. Tan Xiao intended to divide Liu Wenxiu's central army and front army, so for him, the best result was to unknowingly touch Wang Shangli's back, and then launch a surprise attack, but Miao Zhenzong accidentally broke his whereabouts. After that, they had no choice but to change their plan and race against time to penetrate in depth, so as not to be blocked by the Western Army and turn into a bad battle. Unexpectedly, the Western Army's response was very slow. Except for Miao Zhenzong, they encountered no other enemies. Tan Xiao chased the opponent like a rabbit, and unknowingly he had arrived near Wang Shangli's former army. Tan Xiao From the telescope, I was surprised to see that behind the mountain in the distance, Wang Shangli was retreating in a hurry. He was surrounded by only a few thousand auxiliary soldiers with shoulder and handbags and no formal armored soldiers. In front of the mountain, Zhou Wuding led a thousand armored soldiers to block the way. , apparently to cover Wang Shangli's retreat. "Why does Wang Shangli only have so few troops? Could it be that he sent all his main forces to support Liu Wenxiu?" Tan Xiao rushed over in a hurry. He didn't know Wang Shangli's deployment position or the specific strength of the troops. He saw the appearance of the Western Army. , I was murmuring in my heart, wondering if this was a trap or if it was really pie in the sky. After all, anything can happen on the battlefield. If Wang Shangli made a mistake in his command, he happened to be hit by Tan Xiao accidentally. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to defeat the enemy, but it was such a coincidence that it made people suspect that there was fraud. At this moment, red flags were waving in the woods, and large flocks of birds soared into the sky. Countless figures rushed over with shouts. It looked like there were at least a thousand people. The Chu army officers were slightly startled and involuntarily slowed down. , but Tan Xiao laughed and his doubts disappeared. "That's right. The Western thieves really have an ambush here. Brothers, the thieves don't have many ambushes. Kill them all and capture Wang Shangli alive!" Observe carefully, the area of ????this forest is not large. The Western Army The formation was also relatively loose. Although there were many people shouting at the top of their lungs and battle flags flying back and forth, there were not many Western soldiers rushing out of the woods. To be fair, there were more than a thousand of them. Okay, plus the thousand people in Zhou Wuding on the front.?The total number of troops was more than 2,000, which was still too small compared with the Chu army. Tan Xiao originally had 2,000 soldiers by his side. During the hurried pursuit, some soldiers inevitably fell behind. Now there are still 1,780 soldiers left, which is about the same as the Western Army. However, the Zhenyu soldiers and the Ningzhou soldiers quickly He would follow up, and with the other follow-up troops, the typical rat pulling a wooden shovel, Tan Xiao felt that the risk was not great, and launched the attack without hesitation. As expected, after Tan Xiao launched the attack, although Zhou Wuding fought hard, only about 500 ambush soldiers rushed out of the woods on the side, and the battle line was loose, giving people a feeling of bluff. Tan Xiao used part of his troops to block Zhou Wuding. A thousand of his main troops attacked the ambush first and scattered them neatly. Then he turned around and attacked Zhou Wuding from a flank, defeating him with a single blow. Zhou Wuding, who was both wise and brave, was full of drama and lost. He took off his armor, shouted and fled along the mountain road towards Wang Shangli's banner. Tan Xiao led his troops in hot pursuit. Seeing that he was getting closer and closer to Wang Shangli's baggage troops, and when he was only a stone's throw away, he realized that something was wrong. He suddenly raised his hands and stood still, shouting at his soldiers. "Stop!" The auxiliary soldiers of the Western Army were too calm. The soldiers had collapsed. The Chu army had reached such a close distance again. They still maintained their formation and did not break up and flee. Looking from a distance, the auxiliary soldiers Although they looked very nervous, it was just the normal nervousness of recruits after going to the battlefield, not the reaction they should have in such a scene. It was obvious that something was still supporting their confidence. Following Tan Xiao's order, the Chu soldiers stopped on the spot. At this time, the auxiliary soldiers of the Western Army on the opposite side suddenly flashed to both sides, revealing a large group of armored soldiers hidden behind them. In his armor, the weapons in his hands shone with cold light, and he advanced towards the Chu army with neat steps. Except for the sudden sound of horns and war drums, the three thousand armored soldiers were silent, and the heavy footsteps made the ground tremble slightly. "Thief Tan, we'll be captured if you don't surrender!" Wang Shangli laughed loudly, ordered people to set off fireworks and rockets, and notified the ambushes behind the mountains on both sides to rush out together to surround and annihilate Tan Xiao. Two specially made fireworks flew into the sky with a shrill whistle. , two bangs, exploded into two clouds of smoke, one red and one green, and then, there was a shout from behind the mountains on both sides. There seemed to be ambushes of the Western Army in all directions, and there were no one knows how many people. "Whoever kills Tan Xiao will be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver!" Wang Shangli shouted and commanded his troops to kill the Chu army. In addition to his 3,000 armored soldiers, Zhou Wuding immediately gathered his soldiers and led a thousand or so people to fight back. The other auxiliary soldiers of the Western Army also drew their swords and guns from under the grain bags and surrounded them on the hillsides on both sides. Prepare to encircle and kill the defeated troops of the Chu army. A dragnet! If Tan Xiao turns around and runs away, he will definitely be defeated by Wang Shangli's pursuit. If he breaks out and breaks out, he will be intercepted by ambushes ambushing behind the mountains on both sides. In Wang Shangli's view, Tan Xiao has fallen into a desperate situation, and the best way is to escape. If we stand firm and resist stubbornly, we may be able to hold on for a while. Tan Xiao did exactly this. He neither turned around to escape nor broke out to both sides. Instead, he gathered his troops and formed a formation to meet the enemy. He used more than a thousand troops to resist the siege of Wang Shangli's 4,000 men. They retreated to the front of a cliff first, with their backs The cliffs resisted desperately. The Western Army was limited by the terrain. Although they had many troops, they could not all join the battle and could not defeat them for a while. "Tan Xiao is indeed a fierce general among the Chu thieves. He still fights against the trapped beast but his military morale is not disturbed. If he cannot kill this beast today, he will be in trouble in the future Well, how many thieves has Tan Xiao brought? Listening to this news, he It seems that there are more than three thousand soldiers under his command!" Wang Shangli made several fierce attacks, but was repelled by Tan Xiao. He felt a little anxious. The battle had been going on for a while. The sound of killings from behind the mountains on both sides was loud, but the reinforcements from the Western Army were delayed. They didn't come, and they seemed to have encountered the enemy. Could it be that in addition to the nearly 2,000 troops at hand, Tan Xiao had other reinforcements? It shouldn¡¯t be! Tan Xiao only has 3,000 troops at most. Even if he divides 1,000 troops on the flanks, it is impossible to stop the 4,000 Western troops. Why can't he see any reinforcements now? Listening carefully, the sounds of fighting coming from the mountains on both sides became more and more intense. Wang Shangli couldn't figure out the reason. He could only attribute it to the disadvantages of the Western Army in combat, such as being caught off guard and being attacked by the enemy, so they fell into a bitter battle. Calling his generals useless, he sent out scouts and rushed to the hills on both sides to check. The scouts had just climbed halfway up the hillside when a loud shout suddenly sounded from the top of the mountain. Then, hundreds of soldiers appeared on the top of the mountain and rushed down the mountain without hesitation. It was like a flash flood, quickly drowning them. There are large hillsides around. "It's finally here!" Wang Shangli breathed a sigh of relief. At this point in the battle, the outcome was no longer in suspense. The Western Army must win. Tan Xiao can¡¯t escape even if he has wings.