After Zang Ba realized that he was defeated, he fled north without hesitation, preparing to take refuge in the Meng Mountains. At this time, the more than 10,000 thieves behind Zang Ba did not know that bad luck was about to come.

After the leaders of each department had a good discussion with Zang Ba, they went back to their camps to pack things up.

But not long after, Zang Ba's messenger came to each battalion to report that Huaxian was attacked. Zang Ba had led his troops to Huaxian for rescue, so he did not retreat at the same time as the other troops.

When everyone heard this, they were all stunned.

Zang Ba was their leader, so why did they withdraw early? However, some quick-thinking people realized that Zang Ba had escaped early.

After Zang Ba left, many people became panicked.

At this time, there is a fortified city behind and an ambush in front. If one of them fails, the whole army will be wiped out.

Gongsun Du reacted quickly. After receiving the news, he immediately sent a letter to all the leaders and asked them to come to discuss the matter.

Most of the tribes are Mengshan and Yishan bandits. Gongsun Du, who was born in Lushan, has not close contact with the tribes. He summoned everyone at this time, obviously hoping to take advantage of the opportunity to rise to power. In normal times, everyone would definitely not agree.

But at present, all the leaders have lost their position and have no strategy. It is a blessing that someone takes the lead. No matter how unwilling they are, they have no choice but to bite the bullet and come to discuss the matter.

After everyone arrived, Gongsun Du said: "I'm afraid you have already learned that Zang Nukou, a thief, ran away on his own.

And the matter has become very obvious. What Zhao Fu said before is true. Zang Ba has surrendered to the army. This dispatch of troops to Linyi City is a matter that he and the army discussed. The purpose is to kill us all in one fell swoop.

"

After everyone heard this, they immediately became excited.

Many people cursed at Zang Ba. Although there were a few people who believed in Zang Ba, these people did not have much say and were quickly overwhelmed by other voices.

Everyone yelled for a while, but they had no idea why. Gongsun Du stopped everyone and said: "We have no other choice now but to rely on ourselves.

I think we need to break out immediately, what do you think?"

Everyone has no opinion on the matter of breaking out of the encirclement. This has already been discussed, but the key is where to retreat. This is a big problem.

There are more than 10,000 people, and they must not be dispersed. After all, if they are dispersed, there is no other possibility except becoming bandits or being wiped out by the government troops.

And if all the ministries retreat together, their goals will naturally be different, and they will take different directions. Therefore, everyone will argue and refuse to give in for their own interests.

Gongsun Du did not speak, but looked at brothers Yin Li and Sun Guan standing aside.

Among the various ministries, they are the strongest.

Yin Li wanted to go north, and his territory was around Dongguan; while the Sun brothers wanted to go northeast, and their territory was around Ju County.

In the end, Gongsun Du was defeated. The tribes first entered Mengshan Mountain from the north, and then divided their forces and returned to their strongholds. Everyone didn't have much opinion after hearing this. After all, the mountains were familiar to everyone.

And no one wants others to take advantage, so no one will take advantage.

Because of Gongsun Du's summons and his changes in Yin Li and the Sun brothers themselves, everyone agreed that he had become the leader of the coalition.

Gongsun Du was very happy and expressed that he would be a pioneer for all tribes.

Of course everyone was happy with this. After all, they didn't know where the government troops were ambushing them. At this time, the vanguard troops had to take the greatest risk.

Halfway through the third watch at night, all units had already assembled to break out of the encirclement at night.

Because many people suffer from night blindness, in order to facilitate night walking, each group pulls up the rope and everyone moves forward holding the rope, which is also a unique feature.

As soon as the bandits outside the city moved, Xin Cuo in the city discovered it.

After holding down the enemy for a whole day, the mission was finally completed. In order to complete the encirclement, Xin Cuo ordered the county soldiers to continue to defend the city. He personally led the central troops to pursue the enemy behind them.

However, Xin Cuo did not launch an attack immediately. He wanted to wait for reinforcements rather than disperse the bandit army.

After walking for more than an hour and more than ten miles, they arrived at Qingtuo Ridge (now southwest of Qingtuo Town, Linyi City, Shandong Province).

After passing through here, you enter the mountain.

It was three or four o'clock in the morning, the darkest time before dawn.

When Gongsun Du saw the foot of the ridge, he ordered all the troops to take a rest. He first led people to explore the way north.

After hearing this, the bandits called Gongsun Du "benevolent and righteous".

Gongsun Du led nearly two thousand men under his command and quickly headed north. Not long after, he encountered a group of troops behind the ridge. They were thousands of county soldiers commanded by Cao Ang.

Soon, several cavalry flew out from the army and arrived in front of Gongsun Du's formation.

Gongsun Du did not panic, and under the guidance of the visitors, he bypassed the army formation, followed the trail, and headed northeast.

What happened after that had nothing to do with Gongsun Du.

This Gongsun Du was actually a spy planted by Cao Ang among the bandits, and was Cao Ang's real killer move to confuse the bandits.

Gongsun Du was a Taishan thief and a family of thieves and bandits. However, when it came to Gongsun Du's generation, seeing that there was no future for thieves and bandits, he fell into the arms of the Yuan family or Yuan Shao and became Yuan Shao's thug in the Qingyan area.

It has to be said that Yuan Shao himself was unable to raise troops due to his status, but there were many bandits gathering around the world.

When Cao Ang first arrived in Langya, he thought that to dismantle the Taishan Langya thieves from within, he must have internal agents. However, Cao Ang did not have much contact with this group of people, and it was difficult to find a few trustworthy people at the moment.

After thinking about it, I thought of Gongsun Du, who is more famous among the Langya thieves in Mount Tai.

The reason why Cao Ang knew that this man was Yuan Shao's subordinate was because in history Yuan Shao had appointed Gongsun Du as Zhonglang General and ordered him to protect the mountain as a bandit and plunder Mount Tai.

Cao Ang almost gave it a try and sent people to see Gongsun Du, but he didn't expect that his status as Yuan Shao's son-in-law would be quite effective.

For Gongsun Du, he did not understand the circles of the big family. Cao Ang's official position and the status of Yuan Shao's son-in-law made it worthy for him to serve Cao Ang.

Moreover, by destroying Zang Ba's group, Taishan would be able to dominate them all, and Gongsun Du would be able to benefit others and himself.

After sending Gongsun Du away, Cao Ang began to command his troops to encircle and annihilate the more than 10,000 bandits.

The terrain of Qingtuo Ridge is in the shape of an inverted trumpet, with mountains on both sides, becoming narrower as you go north, making it a good place for an ambush.

At this time, the Chinese army's flag began to wave, and then the drums sounded, and thousands of troops rushed from the ridge to the rebels below.

As the Chinese army attacked, Chu Ning's right troops and Cao Yuan's left troops, who were lying on both wings, also attacked the rebels.

There were shouts of killing from above and below the ridge, as if they were plunged into a vast ocean of officers and soldiers.

The bandits resting at the foot of the mountain were already exhausted from the fierce fighting during the day and the tossing at night, and fell asleep with their clothes on. Many of them lost their heads in their sleep.

More people became confused.
Chapter completed!