Chapter eight hundred and eighty third meat shield
"It's already a big drag on me taking this group of family members north. If I bring the people nearby now, it will slow me down even more."
After these words came out, Liu Bei realized that he kept treating the people as a drag, which seemed to be contrary to his way of governing the country with benevolence and righteousness.
"Ahem, of course I'm not saying that the people are a burden. I just think that in this time of war and chaos, if the people follow me to the north, I'm afraid it will be a disaster for them." Liu Bei quickly changed his tune.
Zhuge Liang said, "I asked your majesty to lead the people to the north. The real purpose is actually not that."
Liu Bei was startled, and his face showed confusion again.
Zhuge Liang then coughed a few times, lowered his voice, and told Liu Bei his true intentions.
Liu Bei's eyes lit up at first when he heard this, and then a look of embarrassment flashed across his face, "Does this strategy of the Prime Minister go against benevolence and righteousness?"
"I have no choice but to do this. I think it would be an honor for these people to sacrifice themselves for His Majesty's protection." Zhuge Liang sighed.
Liu Bei fell silent and seemed to be in hesitation again.
However, Liu Bei was not in trouble for long this time. Soon, he said resolutely: "This is the only thing that has happened so far. Let's follow the prime minister's strategy and issue an order quickly."
On the same day, more than ten cavalry messengers rushed out and went straight to the county town near Lunu to convey Liu Bei's intention to relocate the people.
Liu Bei lied in his edict that the Chu army was barbaric and cruel, massacring every city in its path, killing every human being, men, women, old and young.
In order to protect the people and fear that they would be harmed by the Chu army, Liu Bei took the risk and took the people in northern Hebei to evacuate to Youzhou for refuge.
The common people are always the most easily deceived group of people. In this modern era where information is highly developed, it is easy to be deceived by false public opinion offensives, let alone this era of "messaging bases and complaining".
The people naturally believed whatever Liu Bei said.
So the people in the cities in northern Hebei thought that the Chu army was brutally slaughtering the city. In panic, they dragged their families and fled to the Lunu area, hoping to take refuge in Youzhou under the protection of their emperor Liu Bei's wings.
When Liu Bei arrived at Lunu City, the people gathered nearby, numbering nearly 100,000.
At this time, intelligence came from the scouts that Chou's former army had reached Anxi, which was twenty miles away, and could come to kill Benlu Nu at any time.
Liu Bei did not dare to stay, so he immediately led his army to leave Lunu and go north. With one hundred thousand people, he marched towards Youzhou in a mighty manner.
In the afternoon, the scouts came at full speed and arrived directly in front of Liu Bei.
"Your Majesty, the Chu cavalry has attacked Lu Nu and is pursuing them from the main road. The vanguard is only more than ten miles away." The scout shouted in alarm.
Liu Bei was shocked. His eyes turned to Zhuge Liang: "Prime Minister, the Chu thieves have arrived, what should we do?"
"Without further delay, Your Majesty abandoned the people immediately and evacuated to Fanyang at great speed." Zhuge Liang said without hesitation.
Liu Bei turned around and looked back.
But I saw that the road from beginning to end was densely packed with people fleeing. Hundreds of thousands of people continued to fill up. Not only the entire road, but also the wilderness on the left and right sides were filled.
These people didn't know that the Chu State's cavalry was behind them and would soon come to kill them.
After taking a deep breath, Liu Bei turned around, with only determination remaining on his face, "Preach my will, and all the armies will act accordingly."
When the order was given, Liu Bei raised his whip and moved his horse forward.
Zhuge Liang secretly breathed a sigh of relief, pointed his feather fan, and ordered the carriage carrying him to move quickly, following Liu Bei closely.
The Han army, numbering less than 30,000, moved with great force to protect the queen and other family members. In the name of opening a road, they quickly headed north.
Those who stayed behind and marched slowly were a hundred thousand civilians and several thousand old and weak soldiers in charge of the rear.
These more than 100,000 people did not know that danger was coming, nor did they know that at this critical moment of life and death, their emperor did not even inform them, but had already fled first.
A sandstorm rose up from behind and soon came over. The rumble of iron hooves drowned out the noise of the crowd.
The panicked people looked back one after another and were shocked to see the iron hooves of the Chu Kingdom coming like a storm.
"Chu soldiers are coming~~"
"Everyone, run away quickly, the Chu army is coming."
One hundred thousand people were like a pot exploding, screaming, pushing and shoving, and rushing to the north.
With so many civilians crowded together, the order was already chaotic. Now the Chu army was surprised and fell into extreme chaos in the blink of an eye.
One hundred thousand men, women, and children, coupled with countless oxen, horses, mules, and carts, as well as large and small bags of goods, completely blocked the road heading north.
In the chaos, the Chu cavalry led by Chou came fiercely.
When they saw this endless sea of people blocking the road, Chou and his soldiers were a little shocked.
"Is Liu Bei crazy? He took so many people with him when he ran away. Do you think he didn't run fast enough?" Chou Leng snorted.
Jiang Wei said: "General Hussars, Liu Bei is not leading these people to escape, but he wants these people to serve as a human barrier to stop our army's pursuit."
As soon as these words came out, all the Chu generals on the left and right were shocked.
"Yes, Liu Bei is such a kind-hearted person. He is afraid that our cavalry will catch up, so he deliberately uses a hundred thousand people to block his way." Deng Ai gritted his teeth.
Only then did Chou realize. He snorted coldly: "Liu Bei is indeed cunning and insidious. He actually thought of using civilians as human shields for him."
After scolding Liu Bei, Chou pointed his spear and shouted: "Advance the whole army, I will continue to pursue Liu Bei, the big-eared thief."
Although the people blocked the road, the ugly military orders were in place, and they could not just sit back and watch Liu Bei escape in a grand manner just because he had thrown a rat weapon into his trap.
When the order was given, 20,000 cavalry galloped wildly, and in a blink of an eye, they ran into a crowd of fleeing civilians.
The targets of the Chu army were Liu Bei and the Han army. They naturally had no interest in these civilians, so they could only rein in their horses while running and try to avoid injuring them.
However, these 100,000 people were too densely packed, and they were running around in panic. How could the Chu army avoid them all the time? Soon, screams started to sound everywhere.
In the dust and mist, from time to time some Chu cavalry accidentally bumped into civilians, and some civilians were blind and bumped into the running Chu cavalry horses.
An area of more than ten miles in radius quickly turned into a mess.
Under this obstacle, the Chu army's speed was greatly slowed down, and Liu Bei took advantage of this opportunity and ran all the way.
From noon to evening, one hundred thousand people died, were injured, and fled. Finally, they were almost dispersed, and the flow of people on the road became smaller and smaller.
The Chu army was able to speed up and pursue northward, but at this time, Liu Bei had already escaped dozens of miles away.
Chou chased him for more than thirty miles. When he saw that Liu Bei had fled far away and could no longer catch up, he gave the order to withdraw his troops.
At this time, the dozens of miles of road looking north from Lunu City were already littered with corpses, and people who died in the chaos were everywhere. Especially the section of the road twenty miles north of Lunu City was even more densely populated.
Full of corpses.
The sacrifices of these people became Liu Bei's human shield and ensured Liu Bei's smooth escape.
Chou escaped from Liu Bei and had to retreat to Lunu City, and sent a messenger to deliver the good news to Yan Liang who was still behind.
At this time, Yan Liang's army had just entered the east of Anguo City and was preparing to launch a full-scale attack on the city guarded by Xu Huang and capture this obstacle in one fell swoop.
Imperial tent.
"I really didn't expect that Liu Bei would bring hundreds of thousands of people to serve as his human shields. This big-eared thief is really crazy." Pang Tong sighed.
"I have torn all the big-eared thief's disguises to pieces. This is just his appearance." Yan Liang said disdainfully.
In Yan Liang's view, Liu Bei, like his ancestor Liu Bang, is best at sacrificing those who are not important to him at critical moments.
In the past, when Cao Cao's army went south to capture Jingzhou, Liu Bei fled hastily from Xiangyang and deceived more than 100,000 people into following him south.
As a result, when Cao Cao's cavalry pursued them to Changban Slope, the 100,000 congested civilians just blocked the way forward for Cao Cao's army, buying Liu Bei valuable time for his escape.
In the past, Liu Bei was able to take people across the river, and today it is also expected that he takes people to the north.
"The army will capture Anguo City first, and then it won't be too late to deal with Liu Bei." Yan Liang threw the battle report on the file with a look of disdain.
Although this battle did not achieve the strategic goal of annihilating Liu Bei's gang, it drove away Zhang Fei and destroyed Liu Bei's carefully constructed Julu defense line. In less than half a month, they captured a large area of counties in northern Hebei, which was also a great feat.
of harvest.
Now Liu Bei has fled to Youzhou. With only a northern state and the disobedient Bingzhou controlled by Sima Yi, how can he escape the fate of defeat.
Yan Liang's order was passed down, and more than 100,000 former troops had begun to set up strongholds around Anguo City, preparing to besiege the city on all sides.
Anguo City was not as big as Ye City and other large cities. The city had not been fortified, and Xu Huang only had 7,000 soldiers and horses. When Yan Liang brought in the city-breaking artillery, how could Xu Huang stop Yan Liang from breaking into the city.
On the top of the city, Xu Huang looked at the overwhelming Chu army from afar, his face was solemn, and his heart was heavy.
The sound of footsteps sounded, and his son Xu Gai hurriedly climbed up to the top of the city.
"Commander Father, the urgent report just brought back by the scouts is that the emperor has escaped from the Chu army's cavalry and successfully escaped from Zhongshan Kingdom."
Hearing the news, Xu Huang was both happy and worried.
Fortunately, Liu Bei finally escaped and ascended to heaven, but what was worrying was that his seven thousand soldiers and horses seemed to have been abandoned by Liu Bei and were trapped in this small Anguo city.
"The Chu thieves rode lightly and galloped like the wind. How could the emperor escape from the enemy thieves?" Xu Huang became suspicious again.
Xu Gai said silently: "The emperor summoned one hundred thousand people to go together, but ordered the people to walk behind. As soon as the Chu army arrived, the emperor abandoned the people to go first. As a result, these one hundred thousand people became an obstacle to the Chu cavalry.
That’s why the emperor can..."
"No need to say any more!" Xu Huang shouted, his brows deeply furrowed and his fists secretly clenched.
Guan Yu was sacrificed in Liyang City, Cao Ren was sacrificed in Ye City, and hundreds of thousands of people were sacrificed in order to escape.
Xu Huang knew that now, he, Xu Huang, had become Liu Bei's abandoned son and had also been sacrificed.
"Liu Xuande, you are such a person. I, Xu Huang, have finally seen you clearly today..."
