Du Fuwei was awakened by his personal soldiers in his sleep, "King, General Wang has a 100,000 urgent military information to report!"

Du Fuwei sat up, put on his clothes and strode out of the inner tent, "Where is the person?"

"King, I am here!"

Wang Xiongdan strode into the commander's tent. He was responsible for the periphery defense. Just half an hour ago, they accidentally intercepted a Sui army scout cavalry and captured two injured Sui army scouts. Wang Xiongdan thus obtained information that shocked him.

"What happened?" Du Fuwei saw that Wang Xiongdan's face was wrong.

"King, the main force of the Sui army is less than fifty miles away from us, and is stationed in Baoan Town in the northeast."

"What!"

Du Fuwei screamed out in dismay, and the news shocked him. After a while, he turned around and rushed to the map and found Baoan Town on the map, which happened to be between Gaoyou County and Yongfu County. It was indeed only fifty or sixty miles away. Du Fuwei immediately took a breath of air conditioning.

“Is the intelligence accurate?”

"Reporting to the king, the two scouts caught by Bei Zhi were interrogated separately. Both confessions were unanimous. Zhang Xuan personally led 12,000 main forces of the Sui army just arrived at the second update last night and are currently stationed in Baoan Town."

Du Fuwei was in a state of confusion. At this time, he didn't care about how many Sui troops were, but why did the Sui army suddenly appear in Baoan Town? Didn't Zhang Xuan lead his army north to Xuzhou? Jiangdu County should be empty, why is the information wrong? Could it be that Meng Haigong deceived him, or

Du Fuwei and Zhang Xuan had a few times to deal with him. He had already experienced Zhang Xuan's veracity and real power. A thought arose in his mind. Perhaps Zhang Xuan went north to Xuzhou as a fake, and it was the real thing to lure him to come east. Thinking of this, he was shocked and sweated.

"Go and invite the Left Military Advisor!"

Du Fuwei hurriedly added: "There are also several generals who are invited together!"

Soon, the military advisor Zuo Caixiang, the former general Fu Gongyi, the right general Ximen Junyi, and the new rear general Kan Ling who had just replaced Miao Haichao, rushed to the commander's tent together.

"General Wang just discovered an emergency military situation. Zhang Xuan's main force was about 12,000 troops, probably less than fifty miles away from us."

Du Fuwei said to everyone in a heavy mood: "Let's discuss it. What should I do?"

The news was really shocking. Everyone looked at each other and Fu Gongzi asked: "Zhang Xuan should at least be stationed in the Huaihe River, why did he suddenly go south?"

Du Fuwei smiled bitterly and turned around and said to the military advisor Zuo Caixiang: "Tell me about the military advisor!"

Everyone's eyes were focused on Zuo Caixiang. Zuo Caixiang pondered for a while and said slowly: "If what I expected was not bad, Zhang Xuan would have expected us to attack Jiangdu. It was Xu that he would attack Xuzhou. It was true to lure us to come, and to get us to Jiangdu and annihilate it in one fell swoop. I'm afraid this is his real intention."

Zuo Caixiang's analysis talked about Du Fuwei's heart, and he said to everyone: "Let's discuss, how should we deal with it?"

The latter general Kan Ling whispered loudly: "King, we have 35,000 troops, while the Sui army has only a little over 10,000. Why are we afraid of one of us? And I am secretly and we can ambush the Sui army."

Kan Ling is only twenty years old. He is Du Fuwei's adopted son. He is a newborn calf who is not afraid of tigers. He has never dealt with Zhang Xuan. He doesn't know how powerful Zhang Xuan is. Du Fuwei glared at him fiercely and scolded: "I don't know the difference between the military power that doesn't know what I don't know? Do you want to say such nonsense!"

Ximen Junyi originally wanted to agree with the battle, but Kan Ling was scolded and he was so scared that he didn't dare to say anything.

At this time, Fu Gongyi said in a deep voice: "Although we have the advantage of our military strength, Zhang Xuan may not necessarily fight us. As long as he grasps the weakness of our alone army and the difficulty of food supply, he will drag us to death."

Zuo Caixiang next to him also said: "General Fu is right. Sneak attack is a tactic of sneak attack. There is a decisive battle to fight the decisive battle. Use ambush tactics to deal with the decisive battle between the two armies. We have no chance of winning. I suggest withdrawing troops back to Huainan immediately."

General Zuo Wang Xiongdan, who had never spoken, also said: "I agree with the military advisor's opinion. There are opportunities for decisive battles. At this time, we must first be fully prepared. It is not too late to fight the Sui army. Moreover, nine scouts of the Sui army broke through and left. Zhang Xuan already knew that we existed, and ambushing was impossible. Our morale was not high and it was not suitable for the two armies to fight decisively."

Du Fuwei was really afraid of Zhang Xuan and did not dare to fight with Zhang Xuan. Everyone's suggestions made him find the steps. He nodded and said, "Since everyone thinks so, then we will withdraw our army first!"

He made a quick decision and ordered: "Tell me my order, and the army will immediately set off the camp and retreat!"

Du Fuwei's army quickly packed up the camp and retreated. Half an hour later, the 35,000 troops turned around and quickly evacuated westward, giving up their plan to attack Jiangdu County.

At the same time when Du Fuwei's army began to retreat westward, Zhang Xuan led 12,000 troops to fight quickly along the abandoned official road towards Yongfu County.

The Sui army's cavalry scouts were attacked by the bandits and lost more than half of them. This not only exposed the position of the main force of the Sui army, but also exposed the position of the bandits. Zhang Xuan immediately realized that Du Fuwei's main force should be in Yongfu County, and he immediately led his army to pursue him.

Although Meng Haigong's army was provoking the north bank of the Huai River, Zhang Xuan still did not accept the call. He ordered Yuchi Gong to lead 3,000 troops to defend Shanyang, while he secretly led 12,000 troops south to ambush Du Fuwei's army, who was preparing to attack Jiangdu.

But human calculations are worse than heaven's calculations. An unexpected encounter made both sides suddenly realize that they were so close to each other.

To the west of Gaoyou County is a depression that stretches for dozens of miles. Later, this depression formed Gaoyou Lake. However, in the Sui Dynasty, the depression was covered with dense forests and the terrain was very complex. Not to mention that the two armies were fifty miles apart, it was difficult to find each other even if they were five miles apart.

However, Zhang Xuan still felt glad. If his scout hadn't accidentally encountered the thief army, he would have passed by Du Fuwei's army. Du Fuwei's army would have rushed towards Jiangdu, and the consequences would have been unimaginable.

It was already dawn, and the official road was filled with the soldiers of Sui army who were lightly transported south. The 12,000 army stretched for three miles. Ten cavalry scouts were exploring the road ahead. Due to the rain in the middle of the night, the road was very muddy, and the march was particularly difficult. The speed was not fast. It took the army two hours to arrive at Yongfu County after a distance of 50 miles.

The thief camp outside Yongfu County was in a mess, with almost half of the tents not withdrawn, and the fire in the stove was not completely extinguished. The wheeled grain trucks, broken grain bags, various weapons, gongs and drums, battle flags, etc. were piled up like a hill.

At this time, the county magistrate of Yongfu County was taken to Zhang Xuan, and he hurriedly bowed and said, "Sir, please refer to the general who recruited the envoy!"

"How many troops are there in the thief army?"

Zhang Xuan asked, “How long have they been retreating?”

"Report to the general, there are about 30,000 to 40,000 troops, and they just evacuated more than an hour ago."

"How much baggage did you bring?" Zhang Xuan asked again.

"They walked in a hurry. We could see clearly on the top of the city that they had almost no baggage and the tents and vehicles were discarded."

At this time, Pei Xingyan said on the side: "General, I am willing to lead the army to pursue it, and I should be able to catch up."

Zhang Xuan shook his head, "The other party has more than 30,000 troops, several times more than us. Their hurried retreat was just out of fear. It was also because they lacked food. It would be useless to lead thousands of troops to pursue him. Instead, it would be swallowed by the other party in one bite, and he would turn around and gradually eat us."

"Do you let them evacuate?" Luo Shixin also said anxiously.

Zhang Xuan pondered for a moment and said to the generals: "Everyone follows behind, and no pursuit is allowed. He must keep a distance of thirty miles from the thief army."

After a pause, he explained to the generals: "The biggest weakness of the thief army is that they lack food. They expect to capture Jiangdu and get supplies, so we keep an eye on the thief army, but we do not fight head-on with the thief army, use up their food and weaken their morale. That is our chance to start."

"But what if the thief army refuses to fight against us and keeps withdrawing to Huainan? And we don't have enough food." Su Dingfang said on the side.

Zhang Xuan smiled slightly and said, "Our pursuit must have an end. Once the thief army leaves Jiangdu County, then the food in his hands will not be able to return to Jiangdu again. He can only withdraw from Huainan County or Lujiang County. So as long as the thief army leaves Jiangdu County, we will stop chasing and continue to go north to Huaihe River, and find an opportunity to deal with Du Fuwei in the future."

Zhang Xuan made arrangements, but the Sui army did not stop and continued to march westward. After following the bandit army thirty miles away, the army followed the bandit army and left Jiangdu County before finally stopping the pursuit.

At this time, the food of Du Fuwei's army could only last for three days, and it was unrealistic to return to Jiangdu. Du Fuwei had to die and attack Jiangdu, and returned to Huainan County honestly.
Chapter completed!