In fact, it was useless for Yang Rui's troops to continue attacking the city. When Yang Rui's troops arrived one after another and deployed most of their forces to the south gate, leaving the other gates unguarded, Yuan Shao's troops actually split into two groups to break out of the encirclement.
Yuan Shao's two groups of troops carried his banner. One group rushed out from the east gate and headed straight for Hejian Kingdom or the eastern region of You Province, while the other group rushed out from the north gate and headed for the central and western regions of You Province.
When Yuan Shao's troops retreated, it naturally saved Yang Rui a lot of effort. However, before the other party made any moves to retreat, Yang Rui received news from the Imperial Guards that Yuan Shao had fallen ill and vomited blood!
This was also the news that the Secret Ninjas of the Void Spirit of the Imperial Guards who had infiltrated Guang Chang County after Gongsun Zan seized the city. At that time, Yuan Shao's troops rushed out of the inner city of the three prefectures in a panic and passed on orders to the other city gates. Two of the messengers who came out with them unintentionally revealed some information which was coincidentally captured by the Secret Ninjas of the Void Spirit.
Yang Rui didn't expect such a situation. He was originally prepared to fight a tough battle in Guang Chang County and turn this place into the final battlefield against Yuan Shao. However, he didn't expect Yuan Shao to run away.
Due to the limited manpower of the Secret Ninjas of the Void Spirit, it was hard to say which group Yuan Shao was on. After all, both groups were carrying Yuan Shao's banner and were led by cavalrymen with swords and shields covering the rear. Furthermore, both groups were accompanied by several flying carts.
"Kill!"
"Don't let Yuan Shao escape!"
"Da! Da! Da! "
“.....”
When Yuan Shao's troops suddenly abandoned the city, Yang Rui's troops naturally had to give chase. Although initially, they didn't have a consensus on whether to pursue relentlessly.
Zhao Yun, Zhang Liao, Yu Jin and the other generals were all in favor of pursuing the enemy. This was especially so for the three cavalry generals who had a clear stance on this matter.
But everyone also knew that Guo Jia offered the strategy of "wait and see" in both the historical facts and the romance. Because Yang Rui had materialized many famous historical generals in real life, they were also very familiar with this matter.
Under the premise of following Cao Cao, Guo Jia suggested that Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang were always at odds with each other. with the involvement of strategists like Guo Tu and Feng Ji, they were bound to fall out. It would be better to first attack Liu Biao in the south and wait for a change. Then attack him later and settle the matter in one move.
The current situation wasn't too different. Although Guo Jia didn't insist on waiting and seeing like in history, he also believed that Yuan Shao was already an arrow at the end of its flight. He suggested that they shouldn't waste too much energy on Yuan Shao.
After Zhao Yun, Zhang Liao and Yu Jin chased for several hundred li, Yang Rui finally made a decision. His troops would only chase for 3,000 li. Then, he would use the form of a quest to deal with Yuan Shao. He would issue a Reputation Point Quest to mobilize the players.
At the same time, he would also use Gongsun Zan's troops to return to their homeland in Youzhou. This was to prevent Yuan Shao from becoming too powerful in Youzhou and becoming a hindrance.
If nothing unexpected happened, Yuan Shao wouldn't have many days left after vomiting blood. Even if his forces weren't divided, he wouldn't be able to threaten Yang Rui in the long run.
When Yuan Shao's two armies broke out of Guangchang County, their numbers were still close to three hundred thousand men. After being pursued by Zhao Yun, Zhang Liao, and Yu Jin with an equal number of cavalrymen, they had already killed a third of the enemy's numbers.
By the time the pursuit reached 3,000 li, the troops from the Northern and Eastern Roads had already reached the boundary of Youzhou. Originally, Guangchang County was a region where Ji Zhou broke into Youzhou. Therefore, less than half of Yuan Shao's defeated troops were left.
Upon receiving Yang Rui's order, Zhao Yun, Zhang Liao, Yu Jin and the other troops in charge of the pursuit immediately stopped their actions and didn't continue the pursuit. At this point, Yang Rui's campaign against Yuan Shao, which had lasted for close to two months, was finally coming to an end.
Such a war had been fought from the depths of winter all the way until the flowers were about to bloom in spring. The number of people involved in the war had reached as many as four to five million people. The war spanned across two provinces. It was the largest war led by Yang Rui.
At this point in time, other than Hejian Country, Yang Rui had almost occupied all of Jizhou's territory. He had also introduced several policies within the territory. Especially after Yuan Shao's troops retreated from Guang Chang County, Yang Rui took advantage of the spring planting season to introduce the basic system of farming.
Under the background of the game, there weren't many crops that could be planted in spring. However, with the implementation of the farming system, Liegeman could still open up new land or plant some spring sweet potatoes on the abandoned land to bring in a harvest.
However, the introduction of these systems would only happen two days later. After Yuan Shao's troops retreated from Guang Chang County in a hurry, Yang Rui began to search for Gongsun Zan's belongings and at the same time, prepared a high-class funeral for him.
Gongsun Zan died in the chaos at the South Gate of Guang Chang County. His corpse wasn't found from the beginning. According to the information obtained by the Ethereal Ninja, even when Yuan Shao attacked the city, they only found Gongsun Zan's sword and helmet. Nothing else was found.
The main reason was that there was a fire at the South Gate of Guang Chang County. To a large extent, it was Gongsun Zan, who was defending the city gate tower, who took the initiative to ignite the fire. Later on, when Yang Rui's troops attacked the city, the roofless city gate tower was destroyed because of this fire.
At that time, the city gate tower was completely burned down. Many people died and no one could tell who was who. Even Yuan Shao couldn't find Gongsun Zan's remains. Naturally, Yang Rui, who arrived at Guang Chang County later on, couldn't find it either.
Speaking of which, this was a wise move on Gongsun Zan's part. If he didn't ignite the fire, even if he died in battle, he would have been humiliated by the furious and desperate Yuan Shao.
Yang Rui found all of Gongsun Zan's belongings that he could find. At the same time, he ordered the Ethereal Ninja to pass the news to Gongsun Yue 'er, King of Donghai's consort Yingxue, who was at the rear. He only told her that there was an urgent matter that required her to make a trip to Guang Chang County. He didn't inform her of Gongsun Zan's death.
Needless to say, Yang Rui gathered all of Gongsun Zan's troops that had retreated from Guang Chang County in defeat. He also ordered them to inform all of Gongsun Zan's remaining troops in Youzhou that Gongsun Zan's funeral would be held in Guang Chang County on the third day after his death.
At this time, the benefits of holding the Emperor as a hostage were once again highlighted. Yang Rui ordered someone to bring his handwritten letter to the Emperor. He asked the Emperor to set the standards for Gongsun Zan's funeral, as well as the contents of conferring a posthumous title.
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