Li Yuan gritted his teeth, his eyes bloodshot, because he underestimated the enemy and his strategic deployment was not reasonable. Now the soldiers fell one by one, but he was unable to bring their bodies back. He wanted to fight and take revenge, but he also had to pass the message to General Shen, and he couldn't stop here.
The remaining four soldiers followed him in silence and rushed back, all with sad expressions on their faces. Their plan had failed, and they had already lost so much combat power. The loss was undoubtedly huge. If they could not pass the news of the traitor back, then the lives of their team would be given to the enemy in vain.
They could only run desperately. They could not hear anything except the whistling wind. They did not want to hear anything. No one could guarantee whether the pursuers would catch up with them.
Li Yuan was thinking about the current situation rapidly in his head while fleeing. Although he was reckless and impulsive, he was not stupid. Their small team was separated to secretly burn the enemy's food and grass. The soldiers of their team only knew the purpose of this trip when they set out, not to mention the other people in the army. And all the way to the enemy's food field, no one of the soldiers left or did anything that could pass on the news. If the news was leaked by the soldiers, the enemy would not have had time to arrange such a big show.
Therefore, the problem can only lie with the few people who participated in discussing this matter in General Shen’s tent yesterday.
Li Yuan narrowed his eyes, and a fierce look flashed across his face. The few people who could be in General Shen's tent were all people General Shen trusted. If there was a traitor among General Shen's confidants, he could understand why a cautious person like General Shen would be plotted against.
Li Yuan looked around at the terrain. They were traveling through a forest. In some places, the trees were dense, but not dense enough for people to hide. In other places, there were only two or three sparse trees, which made it impossible to hide people.
This won't work. This place is still quite far from their military camp. If the enemy knew their plan in advance, they must have prepared troops to chase them. Five people moving together in a forest like this would be too easy to be targeted.
Thinking of this, Li Yuan decisively found a place with dense trees and signaled the other four to stop.
"Listen carefully, you all must have understood by now that our plan was exposed because there was a traitor in our army. Since the other side is well prepared, they will not give up. If we act together, the target will be too big, so we must act separately. Remember, we only have one mission left, which is to go back alive and tell General Shen the news. As long as we say that the traitor is someone in General Shen's tent yesterday, General Shen will understand. The traitor should be very familiar with the route from our camp to the enemy camp. Try to avoid the conventional route and leave. Do you understand?" Li Yuan lowered his voice and quickly conveyed the important information to the soldiers.
"Yes, General!"
Li Yuan nodded, looked around and saw nothing unusual, and said, "Let's go!"
The five people dispersed and ran in different directions.
Li Yuan blinked. In fact, there was another speculation he didn't say. If the other party was really General Shen's confidant, then he must know that he was the leader of this team and the biggest target must be him. He needed to break away from the group and lead away the pursuers, so that the other four people would have a better chance to go back and bring the news.
Although this road may have been exposed, it is indeed the closest and smoothest road to the military camp. He needs to buy time and also needs to divert the pursuers so that he has the courage to continue on this road.
Sure enough, not long after the five people separated, Li Yuan heard unusual movements behind him.
It's the cavalry!
Li Yuan's expression froze. He didn't expect that the enemy had even prepared cavalry just to destroy their team of soldiers who were burning food and grass!
The sound of horse hooves was getting closer and closer. Li Yuan quickly looked back and estimated the distance. In addition to the sword, he also had a life-saving arrow in his sleeve, which could be of some use against the cavalry.
He silently estimated the distance in his mind, seven zhang... six zhang!
He suddenly stopped and turned around, raised his left hand and pressed his right hand, and saw a cold light shot out from his sleeve and sank into the throat of the cavalryman closest to him. Just as he was about to grab the frightened horse, an arrow rushed towards him at a high speed.
Li Yuan dodged it instinctively and quickly turned his head to look in the direction where the arrow came from. Another group of cavalry had already surrounded them. The one holding the bow and arrow was the leading general.
"Give up, General Li. Your entire army will be wiped out." The general looked at him with contempt.
Li Yuan was shocked, but did not respond.
The general curled his lips and continued in a good mood: "Do you think we can do nothing if you run separately? You were already sprinkled with perfume powder when you were in my camp. No matter where you run, you will die."
Li Yuan stared at the man and clenched his sword. The worst case scenario was that the other four had died for their country, and he couldn't die here. He had to bring the news back.
He quickly calculated the escape route in his mind, his face motionless.
Seeing that he ignored him, the general felt bored and waved his hand nonchalantly: "Kill."
The cavalrymen surrounding Li Yuan rushed forward instantly, and Li Yuan used his brute strength to fight back with his sword. However, he was outnumbered and was soon injured.
No! This won't work! He must go back alive! Li Yuan's eyes were red with anger. He roared and swung the man in front of him with his sword. He tore a hole in the encirclement. He seized the opportunity to escape and ran desperately to the rugged mountains on the other side.
"Swoosh!" A sharp arrow pierced his left leg, almost making him kneel on the ground. He took two steps forward relying on his willpower, but he rolled down the hillside without noticing.
After finally stopping his tumbling, Li Yuan felt as if a heavy object had hit him all over. He forced himself to pull out the arrow. God bless him, he had already rolled into his own territory, and the enemy would definitely not dare to chase him for a while.
"General Li!"
When he was about to be exhausted, soldiers who came to patrol the border found him and quickly came over to carry him back to the barracks.
"First... take me to General Shen. I, I have something important to report." Li Yuan said in a hoarse voice.
Although the soldiers who carried him were very worried about his injuries, they were also afraid of missing out on important intelligence, so they carried him directly to General Shen's tent.
"Li Yuan?! How did you get injured like this?! Call a military doctor!!!" General Shen was furious when he saw the person coming.
"General..." Li Yuan pulled General Shen's sleeve with great effort, "No, no, I won't use it anymore. The arrow is poisoned. The plan has been leaked, the whole army has been annihilated, there is a traitor in the army, it was the person in the tent yesterday..."
As soon as he finished speaking, before General Shen could react, Li Yuan, who had been holding on to convey military intelligence, closed his eyes forever.