Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

"What Gongze said is absolutely right."

Xu You also spoke in agreement.

"Gongsun Bogui intends to maintain this stalemate. His only purpose is to waste Han Fu and our army's money and food, so as to avoid defeating our army and letting Han Fu gain the advantage."

"And if Gongsun Bogui fights before winter, he will defeat our army. Cavalry can hardly move in winter. Wouldn't that not only help Han Fu but also give our army a chance to catch its breath?"

"Therefore, Gongsun Zan will definitely launch a large-scale attack after the beginning of spring next year."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in the tent couldn't help but nod their heads, which also made Yuan Shao look a little happy.

Perhaps, it seemed that taking advantage of the stalemate to drain the money and food from the Yuan and Han families would be beneficial to Gongsun Zan, but in fact, what Yuan Shao lacked most was also time.

Relying on the strong support from the aristocratic families, Yuan Shao is not short of money and food at the moment.

What Yuan Shao lacked was time to build weapons and armor.

In the past, even though the Yuan family was at its peak of reputation, they did not dare to privately produce various banned military weapons and armor on a large scale.

This also led to the situation that after Yuan Shao started the rebellion, he might be able to recruit a large number of young and strong people with sufficient money and food, but the treasury did not have enough weapons and armor to equip his soldiers.

Therefore, even though the stalemate resulted in serious losses of money and food, Yuan Shao was not in a hurry to fight a decisive battle.

Meanwhile, a group of advisers were still discussing various strategies to deal with Gongsun Zan.

"However, although Gongsun Zan is stubborn and self-righteous, he still needs to continue to show weakness to the enemy. He should also raise more smoke from cooking fires in the camp and even spread the news that the lord is going to increase taxes on his people, creating the illusion that the lord's money and food are running out and are already in short supply."

"You can also continue to contact the former officials of the Yuan family who are still under Han Fu's command, instruct them to clash with Gongsun Zan, and then continue to deteriorate the relationship between Gongsun Zan and Han Fu."

"It would be best if we could encourage Gongsun Zan and Han Fu to fight against each other."

"Han Fu is cowardly and timid, and he will not dare to confront Gongsun Zan directly, but he will try to continue to increase Gongsun Zan's arrogance. The contradictions will accumulate day by day, which will definitely be effective."

"According to the spies' report, Zhao Yun and Guo Jia, who are under Liu Xuande's command, also appeared in Gongsun Zan's army. Can they be used to their advantage..."

Under the discussion of a group of advisers under his command, one strategy after another, some explicit, some implicit, some real, some imaginary, was produced continuously, and Yuan Shao continued to adopt them after careful consideration.

Now the gap in paper strength between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan is too great. As long as there is a strategy that has one point of effect, Yuan Shao will not hesitate to invest three points to implement it in order to increase his chances of winning before the decisive battle between the two sides.

……

When the news of the Battle of Jingzhou spread, it unknowingly caused changes among all parties.

Yuan Shu had just returned to Runan County after going through many hardships, and as more news came back to him, he became even more furious.

Of the nearly 120,000 troops, only 20,000 managed to escape back to Nanyang County. They were barely reorganized by Ji Ling and used to set up a defense line in Nanyang County. The losses were extremely heavy.

In addition, when the Battle of Jingzhou broke out, Guan Yu, with Jia Xu as his military advisor, led an army of 20,000 from the direction of Shouchun, along the Yingshui River to the north to attack Ruyin.

Before sending troops to Jingzhou, Yuan Shu sent Qiao Rui as a general to lead 20,000 troops to Ruyin to block the Yingshui River and guard against Guan Yu in order to guard against Guan Yu.

But what Yuan Shu never expected was that just before and after his defeat in Jingzhou, Guan Yu pretended to bypass Ruyin and went deep into the hinterland of Runan County, forcing Yuan Shu to retreat.

In order to prevent the Runan County, which was short of internal troops, from being turned upside down by Guan Yu's detachment, Yuan Shu was forced to retreat.

Qiao Rui had no choice but to give up defending the city and chose to lead his troops out of the city in person to try to cut off Guan Yu's food supply.

However, Qiao Rui did not expect that Guan Yu's attempt to penetrate deep into the heart of Runan County was fake, and he actually took a detour and set up an ambush in advance.

As a result, Qiao Rui, who was leaving the city, was ambushed, and the 10,000-man army was destroyed on the spot, and even Qiao Rui himself was beheaded by Guan Yu. Afterwards, Guan Yu used the captured Yuzhou Army armor and flags to trick the Ruyin city gate open and occupied Ruyin city.

Upon hearing this news, Yuan Shu's face turned black and he wished he could drag Qiao Rui out and whip his corpse again.

Even if it was a pig leading 20,000 troops to defend Ruyin City, it would be impossible for Guan Yu to lead 20,000 soldiers to break through the city gate.

As a result, not only was Ruyin City lost, but even 20,000 troops were also perished along with that idiot Qiao Rui.

"Idiot! Stupid idiot!!!"

Yuan Shu could not help but burst into cursing, and no one in the civil and military circles dared to say a word.

If we say that the defeat in the Battle of Jingzhou made Yuan Shu unable to expand in a short period of time.

If Ruyin City fell into Liu Bei's hands, it would mean that the hundreds of miles of land around Shouchun in Runan County would belong to Liu Bei. Even Guan Yu could go deep into the heart of Runan County along the Ying River at any time, and the entire Runan County would be threatened by the military force of Yangzhou at any time.

In other words, the loss of Ruyin City represented a change in the offensive and defensive situation between Yuan Shu and Liu Bei.

Previously, Liu Bei had to deploy heavy troops in Shouchun to be vigilant against Yuan Shu at all times, but now Yuan Shu had to try to block the Yingshui River and deploy heavy troops to be on guard around Ruyin.

"Can anyone tell me why Qiao Rui dared to disobey my order and leave the city without permission?"

"Didn't you order Qiao Rui to defend Ruyin City to the death? Who gave him the courage?"

"Idiot, an idiot who deserves death!"

Yuan Shu kept cursing, as if he wanted to vent his dissatisfaction with the defeat.

And when Yang Hong was once again named by Yuan Shu and questioned why Qiao Rui had the courage to do so.

Yang Hong could only answer reluctantly.

"Or... maybe after the lord sent more troops to Ruyin, General Qiao was confident that his troops were equal to Guan Yu's and that he could hold the city firmly... so he was anxious to share the lord's worries, so he... sent out his troops?"

Yuan Shu laughed in anger and said, "So it's my fault? It was Guan Yu's fault for sending more troops to defend Ruyin City in order to be cautious?"

Yang Hong didn't dare to say anything and quickly lowered his head.

But based on Yang Hong's understanding of Qiao Rui, this is indeed the main cause.

In other words, even if Qiao Rui was replaced by other generals, they would probably not dare not send troops.

If Qiao Rui insisted on defending the city and refusing to leave the city when the defenders of Ruyin City were equal in strength to the troops led by Guan Yu, he would have allowed Guan Yu to lead his troops deep into the heart of Runan County and destroy it.

If it affected the direction of the war in Jingzhou at that time, forcing Yuan Shu to consider sending troops to provide support, Qiao Rui would probably not escape severe punishment.

Therefore, after Guan Yu apparently led his troops to bypass Ruyin, Qiao Rui seemed to have many choices, but in fact the best option was to send his troops out of the city to try to obstruct Guan Yu.

Moreover, Qiao Rui left 10,000 soldiers in Ruyin City, which showed that he was being very cautious.

However, the military report sent back from Ruyin City was not detailed.

The details of how Qiao Rui was ambushed and killed by Guan Yu, and how the gate of Ruyin City was tricked into opening, are all vague.

But even though Yang Hong felt that he might have been a victim of psychological warfare when he sent reinforcements to Ruyin City from the very beginning, judging from the result, it was undoubtedly a great defeat caused by Qiao Rui's incompetence.

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PS: I'm stuck, so I'm a little slow in writing today. I'll send you the third chapter soon. (End of this chapter)