Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

On the Jie Bridge behind Zhao Yun, the last remnants of Gongsun's army had gradually crossed half of the distance across the Jie Bridge.

Zhao Yun glanced back, then turned his eyes back to the Yuan army in front of him.

The infantry and generals of Yuan's army were so intimidated that they dared not approach for a while, but the archers in the rear were organizing their troops and seemed to be ready to pour a rain of arrows towards the bridgehead of Jie Bridge.

After charging into the chaos for a long time, Zhao Yun no longer dared to be arrogant, and his eyes finally fell on the direction of Yuan Shao's chariot.

As if aware of Zhao Yun's strong archery skills, Yuan Shao had no intention of getting closer than 150 steps away from Zhao Yun.

Zhao Yun might be able to see Yuan Shao clearly, but it was extremely difficult for his arrow to hit Yuan Shao who was one hundred and fifty steps away.

Immediately, Zhao Yun spoke loudly.

"I am here on the orders of my lord to dissuade the two families from fighting. Envoy Yuan and Lord Gongsun are both pillars of the Han dynasty. Even if they have a personal grudge, why would they fight to this extent?"

"In order to prevent the people of Jizhou from suffering from the war, we ask the two families to stop fighting as soon as possible, and for Envoy Yuan to go to Bingzhou as governor as soon as possible, and return Bohai County to Envoy Han and Lord Gongsun to govern."

These words seemed to be neutral and reasonable, but in fact they were just to flatter Yuan Shao, and they also explained the reason why Zhao Yun appeared here as if he was serving the public interest.

Yuan Shao naturally understood the profound meaning of this.

Yuan Shao's nominal official position now was Bingzhou Mu, but he had been confronting Jizhou Mu Han Fu and Bohai County Prefect Gongsun Zan in Jizhou for more than a year.

From an emotional and logical point of view, Yuan Shao had no advantage.

However, Zhao Yun did not say it earlier or later.

Zhao Yun only appeared at this moment to convey these words. This was not to persuade the two families to stop fighting, but to add some obstacles to Yuan Shao's subsequent control of Jizhou on the level of justice.

Yuan Shao glared at Zhao Yun and waved his hand, ordering the archers who had been urgently assembled to start aiming in the direction of Jie Bridge.

However, before Yuan's army could launch a volley of arrows, Zhao Yun changed his murderous intent, turned his horse's head, and flashed towards the Jie Bridge.

A large number of arrows fell with the entrance of Jie Bridge as the center, but failed to cause any hindrance to Zhao Yun who had dodged in advance.

Seeing this, Yuan Shao was unwilling to give up and wanted to command his army to pursue along Jie Bridge, but was quickly dissuaded by a group of advisers including Tian Feng.

Under the command of Guo Jia, tens of thousands of cavalry also formed their battle formations on the north bank of the Qing River.

In addition, Yuan's army had been fighting for a long time and relied on attacking while the enemy was halfway across the river and attacking by water. Even though they had won this great victory, they also suffered heavy losses and the army was also exhausted.

If Yuan's army continued to pursue and force a charge at the Jie Bridge, with tens of thousands of cavalrymen skilled in riding and shooting stationed by Guo Jia, Yuan's army might not be able to cross the Jie Bridge, and there would even be a risk of winning first and then losing.

Yuan Shao, quite unwilling, stopped at the bridgehead on the south bank, looked at the north bank, and spoke angrily.

"If Liu Da'er hadn't sent people to ruin my plans, how could Gongsun Bogui have been able to leave this place? The three states north of the Yellow River will all fall into my hands. How hateful!!"

Xu You, who was following behind Yuan Shao, spoke quickly.

"My lord, don't worry. Although we didn't win this battle, Gongsun Zan is no longer a threat and can only slowly retreat to Youzhou. Han Fu is the only one left. How can he be your opponent?"

"When the time comes, my lord, with the might of the great victory at Jieqiao, wherever his flag passes, he will hope to annex the two states. Who dares not to obey?"

Yuan Shao stroked his short beard and after hearing this, a look of complacency appeared on his face.

In the Battle of Jie Bridge, Yuan Shao defeated the coalition forces of Gongsun Zan and Han Fu with more than 60,000 infantrymen. This battle alone was enough to lay the foundation for Yuan Shao to dominate Ji and Bing states, and pushed Yuan's power to the extreme.

Compared with Liu Bei who dominated Jing and Yang provinces, Yuan Shao who controlled Ji and Bing provinces would not be inferior to Liu Bei in terms of territory, population, and money and food. Liu Bei might have the advantage of ships, but after Yuan Shao conquered Bingzhou, he would also have a steady supply of war horses.

Yuan Shao and Liu Bei are the overlords in the south and north respectively, and they also dominate the Central Plains. The world will gradually become a situation of two hegemons and many strong countries.

……

The battle situation was just as Yuan Shao's advisers had expected.

Although Gongsun Zan led a number of defeated soldiers back to the north bank, preliminary statistics after the war showed that of the more than 60,000 cavalrymen who forced the crossing, only 10,000 retreated to the north bank.

The rest either became the souls of the dead under the swords of Yuan’s army, or were washed away by the surging river.

Moreover, among the ten thousand cavalrymen, there were only three thousand White Horse Volunteers left, and the overall morale was at an unimaginable low.

After retreating to the north bank, the seriously injured Gongsun Zan confirmed that Zhao Yun had returned safely, then fell into a coma, with a high fever that would not subside, and he was barely awake for a moment all day.

After such a devastating defeat, it was naturally difficult for Gongsun's army to continue fighting, and they could only retreat slowly, return to Youzhou, and then make plans.

However, how to buy time for Gongsun's army to retreat and avoid being closely pursued by Yuan's army and causing another major rout became a difficult problem.

After all, although the cavalry is fast, the alliance between Gongsun Zan and Han Fu has broken down in an instant, and Han Fu cannot provide supplies to Gongsun's army at any time.

Jieqiao is nearly a thousand miles away from Youzhou. It is impossible for more than 20,000 cavalrymen to abandon their logistical supplies while keeping their horses busy.

For this reason, after much deliberation, Guo Jia not only did not leave anyone to cover the retreat at the boundary bridge, he even did not destroy the boundary bridge.

In addition to a dense forest thirty miles north of Jie Bridge, which was suitable for an ambush, two thousand white horse volunteers were deployed to continuously walk back and forth in the dense forest to scar the flying birds.

The entire army took advantage of the cover of night to retreat from the camp and evacuate towards Youzhou.

Less than two hours after the army withdrew, Yuan Shao learned the news at dawn.

However, the intact boundary bridge aroused suspicion among Yuan Shao, who had originally planned to order a pursuit immediately.

It was not until Yuan Shao sent people to explore the area within a radius of ten miles on the north bank of Jie Bridge and confirmed that there were no ambushes that he personally led his army across the Jie Bridge to pursue.

But doing so would inevitably waste half a day.

When Yuan Shao personally led the army to pursue northward along the chaotic horse hoof prints and baggage transport cart tracks of Gongsun's retreating army, they arrived at a dense forest thirty miles away.

The large number of birds perching above the dense forest and daring not to land made Yuan Shao's advisers alert.

Furthermore, when we hurried here, it was getting dark, making the dense forest seem even deeper.

Gongsun's army, perhaps setting up an ambush in the dense forest? !
A group of counselors came to this conclusion, which made Yuan Shao dare not rush into it.

After all, it is true that the morale of Gongsun's army is extremely low, but if they are successfully ambushed by Gongsun's army, it may not be impossible to turn defeat into victory.

In addition, it was getting dark, so Yuan Shao listened to the advice of his advisers and after careful consideration, he decided to retreat five miles and set up camp to rest.

Then, when it was completely dark, Yuan Shao sent out twenty scout teams into the dense forest to investigate and confirm the ambush situation.

In the end, only seven or eight of the twenty scout teams returned safely, while the rest were shot dead in the dense forest. (End of this chapter)