Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Zhang Fei was stunned at first, then revealed a bit of contempt.

Zhang Fei thought Chen Dao must have some profound ideas after hearing his eloquent speech, but in the end he couldn't think of any solution and had to listen to Li Ji.

Zhang Fei can also make this choice, and he is much more skilled than Chen Dao.

Li Ji was lost in thought and didn't even pay attention to the discussion between Zhang Fei and Chen Dao.

Li Ji never dared to underestimate Cao Cao, and was extremely cautious in his plans, for fear that Cao Cao would find any flaws and turn the tables.

The reason why they were able to frequently take the initiative when facing Cao Cao this time was simply because Cao Cao was careless for a moment and Li Ji killed almost all of his cavalry.

Just this letter made Li Ji feel a little suspicious.

After a while of thought, Li Ji began to ask the scout who sent the letter back about the details of the intercepted letter.

For important secret letters like this, in order to ensure delivery, they would not be sent just one copy but in plural.

Only one copy was intercepted, which means that there must have been other letters sent out.

However, Li Ji is more inclined to another guess...

Li Ji took the letter back and raised it, saying, "Could it be that Cao Cao deliberately sent this letter to me in this way?"

"What's the purpose of this?" Chen Dao asked.

"Or maybe he wants me to be a little cautious and not dare to push him too hard. Otherwise, if Cao Cao really tries his best to stop our army from supporting Pengcheng as he said in the secret letter, it will be a very tricky problem." Li Ji replied.

Cao Cao's losses were indeed heavy, but he undoubtedly still had a few cards in his hand. The possibility of him defeating Liu Bei was extremely low, but there were ways to delay Liu Bei.

Liu Bei, who entered Xuzhou as a fire-fighting team, could not delay any longer. Otherwise, if Yuan Shu captured Pengcheng, the situation in Xuzhou would change drastically.

Furthermore, given the current attitudes of Tao Qian and many civil and military officials in Xuzhou, it would only be a matter of time before Liu Bei peacefully takes over Xuzhou.

How Liu Bei repels the siege of Cao Cao and Yuan Shu will greatly affect Liu Bei's subsequent prestige in Xuzhou and his ability to successfully take over Xuzhou.

After hearing this, Chen Dao concluded uncertainly.

"So, Cao Cao is afraid to confront our army head-on, isn't he? So he wants to urge Yuan Shu to send out troops, while at the same time he wants our army to be cautious, to preserve their strength while delaying our army as much as possible?"

"It is indeed possible. Otherwise, it is said that Cao Cao's eldest son Cao Ang is still in Runan County..."

After a pause, Li Ji deduced.

"Even if Cao Cao wanted to send a secret letter, he could have agreed with Cao Ang in advance on some decryption methods to encrypt the secret letter, and then have Cao Ang deliver it, instead of letting others decipher it directly like now."

At this moment, in Li Ji's opinion, Cao Cao seemed to be playing "open cards", deliberately showing the cards in his hand to Li Ji, and Cao Cao also knew that Li Ji had seen his cards.

This even gave Li Ji the illusion that Cao Cao was holding a fruit knife and shouting at him, "Don't come here."

Correspondingly, Li Ji was holding a machete.

However, this is indeed a kind of "open conspiracy".

If it is true that the backbone of Cao's army had been broken, then the Xuzhou army under Tao Qian's command must have been beaten into a pulp, with the remnants of the defeated army huddled in Pengcheng and Xiapi.

It is really impossible to stop Yuan Shu with only the Xuzhou army in Tao Qian's hands. This is also the bargaining chip that Cao Cao used to threaten Li Ji.

"Map of Xuzhou." Li Ji shouted, and Gu Wei quickly found the map of Xuzhou and spread it out in front of Li Ji.

Li Ji pondered over the map of Xuzhou for a while and gave the order.

"Send more scouts to see what Cao Cao is up to. I don't think he will give in so easily."

Immediately, under Li Ji's order, he directly drew troops from the cavalry led by Zhang Fei and sent them out as temporary scouts to monitor Cao's army.

If Cao Cao was willing to withdraw from Xuzhou, it would undoubtedly be a good thing for Xuzhou, which still had the threat of Yuan Shu, and it would also be a hundred benefits for Liu Bei.

Preventing the outbreak of plague and preserving Xuzhou are Liu Bei’s real interests.

In terms of rationality, Li Ji made a reasonable judgment based on the intelligence;
But emotionally, Li Ji did not think that Cao Cao would be willing to admit defeat like this.

After all, Qingzhou is trapped in a corner. Once Xuzhou is completely taken by Liu Bei, Cao Cao, who is sandwiched between Yuan and Liu Bei, will only become a "chessboard" for the game between the two sides, and there will be no possibility of turning around.

Just like a special region where great powers compete with each other.

Li Ji did not think that Cao Cao would not see this. A retreat from the battlefield of Xuzhou might mean the end of Cao Cao's life.

"Cao Mengde, what exactly are you planning?"

Li Ji thought silently.

Under the surveillance of a large number of scouts, the number of plumes of smoke raised by Cao's army, which had no ability to counterattack, could be clearly recorded in a day, making it impossible for them to escape.

However, in the next three days, Cao Cao devoted himself to rest and had no intention of continuing to lead his troops to pursue Liu Bei.

What surprised Li Ji even more was that Liu Bei also sent someone to send back a letter.

Cao Hong, who originally led 30,000 Cao troops to fight Liu Bei to the death, seemed to have evacuated Liu Bei's marching route overnight after learning the news of Cao Cao's disastrous defeat.

Liu Bei, who was eager to clear Yishui, did not pursue Cao Hong. He went straight to Yishui and hurriedly delivered this news.

And just half a day after Li Ji learned of this information, Cao Cao seemed to have estimated the time when Li Ji received the information.

The next morning, after three days of rest, Cao Cao broke camp and marched away, deliberately avoiding the direction where Li Ji was going, making it clear that he was going to take a detour and return to Tan County.

Browsing the intelligence sent back one after another by the scouts, it not only included the information that Cao Cao's army indeed had over 30,000 troops left, but also the accurate marching movements.

If Cao Hong did not withdraw his troops, Li Ji would try to stop Cao Cao no matter what.

However, as Cao Hong was retreating ahead, Li Ji had no choice but to give up the idea and avoid pursuing him too far. Instead, he was caught in a pincer attack from Cao Cao and Cao Hong's armies and suffered a setback.

With Cao Hong's support, Li Ji could not do anything to Cao Cao with only 20,000 troops.

This made Li Ji watch Cao Cao lead his army to retreat with some doubt and confusion. While giving up the grain route again, he couldn't help but feel a little sad for the two unlucky guys Wei Yan and Pang Tong.

If Li Ji and Cao Cao, as well as Liu Bei and Cao Hong, continued to fight fiercely and restrain each other, the surprise force of Wei Yan and Pang Tong might really be the magic weapon to change the situation.

However, when Cao Cao and Cao Hong voluntarily retreated one after another, the special forces led by Wei Yan and Pang Tong seemed like a joke.

Li Ji raised his hand and gave the order.

"Send a fast horse to Wei Yan and Pang Tong to evacuate Tan County as soon as possible and reunite with the lord." (End of this chapter)