Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

What Xi Zhicai said is undoubtedly insightful and every word makes sense.

Cao Cao was about to lead a large army to evacuate Xuzhou. He continued to plunder in Xuzhou and replenished a lot of food and grass in some special ways, but the remaining food and grass in the army was not enough for three months.

Even though it was approaching autumn, Qingzhou would soon be able to harvest another batch of grain to alleviate the problem of food shortage for Cao's army.

But once the war with Yuan Shao breaks out, this amount of food and grass seems far from enough.

More importantly, Liu Bei and Yuan Shao could be said to be the overlords in the south and the north respectively.

Previously, Cao Cao's policy was to get close to the Yuan family and resist Liu Bei, which caused the relationship between Cao Cao and Liu Bei to deteriorate to a point that could no longer be cured.

Under such circumstances, if Cao Cao went to war with Yuan Shao, would that be tantamount to seeking his own death?

Therefore, not to mention that Xi Zhicai felt that Zhu Ling's abrupt identification of Yuan Shao as the murderer of Cao Song was highly suspicious, even from the perspective of the overall situation, Cao Cao should not have torn his face with Yuan Shao.

Only by being patient for a while can we consider the overall situation.

However, what Xi Zhicai didn't know was that this was a drama arranged by Cao Cao himself.

What is the way out for Qingzhou?
Now that the attempt to seize Xuzhou has failed and taking Yanzhou will only lead to siege from all sides, Xun You’s suggestion is to go north... and launch a surprise attack on Jizhou!
This is to put oneself in a desperate situation in order to survive.

If Yuan Shao had won a great victory in the Battle of Jie Bridge and occupied Jizhou, and then turned to stabilize the local area and accumulate strength, then Cao Cao's surprise attack on Jizhou would have been like hitting a rock with an egg.

However, after Cao Cao attacked Xuzhou in the name of revenge for his father, stirring up the world situation, he successively involved Lu Bu, Yuan Shu and Liu Bei.

When Yuan Shao saw that a major war had broken out in the Central Plains and no one had the energy to threaten the rear of Jizhou.

In order to solve the problem once and for all, Yuan Shao raised another army as soon as he had conquered Jizhou. Taking advantage of Gongsun Zan's injury, he intended to take over Youzhou and completely eliminate the threat.

In Yuan Shao's view, sending Zhu Ling with 10,000 troops to Qingxu could not only assist Cao Cao, but also monitor the movements of all parties.

Moreover, to the north of Yanzhou, across the Yellow River, near Sili and Yanzhou's Liyang, Chunyu Qiong also stationed 10,000 troops there on guard.

With Zhu Ling and Chunyu Qiong guarding their own sides, Yuan Shao had no worries about the problems in the rear at all. He was concentrating all his military forces to attack Youzhou before the winter came, and then try to gradually nibble away at and annex the Youyan area.

This was undoubtedly Cao Cao's chance to risk his life and seize Jizhou.

Compared to trying to get rid of Zhu Ling and leaving him no chance to report to Yuan Shao, Cao Cao's approach was undoubtedly more clever and had actually won over Zhu Ling.

Not only did he let Zhu Ling work for Cao Cao, but even the Yuan army led by Zhu Ling was annexed by Cao Cao.

As a result, Yuan Shao no longer had any force north of Qingzhou that could stop Cao Cao from crossing the Yellow River and entering Jizhou.

Now, although Yuan Shao had initially conquered Jizhou, his rule was not yet stable.

In particular, the surrendered Han Fu was killed by Yuan Shao, which made many of Han Fu's former subordinates resentful, but Yuan Shao did not have time to appease and win over them one by one.

After Cao Cao crossed the river, the first place he entered was Bohai County.

That is the Bohai County where Yuan Shao’s base in Jizhou is located, and it is also the Bohai County where Yuan Shao now stores a large amount of grain and fodder.

Even though Yuan Shao is now concentrating all his forces to attack Youzhou, most of the food and grass are still stored in Bohai County, where Yuan Shao is most confident.

At the same time, that was also the food and fodder that Cao Cao urgently needed!
The amount of food and fodder available in Cao Cao's army, including the jerky, is less than three months' worth.

Therefore, crossing the Yellow River, advancing into Jizhou, and seizing Bohai would bring about a dramatic change in the situation. The chain reaction caused by Cao Cao's attack on Xuzhou allowed Yuan Shao to take the opportunity to devote all his forces to Youzhou. Now was also a good time for Cao Cao to seize Jizhou.

Immediately, Cao Cao distributed meat and rewarded the three armies outside Dongguan County in the name of commemorating Cao Song, which boosted the army's originally low morale. Then he led his troops north and headed straight for Jizhou.

Due to Zhu Ling's concealment, Jizhou, with its rear empty, was completely unaware that Cao Cao was leading an army of 70,000 to cross the Yellow River in a hurry.

Originally, Cao Cao did not have enough large ships to cross the river quickly, but when Zhu Ling led his troops south, Yuan Shao arranged a lot of ferries for Zhu Ling.

These ferries were now handed over to Cao Cao by Zhu Ling, so that Cao Cao now had enough boats to easily cross the Yellow River.

However, Yuan Shao was not aware of this news.

Even if the Jinyisi stationed in Qingzhou noticed the strange movements of Cao's army returning to Qingzhou and hurriedly sent the information out, it would not reach Liu Bei and Li Ji for a while.

At this moment, Li Ji's energy was all focused on the army led by Ji Ling outside Pengcheng.

Within five days, a large net called "Ambush from All Sides" was quietly laid.

Now is the time to pull the net.

Ji Ling was completely unaware of this. Even after seeing no further reinforcements arrive in Pengcheng, Ji Ling once again launched a fierce attack on Pengcheng.

Faced with the fierce attack from Yuan's army after four days of recuperation, Zang Ba had a particularly hard time resisting. Large sections of the city wall once again became a cruel flesh-and-blood grinding wheel, burying the lives of many soldiers.

In order to defend Pengcheng, Zang Ba led his personal guards to run back and forth on the city wall of Pengcheng, constantly providing emergency assistance, and several times drove back the Yuan army that had climbed up the city wall and was not yet stable.

But even so, the war situation is still deteriorating at a speed visible to the naked eye.

It is true that Zhang Fei arrived in Pengcheng, but it was impossible for Zhang Fei to let the cavalry dismount and defend the city wall, which meant that Zang Ba actually had no additional troops to defend the city.

Zang Ba had barely 10,000 soldiers to defend the city, most of whom were already injured. At the same time, they also had to take care of a large section of the city wall, which meant that Zang Ba didn't even have time to rotate his troops.

In addition to the personal guards led by Zang Ba, there were only three thousand-man teams left for emergency rescue in various places.

However, as the war situation continued to deteriorate, the other two teams of 1,000 men, which were originally used to run around to provide emergency relief, had to be deployed directly on the city walls to resist the fierce attacks of Yuan's army.

Even the personal guards led by Zang Ba were gradually becoming exhausted and everyone was injured.

"Crazy! Crazy! Yuan Jun is crazy!"

Sun Guan, covered in blood and with a simple bandage on his arm, still had the same bandit spirit as before and spoke to Zang Ba.

"General, we can't stop them. Ji Ling must be crazy. There are 30,000 soldiers and horses attacking the three walls in turn, and all kinds of siege equipment are ready. Brothers can't stop them."

Zang Ba wiped his face with a liquid mixed with someone who didn't know whether it was blood or water. He chopped off the head of a Yuan soldier who was climbing up the nearby city wall with a knife, and said while breathing heavily.

"We have to stop it even if we can't!"

Sun Guan's expression changed slightly, and he tried to persuade them. "General, we can't fight anymore. If we continue, all our brothers will be killed."

Zang Ba was never Tao Qian's direct descendant. The reason Tao Qian disliked Zang Ba was that the direct descendant led by Zang Ba was actually a group of Taishan bandits who ruled their own territory. (End of this chapter)