Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Ruyang City, Yuzhou.

After Li Ji led an army of two hundred thousand soldiers to launch a massive attack on Yuzhou, the entire Ruyang City was enveloped in a tense and solemn atmosphere.

Every day, a large number of fast horses enter and leave Ruyang City, delivering or transmitting a large number of military reports and orders.

As Lu Bu led his troops to retreat from Nanyang County and chose to attack Yanzhou instead, resulting in a 20,000-strong detachment from Jingzhou attacking Yuzhou, Yuan Shu became more and more irritable and restless.

The main force led by Li Ji marched all the way from Pengcheng State, and was still more than 500 miles away from Ruyang. There were many cities separating them along the way, and they could not threaten Ruyang City where Yuan Shu was located in a short period of time.

However, after the 20,000-strong detachment led by Wen Pin from the direction of Jingzhou set off, Yuan Shu could hardly sleep day or night.

Ruyang City is less than three hundred miles away from the border of Jingzhou.

If the march is fast enough, this small troop will be able to reach the city of Ruyang in ten days.

Therefore, in order to stop Wen Pin's detachment, Yuan Shu cobbled together a barely elite force of 10,000 soldiers and handed them over to Zhang Xun, hoping that Zhang Xun could stop Wen Pin.

Even Yuan Shu knew that once Ruyang City was besieged, it would be a fatal blow to his remaining prestige.

The already precarious situation in Yuzhou may collapse in an instant.

As for Xu Sheng who was attacking from Shouchun in the south, Yuan Shu appointed Lei Bo as his general and ordered him to defend the cities one by one to delay time.

As for Li Ji's mighty army of 100,000, Yuan Shu could only send out supervision teams continuously and force each city to defend to the end.

At this moment, Yuzhou was like a broken ship, and Yuan Shu fell into a final frenzy, constantly dismantling the wooden boards, trying to block the seawater that kept pouring in from the holes.

However, no matter how crazy Yuan Shu was, the cities that he forced his young and strong men to defend were still constantly being breached.

Yuan Shu, with a tired look on his face, waved at Yang Hong and said.

"Tell me, which city did Li Zikun capture in the direction of Pei State today?"

"Good news, my lord! Good news!" Yang Hong said excitedly.

"What good news?"

Yuan Shu asked in surprise.

If facing the two independent armies of Wen Pin and Xu Sheng, Yuan Shu could still count on his generals to perform beyond their level and hold them off.

But facing the 100,000-strong army led by Li Ji, Yuan Shu was completely thinking of using the city to buy time, dragging the city into the winter snow to force Li Ji to retreat.

Could it be that Heaven will never stop me from visiting Yuan Gonglu?

Yuan Shu could not help but ask excitedly, "Did a powerful person appear out of nowhere and defeat Li the bandit? Or was he killed by a meteorite falling from the sky?"

"what……"

Yang Hong looked a little embarrassed. He never expected that his lord would have such an unrealistic fantasy.

However, facing Yuan Shu's eager gaze, Yang Hong had no choice but to speak. "Yes, it was the Marquis of Guoshi who stopped his advance in Xiang County."

Upon hearing this, Yuan Shu first showed a look of disappointment on his face, and said, "What good news is this? Maybe that guy just couldn't stand the hardship of marching and took a day off."

"Yes Yes……"

Yang Hong echoed and then spoke again.

"But the general's army marches as fast as the wind and invades as fast as fire. Since entering Yuzhou, he has been able to defeat all the enemies and his momentum has not stopped. Today, he suddenly stopped the army. Maybe something unexpected happened."

Yuan Shu suddenly became alert again and asked, "What does Yang Changshi mean?"

Yang Hong speculated and said, "It is said that Cao Cao once intentionally created a plague in Donghai County. Could it be that the state scholar was infected with the plague?" Yuan Shu couldn't help but smile.

"If so, that would be the best."

After a pause, Yuan Shu said solemnly, "From today on, I will give up drinking and sex, and pray to the heavens every day."

"Ah? My lord, are you praying for the national hero?" Yang Hong asked in confusion.

"Of course, I beg God to let the disease defeat Li Zikun."

After a pause, Yuan Shu continued, "Send more scouts to the direction of Pei State to monitor the movements of bandit Li. Report to me immediately if there is anything unusual."

After saying that, Yuan Shu went straight to the backyard to bathe, burn incense, and then prayed to God respectfully.

In this regard, Yang Hong felt that even if there was a destiny, it probably lay with Liu, not Yuan.

Yuan Shu's move was entirely due to his full knowledge of the huge disparity in military strength, and he placed his hopes on ghosts and gods.

However, what made Yang Hong feel incredible was that in the next five days, the intelligence sent back from Pei State showed that Li Ji was leading his army and staying motionless in Xiang County.

Moreover, Zhang Xun really led a weak force to temporarily block Wen Pin.

In the south, although Lei Bo was no match for Xu Sheng, he was able to hold back Xu Sheng's pace by defending the city.

"Could it be... that he is really getting better? Could it be that the Lord has really moved the heavens?"

Yang Hong was amazed. While reporting the good news to Yuan Shu every day, he couldn't help but start to hesitate whether to give up his plan of finding an opportunity to escape from Ruyang.

However, just as Yuan Shu was excited about the good news.

The news that Cao Cao had captured Nanpi City finally reached Ruyang City, shocking Yuan Shu into confusion.

Not only was Yuzhou in turmoil, but even Yuan Shao was attacked from the rear by Cao Cao?

For a moment, Yuan Shu had the illusion that he was completely played by Cao Cao and Liu Bei, and that the Yuan family was being devoured by the joint efforts of Cao and Liu.

Following the Battle of Jie Bridge, the Yuan family, which had been at the peak of its power in the Han Dynasty, seemed to be in a situation where it could be overthrown at any time.

At this moment, Yuan Shu finally felt a sense of regret, regretting not listening to Yan Xiang's advice to preserve his strength and join Yuan Shao.

Yuan Shu might not be convinced by Yuan Shao, but he was unwilling to see the accumulation of several generations of the Yuan family destroyed in the hands of his two brothers.

Just when Yuan Shu felt that something was wrong, Li Ji, who had stayed in Xiangcheng for five days without moving, suddenly moved, abandoning a large amount of baggage and moving quickly.

Why do larger armies march more slowly?

The key lies in the burden of baggage, and the size of the baggage has an almost exponential impact on the army's marching speed.

As Li Ji gave up the logistical baggage and chose to carry about ten days' worth of dry food, the marching speed was far beyond normal.

Li Ji no longer attempted to capture the cities that he encountered along the way by force, but chose to ignore them and pass through them from the side.

This made Yuan Shu feel incredible when he heard from the panicked Yang Hong about the movements of the army led by Li Ji.

"How is this marching speed possible? Could it be that Li the thief has completely ignored the logistics and food supply?"

Yuan Shu turned around in confusion at first, then he realized something and spoke.

"Does Li the thief want to be fed by the enemy?"

"Immediately send a message to all the cities that Li the thief may pass through to fortify their walls and clear the fields. Even if the grain in the fields is burned, not a single grain should be left for Li the thief." (End of this chapter)