Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator.

Chapter 42: Targeting Common Sense (Seeking Subscriptions)

Even Zhang Liang, with considerable self-awareness, knew that he was only mediocre in the art of war.

'Damn it, throughout my Taiping Dao, with its millions, there isn't a single person capable of leading troops effectively!'

Zhang Liang's heart was gloomy, but he was helpless.

Now, the Taiping Dao's uprising was suffering setbacks everywhere, causing Zhang Liang to toss and turn, unable to sleep at night.

Therefore, upon faintly hearing the sounds of fighting from outside, he quickly got up and went to the council hall.

Zhang Liang calmed his mind and, without waiting for the other Yellow Turban generals to arrive, spoke directly.

"Has Guan Hai arrived?"

From within the crowd, a burly man with the most robust physique stepped forward and replied.

"General Ren Gong, I am here."

Zhang Liang said urgently, "Guan Hai, take my order and quickly lead five hundred Yellow Turban warriors and three thousand followers to the granary to kill the enemy, and be sure to put out the fire as soon as possible."

"Yes!"

Guan Hai didn't waste any words, took the Taiping Dao flag that Zhang Liang handed over, and hurried out the door.

Then, Zhang Liang looked at the other four generals who had arrived and continued to order.

"Xu He, Sima Ju, Wu Ba, Chen Bai, each of you lead five thousand followers to quickly support the north and south gates."

These four also stepped forward to receive Zhang Liang's flags and quickly went down to summon their followers.

Zhang Liang continued to sit in the government office's council hall, lowering his head and constantly thinking about whether there were any oversights, pondering, hesitating, and anxiously waiting for news.

Soon, as the remaining Yellow Turban generals arrived at the council hall, some quickly and some slowly, Zhang Liang suddenly thought of something and ordered.

"Bian Xi, quickly gather three thousand followers to patrol the city and shout the Taiping Dao's righteousness to appease the hearts of the believers."

"Yes."

Bian Xi quickly took the flag and immediately went down to mobilize the followers.

Chu Yan, who was among the crowd, couldn't help but speak up to remind him.

"General Ren Gong, although the sounds of attacking and killing are coming from the north and south sides, the east and west directions should also be guarded against. It is advisable to order increased vigilance."

Zhang Liang heard this and thought for a good few breaths before nodding and saying.

"What you say is very true, then…"

Just then, a Yellow Turban warrior shouted outside the council hall.

"Report."

"Come in quickly," Zhang Liang said hurriedly.

The Yellow Turban warrior said urgently.

"General Ren Gong, General Guan Hai has already killed all the enemies attacking the granary. Now he has organized a large number of people to put out the fire, and the fire has been controlled in time, with little loss."

"Good!"

A look of joy appeared on Zhang Liang's face.

In Julu City, the granary was extremely important, involving not only the food supply for a large number of Taiping Dao followers in the entire city, but also bearing the burden of supplying grain to the Guangzong line.

After that, good news also came from the north and south gates, where the attacking enemies had been repelled one after another.

Only then did Zhang Liang relax, waiting for Guan Hai, Xu He, Sima Ju, and other generals to return one after another.

Zhang Liang generously rewarded them separately before asking.

"General Ren Gong, about fifty enemies attacked the granary, all of whom have been killed. Although we have tried our best to put out the fire, the loss of grain is still as high as ten thousand dan," Guan Hai cupped his fist and said truthfully.

"A mere ten thousand dan of grain is a small matter," Zhang Liang waved his hand dismissively, not caring about this little loss.

For Julu today, the least lacking thing is grain.

This is not only because they looted a large number of civilians, but more importantly, they squeezed all the local aristocratic families dry, even extracting the marrow from their bones.

Moreover, unlike those impoverished peasants, aristocratic families almost all had a common characteristic—they were hoarders, storing large amounts of money and grain in their homes.

This is why, in times of prosperity, even with the power of the entire nation, it is difficult to build an army of a million, but in times of chaos, many warlords can easily raise hundreds of thousands of troops.

Because the military expenses in prosperous times are supplied by the taxes paid by the common people at the bottom.

And if we take the maximum tax produced by the whole country as one hundred, aristocratic families and other tax-exempt groups often take away half, corrupt officials take away another 20%, 10% is needed to maintain the operation of the court, 10% is used for the expenses of the royal relatives, and only the remaining 10% is the money available to the court.

In times of chaos, the winner takes all.

Not to mention the money and grain hoarded by aristocratic families, Cao Cao in the original trajectory even remembered to dig out the burial goods of aristocratic families buried underground to use as military expenses.

(PS: Here, let me just give one piece of data: During the Warring States period, when productivity was even lower than in the Han Dynasty, the Zhao state alone buried 400,000 soldiers alive in one go. You can imagine how exaggerated it would be to raise troops to the limit.

In comparison, Emperor Chongzhen at the end of the Ming Dynasty was really a poor wretch, asking officials for rewards for a little military pay, but the officials didn't give it...)

Now, the money and grain hoarded by a large number of aristocratic families have all been taken advantage of by the Taiping Dao, and Zhang Jiao has transported them all to Julu for storage.

Therefore, for the Taiping Dao today, what they lack is not money and grain, but how to transport the grain.

Then, Zhang Liang looked at Xu He and Sima Ju, who had gone to the south gate.

Sima Ju thought for a while, grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth, and said.

"General Ren Gong, Lao Xu and I fought bloody battles at the south gate, killing… that… the sky and the earth were dark… Someone even had their brains chopped out, and I sprinkled some salt on them and drank them directly…"

"Alright, alright."

Zhang Liang frowned, looked at Sima Ju's posture, whose hair was not even messy, and asked directly. "What I want to know is how many Han soldiers came to attack?"

Sima Ju hesitated for a moment and said, "Well, I guess I saw at least five thousand."

Zhang Liang nodded and looked at Wu Ba and Chen Bai, who had gone to the north gate.

Wu Ba and Chen Bai looked at each other, and then Chen Bai said loudly. "At least eight thousand Han soldiers attacked the north gate!"

When Sima Ju heard this, he widened his eyes and quickly added.

"General Ren Gong, I just misspoke, it's not just five thousand, at least ten thousand."

Chen Bai heard this and continued, "I recalculated, there are probably eleven thousand Han soldiers on the north side."

"Twelve thousand!"

"Thirteen thousand!"

"You're talking nonsense, don't think I don't know that you're just trying to exaggerate in front of General Ren Gong to claim credit."

"Your whole family is talking nonsense, with your small eyes, you can't even aim at a woman's door in the dark, how can you count how many people there are?"

"Who can't aim? You give me your ass, and see if I can't aim."

"Come on!"

"Let's go then…"

Seeing that a group of Yellow Turban generals led by Sima Ju and Chen Bai were about to draw their knives and draw blood, Zhang Liang slammed the table hard and shouted.

"You are all crude and unbearable, shut up!"

"Yes, General Ren Gong." The Yellow Turban generals below quickly admitted their mistakes in a low voice.

Zhang Liang sighed and felt a headache.

It was only because these Yellow Turban generals had a firm belief in the Taiping Dao and were all brave men, otherwise Zhang Liang would have wanted to send these people to serve the Yellow Heaven immediately.

From the dispute just now, Zhang Liang understood one thing, that is, they couldn't see how many people there were at all.

'However, the five thousand people that Sima Ju said at the beginning should be relatively reliable…'

Zhang Liang frowned and fell into thought.

However, if there are five thousand Han soldiers attacking each of the south and north, where did these ten thousand Han soldiers come from?

Since there are spies in the city gathering to attack the granary and set fire, are there also more spies lurking and waiting for an opportunity? Could their target be me?

Or, could it be that one of the generals is secretly colluding with the Han army, otherwise how could the Han army attack the granary so accurately?

One after another, thoughts that made Zhang Liang uneasy appeared in his mind, his brows furrowed more and more, and he hesitated.

…

Outside Julu City, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei each led less than three thousand people and quickly retreated ten miles to set up camp after the fire in the city weakened.

Moreover, the camps, flags, etc. were all built according to the standards of five thousand soldiers.

Throughout the entire process, the four gates of Julu City were tightly closed. Not to mention chasing out of the city, even scouts were not sent out.

This made Liu Bei, who was in the south of Julu, worried all night. Only after the camp was completely established did he feel relieved.

After all, it was just over two thousand people, and they were still a tired army that had traveled all the way from Gaoyi to Julu and pretended to attack the city for a long time.

If the Yellow Turbans were to send people to harass them before they had gained a firm foothold and the camp was not yet established, then the weakness of Liu Bei's troops would be immediately exposed.

Li Ji, who had also accompanied Liu Bei throughout the entire process, asked easily while studying military books. "Brother Xuande, can you rest assured?"

Liu Bei heard this and walked to Li Ji's side, still asking with some puzzlement. "How did Zikun determine that the Yellow Turban bandits would not dare to chase out of the city?"

"If I were Xuande guarding the city, I would definitely not dare to rashly leave the city. This is common sense."

Li Ji replied.

Liu Bei heard this and put himself in the other's shoes and thought for a while, and suddenly understood.

If the granary of the city that Liu Bei was personally guarding was suddenly attacked and set on fire, and the city was attacked by the enemy on two sides at the same time, then he would undoubtedly choose to guard the city carefully and dare not move lightly to avoid falling into a trap.

This is like everyone laughing at Cao Cao for borrowing arrows from Zhuge Liang, but Cao Cao's choice was undoubtedly the most stable at the time.

In a sense, this move was aimed at the normal and reasonable reaction of the enemy.

If this plan were used to deal with Zhang Fei, it would most likely be a waste, but it was just right to deal with a normal person.

"I have learned something," Liu Bei said in admiration.

“Brother Xuande, please rest well. Tomorrow, let Yide act according to the plan.”

Li Ji put away the bamboo scroll he was reading and leisurely returned to the camp tent arranged for him by Liu Bei to rest. His steady figure showed no hint of worry.

This unconsciously calmed Liu Bei's heart as well, and he became less worried about Li Ji's subsequent plan, which could be described as wildly imaginative.

… …

The next morning.

A roar like thunder resounded from the direction of the south gate of Julu City.

“Ah, hahahaha, your Grandpa Zhang is here! Yellow Turban villains, come out and die!!!”