Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator.

"What?!"

Liu Bei's expression changed slightly, and he blurted out, "Could it be that Cao's bandits have set up an ambush in advance? What about the other directions? Have any ambushes been discovered?"

The scout was slightly silent…

He was only responsible for one direction, and he couldn't answer the movements of the other directions.

Having reacted, Liu Bei realized this point, and after dismissing the scout, he turned to look at Li Ji.

It happened that a look of sudden understanding appeared on Li Ji's face, and he said.

"Lord, it seems that Cao Cao really knows Ji very well, and understands that Ji is likely to take advantage of the night to approach and personally investigate intelligence."

"That cavalry was probably aimed at me from the beginning."

"Once our army really intends to attack the camp with a surprise attack, this cavalry will take the opportunity to go around and cut off the retreat of the surprise attack, and also want to capture me along the way."

Liu Bei's face twitched slightly, and he said, "What a treacherous Cao thief."

"Lord, since this is the case, why not use a trick within a trick?" Li Ji asked.

Hearing this, Liu Bei waved his hand, without even understanding the specific content, and said.

"Speed is of the essence in war. The Cao army's cavalry is less than five miles away. It's probably too late to discuss it with Bei. Zikun, just give the order directly."

"Okay!"

Li Ji nodded and glanced around.

There were many generals accompanying him this time. In addition to Zhang Fei and Tian Yu, who were already the main generals of the two cavalry units, there were also Huang Zhong, Xu Chu, and Zhou Tai.

Li Ji, who was holding the idea of exhausting the enemy, would not have brought so many generals.

But Liu Bei was threatened by Cao Cao with words during the day, and out of caution, he specially brought Huang Zhong and Zhou Tai with him.

In this way, Li Ji now has a lot more generals at his disposal.

"Hansheng, listen to the order…"

"Yide, listen to the order…"

"Youping, listen to the order…"

As Li Ji issued orders in a rapid tone, tasks were assigned to each general. Except for leaving Xu Chu and three hundred Tiger Guards to protect him, the 10,000 cavalry under his command were assigned tasks.

After the generals left to carry out their orders, Li Ji opened the folding fan in his hand, fanned the wind, and then turned to Liu Bei with a smile.

"Lord, there are not many Cao army cavalry. This three thousand cavalry is probably the foundation that Cao Cao scraped together by selling everything he had. If we leave these three thousand cavalry behind, Cao Cao will definitely vomit blood."

"And if Cao Cao has no available cavalry in his hands, the initiative on the battlefield will be further lost…"

The importance of cavalry is beyond doubt.

Perhaps light cavalry facing the Han army elites lined up in formation is just a waste of effort. Otherwise, the Great Han would not have left the illustrious reputation of "One Han equals five Hu."

The most typical example is that Li Ling, the grandson of Li Guang of the Western Han Dynasty, led five thousand Han army elites out of the fortress and was besieged by the Xiongnu Chanyu leading eighty thousand cavalry. The two sides fought for many days, and finally the Han army was defeated only when their arrows were exhausted and their food was cut off.

On the grassland terrain, the Xiongnu, with ten times the strength of the Han army, could not conquer it by force, and relied on grinding down the five thousand Han army until their arrows were exhausted and their food was cut off before defeating them.

It is conceivable how great the advantage of the Han army lined up in formation is when facing light cavalry.

This is also the reason why Li Ji and Cao Cao tacitly did not use cavalry during the fierce battle between the two sides during the day. The role that light cavalry can play in that situation is really limited.

But if Li Ji can severely damage or even annihilate the Cao army's cavalry, then with the high mobility of the cavalry, the initiative of the war will be completely in Li Ji's hands.

If Cao Cao has no available cavalry in his hands, it also means that even the means of counterattack are minimal.

With this thought, Li Ji's eyes shone brightly under the torches lit on the side.

… …

At the same time.

After Xiahou Dun noticed the sound of enemy attack horns in Cao Jun's camp, he hurriedly led the cavalry around the periphery of the camp to the direction where the horns sounded.

Every move was based on the arrangements Cao Cao had made in advance.

One was to cut off the retreat of the attacking enemy army;

The other was to prepare to try to search for Li Ji.

'Yuan Rang, once you find Li Zikun, you don't need to worry about the rest. Capturing Li Zikun alive is the top priority. This person is related to the success or failure of my hegemony.'

'Remember, you must not hurt his life, otherwise Liu Da'er will probably use all his troops to avenge this revenge. Capture him alive! Remember, capture him alive!'

While Xiahou Dun kept recalling Cao Cao's instructions in his mind, he ordered the cavalry under his command to slow down and spread out as much as possible on the left and right sides, carefully probing whether there were any traces of Li Ji around.

It's just that as Xiahou Dun continued to approach the direction where the horns sounded from the original Cao army camp, he also noticed a trace of something wrong.

Quiet!

Too quiet!

If someone attacked the camp, the Cao army camp should not be so quiet.

'Could it be that the attacking enemy army saw that things could not be done, and retreated at the cost of sacrificing their rearguard?'

Xiahou Dun guessed secretly, and when his brows were furrowed, a loud noise like a thunderclap suddenly sounded in the dark night.

"Yan Ren Zhang Yide is here, Cao general, quickly accept your death!"

The next moment, on the flank of the cavalry that Xiahou Dun had intentionally slowed down a little, Zhang Fei took the lead and led three thousand cavalry to charge and kill.

"Oops!"

Xiahou Dun's expression suddenly changed.

It must be known that in order to search for Li Ji's location with the greatest possibility, Xiahou Dun deliberately let the cavalry spread out a lot on the left and right, searching forward in a net-like shape.

This was not wrong in itself.

But the problem is that once this loose cavalry formation encounters a cavalry raid, it is difficult to form an effective resistance at all.

For a time, the cavalry led by Zhang Fei was almost like a fierce tiger descending the mountain. Wherever they passed, it seemed that there was no obstacle at all, and they directly cut off the cavalry led by Xiahou Dun in the middle.

And at the same time when Zhang Fei led the cavalry to charge, Huang Zhong and Zhou Tai also each led two thousand cavalry to attack the front and rear of the Cao army that had been cut in half.

"Nanyang Huang Zhong is here, thief general, accept your death!"

"Jiujiang Zhou Tai is here, who dares to stop me?"

Under this hazy night, the feeling produced by the Cao army's cavalry was that they were completely surrounded by the enemy from all directions, and suddenly there was a chaos.

No matter how Xiahou Dun, whose command ability was already average, tried to reorganize the army, in such a chaotic environment, he could only barely gather a hundred cavalry.

And the shouts of killing and screams that sounded outside the Cao army camp also made Cao Cao, who had rushed to the edge of the camp without stopping his horse, change his face greatly, realizing that the worst situation had probably happened.

Xiahou Dun, who was originally deployed outside to ambush Li Ji, was instead ambushed.

Immediately, Cao Cao repeatedly ordered Xiahou Yuan, Cao Ren, Yu Jin and other generals in the camp to quickly lead their troops out of the camp to rescue him.

The next moment, Tian Yu led three thousand White Horse Righteous Followers to release a wave of arrows covering the camp gate, and shot down hundreds of unprepared soldiers to the ground.

Tian Yu then led the White Horse Righteous Followers and retreated without any nostalgia, as if giving up the idea of continuing to obstruct the Cao army from leaving the camp to rescue him.

Listening to the sound of horseshoes fading away, this instead made Cao Cao hurriedly stop the generals who were preparing to leave the camp in the face of the rain of arrows.

Something abnormal must be a demon…

Looking at the dark environment outside the camp, the suspicious Cao Cao hesitated suddenly, suspecting whether Li Ji had set up heavy ambushes outside. (End of this chapter)