Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator.

These words instantly caused Chang Xi's expression to drastically change.

No…

That's not right!

This was completely different from what Chang Xi had imagined.

Seeing Xu Chu carrying his blade and walking towards him, Chang Xi hurriedly reminded him.

"If Marquis does not allow me to surrender today, it will surely incite others to fight to the death in the future!"

In Chang Xi's view, Li Ji had no reason to refuse his surrender.

Moreover, as long as Chang Xi successfully surrendered, all of Chang Xi's previous actions could be explained to the outside world as having submitted to Liu Bei long ago, only feigning surrender to Yuan Shu's army as an internal agent.

However, Li Ji remained indifferent to Chang Xi's reminder.

Perhaps what Chang Xi said made some sense. This is why it is often necessary to accept prisoners and treat them well, as this can greatly undermine the enemy's will to fight to the death.

In the long run, it is more beneficial to the war effort.

However, the current situation is different from the usual acceptance of prisoners.

Chang Xi is a treacherous and cunning man who has betrayed his masters twice in a row, first betraying Zang Ba, and then assassinating Ji Ling from behind, engaging in extremely shameless acts.

The annihilation of the army led by Ji Ling also means that Yu Province is about to be brought into the fold, and Liu Bei will initially have the potential to unify the world and dominate the Central Plains.

At this time, the slight advantages in warfare brought about by accepting a treacherous and cunning man like Chang Xi cannot compensate for the impact on Liu Bei's foundation.

Li Ji did not want Liu Bei to only have the sentence "We respectfully follow the Holy Dynasty and govern the world with filial piety" after reviving the Han Dynasty.

"Loyalty and righteousness" will also be the foundation of Liu Bei's nation.

But accepting a fickle person like Chang Xi would only send the wrong signal to the world.

In this era, there are many treacherous and cunning people, but there are even more people who admire loyal and righteous men.

In Li Ji's view, treacherous people are not unusable, but on the surface, it is necessary to maintain the promotion of loyalty and righteousness.

And Chang Xi is undoubtedly a chicken rib covered in dung. Eating it will make you stink, and losing it will at most be considered a bit of a waste.

Since Li Ji did not speak, Xu Chu's actions would not stop.

Seeing Xu Chu approaching within ten steps, Chang Xi completely panicked, not understanding why Li Ji would not accept his surrender, even though he had already killed Ji Ling as a certificate of loyalty.

"Marquis, Chang Xi is sincerely surrendering and has no ulterior motives…"

"I have long admired Liu Huangshu and am willing to serve him with all my strength!"

"My joining Ji Ling's army was actually a feigned surrender, intending to find an opportunity to assist Liu Huangshu, with good intentions, good intentions…"

The closer Xu Chu got, the more flustered Chang Xi became. When Xu Chu was only three steps away, Li Ji was still watching indifferently. Chang Xi could no longer bear the pressure and hurriedly got up to flee.

However, the next moment, Xu Chu's large hand, like a cattail leaf fan, clamped Chang Xi's nape.

Chang Xi subconsciously raised his blade and slashed behind him, shouting.

"Let go!"

But Xu Chu casually raised his blade and knocked it away. Chang Xi only felt a burst of numbness in his right hand, and his weapon flew out instantly.

Then, Xu Chu grabbed Chang Xi's nape and lifted him directly off the ground in a "lifting" posture, then raised his knee and slammed it into Chang Xi's abdomen.

Even though Chang Xi was still wearing armor, Xu Chu's knee strike instantly caused a large, visible dent in Chang Xi's abdomen.

"Wah!"

Chang Xi spewed out large mouthfuls of blood, and his originally struggling movements instantly arched into the shape of a shrimp.

Immediately, Chang Xi seemed to have lost all his strength and means of resistance, and his whole body softened.

Obviously, Chang Xi's martial prowess was not in the same league as Xu Chu's.

Being approached by Xu Chu, Chang Xi's resistance seemed no more effective than that of a weak woman.

Immediately, Xu Chu forcibly stripped off Chang Xi's armor with his bare hands before handing him over to the Tiger Guards to be dragged down for "lingchi" (slow slicing).

As Chang Xi's wailing and begging for mercy resounded, most of the nearly nine hundred remnants who had followed Ji Ling to break through to this point showed expressions of relief.

Those who were still willing to follow Ji Ling despite the repeated ambushes were all those who respected and were loyal to Ji Ling.

It was only because these remnants no longer had the strength to fight, not to mention that their armor and weapons were incomplete, and they could barely stand, otherwise they might have erupted and hacked Chang Xi into mincemeat immediately after Chang Xi assassinated Ji Ling.

Now, Chang Xi being subjected to lingchi by Li Ji instead aroused a sense of gratitude in many of the remnants.

Li Ji turned to look at the nearly nine hundred remnants and said.

"Are you willing to surrender?"

The nearly nine hundred remnants looked at each other, and after hesitating for a moment, they all expressed their willingness to surrender.

"Very good."

Li Ji had always been quite lenient towards these surrendered soldiers who were also Han Chinese, and naturally there was no reason not to accept them.

After Yu Province was captured, these surrendered soldiers' hometowns would also be under Liu Bei's rule. These surrendered soldiers would be excellent seedlings for expanding the army in the future, and with a little reorganization, they would be usable combat power.

As for Ji Ling, whose head had been separated from his body, Li Ji pondered for a moment and then instructed.

"Ji Ling is also a loyal and righteous man. Collect his body, sew his head back on, and then send someone to return it to Yuan Shu."

At this point, the Battle of Pengcheng could be considered to have completely come to an end.

Ji Ling's 90,000-strong army was ambushed repeatedly in one night, and the morale of the army was scattered, and the various units had long since dispersed.

Therefore, even though it was still necessary to further resolve those defeated Yuan troops to prevent them from escaping back to Yu Province and being reused by Yuan Shu, it was already a minor problem and not worth worrying about.

However, when Li Ji returned to Ji Ling's original camp ahead of time to meet with Tian Yu, and then waited for further good news from the other units to be reported back.

Intelligence from Qing Province caused Li Ji's expression to change slightly, and he quickly sent someone to invite Liu Bei back.

When Liu Bei heard that there was an important matter to discuss, he hurriedly returned to the camp, only to see Li Ji standing in the central military tent, frowning slightly as he looked at the map.

This was undoubtedly a rare occurrence for Li Ji, who had always been confident, and it also indicated that something major must have happened.

"Zikun, where has there been a change?"

Liu Bei stepped forward and asked hurriedly.

Li Ji, who was staring at the map, came back to his senses, first gave a salute to Liu Bei, and then handed the intelligence from Qing Province that had just arrived to Liu Bei, while saying.

"After the Cao army returned to Qing Province, they did not disband the army, but instead entered Qi State all the way, entered Le'an State, and have a tendency to go north to Pingyuan Commandery."

As Liu Bei listened, he quickly glanced at the intelligence, and the content was almost the same as what Li Ji said.

This situation was obviously abnormal.

Cao Cao was already short of food. The fact that he still did not disband his army after returning to Qing Province could only mean that Cao Cao still had plans to use his troops.

Coupled with the Cao army's movements that the Brocade-Clothed Guards had noticed, this instantly gave Liu Bei a guess, and he blurted out.

"Could it be that Cao Cao intends to go north to Ji Province to help Yuan Shao, combining the strength of the two families to capture You Province, so as to cut off our source of warhorses?"