Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator.

Ruyang City, Yuzhou.

After Li Ji led a massive army, claiming a strength of two hundred thousand, to launch a pincer attack on Yuzhou, the entire Ruyang City was shrouded in an atmosphere of tension and gravity.

Every day, numerous fast horses constantly entered and exited Ruyang City, delivering or transmitting a large number of military reports and orders.

And as Lü Bu led his army to retreat from Nanyang Commandery, choosing instead to attack Yanzhou, which resulted in a detachment of twenty thousand troops from the Jingzhou direction also attacking Yuzhou, Yuan Shu became increasingly irritable and uneasy.

The main force led by Li Ji advanced all the way from Pengcheng State, still more than five hundred miles away from Ruyang, with numerous cities in between, so it could not threaten Yuan Shu's Ruyang City in a short time.

However, after the detachment of twenty thousand troops from the Jingzhou direction, led by Wen聘 (Wen聘), began to move, Yuan Shu hardly slept day or night.

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

If the march is fast enough, in ten days, only ten days, this detachment can reach the city of Ruyang.

Therefore, in order to block Wen聘's detachment, Yuan Shu scraped together a force of ten thousand soldiers, barely considered elite, and handed this force over to Zhang Xun, hoping that Zhang Xun could block Wen聘.

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

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

As for Xu Sheng, who was夾擊 (jia ji - attacking from both sides) from the Shouchun direction in the south, Yuan Shu appointed Lei Bo as the general, ordering him to defend the fortified cities one by one, delaying time.

As for Li Ji's mighty army of one hundred thousand, Yuan Shu could only constantly send out supervising teams, forcibly ordering each city to defend to the end.

At this moment, Yuzhou was like a broken ship, and Yuan Shu was plunged into a final frenzy, constantly tearing apart the planks, trying desperately to block the seawater pouring in from various holes.

However, no matter how frantically Yuan Shu acted, the cities where the prime of youth were forced to defend were still being breached one after another.

With a face full of fatigue, Yuan Shu waved his hand towards Yang Hong and said.

"Tell me, which city in the direction of Peiguo did Li Zikun break through today?"

"Good news, Lord! Good news!" Yang Hong said with some excitement.

"What good news?"

Yuan Shu asked with some surprise.

If facing the two detachments of Wen聘 and Xu Sheng, Yuan Shu still hoped that his generals could perform beyond their level to block them.

But facing the one hundred thousand troops led by Li Ji, Yuan Shu was completely holding the idea of exchanging cities for time, dragging it into the winter snowfall to force Li Ji to retreat.

Could it be that Heaven will not abandon me, Yuan Gonglu?

Immediately, Yuan Shu couldn't help but ask excitedly. "Is there a fierce man who suddenly appeared and defeated the Li bandits? Or did a meteorite fall from the sky and smash that fellow to death?"

"Ah…"

Yang Hong's face was a little embarrassed, completely unexpected that his lord would hold such unrealistic fantasies.

However,迎着 (ying zhe - facing) Yuan Shu's eager gaze, Yang Hong had to brace himself and say. "Yes, it is Guoshi Hou who has stopped advancing in Xiang County."

Yuan Shu's face first showed disappointment, and said. "What good news is this? Maybe that fellow just can't stand the hardship of marching and is taking a day off."

"Yes, yes…"

Yang Hong echoed, and then continued.

"It's just that Guoshi Hou's march is as swift as the wind,侵略如火 (qin lve ru huo - aggression is like fire), since entering Yuzhou, every attack is破 (po - defeated), and the momentum is unstoppable. Today, suddenly整军 (zheng jun - regroup the army) and not moving, maybe something happened."

Suddenly, Yuan Shu cheered up again and said. "What does Yang Changshi mean?"

Yang Hong guessed and said. "It is rumored that Cao Cao once intended to create a plague in Donghai Commandery, could it be that Guoshi Hou has contracted an epidemic?"

Yuan Shu couldn't help but smile on his face and said.

"If that's the case, that would be the best."

After a pause, Yuan Shu said solemnly. "From today onwards, I will abstain from alcohol and sex, and pray to the heavens every day."

"Ah? Lord, are you praying for Guoshi Hou?" Yang Hong asked in confusion.

"Of course, I implore Heaven to make sure that the disease overcomes that fellow Li Zikun."

After a pause, Yuan Shu continued. "Send more scouts to the direction of Peiguo, monitor Li賊 (zei - bandit)'s movements, and report any abnormalities to me quickly."

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

In this regard, Yang Hong felt that even if there is a mandate of heaven, then the mandate of heaven is probably in Liu, and not in Yuan.

Yuan Shu's move is completely aware that the difference in military strength is too great, and then pinned his hopes on the theory of ghosts and gods.

However, what made Yang Hong feel incredible was that in the next five days, the intelligence from the direction of Peiguo showed that Li Ji led his army to stay still in Xiang County.

Moreover, Zhang Xun did indeed lead a weak force to temporarily block Wen聘.

In the south, although Lei Bo was not Xu Sheng's opponent, he also relied on the city to defend desperately and constantly拖住 (tuo zhu - drag) Xu Sheng's footsteps.

'Could it be… is it really going to get better? Could it be that the lord has really moved the heavens?'

Yang Hong felt incredible, and while reporting good news to Yuan Shu every day, he couldn't help but start hesitating whether to打消 (da xiao - give up) his plan to escape Ruyang when he had the chance.

However, just as Yuan Shu was excited about this series of good news.

The news that Cao Cao袭取 (xi qu - raided) Nanpi City finally reached Ruyang City,震得 (zhen de - shocking) Yuan Shu into a daze.

Not only is Yuzhou precarious, but even Yuan Shao was偷袭 (tou xi - ambushed) by Cao Cao in the rear?

For a time, Yuan Shu had the illusion that he was completely played by Cao Cao in cooperation with Liu Bei, and the Yuan family was being吞食 (tun shi - swallowed) by Cao and Liu together.

Following the Battle of Jieqiao, the Yuan family, who was at its zenith in the Han Dynasty, seemed to have fallen into a situation of随时颠覆 (sui shi dian fu - subversion at any time).

At this moment, Yuan Shu finally vaguely developed a sense of regret, regretting not listening to Yan Xiang's words to preserve his strength and投奔 (tou ben - defect to) Yuan Shao.

Yuan Shu may not服 (fu - convinced) Yuan Shao, but Yuan Shu did not want to see the accumulation of several generations of the Yuan family葬送 (zang song - buried) in the hands of their two brothers.

Just as Yuan Shu felt 不妙 (bu miao - bad), Li Ji, who had stayed in Xiangcheng for five full days without moving, moved, and abandoned a large number of辎重 (zi zhong - supplies) and quickly moved.

Why is it that the larger the army, the slower the march?

The key lies in the拖累 (tuo lei - burden) of supplies, and the magnitude of the impact of the size of the supplies on the army's marching speed is almost exponentially increasing.

In the case where Li Ji abandoned logistics supplies and chose to carry about ten days of干粮 (gan liang - dry rations) to march, the marching speed was far beyond normal.

Moreover, Li Ji no longer forcibly攻陷 (gong xian - captured) the obstacles encountered along the way, but chose to ignore them and pass directly from the side.

This made Yuan Shu hear the movement of the army led by Li Ji from the慌慌张张 (huang huang zhang zhang - flustered) Yang Hong, and only felt incredible.

"How is this marching speed possible? Could it be that that Li賊 (zei - bandit) completely ignores the logistics grain route?"

Yuan Shu first turned back and forth in confusion, and then realized something and said.

"Could it be that Li賊 (zei - bandit) wants to就食于敌 (jiu shi yu di - live off the enemy)?"

"Immediately order the cities that Li賊 (zei - bandit) may pass through to坚壁清野 (jian bi qing ye - clear the fields), and the grain in the fields would rather be burned than leave a single grain to Li賊 (zei - bandit)." (End of this chapter)