Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator.

Thinking of this, Xu You's brow furrowed involuntarily as he pondered how to break the deadlock…

But precisely because Xu You was very familiar with Yuan Shao, he understood that this was an unsolvable problem.

Even if he could manage to escape punishment today, it would be difficult to gain Yuan Shao's trust in the future.

Especially now that Yuan Shao had no shortage of strategists under his command, even if Xu You thought highly of himself, he knew that it would be difficult to suppress everyone else with his strategies alone.

'It's not anyone else, it's all Li Zikun…'

Xu You momentarily hated himself for not being as capable as Li Ji, otherwise, why would he need to worry about his unstable position and the safety of his head?

Just as Xu You was gradually losing his spirit again with a darkened face, he suddenly thought of something, a flash of surprise crossed his face, and he murmured.

“Now Cao Cao is threatened by Liu Da'er in the south, and needs to contend with Yuan Benchu in the north. The 'Proclamation to Protect the People' has spread widely throughout the world and will inevitably be condemned by thousands of people, his situation can be described as precarious.”

“Why don't I defect to Cao Cao, offer help in his hour of need, and help him break the deadlock and achieve hegemony? Cao Cao will surely remember my contributions and dare not neglect me.”

“Moreover, my family is now in Cao Cao's hands, which can also ensure the safety of my family, it can be described as killing two birds with one stone.”

In an instant, this bold idea quickly occupied Xu You's mind, and the more he weighed it, the more feasible it seemed.

Even if Yuan Shao was secretly annoyed with Xu You and had a tendency to gradually exclude him, given Xu You's position, there was little that Yuan Shao did in the army that he didn't know.

In particular, Xu You knew the specific location where Yuan Shao had finally collected the grain and grass from Ji and Bing provinces with great difficulty.

He only needed to find a way to offer a plan to Cao Cao to attack and burn Yuan Shao's grain and grass.

Yuan Shao's elite troops from Hebei would instantly turn into nothing.

Xu You suddenly stood up, threw the tea set in his hand to the ground, and said resolutely.

“With my good plan, it will be as easy as turning one's hand for A'man to obtain Ji province, and dominating Hebei will only be a matter of time. Why should I seek to preserve my life under Yuan Shao's command?!”

Immediately afterward, Xu You, who gradually had a good plan in his mind, inquired about the opportunity when Yuan Shao was in a good mood and took the initiative to admit his mistake, and then resigned from his position, willing to go to the rear to raise food for Yuan Shao to alleviate the army's food needs.

With this series of actions, coupled with Xu You's occasional mention of past private friendships.

This made Yuan Shao, who was originally annoyed with Xu You, couldn't help but soften his heart, so he granted Xu You's request and gave Xu You a warrant to transport grain to the granary.

Watching Xu You's somewhat lonely departure, Yuan Shao sighed and said.

“Forget it, forget it, Ziyuan is still loyal, if he only puts his heart into his work in the future, what harm is there in giving him another chance?”

After receiving Yuan Shao's warrant and leaving the camp, Xu You, under the guard of more than a dozen trusted family servants, left Yuan Shao's camp that night.

When the news reached Yuan Shao's ears, Yuan Shao didn't think much about it, but instead greatly approved of Xu You's dedication to rushing to the rear to raise food.

What Yuan Shao didn't know was that after Xu You left Yuan Shao's camp, he avoided a large number of sentries and scouts patrolling outside the camp through the Yuan army's patrol routes he knew.

At a place far away from Yuan Shao's camp where the water flow was slow, Xu You slowly swam across the Qing River under the protection of family servants who were good at swimming.

After changing into a clean robe that had been prepared in advance, he went straight to Cao Cao's camp.

… …

At the same time, in Cao Cao's camp.

During the day, Cao Cao faced a group of civil and military officials under his command, and seemed to be confident about how to defeat Yuan Shao.

In fact, apart from a "drag" strategy that he was prepared to persist with for a long time.

The only off-the-table trick he could think of to defeat Yuan Shao was to use the controlled family members to coerce and lure the civil and military generals under Yuan Shao's command to betray Yuan Shao.

After all, Yuan Shao was very familiar with the terrain around Jieqiao.

In terms of the number of troops and the degree of elite, Yuan's army far surpassed Cao's army by more than one level.

Therefore, even relying on the Jieqiao terrain to resist Yuan's army's offensive was slightly difficult for Cao's army, let alone counterattack Yuan Shao.

This also led to Cao Cao's bold words during the day, but at night he found it difficult to fall asleep in the camp, so he simply put on a robe and began to review the reports on luring and coercing Yuan Shao's civil and military officials.

However, in this era of extreme loyalty.

It was not so easy to coerce betrayal with family members.

Even Chunyu Qiong, the defeated general who was deliberately let go by Xiahou Yuan, after suffering Yuan Shao's heavy punishment, and all his family members were captured by Cao Cao.

When Chunyu Qiong saw Cao Cao's secret agent who revealed his identity, he did not hesitate to draw his sword and kill the secret agent.

In addition, the difficulty of information transmission made it difficult for Cao Cao to gain anything.

This made Cao Cao, who was calm and indifferent on the surface, feel bitter in his heart.

Cao Cao understood very well that Liu Da'er and Li Zikun would not leave him much time.

Even if Yuan Shu could survive this winter, his bones would inevitably be buried in the ground by Li Ji next spring.

At that time, Liu Bei would have the land of Jing, Yang, Yu, and Xu four prefectures.

And with Li Zikun's ability, it would take at most two to three years to completely digest Jingzhou, Yuzhou, and Xuzhou.

Half of the Han Dynasty's territory would be as stable as Mount Tai in Liu Bei's hands.

Therefore, if Cao Cao wanted to compete with Liu Bei for hegemony, he must defeat Yuan Shao as soon as possible, occupy the three prefectures of Ji, Bing, and Qing, and then form an alliance with Lu Bu to jointly resist Liu Bei, so as to form a three-legged confrontation.

This was the only feasible path that Xun You found for Cao Cao after carefully analyzing the general trend of the world for Cao Cao.

A three-legged confrontation, uniting Lu against Liu.

In order to avoid variables, the Xun family had already sent people to communicate with Chen Qun early on, obtained Chen Qun's support, and tried their best to persuade Lu Bu to give up supporting Yuan Shu and instead take the opportunity to seize Yanzhou.

The Yuan family, who claimed to be the leader among the aristocratic families, had naturally long been resented by the Xun and Chen families, who were also top aristocratic families.

Even if the Xun and Chen families would also arrange for collateral clansmen to bet on the Yuan family.

However, this time Cao Liu's destruction of Yuan was actually also promoted by the aristocratic factions led by the Xun and Chen families behind the scenes.

It's just that Cao Cao also knew that if he wanted to achieve the situation of "a three-legged confrontation, uniting Lu against Liu", the most important thing was to defeat Yuan Shao as soon as possible.

Otherwise, Chen Qun would definitely not mind persuading Lu Bu to change his alliance partner and choose to unite with Yuan against Liu.

Cao Cao narrowed his slender eyes, constantly thinking while looking at the documents in his hand, and suddenly felt a headache gradually rising, as if an axe was constantly slashing his head.

But Cao Cao didn't dare to say anything, he lay on the table, gritting his teeth and enduring it, fearing that the disclosure of this matter would cause the army's morale to fluctuate.

At this moment, a personal guard suddenly reported in a low voice outside the tent.

“Lord, there is a person outside the camp who claims to be an old friend of yours, surnamed Xu, named You, who wants to see you.”

These words entered Cao Cao's ears, and he almost subconsciously stood up suddenly, and the headache seemed to disappear without a trace in an instant. He rushed out of the tent barefoot and asked anxiously.

“Where is Xu You?”

“He's outside the camp.”

Cao Cao, who got the answer, was both surprised and delighted. He realized that he had forgotten to put on his shoes. He was about to return to the tent to wash and put on his shoes, but after a little thought, he walked barefoot towards the camp gate.