Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator.

Chapter 761: Where is the Honey Water?

Li Ji paused and turned to look at Yuan Yin, Yuan Shu's cousin, without rushing to answer.

With Yuan Yin, a member of the Yuan clan known for his brotherly respect, taking the lead, the other family representatives also abandoned their reserved manners and hurriedly spoke up.

At this moment, the situation did not allow the Yu Province aristocratic families to be arrogant and refuse. More importantly, once someone took the lead in speaking,

those who followed might not gain much benefit, but those who didn't speak up might face the disaster of extermination.

The blood of the Xun family was not yet dry, and the Yu Province aristocratic families realized that Li Ji didn't care about having more targets for killing the chicken to warn the monkeys.

Soon, all the family representatives summoned by Li Ji to the tent expressed their willingness to contribute a meager amount of strength to Liu Bei's unification of Yu Province and the great cause of supporting the Han Dynasty.

"Very good. I believe that when the lord learns that there are still so many aristocratic families in Yu Province who are loyal to the Han Dynasty, he will be greatly comforted and understand that you were only forced to serve the traitor Yuan before."

Li Ji's response made many family representatives break out in cold sweat.

If the Yellow Turbans hadn't run rampant, the Yu Province aristocratic families would still have had the qualifications to be tough.

However, those mud-legged people with weapons often restrained the aristocratic families, causing a large number of Yu Province aristocratic families who didn't have time to escape to be brutally massacred. The remaining Yu Province aristocratic families also fled towards Ruyang upon hearing the name of the Yellow Turbans.

It seemed that Yu Province was the territory of the Yu Province aristocratic families, but now the Yu Province aristocratic families were almost in a state of dependence on others. Only Li Ji's protection could deter the Yellow Turbans. How could they be tough?

Therefore, these words, which would have been enough to enrage many Yu Province aristocratic families in the past, didn't even cause a ripple.

Some thick-skinned aristocratic family members even flattered him, saying things like "Loyal to the Han Dynasty," "Willing to die for the Han Dynasty," and "Long had the intention to abandon darkness and embrace the light," which were somewhat incomprehensible.

However, in Li Ji's view, this was just another "obedience test."

Now, the Yu Province aristocratic families were obviously becoming more and more obedient.

The only thing left to completely mold the Yu Province aristocratic families into Liu Bei's shape was to capture Ruyang City, openly enter Yu Province, and then further educate them on how to manipulate them.

Three days passed in a flash.

However, during these three days, as the offensive gradually weakened, the defending soldiers of Ruyang City, who had been tense, rarely felt a bit of relaxation.

The besieging army outside the city had been fighting for a long time without success, and their morale was declining;

however, the pressure faced by the defending soldiers inside the city was even greater. Many young and strong men were almost forced onto the city walls. In order to make these young men, who had only received simple training for a few days, fight with their lives,

the number of heads chopped off by the supervising team alone reached more than 2,500.

Under this kind of high pressure, the pressure faced by the defending soldiers was imaginable.

However, with the city gates closed, the defending soldiers had nowhere to escape even if they wanted to. Under the supervision of a large number of supervising teams, they had no choice but to fight to the death.

"They're retreating! They're retreating! The troops outside the city are retreating!"

Suddenly, an excited voice rang out, and then a large number of defending soldiers couldn't help but stand up and look towards the outside of the city.

They saw that the troops that had originally besieged Ruyang City tightly and launched a fierce attack on Ruyang City for more than half a month were now slowly retreating and leaving.

Not only the defending soldiers on the north gate city wall who discovered it first, but the defending soldiers in the other city wall directions also discovered that the troops outside the city were retreating one after another.

Soon, cheers rang out on the city walls of Ruyang City, cheers of surviving a disaster.

Many young men didn't know what it meant to defend Ruyang City.

But they understood one thing at this moment: they seemed to be able to survive.

Instead of dying on the city wall at any time under the continuous attacks of the troops outside the city.

Soon, Yuan Shu, who had been dozing off for a while, also rushed over upon hearing the news. Looking at the troops outside the city that had retreated to the point where they were almost invisible, he was also so excited that he almost danced with joy.

At this moment, Yuan Shu also lost his usual image of a noble, and even looked a little disheveled. Only his conspicuous armor could prove Yuan Shu's identity.

Many civil and military officials who were still following Yuan Shu couldn't help but burst into tears of joy.

Although they had temporarily forced Li Ji back, it didn't mean that Yu Province was safe.

The threat from Liu Bei made Yu Province always at risk of being overthrown, but now they had finally temporarily forced Li Ji back and gained a chance to breathe.

As one of the few generals under Yuan Shu's command, Zhang Xun analyzed the situation with excitement.

"Lord, that Li thief must have realized that winter is approaching. If he doesn't retreat, he might be trapped in Yu Province by the heavy snow, so he had no choice but to choose to retreat."

"That's exactly what I expected. That Li Ji kid wants to defeat me? Wishful thinking."

After being excited, Yuan Shu couldn't help but feel a bit complacent, feeling that Li Ji, whom he used to fear, was actually nothing more than that.

I'll just defend to the death. No matter how many clever plans Li Ji comes up with, what can he do to me?

Didn't he still have to obediently retreat?

However, unlike the excitement of the others, Yang Hong still couldn't hide the worry on his face.

Originally, Yang Hong also wanted to find an opportunity to escape from Ruyang City, but after Yan Xiang's death, Yuan Shu almost always kept Yang Hong by his side to fill in the gaps, which made Yang Hong unable to escape from Ruyang until Yuan Shu completely blocked the city gates.

Even though it seemed that Li Ji had been forced back now, Yang Hong knew that Yuan Shu could no longer control Yu Province.

At most, Li Ji would definitely make a comeback next spring.

At that time, how many troops would Yuan Shu still have to resist Li Ji? Would he continue to defend Ruyang City to the death?

Immediately, Yang Hong hurriedly whispered to persuade him.

"Lord, now that the Li thief has been defeated and fled, you should also quickly send someone north to contact Yuan Benchu and open up the passage to Yan Province as soon as possible to seek a way out…"

However, before Yang Hong could finish speaking, Yuan Shu interrupted him with some displeasure.

"Today is a day of great joy for repelling the enemy. Let's not talk about such disappointing topics…"

After a pause, Yuan Shu licked his dry lips and ordered.

"Someone, where is the honey water? Quickly have someone bring the honey water up. Also, open all the fine wines in the city and celebrate with the soldiers to help them have fun."

Seeing this, Yang Hong had no choice but to shut up.

However, despite his joy, Yuan Shu didn't completely lose his vigilance. While arranging the celebration, he sent more than a dozen trusted aides down in hanging baskets to explore the direction of Li Ji's retreat to gather information, so as to avoid Li Ji making a surprise attack.

A day later, when Yuan Shu woke up from his drunken stupor from the celebration wine, the trusted aides who had gone to investigate brought back two pieces of news.

The first was that Li Ji had indeed retreated, heading straight for Xiang County, seemingly preparing to leave Yu Province by waterway before the Ying River froze;

the second was that the trusted aides had unexpectedly encountered Yuan Yin himself, and through the trusted aides, he had sent a letter.