Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Liu Qi hurried forward, looked at Huang Zu's wound that was bleeding, and felt extremely complicated for a moment, and said.

"Why is General Huang Zu doing this?"

“Gu~Gu~~~~”

Huang Zu's throat moved, but he could no longer speak. He just held Liu Qi's hand, forced a smile on his face, and then his eyes quickly faded.

This unexpected change caused Huang Zu's former subordinates who witnessed the whole process on the city wall of Wancheng to cry.

Guan Yu quickly rushed to Liu Qi's side and said with a look of great emotion.

"How many loyal and righteous people there are."

Liu Qi said with a sad face, "General Yunchang, I want to bury General Huang Zu next to my father's tomb. Please allow me to do so."

Guan Yu nodded, then bowed to Huang Zu and said.

"It is as it should be. Guan will definitely give General Huang a respectful burial."

"I will tell this to my elder brother, and he will report it to the court and ask the court to grant General Huang a title, so that his name of loyalty and righteousness can be recorded in history and passed down to future generations."

After hearing this, Liu Qi stood up and saluted towards Huang Zu with his hands clasped together, then personally accompanied the procession of Huang Zu's body.

With Huang Zu's last will and testament, even though Huang Zu's former subordinates were deeply saddened by his death, they did not resist Guan Yu's entry into Wancheng.

Not only did Guan Yu successfully take over this fortified city, he also incorporated all of Huang Zu's former subordinates.

When the news of this incident got back to Shouchun, Liu Bei sighed in public.

"To save Wancheng from war is called benevolence; to prefer death to serving two masters is called loyalty; for such a man who is both benevolent and loyal, I will personally ask the emperor for a title for him."

However, Liu Bei did not feel happy for long over Guan Yu's successful takeover of Wancheng, because the battle report from Xuzhou shocked Liu Bei greatly.

When Cao Cao led his army to Kaiyang City in Langya State, Cao Bao thought that Cao's army had come from afar and was exhausted. So he planned to lead 5,000 elite troops to attack Cao's camp that night while Cao's army was still unstable.

However, Cao's army not only anticipated Cao Bao's attack on the camp, but also set up an ambush early on.

Even a considerable number of generals from the Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou in the army led by Cao Bao took advantage of the moment when Cao Bao led his troops out of the city to rebel and directly opened the city gates to let Cao's army enter the city.

The 40,000-strong army in Kaiyang City was almost wiped out.

Only Cao Bao led two thousand remaining soldiers to flee to Jiqiu, trying to continue to resist Cao's army with the help of the 20,000 troops deployed in Jiqiu.

However, not to mention Tao Qian, even Liu Bei, who was thousands of miles away, wanted to chop Cao Bao to pieces when he heard the battle report.

If a general is incompetent, the whole army will suffer.

The 40,000-strong Xuzhou army was completely wiped out by Cao Bao in just one day.

Although they both have the surname Cao, Cao Cao’s methods are much more powerful than those of Cao Bao.

"Tao Gongzu handed the army over to Cao Bao, which is no different from seeking his own death." Liu Bei, who had been unable to recover from the battle report for a long time, sighed.

Li Ji studied the battle report in detail and guessed, "Cao Bao was ambushed and was able to escape. Could it be that Cao Cao let him go on purpose?"

After hearing this, Liu Bei didn't know how to respond for a moment, and even felt that Li Ji's guess was most likely the truth.

Otherwise, given that Cao Cao had set up an ambush early on, and Cao Bao did not have Lu Bu's courage that could match ten thousand men, it would have been a miracle for him to lead the remaining two thousand troops to fight out.

However, infected by Li Ji's relaxed tone, Liu Bei couldn't help but respond.

"According to what Zikun said, shouldn't Cao Mengde give Cao Bao an additional salary?"

"At least two and a half years have to be made up," Li Ji replied.

"Hahahahahaha..." Suddenly, Liu Bei and Li Ji couldn't help but look at each other and laugh.

But after laughing, Liu Bei looked at the map hanging on the wall, frowned and analyzed.

"The generals of the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou who had defected to Xuzhou suddenly rebelled. It seems that Cao Mengde had planned to attack Xuzhou long ago. Once Kaiyang City is captured, Cao's army will only have Jiqiu City to the south."

"As long as Jiqiu is lost, Cao's army will be able to march straight into the heart of Xuzhou. Donghai County, where Tan County, the seat of Xuzhou, is located, will also be defenseless..."

"I wonder if Tao Gongzu can wake up and save his life in time, gather his troops and retreat to Xiapi. Otherwise, if Cao's army defeats them one by one, Xuzhou will be in danger."

Li Ji did not deny Liu Bei's judgment, but asked, "Tao Gongzu still hasn't replied?"

Liu Bei shook his head, looking somewhat helpless.

Tao Qian did not ask Liu Bei for help. Even if Liu Bei wanted to send troops, it would be inconvenient for him to directly intervene in the battlefield in Xuzhou as Cao Cao was upholding the righteous cause of "revenge".

The only way Liu Bei could relieve the pressure on Tao Qian was to continue to send more troops to Ruyin City to deter Yuan Shu from acting rashly and attacking Xuzhou from the side.

However, given the current situation in Xuzhou, there is no need for Yuan Shu to intervene, as Cao Cao has already defeated Xuzhou.

In terms of military strength, money and food, Xuzhou is far superior to Qingzhou.

However, the levels of the generals and advisers on both sides seem to be completely different.

This was far beyond Liu Bei's expectations.

Beforehand, Liu Bei thought that there would be a fierce battle between Tao Qian and Cao Cao, and that Tao Qian would not be able to hold on until the two Yuans came to support him.

Unexpectedly, Tao Qian made a series of stupid moves, making the situation in Xuzhou almost visibly bad.

When Tao Qian learned of the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Kaiyang, he almost fainted from anger.

In other words, Tao Qian had no more generals available, otherwise he would have ordered Cao Bao's head to be chopped off on the spot.

But even so, Tao Qian still did not ask Liu Bei for help. Instead, he gritted his teeth and continued to dispatch 20,000 elite troops to Jiqiu. He ordered Cao Bao to defend Jiqiu to the death, and continued to drag it out with the idea of ​​exhausting Cao's army's food supplies.

Cao Bao, knowing that he had made a mistake, did not dare to be clever anymore. With the idea of ​​making amends for his mistake, he led 40,000 elite troops to defend Jiqiu to the death.

The two armies engaged in a tug-of-war between offense and defense in Jiqiu for nearly ten days. During this period, Cao's army repeatedly used tricks to lure Cao Bao out of the city, but Cao Bao remained unmoved.

After the two armies had been deadlocked in Jiqiu for half a month, Cao Cao finally broke through the gate of Jiqiu with the help of the catapult improved by Liu Ye. Cao Bao led 10,000 remaining soldiers to escape back to Tan County.

Once Jiqiu was captured, the door to Donghai County, the most important part of Xuzhou, was completely opened to Cao Cao.

Just when Tao Qian was unwilling to give up Tan County and Donghai County, retreat to Xia Pi, and continue to stretch the Cao army's front line to defend the city.

In order to force Tao Qian to lead his troops out of the city for a decisive battle, Cao Cao entered Donghai County and began to massacre and loot the city in the name of "revenge".

In just a few days, Cao Cao massacred two cities in succession. The number of corpses of the slaughtered civilians was so large that the flow of the Yi River even dried up for a while.

As soon as this incident happened, the entire Han Dynasty was in an uproar, and voices condemning and blaming Cao Cao were everywhere.

Shouchun City, inside the governor's mansion.

"Cao! Meng! De!"

"Thief Cao!! I will never coexist with thief Cao!!!"

Liu Bei's eyes turned red with anger. He drew his sword, pointed it to the sky and swore an oath. For the first time, he made the announcement in an unquestionable tone without consulting Li Ji.

"Send the troops! Send the troops today... I will personally lead the troops to defeat the enemy!" (End of this chapter)