Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

For Xuzhou!

Only Cao Cao knew how much preparation he had made and how many sacrifices he had made.

Xuzhou is the territory that Cao Cao is determined to obtain.

Only when the two states of Xu and Qing are connected, will Cao Cao be truly qualified and have the opportunity to dominate the Central Plains in the current complex world situation.

Only by taking Qingzhou as the foundation and taking over Xuzhou can we look towards Yanzhou.

Otherwise, Cao Cao would be trapped in Qingzhou and become a prey to others.

However, the thing that Cao Cao longed for was once again delivered to Liu Bei's bed.

No matter how strong Cao Cao's will was, he couldn't help but lose his balance when he heard the news.

More importantly, even though Liu Bei refused the seal of the governor, the tiger talisman was completely handed over to Liu Bei, which meant that Tao Qian had completely made his choice of side.

This is no longer just an alliance, but Tao Qian has made it clear that he is willing to serve under Liu Bei.

Tao Qian had been managing Xuzhou for many years, and Liu Bei also had great prestige and reputation in Xuzhou.

As long as the war in Xuzhou was quelled, Cao Cao's political level would easily make him realize that "giving up Xuzhou for the second time" and even "giving up Xuzhou for the third time" was inevitable.

However, after being angry for a moment, Cao Cao was only angry for a moment. His face quickly returned to calm. He stood up and walked to the map hanging behind him to observe it.

Cao Cao had naturally been plotting against Xuzhou for a long time. Many of the Yellow Turban generals from Qingzhou who seemed to have fled and surrendered to Tao Qian were actually hidden pawns sent by Cao Cao.

It was also with the help of these spies that they took advantage of Cao Bao's unpreparedness and secretly opened the Kaiyang city gate, inflicting heavy damage to the Xuzhou army in one fell swoop.

In addition, some Yellow Turban generals from Qingzhou led their troops back to Cao Cao's army, further strengthening Cao Cao's military strength.

This is undoubtedly a brilliant move.

He used Tao Qian's money and food to support his own soldiers, and even rebelled and secretly opened the city gates at critical moments to further replenish his available troops.

It is precisely for this reason that Cao Cao's 100,000-strong army has been fighting all the way in Xuzhou, and the actual available force at hand is still as high as more than 80,000.

And these more than 80,000 troops were deployed by Cao Cao on both sides of the Yishui River north of Xia Pi City.

The national hero, Marquis Li Ji!
Cao Cao did not dare to underestimate this strategist whom he wanted most.

As long as Li Ji arrives at Xia Pi City with the army and starts to investigate the situation in Donghai County, the matter of Yishui will not be hidden from Li Ji's eyes.

Using the plague to conquer Xia Pi City was a vicious plan proposed by Cheng Yu, and its effect and function were obvious.

The more than 80,000 troops in Cao Cao's hands were already all Cao Cao's assets.

Cao Cao couldn't afford to take the risk, nor could he afford to compete with Liu Shang'er who had already established a strong foundation.

Yuan Shu lost his 100,000-man army, but he basically recovered in one year thanks to his profound training.
Liu Da'er lost 100,000 troops, which greatly frustrated the momentum of the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains. It was a serious injury, but relying on the foundation of Jing and Yang states and Li Zikun's ability to govern, the foundation was not damaged at all.

The only way is to take advantage of the plague and natural disasters to directly break into Xia Pi City. The best result would be to create a deadly place in Xia Pi that would make people shudder with fear.

Cao Cao pointed his finger at the location of Xia Pi City, his eyes filled with consideration.

The Yishui River runs through not only Xia Pi City, but also most of the area of ​​Xia Pi State.

Moreover, to the west of Xia Pi State was Pengcheng State, which was close to Yuzhou, and to the east of Xia Pi State was Guangling County. Therefore, as long as a large area of ​​plague dead land could be created in Xia Pi State, it would not only greatly affect the armies under Tao Qian and Liu Bei, but also cleverly separate Pengcheng State from Guangling County.

Let Yuan Shu attack Pengcheng and fight to the death with Tao Qian and Liu Bei, while Cao Cao took the opportunity to seize Guangling County.

As long as Cao Cao can truly control Guangling County, which is across the Yangtze River from Wu County, he will have the bargaining chips that can make Liu Bei wary.

Wujun was the place where Liu Bei made his fortune and it was also the population and economic center of the entire area south of the Yangtze River. Both Liu Bei and Li Ji could not accept that Wujun was under direct threat.

Therefore, the focus of the subsequent confrontation between the Cao and Liu armies will inevitably shift to between Guangling County and Wu County.

In this way, Cao Cao would have the opportunity to turn around and seize Xia Pi City and Pengcheng.

Otherwise, under the resistance from Yuan Shu, Liu Bei and Tao Qian, it would be impossible for Cao Cao to truly take control of Pengcheng and Xia Pi.

Cao Cao went over the plan in his mind to confirm whether the rapid repair and change in the relationship between Liu Bei and Tao Qian would have any serious impact.

This was a plan Cao Cao had been planning for a long time, his hope to capture the entire Xuzhou in one fell swoop.

Cao Cao's own strength was undoubtedly not enough to swallow up the entire Xuzhou, so from the very beginning Cao Cao placed his hopes on driving the tiger to swallow the wolf.

It is necessary to defeat Tao Qian so that Liu Bei and Yuan Shu, who were originally on the sidelines, can be forced to leave one after another.

The Yishui plague is a very critical next step.

If the plague could be allowed to spread successfully in Xia Pi State, then Liu Bei and Tao Qian would not be able to give up Pengcheng, and they would not have the energy to take care of Guangling County across the plague area.

Even if Liu Bei and Li Ji intend to continue to transfer troops from Yangzhou to Guangling County, there are constant tensions and frictions between Lu Bu and Guan Yu in Nanyang County, and they need to leave enough troops in Shouchun to be vigilant against Yuzhou. How many troops can be transferred to Guangling at once?
Yishui!

Xia Pi City!
This is the key to the next strategy.

This is also the reason why Cao Cao deployed his troops on both sides of Yishui, in order to resist the counterattack from Liu Bei and Tao Qian, and force his way north to Yishui to clean up the corpses.

But at this moment, the hidden contradiction between Liu Bei and Tao Qian was quickly resolved, which meant that the two armies could merge smoothly without having to guard against each other.

This was undoubtedly very bad news for Cao Cao.

In particular, Cao Cao had deliberately spread a large number of divisive rumors, and Tao Qian did not take the initiative to ask Liu Bei for help after repeated defeats.

Cao Cao originally thought that this matter could tie down Liu Bei for a while, but he did not expect it to be resolved so quickly.

Now, Cao Cao can only hope that after Li Ji leads his army into Xia Pi City, he will not be able to discover the truth for a while and delay for a while.

However, when Cao Cao continued to send a large number of spies to Xia Pi State to gather information, he never expected that after Li Ji led his army to Xia Pi City, he did not enter the city to rest.

Li Ji only organized his troops outside Xia Pi City for one day, borrowed supplies from the city to reward the three armies, and then led his army directly northward, as if he had no face to enter the city unless Cao's army was defeated.

Moreover, the target of Liu Bei’s army was quite clear, they would march straight to Tan County where Cao Cao was located along the Yi River!

This made Cao Cao, who had originally thought that he could hold out for at least seven or eight days, feel a little unprepared for a moment, so he had to quickly start preparing for war in advance.

For a time, the offensive and defensive situation in Xuzhou was reversed.

Cao Cao, who was unstoppable, withdrew his troops in Donghai County, while Liu Bei marched northwards to target Cao Cao. (End of this chapter)