Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

One side of the battlefield was close to the Yi River, which meant that if Li Ji wanted to attack Cao Cao's flank, he could only attack from the side guarded by Zhu Ling.

But after a slight hesitation, Li Ji gave up the idea.

It is true that the Yuan army led by Zhu Ling was a supporter of Cao Cao, but it was also a force used by the Yuan family to restrain and supervise Cao Cao.

Li Ji could not rule out the possibility that Cao Cao wanted to use him to get rid of Zhu Ling, so that Cao Cao could directly annex the remnants of Yuan's army after they were defeated.

Li Ji had no intention of helping Cao Cao, as this would have wasted his own troops and would have helped Cao Cao instead.

Therefore, Li Ji frequently adjusted and ordered the adjustment or reinforcement of the front army, choosing to continue to put pressure on Cao's army from the front.

Apart from anything else, the will and resilience of qualified military household soldiers are in no way inferior to those of the top elite.

The continuous fierce fighting will ultimately test not only the commander's ability, but also the overall will and resilience of the soldiers.

Besides, there aren’t many fancy tricks on the plain battlefield.

At the beginning, Cao's army was full of energy and relied on giant shields to defend, showing a stalemate.

But as time went on, the energy and condition of Cao's soldiers continued to decline, and the rate of casualties began to increase significantly.

Gradually, the line where the two armies collided began to turn into a meat grinder, and soldiers began to fall down one after another.

This made Cao Cao frown a little more, and he had to command the central army to reinforce the front army to fill the gap.

What made Cao Cao even more upset was that Li Ji only approached from the front and had no intention of attacking the flank by relying on his superior military strength.

A feeling of being seen through arose in Cao Cao's heart.

When Cao Cao led his army here, he naturally had no intention of fighting to the death with Li Ji. Instead, he wanted to test the combat effectiveness of the Yangzhou army and use the Yangzhou army to consume the Yuan army led by Zhu Ling.

Due to the distance, and Zhu Ling's deliberate dawdling.

As a result, Cao Cao had almost forced Tao Qian back to Xia Pi City when the reinforcements led by Zhu Ling arrived in Xuzhou. This made Cao Cao quite dissatisfied and he even had some other thoughts.

However, Li Ji’s non-cooperation made Cao Cao both annoyed and helpless.

Especially seeing the soldiers that he had gathered with great difficulty falling one after another made Cao Cao extremely heartbroken.

Even though the current casualty ratio between the two sides is not much different, Cao Cao knows that he cannot outlast Liu Bei.

For a moment, even though the overall strength of the front battlefield remained evenly matched, Cao Cao had already felt a huge pressure coming, which put him in a dilemma.

The stalemate consumed Cao Cao's limited assets.

If he retreated, Liu Bei would have to reach the upper reaches of the Yishui River to clean up the corpses.

More importantly, when the plague will actually develop depends entirely on luck...

Li Ji came too hastily, too quickly, and more resolutely than Cao Cao expected.

However, Cao Cao's eyes wavered for only a moment before they became firm again.

'My ambition will never stop here!'

"We must hold back Liu Bei at all costs!"

The front troops of both sides kept falling, and Cao Cao and Li Ji kept filling the gaps. The battle lasted until dusk, when both sides chose to retreat.

The loss ratio calculated after the war was 1:1.3.

For every ten casualties among the Yangzhou army, the Qingzhou army would lose thirteen.

This result not only made Li Ji frown in dissatisfaction, but Cao Cao was also frowning...

During the day's battle, Li Ji was more of a test, and the front army was only in a stalemate. However, the number of Qingzhou soldiers killed or seriously injured was still as high as 4,000, not to mention the wounded.

If this continues every day, not only will the Qingzhou army not be able to withstand such losses too many times, but their originally high morale will also plummet rapidly and they will not be able to hold out for much longer.

Cao Cao summoned his advisers and generals to discuss the matter, but for a moment they could not think of a suitable solution.

Li Ji used his upright army to put pressure on Cao Cao. After the first confrontation, not only did Cao Cao fail to gain an advantage in command on the battlefield, but the manpower and combat power of the Yangzhou army also clearly surpassed that of the Qingzhou army.

In other words, Li Ji seemed to see through Cao Cao's thoughts and did not choose to attack Zhu Ling on the flank. Otherwise, if two battlefields were opened up, the number of casualties might be even greater after a day of fierce fighting.

"My lord, why don't we just withdraw our troops and retreat to Tan County?" Liu Ye suggested.

"If we retreat now, Liu Da'er will definitely lead his troops north to clean up Yishui, and all our previous efforts will be wasted!" Cheng Yu objected without hesitation.

Mao Jie heard this and retorted, "If you don't withdraw your troops, even if you don't hesitate to waste your manpower to forcibly stop Liu Bei for five or six days, does Zhongde think that the plague will break out in Yishui?"

Even within Cao Cao's group, there was never a shortage of people who were dissatisfied with the evil plan of massacring the city and causing plague.

However, loyalty and righteousness come first, so many people did not dare to direct their anger at Cao Cao. Instead, they believed that Cheng Yu had bewitched Cao Cao and put all the blame on Cheng Yu.

Cheng Yu had no choice but to go down this path and argue with Mao Jie and others, supporting the continued efforts to block Liu Bei.

Cao Cao's military force is naturally more than the 50,000 today. In fact, there are more than 30,000 troops sent by Cao Cao to destroy the roads in the rear, set traps, build camps and prepare to defend step by step.

Cao Cao led his troops here to buy more time for the rear.

But today's battle has destroyed the confidence of many people.

Considering the combat capability shown by the Yangzhou Army, I am afraid that no matter what they do, they will not be able to block the Donghai County for half a month.

But the occurrence of a plague is related to external environment and time, but whether it will ultimately succeed depends on luck.

If Cao Cao and Liu Bei fought to the death and the plague was never eradicated, then everything would be over. Liu Bei would probably chase him back to Qingzhou.

Therefore, some generals and advisers who sought stability began to consider retreating and began to persuade Cao Cao to avoid the limelight.

Unfortunately, this argument would undoubtedly lead to no conclusion. Cao Cao, who was sitting in the main seat with his eyes closed, had no intention of withdrawing his troops.

It was not until the meeting was about to end that Xi Zhicai spoke up to remind them.

"My lord, you may need to be careful about the country's marquis sending people to steal your camp."

As soon as these words were spoken, Cao Cao, who was inevitably physically and mentally exhausted after commanding the army in a day's fierce battle, suddenly opened his eyes and said.

"If Zhicai hadn't reminded me, I would have almost forgotten about it."

Stealing a camp is undoubtedly a simple strategy with extremely high risk and return.

Simply put, even Cao Bao would sneak into the camp.

The risk-return ratio was extremely high, and he also pointed out that Cao Bao's sneak camp fell into a trap, which directly led to the destruction of his entire army.

But after a day of fierce fighting, is it possible for Li Ji to launch a night attack?

Logically speaking, both armies were exhausted... no.

But who knows, Li Ji might do the opposite.

In addition, Cao's army was exhausted and was sleeping soundly when they encountered a night attack, and there was a possibility of a camp cry.

Immediately, Cao Cao pondered for a moment and made a series of arrangements to wait for Li Ji to attack at night. (End of this chapter)