Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

As soon as these words were spoken, the eyes of the generals and counselors who were listening in the big tent all lit up.

Not to mention the advisers of the General Staff, even Zhang Fei could realize that this was an opportunity to storm Cao's camp.

Taking advantage of the fact that Cao's army was exhausted, they might be able to break through Cao's camp in one fell swoop and defeat Cao's army.

"Zikun first..."

The outspoken Zhang Fei's voice almost instantly rang out, and then he recalled Liu Bei's previous warnings that he should address Li Ji by his title in front of outsiders in order to maintain Li Ji's dignity.
Zhang Fei quickly changed his words and shouted.

"Commander-in-chief, isn't this a great opportunity to attack Cao's camp?"

As Li Ji nodded slightly, the eyes of everyone in the tent became enthusiastic.

When two armies confront each other, it is not easy to find a chance of victory.

Although the armies of Liu and Cao fought yesterday and both sides seemed to have suffered heavy casualties, more often we need to consider the possibility that Cao Cao simply chose to stay in the camp and avoid fighting.

In this case, even if Liu Bei had an advantage in military strength, he might not be able to break through Cao's camp, and would inevitably suffer greater casualties.

Immediately, Li Ji stopped discussing with everyone and spoke directly to Liu Bei.

"My lord, Cao's army is exhausted right now. If we quickly mobilize our army to attack, we can reach Cao's camp and launch a fierce attack in half an hour."

"Cao Cao may not be an easy opponent. The possibility of breaking through Cao's camp within one day is very slim."

"But we can just use the daytime infantry to take turns to attack. We just need to ensure that the outer perimeter of Cao's camp is destroyed, and not give Cao's army the opportunity to set up chevaux de frise, horse traps, horse spikes, etc...."

"At that time, we can send cavalry to harass them at night and find opportunities to sneak into the camp. If we fight day and night, Cao's army will be defeated in just three to five days."

When he spoke to the end, Li Ji's expression showed a hint of murderous intent.

In that situation, if Cao's army was defeated, it would not be so easy to retreat.

The light cavalry might not be good enough in charging, but they could chase the enemy in the plains. It was considered lucky that only a few thousand Cao soldiers could escape back to Tan County.

"Of course, according to our spies, Cao Cao has 30,000 troops deployed in the rear to dig traps. Those 30,000 Cao troops are the only reinforcements Cao Cao can use to break the deadlock."

Li Ji stood up and walked to the hanging map. He used his folding fan as a pen and pointed at an inconspicuous small slope to the north of Caoying, saying.

"However, we only need to send a detachment of 20,000 soldiers to camp here to prevent Cao's reinforcements from joining Cao Cao."

"If we send another detachment of 10,000 soldiers to block the nearby Zhuling camp, then Cao Cao will be trapped."

As Li Ji finished speaking, Liu Bei couldn't hide his joy as he exclaimed.

"Brilliant, brilliant! Zikun's plan is so well-planned that it draws a circle for Cao Cao on the plain and traps him to death."

The rest of the people in the tent also began to analyze and praise, expressing their approval of this plan.

However, Li Ji shook his head and continued, "My Lord, what you just said is the best strategy, but I still have a worse strategy to discuss."

"Zikun, please feel free to speak." Liu Bei said.

Li Ji pointed to the current locations of the Liu and Cao camps on the map, and continued.

"That is to take advantage of the fact that Cao's army is exhausted. It will take at least half a day to rest and regroup."

"In this way, our army can bypass Cao's army directly, continue to move north along the Yishui River, and directly attack the 30,000 Cao's troops scattered behind the Cao's camp."

"By using cavalry to block Cao Cao's channels for transmitting messages, our army will be able to launch a surprise attack on the unprepared 30,000 Cao troops and defeat them in one battle." Finally, the folding fan in Li Ji's hand circled the north of Cao's camp, and then stopped at the place where Cao Cao threw a large number of corpses into the Yishui River.

"Although the best strategy has a 90% chance of defeating Cao's army, it may delay the battle for three to five days."

"Plus, there are still 30,000 Cao troops in the rear setting up various traps. It is possible that we will be delayed for about ten days."

In an instant, Liu Bei's brows furrowed.

Rather than saying it was the best strategy or the worst strategy, it would be better to say that Li Ji was making Liu Bei choose between inflicting a severe blow to Cao Cao and safely protecting the people of Xuzhou.

The best strategy is to besiege Cao's camp, which would take a total of ten more days, and Cao Cao would be completely defeated.

The worst strategy would be to abandon Cao's camp for the time being, and before the 30,000 Cao troops in the rear had time to set up many traps or obstacles, go north to clean up the corpses in Yishui, so as to prevent the outbreak of the plague from affecting millions of Xuzhou people.

Compared with Liu Bei, who knew the whole situation and was entangled in it, the other people in the tent had little reaction to Li Ji's bad plan, and some even looked puzzled.

However, due to the prestige that Li Ji had accumulated in the past, no one directly questioned him for a while.

Instead, Zhuge Liang hesitated and considered again and again before standing up and speaking.

"Teacher, isn't this a bit too risky? Going around Cao's camp means that the food supply will be cut off. In this case, the military rations used by the army can only support half a month's expenses at most."

"If we get behind Cao's army and are held up by them for a while, we will have no way to replenish our food supplies and will be in danger of being defeated."

Li Ji smiled and said.

"So, isn't this the worst option? However, the choice of option still needs to be considered by the lord."

Zhuge Liang was slightly startled when he heard this, then he suddenly realized something, his little face wrinkled and he sat down again.

Zhuge Liang knew that his teacher was extremely wise and not someone who would do things his own way.

But after I pointed out the risks of the worst option, Li Ji did not seem surprised at all, which shows that the risks had already been taken into consideration.

Instead of sticking to the safe best strategy, they deliberately proposed the extremely risky worst strategy. This can only mean that this worst strategy can obtain returns at the strategic level that can ignore the risks.

But Zhuge Liang couldn’t think of the benefits at that moment.
Unlike Zhuge Liang, Sima Yi, after being inadvertently reminded, looked straight at the location on the map that Li Ji had pointed out. A light bulb went off in his head and he thought of a possibility.

"Could it be that Cao Cao's back-up plan that made the lord and teacher so afraid was... to massacre the city and cause a plague!?"

The flexibility of his moral bottom line made Sima Yi subconsciously come up with this guess.

This is the only way to explain why the teacher marched quickly all the way, passed Xia Pi without entering, and hurried to Donghai County.

Otherwise, given the teacher's personality of planning before taking action, he shouldn't be so anxious.

"I want to create a time difference before Yuan Shu's troops reach Pengcheng. I'm afraid this is just an excuse for you to stabilize the morale of the troops."

When he thought of this, Sima Yi couldn't help but feel like retreating.

"There is a plague ahead, I want to escape..."

And at this moment, Liu Bei slammed the table, stood up and said in a deep voice.

"The worst strategy is not the worst. We should take this opportunity to bypass Cao's camp and continue northward." (End of this chapter)