Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Given the current situation in the world, Yuan Shu has no external support.

In Li Ji's opinion, Yuan Shu was doomed to fail, but his final madness should not be underestimated.

In a sense, war is indeed a continuation of politics.

What Li Ji wanted was a Yuzhou that was as intact as possible and a Han Dynasty that was as intact as possible. This was undoubtedly the political pursuit of Liu Bei and Li Ji.

"It's not right to move forward step by step! It's not right! It's absolutely not right!"

Li Ji calmly and solemnly defined the next strategic approach and spoke.

"Yuzhou is the place where the elite of the Central Plains are located. Moreover, Xuzhou has already been plundered and slaughtered by Cao Cao. If the young and strong men of Yuzhou are also harmed by Yuan Shu, even if we take it, I'm afraid it will take more than three to five years for them to recover."

Perhaps, in troubled times, human life is worthless.

But in Li Ji's view, population is the greatest wealth in troubled times, especially the young and strong.

The young and strong people of Yuzhou should not have been buried with Yuan Shu in this way.

"Therefore, when attacking Yuzhou, we should first attack the heart and then the city. First seize their power, protect their people, and then occupy the city."

Li Ji said in a deep voice, and then added.

"As for how to seize his power, we should attack Yuan Shu's capital Ruyang with the force of thunder, besiege the capital, and prevent Yuan Shu from issuing orders to the surrounding areas."

"In this way, everyone in Yuzhou will know that Yuan Shu is doomed and has become a trapped turtle in my jar."

"When the time comes, we will divide our forces and attack the surrounding cities with Ruyang as the center. They will surely surrender, and Yuan Shu's tyranny will vanish into thin air."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone around was shocked.

Zhuge Liang objected without hesitation.

"Teacher, Xiangcheng is more than 500 miles away from Ruyang. No matter how we plan the food route, it will inevitably be blocked by a large number of cities. How can we penetrate so deep into the enemy's rear?"

Everyone knows that besieging a government seat is a fatal blow to the prestige of the ruling class.

Furthermore, due to the limitations of information transmission in this era and the limited vision of many small people and petty officials, even though many princes and noble families understood that Yuan Shu's situation was hopeless, there were still many people in the middle and lower classes of Yuzhou who were unaware of the changes.

Even though information is so developed in later times, joining the National Army in 49 may be a joke, but it is also a portrayal of countless ordinary people who cannot see the direction of the times.

It is just like when the stock market soars, countless people only see the immediate benefits pouring in, but do not understand that a big drop is imminent.

The same is true of Yuzhou today.

Under the decrees issued by Yuan Shu, middle and lower-level officials had plenty of opportunities to plunder, so they naturally tried their best.

Not to mention whether one can detect the change in wind direction, even if one can detect it, how many people would be willing to give up the immediate benefits?
The mere order hastily issued by Yuan Shu to draft one out of every two young and strong men into soldiers, without imposing many clear restrictions, left a lot of room for maneuver.

The most effective and direct way to wake up Yuzhou, which was in chaos and madness, was undoubtedly to seize Yuan Shu's power with the power of thunder and lightning, and then issue decrees to all counties in Yuzhou to completely stop the chaos that was causing great damage to people's livelihood.

But there is undoubtedly a difficulty that cannot be avoided, which is the food problem mentioned by Zhuge Liang.

The larger the army, the more food and grass it consumes.

Li Ji's army of 100,000 soldiers also recruited a large number of civilians and horses in Xuzhou in the rear to transport food and grass day and night in order to meet the army's food and grass needs.

Once the food supply was cut off, the army would inevitably collapse due to the depletion of food and grass in ten days at the shortest and half a month at the longest. Li Ji did not rush to refute Zhuge Liang, but pointed at the map and said in a more thoughtful tone.

"This is the current solution to Yuzhou's predicament and the way to preserve Yuzhou to the greatest extent possible. There will naturally be many difficulties involved, but if the road to reviving the Han Dynasty were simple, why would you and I be here?"

"So, do you have any solution to this problem?"

Li Ji's question made all the advisers in the staff group look thoughtful, and the generals present also started to think about it.

Li Ji's meaning was actually expressed quite clearly, which was how to make the army in Xiang County, Pei State, Yuzhou, quickly reach Ruyang.

However, Ruyang is nearly 600 miles away from Xiang County...

"If I only lead the cavalry, I can carry a few days' worth of dry food, rush day and night, and ignore the obstacles of the cities along the way. It won't be difficult to reach Ruyang within two or three days, but we can't abandon the infantry, right?"

Zhang Fei couldn't help but mutter.

Huang Zhong said helplessly. "Even if they were all cavalry, what would be the point of rushing to Ruyang? Cavalry lacks the means to attack the city, and Ruyang will definitely be strictly guarded by the Yuan bandits."

"If it's a small force, we can try to get food from the enemy, but with an army of 100,000, it's hard to maintain the food supply even if it's like a swarm of locusts passing through the land."

Wei Yan muttered to himself, and Pang Tong's eyes lit up when he heard it, and he stood up and said.

"Teacher, isn't it possible that we divide the troops into 20 or 30 groups? Each group has about 3,000 to 4,000 soldiers, and they march to Ruyang from different directions?"

There is no way a large-scale force can be eaten by the enemy, but a small-scale force will undoubtedly be no problem.

This made Pang Tong excited at the moment, and he thought this seemed to be a very good idea. He did not notice that Li Ji's face had darkened slightly.

"How about I divide the army into 100,000 groups, each with one soldier, and each of them goes to Ruyang?"

Upon hearing this, Pang Tong couldn't help but smile awkwardly. He also realized that his idea was too far-fetched and completely unfeasible.

The prerequisite for dividing the troops is undoubtedly to ensure safety, otherwise it would give Yuan Shu the opportunity to defeat them one by one and turn defeat into victory.

Moreover, Liu Bei always acted on the basis of benevolence, and when managing the army, he repeatedly proposed not to harm the people at all and to be a benevolent army.

If they really divide their troops to get food in Yuzhou, it will be like a spread-out net that will sift through all the food in the hands of the people wherever it passes.

Then, Li Ji's gaze swept across the thoughtful expressions on everyone's faces and then fell on Chen Deng.

Unlike his father Chen Gui, the old fox, Chen Deng is undoubtedly a young Deng.

When he was young, he became famous in Xuzhou for his ambition to help the world and the people. He was knowledgeable about ancient and modern times. After Liu Bei went to Xia Pi City alone, Chen Deng almost knelt down to welcome Liu Bei.

However, after a few brief contacts with Chen Deng, Li Ji was still somewhat unsure whether this young Deng really admired Liu Bei or was just too aware of the current situation and made the choice that was most beneficial to the Chen family of Xuzhou.

After thinking about it for a while, Li Ji took the initiative to ask.

"Yuanlong, do you have any ideas?"

Chen Deng quickly stood up and saluted, showing the magnanimity of a noble while maintaining respect for Li Ji, and then answered.

"Deng, I am not very talented and well-educated, so I dare not speak nonsense."

Li Ji said with a smile. "I have also heard of Yuanlong's name in Yangzhou. Why are you so modest? I hope Yuanlong will give me some advice so that we can help the lord to help the Han Dynasty as soon as possible." (End of this chapter)