Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Chapter 749 Barefoot Welcoming Xu
When he thought of this, Xu You frowned unconsciously, thinking about how to break the situation...

But because Xu You was very familiar with Yuan Shao, he understood that this was an unsolvable problem.

Even if he manages to escape punishment today, he will probably never regain Yuan Shao's trust again in the future.

Especially now that Yuan Shao has plenty of wise men under his command, even if Xu You thinks highly of himself, he knows that it is difficult for him to outsmart everyone with his strategy.

"It's not anyone, it's all Li Zikun..."

For a moment, Xu You only hated himself for not being as good as Li Ji. Otherwise, why would he have to worry about his unstable position and the loss of his life?

Just as Xu You's face was gradually becoming gloomy and distracted again, he suddenly thought of something, a look of surprise flashed across his face, and he murmured.

"Cao Cao is now threatened by Liu Bei in the south and Yuan Benchu ​​in the north. If the "Proclamation to Protect the People" is widely circulated, it will be condemned by thousands of people. It can be said that the situation is as precarious as an egg on the wall."

"Why don't I turn to Cao Aman and give him a helping hand, helping him break the impasse and achieve his hegemony? Cao Aman will surely remember my contribution and will not dare to neglect it."

"Now that everyone in my family is in Cao Aman's hands, I can protect them from worry, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone."

For a moment, this bold idea quickly occupied Xu You's mind, and the more he weighed it, the more feasible it seemed.

Even though Yuan Shao was secretly annoyed with Xu You and was gradually trying to exclude him, given Xu You's status, there were few people who were unaware of the arrangements Yuan Shao had made in the army.

In particular, Xu You knew very well the exact location where the grain and fodder that Yuan Shao had finally collected from Ji and Bing states were stored.

All we have to do is to try to offer a plan and let Cao Cao attack and burn Yuan Shao's food and grass storage.

The elite troops from Hebei led by Yuan Shao would vanish in an instant.

Xu You suddenly stood up, threw the tea set in his hand to the ground, and said resolutely.

"With my good plan, it will be easy for Ah Man to take Jizhou, and it will only take a moment to control Hebei. Why should he try to save his life under Yuan Shao's command?!"

Then, Xu You, who gradually developed a better mind, found out that Yuan Shao was in a good mood, so he took the initiative to admit his mistake, resigned from his position, and was willing to go to the rear to raise food for Yuan Shao to ease the food and fodder expenses of the army.

After this series of actions, Xu You often mentioned their past personal friendship.

This made Yuan Shao, who was secretly annoyed with Xu You, soften his heart a little, so he agreed to Xu You's request and gave Xu You a warrant to transport grain to the granary.

Watching Xu You's somewhat lonely back as he left, Yuan Shao sighed and said.

"Forget it, Ziyuan is quite loyal. If he works hard in the future, what's the harm in giving him another chance?"

After receiving Yuan Shao's order to leave the camp, Xu You left Yuan's camp that night under the protection of more than a dozen trusted servants.

When the news reached Yuan Shao, he did not think much about it. Instead, he greatly appreciated Xu You's diligence in rushing to the rear to raise food.

What Yuan Shao didn't know was that after leaving Yuan's main camp, Xu You used the patrol routes of Yuan's main camp that he knew to avoid a large number of sentries and scouts patrolling outside the camp.

In a slow-flowing place far away from Yuan’s army camp, Xu You swam slowly across the Qing River under the protection of a servant who was good at swimming.

He changed into a set of clean clothes that he had prepared in advance and headed straight for Cao's camp.

……

At the same time in Cao's army camp.

During the day, facing his civil and military officials, Cao Cao seemed to be confident about how to defeat Yuan Shao.

In fact, Cao Cao was only prepared to "drag it out" for a long time.

The only way to defeat Yuan Shao was to use his family members to coerce and bribe Yuan Shao's civil and military officials to betray him.

After all, Yuan Shao was very familiar with the terrain around Jie Bridge.

In terms of the number of troops and the degree of eliteness, Yuan's army was far superior to Cao's army. Therefore, it was difficult for Cao's army to resist Yuan's offensive by relying on the terrain of Jieqiao, let alone counterattack Yuan Shao.

This also led to Cao Cao making lofty statements during the day but having difficulty falling asleep in the camp at night. He simply put on a robe and started reading the report documents to win over and intimidate Yuan Shao's civil and military officials.

However, in this era where loyalty is extremely important.

It is not so easy to force someone to betray his master by threatening his family.

Even Chunyu Qiong, the defeated general who was deliberately spared by Xiahou Yuan, was severely punished by Yuan Shao and all his family members were captured by Cao Cao.

When Chunyu Qiong saw Cao Cao's hidden man reveal his identity, he drew his sword and killed him without hesitation.

Coupled with the difficulty in transmitting information, Cao Cao was unable to gain any results for a long time.

This made Cao Cao, who appeared calm and composed on the surface, feel extremely depressed.

Cao Cao knew very well that Liu Da'er and Li Zikun would not leave him much time.

Even if Yuan Shu could survive this winter, his body would surely be buried in the ground by Li Ji in the early spring of next year.

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By then, Liu Bei would have controlled the four states of Jing, Yang, Yu and Xu.

And with Li Zikun's ability, he can completely digest Jingzhou, Yuzhou and Xuzhou in two to three years at most.

Half of the Han Dynasty will be as stable as Mount Tai in Liu Bei's hands.

Therefore, if Cao Cao wanted to compete with Liu Bei for hegemony, he had to defeat Yuan Shao as soon as possible, occupy the three states of Ji, Bing and Qing, and then form an alliance with Lu Bu to fight against Liu Bei, so as to form a three-way confrontation.

This was the only feasible path Xun You found for Cao Cao after carefully analyzing the general situation of the world for him.

The three powers formed a tripod and allied with Lu to resist Liu.

In order to avoid any changes, Xun sent people to communicate with Chen Qun early on and obtained Chen Qun's support. He tried his best to persuade Lu Bu to give up supporting Yuan Shu and instead take the opportunity to seize Yanzhou.

The Yuan family prided themselves on being the leading family among the aristocratic families, so naturally they had long incurred the dissatisfaction of the Xun and Chen families, who were also top aristocratic families.

Even the Xun and Chen families would arrange for members of other clans to place bets on the Yuan family.

But this time, when Cao and Liu destroyed Yuan, there was actually a faction of aristocratic families headed by the Xun and Chen families pushing them forward.

However, Cao Cao also knew that if he wanted to achieve the situation of "three powers in a tripartite confrontation, an alliance with Lu to resist Liu", the first thing he had to do was to defeat Yuan Shao as soon as possible.

Otherwise, Chen Qun would certainly not mind persuading Lu Bu to change his alliance partner and choose to ally with Yuan to fight against Liu.

Cao Cao narrowed his slender eyes and looked at the documents in his hands while thinking continuously. Suddenly, he felt a headache coming on, as if a knife and an axe were chopping off his head.

But Cao Cao dared not say a word. He bent over the table and endured it with gritted teeth, fearing that the disclosure of this matter would cause the army to lose morale.

At this moment, a guard suddenly reported in a low voice outside the tent.

"My lord, there is a man outside the camp who claims to be your old friend. His surname is Xu and his name is You. He wants to see you."

When Cao Cao heard this, he stood up almost subconsciously. The headache seemed to disappear in an instant. He rushed out of the tent barefoot and asked anxiously.

"Where is Xu You?"

"Just outside the camp."

Cao Cao was surprised and happy to get the answer. He just realized that he had forgotten to wear shoes. He was about to go back to the tent to wash and put on shoes. After a little hesitation, he hurried towards the camp gate barefoot.

(End of this chapter)