Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Three days passed in a flash.

When the last group of troops who were ordered to rush to Pi Ting to join up arrived, Li Ji did not stay behind any longer. He immediately raised the banner of the Northern Expedition and marched northward.

When the 120,000-strong army entered Qingzhou and passed through Anqiu, it was immediately discovered by Cao Wei's scouts.

The traces of an army of 120,000 cannot be easily concealed, and Li Ji never thought of making a meaningless cover-up.

The way to employ troops has always been to combine the strange and the normal.

If the troops led by Zhao Yun, Sun Ce and Wei Yan were a surprise force, then Li Ji and Xu Sheng were an upright army. The battle of Qingzhou was also fought for the world to see.

Therefore, when his scouts also noticed the presence of Cao Wei scouts, Zhuge Liang, who learned the news, asked Li Ji whether to disperse more cavalry scouts in the surrounding areas to kill Cao Wei scouts as much as possible to prevent the whereabouts of the army from being leaked.

Li Ji, who was sitting on the chariot as he did in the past, waved his hand and spoke loudly.

"Let those Cao Wei scouts investigate, and let them bring the intelligence back to Yu Jin, Cao Ren, and Cao Cao, so that they all know that I, Li Zikun, have personally led the Northern Expedition Army into Qingzhou to fight against the fake government, so that they will be panicked and respond hastily."

"We must also teach the world that the Northern Expedition is unstoppable and that the Han Dynasty will be restored to its original integrity."

Li Ji, who is usually gentle and elegant, looked at the beautiful mountains and rivers of the Qi and Lu lands along the way with burning eyes, and there was a rare bit of heroism on his face.

"Yes."

After Zhuge Liang completed the arrangements, he returned to the chariot, intending to race against time to continue dealing with all military affairs.

Li Ji, who was standing on the chariot, seemed to speak with deep emotion.

"Kong Ming, sometimes life is interesting and full of coincidences."

Zhuge Liang looked up at Li Ji in confusion, and listened quietly amid the inevitably noisy marching sounds.

"Thirteen years ago, I met the king in Zhuo County. I had only two thousand soldiers and generals, but none of them were better than Guan and Zhang. We have been fighting all the way from south to north until now. The number of soldiers I mobilized to annex Qingzhou alone is close to three hundred thousand, and I have countless wise ministers and brave generals."

"Moreover, thirteen years ago, we experienced chaos from north to south, but now we are rebuilding the country from south to north..."

Li Ji paused, and Zhuge Liang did not say anything to interrupt him.

After several breaths, Li Ji put his hands on the edge of the chariot, leaned forward slightly and spoke.

"When I return to Zhuo County, the world will be unified again. That day will not be far away. I don't know if the thatched cottage I lived in back then still exists."

Zhuge Liang thought for a moment and said, "If the Prime Minister is interested, you can send a message to Youzhou and ask them to repair the thatched cottage in advance."

Li Ji was moved and replied, "If that day comes, I will repair it myself."

Zhuge Liang said, "Teacher, if you don't mind, I am willing to assist you and do you a favor."

Li Ji couldn't help but whispered, "Hahaha, then I'll allow Kong Ming a spot..."

However, when Cao Ren received the urgent news from the scouts that Li Ji was personally leading the army to the north to attack Qingzhou, what he felt was not Li Ji's heroic spirit of quickly taking Qingzhou and restoring the country, but an indescribable feeling of oppression.

Since the Yellow Turban Rebellion, various princes have emerged, and wise ministers and brave generals have vied to appear on the scene and become famous.

Among the Thirteen States of the Han Dynasty, perhaps Lu Bu is the unrivaled general that many generals find difficult to surpass.

However, the peak that convinced countless people was Li Ji, the prime minister and commander-in-chief of the Han Dynasty, who wore the prime minister's seal and general's sword and controlled the Han army.

Even though Cao Ren was mentally prepared for Li Ji's personal expedition to Qingzhou, he still couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat when he actually received the news.

Can they stop it? Cao Ren looked at the urgent report and estimated that the army led by Li Ji was about 120,000. Adding the troops led by Xu Sheng, that would be a full 200,000 troops.

Moreover, based on the national strength of the Han Dynasty, even with Lu Bu as a distraction, this amount of troops would definitely not be the limit of the Han Dynasty.

This made Cao Ren feel hesitant and wavering before he even faced the peak.

Can it be stopped?

Cao Ren looked at the urgent report and thought for a long time. Cao Ren, who was quite self-aware, couldn't even find out what his advantages were.

It took a lot of time to prepare the North Sea Defense Line to defend against the south. As the front line was pushed to Chunyu City in just a few days, this invisibly destroyed most of the defense line carefully arranged by Cao Ren.

However, Cao Ren knew better than anyone that the king had handed over Wei's Qingzhou to his hands, so he absolutely could not lose it.

Cao Ren is the Cao of Cao Wei, and all the glory of Cao family today comes from Cao Wei.

"Come here, put on this general's armor..."

But just as Cao Ren was about to go and mobilize his troops for battle, a piece of news brought by the messenger surprised Cao Ren.

Zhuxu City was broken!

The Han army that broke into the city was not the 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers that the commander of Zhuxu City had detected before, but a full 30,000. After breaking into the city, the 30,000 Han army headed straight towards the State of Qi.

"Oh!"

"The incompetent general Chun Yuqiong is trying to harm me!!"

Cao Ren's spirit, which had just been raised, suddenly stagnated, and he felt a surge of rage.

The garrison commander stationed at Zhuxu City was none other than Chunyu Qiong, a surrendered general of the Yuan family.

Apart from his outstanding martial arts, there was not much else about Chunyu Qiong that Cao Ren could appreciate. He was also a lazy and drunkard.

However, as the surrendered generals of the Yuan family had formed their own faction within Cao Wei, Chunyu Qiong was sent to Qingzhou to serve as one of the generals. Cao Ren could not ignore him, for fear of causing any criticism from the surrendered generals of the Yuan family.

Zhuxu City, where Chunyu Qiong was sent away, was one of the defense lines in the south, but it was far less important than Anqiu and Chang'an in the front.

Moreover, because it is adjacent to the State of Qi, it can also mobilize troops to provide assistance from the State of Qi at any time, so it is a relatively safe place where problems are not likely to occur.

Prior to this, Chunyu Qiong sent people to deliver three military reports in succession. The first one urgently stated that the Han army had appeared, the second one stated that the strength of the Han army had been discovered, and the third one stated that they would find an opportunity to defeat the bandits and make meritorious service soon.

Each of these three military reports was beautifully written, and the content was well-reasoned and based on facts.

Cao Ren, who did not have a thousand-mile vision, could only confirm the status of Zhuxu City from the military report. He believed that there was nothing wrong with Chunyu Qiong's judgment. It seemed that this was a strategy of feinting the army used by Li Ji in order to force him to divide his troops.

Based on these judgments, Cao Ren was quite confident in Zhu Xucheng and focused all his energy on Xu Sheng's troops.

But what Cao Ren never expected was that Zhuxu City, which he thought would be safe, actually fell.

"So, Chunyu Qiong must have been deceived by the Han army's treacherous scheme. The 30,000 Han soldiers disguised themselves as thousands of fake soldiers just to make me and Zhuxu City relax our defenses?"

"But why go to so much trouble?"

Puzzled for a moment, Cao Ren quickly walked to the topographic map on the side. After a few breaths, his pupils shrank and sweat broke out on his forehead again. (End of this chapter)