Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

In the defense line originally arranged by Cao Ren, Zhuxu City, as a city near the lower reaches of the Wenshui River, was defended by a large number of troops. The original intention was to prevent the enemy from finding Anqiu and Chang'an difficult to attack.

Instead, the enemy would choose to bypass the Wenshui River from a distance after taking Zhuxu City and open a channel to attack Duchang from the flank.

Of course, this passage is quite tortuous, and the marching route is much longer than that passing through Chunyu City.

But Cao Ren had just received news that Li Ji was leading a large army northward on the way to Chunyu City. It would be meaningless to attack Duchang City from Zhuxu City.

This was also what Cao Ren was originally confused about, but when Cao Ren combined the map and the movements of the Han army in the military report, he suddenly realized where the problem lay.

The target of that Han army was not Duchang City, but Linzi City located in the territory of Qi State.

More than half of Qingzhou’s military rations can be stored in Linzi City.

What's more serious is that Cao Ren had just transferred most of the garrison troops in Qi to Beihai County. How could the few remaining garrisons in Qi stop the 30,000 Han troops from crossing the border?

"Order Cao Xiu to lead the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to intercept this Han army immediately. Linzi must not fall into the hands of the Han army."

Cao Ren, feeling a little cold all over, gave orders quickly while hurriedly looking for the marching routes of the Qingzhou troops to Beihai County.

After Cao Ren confirmed several troops closest to Qi, he almost without hesitation sent a messenger with a military order to ask them to turn around and defend Linzi.

"Linzi only has 4,000 defenders, but we must catch up..."

Cao Ren hurriedly made all the arrangements, his eyes red with anxiety.

Once Linzi fell, it would mean that the most important granary of Cao's army in Beihai County was gone. The food and grass stored in Beihai County alone would not be enough to survive the winter.

It was not that Cao Ren deliberately did not store a large amount of grain in Beihai. What he was afraid of was that Beihai County would be captured by the enemy. For the sake of safety, he naturally chose to set up the granary in Linzi, which was located in the heart of Qingzhou.

Nowadays, if one wants to transfer grain from other county granaries, not to mention how much trouble it will cause, it is also necessary to prepare sufficient manpower, grain carts and relatively flat official roads in Linzi, and these conditions are not available in other county granaries.

However, before Cao Ren could recover from his worries in Linzi, another urgent report arrived in front of him.

After seeing this, Cao Ren felt a darkness before his eyes.

This was an urgent report sent by the garrison of Jinan State, which reported that traces of large-scale cavalry crossing the border of Jinan State were discovered.

And the number is over ten thousand!

Higashi-Asatsu?!

In just a moment, Cao Ren thought of Dongchaojin, which Sun Ce once tried to capture by crossing Taishan County.

But Sun Ce was able to easily pass through Taishan County in the past. That was because the area on the southern foot of Mount Tai was almost a lawless area during the turbulent times, and was mostly inhabited by bandits and robbers.

However, Taishan County now belongs to the State of Zhao.

Cao Ren also exchanged letters with the governor of Taishan County, reminding him to set up outposts on the southern foot of Taishan to monitor the movements of Xuzhou and avoid another border crossing.

At this moment, Cao Ren just wanted to ask Lu Bu: Such a large group of cavalry crossed from the southern foot of Mount Tai, is it possible that the governor of Taishan County is just doing nothing?

What Cao Ren didn't know was that the governor of Taishan County was also wrongly accused. The area south of Taishan was sparsely populated and inhabited by a large number of bandits.

Lu Bu had barely managed to establish the State of Zhao over the years, but he did not have enough energy to govern the local area, and had no time to wipe out the bandits and robbers entrenched in remote areas.

Therefore, after Cao Ren reminded the prefect of Taishan County, the prefect simply cooperated with several larger bandit gangs in the area of ​​the southern foot of Mount Tai, bribed them with money and food, and asked them to help him monitor the movements of Xuzhou.

But the main reason why the troops led by Zang Ba were known as Taishan bandits was that he was the biggest bandit leader in the area on the southern foot of Mount Tai. Many seemingly scattered and unrelated bandits actually worshipped the Taishan bandit as their leader.

In this way, the Han army was essentially monitoring itself.

In order to open up the passage from the southern foot of Mount Tai to the State of Jinan, Li Ji had sent Zang Ba to take a look around early on, and even annexed and wiped out some bandits with unstable attitudes in the name of fighting among bandits.

It was common for bandits to annex and fight each other in troubled times. The prefect of Taishan County did not pay attention to such trivial matters, and Cao Ren was even less aware of it.

At present, the entire southern foothills of Mount Tai are not actually controlled by Li Ji, but it is enough for the army to pass through it without being discovered in a short period of time.

Even now that Cao Ren had learned the news, the prefect of Taishan County still had no idea that a force of more than 10,000 cavalry had passed through the southern foot of Mount Tai.

At this moment, Cao Ren stared at the direction of Dongchaojin and felt a deep powerlessness, as if he was a fly caught in a spider web.

If Cao Ren had learned the news when the Han cavalry was passing through the southern foot of Mount Tai, he would have been able to send troops to intercept them halfway or even notify Jizhou to send troops to strengthen the defense of Dongchaojin.

But now Cao Ren was estimating the time and realized that by the time he received this urgent report, the cavalry might have already arrived near Dongchaojin.

"That's too late……"

"If Dongchaojin falls, Jizhou's reinforcements will not be able to reach Qingzhou in a short period of time."

At this moment, Cao Ren suddenly felt cold all over, and realized that Li Ji's attack on Qingzhou did not mean the beginning of the Northern Expedition, but that the layout had been completed long ago and the net was being closed in on Qingzhou.

Although Cao Ren might lack sufficient foresight and the ability to anticipate the enemy's moves, he was not a mediocre general and his judgment of the speed of the Han cavalry was pretty accurate.

At this moment, Zhao Yun took the hand-drawn map by Zhou Yu, who had walked this route once, and confirmed that the distance to Dongchaojin was less than 20 miles.

Immediately, after discussing with Guo Jia, Zhao Yun sent scouts to explore Dongchaojin, and at the same time chose a relatively remote dense forest to hide and rest.

Seven days was the deadline Li Ji set for Zhao Yun.

In fact, counting from the time Zhao Yun led his army to set off, they marched all the way and today was only the sixth day when they arrived at Dongchaojin, and the soldiers under his command were already quite tired.

Before attacking Dongchaojin, some rest is necessary.

As it grew darker, the scouts who had gone out to investigate returned one after another, reporting the situation in Dongchaojin to Zhao Yun and Guo Jia.

Dongchaojin was an important ferry connecting Qing and Ji states of Cao Wei. After it was destroyed once by Sun Ce, Cao Wei carried out large-scale repairs and preparations again.

Today, the size of Dongchaojin is more than twice as large as before. The number of troops stationed there is estimated to be around 8,000 based on the smoke from cooking fires, and the defenses are much stronger than before. (End of this chapter)