Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Immediately, Cao Ren sent additional scouts to closely monitor the movements of the Han army in the direction of Chunyu City, while quickly preparing the troops and food supplies in Duchang City to retreat to Le'an County.

The reason why Cao Ren had the idea of ​​defending Duchang City to the death was that Duchang City, as the current seat of Qingzhou, also stored a lot of food and supplies.

Now that Linzi City has been captured, the food and supplies in Duchang City are what Cao Ren cannot give up in order to maintain his army.

Fortunately, according to scouts, the Han army in Chunyu City was also resting and was not in a hurry to send troops to Duchang City. Otherwise, Cao Ren would have to abandon this part of the food and supplies.

However, Cao Ren, who was always keeping a close eye on the direction of Chunyu City, was not aware that there were also several pairs of eyes lying in ambush outside Duchang City, monitoring its every move.

They were not scouts sent by Li Ji, who was more than 200 miles away, but confidants sent by Sun Ce.

As early as five or six days ago, the fleet led by Sun Ce arrived at the sea north of Duchang City.

However, at some landing sites along the coast, Cao's army set up beacon towers to guard against Han ships. In order to avoid alerting the enemy, Sun Ce did not land rashly. Instead, he sent a scout to bypass the beacon tower and go ashore to gather intelligence under the cover of night.

And to ensure that nothing goes wrong, this scout team is led by Taishi Ci, who is familiar with the terrain of Qingzhou.

As a native of Donglai, which is adjacent to Beihai County, Taishi Ci was quite familiar with the terrain of Beihai County. He easily led a team of a hundred scouts to the vicinity of Duchang City.

Taishi Ci was naturally not able to hide the series of changes in Duchang City from the public. With his Qingzhou accent, Taishi Ci even pretended to be a defeated soldier and successfully sneaked into the city to conduct investigations.

Naturally, this also allowed Taishi Ci to accurately judge that Cao Ren intended to abandon Duchang City. In addition, the large number of defeated soldiers who fled back allowed Taishi Ci to understand the current situation of the Qingzhou war from the side.

This information was quickly transmitted back to Sun Ce, Zhou Yu and others who were still on the sea.

This made Sun Ce so anxious that he jumped up and down and spoke.

"It has only been a short time, and the Northern Expedition Army led by the Prime Minister is about to arrive at the city of Duchang, but we have not achieved any success. What should we do?"

Compared with his past aggressiveness, Zhou Yu now seemed more reserved and steady. After reading the secret report sent back by Taishi Ci, he smiled.

"Don't worry, Bofu. This great achievement is already in sight!"

"Where does the credit come from?" Sun Ce asked.

Zhou Yu put down the secret report and spoke.

"If my guess is correct, Cao Ren gave up Duchang City because he knew that the Prime Minister's power could not be stopped and he was preparing to retreat to Le'an, Jinan, or even Pingyuan County."

"Based on what the Prime Minister said in the academy, Cao Ren is most likely planning to use the depth to buy time, forcing our army to stretch the battle line as much as possible, in order to find a flaw in our army and then find an opportunity to counterattack."

With Sun Ce's wisdom, he naturally understood every word Zhou Yu said, but he was unable to fully comprehend the ever-changing battle situation behind it.

"Um……"

Sun Ce nodded as if he understood, and asked, "So?"

"So, why do you think the Prime Minister asked us to lead the army all the way here from the sea? And does Bofu still remember what the Prime Minister's purpose was in asking us to come here?" Zhou Yu asked back.

Sun Ce would not forget the military order, and answered without hesitation, "We will attack Beihai with the main force led by the teacher and encircle Duchang."

Seeing that Sun Ce still failed to react immediately, Zhou Yu simply spoke more bluntly.

"If Cao Ren escapes from Duchang, how can we talk about encircling Duchang? Therefore, the Prime Minister also knows that once the Northern Expedition Army is unstoppable, Cao Ren is likely to choose to abandon Duchang." "Even though there are advantages of cotton clothes, winter logistics is still a big problem for the Northern Expedition Army. The Prime Minister must have clearly calculated this before the war."

"Therefore, one of the purposes of sending us here with a small army is to stop Cao Ren from abandoning Duchang!"

Because the war situation was changing rapidly, before Sun Ce led his troops to set off, no one could accurately predict what stage the situation in Qingzhou would reach when the detachment led by Sun Ce arrived.

However, Zhou Yu obviously fully understood the key to Li Ji's plan.

Now that Zhou Yu has made a detailed analysis of the current situation, how could Sun Ce still not understand what to do next.

"map!"

At Sun Ce's order, the Qingzhou topographic map brought by the army was sent up, on which were marked the locations of several beacon towers that would prevent the army from landing.

However, after the scouts led by Taishi Ci found out the exact locations of the beacon towers, they were able to launch a surprise attack on the beacon towers, rendering them useless for warning and transmitting messages.

The conditions for logging in are already met.

Now that the big fish Cao Ren wants to escape, what Sun Ce needs to do is naturally to block the gap that allows him to escape to Le'an County.

"Gongjin, according to what Ziyi has found out, Cao Ren has about 30,000 troops. Why not set up an ambush halfway and determine the outcome of the battle in Qingzhou in one fell swoop?"

Sun Ce spoke with a tone that could hardly conceal his heroic spirit.

In the Northern Expedition, everyone is vying to be the first!
Become a marquis and a general right now.

Sun Ce knew that Zhao Yun and Wei Yan's two detachments had already made great contributions, and he was even more unwilling to fall behind.

If we can defeat the last Cao army in Qingzhou in one fell swoop, or even capture the main general Cao Ren, it will undoubtedly be a great achievement.

This will not only wash away the shame of the defeat in Qingzhou, but also prove to the world that the reason why Sun Bofu was listed among the "Five Tiger Generals" was definitely not because of his relationship with his teacher.

Zhou Yu smiled and replied, "That's exactly what I meant, so I told Bofu not to act rashly."

Right now, Cao Ren is in the open and Sun Ce is in the dark, so setting an ambush is undoubtedly an excellent choice.

As for the location of the ambush, it requires careful consideration.

However, the area from Duchang City to Le'an County is an extremely wide and flat terrain, without even a single mountain or hill that is suitable for setting up an ambush.

However, Zhou Yu had obviously already had a plan in mind. He pointed his finger directly at the irrigation water that was the only way from Duchang City to Le'an, and said.

"From what Ziyi has investigated, we know that a large amount of food and fodder is still being loaded into trucks in Duchang City. Cao Ren must be preparing to move the food and fodder to Le'an County. So the marching speed must be slow."

"The army led by Cao Ren needs to cross the Giaoshui River to reach Le'an County, so they will most likely choose to cross the Giaoshui River bridge."

"Since the terrain makes it impossible to set an ambush, we should attack them halfway across the river and destroy them in one fell swoop in the water of the irrigation river, in order to avenge the fact that you and I almost drowned in Qingzhou."

Zhou Yu has always been known for his magnanimity and elegance, but few people know that he can be incredibly narrow-minded about certain things.

This gentleman's revenge should be returned with tooth for tooth, water for water. (End of this chapter)