Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Li Ji did not send Gu Wei off in a grand manner, and Gu Wei's departure could even be described as quiet.

The reason was simple: this was to prevent the news from leaking to Cao Cao, which would then allow Cao Cao to interfere and even send people to kill Gu Wei on the way.

Therefore, in the entire Han army camp, except Xu Chu who knew the general idea, no one else had any idea of ​​Gu Wei's specific whereabouts.

As the cavalry under Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei completed their preparations, the 40,000 cavalry began to advance towards Xingyang in a massive manner, attracting the attention of most people.

When this series of urgent military reports were delivered to Lu Bu, Lu Bu's face looked quite ugly. He could not help but smashing these military reports heavily on the ground. He glanced at the civil and military officials under the tent with his fierce eyes and said angrily.

"I haven't even started to lead my army south yet, but Li Ji has already sent cavalry to attack the Xingyang area. Could it be that someone is secretly colluding with Li Ji?"

Naturally, no one dared to answer this question.

As the counselors relied on by Lu Bu, Chen Gong and Chen Qun looked at each other, a hint of suspicion flashed across their eyes, and then quickly disappeared.

Li Ji's move really seemed to be one step ahead of the enemy.

Lu Bu had not yet taken any action. The plan originally agreed with Cao Cao that Lu Bu would lead the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry and the other 20,000 cavalry, a total of 70,000 elite troops, south to Yingchuan County to cut off one of the main food routes of the Northern Expedition Han Army was restricted by Li Ji in advance.

To transport food and fodder from Hulao Pass to the outside, the Xingyang area is the only way.

Even if Zhao Yun and the Han cavalry failed to capture Xingyang, simply harassing the area around Xingyang was enough to prevent even a grain of food from being delivered from Hulao Pass.

"Could it be that Cao Cao leaked it secretly?" Chen Gong first suspected Cao Cao.

“It shouldn’t be.”

Chen Qun did not have much ill will towards Cao Cao, and he knew clearly that the Wei-Zhao coalition could not fall apart, so he spoke quickly.

"Now that Li Ji has dispatched cavalry to attack the Xingyang area, it has temporarily cut off the possibility of the king going south to cut off the food supply route. This means that the northern expeditionary Han army can now attack Guandu with all its strength without any worries."

"Therefore, the one who will face the greatest pressure will be Cao Cao. Why would Cao Cao do such a thing?"

After a pause, Chen Qun's tone revealed a barely perceptible sense of powerlessness, and said.

"Perhaps, Li Zikun really has the ability to anticipate the enemy's actions, and his tactics against him are nothing but a show of skill before an expert."

It should be noted that it was Cao Cao who took the initiative to propose that Lu Bu switch from defense to offense and let the Cao Wei army block the Han army at Guandu.

But when it comes to how to turn defense into offense and formulate the plan of harassing Yingchuan, it was the strategy proposed by Chen Qun who was from Yingchuan.

Chen Qun, who was familiar with Yingchuan's terrain, roads, granaries, etc., could easily estimate the route for transporting grain and fodder from Yingchuan County to the front line.

Chen Qun originally thought that he could use this plan to cut off one of the main food routes of the Northern Expedition Army and make the name of Chen Changwen of Yingchuan known to the world. However, before Chen Qun could actually take action, the road to the south was cut off first.

"Your Majesty, this may not be a bad thing..."

Chen Gong, who was well aware of Lu Bu's personality and preferences, had already made up his mind. He felt that this would be an opportunity for him to preserve his strength and cause both Cao Wei and the Han army to suffer losses.

However, Chen Gong knew that he couldn't say it directly, lest Lu Bu's pride would be difficult to accept, so after standing up and saluting, he spoke.

"That group of Han cavalry had the audacity to take the initiative to attack Xingyang. How can this be called anticipating the enemy? It's clear that they don't take the king seriously." In an instant, Lu Bu, who already felt a little unhappy about being pinned down in advance, became visibly gloomy.

Chen Gong, who was secretly observing the changes in Lu Bu's expression, continued hurriedly.

"However, according to multiple military reports, the number of Han cavalry is about 40,000. Since the cavalry of the Han army in the Northern Expedition was not large to begin with, this number may be 80% to 90% of the cavalry of the Han army."

"Therefore, if Your Majesty can completely destroy this cavalry in the Xingyang area, the Han army will no longer have cavalry available, and Your Majesty's Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry will be unstoppable when they charge forward!"

"Your Majesty, this is a God-given opportunity!"

As Chen Gong finished speaking, Lu Bu's anger turned into joy, and he quickly reacted and realized that what Chen Gong said made a lot of sense.

Once the main force of the Han cavalry was successfully destroyed, the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry under Lu Bu would be really difficult to limit.

Immediately, Lu Bu sent someone to send a message to Gao Shun, who led the Xianzhen Camp and was stationed at Hulao Pass, ordering him to guard Hulao Pass and not to move lightly, and to ensure that Hulao Pass was still in his hands at all costs. At the same time, he accelerated the pace of military assembly and prepared to lead the army to Xingyang.

Lu Bu also did not forget to send someone to inform Cao Cao of his general movements. The implication was that Cao Cao should hold on in Guandu, and after he destroyed the main force of the Han cavalry, he would immediately continue to cut off the Han army's food supply.

After reading it, Cao Cao was so angry that he almost cursed his mother.

In the allied forces of Wei and Zhao, Wei was strong and Zhao was weak.

In addition, since the Battle of Guandu, Lu Bu's military force has suffered severe damage.

If he were in Li Ji's shoes, Cao Cao would probably follow the idea that it is better to break one finger than to hurt ten, and try to mobilize the main force to deal with Lu Bu first, and then turn around to deal with the 300,000 Cao troops.

But what Cao Cao did not expect was that although Li Ji opened up a second battlefield as he wished, he only dispatched cavalry to Xingyang. The main force of the 700,000 Han army was still entrenched on the south bank of Guandu, watching covetously.

As a result, the frontal pressure of the Guandu battlefield will have to be borne by Cao's army.

But in the current situation, Cao Cao had no choice but to shrink the defense line to a certain extent on the north bank of Guandu, while constantly building camps for defense, preparing for a long-term attack and defense.

For a time, both sides on the north and south banks of Guandu were secretly making adjustments.

Six days later.

When Lu Bu led the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry and the rest of the cavalry back to the Xingyang area and officially started chasing the Han cavalry led by Zhao Yun.

After a period of peace, war broke out again in Guandu.

At this moment, there were some similarities between the Chu River and Han River at the end of the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of the Han Dynasty. Both sides were conducting large-scale offensive and defensive operations with the Honggou River as the boundary.

Every time an attack was launched, there would be tens of thousands of troops involved.

In every round of attack by the Han army, every soldier seemed to have seen through the weaknesses and loopholes in the defense line set up by Cao's army.

At this moment, Cao Cao suddenly realized why Lu Bu had previously complained that he was under tremendous pressure and that his soldiers had suffered heavy casualties.

When Cao Wei was facing the attack of the Han army in the Northern Expedition, it felt that it was not facing Li Zikun at all, but that every army was remotely controlled by Li Zikun, and all kinds of ingenious strategies emerged one after another. (End of this chapter)