A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

Even if he was confident that Yuan Shao would make him a king after he helped Yuan Shao unify the world, that was still a matter for the future. Cao Cao, on the other hand, was willing to make him a king right now!

It took immense willpower for Xu You to finally turn his gaze away from the small bronze cauldrons.

"The King of Jin is far more powerful than the King of Qi. I cannot abandon the powerful King of Jin and choose the weak King of Qi. I appreciate the King of Qi's good intentions."

Anzi understood immediately, "Whatever choice you make, sir, this is a gift from the King of Qi."

"As for the power of the King of Jin, the King of Qi is also aware of it."

"However, the King of Qi also said in person that with your talent, if you return to Jin, Jin will become strong; if you return to Qi, with your talent, the balance of power will be easily changed."

Xu You smiled smugly, tilting his head back at a 45-degree angle, his nostrils pointing at the person.

"King Qi indeed has a good eye; he truly deserves to be a king who can dominate a region in this chaotic world."

"Let me think about it some more. Take all of these to the King of Qi as my return gift."

Xu You handed all the intelligence he had gathered to the spy, sent him away, and then picked up the seven small bronze cauldrons and placed them on his bed.

He decided to sleep with these seven bronze tripods and the jade tablet tonight.

The spy delivered the information to Cao Cao, and everyone in the camp quickly took it and opened it.

The Jin army's troop deployment, central camp, grain storage locations, marching direction, and grain transport routes are all recorded here.

With this information, everything about the Jin army was laid bare in their eyes.

They had no idea how they were going to lose this battle.

On the second day, in response to the Jin army's attack, they set a trap, annihilating a legion of the Jin army and capturing Wen Chou, an important general of the Jin army.

Yuan Shao flew into a rage in the army and severely reprimanded Shen Pei.

Even Yan Liang, who had previously remained neutral, glared at Shen Pei with hostility. Today's surprise attack was Shen Pei's plan, but it had resulted in Wen Chou falling into enemy hands. Yan Liang and Wen Chou were like brothers, so naturally he was extremely dissatisfied with Shen Pei.

Shen Pei was also frustrated; his plan was extremely ingenious and would definitely inflict heavy losses on Cao Cao's army.

But he never expected things to turn out this way.

Could it be that someone in Cao Cao's army could predict his plans?

How terrifying!

Impossible, impossible, there could never be such a terrifying person!

This must be a coincidence.

They just happened to run into Cao Cao's army!

Not many people knew about this plan; they were all important officials under Yuan Shao. The battle had only just begun, and Yuan Shao held the upper hand on the surface. No one would have thought that someone was secretly colluding with Cao Cao.

Even the wisest person can make a mistake.

"I know that the Prince of Jin trusts the ability of the Chief Judge, but everyone makes mistakes, and we still need a capable person to fill in the gaps."

Yuan Shao frowned, but still chose to trust Shen Pei.

Although Cao Cao's power was not as great as Yuan Shao's, it was not far behind. Yuan Shao was not entirely incompetent and knew that changing generals on the eve of battle, or even adding adjutants to the commander-in-chief, was not advisable and would shake the morale of the army.

A dark glint flashed in Xu You's eyes. He hadn't expected Shen Pei to hold such a high position in Yuan Shao's heart.

It should be noted that Wen Chou was Yuan Shao's trusted general, and one of the generals Cao Cao could truly entrust with everything.

Even though Wen Chou was arrested, it did not shake Shen Pei's position.

This is not good news for them.

Shen Pei was deeply moved by Yuan Shao's trust and immediately presented his second plan. This plan was extremely meticulous, and his ideas were as subtle as a gazelle's horns, leaving no clues whatsoever.

Even if Cao Jun were to have another stroke of luck and run into him, he would still have a backup plan to remain undefeated.

But to stumble upon such a thing even once is incredibly lucky; you've practically lifted Lady Luck's skirt. It's absolutely impossible for it to happen a second time.

Xu You kept Shen Pei's plan in mind and passed the news to Cao Cao after returning home.

This time we failed to bring down Shen Pei, but as long as Shen Pei continues to lose, it won't be long before he can hold onto his current position, even with Yuan Shao's support.

This time, Cao Cao and his men did not set a trap to annex Yuan Shao's troops. Instead, they noticed a slight weakness in the central camp, mustered their forces, and attacked when the weakness was exposed.

If Yan Liang hadn't led his troops in a desperate fight to the death, holding out until reinforcements arrived, Cao Cao and his men might have been able to capture the key leaders of the Jin army alive.

This time, Yuan Shao could no longer suppress his anger. He almost became Cao Cao's prisoner.

He is extremely dissatisfied with Shen Pei now. If Shen Pei were not the only one capable of commanding an army of over a million, he would have already removed Shen Pei from his command.

Even though Shen Pei's position was not removed, Xu You's strategy was adopted, and he was given a deputy position, which was filled by Guo Tu.

This setback caused Yuan Shao's brilliance to gradually wane, and his character flaws—being hesitant to undertake great tasks and prone to prioritizing petty gains over principles—began to become apparent.

He began to realize the "inappropriateness" of his previous appointment. Shen Pei was one of Lao San's people. Although he had given Lao San instructions, he also had to prevent Lao San's power from becoming too great.

It was necessary to maintain a balance, so he handed over this deputy position to Guo Tu, who supported the boss.

The two check and balance each other, so their positions will not be threatened.

Moreover, Guo Tu will definitely do his best to find loopholes in the Shenpei plan in order to attack the traitors, which will also help to improve their marching plan.

"From now on, all plans must be jointly confirmed by the two of you before they can be implemented."

After Yuan Shao finished speaking, he turned and left without giving Shen Pei a chance to explain.

Yan Liang still hasn't woken up, and he plans to go visit him again.

Shen Pei didn't come up with any brilliant plans next, and instead fought the Qi army in a steady and methodical manner.

Both sides suffered losses, but the Qi army was always able to anticipate the enemy's moves, and the Jin army's losses far exceeded those of the Qi army.

Quantitative change leads to qualitative change. On this day, after Shen Pei finished tallying the army's losses, he suddenly realized that, on paper, their strength was no longer comparable to that of the Qi army!

In just one month, their 50-strong lead over the Qi army has been overtaken!

Something's not right, absolutely not right!

How did the Qi army manage to anticipate the enemy's moves so consistently?

Why did the Jin army suffer more losses than the Qi army in almost every battle, despite both sides winning and losing?

Why did his every plan fail, and why were they even precisely exploited by the Qi army, causing them huge losses?

Unless—there's a mole inside!

When Shen Pei recalled the two battles at the very beginning of the war, his face instantly darkened!

Holy crap! There's a dog!