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

Upon seeing the data brought over by the high-ranking official, Yuan Shao was filled with turmoil.

"Cao Cao, Cao Cao, you've hidden yourself so well!"

"In several battles against Dong Zhuo, you didn't reveal a single clue!"

The documents that the high-ranking official brought confirmed Shen Pei's words. "Go investigate, find out why Cao Cao's army was so powerful!"

"Contact the powerful families under Cao Cao and have them send us intelligence. Otherwise, once I destroy Cao Cao, I will definitely settle scores with them later."

"Yes."

Clearly, even though Cao Cao's army was stronger, Yuan Shao, Shen Pei, and many powerful families still had a mysterious confidence that Yuan Shao could win.

Even a powerful figure like Dong Zhuo was destroyed by the combined forces of his aristocratic families, let alone someone like Cao Cao?

A temporary lead is nothing. As long as they can find out why the Qi army is so strong, they will be able to catch up quickly and overtake Cao Cao with their strong foundation.

When the powerful families on Cao Cao's side received Yuan Shao's message, they quickly verified it and found that what Yuan Shao said was actually true!

In large-scale battles, individual bravery is nothing special, but this refers to individual bravery, not the bravery of every individual.

However, Cao Cao's soldiers were stronger than the Jin army, and the aristocratic families were also very interested in this answer.

After a long period of investigation, they were horrified to discover that veterans made up more than 50% of the Qi army.

What does this mean?

The military system in the late Han Dynasty was not based on conscription, but on recruitment.

The imperial court would provide centralized support to a group of professional veterans, and when war was needed, it would expand directly on the spot, recruiting hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and using these professional veterans as the backbone to form an army of hundreds of thousands.

With these veteran soldiers as the backbone, these hundreds of thousands of troops can maintain considerable combat effectiveness with just a little training.

Only in the border troops will there be more than 30% veterans.

The proportion of those staying in Cao Cao's army has reached a terrifying 50%.

In the Jin army, this number was only a mere 20%.

How did Cao Cao manage to do it?

Veteran doesn't mean someone who has been on the battlefield or someone who has served for a certain number of years.

Only those who have fought on the battlefield of life and death, and survived no less than ten fierce battles, can be called veterans.

In the military, no one can guarantee their survival, so the mortality rate for veterans is extremely high.

The immense temptation of increasing the proportion of veterans has driven these families to continuously explore further afield.

In this respect, Cao Cao did not actually try to hide it much, nor did he intend to deliberately conceal it.

It's just that no one noticed it at first; Wei Xue's identity gave the plan a layer of cover.

This plan is the medic system.

Wei Xue originated from the lineage of Marquis Anshou, whose medical skills were unparalleled and who had always been the leaders among physicians in the world.

If someone like that were to pull out a medic, no one would pay much attention.

It's just a means to enhance the influence of physicians.

But now they realize they were complete fools.

Although this group of medics was small in number, they increased the survival rate of veterans by more than double.

This data is absolutely driving the aristocratic families crazy!

Those whose families had their own fiefdoms and armies abroad were especially eager to spread all the information they had gathered, sparing no expense.

Then they started poaching people at any cost, bringing in a few medics and rebuilding the medic system by copying the model.

The families who knew the importance of this matter tacitly kept the news under wraps.

Yuan Shao's request meant nothing to them; how could they tell Yuan Shao such an important secret?

Their territory is far overseas, while Yuan Shao has the advantage of proximity. If Yuan Shao finds out and strikes first, they will not have any advantage.

Despite the tacit blockade by these powerful families, Yuan Shao never understood why Cao Cao's Qi army was so strong.

After a month of silence, Xu You finally found another opportunity when his mole obtained a plan secretly devised by Shen Pei.

Shen Pei kept this plan extremely secret; only Shen Pei and Yuan Shao knew the whole story.

Even his close comrade-in-arms, Feng Ji, only knew about one part of what he was responsible for.

If his mole hadn't overheard Shen Pei's sleep-talking, he wouldn't have known about this plan.

Xu You knew that while the investigation had been relaxed on the surface, Shen Pei had never given up in secret.

Therefore, he was also afraid that Shen Pei was setting a trap, so he made inquiries from various sources, which confirmed the accuracy of the plan.

After proving it, he once again found Cao Cao's spy and passed the message on.

……

Qi army camp.

"Take a look, everyone. This is the latest intelligence sent by Xu You."

Cao Cao and his many advisors gathered together once again, with the military plans sent by Xu You laid out before them.

"Fake!"

"Does it look fake at first glance?"

"Who is Shen Zhengnan? If they were so careful, how could they possibly let such important information be leaked?"

"He must be fishing!"

"They're using Xu You as bait, and we're using them too!"

"Even though this intelligence is false, we must take the bait."

After Wei Xue finished speaking, the other strategists all smiled in unison.

They all understood the meaning behind Wei Xue's words and realized his plan.

What does this mean?

Cao Cao asked, "Knowing full well that this is a trap, are you going to do the opposite and ambush the enemy instead?"

"That's true, but that's only one aspect."

Wei Xue smiled and looked at Xi Zhicai.

"Secondly, it was a scheme against Xu You."

Xi Zhicai then looked at Xun You.

"If Shen Pei succeeds in fishing, he will naturally follow the clues and find Xu You."

After speaking, Xun You looked at Chen Qun.

"Xu You is capable; he will definitely be able to escape after being captured by Shen Pei."

At this point, Cao Cao naturally understood.

"Xu You escaped from Yuan Shao, so there's only one place that can take him in, and that's here."

"Although Xu You revealed a lot of information to us, there are still some core secrets he didn't tell us."

"Once Xu You comes to surrender, we will obtain these core secrets and defeat Yuan Shao in one fell swoop!"

"This plan is brilliant! King Qi is wise!"

The advisors, as if they had planned it beforehand, bowed and greeted each other in unison.

"You guys!"

Cao Cao smiled and nodded to the men, "Get ready, we must decide the outcome in this battle!"

"Yes."

……

On the second day of the battle, the Qi army, as planned, rushed towards the flaw in Shen Pei's plan.

After they eliminated the enemy in front of them, they discovered that the tents in front of them were full of dummies.

"We've fallen for their trap, let's retreat!"

After they fought their way out of the camp, they found themselves surrounded by the Jin army.

"Fight to the death!"

They began their breakout attempt and engaged in fierce fighting with the Jin army.

This battle did not last long before another wave of Qi troops arrived, led by Cao Cao's general Huang Zhong. The Qi army attacked from both inside and outside, and defeated the Jin army!