Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Anyone who has truly experienced marching and fighting understands that the larger the army, the slower the march and speed become.

If the road is flat and the weather is good, then the march might not be as slow as a turtle's crawl.

However, it is estimated that the Allied forces gathered in Liyang number nearly 140,000, and the quality of these 140,000 soldiers is uneven.

Furthermore, the official roads in Danyang County are almost all in disrepair, and coupled with the developed water network in Jiangdong, most people usually travel to Wu County by waterway.

This has led to the land route in the area bordering Danyang County and Wu County being almost like wilderness.

Liyang may be less than a hundred li away from Yangxian, but if one detours around Yangxian and attacks Qu'a or Wucheng by land, the journey will almost triple, and the march along the way will be as difficult as crossing mountains.

Even without considering logistics and food, it would take a month of effort, and more than 100,000 troops might not be able to detour from Liyang to Qu'a or Wucheng by land.

For the anti-Wu alliance, which needs to quickly capture Wu County before Liu Bei leads his troops back to support Wu County, choosing Qu'a or Wucheng as the direction of attack is tantamount to seeking death.

Therefore, Zhou Xin almost saw through Xu Gong's true capabilities at a glance from the suggestion Xu Gong made.

Perhaps being born into the Xu family of Runan allowed Xu Gong to read many military books from an early age, but his abilities are obviously limited to theoretical discussions on paper, and he probably has no real experience in leading troops.

Zhou Ang, who was also well-versed in military tactics, also saw through Xu Gong's incompetence and couldn't help but sneer on the spot.

How could Xu Gong not feel the contempt in Zhou Ang's laughter? He narrowed his eyes and said, "I wonder why Lord Zhou is laughing?"

Zhou Ang, who was already quite disdainful of Xu Gong occupying the position of alliance leader, immediately wanted to point out Xu Gong's ignorance in public, but Zhou Xin spoke first.

"My brother is laughing because the alliance's strength is established, and our Zhou family's great revenge will be avenged."

Xu Gong glanced at Zhou Xin and Zhou Ang, and then said with a smile, "Rest assured, this alliance leader will definitely help you both take revenge."

"Then thank you, alliance leader."

Zhou Xin responded with a grateful expression, and then refocused the topic on marching, saying, "The alliance leader's suggestion to bypass Yangxian and attack Wucheng and Qu'a is not a bad choice, but now our army has the advantage in strength, why should we detour?"

"Moreover, this campaign to conquer Wu County is intended to break the foundation of that treacherous Liu Bei in Wu County with lightning speed, otherwise, if the treacherous Liu Bei returns to lead his troops back to support Wu County and regain his footing, the outcome will inevitably add variables."

As soon as these words came out, many people in the tent who were originally relaxed and happy had a few more solemn expressions.

Liu Bei has been serving as the governor of Wu County for about six years and has deep roots. More importantly, in addition to the national scholar Li Ji, he also has famous warriors such as Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei under his command. Who wouldn't be afraid of his name?

Therefore, if Liu Bei hadn't taken Li Ji, Zhao Yun, Zhang Fei, and other civil and military officials thousands of miles away to fight against Dong Zhuo, and the defense map hadn't fallen into the hands of the Yangzhou aristocratic families, and the improved paper and printing technology hadn't forced the Yangzhou aristocratic families, most of the Yangzhou aristocratic families would never have mustered the courage to conquer Wu County.

"Lord Zhou is right. This military operation values speed. We should capture Wu County before the treacherous Liu Bei can return to support it."

"We should attack Yangxian! Even if the losses are a little greater, it doesn't matter. This is not the time to be petty..."

"You don't need to worry, everyone. Previously, Li Ji of Wu County may have felt that Wu County's soldiers were strong and well-fed, so he was complacent and difficult to maintain by supporting a large number of soldiers and horses. Therefore, he imitated the method of garrisoning and cultivating land on the border and promoted the so-called 'military household system', which caused the military strength of Wu County to decline a lot."

"I have also heard about this matter. The 'military household system' is to dismiss soldiers and turn them into military households, but in reality, they are no different from ordinary people and still need to cultivate. Otherwise, the soldiers and horses in Wu County would definitely not be less than 20,000."

"This is undoubtedly a great joy for our army. Even if the officials of Wu County quickly re-summon the dismissed soldiers, how many people would be willing to be a small soldier with a head hanging on their waist again?"

...

Obviously, belonging to the Jiangdong region, the implementation of the "military household system" in Wu County and Kuaiji County could not be completely concealed from the Jiangdong aristocratic families.

In the eyes of the Jiangdong aristocratic families, the "military household system" on the surface is similar to the garrisoning and land cultivation methods that have appeared many times in the Qin and Han dynasties, which are all to allow soldiers to cultivate land to alleviate the pressure on food.

(PS: The garrisoning system was not created by Cao Cao. It can be traced back to Meng Tian of the Qin Dynasty, who had already carried out garrisoning. Emperor Wen of the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty also promoted the garrisoning system respectively.

It's just that before Cao Cao, they were all garrisoning and cultivating land on the border to stabilize the border and alleviate the pressure on military food.

Cao Cao should be the first person to implement the garrisoning system as a national policy and forcibly cultivate land on a large scale in the Central Plains.)

Especially the "military household system" initially promoted by Li Ji, directly included some soldiers and young adults together and set them as "military households."

Except for a very small number of people, almost everyone, from the appearance of the "military household system", felt that Li Ji's move was to alleviate the military food pressure spent on the expedition to Yingzhou for many years.

Listening to the discussions of the aristocratic families, Xu Gong really didn't know much about the so-called "military household system" in Wu County, and asked with a frown.

"Military household system? Is it possible for Wu County to quickly draw a large number of elites from those military households?"

"Hahaha..."

This time, Zhou Ang couldn't help but laugh out loud, and then said, "It seems that the alliance leader doesn't know much about military affairs. How many small soldiers are willing to join the army? Furthermore, those so-called military households cultivate the land every day, do they still know how to fight? Could it be that they want to imitate the Yellow Turbans and carry farm tools to the battlefield?"

The other representatives of the aristocratic families also looked at Xu Gong with a bit of ridicule, feeling that Xu Gong's words were really ridiculous and even lacked common sense.

If there hadn't been "Why not eat meat porridge" at this moment, some people might have secretly ridiculed Xu Gong with this statement.

Seeing that Xu Gong's face was obviously sinking from being ridiculed, Zhou Xin quickly smoothed things over and then Xu Gong simply explained what a military household system was.

In fact, the Jiangdong aristocratic families really didn't worry about whether those soldiers who were dismissed as military households in the military household system could be re-summoned.

Even though the Han people were martial, the status of soldiers was still quite low.

Except for some heroes with great ambitions who intended to find a way out in the army, almost all soldiers joined the army voluntarily because they couldn't survive, so they joined the army to sell their lives and eat a mouthful of military food.

Of course, more soldiers joined the army not voluntarily at all.

If there was a choice, with fields, houses, and even a beautiful wife and a fat baby, who would be willing to tie their heads to their waists and fight on the battlefield?

Xu Gong lost face in public and was very unhappy, but on the surface, he barely maintained his demeanor and decided on the strategy of attacking Yangxian, which was advocated by Zhou Xin and strongly supported by many aristocratic families.

In the eyes of the anti-Wu alliance, the first battle is the decisive battle!

Perhaps Wu County will also concentrate its forces in Yangxian, but as long as Yangxian is captured in one fell swoop, then the entire northern part of Wu County can be included in the scope of attack.

With the water transportation of Taihu Lake and Lishui River to transport military food, the problem of food supply can also be fully guaranteed.

In the estimation of the anti-Wu alliance, even if Wu County forcibly conscripts young adults during this period, the troops that can be concentrated in Yangxian should be only about 30,000.

The advantage is obvious!

The only problem is how long it will take to capture Yangxian, and then try to occupy Wu County as much as possible before Liu Bei returns to support it.

...

Just as the subsequent soldiers, money, food, and military equipment of the anti-Wu alliance successively arrived in Liyang, Wu County had already completely entered a state of martial law.

Especially the aristocratic families in Wu County were almost all suspected of colluding with the enemy and were prohibited from going out, violators will be beheaded!

At this moment, not to mention the Wu County aristocratic families, even Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong were at a loss.

Zhang Zhao, who prided himself on acting secretly, had only just learned that the four counties of Yangzhou had begun to form an alliance.

Before Zhang Zhao could further confirm the news, then actively summon a group of Wu County officials to hold a meeting, seize military power to resist foreign enemies.

As a result, he himself was imprisoned in his mansion on the grounds of being suspected of colluding with the enemy.

Only at this moment did Zhang Zhao realize that there seemed to be an invisible net that had always been over the heads of the Wu County aristocratic families, and even his every move seemed to have become a pawn in the hands of others.

'From the beginning, we were in the chessboard?!'

It was too late when Zhang Zhao realized this.

Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong, who prided themselves on holding important positions in Wu County, were isolated from communication with the outside world by soldiers, and they could not use their calculations even if they had a hundred plans.

For Li Ji, allowing the aristocratic families represented by Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong to jump up and down, vying for power and profit, has always been the case.

In addition to the fact that Wu County lacked talents at that time, and the support of the aristocratic families was also conducive to stabilizing the rule, it was also prepared for this moment.

It is easy to deal with one or two aristocratic families.

However, if you want to deal with the entire Jiangdong aristocratic family without causing a backlash and hostility from the Donghan aristocratic family group, then you need an impeccable opportunity and excuse.

The aristocratic family is an important and indispensable group in this era.

Dismembering or transforming the aristocratic family is tantamount to a huge change.

Change is undoubtedly extremely dangerous, and one carelessness will lead to its overthrow.

Therefore, Li Ji's long-term indulgence to a certain extent towards the Jiangdong aristocratic family was to paralyze the Jiangdong aristocratic family and give the Jiangdong aristocratic family a little hope of being able to eat the cake they wanted.

The essence of the aristocratic family is also the pursuit of interests.

Land, reputation, power...

These were the interests required by the aristocratic families, the very foundation upon which they were built.

When these families, who had been strung along for years with only the faintest hope, suddenly realized that if Liu Bei's group dominated Jiangdong, it would further undermine their foundations... (End of Chapter)