Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

"Uncle, elder brother."

Li Dian said solemnly, "Now the enemy general is unknown, and the enemy's situation is unknown. Acting rashly will easily fall into the enemy's trap. It is better to respond to all changes with constancy."

"Brother Dian's words do have some merit, but the scouts have detected that the number of Han troops is more than 20,000, while the defending forces of Linzi now only have 5,000. Even if we urgently summon some young and strong men from the city to defend it, it will only amount to 10,000."

Li Zheng, after hearing this, expressed his concerns, "But if we can't take this opportunity to greatly weaken the morale of the Han army, and Linzi only focuses on defending and preventing, I'm afraid it will be lost after a long defense."

Li Dian insisted.

"Why defend for long? Since General Cao has already sent messengers to remind us that the Han army will launch a surprise attack on Linzi, he will definitely make corresponding arrangements. And presumably, it won't be long before the King in Yecheng will also know about this."

"Linzi only needs to hold on for seven to ten days, and reinforcements will definitely arrive. The Han army, deep behind enemy lines, will inevitably retreat due to insufficient supplies, and Linzi can be preserved."

Li Zheng taught him helplessly, "Brother Dian, isn't this boosting the enemy's morale and admitting our own inferiority? When enemy troops invade our territory, we should find ways to defeat them and share the worries of the King, not just aim to avoid defeat."

Li Dian advised, "Elder brother, the importance of Linzi concerns the safety of Qing Province. We must not act rashly for the sake of military achievements, but be cautious."

Listening to the two brothers with their roundabout personalities still arguing, Li Qian raised his hand and said.

"What you two brothers said both have some merit, but Dian'er's concerns are more comprehensive."

"Now that I have heard that Li Zikun personally led a large army to launch a northern expedition to Qing Province, General Cao had to hurriedly gather the troops of Qing Province in Beihai County to deal with it hastily. The enemy's momentum is great, and Qing Province is in danger, so we should prioritize stability."

"Even if we want to defeat the enemy and share the worries of the Great Wei, we should first find out who the general of this Han army is, ensure that Linzi is not lost, and then look for a good opportunity, it's not too late."

After Li Qian made such a decision, Li Zheng could only accept it, even though he still felt a bit regretful.

The entire city of Linzi, apart from constantly preparing defensive materials and strengthening patrols, did not have any intention of leaving the city.

In the Han army's camp, which was being built slowly, Pang Tong looked back at the camp, which was already 70 to 80 percent complete, and secretly felt a bit regretful.

At the beginning of setting up the camp, Pang Tong suggested that Wei Yan could secretly ambush 5,000 elite troops on the left and right sides of the gate, to try to lure the Linzi defender to attack the camp, and then severely damage the Cao army in one fell swoop.

For this reason, Wei Yan did not hesitate to slow down the speed of setting up the camp, and even did not drive away the Cao army scouts in the surrounding area.

"The Cao general is so cautious, it will be even more difficult to capture Linzi." Wei Yan frowned slightly.

"Don't worry."

Pang Tong's attitude was much better than Wei Yan's, and then he suggested that Wei Yan should still let those Cao army scouts be, and the army should take a rest first, and then make plans in the future.

……

Like two flowers blooming, each representing a branch.

Zhao Yun and Wei Yan's troops can only be regarded as partial and surprise troops after all. The main battlefield of the Northern Expedition to Qing Province is still in Beihai County.

Immediately, the chief clerk in the army replied, "There are still about 10,000 soldiers on the way, and they will arrive soon."

Yu Jin pointed to the mighty Northern Expedition army outside the city and asked back.

"Ten thousand, is that enough?"

The original garrison of Chunyu City was 10,000, and Cao Ren had recently sent 30,000 reinforcements, so that a total of 40,000 troops blocked Xu Sheng completely.

But as Li Ji personally led the Northern Expedition army to meet under the city, not to mention the alarming number of troops, just the "Li" flag erected in the camp.

Yu Jin, who was far away in Chunyu City, could feel the morale in the Northern Expedition camp, which was completely different from before.

But facing Yu Jin's question, the chief clerk had no way to answer this question. In fact, Yu Jin did not expect his chief clerk to be an unparalleled talent who could come up with a wonderful plan to defeat Li Ji.

Therefore, Yu Jin didn't wait for the chief clerk to answer, and then said.

"Quickly send someone to send a message to General Cao again, Chunyu City needs more reinforcements, otherwise, it will probably only be able to hold on for about a month at most."

After a pause, Yu Jin looked up at the somewhat gloomy sky and murmured.

"Unless, Heaven helps my Great Wei and lets the heavy snow of this year fall earlier, forcing the Han army to retreat."

When Yu Jin's urgent letter was sent back to Duchang, Cao Ren didn't say a word, but he couldn't help but feel a bit of irritability.

Reinforcements, reinforcements...

Where does Qing Province get so many troops?

Because Qing Province itself is quite barren, and the population has been decreasing due to years of war, it is thanks to the Tuntian system that it can maintain a standing army of over 100,000.

Even after learning that the Northern Expedition had begun, Cao Ren urgently sent people to forcibly conscript young and strong men from the Tuntian people in various counties and countries to replace most of the garrison troops, and then transferred elites from various places to gather in Beihai County.

But in a short period of time, Cao Ren simply couldn't conjure up more troops out of thin air.

The 5,000 troops in each of the three cities of Anqiu, Chang'an, and Zhuxu have been scrapped, and Dongchaojin and Linzi City also occupy more than 10,000 of the standing troops. In fact, Cao Ren only has a little over 70,000 elite Cao troops that can be mobilized.

Originally, Cao Ren wanted to bet everything and lead all the troops to personally defend Chunyu City to the death.

But after learning that the Han army that broke through Zhuxu City went straight to Linzi City, this forced Cao Ren to divide his troops again to rescue Linzi, in order to protect the grain and grass of Qing Province.

More importantly, the news that Dongchaojin was burned to the ground has reached Cao Ren's hands.

This also means that it may be difficult to mobilize a large number of troops from the Jizhou direction to cross the river to aid Qing Province before the end of winter.

This series of messages made Cao Ren feel a sense of suffocation, as if a large net was constantly wrapping himself, and even the entire Qing Province, tightly.

Qing Province has been attacked in succession, which has gradually made Cao Ren feel a sense of panic, and he simply dare not press all the few troops in his hands on Chunyu City.

In fact, Cao Ren has already developed the idea of giving up preserving the entire territory of Qing Province, giving up Donglai County and Beihai County, and gradually shrinking the defense line to the counties and countries closer to Jizhou, such as Qi and Le'an.

Even though there are only less than half a month left before the arrival of winter, according to past experience, the snowfall period will only last for another month and a half to two months.

That is to say, the Han army has at most one and a half to two months left to maintain its offensive.

However, the rapid progress and the widespread flowering of the Northern Expedition army really made Cao Ren unknowingly produce a sense of powerlessness that he could not resist.

(End of this chapter)