Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

In contrast to Cao Jun's large-scale river crossing, which was slowed by the dense forest.

Under Li Ji's command, even as the 20,000 infantrymen cautiously confirmed the positions of their comrades to the left and right, maintaining their formation as they slowly approached the dense forest from afar, they arrived at their designated ambush positions outside the forest ahead of time.

Just a quarter of an hour after the ambush was ready, torches began to appear deep within the forest.

Marching at night, coupled with the prevalence of night blindness due to nutrition issues in this era.

Therefore, when walking within the dense forest, Cao Jun naturally needed to light a large number of torches.

These torches illuminated the path forward for Cao Jun, and also allowed Li Ji to clearly see the faces of Cao Jun's soldiers.

Among the many ambush troops deployed by Li Ji, Cao Jun advanced slowly through the dense forest in a rather loose formation, heading towards the outside of the forest, gradually approaching the ambush set up by Li Ji.

The dense forest was not large, and the density of the loosely formed soldiers also needed to be considered.

Including Zhu Ling's 10,000 troops, Li Ji estimated that most of Cao Cao's available forces had already entered the dense forest.

The ambush position prepared by Li Ji was never the dense forest from the beginning.

Ultimately, the river surface of Liyang Bridge was too narrow to rely on for defense.

Cao Cao's use of troops has always been cautious, and he could not possibly be unaware of the principle of 'never enter a forest without reconnaissance'.

Regardless of whether Li Ji tried to stop him, Cao Cao would inevitably investigate the conditions inside the dense forest before leading his army into it with confidence.

However, what Li Ji's ambush was calculating was not geographical advantage, but timing.

Using the cover of night to set up an ambush outside the dense forest…

At this moment, Li Ji watched as the Cao Jun soldiers, one by one, slowly walked out of the dense forest with torches in their hands, but he still did not take action.

The later the exposure, the more Cao Jun soldiers could be lured into the forest.

Therefore, Li Ji calmly stared as the Cao Jun soldiers walked out of the dense forest one by one, gradually approaching the ambush outside the forest, but he did not give the order.

Although night had just enveloped the earth, the moonlight was dim.

Without a light source, it was impossible to see a person's shadow beyond ten steps.

One hundred, three hundred, one thousand…

Seeing more and more Cao Jun soldiers with torches emerging from the dense forest, continuing to advance under the leadership of a Cao general at the forefront.

Until, the Cao Jun soldier at the very front, holding a torch, suddenly saw several blurry figures vaguely in front of him under the illumination of the fire.

This Cao Jun soldier was slightly stunned, subconsciously thinking that he was seeing things, and shook the torch, involuntarily feeling a sense of fear.

'Could there be something unclean?'

This Cao Jun soldier, who had participated in many city massacres, inexplicably recalled those gray faces at this moment, fear arose spontaneously, and he subconsciously tightened his grip on his weapon.

Driven by fear, this Cao Jun soldier raised the torch in his hand and slammed it towards the vaguely seen blurry figure in front.

The torch turned in circles in the air, and the fire illuminated every inch of space it passed…

In the next moment, the pupils of the Cao Jun soldier shrank, and he suddenly saw faces full of murderous intent, and also illuminated a large flag with the character "Liu" clearly in the night.

"Am…"

Before this Cao Jun soldier could fully shout out his warning, Li Ji's raised palm suddenly fell.

"Dong!"

The war drum, which had been waiting for a long time behind Li Ji, sounded like thunder, its sound traveling for miles.

Responding to the war drum was the loud roar of countless ambush troops who had been deployed in advance.

"Kill!"

The loud shout of countless ambush troops completely suppressed the sound behind the Cao Jun soldier who was planning to warn them.

At this moment, this Cao Jun soldier no longer had the need to issue a warning, nor did he have the opportunity to do so.

Without giving the Cao Jun soldiers who had stepped out of the dense forest a chance to react, arrows rained down on the rear of the Cao Jun formation, and countless ambush troops revealed their fangs, instantly tearing apart the Cao Jun soldiers who had ventured deep into the ambush.

The thousands of Cao Jun soldiers who stepped out of the dense forest were caught completely off guard, and in less than a moment, they turned into corpses all over the ground.

Many Cao Jun soldiers who were still in the dense forest were thrown into chaos, and they were temporarily unable to advance or retreat, feeling uneasy and confused.

"How can there be an ambush?!"

Cao Cao's expression was ferocious, and the knuckles of his fingers holding the horse whip turned white.

Cao Cao had clearly sent people to carefully check the traces in the dense forest, and he had also learned the accurate intelligence about the rearguard force from the captured Yangzhou army scouts.

Suddenly, Cao Cao's expression froze, and he recalled the scout who was poisoned by a snake and captured while unconscious.

A double agent!

He had fallen into a trap!

That scout was not an ordinary scout at all, but a disguised suicide soldier, perhaps even deliberately letting the poisonous snake bite him in order to gain Cao Jun's trust.

In this way, under various disguises, Cao Cao took it for granted that he was just an ordinary scout.

What an ordinary scout seeking to join the army wanted was nothing more than military pay and official positions.

For that promised military pay, why would a scout risk his life, and it was even more impossible for him to endure inhuman torture and lie.

However, with the facts before his eyes, how could Cao Cao not understand that he was a suicide soldier, a double agent who did not hesitate to use his life to pass on false information.

Just like the strategist Su Qin during the Warring States period, who completed the double agent plan with his life.

Just as Cao Cao was surprised, the ambush troops outside lit a large number of flammable materials that had been pulled by horse-drawn carts in advance…

In an instant, outside the dense forest, as many as twenty such carts lit up with blazing flames.

The warhorses pulling these carts had their eyes covered with black cloth in advance, and each had a suicide soldier riding on the horse, guiding the warhorse to pull the cart towards the dense forest.

"Quick! Stop the carts!!!"

Upon seeing this, Cao Cao shouted loudly, almost with a numb scalp.

However, in the face of the sudden ambush, the Cao Jun soldiers in the dense forest had already fallen into a brief chaos.

And without allowing the archers to prepare in advance, wanting to stop all the carts from rushing into the dense forest was simply wishful thinking.

Even if some Cao generals leading the troops in front personally stepped forward to stop them, they only managed to stop two carts, and the remaining eighteen carts rushed madly into the dense forest, until the blindfolded warhorses crashed headfirst into trees before stopping.

However, this was already enough.

The large amount of flammable material loaded in the carts that rushed into the dense forest quickly ignited the surrounding trees, making the inside and outside of the dense forest as bright as day for a time.

At this moment, Cao Cao clearly saw the ambush troops waiting in formation outside the dense forest, and also vaguely saw the figure on the chariot behind the ambush troops, who seemed to be fanning a folding fan.

"Li Zikun, it really is you!"

Cao Cao gritted his teeth and said this sentence.

Although Cao Cao had long been aware that Zhang Fei could not possibly have this kind of brain, the fact that he actually vaguely saw Li Ji's figure still made Cao Cao's heart chill, and his feelings of love and hate for Li Ji almost rose to the extreme.

(End of this chapter)