Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

"Me?!"

Chen Lan was first stunned, then pointed at himself, thinking he had misheard, and asked Ji Ling to confirm again.

Ji Ling retorted, "If not you, who else could it be, me?"

As the commander of the three armies, and at a time of crisis, Ji Ling understood that if anything happened to him, the Yuan army, whose morale was already close to collapse, would disintegrate on the spot.

If he had a choice, Ji Ling would not have entrusted the task of covering the retreat to Chen Lan.

However, the situation was critical, and the Yuan army was already in a chaotic scramble to escape. The only person Ji Ling could command at that moment was Chen Lan.

"But that's Zhang Fei..."

Chen Lan said, his face somewhat pale.

How dangerous was the task of covering the retreat?

Moreover, facing a fierce man like Zhang Fei, Chen Lan had no confidence in being able to stop him.

Ji Ling ignored Chen Lan's emotions and shouted angrily.

"Do you want to disobey military orders?"

"I dare not!" Chen Lan replied quickly.

"Then act quickly. If you can ensure the safe retreat of the army back to Yu Province, you will be credited with the greatest achievement."

Ji Ling hastily promised Chen Lan a great reward, and then kept shouting and directing the army to retreat north.

Now, the Yuan army, attacked from both sides, had their morale almost collapse and no ability to fight anymore. Scattering and fleeing would only lead to disintegration on the spot. Guiding the Yuan army to retreat in one direction, Ji Ling still had hope of reorganizing the army.

For a time, large numbers of Yuan soldiers scrambled to retreat north, fearing that they would be the ones to take the blows for their comrades.

Among them, only Chen Lan had a bitter look on his face. He wanted to escape, but dared not disobey Ji Ling's military orders.

His entire family was still under Yuan Shu's watchful eye. If Chen Lan openly disobeyed military orders at this moment, the news would reach Yuan Shu's ears, and the result would inevitably be the execution of his entire family.

Chen Lan could not escape, nor dared he escape.

However, amidst the chaos, Chen Lan tried his best to organize his confidants to gather troops, but he only managed to gather two thousand soldiers and set up a defensive formation to cover the retreat of the Yuan army.

At this moment, Chen Lan had already made up his mind.

He had to block them, but he definitely couldn't stop them.

The only plan for now was to try his best to resist for a while, and then, without even pretending to be defeated, find an opportunity to protect himself and escape before the rearguard forces collapsed.

As the Yuan army fled north, Zhang Fei and Wei Yan undoubtedly pursued closely, further disintegrating the Yuan army's morale and inflicting casualties on their available forces.

The two thousand rearguard soldiers led by Chen Lan stood in the way of Zhang Fei and Wei Yan, shouting loudly.

"Do not move rashly, maintain the formation, and block the enemy."

"How dare you block me?"

Zhang Fei roared and charged straight towards Chen Lan, who was constantly speaking from the rear of the formation.

In order to block Zhang Fei and Wei Yan, these two thousand men spread out a long defensive formation on the plain, but Chen Lan obviously forgot how much "thickness" the formation could have as a result?

Or rather, Chen Lan intended to put on a show, make a brief contact with the pursuers, and then immediately retreat.

However, what Chen Lan never expected was that such a thin formation, which could be broken with a single poke,

Zhang Fei not only did not directly rush past to pursue, but instead came straight towards him.

By the time Chen Lan noticed Zhang Fei in the dim night, Zhang Fei had already stepped into the formation.

That "thin" defensive formation could not withstand the impact of cavalry at all, and Zhang Fei was invincible wherever he went.

This made Chen Lan's heart turn cold. He dared not hesitate and immediately turned his horse to retreat.

However, no matter how fast Chen Lan retreated, how could he compare to the speed of the Shadow Runner horse at such a distance?

When Chen Lan turned his head to look, that fierce man Zhang Fei was already close behind him.

Chen Lan's face turned pale, and he subconsciously blurted out for mercy.

"Don't, wait a moment..."

However, before Chen Lan could finish speaking, Zhang Fei's eighteen-foot spear pierced through his chest, lifting Chen Lan's entire body into the air, and then throwing him to the ground.

'As... as expected, I am no match for him...'

In his dying moments, Chen Lan couldn't help but regret that he had taken a chance and should have surrendered directly.

Chen Lan was already like this, and the two thousand soldiers who had been hastily organized to cover the retreat were almost instantly scattered.

Zhang Fei and Wei Yan, one in front and one behind, continued to pursue the Yuan army.

One by one, the Yuan soldiers who fell behind kept screaming, making the Yuan soldiers in front even more frightened. In order to speed up, they kept throwing away the burdens on their bodies.

Helmets, armor, weapons...

And discarding helmets and armor might be embarrassing, but it was of great help to the fleeing side.

The deserters could discard their helmets and armor to reduce their burden, but the pursuers could not follow suit.

As a result, the pursuers naturally slowly failed to catch up with the fleeing side.

However, Ji Ling watched as the main army, which the lord had painstakingly accumulated again by exhausting the Yuan family's resources, was defeated like this, some dying, some fleeing, and a large number of armor and weapons had to be thrown on the ground.

Ji Ling's heart ached, but he was helpless.

Finally, after countless Yuan soldiers in the rear were pursued and killed, and Zhang Fei and Wei Yan, the pursuers, were held back, the movement in the rear gradually calmed down.

At this moment, in the dark night, Ji Ling could not even reorganize the army and count the troops. He only knew that the Yuan army must have suffered heavy losses.

"Finally, we have gotten rid of the pursuers..."

"But leading such a defeated army back to Yu Province, how can I have the face to see the lord again?"

Ji Ling said with a look of shame, his heart in a mess, not knowing how to report to Yuan Shu.

This army was also Yuan Shu's foundation and the confidence Yuan Shu originally used to prepare to go north to Yan Province.

But after this battle, even if Ji Ling had a fluke, he understood that the number of casualties was probably no less than 30,000.

Immediately, Ji Ling suddenly reacted and realized that the situation was not right.

Li Ji and Zhang Fei leading troops to support Pengcheng one after another was expected.

But the problem was that the rear camp was taken silently, and ambushes were even set up on the road to Xiaoxian to intercept them.

These four forces combined probably numbered no less than forty to fifty thousand.

But hadn't Cao Cao claimed to be in a fierce battle with Liu Bei in Donghai County?

How could Liu Bei have quietly drawn forty to fifty thousand troops to Pengcheng to support them and even calmly made various arrangements.

That's not right!

Ji Ling only reacted at this time, but he didn't have time to think about it.

A burst of drums appeared again in front of the Yuan army, causing the Yuan army who had fled here to feel their scalps tingle.

"Chen Dao is here, under the Marquis's order, waiting for a long time!"

With Chen Dao's loud shout, the entire Yuan army was in chaos, and the first reaction was to turn around and flee.

Seeing this, Ji Ling, equally horrified, guided loudly.

"Go west! Retreat west! Retreat in the direction of Yu Province!"

(End of this chapter)