Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Even if it's impossible to recruit all these elites afterward, it can still provide Qing Province, which suffers from a sparse population, with a large number of available young and strong laborers. This is a much greater achievement than annihilating these twenty thousand elites.

However, the thousand elites led by Zhou Yu were like sitting ducks in the water.

Unable to avoid the attacks in the water, they were constantly shot and killed by Cao's army.

Even though many of these elites, born in Yangzhou, were proficient in swimming and could barely hold their breath and dive underwater for a while, they still needed to surface to breathe.

At the cost of elite soldiers being shot and killed one by one, the thousand elites led by Zhou Yu were constantly closing the distance with Cao's army.

And seeing that the distance with Cao's army had been narrowed to a certain extent, and that after a short while, the elites led by Zhou Yu would be able to forcibly climb onto the boats and engage in close combat.

"Puchi!"

Another arrow hit a Liu soldier who emerged from the water.

"Ah!"

This time, the one who was hit was none other than Zhou Yu.

The location hit was Zhou Yu's right chest.

A sharp pain came, even though Zhou Yu had been mentally prepared for it, and even aimed in the water before emerging to take the arrow, he still couldn't help but cry out in pain.

Blood quickly spread from Zhou Yu's wound.

"You idiot, weren't you ordered not to shoot that treacherous general?"

Cao Ren, who was watching from afar, couldn't help but curse.

It would be good if Zhou Yu died, but naturally, capturing him alive would be of greater value.

Zhou Yu, clutching the arrow in his chest with one hand, had a sorrowful expression on his face and shouted loudly.

"A general's incompetence dooms the entire army! I have failed my lord and my sworn brother, and I can only die to preserve my loyalty and righteousness…"

"Soldiers, retreat! Retreat! Retreat…"

In the end, Zhou Yu seemed to have lost all his strength, and his head, floating on the water, slowly sank into the water.

The soldiers who witnessed this scene around him, as well as the soldiers on the shore, were all thrown into chaos.

Upon seeing this, Cao Ren ordered the encirclement and killing of these enemy troops who had walked right into their trap, and immediately dispatched three light boats to the place where Zhou Yu had sunk, trying to retrieve Zhou Yu from the water.

However, until the soldiers who had originally followed Zhou Yu into the water either died, were washed away by the current, or fled back to the shore.

Cao's army still failed to find Zhou Yu's body.

Cao Ren couldn't help but feel a bit regretful about this, but he also understood that he couldn't blame the soldiers for not searching carefully.

With the Yellow River's water constantly pouring into Jinan, the situation underwater was extremely dangerous, and the Yellow River's water itself contained a large amount of sediment, making it exceptionally murky.

Under such circumstances, it was perfectly normal for Zhou Yu's body to be swept away by the undercurrents and unable to be found.

As for Zhou Yu's identity, Cao Ren had confirmed it through some Liu army prisoners brought to the front. There was no doubt that the one who was shot and sank into the water was Zhou Yu.

Moreover, Zhou Yu's exceptionally handsome face was already a conspicuous marker.

His handsome appearance was comparable to that of Li Hou of Jiangyou. Even Cao Ren had heard of the name of Zhou Lang of Jiangzuo.

Zhou Yu's handsome appearance made it difficult for a group of rough warriors to impersonate him even if they wanted to.

It was only when Cao Ren came back to his senses and wanted to launch another attack on Liu's army.

He discovered that in the time that Zhou Yu had delayed with his life, Liu's army had already hastily dragged the remaining wood that Cao Ren had not had time to destroy to a place beyond the range of an arrow.

In this way, it was obviously impossible for Cao Ren to ignite the wood from afar in the water.

Helpless, Cao Ren circled the hill and had to order a temporary retreat with a frown.

This surprise attack had undoubtedly yielded unexpected gains by killing the enemy's main general, Zhou Yu.

However, Zhou Yu's life-threatening delay had also given Liu's army the opportunity to drag away the remaining wood.

What made Cao Ren frown was that Liu's army might scatter and flee tonight, each holding a piece of wood, which made Cao Ren feel a bit unwilling.

The current results were obviously not enough to satisfy Cao Ren.

Especially when the information returned by Cao's army, which was still monitoring the hill, faintly revealed the sounds of crying and arguing from within the hill.

This was completely different from the stability shown by Liu's army in the past few days.

The death of the main general, the imminent exhaustion of food and supplies, and being trapped within the hill…

All these changes had obviously led Liu's army's morale to the point of collapse.

"Bang!"

Returning to Cao Ren's temporary camp in a nearby highland, he slammed the water bag in his hand to the ground and made a decision.

Tonight, a surprise attack on Liu's army, whose morale had collapsed.

Once Liu's army scattered and fled like this, they could only obtain some corpses and prisoners.

Faced with this remnant army whose morale had collapsed, Cao Ren had already developed the intention of completely swallowing them and forcing them to surrender.

Even if Cao Ren set aside his selfish desires to seek greater merit and fame, he also realized that he could not let go of this excellent opportunity.

Qing Province was currently short of soldiers, and Cao Cao was even more short of soldiers.

As long as they could recruit some elites from them, it would definitely greatly alleviate the pressure on Cao Cao and Qing Province. This was a temptation that Cao Ren, who had an eye on the overall situation, could hardly resist.

Immediately, Cao Ren ordered the reassembling of troops.

After the sky completely darkened, Cao Ren once again led two thousand five hundred soldiers to slowly approach the hill by boat.

Unlike before, when many soldiers were arranged in the arrow towers and watchtowers around the hill for defense, now the periphery of the hill was completely devoid of guarding soldiers.

On the contrary, deeper in the hill, there were still faint sounds of fierce arguments and disputes.

When the five hundred soldiers who were sent to land first successfully landed and confirmed that there were no ambushes or dangers in the vicinity, Cao Ren was overjoyed and immediately ordered the entire army to begin landing slowly.

Soon, under Cao Ren's command, two thousand five hundred soldiers quietly and smoothly landed on the shore.

Under the influence of the night, and coupled with the fact that his soldiers were not considered elite in the first place.

Cao Ren was also unable to have his soldiers form any formation under such circumstances. He simply had the soldiers gather together to facilitate a surprise attack, and then whispered.

"Advance!"

Then, Cao Ren led his soldiers slowly and began to go deeper, heading towards the camp in the depths of the hill where the sounds were constantly coming from.

Cao Ren was confident that as long as he could successfully touch the edge of the camp and launch a surprise attack, it would be enough to make this remnant army, whose morale had collapsed, lose the ability to resist in a short time, and then force them to surrender.

However, just as Cao Ren was advancing about two hundred steps with excitement, he suddenly felt something was wrong.

Even if Liu's army's morale was so rotten, it wouldn't be to the point where they couldn't see even one or two enemy soldiers after advancing more than two hundred steps from the shore.

Quiet…

It was quiet to the point of being somewhat beyond common sense.

Cao Ren suddenly felt a palpitation, and at the moment he had the intention to retreat.

Fifty steps ahead, lights suddenly lit up, and Zhou Yu's exceptionally handsome face appeared under the lights, smiling and saying.

"The moonlight is beautiful tonight. I have been waiting for General Cao for a long time."

(End of this chapter)