Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Within Cao Ren's original defense line, Zhu Xu City, as a city near the downstream of the Wen River, was garrisoned with a considerable force. The original intention was to prevent the enemy from finding Anqiu and Chang'an difficult to attack.

Instead, the enemy might choose to bypass the Wen River by taking Zhu Xu City and opening a passage to attack Duchang from the flank.

Of course, this passage was quite circuitous, and the marching route was much longer than going through Chunyu City.

However, Cao Ren had just received news that Li Ji was personally leading a large army northward on the way to Chunyu City. Detouring from Zhu Xu City to attack Duchang City would be meaningless.

This was also what Cao Ren had been somewhat puzzled about. But when Cao Ren combined the map with the movements of that Han army in the military reports, he suddenly realized what the problem was.

The target of that Han army was not Duchang City, but Linzi City, located within the territory of Qi.

Linzi City held more than half of Qingzhou's military supplies.

Even more serious was that Cao Ren had just transferred most of the garrison in Qi to Beihai Commandery. How could the few remaining troops in Qi stop the 30,000 Han troops from crossing the border?

"Order Cao Xiu to immediately lead the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to intercept this Han army. Linzi must not fall into the hands of the Han army."

Cao Ren, feeling a chill, quickly issued orders while hurriedly searching for the marching routes of the various Qingzhou units heading to Beihai Commandery.

After Cao Ren confirmed the troops closest to Qi, he almost immediately ordered the messenger to take the military order and have them turn back to defend Linzi.

'Linzi only has four thousand defenders, but we must make it in time…'

Cao Ren, having hastily made the arrangements, had eyes reddened from anxiety.

Once Linzi fell, it would mean that Cao Jun's most important granary in Beihai Commandery would be lost. The grain stored in Beihai Commandery alone would probably not be enough to last through the winter.

This was not because Cao Ren deliberately did not store a large amount of grain in Beihai. He feared that Beihai Commandery would be captured by the enemy. For safety, he naturally chose to set up the granary in Linzi, which was considered the hinterland of Qingzhou.

Now, if he wanted to transfer grain from other commandery granaries, not to mention how much trouble it would cause, the sufficient manpower, grain carts, and relatively flat official roads in Linzi were not available in other commandery granaries.

However, before Cao Ren could recover from the worry about Linzi, another urgent report was delivered to Cao Ren.

After reading it, Cao Ren felt his vision darken.

This was an urgent report sent by the garrison of Jinan State, which stated that traces of a large-scale cavalry crossing the border had been discovered in Jinan State.

And the number was over ten thousand!

Dongchao Ford?!

In an instant, Cao Ren thought of Dongchao Ford, which Sun Ce had once tried to seize by crossing Mount Tai Commandery at all costs.

However, Sun Ce was able to easily cross Mount Tai Commandery because the area on the southern slopes of Mount Tai was almost a no-man's land in the chaotic world, mostly occupied by bandits and mountain robbers.

However, now Mount Tai Commandery belonged to Zhao State.

Cao Ren had also exchanged letters with the governor of Mount Tai Commandery, reminding him to set up sentry posts and other means to monitor Xu Zhou's movements on the southern slopes of Mount Tai to avoid another crossing.

At this moment, Cao Ren only wanted to ask Lü Bu: Such a large cavalry force crossed the southern slopes of Mount Tai, were the governors of Mount Tai Commandery just eating dry food?

However, what Cao Ren didn't know was that the governor of Mount Tai Commandery was also wronged.

The southern slopes of Mount Tai were sparsely populated and occupied by a large number of bandits and mountain robbers.

Lü Bu had only managed to establish Zhao State in recent years, and he did not have enough energy to govern the local areas, let alone spare the time to suppress the bandits and mountain robbers entrenched in remote areas.

Therefore, after Cao Ren reminded the governor of Mount Tai Commandery, the governor of Mount Tai Commandery simply cooperated with several larger bandits and mountain robbers in the southern foothills of Mount Tai, buying them off with money and food, and letting them monitor Xu Zhou's movements for him.

However, the main reason why Zang Ba's troops were known as the Mount Tai bandits was that he was the largest mountain bandit leader in the southern foothills of Mount Tai. Many seemingly scattered and unrelated bandits and mountain robbers were actually headed by the Mount Tai bandits.

In this way, it was tantamount to the Han army monitoring themselves.

Moreover, in order to open up the passage from the southern foothills of Mount Tai to Jinan State, Li Ji had also sent Zang Ba to wander around early on, and even annexed and suppressed some bandits whose attitudes were not very stable in the name of bandit fighting.

The annexation and fighting of bandits was common in the chaotic world, and the governor of Mount Tai Commandery did not pay attention to such trivial matters, and Cao Ren was even more unaware.

At present, the entire southern foothills of Mount Tai, even if not substantially controlled by Li Ji, was enough to prevent the army from being discovered in a short period of time.

Even now, when Cao Ren received the news, the governor of Mount Tai Commandery was still unaware that a cavalry of more than 10,000 had passed through the southern foothills of Mount Tai.

At this moment, Cao Ren stared intently at the direction of Dongchao Ford, feeling a deep sense of powerlessness, his whole person like a fly trapped in a spider web.

If Cao Ren had learned the news when the Han cavalry was crossing the southern foothills of Mount Tai, then Cao Ren could have sent troops to intercept them halfway, or even notified Ji Zhou to send troops to strengthen the defense of Dongchao Ford.

But now Cao Ren estimated the time and realized that when he received this urgent report, the cavalry might have already arrived near Dongchao Ford.

"It's too late…"

"If Dongchao Ford falls, Ji Zhou's reinforcements will not be able to reach Qingzhou in a short time."

At this moment, Cao Ren suddenly felt a chill all over his body, realizing that Li Ji's attack into Qingzhou did not mean the start of the Northern Expedition, but was actually a long-planned layout, and was now closing the net on Qingzhou.

Cao Ren might lack sufficient foresight and the ability to anticipate the enemy's movements, but he was not a mediocre general. His assessment of the speed of the Han cavalry was not far off.

At this moment, Zhao Yun, holding the hand-drawn map by Zhou Yu, who had traveled this route once, confirmed that Dongchao Ford was less than twenty miles away.

Immediately, after discussing with Guo Jia, Zhao Yun, while sending out scouts to investigate Dongchao Ford, chose a relatively secluded dense forest to hide and rest.

Seven days was the deadline set by Li Ji for Zhao Yun.

In fact, starting from when Zhao Yun led his troops to set off, after a rapid march, it was only the sixth day today that they arrived outside Dongchao Ford, and the generals under his command were already quite exhausted.

Before attacking Dongchao Ford, a certain amount of rest was necessary.

As dusk approached, the scouts who had gone to investigate also returned one after another, reporting the situation of Dongchao Ford to Zhao Yun and Guo Jia.

As an important ferry connecting Qing and Ji provinces for Cao Wei, and after being destroyed by Sun Ce once before, Cao Wei had rebuilt it on a large scale.

The current Dongchao Ford was more than twice as large as before, and the garrisoned force was estimated to be around 8,000 based on the smoke, with defenses more than a star and a half stronger than before.

(End of this chapter)