Around six thousand flying pet soldiers were stationed on the surface of the Yellow River near Hulao Pass, closely monitoring the movements of Cao Cao's soldiers. The moment they discovered a large group of Cao soldiers attempting to pass through, they would launch an 'air raid'.
Occasionally, a large number of fireballs would descend from the sky. Even though the Cao army was rather elite, they still suffered significant losses and were in a very passive position.
In order to deal with Yang Rui's aerial attacks, Cao Cao's forces had taken many countermeasures, such as splitting up, moving at night, and luring the enemy. Cao Cao's forces had used many of these.
Among them, moving at night was the most effective because Yang Rui's flying pets were not easy to deceive. It was only at night that the flying pets' vision was limited, so the Cao army's losses were lower.
Even so, the Cao army didn't dare to move too much at night. Otherwise, if Yang Rui's flying pets noticed them, they would also suffer significant losses.
Especially as time went on, the number of Cao soldiers lingering between Wild Jujube and Hulao Pass gradually increased. With the resistance of the 'air raid' in front and the pressure of retreating from behind, Cao Cao's troops had no choice but to take risks. Otherwise, they might be surrounded by the hundreds of thousands of soldiers between Wild Jujube and Feng Qiu.
The Cao army retreating west suffered significant losses every day near Hulao Pass. In the blink of an eye, another three to four days had passed. Cao Cao's troops had successfully passed through Hulao Pass. The number of Cao soldiers that had entered Sili Province had reached six to seven hundred thousand. The number of Cao soldiers that had died in passing through Hulao Pass was around forty to fifty thousand.
In other words, if the Cao army wanted to pass through Hulao Pass, they would have to face a ten percent chance of being killed. It was definitely a high loss rate.
This was especially so for the last group of defenders. Since they were faced with the expiration of the time limit for the token of exemption from battle, they did not dare to delay. As a result, when they passed through the area near Hulao Pass, around twenty to thirty thousand of the one hundred thousand soldiers left.
As a large number of Cao soldiers retreated, a large area of emptiness appeared in Chen Liu County. Almost every city only had a small group of old, weak, sick, and disabled soldiers.
When the batch of tokens that Cao Cao ordered to use expired, it would only be a matter of time before Yang Rui's troops took over these large and small cities.
Furthermore, Yang Rui had already calculated the information from the flying pets. Cao Cao had first used the tokens on the second day of the system adjustment. By the third and fourth day, he had started using the tokens of exemption to create the 'corridor' needed for retreating forces..
Almost all of the tokens that Cao Cao used were Level 1. They could only last for three game days. In other words, by the seventh or eighth day of the system adjustment, all the cities in Chen Liu County, excluding the cities near Hulao Pass, had reached the time limit.
By the end of the eighth day of the system adjustment, Yang Rui's troops had already controlled almost all the cities and territories in Chen Liu County. They had more than half of Chen Liu County in their hands.
Only the token of exemption in Hulao Pass had been used the longest. Moreover, it was a Second Grade token. It had been used since the afternoon of the fourth day of the system adjustment. Its effectiveness would last for four or five days after the system adjustment.
Yang Rui might have been determined to take over Hulao Pass and knew that he and Cao Cao would have an intense battle there. However, he was not in a hurry about the effectiveness of the Second Grade token of exemption.
With the flying pets and the 'aerial bombs,' Yang Rui did not care too much about Hulao Pass, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack. He had already burned Hulao Pass once. When the time came, Yang Rui did not mind setting it on fire again.
The only unfortunate thing was that Yang Rui could not use the ten days of the system adjustment to completely resolve the matters in Chen Liu County. However, with only one Hulao Pass left, Yang Rui was confident that he could resolve the problem before more people knew about the battle.
When the second day of the system adjustment arrived, Yang Rui's forces had steadily advanced. They had taken control of all the territories in Chen Liu County apart from Hulao Pass.
This result was partly due to the various schemes of the opponent, Cao Cao. It was also partly due to Yang Rui's decision to temporarily avoid Cao Cao's vanguard. He did not try to stop or pursue the matter.
Putting aside the various matters between Yang Rui and Cao Cao in Chen Liu County, the ongoing regional storyline seemed to be rushing for time. The progression of the storyline during the 'Liu Xie's Return to the East' phase was particularly obvious.
If one were to go by historical facts and the various recorded content, Zhang Ji had participated in many of the plots. However, in the context of the game, the system treated General Zhang Ji as a minor character and did not allow him to display any greater effect.
Speaking of which, Yang Rui's forces had occupied Tong Pass and defeated Zhang Ji, Li Jue, and Guo Si's forces. Although Zhang Ji's forces had not been cleared out, they had not suffered many losses in the relevant events.
When the system made the adjustments, Zhang Ji's forces used the various resources they had and began to become restless.
When Cao Cao's forces were retreating, a rather big accident happened. A group of soldiers belonging to Zhang Ji quickly became active and replaced all of Zhang Ji's authority. They immediately took control of the plot of the "Liu Xie's Return to the East" area and almost all of the related matters were in their hands.
With only two or three days left until the system adjustment, this group of soldiers did a series of even more shocking actions.
This included removing Zhang Ji's decisive role in the Yongzhou protection team, causing him to completely lose the right to speak in the regional storyline. Zhang Ji had almost lost his life because of this, and it would be difficult for his strength to return to its previous peak.
This group of soldiers did the most unexpected thing. Not only did they suddenly remove Zhang Ji's speaking rights and influence on the storyline, but they also announced that they would unconditionally join the Japanese civilization's territory.
As a result, Cao Cao, who had been 'bullied' by Yang Rui in Yanzhou and could not fight back, basically controlled the storyline of the series because of the surrender of this group of soldiers and obtained a powerful foreign aid.
However, this was not the most important thing. This group of soldiers was allowed by Yang Rui to pass through Tong Pass. After entering the hinterland of Hangu, they began to move. They used the identity of Cao Cao's subordinates to bring Liu Xie to Hangu Pass. They wanted to join Cao Cao's forces, which had already entered Sili Province.
The result of the series' development was very likely to cause the situation of Cao Cao holding the emperor and ordering his vassals to form ahead of time. This would save Liu Xie unnecessary time in Yongzhou.
Due to some special reasons, Yang Rui was not afraid of 'holding the emperor and ordering his vassals to form'.
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