Yang Rui arrived at Chen Liu County City just as Lei Bao was making his way towards Luoyang Royal City. However, the news that Chen Liu County City received was still the news of Yuan Shu's three armies entering Si Li Province.
Another two game days passed, and the Imperial Guards finally returned with their Ethereal Ninjas. By now, Yang Rui had already received news that Yuan Shu's three armies had taken down Yan County City and were advancing towards Yanshi County City and Gong County City.
Even though he still didn't know if Lei Bao had already arrived at Luoyang Royal City and launched a fierce attack on the theory of numbers, Yang Rui was here to deal with Cao Cao. As such, he immediately deployed the 50000 Ethereal Ninjas of the Imperial Guards to Si Li Province's Yellow River.
The Imperial Guards had already upgraded all of their Ethereal Ninjas to Fourth Grade. They already possessed some of the basic skills of the Hidden Ninjas. At the very least, they had mastered the skills of stealth, escape, and message transmission. They already had decent self-defense capabilities.
Moreover, before they were deployed, Yang Rui had already arranged a few gathering points for them. All of them were located along the Yellow River. There were specialized ships moving around nearby. If these Ethereal Ninjas were to face any danger that they couldn't escape from, they could gather at the agreed upon location at any time.
The reason Yang Rui deployed the Ethereal Ninjas to Si Li Province was naturally to have a more accurate and timely grasp of the situation of Cao Cao's forces in Si Li Province. At the same time, he also wanted to understand the movements of Yuan Shu's forces so that he could launch an attack on Cao Cao's forces at the best time.
In Yang Rui's judgment, Yuan Shu's three hundred thousand men might have obtained a certain advantage, but Cao Cao wasn't that easy to deal with. Yuan Shu's forces might be able to achieve some success, but they wouldn't be able to deal a fatal blow to Cao Cao's forces.
Currently, Cao Cao's forces were already around eight to nine hundred thousand men. This was only a conservative estimate based on the information obtained from various parties. His overall military strength was even greater than Yuan Shu's, so how could he be defeated so easily by Yuan Shu?
However, the troops commanded by Zhang Xun, Chen Ji, and Lei Bao did indeed cause a lot of trouble for Cao Cao.
After Lei Bao silently snuck under Luoyang's Imperial City and launched several attacks, Zhang Xun and Chen Ji's troops also gave up on attacking Yanshi County Town and Gong County Town. They mobilized their troops and headed straight for Luoyang's Imperial City, intending to take down the Imperial City in one go and defeat Cao Cao and the Han Dynasty's young emperor.
And the reason for this situation had a lot to do with Yang Rui. This was because Cao Cao had placed a large number of troops in the Mountain River Pass and Mountain River City to defend against Yang Rui's possible attack. As for Yuzhou Yuan Shu, Cao Cao had less than half of his troops there.
Even this small half of his troops weren't his elite troops. Cao Cao's plan was to first be able to firmly defend his own city and then deploy his troops according to the development of the previous storyline. He didn't even think about being a banner bearer.
In the end, Cao Cao didn't think that the banner of opposing Yuan Shu would need him to carry it. He originally only wanted to take advantage of Yuan Shu's misfortune and at the same time, collude with Yuan Shao and Lu Bu's forces to deal with Yang Rui at the crucial moment.
From the beginning, Yang Rui had planned to weaken Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, Lu Bu and the others in the previous storyline. Little did he know that these forces weren't to be trifled with. They had long since joined forces and were also plotting against Yang Rui.
However, Cao Cao, Yuan Shao and Lu Bu clearly had some differences in their enthusiasm for dealing with Yuan Shu. This caused the development of the previous storyline to be more beneficial to Yang Rui. On the other hand, Yuan Shu's' excessive 'reaction to Cao Cao had clearly become the biggest variable in the development of the previous storyline.
With Yuan Shu's strength, almost no one thought that he would take the initiative to attack, and this clearly had a lot to do with Yang Rui's latent support for him. In the end, the Commerce Alliance's moderation had begun to take effect.
It was worth mentioning that before and after Yuan Shu declared himself emperor, the volume of transactions in the Commerce Alliance's internal trade fair (before it was temporarily canceled) had soared. The number of orders had also increased, and the value of the East Sea currency had also continued to rise. It had already exceeded the ratio of 2.2: 1!
The expansion of the demand for certain types of goods was also a major characteristic of the 'wartime economy'.
On the other hand, the three generals, Zhang Xun, Chen Ji and Lei Bao, commanded 300,000 troops to besiege Luoyang's imperial city. After a few days, the entire imperial city was in imminent danger.
On one hand, there were less than 100,000 defenders in the city, so the defensive power was very limited. On the other hand, Luoyang's imperial city had suffered damage several times and had been abandoned and left idle for a long time. The city's defense was no longer as good as before.
Although Cao Cao later occupied Luoyang and had been repairing the city, its weather-beaten state was not something that could be completely improved by some repairs.
As a result, after the city had been attacked by Yuan Shu's troops for a few days, it was already in imminent danger. It was as if it would be taken down by Yuan Shu's troops in the next moment. It had been struggling at death's door.
The most important thing was that Cao Cao was not in the city. The one in charge of defending the city was Cao Cao's subordinate, Lu Chang. He was an unknown general under Cao Cao, and his position and ability were not very high.
Luoyang was the imperial city of the Han Dynasty, so Cao Cao naturally placed great importance on the safety of the city. As a result, Lu Chang was the only general in Luoyang's imperial city. In fact, it was also related to Yang Rui.
Just as Lei Bao reached the vicinity of Luoyang, the generals left behind to guard the city either went to reinforce Yanshi County Town and Gong County Town, or went to Heyin County Town and other counties along the Yellow River in advance to guard against any large movements Taishi Ci's troops might make.
As for Taishi Ci increasing his activity along the Yellow River, it was also related to Yang Rui's crusade against Liu Bei.
As Yang Rui's main focus was on Guangling Prefecture, Yang Rui specially ordered Taishi Ci and Fang Lan to increase their offensive strength along the Yellow River to restrict the surrounding powers, reduce the pressure on the defense, and disrupt the enemy's judgment.
At this moment, where was Cao Cao? Before the siege of Luoyang's imperial city began, Cao Cao was at Mountain and River Pass to check on Yang Rui's situation. Cao Cao's plans were obvious.
Of course, Yang Rui didn't know that Cao Cao was at Mountain and River Pass. It wasn't easy to obtain accurate and timely information in the current game setting. Often, the relevant information could only be obtained after the event had passed.
This situation was naturally different after Yang Rui scattered the 50000 Fourth Grade Ethereal Ninjas of the Imperial Guards to Si Li Province. In just a few days, Yang Rui had a rough understanding of the situation of Cao Cao and Yuan Shu's troops in Si Li Province to the south of the Yellow River.
"It seems like Cao Cao really does have other plans!"
Yang Rui looked at the information sent back by the Imperial Patrol Guards and mumbled to himself as he pondered.
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