Yang Rui managed to extend his influence across most of Si Li Province in just two to three days through the use of a large number of Ethereal Ninjas. In particular, Yang Rui had sent a large number of Ethereal Ninjas to the several counties around the Royal City of Luoyang.
The ability of the Ethereal Ninjas to obtain and transmit information quickly showed itself. Yang Rui quickly learned about the situation of Yuan Shu's attack on the Royal City of Luoyang. It was only then that he realized that the Royal City of Luoyang was in grave danger.
The Fourth Grade Ethereal Ninja had yet to master any escape techniques. He only had the ability to conceal himself and communicate with the air. The transmission of information still required the Imperial Sentinel Guard to gather and process it. That was why the Imperial Sentinel Guard remained by Yang Rui's side.
Even so, the Ethereal Ninjas still managed to obtain a lot of useful information from Yuan Shu's soldiers.
In truth, Lü Chang, who was defending the city, wasn't valued by Yuan Shu's men. If it had only been Lü Chang and the seventy to eighty thousand soldiers defending the city, the Royal City of Luoyang would have fallen long ago.
On the other hand, the Han Emperor Liu Xie's ministers played an extremely important role. At this moment, Liu Xie no longer had any powerful generals under him. However, he still had quite a few civil officials left. Among them, there were a few who understood the art of war and had special skills.
Liu Xie's courtiers were weak and gentle. This was evident from the Emperor's return to the east. However, that didn't mean that they didn't know how to use troops. The main reason for that was the lack of troops at the time. Neither Liu Xie nor his courtiers had any military authority. That was why Liu Xie had been raided multiple times.
On the other hand, those who could follow Liu Xie all the way from Chang 'an to Luoyang were all loyal to the Han Emperor. In fact, some of them had even moved from Luoyang to Chang' an.
At this moment, Yuan Shu's army had gathered in front of Luoyang, causing the entire Imperial City to be on the verge of collapse. Naturally, the courtiers in the city would not choose to stand by and watch. Many of them brought out their special skills, activated formations, or used auxiliary skills, and so on.
The benefits of Cao Cao holding the Emperor and the officials by his hand were obvious.
This time was different from the past. With Cao Cao's seventy to eighty thousand soldiers defending the city, the officials who had some ability had all used the soldiers as a medium to display their abilities. This created great difficulty for Yuan Shu's besieging troops, and was also the main reason why they were unable to besiege Luoyang for so many days.
However, according to the information sent back by the Ethereal Ninja, Cao Cao had also made a series of movements. His army of around a hundred thousand had already passed through Cheng Gao County and was heading straight for Luoyang Imperial City. Furthermore, the army was flying Cao Cao's own commander's flag. Perhaps Cao Cao was in the army.
This army should have come from the direction of Xingyang County. The army was very neat and one could tell at a glance that they were elite soldiers. They were much stronger than the soldiers that Cao Cao had sent to the Wo Nation's civilized region to participate in the national war.
Cao Cao's second army split into two groups after arriving at Gong County. Each group had about fifty to sixty thousand soldiers. One group headed west along the official road towards Luoyang Imperial City.
The group was mainly composed of cavalry. They moved very quickly and were very neat. Clearly, they were the elites of Cao Cao's army. This group was also flying Cao Cao's flag, but it wasn't clear if he was in the army.
The other group was mainly composed of heavy infantry. They moved slower and weren't heading directly towards Luoyang Imperial City. Instead, they moved along a small road between Luoyang Imperial City and Xingyang County. It wasn't clear where their true destination was, but they still flew Cao Cao's army's flag as usual.
Yang Rui even suspected that this group of soldiers was specially sent to block off Yuan Shu's retreat. If Yuan Shu's three hundred thousand soldiers failed to attack Luoyang Imperial City, then Cao Cao might block their retreat to Dong Ling Pass.
Cao Cao's third army was the last to be discovered by the Ethereal Ninja. It wasn't until the third day after the Ethereal Ninja was sent to Si Li Province that they discovered Cao Cao's army, which was located in the upper reaches of Ru River in Liang County.
Cao Cao seemed to have the intention of developing his own navy. However, due to Taishi Ci's constant surveillance on the Yellow River, he wasn't able to establish an effective navy for a long time.
On the other hand, the Ethereal Ninja discovered Cao Cao's third army. Among them, there were many ships of various sizes. There were over a hundred ships. Although the largest ship was only the size of a Bi 'an, it was clear that the core of this army was the navy.
The total number of soldiers in this army was only seventy to eighty thousand. Most of them were infantry soldiers. When the Ethereal Ninja discovered them, they were moving forward in an orderly manner. They didn't ask for speed or delay, as if they were waiting for further orders.
Although the ships of this army couldn't compare to Yang Rui's navy in terms of both quantity and quality, and half of them were even transport ships, with this navy, this army could freely cross the left and right banks and threaten Yuan Shu's Yu Province.
It was worth mentioning that the flag of this army was also Cao Cao's flag. At this critical moment, Cao Cao used a bluff tactic.
It was because he discovered the movements of Cao Cao's third army that Yang Rui felt that Cao Cao had other plans. He might even be able to quickly set things right and reverse the current situation.
In reality, the actual situation wasn't as Yang Rui thought. Cao Cao's strategy in dealing with Yuan Shu's invasion was good. However, Cao Cao could only mobilize this much troops on paper. He couldn't mobilize any more troops.
Of course, this was still due to the influence of Yang Rui's threat.
Yang Rui had a large number of soldiers under his command. He adopted the strategy of having a large number of troops stationed at important nodes. For example, Pingyuan City, Puyang City, Chen Liu City, Jiwu City, as well as the recently captured Gaoshan City, Gaoyou City, Pingan City and other support cities. The number of troops guarding these cities was easily in the hundreds of thousands.
As for the rest of the ordinary cities, almost every county had no less than twenty to thirty thousand troops stationed there. Their responsibility was to maintain law and order and support the implementation of various important systems.
Under such circumstances, Yang Rui even felt that the number of troops stationed in the ordinary cities was somewhat insufficient.
Such a troop strength was naturally the result of Yang Rui's internal stability and development. At the same time, it was easier to quickly assemble a large number of troops to deal with unexpected situations that might occur in various places.
Cao Cao felt the pressure from Yan Province's border. He also saw the benefits of Yang Rui's troop deployment method. He also intended to imitate Yang Rui's method of stationing troops to stabilize the foundations of his territory.
However, Cao Cao's troops were relatively limited. Currently, there were only six to seven hundred thousand soldiers. It was fine when there weren't any major battles, but now, Cao Cao's mobilization of troops was a bit strained.
Just in the direction of Mountain River Pass and Hulao Pass, Cao Cao's troops tied down by Yang Rui were no less than two hundred thousand. Cao Cao didn't dare to be careless in the remaining cities along the Yellow River either. He similarly tied down many of his troops.
It could be said that the combined forces of Cao Cao's three armies were about to reach the limit of Cao Cao's troops!
It was precisely because of this that Cao Cao decided to cut off all means of retreat. If Luoyang Imperial City was lost, Cao Cao was prepared to cut into Yuan Shu's territory with all his strength and fight for a final foothold. It was truly a helpless move.
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