Chapter 461

At Wuchao,

"Why... why?"

Xu You grabbed the sharp sword that had pierced his chest, ignoring the pain in his chest and the blood constantly flowing out, and looked at Cao Cao in astonishment and confusion, questioning him.

He did not understand why Cao Cao suddenly turned on him.

He had brought him important intelligence, and only then could Cao Cao successfully take Wuchao and burn Lord Yuan Shao's grain and fodder.

Plus the previous matter of Liu Bei, he had a great favor to Cao Cao.

His contribution was also huge.

Wait... Liu Bei?

Suddenly, Xu You realized the key to it, and looked at Cao Cao in astonishment, asking: "Could it be because of Liu Bei's matter? Are you worried about leaks, worried about Guan Yu, so you want to kill me to silence me?"

Although he felt this reason was absurd, it was the greatest possibility he could think of.

"Sigh! Xu Ziyuan, you are indeed still so clever and sharp!"

Cao Cao sighed upon hearing this, nodded affirmatively, and said: "Correct! It is precisely because of Liu Bei's matter, precisely because of Yunchang;"

"I don't want him to turn against me, I don't want to lose him, so I can only ask you to die!"

"I hope you don't blame me! Of course, it is only right for you to blame me, I don't mind at all!"

In order to keep Guan Yu, to prevent Guan Yu from discovering the truth about Liu Bei's death, and to prevent him from hating himself, Cao Cao felt that sacrificing a mere Xu You was well worth it.

In fact, even without the matter of Guan Yu, according to Cao Cao's nature and his understanding of Xu You's character, Xu You would inevitably die at his hands in the end.

Because this man was too arrogant and too proud of his talent!

Crucially, he was also jealous and greedy, and had no boundaries between lord and subject.

Cao Cao did not feel he could tolerate Xu You for too long.

"You... I hate this!"

Xu You heard Cao Cao admit this with his own mouth, and was so angry that he spat out a mouthful of blood. Then his eyes became dim, and finally lost their luster, his consciousness completely falling into eternal darkness.

In the end, Xu You left this world with endless unwillingness and hatred.

At the last moment, he was still regretting that he should not have trusted Cao Cao and should not have left Lord Yuan Shao.

Perhaps only Lord Yuan Shao could tolerate his character.

He also should not have let Guo Tu get a handle on him for a little money, and ended up in such a state.

Wrong! Everything was wrong...

In the next few days,

Lord Yuan Shao launched the most violent attack on Cao Cao's camp like a madman.

Lord Yuan Shao adopted a desperate fighting style, regardless of casualties.

Not only did it cause huge casualties to Cao Cao, but his own army also suffered heavy losses.

Overall, the casualties of both sides were almost equal, and Lord Yuan Shao's casualties were even slightly higher.

This was because Guan Yu was on Cao Cao's side.

Just the military formation composed of Guan Yu and his personal guards was enough to cause huge casualties to Lord Yuan Shao's army.

Not to mention that Cao Cao also had fierce generals like Xia Xia Houyuan, Cao Ren, and Yue Jin under his command.

Even though Lord Yuan Shao had the advantage in numbers and cavalry, he still inevitably fell into a disadvantage.

Another five days passed like this,

Even though a lot of grain and fodder had been saved because of the heavy casualties, the grain and fodder in Lord Yuan Shao's army had almost reached its limit!

The army was about to run out of food.

However, Cao Cao had not been routed yet, and the subsequent grain and fodder were still on the way, and it would take at least several days to arrive.

It was not because the distance between Jizhou and the Guandu camp was too far.

The fundamental reason was that Lord Yuan Shao had taken almost all the pure grain when he came out this time.

Even the grain and fodder of the noble clans and powerful families in Ye City and other places had been forcibly requisitioned.

Now that more grain and fodder were needed, they could only continue to forcibly requisition it from Jizhou, Youzhou, and even Qingzhou.

Moreover, the difficulty of this requisition was even greater.

Naturally, it would take more time.

In Lord Yuan Shao's camp.

At this time, Lord Yuan Shao no longer had the high spirits of a few days ago; instead, his face was full of worry and fatigue, and there were many more white hairs on his head.

It was evident how tormented Lord Yuan Shao had been these past few days.

"How many men has our army lost in the past few days? How many men are left?"

Lord Yuan Shao looked at Ju Shou and asked.

"Reporting to my lord!"

Ju Shou immediately bowed and replied: "Up to now, our army has suffered a total of 55,686 casualties in these days, with 346,784 troops remaining;"

"However, the remaining grain and fodder are no longer enough to support the army for 2 days!"

"My lord! We must make a decision early! Whether to fight or retreat, we must make up our minds!"

"Otherwise, once the army runs out of food, I fear we won't be able to leave!"

Without grain and fodder, not to mention the combat effectiveness of the army...

By then, the army would likely mutiny.

It would collapse without a fight.

This was not what Ju Shou wanted to see.

He actually did not expect the war situation to evolve into this situation.

Otherwise, he would have risked Lord Yuan Shao's disgust to persuade him not to arrest Xu You.

Even if he wanted to settle scores with Xu You, couldn't he wait until after the battle?

Of course, it was meaningless to consider these things now; it was all in the past.

There was no regret medicine in this world.

"This..."

Lord Yuan Shao frowned upon hearing this, and his old problem began to flare up again; he began to be indecisive.

Let him retreat?

He was undoubtedly unwilling.

Wouldn't that be equivalent to telling the world that he had lost to Cao Cao?

Who was Cao Cao?

He was just the descendant of a eunuch, and once just his follower.

He had never really looked at Cao Cao in the past.

And now he was actually going to lose to Cao Cao?

Lord Yuan Shao could not accept this result.

But let him continue to fight Cao Cao to the death?

If there was a chance of winning, he would naturally be willing.

But looking at the situation of the grain and fodder in his army, and looking at the combat power of Cao Cao's army.

Within 2 days, it was absolutely impossible for him to defeat Cao Cao.

Thinking of this, Lord Yuan Shao fell into a tangled and dilemma-filled situation.

He wanted to retreat, but he didn't want to lose to Cao Cao, and didn't want to lose face in front of Cao Cao.

It was quite a feeling of wanting to have his cake and eat it too.

Ju Shou naturally saw that Lord Yuan Shao's old problem had flared up again, and immediately advised: "My lord, this is not the time for hesitation. Either you make up your mind to fight Cao Cao to the death, fight until the fish dies and the net breaks, and never stop until you defeat Cao Cao;"

"Or leave a portion of the troops to cover the retreat, and our main army will first retreat to the north bank of the Yellow River. I ask my lord to make up your mind quickly, we cannot delay any longer!"

Guo Tu on the side also quickly bowed and advised: "My lord, I think Gongyu is right, I ask my lord to make a wise decision!"

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