General Zhang He asked in contemplation:

"How much food and grass do our army have?"

Ju Su shook his head and sighed:

"There are only less than five days of food reserve left."

As soon as these words were spoken, all the civil and military officials were in an uproar.

Xu You said to Yuan Shao:

"The king doesn't have to worry. I believe that Cao Aman can still have some food in his hands.

Tomorrow, I can ask Ah Man to transfer some food and grass to solve the urgent problem.

As long as we can last for a month or two, we can continue to transfer grain from Hebei.”

Yuan Shao said helplessly:

"That's all that is the case now."

Xu You and Yuan Shao’s wishes were beautiful, but unfortunately, Cao Cao’s answer disappointed them very much.

When the next day when the crowd gathered to discuss, Cao Cao smiled bitterly and said to Yuan Shao:

"Brother Benchu, I have fought with the Chu army for years, and the food and grass in my hands have already been exhausted.

The only remaining food and grass is only enough for our army for half a month.

If it is allocated to distribute it to the soldiers of the Three Kingdoms, it may only last for about five days."

Yuan Shao and Cao Cao's army combined, and only ten days of military rations remain!

As for Liu Bei... Liu Bei only brought 50,000 mouths to Runan, and did not bring any food or grass.

It is even more impossible for him to transport grain from Chang'an.

It takes more than a month to transport grain from Chang'an to Runan!

When Liu Bei's food and supplies came, the millions of troops would have starved to death!

Cao Cao had a headache, and he felt that his head was suffering from another disease.

When I contacted Yuan Shao before, Cao Cao always had a premonition that Yuan Benchu ​​was not reliable!

Yuan Shao will definitely storm during the battle with the Chu army.

Therefore, Cao Cao has been careful and cautious in his hopes to minimize the consequences of Yuan Shao's storm.

He struggled to survive in Runan for so long, saving the army's failure again and again.

But unexpectedly, there was another problem in Yan!

Cao Cao suddenly felt that God was playing with him!

Yuan Shao, who was sitting in the position of leader, looked around and said:

"Now our army has only ten days of food and grass left.

Let me tell you, what should we do next?"

Yuan Shao threw out the mess, and all the civil and military officials in the camp were silent.

The army is short of food, and no one can do anything about it.

No matter how powerful you are and have superb wisdom, you can't turn food out of thin air.

After a while, Liu Bei said:

"Or we'll withdraw our troops for the time being...

The food and grass for ten days should be able to retreat to a safe area.

After the autumn harvest, there will be enough food and grass. We will gather here again to fight against the traitors!"

Liu Bei has a tough personality and can tolerate what ordinary people cannot do.

He thought that as long as he had a breath, he could fight Yuan Shu to the end.

Anyway, after losing so many games, it is not embarrassing to retreat again this time.

Cao Cao endured the headache and shook his head:

"This time we jointly attack Yuan Shu is our only chance to defeat Da Chu.

This battle must not be retreated!"

Cao Cao knew very well that it was difficult for the coalition forces to get together.

In order to invite Yuan Shao, he and Guo Jia did not hesitate to go to Yecheng in person.

If he loses again this time, with the mess in Hebei, is Yuan Shao still likely to go south again?

What's more, if the Three Kingdoms coalition forces retreat, can the Chu army in Runan retreat?

Yuan Shu finally mobilized so many troops. If he lost the constraints of the coalition forces, he would inevitably sweep away the Yan, Yu, Sili and other places under Cao Cao's command.

At that time, the Wei Dynasty may be destroyed.

Therefore, the coalition forces must not retreat in this battle!

Even if you fight Yuan Shu to the death, you will be in a defeat and you will not be able to retreat!

Guo Jia, Xun You and others, the important counselors under Cao Cao, also knew this well and all silently supported Cao Cao's decision.

Yuan Shao asked Cao Cao:

"Our army has not been able to defeat the Chu army for so long, and now there are less than ten days of military rations left.

If you persist, how can you defeat Yuan Shu?"

Cao Cao said in a deep voice:

"Although food shortage is a crisis for our army, it is also likely to be a chance of victory.

With Yuan Shu's intelligence ability, we will naturally know that our army has only ten days of military rations left.

Under such circumstances, Yuan Shu's strategy towards our army will definitely change.

If we can make good use of this, we may not be able to turn defeat into victory!”

Cao Cao's firm position finally convinced Yuan Shao and Liu Bei, and also brought a glimmer of hope to the suppressed coalition civil and military officials.

Because of the chaos in Yan land, Yuan Shao was in no mood to command the army.

He, the leader of the alliance, also became the boss. Yuan Shao handed over everything from planning to command to Cao Cao.

Everyone dispersed, but Cao Cao, Guo Jia and Xun You, two strategists, planned all night in the camp.

Guo Jia, wearing a blue brocade dress, said aloud while using a pen to write something on the book slip:

"The Chu army is good at collecting intelligence, so the situation where our army only has ten days of military rations left must be controlled by Yuan Shu.

Even in a certain opinion, Yuan Shu planned all the civil strife and military rations in Dayan!

Cough... Cough cough!"

When Guo Jia said this, he suddenly started to cough violently. He quickly covered his mouth with a handkerchief, and it took him a while to suppress the cough.

Cao Cao looked at Guo Jia worriedly and said:

"Wangxiao, how are you?

Otherwise, rest for a night and make a plan tomorrow?"

Guo Jia's face turned extremely pale, and he shook his head gently and said:

"It's an old problem, it's OK.

Yuan Shu knew that our army was short of food, so he would not rush to attack, but would instead take a defensive move and consume all our army's food and grass.

In addition, the Chu army would send several troops to harass our army.

Let our army be unable to be peaceful and advance or retreat.”

Cao Cao asked:

"If this is true, what should our army do?"

“There is no good idea…”

Guo Jia showed a hint of firmness in his eyes and said to Cao Cao:

"The Chu army is an open conspiracy, and no matter how we fight, our army will suffer.

The only way to drag the Chu army into the water now is to let the army attack Runan while the food and grass are still there."

Cao Cao frowned and said:

"Our army in the field is not Yuan Shu's opponent. If we attack Runan fiercely, we will definitely suffer heavy losses."

"That's right, but the loss is even greater if you don't attack the city!"

Guo Jia explained:
To be continued...