Three Kingdoms: Start by buying a governor.

When he led troops before, he never received such treatment. In the past, every battle involved careful planning and sparse troop deployment. Getting food was a luxury, let alone armor! Even with money, there was nowhere to buy it!

Now we have plenty of troops, ample supplies, and excellent equipment; we can fight however we want!

If we don't win this battle, I'll write Li Jing's name backwards!

Li Jing was immediately amused and waved his hand, saying:

"Send the order! All troops attack! Surround Suanzao!"

The subsequent maneuvers were textbook examples of siege warfare.

The first step is to cut off their food supply!

In addition to the supplies previously provided by Ji Province, the allied forces also relied on Yuan Shu and Liu Chong, the Prince of Chen, for their provisions.

After Liu Ce marched south, Prince Liu Chong of Chen immediately cut off his food supplies.

But Yuan Shu was a cunning man, and he secretly hid a lot of private grain in the mountain valley, thinking that it would be enough to last for a while in case something happened.

With the help of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Li Jing had already sent people to find out the locations of these grain and fodder depots.

The cavalrymen sneaked over in the middle of the night and set everything ablaze! They burned it so cleanly that not a single grain of rice was left.

Yuan Shu was drinking and boasting in his camp, telling his men, "We have enough supplies, we're not afraid of running out of food."

As a result, the guards rushed in, tumbling and crawling:

"My lord! Something terrible has happened! Our grain storage area has been burned down!"

Yuan Shu jumped up from the mat on the spot, his face as white as a freshly painted wall, his lips trembling as he said:

"What...what? It's all burned! Not a single grain is left!"

The messenger stammered, "They're all...all gone...The cavalry from Youzhou have cut off all our supply lines..."

Yuan Shu slumped to the ground, muttering, "It's over...it's all over..."

The second step is to plug all the loopholes for escape!

There are only three roads that you can drive on around Suanzao.

Li Jing directly dispatched troops, setting up crossbows, piling up barricades, and digging trenches at every intersection, leaving no gap for anyone to squeeze through.

He also sent Zhao Yun and Lü Bu's cavalry to patrol the surrounding area day and night, so that not only could no one escape, but even a carrier pigeon could not fly out.

Want to run away? Sure, but first ask Qiangnu if he'll allow it.

Some feudal lords, disbelieving in the superstition, sent over a thousand men to try and break out. But as soon as they approached the crossroads, they were riddled with crossbow bolts and fled back, crying for their parents.

The third step is pure psychological warfare!

Li Jing ordered his soldiers to surround the camp and take turns using megaphones to shout the following message each day:

"Listen up, brothers inside! We only arrest the feudal lords; it has nothing to do with the common soldiers! Those who lay down their weapons will be fed to the last bite! Those who resist alongside the feudal lords will be treated as rebels!"

"Think about it, you're following these feudal lords, barely scraping by, what's the point? Are you after their official titles? They're barely surviving themselves!"

"Surrender now, and you'll have meat to eat, money to take, and you can even go back to farming! Resist to the end, and you'll only face death!"

This shout immediately broke the defenses of the Allied soldiers.

They hadn't gained anything from following these warlords to attack Dong Zhuo.

Dong Zhuo failed to defeat them, their supplies were running out, and they were starving every day.

Now that they're providing meals, who'd risk their life for others?

That very night, several hundred soldiers secretly climbed over the wall and surrendered.

The soldiers guarding the wall pretended not to see them, and some even ran after them.

The following night, over a thousand people ran away.

On the third day, more...

They couldn't stop them no matter what.

Yuan Shao was so anxious that he stamped his feet and ordered a thorough investigation, with those who tried to escape to be executed on the spot.

As a result, the enforcement team ran away, so who was going to care about others?

The Suanzao camp became a ghost town.

Inside the camp, the feudal lords were in complete panic.

Yuan Shao, seated in the main seat, his face as black as the bottom of a pot, said, "Gentlemen, what do we do now? Liu Ce's army has us completely surrounded!"

Yuan Shu pointed at Yuan Shao and cursed, "It's all your fault! You insisted on becoming the leader of the alliance! Now look what's happened, everything's ruined!"

Yuan Shao slammed his fist on the table and said, "How dare you talk to me like that! If you hadn't been cutting back on Sun Jian's supplies, would we be in such a passive position!"

Yuan Shu sneered, "Me, withhold supplies? Sun Jian suffered a defeat, what does that have to do with me!"

The two started arguing again.

Cao Cao sat to the side, observing coldly without uttering a word. He was probably thinking to himself: "These teammates are hopeless. I should have known better than to work with them."

Sun Jian cursed inwardly, "These two good-for-nothings from four generations of high-ranking officials! What can they do besides fight amongst themselves?"

Liu Dai, Kong Rong, Kong Zhou, and others joined the fray, arguing back and forth.

They were arguing, and before I know it, they started fighting!

The table was overturned, the cups and plates were broken, and several feudal lords were rolling around on the ground, grabbing each other by the collar, like thugs fighting at the village entrance.

Yuan Shao was so angry his face turned green. He slammed his fist on the table and shouted, "Stop! All of you, stop! Are you still officials of the imperial court?!"

Nobody listens to him.

The camp was in complete chaos.

Before Liu Ce could even make a move, the group had already thrown themselves into complete chaos.

Li Jing listened to the scouts' report outside the camp, grinning from ear to ear, and said:

"My lord is right. To make dumplings, you have to chop the filling into small pieces first. Right now, the filling is mushy as it gets."

...

Meanwhile, Xue Rengui and Su Dingfang were not idle either at Hulao Pass.

The two men, leading the Third Army—Gongsun Zan's 10,000 cavalry, Qu Yi's 10,000 infantry, Zhang He's 10,000 infantry, Yu Jin's 10,000 infantry, and Xu Huang's 10,000 infantry—directly circled around and blocked the entire official road from Hulao Pass to Luoyang.

The barricades, trenches, and crossbow formations were all laid out clearly.

There were barricades every fifty paces, a trench every hundred paces, and a crossbow emplacement every two hundred paces; not even a rabbit could escape.

This completely extinguished Dong Zhuo's hopes of returning to Luoyang.

Dong Zhuo was so anxious in the pass that he paced back and forth on the ground, his two-hundred-pound body shaking the floor.

"What about Luoyang? How's Luoyang doing?"

The scout reported back: "Prime Minister, Luoyang... we've lost contact. None of the messengers we sent out have returned."

Dong Zhuo's face turned pale.

He sent troops to storm the pass several times in an attempt to open it up.

He dispatched his general Fan Chou with 20,000 elite troops to attack Xue Rengui's defenses.

As soon as Fan Chou rushed over, he ran into the cavalry led by Gongsun Zan.

Gongsun Zan's fighting style can be summed up in one word: speed! He led his cavalry in constant flanking maneuvers, scattering Fan Chou's formation. Fan Chou finally managed to regain his footing, only to encounter Qu Yi's troops. These men specialized in tough battles, and their archery skills were terrifyingly accurate. A volley of arrows felled a large number of Fan Chou's soldiers.

Fan Chou charged desperately for a while, but suffered heavy casualties and could only retreat back into the pass in disgrace.

Dong Zhuo was unwilling to give up, so he sent Zhang Ji to attack.

This time it's even worse.

Zhang He and Yu Jin, with their infantry, had already formed a battle formation and were waiting.

As soon as Zhang Ji rushed in, he was sandwiched between two pieces of bread and beaten until he cried out for his parents.

Xu Huang cut off Zhang Ji's retreat route by attacking from behind.

Zhang Ji risked his life to run back, but of his 20,000 troops, less than 3,000 remained.

Dong Zhuo was utterly desperate.

Standing on the city wall of Hulao Pass, looking at the dense enemy camps in the distance, and then at his own dejected soldiers, he felt fear for the first time.

Li Ru whispered from the side, "Prime Minister, how about... we sue for peace?"