In the wilderness.
The tents had been hastily set up.
The horses neighed, occasionally lowering their heads to nibble at the sparse shoots of grass.
A cavalryman took out a handful of beans from a sack and fed them to his horse bit by bit.
After finishing the beans, the horse blinked its big eyes at its companion and stretched its head toward the sack.
"There's not much left, not much left." The cavalryman covered the sack and could not help sighing.
The provisions had been consolidated again and again. The abandoned infantry did not even have enough food for a single day.
With the emperor having fled as well, collapse was inevitable.
Inside the largest tent at the center.
The middle-aged emperor had not collapsed.
He had fought countless battles and lost plenty of them.
It was just that this defeat had been rather inexplicable.
He had lost without even fighting a proper head-on battle against the enemy.
That had been impossible in the past.
He had encountered many difficult trials before, and his defeats had always come because he could not beat the enemy in direct battle.
Then he would retreat, endure, train, and finally defeat his opponent in a pitched battle, thereby winning the realm.
But what about the other side?
They had stayed in their cities and refused to come out, harassing his supply lines.
They had never fought him head-on even once.
When Cao Cao cut off Yuan Shao's grain route, it was only because Cao Cao had first held Yuan Shao off in a frontal battle, leaving both sides locked in a stalemate. Only then had he found the chance to burn the grain.
But this enemy had simply let him enter the drought-stricken region.
Aside from one city he had failed to take,