Spring is coming, and the sunrises are lingering.

In half a month, the troops of various battalions under Li Li arrived at Liyang Camp one after another, and then slowly marched and approached Yecheng step by step.

During this period, Cao Cao's army, which was supplemented by war horses and food supplies, took the lead in setting out, building bridges for the subsequent army to meet mountains and rivers.

However, beyond Li Li's expectations, Cao Cao himself did not follow the army first, but stayed in the central army and set out with Li Li.

At this point, Li Li's previous suspicion about Cao Cao was wiped out and he often talked with Cao Cao. Many of his views did not coincide with each other and his words were so speculative that they felt that they met each other too late, and they were friends who were old age.

In fact, Cao Cao is now in his forties, and Li Li is only twenty-five years old, which is a generation apart. If Cao Cao's eldest son Cao Ang is still alive, he would be about the same age as Li Li, at most two or three years apart.

However, Li Li's identity, status and strength are far above Cao Cao. He is qualified to discuss friendships with Cao Cao's peers, and Cao Cao still has to be careful everywhere and dare not neglect at all. In this way, one of them intentionally took the opportunity to figure out the other, while the other was also willing to get closer and observe, so they were very close to each other and had a good conversation.

However, they all knew in their hearts that the moment they were just interests driving people’s hearts, bringing each other together, and when the day they captured Yecheng was the time for both sides to reveal their true colors.

Liyang is only more than one hundred miles away from Yecheng. The army marched fifty miles a day and arrived at the foot of Yecheng in three days.

When Li Li led his army to arrive, Cao Ren had already led his army to set up a camp on the north bank of the Zhang River ten miles southeast of Yecheng.

After seeing this scene, Li Li frowned slightly. He immediately ordered the army to camp on the south bank of the Zhang River, twenty miles southwest of Yecheng. Afterwards, Li Li ordered the central army commander to temporarily live on the south bank, and Gao Shun's troops' camp stationed at the Daying camp. He also ordered Zhou Yu to lead Youzhou Camp and Qinglong Camp to cross the river and settle into the Daying camp on the north bank.

After seeing this, Cao Cao, who had been following Li Li, had a slight change in his expression, but it flashed in a flash. Then he followed Li Li calmly, following him, silently speaking, and expressing no opinions.

Since then, after the army was stationed, Li Li's army was divided into two. Gongsun Zan, Youzhou Camp, Xu Chu, and Pang De led by Gongsun Zan, and Qinglong Camp were stationed on the north bank of the Zhang River, while Li Li was stationed on the south bank. There were also three battalions of soldiers stationed by him, namely Jinqiwei, Feixiong Camp and Shanxing Camp. The 50,000 troops under Cao Cao's tent were stationed in the north bank camp, and he was responsible for taking the lead in attacking Yecheng.

The next day, Cao Ren led 30,000 infantry to launch an attack. As expected before the war, the Yuan army defended the city was extremely well prepared before the war. From the moat, it was step by step, with trenches, pits, antlers, fences, and horse-resisting formations, and placed more than 10,000 people under the city in advance, making the Cao army struggling to move forward, and every step forward would be a huge cost of casualties.

After five consecutive days of siege, Cao Ren led his army to break through the layers of defense under the city and led his troops to the city. For this reason, Cao's army suffered huge casualties and suffered more than 15,000 soldiers. Even so, the strong combat power displayed by Cao's army also made Li Li, Guo Jia, Zhou Yu and others watching the battle in the rear. The tenacious battle, the rigorous arrangement of troops, and the bravery of soldiers were far above the troops of Lu Bu in Xuzhou and Sun Ce in Jiangdong.

Cao Ren, who was commanding the siege in front of the front, was calm and calm from beginning to end, and was calm, and was very steadfast. Under his command, even if the soldiers in the siege encountered the stubborn obstacles of Yuan's army, they saw that the soldiers under the tent fell down one by one and were killed in batches, but he remained calm and remained calm, actively thought about countermeasures, and then increased his troops. Starting from the moat to the south gate of Yecheng, the Cao army soldiers usually attacked twice in front of each level, no more than three times at most. Whenever they captured a level, the casualties of the Cao army soldiers were controlled within two or three thousand people, without exception.

Such a well-founded method of attacking the city really opened his eyes and was amazed by the generals under Li Li. This also allowed Li Li, Guo Jia, Zhou Yu and others to see the amazing combat power of Cao Cao's soldiers. The infantry under his tent was well trained, ordered to be enforced, had extremely strong fighting will, and was brave and tenacious in combat. Especially the generals under Cao Cao were extremely rare. Most of the generals led by Cao clan were from the Cao clan, and their loyalty was beyond doubt. It was a slant that Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Cao Zhen, Cao Xiu and others were all talented as generals, who could not only charge forward, but also arrange troops and lead troops to attack.

After seeing Cao's army siege with one's own eyes, Li Li, Guo Jia, Zhou Yu, Huan Fei and others had to admit that the overall combat effectiveness of the Western Liang infantry was slightly inferior to that of the Cao army, especially in terms of siege, there was a big gap with Cao's army. This was also the biggest weakness of the Western Liang army under Li Li. They were good at field battles but were not good at attacking tough situations. Therefore, they fought extremely difficult in all siege battles, and were far less brave than the war cavalry.

This is also the result of Li Li's usual strategy of advocating the enemy in the movement. He has always been unwilling to see his soldiers who are indifferent to the loss of a city and land, and he is unwilling to see his soldiers who are indifferent to the casualties in the siege battle and have preserved their vitality to the greatest extent. Therefore, he will not order his soldiers to attack the city even before they are forced to do so. Over time, the soldiers under his command are good at field battles and long-distance raids, but they are not good at siege cities. At the same time, after so many years of development and growth, the number of war cavalry has increased day by day, but the infantry has grown slowly. Until now, Li Li's number of infantry troops accounts for only half of the cavalry, and has been used as reserve troops for a long time and has become a vassal of war cavalry.

It is precisely due to this situation that in the previous battle against Shouchun, Li Li had to use Xuzhou Lu Bu and Jiangdong Sun Ce to lead his army to attack the city.

Coincidentally, when he switched to Jizhou this time, he encountered this situation of defending the city again. Fortunately, Cao Cao's troops rushed forward in Yanzhou. Otherwise, Li Li would be in trouble and would face a difficult choice of dilemma. However, Li Li was not unprepared for this. The reason why he pulled Gao Shun's camp from Hangu Pass this time was to deal with the most likely tough battle.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Shanzhen Camp is the most elite infantry under his command, well-equipped and both offensive and defensive. In frontal combat, the Shanzhen Camp can face the powerful cavalry head-on; in the siege battle, the Shanzhen Camp can also attack the city and capture the village with one battle of ten. So far, the Shanzhen Camp led by Gao Shun has been invincible in the battle, and has not yet achieved defeat in many years of battle.

The siege battle was in full swing, and the offensive and defensive sides fought fiercely, and the battle situation was extremely tragic.

After half a month, Cao Cao's 50,000 troops were almost completely damaged. However, Cao's army also achieved impressive results. After the South Gate, they successively removed the defensive fronts outside the west gate, the north gate and the east gate of Yecheng, and climbed the city to the top of the city several times to fight with Yuan's army in close combat.

Seeing that Cao Cao's troops suffered heavy casualties and were unable to fight again, just as Li Li was about to send the trap camp to take over the siege, Cao Cao refused Li Li's kindness without hesitation. While ordering Cao Ren to continue besieging Yecheng, he sent people back to Yanzhou and quickly dispatched 80,000 infantry and cavalry from Yanzhou and Qingzhou to participate in the war.

Li Li was happy to see this, so he stopped insisting and allowed the stubborn Cao Cao to dispatch troops, while he led more than 100,000 Xiliang troops to watch the wall.

At this moment, the whistle cavalry came to report that the south gate of Yecheng suddenly opened, and Yuan Jun, who was huddled in the city, finally left the city to fight.

After hearing the news, Li Li immediately led a large army to the south gate of Yecheng. It goes without saying that Yuan's army left the city to fight at this time, and saw that most of the Cao army had been killed or injured under the city. He thought he had an opportunity and tried to rush out unexpectedly, hoping to completely kill more than 6,000 soldiers under Cao Ren's army.

Li Li, who hurriedly led his army to the south gate, saw a fierce battle between the Cao army generals and two Yuan generals in front of the south gate. Looking at his figure, Li Li recognized the Cao army general at a glance, which was Cao Hong, but the two Yuan generals fighting him were very jealous, as if they had never seen him before.

He raised his hand to signal the army to stop, and Li Li stepped onto the earth slope not far away, and Cao Cao, Guo Jia, Zhou Yu, Li Zhi, Cao Chun and others followed.

"General Cao Hong is extremely brave. Now these two generals Yuan are fighting with him, and it is difficult to tell the difference, but it surprised me. Can Meng De recognize these two?" Li Li looked into the distance and asked Cao Cao softly on the mound several miles away from the south gate.

Cao Cao replied after hearing the voice: "Report to the general, these two people are not names, but they are not famous before. They are a pair of brothers. The one wearing black armor is called "Lu Kuang", and the one wearing silver and white armor is Lu Xiang. These two people followed Yuan Shao very early and were highly valued. However, at that time, Yan Liang and Wen Chou were with him, so the two of them had no chance to make a name for themselves. They were still unknown and buried. It was not until Yan Liang and Wen Chou died in battle that the Lu brothers had the opportunity to enter Yuan Shao's sight, so they were promoted and used. They were always relocated and used on weekdays. They were actually the commander of the close guards that Yuan Shao trusted most."

"Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang?" Li Li pondered, then nodded thoughtfully and said softly: "These two people have good martial arts skills and cooperate very well, but they are not among the top-notch generals. However, since they are brothers, they are still inseparable from the generals in front of the formation. I think there must be something extraordinary, or they must have unknown joint attack skills. In this way, General Cao Hong is afraid of the danger of being in trouble after a long battle, and there is something unexpected!" This is a kind reminder.

With Li Li's rich experience in the battlefield, after a little observation, he can see which side of the war is stronger and which side is weaker. Given the current situation and he and Cao Cao are allies fighting side by side, it is necessary for him to remind Cao Cao to prepare early so as not to make any mistakes.

"Are these two really so powerful?" Cao Cao was surprised when he heard the sound, and immediately turned his head to look at Cao Chun behind him.

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Chapter completed!