————————————

Guo Jia said: "After the fall of Kaifeng City, General Zilong led his army to retreat to Zhongmu. Unexpectedly, Wei general Cao Chun led the tiger and leopard cavalry to chase after him, almost following Wushuang Iron Cavalry and then attacked Zhongmu City, and fought with Wushuang Iron Cavalry under Zhao Yun's tent again. After a series of fierce battles, Wushuang Iron Cavalry suffered heavy casualties. If General Zilong had not been extremely brave and led his troops to fight hard and repel Wei general Cao Chun, he would have been afraid that the Wushuang Iron Cavalry Camp would have been wiped out.

After the war, Zhongmu County fell again after Kaifeng City. General Zilong led the remnants of his troops out of the city and arrived in Luoyang two hours ago. According to the news from the Luoyang Camp, after two days and two nights of fierce battle, there were only more than 4,000 Wushuang Iron Cavalry who returned to Luoyang alive. Ten pavilions broke into nine pavilions, and almost wiped out the entire army. In addition, General Zilong fell into a coma after returning to the city, with more than ten wounds on his body. The longest wound was on the back, more than one foot long, and the bones were visible." After saying that, Guo Jia was in a very heavy mood. He was worried about Zhao Yun's injuries, and deeply regretted the huge casualties of Wushuang Iron Cavalry.

The Wushuang Iron Cavalry under Zhao Yun's tent is an iron-blooded brigade that has experienced countless wars and is also one of the battle cavalry camps that Li Li started. Its prototype is the warriors of various tribes led by Dian Wuxia. As Dian Wuxia withdrew from the army and Wushuang Iron Cavalry was reorganized, Zhao Yun was the first commander of the general and has led his army for a full ten years so far. This war cavalry camp fought from the Western Regions to Liaodong, and was able to preserve its establishment in the miserable defeat of Jizhou. Then he turned to Yizhou and followed Zhuge Liang to fight against the Southern Barbarians in the west. It can be called a real army of battles.

Who would have thought that such an elite warrior who had been through many battles had gone through countless difficulties and obstacles, and had been through ups and downs all the way to this day. In the end, it was destroyed by the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry of Cao's Army. Thirty thousand warriors were lost in one battle, which was a trauma. All the elites were lost, and even if the troops were reorganized, it would be difficult to restore the previous strong combat power. Therefore, the Iron Cavalry is no longer as glorious as before, and I am afraid that it will not be able to support the name of "WuShuang".

Perhaps because of his deep feelings, Guo Jia was silent for a moment and added: "However, Cao's army also paid a huge price for this. Putting aside the nearly 50,000 soldiers who were injured in the robbery camp, Cao's army almost paid the same casualties as Wushuang's Iron Cavalry. The 30,000 tiger and leopard cavalry led by Cao Chun was killed by General Zilong, and even Cao Chun himself was injured by General Zilong. He was hit by two arrows and was afraid that he would be unable to fight again in the short term. In addition, Zhu Ling, who had sneaked into Kaifeng City, also suffered more than half of the casualties. Zhu Ling and Zhu Gu were both injured in the battle, and were also seriously injured.

Therefore, the Wushuang Iron Cavalry severely damaged Cao Ren's army at the cost of 30,000 casualties, causing Cao's army to lose twice the strength of the Wushuang Iron Cavalry. At present, more than half of the 100,000 troops under Cao Ren's tent have been killed or killed, and they are temporarily stationed in Zhongmu City to rest. If there are no subsequent reinforcements, Cao Ren will definitely not dare to lead his army south. He is currently facing a dilemma."

After listening to the battle report reposted by Guo Jia, there was a silence in the pavilion. Except for the slightly heavy breathing of Li Ru and Zhuge Liang, there was no other sound.

Li Li looked up at the cemetery opposite the pavilion with expressionless expression. From the cemetery in the north to the General's Mausoleum in the west, his eyes fixed on the tomb under construction on the hillside. After a while, he pondered quietly: "The tomb is being built in the General's Mausoleum in the west. In a few days, a few old brothers who followed me to conquer the world from Wuwei County will move in. They will sleep here forever. Time flies, and more than ten years have passed inadvertently. I am in my thirties, but I often nostalgia, missing my brothers who lived and died together, missed the days when I drank and talked about the past, and even more missed those old friends who had already lying in the tomb."

Zhuge Liang comforted softly: "Your Majesty, don't blame yourself. Since ancient times, Wen has been a person who has been dead and warned to fight to the death. When a person dies, he can do what he likes when he is alive, and even if he dies, he will have no regrets. Moreover, in this battle of Sili, Your Majesty did not strictly order the generals to fight to the death. Instead, he informed the generals in advance that if you can fight, you can fight and do not do anything, and you can retreat to Luoyang. Therefore, Your Majesty has done his best to be kind and righteous. Now this situation is due to our insufficient estimate of the war in advance. If you want to hold accountable, it is also my ministers who will deal with the full responsibility, and it has nothing to do with Your Majesty."

Li Li shook his head slightly and sighed in a low voice: "I will not kill Boren, but Boren died because of me. I am the supreme commander of the entire army and should be responsible for the war. I cannot refuse the consequences of the deaths of more than ten generals including Tieqiu, Huan Yi, Xiahou Lan." Speaking of this, Li Li paused, and then his tone changed, and he said in a deep voice: "However, war always kills people. The clay pots will not break away from the well, and the general will inevitably die in the formation. The casualties of our generals in this battle of Sili are the highest in all previous battles. The war is far from over, and now it is just the beginning. The Southern Han and Northern Wei countries jointly attack our Western Jin Dynasty. At present, they have a certain advantage. Our army has suffered consecutive defeats, but this is only a temporary victory. It is still unknown who will die next."

After a pause in his tone, Li Li looked at Li Ru and asked, "Did the news of the death of the two generals Huan Yi from fighting have been informed of the entire army?"

Li Ru didn't know why Li Li suddenly mentioned this matter, and immediately said softly with a look of distress: "Report to Your Majesty, I am worried that the two generals Huan Fei and Yin Xu will delay the war, so before they could tell them, the other generals in the army already knew about it."

Li Li was not surprised at all after hearing this and said in a deep voice: "In a few days, Tie Qiong and others' bodies will be transported back, and by then, they will not be able to hide them anyway. Therefore, there is no need to hide them from them and tell them truthfully, otherwise they will definitely keep this account on you and will have random thoughts again."

"Please, I'm following the order." Li Ru responded respectfully with deep agreement.

Li Li nodded slightly, then put the matter aside and said in a deep voice: "This time we have decided to lead the snake out of the hole, luring Liu Biao from Jingzhou and Cao Cao from Jizhou to take the lead. In order not to leave any flaws and avoid suspicion from the two countries, we have suffered continuous defeats today and paid a huge price for it. Now that the lead is half successful in induced snake out of the hole, the next step is the top priority, but a crushing defeat like Deng County and Kaifeng City cannot happen again. Otherwise, we would not lead the snake out of the hole, but shoot ourselves in the foot and burn ourselves. I wonder what solutions are you three about this?"

Guo Jia continued to answer: "Since the Three Kingdoms, our Western Jin Dynasty has taken the lead. The Southern Han and Northern Wei heroes have joined forces. No one of their strength can confront our Western Jin Dynasty head-on. However, once they cannot retreat, even if we have a million strong soldiers, we cannot do anything to them. If we compare our Western Jin Dynasty to an elephant, Cao Cao of the Northern Wei Dynasty is a tiger. Although Liu Biao of the Southern Han Dynasty has the strength of a tiger, he does not have the courage of a tiger. Therefore, he can only be regarded as an elderly wolf king. If this tiger and a wolf cannot retreat, the elephant cannot do anything to them. Therefore, if we want to eliminate them, we must first draw them out. This is the fundamental reason why we have formulated the snake out of the cave.

However, once tigers and wolves join forces to attack, the elephant cannot withstand it, and it is seriously injured or overturned at any time, and even endangered its lives. Therefore, the current plan is to drive the tiger and swallow the wolf. Cao Cao of the Northern Wei Dynasty must be severely injured so that he dare not act rashly. After restraining this tiger, we can free up our hands and kill the hungry wolf in the Southern Han Dynasty with all our strength." Guo Jia said in a word, pointing out that it was only the first step to lure the snake out of the hole, and the second step was to drive the tiger and swallow the wolf.

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhuge Liang said respectfully: "The plan to lead the snake out of the hole is only halfway. If the two countries retreat at this time, everything we have done before will be wasted and the efforts will be successful. At the same time, if the snake out of the hole is not good, and the tiger and wolf gather together, our Western Jin Dynasty will also suffer a backlash and are very likely to be defeated by them. Therefore, now is the critical moment to decide the victory and defeat, and it is also a watershed to whether the plan to lead the snake out of the hole can be successful. This forces us to be very cautious every step, not light or heavy, and we must grasp the scale of the size. The counterattack is too light, which will inevitably encourage the morale of the two countries, make them more unscrupulous, open and close, and it is very likely to complete the alliance and successfully meet. If the counterattack is too heavy, it will hurt them, which may prompt the snake head they just poked out to retract again.

Therefore, the situation we are facing is very serious. We must avoid too much loss and not let them retreat when we see difficulties. We must let them see hope for success, so as to lure them step by step into the trap we have prepared long ago, drive away tigers and swallow wolves, change the situation in the world in one fell swoop, and lay the foundation for the competition for the world soon." These words revealed that Zhuge Liang and Guo Jia were the initiators of the strategy of driving away tigers and swallowing wolves. They were the chess players. At this time, the chess game had already begun and the situation was unclear. How to launch a counterattack in the Western Jin Dynasty was the key step to determine success or failure.

When Guo Jia and Zhuge Liang were talking, Li Li's face was very calm, so calm that there was no trace of emotional fluctuation. If Guo Jia and Kong Ming were chess players, then he was the owner of the chess game (the boss behind the scenes). He first proposed that he was specifically aimed at the comprehensive layout of the Southern Han and Northern Wei countries. Tie Hu, Xiahou Lan and others died in battle, which certainly made Li Li very sad, but one general succeeded and thousands of bones were bleak. As a long-time general who fought on the battlefield for many years and the supreme commander of the entire army, he had seen too many separations of life and death, and had long been used to the life of licking blood from the knife. Therefore, the death of generals under his command could not control his emotions, and it would not affect his decision-making.

After pondering for a while, Li Li said calmly: "Maybe you two have thought too much. It is best to do your best to do your best in one battle, but you cannot deliberately pursue perfection in everything. There is no perfect thing in the world. Strive for perfection often means too much concern, looking forward to the forefront and worrying about gains and losses. It is important to know that the military and military personnel should avoid being constantly in trouble when using military forces. At present, half of the success of leading snakes out of the cave, and tempting nearly 300,000 troops from the Southern Han and Northern Wei countries, which is enough. If you can kill these 300,000 troops in one fell swoop, the plan to drive the tiger and swallow the wolf will be more than half successful, and then you can drive the army south to capture Jingxiang. This is the entire plan to drive the tiger and swallow the wolf."

————To be continued————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

...
Chapter completed!