On the main stairs, Teng Xiao and Tie Xiao were standing beside Li Li, listening intently to Li Li's response to the current situation.

"Before this, our army adopted the tactic of shrinking defense because the princes of the Central Plains chose the alliance place in Hanoi County, and clearly showed their chariots and horses to attack our army from Hedong. They had only one purpose, that is, to leave the Hulao Pass around the eastern capital Luoyang, the Sishui Pass and other eight passes of the capital, directly attack Anyi, and then cross the Yellow River south, attack Hangu Pass, and the troops headed directly to Chang'an. Only in this way can the Allied forces arrive at Hangu Pass in the shortest time.

In contrast, if the Allied troops marched from Henan County, they would face dozens of cities and dangerous passes along the way, including Hulao Pass and Sishui Pass. Not only will they delay the relocation, they will also consume a lot of military, horses, money and food. Such huge expenses are simply impossible for Yuan Shao; and the princes of all walks of life are unwilling to attack cities and villages one by one, because the loss of troops is too great. Before they can reach Hangu Pass, they are already seriously injured."

Before Li Li finished speaking, Teng Xiao suddenly realized and said, "No wonder the princes of the Central Plains wanted to set the location of the alliance in Henei County. It turned out that they had already made up their minds to cross the Yellow River from Hedong County to the south and then go straight to Hangu Pass! It's true that this is indeed a shortcut. After they broke through the city of Anyi, they crossed the Yellow River in the south and then continued to advance for more than a hundred miles to Hangu Pass. In this way, they could leave Henan County, Luoyang Eight Pass, and Hexi County, and then go straight to Hangu, forcing us to retreat without any retreat and have to fight with him!"

Just as Teng Xiao was speaking, generals such as Guo Jia, Ma Chao and Li Zhi walked into the main hall lightly. After seeing Li Li's gesture of not having to bow, they walked gently behind Teng Xiao and looked at the Jinbo map in front of them.

After Teng Xiao finished speaking, Li Li nodded slightly and said, "Yunlong is right. Speaking of which, I blamed me for being too careless and not getting rid of Hanoi Zhangyang as soon as possible, making Hanoi County a nail that entered Sili territory. It then became the foothold of the Central Plains Princes Alliance.

I originally thought that the princes of the Central Plains would take the lead in attacking Henan County like the Chenliu Alliance five years ago, and then advance westward, and finally approach Hangu Pass. However, this time, the princes of the princes learned the lessons of the last time. The princes of the two passed Yanzhou and gathered directly in Henei County, thus directly taking Hedong County. In this way, the dangerous passes in Henan were useless, and all the defensive measures I ordered Fengxiao and Xu Rong to take were futile. The allied forces directly captured Hedong County, then crossed the Yellow River, and then marched westward to force our army to fight against it.

This is undoubtedly a shortcut to save money and effort. Accelerating the advancement can not only save food and grass, but also avoid casualties of soldiers, greatly shortening the time for the Allies to fight against our army. Relatively speaking, the faster the Allies advance, the less their troops will lose, and the more unfavorable it will be for our army."

"What the lord said is very true." Guo Jia continued: "The Allied Army of the princes is a body of interest. Moreover, the resentment between the princes has been deeply rooted. Once the war is not going well and the Allied Army is frustrated, the enemy and our army will fall into a stalemate. The longer the two armies are stalemate, the greater the consumption of money and food and the loss of troops of the Allied Army will be. In this way, the disguise of the alliance between them can be torn apart and intensified the conflicts they deliberately suppressed. Even if the Allied Army still will not disintegrate, they will definitely be wary of each other. They will secretly intrigue and try every means to preserve their strength. In this way, the combat power of hundreds of thousands of Allied Army will be greatly weakened, and even the combat power will be sharply reduced.

If this is true, our army can capture fighter jets from it, attack immediately whenever we have the opportunity, and further weaken the strength of the Allies. As long as they suspect each other and distrust each other, even if there is no suitable fighter jet, our army can defeat them in one fell swoop in a head-on decisive battle, and then win the victory of this battle of Sili."

The speech was paused. Guo Jia's tone turned sharply: "However, the granary was burned and the fodder was burned down this time, which put us in an extremely unfavorable passive situation. As of today, the Allied Army of the princes seized most of Hedong County in just 16 days. The counties and counties that are still in our hands are only Anyi County and the seven town pavilions south of the county. If Anyi City falls, the entire Hedong County will fall into the hands of the Allied Army, and our Anyi army will have to retreat to Henan, enter Hangu Pass, and then fight to the death with the Allied Army!"

Speaking of this, Guo Jia sighed: "Half a month is too short! Among the nearly 500,000 Allied troops, almost all of the other princes have not lost their strength. They have not consumed much money and food, nor have they intensified the conflicts between them. Instead, they have made them unstoppable, with confidence rising, and they are becoming more and more determined to defeat our army. This situation is very unfavorable to our army. Once the Allies cross the Yellow River, they will force us to fight against it. The biggest taboo of our army at present is to fight against the Allies too early! "

"Ah!" Teng Xiao, Ma Chao and other generals were shocked when they heard this. Teng Xiao looked at Guo Jia with great displeasure and asked in anger: "Why do the military advisor say this? Do you think that our Xiliang army is not the opponent of the princes' allied forces? Will our army be defeated in the head-on decisive battle?"

"Yes, military advisor, your words are obviously to increase others' ambitions and destroy your own might!" Ma Chao continued Teng Xiao's words and said in a resentful manner: "Maybe the military advisor has joined our army for too short time and does not know much about the combat effectiveness of our battalions, so he said such despicable words! The military advisor can tell that the total strength of our Xiliang army is as high as more than 400,000, and based on the comparison of troops alone, it is comparable to the allied forces of the princes. What's more, our army has eleven main battle camps, with a total of 330,000 infantry and cavalry, of which 210,000 combat cavalry and 120,000 infantry. In addition, our army also has more than 100,000 county government soldiers spread throughout Xiliang. The total strength is almost the same as that of the allied forces, and it is even worse than that of the allied forces.

Although our army could not all participate in the battle in this battle of Sili, we still need to leave enough troops to garrison the two prefectures of Yongliang and Chang'an, the capital of the capital. However, our army's forces participated in the battle this time were as many as 200,000, and they were all the main battle camps. As for the county government soldiers, they were just used as baggage soldiers, and were only responsible for guarding the city and escorting the food and supplies, and did not participate in the frontal decisive battle."

Seeing the generals staring at Guo Jia with big eyes, Li Li laughed and said, "Since you are discussing military affairs, you can speak freely, but remember that we are all a family. I allow you to argue with each other, but you cannot attack each other, and you cannot lose your temper and hurt your harmony. Do you agree? Hahaha!"

"What the lord said is very true." Ma Chao and Teng Xiao woke up when they heard the sound, and then responded respectfully with Guo Jia, Tie Xiao and others.

Seeing the anger on Teng Xiao and Ma Chao's faces faded and his expressions eased, Li Li nodded slightly and smiled silently.

At this time, Guo Jia said to Teng Xiao and Ma Chao with a calm expression: "The two generals misunderstood what I mean. In fact, I am the same as you. I never think that our army is defeated by the Allied forces of the princes. On the contrary, I firmly believe that our army will definitely defeat the Allied forces in the confrontation between the two armies. However, I wonder if the generals have thought about it. With the confidence of the Allied forces of the princes, the decisive battle head-on, even if our army defeats the enemy, can our army retreat unscathed? How many soldiers will be lost?

In other words, our army has strong combat power and the number of combat cavalry far exceeds that of the Allied forces of the princes. There will be no phenomenon of killing 10,000 enemies and losing 8,000 by themselves. However, it is absolutely possible to kill 10,000 enemies and losing 2,000 by themselves. You will not deny this, right?"

Teng Xiao, Ma Chao and others were stunned when they heard this. Then they looked at each other and nodded slightly under Guo Jia's burning eyes.

Guo Jia smiled happily and said, "Okay, let's just compromise this number and count the number of people who were killed by our army below 10,000 enemies as 2,500. In order to deal with the battle of Sili, the lord successively transferred the six battalions, including Longxiang Camp, Feixiong Camp, Wushuang Iron Cavalry, 20,000 Qinglong Camp, 10,000 Jinqiwei and Wuwei Camp, totaling 130,000 combat cavalry; in addition, there are half of the Wuzu Camp and Wuwei Camp, 20,000 baggage camps, and 10,000 trap camps, all of which are a total of 200,000 troops. In addition, there are tens of thousands of county government soldiers responsible for defending the city and escorting the baggage, because they do not participate in the decisive battle, so they will be excluded for the time being.

Our army has 200,000 troops, how many soldiers are there in the Allied Army? In addition to the 40,000 Baibo Army that was wiped out by the entire army, there are still 430,000 troops! Let's put aside the topic of whether our army can completely wipe out the lords and allied forces, and just talk about the matter. If these 430,000 troops are really wiped out by our army, how many soldiers will we lose? The heavy casualties of nearly 110,000 soldiers! In other words, after the battle, there were only 90,000 soldiers who could survive in the main battle camp of our army, and most of the casualties were equivalent to being crippled. This is the most optimistic estimate, and the number calculated based on the minimum casualties can be regarded as self-deception.

Let’s not talk about Zhang Yang from Hanoi, how powerful the Black Mountain Army is. With the 80,000 Qingzhou Army under Cao Cao, the 40,000 troops under Lu Bu and the 150,000 Jizhou Army under Yuan Shao, these are not weak brigades, but elite troops that have been through the battlefield for a long time. Just these 270,000 troops are enough for us to drink a pot. It would be good for our army to fight one against two, even if our army fights one against three, if we want to destroy them, our army will lose at least 100,000 troops. What should we do if the remaining 160,000 Allied troops?

In short, if our army is now fighting the Allied forces, it means that our main combat battalion will lose at least half of its troops. In one battle, although our army won, its total strength will be reduced to about 300,000 troops. Do you know what this means?

This means that the strength of our Western Liang army is comparable to that of Liu Biao in Jingzhou. After Yuan Shao was defeated, as long as he could escape back to Jizhou, he still had nearly 200,000 troops, which was not much worse than our army. The most important thing is that with the huge number of 5 million people in Jizhou, he could expand his troops to more than 300,000 in half a year, without any effort. In this way, the situation in the world will completely change. Our Western Liang army will lose its dominance and become a second- and third-rate role, and will no longer be able to intimidate all the princes. From now on, no princes will pay tribute to the court."

Speaking of this, Guo Jia took a deep breath and said in a deep voice: "Maybe you are thinking, since Yuan Shao can expand his troops, why can't I, Xiliang, expand my troops again? Then I can tell you now that if our army wins a great victory in this battle, then we can expand our troops, because we not only saved Sili, but also captured Bingzhou, and the troops will naturally increase.

However, if our army wins miserably, we cannot increase our troops, because although we win, we are unable to regain Sili. The post-war pension of more than 100,000 soldiers will be a huge astronomical figure. In addition, our two states in Xiliang are still under tax exemption, and there is less than four million people, so we are unable to expand our troops. If we lose, we will completely lose the strength to advance to the Central Plains within five years. By five years, the situation in the world will change greatly, and the strength of the princes of the Central Plains will become stronger and stronger. By then, our Xiliang army will be in a more difficult situation."

After Guo Jia finished speaking, Teng Xiao, Ma Chao, Tie Xiao, Li Zhi and others looked dull, dazed, completely dumbfounded.

At this time, Li Li and Guo Jia looked at each other, then smiled knowingly, and everything was indifferent.

In fact, Guo Jia can not say this long talk, because even if he doesn't say it, when Li Li says the strategy to fight the enemy, he will inevitably explain the reasons to generals such as Teng Xiao and Ma Chao, and he will also say what Guo Jia said. However, Guo Jia is extremely smart, and he knows the elegance and meaning when he hears the strings and songs. He explains the interests of the generals in advance to avoid doubting or even questioning Li Li's decision. However, with Guo Jia's statement, Li Li's subsequent decision seems extremely wise, as if it were natural and natural.

Immediately, when Teng Xiao, Ma Chao and others were still in a daze, Li Li and Guo Jia had already moved to the hall and savored their own tea.

"You really can't hide anything from Fengxiao. You know in advance before I ordered the evacuation of Anyi. Fengxiao's talent is really amazing!" Li Li exclaimed while sitting side by side with Guo Jia.

Guo Jia smiled humbly and said softly: "My lord is too much. In fact, although the lord has not officially ordered the withdrawal of troops, the arrangement this morning has clearly expressed the intention of retreating. In fact, Yun Long, General Meng Qi and others also knew in their hearts that the lord had the intention of withdrawing troops, but they were unwilling to admit it, and they were unwilling to believe it. Because they felt that there was no need for our army to retreat at all, and they could fight a decisive battle with the Allies face to face, and they would definitely defeat the Allies. Unfortunately, they did not understand the lord's good intentions. Giving back was not fear, but a tactical strategy; abandoning Hedong County was not a manifestation of cowardice, but to cause friction among the Allied princes.

Hedong County is not enough for the seven princes to divide the divisions. No matter how they distribute them, some people will definitely be dissatisfied. Once the division of spoils is uneven, it will intensify the conflicts between them, and then they will have their own ulterior motives and guard against each other. In this way, the allied forces of the princes who have finally joined together will be dissipated, which will affect the morale of the allied forces and the combat effectiveness will plummet. This is exactly the situation we hope to see most. Once the people are dispersed, what are the fears of the Allied forces even if there are many soldiers?"

"With filial piety and high opinion, this is exactly what I want!" Li Li praised with a smile on his face, and then the king and his minister looked at each other and nodded, laughing happily: "Hahaha---!"

—————————————— (To be continued)
Chapter completed!