The cold night is silent and the stars are few.

A crescent moon appeared and disappeared, as if the young girl was in her prime, she replied shyly, wanting to greet but rejecting.

Over Hangu Pass.

The thick smoke spreads, covering the night sky, covering the stars and the moon, and lingers on it.

On the city tower, Li Li led his civil and military officials to climb up the city tower at night, holding the railings and looking at the sky above the Feiyun Ferry dozens of miles away. He saw thick smoke rising, and a fire lighted up the dark sky, revealing the huge Allied camp under the fire. The crowds surged, war horses neighed, and the noise was extremely noisy, and the mixed sounds drifted up the Hangu Pass city tower with the wind.

"This fire is so burning well. A fire stabbed into the buttocks of the Allied forces of the princes, causing the Allied forces to burst into tears and cry without tears!"

"Isn't it? In this cold winter, it's really satisfying to have such a big fire. The roasted Allies' skin is burnt and tender, so you won't have to keep warm for half a month!"

"It makes sense. These days have made us feel bad. Now it's finally the turn of the princes and allies to have a headache. I'm happy!"

"This is a great good word, and it should be revealed!"

"Hahaha!"

“????????”

On the city tower, the generals looked at the fire in the red sky while laughing happily.

In the pavilion, Li Li, Jia Xu, Guo Jia and Gao Shun, who were in charge of guarding the city, stood on the railings and looked high from afar, looking at the sky above the smoke-torn Flying Cloud Ferry, silent and thoughtful.

"What a fire in a winter!" Li Li's mouth was filled with gloating smile, his eyes filled with joy, and he sighed meaningfully.

Jia Xu was shocked when he heard this and said with a laugh: "This fire has completely awakened the Allies, making them soberly realize what to do!"

Guo Jia was quite surprised when he heard this, turned his head to look at Jia Xu and said softly: "Brother Wenhe seems to have something in his words. What do you mean is that the Allies want to escape, or will they evacuate the Loudiyuan Camp in the near future and cross the river and return to Hedong?"

"That's true, don't Fengxiao think so?" Jia Xu said with a smile.

Guo Jia nodded slightly, "It's not that possible. However, it's winter now. Feiyundu happens to be in the wide water area of ​​the Yellow River. The river surface is frozen, but it is not enough to carry people and horses to cross the river. The ships cannot go into the water to cross the river. The warships used by the Allied Food Road are only a few dozen, which is far less than the use of 300,000 Allied troops and tens of thousands of war horses to cross the river. If you dig ice across the river, it will take at least one and a half months to withdraw all the Allied troops back to the north bank of the Yellow River. If our army takes advantage of the situation and open the switch to send troops, it will definitely give the Allied troops a half ferry and attack. Even if it cannot be wiped out all over the river, it can wipe out most of the Allied troops. Such a dangerous thing, I believe the Allied princes would not have imagined it and dared not risk crossing the river.

Therefore, I don’t think that the Allies have the courage to cross Hebei and retreat at this time, and it is very likely that they will continue to stay in Loudi’s original village to defend. When the flowers bloom next spring, they will either fight to the death with our army or withdraw their troops to Hedong, and the alliance of princes will be dissolved."

Jia Xu continued: "Fengxiao has some words that have not been said, that is: even if the Allies want to escape, we should ask our army whether they agree. The war has been going on for more than April, and in ten days it will take five months. The two sides are in a stalemate, losing hundreds of thousands of troops. This battle has reached this level, and the Allies want to pat their butts and leave, but they are a little whimsical and crazy!"

As soon as this statement was spoken, Gao Shun, Bo Cai and the generals on both sides of the city tower nodded in agreement, and it was obvious that Jia Xu expressed their thoughts.

Then, Gao Shun, who had always been taciturn, whispered: "As the two military advisors said, it is a foolish and wishful thinking of the Allies to withdraw midway. As long as they have any abnormal movements, we will turn on and attack, and we will definitely kill them without leaving any armor, and we will complete the battle. We will completely end the battle of Sili!"

Bo Cai nodded happily and said, "What Xiaogong said is very true. In fact, our army could turn on and face the enemy half a month ago and attack the princes' army. However, it has been snowing one after another recently, and the ground has been slippery and frozen, which is not conducive to the rush of the war cavalry. Therefore, we have been defending the barriers and have not moved for a long time. Tonight, the Allied Food and Grass Camp was robbed, which is a great opportunity for us to go out to attack and kill the Allied camp. If we can break through the Allied camp in one fell swoop, we will definitely kill the Allied troops and defeat the army, and then we will do our best to put down the 300,000 Allied troops in one go. Therefore, the last general asks for the battle, please agree!"

"Hahaha!" Li Li turned around and looked at Bo Cai with a smile on his face, saying with a smile: "You also said that the snow has not subsided now, and the slippery and icy ground is not conducive to the rush of the war cavalry. Why do you still need to fight and attack? It is important to know that it is the second night at night. The slippery and muddy road during the day are frozen at this moment. It is still very difficult to walk and it is easy to slip, let alone the war cavalry attack?"

Jia Xu continued to echo: "It is indeed as the lord said. Now the Allied camp is in chaos, which is indeed a good opportunity to attack the Allied camp; but we can think of such a good opportunity. Could it be that Yuan Shao and others can't think of it? As long as they do not relax their defense, they can block our army from the camp even if they do not increase their troops to defend. After all, the 300,000 Allied troops are not a decoration or a soft ball that can be ravaged by others. Although the Allied camp is not as strong as Hangu Pass, easy to defend and difficult to attack, the gate is more than three meters high, extremely strong. Moreover, there are five trenches and fences that are several meters deep in front of the main gate. The defense is extremely tight, and it is also easy to defend and difficult to attack.

If we waited to attack the Allied camps at night and dispatched too few troops and horses, it would be useless; if the entire army was dispatched, and the attack equipment could not keep up, there would be heavy casualties. Therefore, it would be better for us to wait and see. We have survived the continuous siege for more than two months, so why bother to hurry up?

Keep waiting. The longer you wait, the more beneficial it will be to our army. As one goes, the other goes, the situation of the Allied forces will become more and more unfavorable, even very difficult, and a dilemma. When they torture them to death and the morale of the army is disintegrating, it is when our army launches a full-scale attack to defeat the Allied forces in one fell swoop. Before that, we still need to endure and not act rashly."

Seeing that Jia Xu had said everything to this point, and his analysis was so thorough, Bo stopped insisting and said angrily: "The general wanted to lead the Wuzhuying infantry and Xiaogong to test it together. It would be nice if he could capture the Allied camp in one fell swoop. If the enemy was prepared, we could also withdraw quickly. However, since the military advisor had already made a decision, the general should obey it, so how dare he mobilize his troops to attack without authorization?"

After hearing this, Jia Xu and Guo Jia looked at each other and smiled. Li Li, who looked at the Allied camp with his hands behind his back, nodded slightly and explained with a chuckle: "In this battle of Sili, the reason why our army reduced its troops to seize the pass was not afraid of the Allied forces, but to minimize unnecessary casualties and preserve its strength. Although the alliance of princes in the Central Plains is huge, the prefectures and counties occupied by the seven towns of princes are located in the heart of the Central Plains, but the actual area is not large. Most of the prefectures and counties in the world are still in the hands of the princes who have not come to the alliance in other towns, and their strength is not weak.

If our army and the Allies fight each other and lose both sides, even if we win this big battle in the end, we will not get any benefits. Instead, we will be taken advantage of by other princes and then become the new overlords of the princes. And our Xiliang army will definitely become a middle-class prince force. Without three to five years, we may not be able to recover our vitality and will not be able to capture the Central Plains states."

Speaking of this, Li Li paused and sighed softly: "Three or five years didn't seem long, it seemed irrelevant, but the situation in the world changed rapidly. Let's not talk about a few years, even a year or a few months, the general trend of the world will change accordingly. Time is extremely important to the princes in each capital, and it is simply priceless. You might as well imagine how difficult the situation in the Xiliang army was three years ago, and what the situation in the world looked like now? In just three years, we founded the Wuwei army from scratch, then merged the Xiliang army, unified the Xiliang army, and then advanced to the Central Plains. Now is a great opportunity for us to conquer the Central Plains. If we fight with the Allies, or if we win a bad defeat, what will it be like to lose, thus delaying our development for three years?

Three years! Once we miss these three years, we will completely lose the opportunity to compete for the Central Plains, and will be surpassed by the princes of various towns one after another, and then become the target of their expedition and extermination. Therefore, this battle of Sili is extremely important to our Xiliang army. Winning this protracted war is second to win this long-lasting war. The most important thing is that we not only want to win the victory of this war, but also preserve our strength as much as possible to avoid excessive casualties of soldiers. Only in this way can we have the ability and strength to continue to lead the heroes, further expand our territory, and recruit soldiers.

Only in this way can our Xiliang army last forever, become stronger and stronger as we fight, and become more courageous as we fight. Finally, we will wipe out all the princes in the world, clear the world, and return a bright world to the people of the world!"

This was the first time that Li Li said the strategic intention of this fierce battle in public, and he told it without any concealment. After hearing this, the civil and military officials of Xiliang truly understood the intention of the previous puzzling military orders. It turned out that everything he had done before was to preserve his strength and reduce casualties. If Li Li said this in advance, I was afraid that the generals would not understand it, and even thought that there was no need to do so. But after four months of fierce battle, the clear contrast between the enemy and our army clearly told the generals of Xiliang that his lord's decision was undoubtedly correct, fruitful, and wise.

After more than four months of fierce battle, the once-massive army of 500,000 princes now has only 300,000 soldiers and horses, with nearly half of the troops being lost; it is like dragging a tall and mighty fat man to lose all his weight, and the weight loss effect is very significant. In contrast, although the Xiliang Army also lost nearly 100,000 troops, these soldiers were pieced together, and the total number of casualties added together was actually less than 50,000 troops in the main battle camp of the Xiliang Army.

Comparing the two, it is clear which one is better. At this point, Li Li lured the enemy deeper and tired the enemy and trapped the enemy has been realized. After the appetizer, the next step is a main dinner feast, the fighter has appeared, and the decisive battle is about to be fought.

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Chapter completed!