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The rising sun is in the sky, and the spring is warm and the flowers are blooming.

On the Chencang city tower, Li Li, wearing a Confucian robe, stood at the top of the city, and the vast mountains were filled with rolling mountains.

Chencang City is not so much a city as a pass that blocks the exits of mountains, and is a throat fortress that goes in and out of Hanzhong and Chang'an.

In fact, Chen Cang was originally just a county under Fufeng County, but it became famous all over the world because Han Xin took Chang'an wisely when the Chu and Han Han fought for hegemony. This is the origin of the classic war example that has been famous throughout the ages, "building a plank road openly and traveling to Chen Cang secretly".

After this battle, Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang took the lead in attacking Chang'an and was named "King of Han", laying the foundation for Liu Bang's leadership and laying a solid foundation for the subsequent unification of the world.

Since then, Chen Cang has transformed from a small county located in the deep mountains to become a powerful city with thousands of people, guarding the throat of Chang'an to the southwest.

At this time, standing at the head of Chencang City, looking at the majestic mountains that were beyond the end, Li Li couldn't help but shook his head slightly, and sighed infinitely. In the history of later generations, a famous prime minister, Zhuge Liang, was repeatedly frustrated under the Chencang City, and his six out-of-season trips to Qishan were futile, so he finally lived and vomited blood and died in this vast mountain range. No wonder later poets sighed: "Die before he succeeded, and the heroes were full of tears."

Fortunately, at this moment, Chen Cangguan was in the hands of him, Li Li, and Zhuge Wuhou, who had been famous for his eternity, was still a younger generation at this time. As long as this Western Expedition can successfully capture Hanzhong, there would be no more tragedy of going out to Qishan. Once Hanzhong was in hand, within three years, Li Li vowed to seize Xichuan, attack Chengdu directly, and turn Yizhou into the rear of the Xiliang army, which was also the lifeline of the money and food for the Xiliang army to pacify the world.

Li Li has been coveting Hanzhong and Yizhou for a long time. As early as when the two prefectures of Yongliang were pacified, he was thinking about Yizhou, the country of Tianfu. However, at that time, Xiliang was initially settled, and his foundation was unstable and he urgently needed a period of transition to consolidate his foundation. In addition, Zhang Lu of Hanzhong was in the middle. Once the Xiliang army had any abnormal movements, Liu Yan of Yizhou would have to be prepared early. In view of this, under the constraints of many unfavorable factors, even if Li Li had the intention to covet Yizhou, he had to suppress his mind and temporarily put it aside, and wait for the time to ripe before he could send troops to Hanzhong and seek Xichuan.

Therefore, Li Li has never been in a hurry to send troops to the Central Plains. What he really cares about is Hanzhong and Yizhou. Because, although the prefectures and counties in the Central Plains are vast, they are all heroes, with forces intertwined, and the situation is complex and changeable. In comparison, in terms of region and population, once Hanzhong and Yizhou are captured, the Western Liang army will also occupy half of the world, and the population and territory will double on the existing basis. Before leaving the Central Plains, they will be invincible. In terms of strategy, after capturing Hanzhong and Yizhou, the Western Liang army has a broad strategic depth, which can be attacked and defended. Even if they suffer a major defeat, as long as the territory is not lost, they can fight again after resting for two years. In contrast, the Central Plains states have no way to retreat. Except for Youzhou, which is adjacent to Liaodong and Jiangdong, which is bordering Jiaozhou, other states have become saturated and have no way to retreat except to escape overseas.

This is the fundamental reason why the north is strong and the south is weak since ancient times. Strategic depth determines the potential of war. The longer the war is, the more the side with a broad strategic depth will highlight the huge potential of war, and ultimately win. This is an unbreakable truth in the war for thousands of years. Whether in the ancient wilderness period or in the future thousands of years later, this is the key factor that determines the final victory of the war.

As a later generation, Li Li saw this thoroughly and believed it deeply. Therefore, in previous battles, he did not care about the gains and losses of a city and a land, nor did he care about whether the Central Plains were eliminated one after another; what he really cared about was population, money, grain and supplies, and the gains and losses of strategic places. As long as these strategic places that determine the success or failure of the war are not lost, there is no major loss of population and money, it is only a matter of time to force the troops to take the Central Plains directly. Once the time is ripe, whether it is Yuan Shao, Jizhou, or the heroes such as Cao Cao and Liu Bei, they can be captured in one go; even if they fight a protracted war with the princes of the Central Plains, Li Li can still fight and hold on. No matter how bad they are, they can eat and wait for death, Li Li can also use these heroes to death.

It is precisely because of this that Li Li personally led his army to Hanzhong, because he attaches great importance to the land of Hanzhong. As long as he seizes Hanzhong, Yizhou is a piece of fat meat placed beside his mouth. Even if there is a natural danger of Shu Road, it cannot withstand years of temptation and attack. Once the Shu army relaxes a little, the Xiliang army can take the opportunity to attack Yizhou and capture the entire territory of Yizhou in one fell swoop.

Therefore, the purpose of Li Li's western expedition this time was not to swallow Hanzhong and Yizhou in one breath, but to seize Hanzhong, pry open the door to Yizhou, and then gather heavy troops here to look at Xichuan.

At the same time, another plan that Li Li had been planning for a long time will follow. In order for the plan to be implemented smoothly, he had to leave Chang'an, because leaving the capital would be like moving away a sharp sword hanging over the heads of many people with ill-thinking plans, so that they could let go of their courage and show their strength.

"Zilong, blindly defending is not a solution. You must take the initiative to attack. Otherwise, Zhang Wei's army will not move and defend the valley to the death. What will we do if we do?"

On the city tower, Li Li looked in the direction Ma Teng pointed out, and saw flags flashing in the valley more than ten miles away, and smoke rising from the cooking stove. There was Zhang Wei's place to station troops.

As of today, the Hanzhong army, with Zhang Wei as the main general, Yang Bai as the deputy general, and Yang Song as the military advisor, gathered in a valley twenty miles away to set up camp, and it had been more than half a month since then. At first, Zhang Wei's army had only 30,000 troops. After attacking Chen Cang for more than ten days, tens of thousands of troops were lost. Then Zhang Lu mobilized 35,000 migrants to supplement it. Therefore, there are 50,000 troops under Zhang Wei's tent. Since he learned that Li Li personally led the army to fight, Zhang Wei led his troops to withdraw, but he did not withdraw back to Hanzhong, but established a large village in the valley twenty miles outside Chen Cang City, blocking the road to attack Hanzhong by the Xiliang army, and confronting Chen Cang City.

It has to be said that this big village is similar to Chencang City. Chencang City is in the north and Zhangwei Dazhai is in the south. If the Hanzhong army does not defeat Chencang City, the Xiliang army will not even think of attacking Hanzhong. It can be said that he will do his best to the other side by one's own way, and no one in the two armies will only take advantage of it without suffering.

The generals standing beside Li Li at this moment were Li Zhi, Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, Ma Teng and other commanders of the Western Expedition, as well as Cao Xing, Chen Dao, Ma Dai, Ma Xiu and other deputy generals and generals of various battalions.

After hearing Li Li's words, Zhao Yun thought for a moment and said respectfully: "What the lord said is very true. Zhang Wei's army has been stationed in the valley for more than 20 days. Not only does it show no sign of withdrawing troops, but instead strengthened the camp every day, which is clearly necessary to confront our army for a long time until we return without success and withdraw the army. Therefore, it is imperative to take the initiative to attack, otherwise we will have to stand up with it and not be able to advance in a hurry. However, the enemy camp is quite high and very strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack. Most of us are war cavalry this time and are not good at attacking. Therefore, the last general cannot think of a way to break the enemy for a while."

After saying that, a little bit of difficulty appeared on Zhao Yunjun's cheek, which made him look embarrassed and at a loss.

Indeed, if Zhao Yun was going to charge, he would definitely not take action. Even if there were swords and fires in front of him, he would dare to lead the army to charge and fight without frowning at all. However, there were high camps in front of him, surrounded by mountains and steep cliffs, and the war cavalry had no place to use their skills. They rushed forward rashly, just to die, and they could not even get close to the camp.

Li Li nodded slightly, turned his head to look at Fa Zheng beside him, and asked softly: "Does Xiaozhi have a good plan to defeat the enemy?"

Fa Zheng narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at Zhang Wei's village, thinking, "Forgive me, lord. When our army first arrived here, we don't know much about Zhang Wei's combat power and military strength. Therefore, I dare not give advice rashly to avoid misleading myself and the army. Given the current situation, I suggest sending troops to test it, pretending to attack the camp, see how the enemy generals such as Zhang Wei responded, and then discussing strategies to defeat the enemy. I wonder what the lord wants?"

Li Li thought for a moment and nodded slightly, and immediately ordered Huang Zhong: "Han Sheng led 10,000 Qin Gong Camps, 3,000 infantrymen left the city to attack the camp, Ma Dai led 5,000 combat cavalry and then pressed the formation. Xiaozhi and I went to the front of the formation to watch the battle and observe the terrain nearby. Zilong stayed in the city and should not be slackened at all."

"No!" Huang Zhong, Zhao Yun, Fa Zheng and Ma Dai bowed to take the order and left the city tower immediately.

After the generals left one after another, Ma Teng walked to Li Li and whispered in a silence: "Why didn't Wenchang let me accompany you? Do you really think I'm useless?"

"Don't think too much, my father-in-law, I have no intention."

Seeing Ma Teng being so serious, Li Li was a little surprised and immediately smiled apologized and said, "Yunluo comes with me to Fufeng County. The purpose of this is to visit my father-in-law. Your father-in-law hasn't met for some days. If my father-in-law goes to war with me, wouldn't Yunluo go there in vain? What's more, Wan'er and Zou Jing and more than ten female relatives came together this time. If you are not familiar with the place, we naturally have no time to take care of our military affairs. We can only worry and need our father-in-law to take care of us. In addition, my father-in-law also saw that there are many generals in our army, so we should let them experience more so that we can make great use in the future. Therefore, you should return to the county magistrate's mansion as soon as possible to avoid the backyard of Yunluo and the others. Hahaha!"

"Uh! That's it?????" Ma Teng was stunned when he heard the sound. He looked back at the backs of the generals leaving. He also felt that these generals were very extraordinary. They were all majestic, as if they were brave and good at fighting. Even Huang Zhong, who was about the same age as him, was imposing and was also the new Five Tiger General, and obviously had super strength that was not inferior to Ma Chao.

As soon as he thought of this, Ma Teng suddenly felt that compared to these generals, he was really old and it was not his turn to charge. Perhaps the position of prefect is the most suitable for him.

"Well, I'll go back now?"
Chapter completed!