"Ah!" Zhuge Liang's expression changed when he heard the sound, and the light of wisdom flashed repeatedly in his eyes. His mind suddenly turned around and captured the core veins.

Suddenly, he looked solemn, the feather fan in his hand was stuck in the air, and dense beads of sweat were overflowing from his forehead, and he said in a lost voice: "My lord is saying, this is a huge conspiracy that Kebi Neng and Tadun have already agreed on! Kebi Neng pretended to surrender, lured our army into Bailang Mountain, and used the Tadun army's army to trap our eastern expedition in Bailang Mountain. After the two armies decided the victory, they would gather the troops of Xianbei to defeat the winning side and reap the benefits of the fisherman? This is too incredible. How could Kebi Neng have such a strategy?"

Li Li pondered quietly: "If our army was not ambushed on the mountain road, it means that my guess is correct. Tadun can join forces with the Wuhuan, the Xianbei tribes and even the Fuyu people to help. Can Ke Bi Neng contact the Xianbei tribes and the Mobei forces to help?"

After speaking, Li Li didn't say anything more. He looked up at the misty Bailang Mountain top, waved his hand and said loudly: "I'll remind Zhao Yun's troops to be alert and the army will continue to move forward!"

Everything was as Li Li expected. The army encountered no ambush or sneak attacks when passing the mountain road. They marched quickly along the mountain road at the northern foot of the mountain road, and the road was unobstructed.

When approaching the eastern foot of Bailang Mountain, Zhao Yun sent another sent a wardrobe cavalry to report that the Kebineng troops had advanced to the wilderness of the eastern foot and were fighting fiercely with the barbarian army led by Tadun. Zhao Yun asked for an order to send troops to reinforce the Kebineng troops immediately, otherwise the 20,000 Xianbei cavalry led by Kebineng would definitely not be able to compete with the more than 100,000 barbarian troops under Tadun, and the entire army would be wiped out at any time.

After learning the news, Zhuge Liang's expression relaxed, and a smile appeared at the corner of his eyes that only Li Li could understand. Li Li understood why Zhuge Liang was laughing, but he wanted to use the Tadun barbarian army to take the opportunity to remove the disaster of Kebieneng. Once and for all, he could eliminate future troubles. In addition, he could also take the opportunity to test whether Kebien was in a collusion with Tadun, and lure the Eastern Expedition army into Bailang Mountain, attempting to gather and annihilate it, and destroy 80,000 Eastern Expedition army in one fell swoop. In fact, Li Li also had this idea. Since Kebieneng and Tadun barbarian army were invincible, he simply let them fight to the death. Wait until Kebieneng's troops were killed and injured and attacked.

For Ke Bineng, who has two ambitions, such a trick of killing people with a knife is undoubtedly the best choice, and he will follow the flow and eliminate future troubles forever.

However, just as Li Li was about to order a temporary suspension of attack, Gongsun Zan insisted on sending troops and said, "Since Ke Bien surrendered, there was no treason for rebellion, and everything would be ordered. And he also supplied tens of thousands of cattle and sheep to the army during the march to relieve the danger of the army's food and grass. If he only suspected that he had a different intention and ignored him, it would be too hasty and difficult to convince. Once this example was opened, the barbarian tribes would swear to resist to the death in the future. No tribe leader dared to surrender and could only fight to the end, and there was no other way."

After speaking out, he saw Li Li being quite moved and frowned and pondered. In order to further convince Li Li, Gongsun Zan continued: "My lord has been fighting for many years. I think it is important to know that although the northern border of our Han Dynasty has harsh climate, with many swamps and sand seas (deserts), the northern border is extremely vast, and its territory is not inferior to that of our Han Dynasty. Because of this, from ancient times to the present, the northern border has never been truly pacified. The barbarian tribes emerged one after another. The Xiongnu were destroyed and the Xianbei was born. The Xianbei was not destroyed and the Wuhuan was born.

In addition, there are small foreign countries such as Fuyu and Goguryeo in the north, Dingling in the north of the desert, and Yuezhi and Wusun in the west. Therefore, if you want to completely pacify the northern border troubles, it is not advisable to kill them all. Not to mention the hard-working expedition, you will not know that it will be possible to pacify the northern border overnight. The last general is by no means an expedition. If the lord wants to completely pacify the northern border, he must use at least 200,000 troops and horses, spend countless money and food, and it takes ten or even twenty years to completely pacify the northern border."

Speaking of this, Gongsun Zan paused for a moment. Seeing that there was no strange expression on Li Li's face, he continued: "Obviously, I don't have so much time to get involved with the soldiers and the barbarians for a long time, otherwise the rear will be unstable. Therefore, we must try every means to conquer the leader of the barbarian tribe, take it for ourselves, use the barbarians to control the barbarians, and temporarily maintain the stability of the Youzhou border. When the time is ripe, we can free up our hands to wipe out the barbarians and completely subordinate them to our great Han king." It has to be said that Gongsun Zan's words are quite insightful. Perhaps this is also the long-term strategy to deal with the barbarians after he completely surrendered to Li Li, combined with his more than 20 years of experience in guarding the border, and racked his brains to figure out.

In fact, Gongsun Zan may not have the talent of being a leader, but he is undoubtedly a very excellent border guard and a perfect general. The reason why he failed to defeat Yuan Shao and occupied Jizhou was not because his military talent was not good, but because he made a mess in governing prefectures and counties, and there were many barbarians behind him. So much so that he always took the lead in the battle with Yuan Shao. After entering the stage of confrontation, he was unstable in the rear and lacked strength, and he repeatedly failed or returned in vain.

In addition, compared with Yuan Shao's many talents, Gongsun Zan's tent was really shabby, with only a handful of civil and military officials. Even so, Gongsun Zan still fought with Yuan Shao for many years, and no one could do anything to each other, and he has been in stalemate until now. It is not difficult to see that Gongsun Zan himself has strong abilities, so that he can still hold on for many years between the barbarians and Yuan Shao without destruction. Unfortunately, since ancient times, the success of kings and princes and losers are thieves. Gongsun Zan in history was eventually destroyed by Yuan Shao, thus completely erasing all his achievements and deserved halo.

Now, Gongsun Zan has been under Li Li's command. After half a year of running-in, Xu Huang led his army to rescue him in the rain, which made Gongsun Zan completely surrender to Li Li, and he was convinced and had no more thoughts. The change in mentality allowed him to return to the original starting point, and truly devote all his thoughts to how to fight the current battle, and then formed his unique insights on the barbarians' combat.

This is really a matter of whether the butt determines the head and is planning the political position. Perhaps Gongsun Zan had thought about this issue in depth before, but at that time he would not do it even if he thought about it, because his eyes were always on the Han prefectures and counties, and his attention was always on his enemy Yuan Shao. He had to concentrate superior forces against the Jizhou army under Yuan Shao. But now it is different. He is no longer the lord of Youzhou, but a general who leads troops to fight. It is not his turn to coordinate the overall situation. His lord Li Li and a group of advisers planned. What he faced was how to lead troops to fight, and all other things had nothing to do with him.

It took Gongsun Zan half a year to adjust his position and correct his thoughts. During this period, Li Li always accompanied him and treated him very well and entrusted him with important tasks. This is also the key factor in Gongsun Zan's ability to quickly adjust his mentality. Otherwise, if Li Li was half-doubted, half-doubted, suspicious of him, doubted him, and even sent someone to monitor him, the result would be another scene.

Facts have proved that as long as people put their hearts in their hearts, change their hearts, and exchange eight liang for half a pound, they will be rewarded if they sincerely pay. (Note: Qin Lu Sixteen liang is one pound, and half a pound is eight liang.)

Gongsun Zan's words aroused Li Li's deep thoughts, and Zhuge Liang's eyes were even more brilliant after hearing these words, and he was amazed. To be fair, Zhuge Liang did think about getting rid of Gongsun Zan, because after Li Li took over Youzhou, Gongsun Zan completely lost his value, which not only did not benefit Li Li at all, but would also affect the stability of Youzhou. In view of this, Zhuge Liang once instructed Zhao Yun to wait for an opportunity to get rid of Gongsun Zan. He completely erased him and eliminated future troubles forever. However, Zhao Yun did not implement it, so that Gongsun Zan is still alive.

Zhuge Liang was quite upset about this, but he was not convenient to ask Zhao Yun directly. He was still thinking about this question along the way. Logically, Zhao Yun would not easily disobey his orders, and probably encountered resistance. But now, Zhuge Liang was a little glad that Gongsun Zan was still alive, because his words just now were indeed thought-provoking and insightful.

As Gongsun Zan said, Ke Bi Neng is not afraid of it. Whether he dies or lives has nothing to do with the overall situation, but Ke Bi Neng is the first barbarian leader to surrender to Li Li. This is the key to the problem. Once Ke Bi Neng dies in the battlefield, no matter whether he has two ambitions or not, he cannot die before he even turns back. Otherwise, it will affect Li Li's reputation and create an illusion for many barbarian leaders: resistance is death, surrender is also death. Instead of doing this, it is better to fight to the death and fight to the end. This situation is absolutely unsuccessful; although the Xiliang army is strong, it cannot be consumed all in fighting with the barbarians!

Thinking of this, Zhuge Liang followed Gongsun Zan's words and advised: "Lord, what General Gongsun said is reasonable. Although we suspect that Ke Bi Neng has ulterior motives and have other plans, we have not caught any handle, and it is all speculation. In addition, he did not show any rebellious intentions along the way, and there was no abnormality in the mobilization of troops. Therefore, the empress believes that even if Ke Bi Neng has two ambitions, he is still in a wandering and waiting and watching. Until the last moment, he will not be able to make up his mind.

If this is true, then everything will be remedied. In this way, our army will need to immediately attack, so as not to be wiped out by the entire Xianbei cavalry under his tent. However, for the sake of safety, I suggest that our army does not need to directly rescue the Xianbei cavalry when attacking, so that he can continue to lead his troops to fight with the barbarian army. Our army will go from the rear of the Xianbei cavalry to the front or flank of the barbarian army and launch an attack. This will kill two birds with one stone and not be able to make a real difference. I wonder what the lord wants?"

After hearing this, Li Li, who was silent for a while, nodded slightly and immediately ordered: "The unparalleled iron cavalry of Zhao Yun's troops attacked the left wing of the barbarian army. Gongsun Zan led the central army to attack the barbarian army's central army. Li Zhi, Chen Dao, Ma Dai, Ma Tie and other generals, followed the central army to fight; Yan Rou, Yan Gang, Qi Zhou, and Xian Yufu led the 40,000 infantry and then pressed on, and used crossbows to suppress the formation. No orders should be ordered and must not be taken back!"

"No!" The generals took the order in unison. Immediately, with Li Li's central army's flag moving forward quickly, 80,000 infantry and cavalry quickly rushed to the battlefield on the eastern foot, while Zhao Yun's troops, located in front of the army, arrived first and quickly entered the battlefield. However, the unparalleled cavalry led by Zhao Yun did not rescue the Xianbei cavalry besieged by the barbarian army. They rushed out of the mountain road and headed straight for the barbarian army to run left-wing generals.

Following Zhao Yun's troops, Gongsun Zan led more than 20,000 central army cavalry to enter the battlefield and directly attacked Tadun's flag. The 40,000 infantry that rushed to the battlefield then established their footsteps at the foot of the eastern mountain, built fortifications, placed deer antlers, and fences to resist horses, and set up chariots and crossbows. Then the giant shield soldiers were in front, and the long spear soldiers followed closely behind. The long spears and giant shields covered the archers behind, pushing the crossbows, and steadily advanced. In this way, this encounter evolved into a positional battle. The front army led by Ke Bineng fought against the right wing of the barbarian army, and the cavalry of Zhao Yun fought against the left wing of the barbarian army, and Gongsun Zan led the central army to attack the barbarian army. Sixty thousand combat cavalry charged in front, with 40,000 infantry behind, pressing step by step, and then launched a decisive battle with the barbarian army again.

When the two armies fought a decisive battle in the wilderness at the foot of the East Mountain, Li Li led Zhuge Liang and the army Tian Yu to the top of the east side of Bailang Mountain, and Shi A, deputy commander of the Jinqi Guard, led 500 personal soldiers to accompany him to protect him.

The group stood on the top of the mountain, and could see the two armies fighting at the foot of the mountain. It was not until this time that Li Li and Zhuge Liang truly saw the barbarian army led by Tadun. There were indeed many barbarian soldiers and horses, as many as 150,000 or 60,000, but nearly half of the barbarian troops did not have armor. Obviously, these people were all young and strong tribes temporarily recruited by Tadun. The weapons were of varying lengths and extremely rough bows and arrows, and there were many children in their teens.

—————To be continued———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Chapter completed!