In front of the Allied front.

"Not good! The Li thief actually sent a catapult formation to attack our allies? ”

Seeing that the Xiliang Army also sent hundreds of catapults to the front of the battle, Yuan Shao's expression changed greatly and he exclaimed.

"Ugh! Why is the Alliance Leader so alarmed? ”

Yuan Shao's sudden shouting frightened Liu Bei suddenly changed color, and then he frowned slightly, and asked in confusion.

"Huh? It's nothing, it's just a little surprise, don't blame Xuande. ”

Yuan Shao came back to his senses when he heard the sound, and forced himself to calm down, and then he made a perfunctory speech to Liu Bei.

Liu Bei looked at Yuan Shao's side face with a stunned expression, and suddenly became suspicious, and his eyes couldn't help but become suspicious: "Oh, I see." ”

After a pause in his tone, he didn't know what to think, and said to Yuan Shao with relief: "Maybe the alliance leader is too worried." It must be known that Li Thief has always been cunning and fickle, acting eclectic, and often has unexpected actions, and the actions in front of him are the usual tricks used by Li Thief. Therefore, the alliance leader does not need to worry, even if the catapult array under the command of Li Thief and our allied catapult attack against each other, can he still win after the chariot array? In Liu's view, I am afraid that it may not be. Everyone in the world knows that the Xiliang army is not heavy and lacks weapons, and presumably the catapult array under the command of Li Thief is no exception, and it definitely cannot be compared with the catapults of our allied army. Therefore, although the alliance leader is relieved, there is no need to panic. ”

"What Xuande said is very true, but it was Yuan who lost his temper, please don't mind Xuande." Yuan Shao turned his head to Liu Bei and bowed his head lightly, and smiled.

"The leader of the alliance is serious, how can I worry about trivial things." Liu Bei replied with a disappreciative laugh. Then he said no more. Turning his head to look at the battle in front of him, he showed a thoughtful look.

Seeing that Liu Bei was not suspicious, Yuan Shao breathed a deep sigh of relief. Now that he was calm, he looked ahead, and the anxious expression on his face gradually returned to normal.

But he didn't know that this change in expression completely fell on the corner of Liu Bei's eyes, causing Liu Bei to be suspicious.

Because Yuan Shao and Yan Yuese's replies just verified Liu Bei's previous doubts. Facts have proved that Yuan Shao did hide something from him, or that Yuan Shao had other arrangements for this decisive battle. And has been hiding it from him Liu Bei and other princes, and even now, Yuan Shao is still deliberately concealing it. I was always reluctant to divulge half a sentence.

And the reason why Liu Bei's doubts were confirmed so quickly was because what he said to Yuan Shao just now was pure nonsense and open mouth, and his intention was to test Yuan Shao's reaction to see if he had a ghost in his heart. Really. Yuan Shao didn't want to echo casually. He seemed absent-minded and nervous, as if he was afraid that Liu Bei would find out his ulterior secret. However, Yuan Shao didn't know that he was so perfunctory, and he clearly wanted to cover it up, which just showed that he had a ghost in his heart, and he must have other plans behind the back of the princes from all walks of life.

At this thought, Liu Bei felt deeply uneasy. But I don't know what the problem is. However, he really didn't know how many ulterior secrets Yuan Shao still had. In other words, what did he do behind the backs of all the princes? However, as long as Yuan Shao doesn't say it, no one else will know about it, and even if he wants to break his head, he won't be able to think of it.

Just when Liu Bei pretended to watch the battle and secretly thought about it, Yuan Shao's heart was also extremely uncalm.

At this moment, Yuan Shao pretended to look at the battlefield in front of the battle without squinting, but in fact, he was secretly anxious in his heart, and his thoughts were like a tide: "Li Li actually sent a catapult formation to fight, but he never refused to lead the war cavalry to attack, has he seen through my plan?" This??? It's incredible! All the princes have been concealed by me for months, and they have not noticed it for months, so how can the Li thief know about my plan? If Li Thief had found out about my calculations, then what I had done before would be meaningless, and I had just torn my face with Zhang Yan in public, turned against each other, and had many disagreements with the princes from all walks of life. In this way, in this decisive battle in Loudiyuan, wouldn't I, Yuan Shao, have no chance of winning and the defeat is decided? ”

Secretly calculating the pros and cons in his mind, Yuan Shao was worried, suffering from gains and losses, and was extremely uneasy. Suddenly, he couldn't help but think of what Zhang Yan had said before, that is: The battle of the Central Plains Princes' Alliance to defeat Li Li was indeed of great significance to him Yuan Shao. For this reason, he did not hesitate to use all the money and grain accumulated in Jizhou for many years to supply the allies, spending millions of grains, grass and baggage, as well as millions of taels of gold, almost emptying Jizhou's family funds. He paid such a huge price, all for the great cause of this crusade against Li Thief, but also for the sake of dominating the Central Plains in the future, and finally clearing the world and winning the world.

Before that, Yuan Shao had always thought that it was worth it. Because in his eyes, among all the princes in the world, only Xiliang Li Li can pose a threat to him, and it is also the biggest obstacle to his domination of the Central Plains, and he is the strongest opponent of the Jizhou army. It was based on this consideration of distress that prompted him to contact the princes from all walks of life to join the alliance at any cost, and then formed an army of princes, swept the Xiliang army with the overwhelming momentum of Mount Tai, and completely destroyed Li Li.

As long as Li Li dies, the once powerful Xiliang Iron Cavalry will collapse, and from now on, there will be no need to fear, sooner or later it will fall apart, and finally be submerged in endless infighting and vendetta. And this is exactly what Yuan Shao wants to see the most, if there is no Li Lihu on the side, he Yuan Shao will definitely be able to have a million troops within three to five years, dominate the states of the Central Plains, and then sweep the world with an army, and achieve the foundation of the world.

Or if, without Li Li's rapid rise, then the grand blueprint in his heart will be realized smoothly without hindrance. It's a pity that the heavens don't fulfill people's wishes. The strong rise of Xiliang Li Li is as unstoppable as a storm and waves, and in just three years, he has rapidly grown into the world's first hegemon, holding hundreds of thousands of Xiliang soldiers. This made Yuan Shaoru feel at the throat and couldn't sleep, and he dreamed of getting rid of Li Li countless times, because Li Li's preservation in Xiliang threatened his grand cause of dominating the Central Plains.

As long as Li Li does not die for a day and the Xiliang army is not destroyed for a day, it is an unrealistic fantasy for him Yuan Shao to dominate the Central Plains, and it is impossible to become a reality. Therefore, he was not in a hurry to get rid of Gongsun Zan of Youzhou, nor did he have the idea of sending troops to Yanzhou and completely occupying Qingzhou; He believed that his top priority was to take advantage of Li Li's fledgling to get rid of him as soon as possible, so that the Xiliang army would fall apart, and then completely annihilate in the internal fighting. For this reason, he can go all out to eradicate Xiliang Li Li at any cost.

For most of the year, a qiē has been carried out as Yuan Shao expected. The alliance of the Central Plains princes was established as scheduled, and the army of 500,000 princes swept through the east of the river, driving Li Li and his Anyi army to the other side of the Yellow River in one go. Although the Battle of Feiyundu and the siege of Hangu Pass were very difficult and the battle was quite unsmooth, Yuan Shao was not pessimistic, but actively thought about a new strategy to deal with Li Li and Xiliang Tieqi. And Liu Bei led his troops to join the alliance halfway, which was like injecting a dose of strength into the demoralized allied army, making up for Cao Cao's lack of troops after the fiasco of Feiyundu.

At the same time, the strong combat power of the Xiliang Army also made Yuan Shao soberly realize that if he wanted to complete the battle and eliminate Li Li and the Xiliang Army in one fell swoop, the price was too great, and it was even completely impossible to do it. Therefore, he retreated to the next best thing, redetermined the strategic goal, and greatly reduced the goal of getting rid of Li Li and the Xiliang army, and changed it to annihilate more than 100,000 Xiliang cavalry. Because Li Li's biggest reliance on the world's number one overlord is the more than 100,000 Xiliang iron horses, as long as these war horses are destroyed, Li Li will be like a tiger with teeth removed, strong on the outside, not to be afraid, and can no longer pose a threat to him Yuan Shao.

However, just after Yuan Shao lowered his strategic objectives, the siege battle that Hangu Pass could not be attacked for a long time, and the subsequent standoff that lasted for more than four months, made him disappointed and overwhelmed.

The continuous supply of grain and grass for half a year has exhausted the money and grain accumulated in Jizhou for many years, and what followed is that he Yuan Shao has no way to retreat, and is forced to a dead end, only to succeed and not to fail. Once this battle is lost, it will be difficult for Jizhou to recover for as little as three years or as many as five years, and it is unknown whether he Yuan Shao can continue to sit in Jizhou after the defeat. Because he put all of Jizhou's entire family wealth on this battle, it was almost a desperate bet, so he really couldn't afford to lose.

Originally, everything was carried out on Yuan Shao's predetermined trajectory, but the successive deaths of Wen Chou and Yan Liang and the defeat of Lu Bu in front of the battle surprised him, and he had a faint premonition that this battle would not be as smooth as he imagined.

Do not admit it, the good does not have a bad spirit.

The battle has continued to this day, and the situation that Yuan Shao least wants to see has finally appeared.

Don't look at the fact that the allied army still has nearly 400,000 troops at this time, but Yuan Shao knows very well that the Xiliang army in Hangu Pass is definitely more than the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in front of him, and Li Li must have a back hand, which is the so-called killer weapon. Therefore, the outcome of the head-on decisive battle between the allies and the Xiliang army was not optimistic, and even more defeats and fewer victories. And the only thing Yuan Shao can rely on is his unknown plan, which is also his killer weapon against the Xiliang army.

However, Li Li did not wave his army to attack for a long time, and also sent catapults to attack the allied catapults, which made Yuan Shao feel deeply uneasy and worried. And what he was most worried about was that Li Li saw through his plan, if this was the case, then he Yuan Shao would no longer have anything to rely on, and he would really be forced to a dead end by Li Li.

At this moment, Yuan Shao combed through all the experiences of most of the previous half a year, but inadvertently found a lot of things that he had not paid attention to. It's just that these trivial things are useless to the battle situation in front of him, so that the thoughts left in his mind are all endless worries about gains and losses, which makes him suffer a lot, but there is nothing he can do.

"Huh?" Just when Yuan Shao was at a loss, he inadvertently caught a glimpse of the Xiliang army formation suddenly moving, and the left-wing war cavalry finally jumped out of the battle at this moment and took the initiative to attack the allied forces.

"Good, good, good! After all, Li Thief was young and vigorous, and his patience was not enough, so he finally couldn't help but send his war cavalry to attack first. This shows that Li Thief has not seen through my plan at all, such a big event can be expected, and I Yuan Shao will win this battle! In an instant, Yuan Shao was pleasantly surprised, clenched his fists and secretly rejoiced for himself, a heart hanging over his voice and eyes could finally be put down.

―――――――――――― (To be continued......)