On the steps of the main hall, Teng Xiao and the second general Tie Xiao stood beside Li Li, listening intently to Li Li's countermeasures against the current battle situation.

"Prior to this, the reason why our army adopted the tactic of shrinking the defense was because the princes of the Central Plains chose the place of the alliance in Hanoi County, and it was clear that the chariots and horses would attack our army from the east of the river. They did this with only one purpose, that is, to leave aside the eight passes of Gyeonggi such as Hujiao Pass and Bishui Pass around the eastern capital Luoyang, and directly capture Anyi, and then cross the Yellow River to the south and attack Hangu Pass, and the front of the army was directed at Chang'an. Only in this way will the Allies be able to reach Hangu Pass in the shortest possible time.

On the other hand, if the Allied army marches from Henan County, then they will face dozens of cities and dangerous passes along the way, including Hujiao Pass and Bishui Pass, not to mention the delay, and will consume a lot of soldiers, horses, money and food. Yuan Shao simply couldn't afford such a huge expense; And the princes of all walks of life were not willing to attack the city and pull out the fortress one city at a time, because the loss of soldiers and horses was too great, and before they reached Hangu Pass, they were already greatly injured. ”

Before Li Li's words fell, Teng Xiao suddenly realized: "No wonder the princes of the Central Plains want to set the location of the alliance in Hanoi County, it turns out that they have already made up their minds to cross the Yellow River from the south of Hedong County, and then take Hanguguan directly!" Not to mention, it's a shortcut. After they broke through the city of Anyi, they crossed the Yellow River in the south, and then continued to advance more than 100 miles to Hangu Pass. In this way, they can leave aside Henan County, Luoyang Baguan, and Hexi County, and then go straight to Hangu, forcing us to retreat and have to fight a decisive battle! ”

Just as Teng Xiao was speaking, Guo Jia, Ma Chao and Li Zhi and other generals walked into the main hall lightly, and after seeing Li Li's gesture that they did not need to salute, they gently walked behind Teng Xiao and looked at the brocade silk map in front of them.

After Teng Xiao finished speaking, Li Li bowed his head slightly and said, "Yunlong is right. Speaking of which. This incident also complained that I was too negligent and did not get rid of Hanoi as soon as possible, making Hanoi County a nail in the wedge into the territory of Sili, and then became the foothold of the Central Plains Princes' Alliance.

I thought that the princes of the Central Plains would take the lead in attacking Henan County like Chen Liuhuimeng did five years ago, and then advance all the way west, and finally reach Hangu Pass. Unexpectedly, this time the princes' alliance learned the lesson of the last time, and the princes from all walks of life went to Guò Yanzhou and gathered directly in Hanoi County. So as to take Hedong County directly. As a result, the counties of Henan were in vain, and the defensive measures I had ordered Feng Xiao and Xu Rong to do were all in vain, and the allies directly captured Hedong County and then crossed the Yellow River. Then wave the division to the west, forcing our army to fight a decisive battle with it.

This is undoubtedly a shortcut to save money and effort. Accelerate the pace of your march. It can not only save grain and grass, but also avoid casualties of soldiers and horses, and greatly shorten the time for the decisive battle between the Allies and our army. Relatively speaking, the faster the Allied forces marched, the less they lost their troops and horses, and the more unfavorable it was to our army. ”

"What the lord said is very true." Guo Jia continued: "The alliance of the princes is an alliance of interests, and the princes have deep grievances among themselves. If the war does not go well and the Allies are defeated, the enemy and our armies will fall into a stalemate. The longer the two armies held each other, the greater the Allied army's consumption of money and food, and the loss of soldiers and horses. In this way, they can tear through the camouflage of alliance between them and intensify the contradictions and conflicts that they have deliberately suppressed. Even if the Allied forces still do not disintegrate, they will definitely be wary of each other, secretly intriguing, and trying to preserve their strength. As a result, the combat effectiveness of hundreds of thousands of Allied troops will be greatly weakened, and there will even be a sharp reduction in combat effectiveness.

If this is the case, our army will be able to capture fighters and attack at the first opportunity, further weakening the strength of the Allied forces. As long as they are suspicious of each other and distrust each other, even if they don't have the right fighters, our army can defeat them in a head-on decisive battle, and then win the battle of Sili. ”

After a pause in his voice, Guo Jia's words changed sharply: "However, this time the granary was burned and the forage was burned down, but we fell into an extremely unfavorable passive situation. As of today, the allied forces of the princes have captured most of Hedong County in only 16 days, and the only counties that are still in our hands today are the county town of Anyi and the seven township pavilions south of the county town. If Anyi City falls, the entire Hedong County will fall into the hands of the Allies, and our Anyi army will have to retreat to Henan, enter Hangu Pass, and then fight to the death with the Allies! ”

Speaking of this, Guo Jia sighed: "Half a month is too short! Among the nearly 500,000 allied troops, except for the White Polish army, almost all the other princes were not damaged, and they did not consume much food or intensify the contradictions between them, but made them all the way like a bamboo, and their confidence was high, and they became more and more confident that they would be able to defeat our army. This situation is very unfavorable to our army, once the Allied forces cross the Yellow River, we will be forced to have a decisive battle with them, and the biggest taboo of our army at present is precisely to fight a decisive battle with the Allied forces too soon! ”

"Ahh Teng Xiao, Ma Chao and other generals were shocked when they heard this, Teng Xiao looked at Guo Jia with an extremely unhappy expression, and asked angrily: "Why did the military advisor say this?" Do you think that our Xiliang army is not the opponent of the princes' allies, and our army will definitely be defeated in a head-on decisive battle? ”

"Yes, military advisor, your words are clearly to increase the morale of others and destroy your own prestige!" Ma Chao continued Teng Xiao's words, and said with a rather angry expression: "Maybe the time that the military division joined our army is too short, and he doesn't know much about the combat effectiveness of our army's battalions, so he said such frustrating words!" The military division can know that the total strength of our Xiliang Army is as high as more than 400,000, and the comparison of troops alone is comparable to the allied forces of the princes. What's more, our army has 11 main battalions, with a total of 330,000 infantry cavalry, including 210,000 cavalry and 120,000 infantry troops. In addition, our army also has more than 100,000 county soldiers all over the entire territory of Xiliang, and the total strength of the total strength is almost the same as that of the allied forces, or even surpasses.

Although it is impossible for our army to participate in the battle of Sili in this battle, it is still necessary to leave enough troops to garrison Yongliang Erzhou and Gyeonggi Chang'an. However, the number of troops of our army participating in the battle this time was as high as more than 200,000, and all of them were main battle battalions. As for the county soldiers, they are only used as baggage soldiers, only responsible for guarding the city and escorting grain and grass baggage, and do not participate in frontal battles. ”

Seeing the generals glaring at Guo Jia with wide eyes, Li Li said with a smile: "Since we are discussing the military situation, you can speak freely, but remember one thing, we are all family. I allow you to quarrel with each other, but I do not allow you to attack each other, let alone lose your temper and hurt your peace. Do you think so? Hehehe! ”

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

After seeing the anger on the faces of Teng Xiao and Ma Chao subside and their expressions eased, Li Li bowed slightly. The smile is silent.

At this time, Guo Jia said to Teng Xiao and Ma Chao with a calm expression: "The two generals misunderstood what I meant. In fact, like you, I never thought that our army was defeated by the princes and allies, on the contrary, I firmly believed that our army would defeat the allies in the duel between the two armies. However, I don't know if the generals have thought about a head-on decisive battle under the confidence of the princes and allies, even if our army defeats the enemy, can our army retreat with all its bodies? How many soldiers will be lost?

In other words, our army is strong in battle, and the number of war cavalry far exceeds that of the princes and allies, and there will be no phenomenon of killing 10,000 enemies and losing 8,000 in a big war. However, it is absolutely possible to kill 10,000 enemies and lose 2,000 or 3,000. This. You won't deny it, will you? ”

Teng Xiao, Ma Chao and others were stunned when they heard this, and they glanced at each other. He nodded lightly under Guo Jia's burning gaze.

Guo Jia smiled happily. He said: "Well, let's compromise this number, and count the number of people lost by our army under 10,000 enemies as 2,500 people. In order to deal with the battle of Sili, the lord successively dispatched six battalions of war horses, including the Longxiang Battalion, the Flying Bear Battalion, the Wushuang Iron Cavalry, the 20,000 Qinglong Battalion, the 10,000 Jin Yiwei and the Wuwei Battalion, for a total of 130,000 cavalry; In addition, there are half of the foot soldiers of the Wushu battalion and the Wuwei battalion. 20,000 heavy battalions and 10,000 trapped camps, all adding up to a total of 200,000 troops. In addition, tens of thousands of county soldiers were responsible for defending the city and escorting the baggage, because they did not participate in the decisive battle, and were temporarily excluded.

Our army has 200,000 soldiers and horses. And how many people are there in the Allies? In addition to the 40,000 Baibo troops who were wiped out, there are still 430,000 troops! Putting aside the topic of whether our army can completely annihilate the princes and allies, let's just say that if these 430,000 troops are really annihilated by our army, how many soldiers will we lose? Nearly 110,000 soldiers suffered heavy casualties! In other words, after the first battle, only 90,000 of the 200,000 soldiers in the main battalion of our army survived, and most of the casualties were disabled. This is the most optimistic estimate, and the figure based on the minimum casualties can be seen as self-defeating.

Putting aside the combat strength of Hanoi Zhang Yang and the Montenegrin Army, with Cao Cao's 80,000 Qingzhou Army, Lu Bu's 40,000 troops and Yuan Shao's 150,000 Jizhou Army, this is not a weak brigade, but an elite army that has been on the battlefield for a long time. These 270,000 horses alone are enough for us to drink a pot, and it is good that our army can fight with one enemy and two, even if our army has one enemy and three, if we want to destroy them, our army will lose at least nearly 100,000 horses. What about the remaining 160,000 allied troops, our army?

In short, if our army is now in a decisive battle with the Allies, it means that the main battalion of our army will lose at least half of its strength. In the First World War, although our army won, the total strength of the army will be sharply reduced to about 300,000 horses. Do you know what that means?

This means that the strength of our Xiliang army is on par with Liu Biao in Jingzhou, and after Yuan Shao's defeat, as long as he can escape back to Jizhou, he still has nearly 200,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, which is not much worse than our army. The most important thing is that with the huge population of 5 million in Jizhou, he was able to expand his army to more than 300,000 in half a year, and it was effortless. In this way, the situation in the world will be completely changed, and our Xiliang army will lose its dominant position and become a second- or third-rate role, and will no longer be able to deter the princes from all walks of life. ”

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 expand my troops in Xiliang again?" Then I can tell you now, in this battle, if our army wins a great victory, then we can expand our army, because we not only keep the division, but also capture the annexed state, and the number of soldiers and horses will naturally increase.

However, if our army wins a crushing victory, then we will not be able to increase our troops, because although we have won, we will not be able to recapture our subordinates, and the post-war pension of more than 100,000 casualties will be a huge astronomical amount. In addition, the two prefectures of Xiliang are still in the process of tax reduction, and they have a population of less than four million, so they are simply unable to expand the army and increase the army. If we are defeated, then we will completely lose the strength to advance the Central Plains within five years, and after 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. ”

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

At this time, Li Li and Guo Jia glanced at each other, and they smiled knowingly, all without saying anything.

In fact, Guo Jia can not say anything about this tirade, because even if he doesn't say it, when Li Li says the strategy to defend against the enemy, he will inevitably explain the reason to Teng Xiao, Ma Chao and other generals, and Guo Jia's words will also be said at that time. It's just that Guo Jia is extremely smart, and he knows the meaning of the song when he hears the strings, and makes it clear to the generals in advance, so that the generals don't have doubts about Li Li's decision, or even question it. However, after Guo Jia's remarks, Li Li's next decision-making was extremely wise, as if it were natural and logical.

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 sat down, taking care of their own tea.

"I really can't hide anything from Feng Xiao, I haven't ordered the evacuation of Anyi yet, you know in advance. The wisdom of filial piety is really amazing! Sitting side by side with Guo Jia, Li Li exclaimed.

Guo Jia smiled humbly and said softly: "The lord has won the award." In fact, although the lord has not officially ordered the withdrawal of the army, the arrangement this morning has clearly expressed the intention of retreating. In fact, Yunlong, General Meng Qi and others also knew in their hearts that the lord had the intention of withdrawing the army, but they were unwilling, unwilling to admit it, and unwilling to believe it. Because they felt that there was no need for our army to back down at all, and that it was completely possible to start a decisive battle with the Allies face to face, and they would definitely be able to defeat the Allies. It's a pity that they don't understand the good intentions of the lord, and giving in is not fear, but a tactical strategy; Abandoning Hedong County is not a cowardly expression, but to cause friction among the allied princes.

Hedong County is simply not enough to divide up the princes of the Seven Roads, no matter how they distribute it, there must be people who are not satisfied, once the spoils are unevenly divided, the contradictions between them will intensify, and then each has a ghost and is wary of each other. As a result, the allied forces of the princes who had finally united would be disheartened, which would affect the morale of the allied forces and reduce their combat effectiveness. And this is exactly what we want to see the situation the most, once the hearts of the people are scattered, even if the number of Allied troops and horses is large, what is there to fear? ”

"Feng Xiaogao, this is exactly what I want!" Li Li said approvingly with a smile on his face, and then the two gentlemen and ministers nodded at each other and laughed heartily: "Hahaha---!" ”

―――――――――――― (To be continued)(To be continued......