"Are the Lu brothers really so powerful?" Cao Cao was surprised when he heard this, and immediately turned his head to look at Cao Chun behind him, but saw him nodding lightly, agreeing with Li Li's opinion.

Seeing this, Cao Cao asked Cao Chun in a low voice: "In the opinion of Zihe, who in the army can defeat the Lu brothers?" ”

"Brother (Cao Ren) is fine." Cao Chun answered.

Then he said with a sad face: "However, my brother is the main general in the army, and it is not appropriate to rush into battle, so I implore the lord to let the last general fight." ”

"This 、、、 me and Zihe went to the front of the battle." After a moment's hesitation, Cao Cao bowed his head. After speaking, he turned his head to look at Li Li beside him, hoping that he would allow him to return to his own formation.

Li Li agreed, Cao Cao immediately bowed, and then led with Cao Chun to ride the five thousand tigers and leopards that were always on the left and right to go straight to the south gate.

Seeing Cao Cao lead his troops away, Li Li's eyelids jumped for no reason, and he felt a faint uneasiness in his heart, and an indescribable sense of crisis came to his heart. However, when he tried to capture this crisis and trace its origin, this strange premonition disappeared without a trace, unpredictable, clueless, as if it had never appeared, or the illusion of a fleeting moment.

At this moment, Li Li looked at the back of Cao Cao, who was gradually moving away, with a cold expression, and a strong murderous intent appeared in his eyes. Although he did not capture the source of this unspeakable sense of crisis, Cao Cao, who led the army back to his own camp in front of him, was undoubtedly the source of the foreboding. It was Li Li who made up his mind from this moment to wait for the opportunity to get rid of Cao Cao in order to prevent future troubles.

Guo Jia, who was standing beside Li Li, was keenly aware of the abnormal demeanor of the lord Li Li. Seeing him staring coldly at Cao Cao, who was gradually moving away, he immediately felt his heart.

Immediately, Guo Jiace approached Li Li and said in a low voice: "The lord has always been a thorn in the flesh of this person. Several times I wanted to get rid of it and then quickly. If you want to get rid of this person, this is the perfect time. On the occasion of this alliance, the lord can eradicate him in one fell swoop, once he misses this opportunity, he is afraid that it will not be easy to get rid of him in the future? ”

Guo Jia has followed Li Li for many years, and he can guess his general intentions just by looking at Li Li's expression, and this moment is no exception. Seeing that Li Li had already murdered Cao Cao. Guo Jia advised Li Li in a timely manner not to hesitate anymore and to make up his mind as soon as possible. Otherwise, it will change later. It was Guo Jia's words that were tantamount to instigating Li Li to kill Cao Cao and get rid of this huge trouble.

Li Li's face changed slightly after hearing the sound, he looked up at Yecheng towering in front of him, and said with a solemn expression: "What Feng Xiao said." I don't know. Why don't you want to take this opportunity to get rid of him. However, Feng Xiao knew that the city in front of him was different from Shouchun City, and Yuan Shao's current strength was far from being comparable to Huainan Yuan Shu. According to a detailed report, so far, there are still no less than 200,000 soldiers and horses under Yuan Shao's command, including 160,000 infantry troops and 50,000 cavalry. In addition, Yuan Shao occupied Jizhou for many years. The foundation is solid and the governance is generous. It is deeply loved by the people of Jizhou and the support of the family. This is the biggest obstacle we are facing in this crusade against Yuan Shao, which seems to be nothing to worry about, but it is actually related to the overall situation and extremely critical. ”

Speaking of this, Li Li sighed softly: "Alas! The reason why I was reluctant to lead the army to attack Jizhou was precisely because the Yuan family had been operating in Jizhou for many years, with deep roots and great power, and there was no one in the world whose princes were unsurpassed. No matter which way the princes want to occupy Jizhou, if they want to uproot it, it is almost impossible to achieve it. It was after I marched south to Yuan Shu, and tried to break through Yecheng with the help of Cao Cao's hand, exterminate the Yuan family, and then I Li Li came forward to clean up the mess, and then took Jizhou into the bag.

Until now, a qiē has been carried out as I expected, but I have a vague feeling that a qiē seems to be too smooth. With Cao Cao's scheming in Yanzhou, it is impossible for him not to think that we are using him to weaken the strength of his soldiers and horses by attacking Yecheng, and prepare for the destruction of him in one fell swoop after the war. However, he knew the true intentions of our waiting, but he still ignored it, and repeatedly transferred troops to attack Yecheng. Why did he do this, and for what purpose? Is it because he Cao Cao has become stupid, or are we waiting to be kept in the dark by him? ”

Guo Jia was stunned when he heard this, and hesitated: "Since the lord is so suspicious of him, why don't you get rid of him now?" At present, with the strength of our army, even if there is no help from Cao Cao's soldiers and horses, we can capture Yecheng, capture Yuan Shao, and recover Jizhou! Obviously, Guo Jia firmly believes that the Xiliang army is fully capable of recovering Jizhou, and there is no need to join forces with Cao Cao at all.

Li Li shook his head lightly, and said slowly while pondering: "Yes, my Xiliang army has hundreds of thousands of troops, and its strength is far stronger than that of the princes of various towns. In terms of overall strength alone, Hugh said that Yuan Shao of Jizhou, even if Cao Cao of Yanzhou joined forces with him to fight against my Xiliang army, I am not afraid. However, Feng Xiaoke never thought that although our army has many soldiers and horses and its combat strength is strong, the battle line is too long, which invisibly greatly weakens the overall strength of our army. At present, the borders of Liaodong, Youzhou, Shuozhou, the Western Regions Trade Road, Hanzhong, and Huainan all need to be stationed to ensure a stable and stable situation. This is one of them.

Second, at present, we are besieging Jizhou on all sides, occupying an absolute advantage, and the number of soldiers and horses is twice that of Yuan Shao. However, once Cao Cao defected to Yuan Shao, then the current situation would be reversed in an instant. At that time, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao's soldiers and horses joined forces, and their troops were as many as 400,000, while the combined soldiers and horses of our army were less than 300,000. Since then, this decisive battle, which will determine the fate of the Central Plains, has been extremely unfavorable to our army, and the outcome is unpredictable, and the result is not optimistic.

If our army is defeated, then the excellent opportunity to occupy the Central Plains in front of us will be a flash in the pan, and all the efforts made before will be in vain. The best result after the war was that our army retreated to the south of the Yellow River, and the vast territory north of the Yellow River would all fall into the hands of Yuan Shao, and even Youzhou and Bingzhou were in danger, and they were always facing the threat of being overwhelmed by the army.

In other words, if our army wants to exterminate the two forces of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao in one fell swoop, it must mobilize more than seventy percent of the troops and horses and concentrate all its efforts on one battle, so that there is a seventy percent chance of victory. Guo Jia looked pensive when he heard this, and nodded slightly, deeply impressed by what Li Li said.

After a pause, Li Li looked at Guo Jia's expression, and then said: "In view of this, I have been thinking about the current situation recently, and I don't ask Cao Cao to unite with us to fight against Yuan Shao, as long as he doesn't lead the army to Yuan Shao, it will be the greatest help to our army." Cao Cao has been by my side lately, and I have many opportunities and countless ways to get rid of him, but in order to take into account the overall situation and the immediate situation, I finally decided not to attack him for the time being. The reason is very simple, killing Cao Cao at this time is equivalent to helping Yuan Shao break the siege. Not only that, but he was also able to reap the profits of the fisherman, and without much effort, he took all the soldiers and horses under Cao Cao's account under his command.

“??? Don't think that this situation will not happen, on the contrary, after Cao Cao's death, his soldiers and horses will inevitably defect to Yuan Shao and swear to fight our army to the death. Because the army under Cao Cao was completely different from the soldiers and horses of other princes, the commanders and generals in the Cao army were all from the Cao clan. Generals such as Cao Ren, Cao Chun, Cao Hong, Cao Zhen, Cao Xiu, and Le Jin are all Cao Cao's direct cronies, and they will definitely not serve me unless they are cornered. So?????? Alas, it was easy to kill Cao Cao, but it was not easy to recruit the soldiers and horses under his command, and it was almost completely impossible. Instead of this, it is better to let him go for the time being, and then go to the district after destroying Yuan Shao. Li Li's words were really emotional.

Historically, the reason why Cao Cao was able to survive repeated disasters was that most of the main generals who followed him came from the Cao family and the Xiahou family. This is a group of hardcore followers, linked by blood, the future and destiny are closely linked, one is prosperous and the other is lost. From this, I have to admit that in the early days of following Cao Cao to fight the country, the Xiahou family and the Cao family were indeed generals, and any one of them was a general. After the Chibi Army, the reason why Sun Quan and Liu Bei did not dare to kill Cao Cao was not to take care of the people of Li all over the world from being ruined, the real reason was that they were worried that after Cao Cao's death, the Cao clan would fight back at any cost, so that they killed Cao Cao with the front foot, and the back foot walked into Cao Cao's footsteps, and it was difficult to protect themselves.

It is precisely because of this that Cao Cao was able to defeat and fight again and again, and finally occupied the Central Plains, laying a solid foundation for the later Cao Wei Jiangshan.

However, there are advantages and disadvantages in the affairs of the world. It is precisely because Cao Wei Jiangshan is built on the basis of the bloody struggle of the Cao family that the later Cao children can get it without hard work, and always control the power of the world's soldiers and horses, which greatly suppresses the career promotion and future development of the rising star.

So when the first group of cronies and generals who followed Cao Cao to fight the country passed away one after another, the talents of the Cao family withered, and the junior qualifications were mediocre but in high positions, Cao Wei Jiangshan was also crumbling. It wasn't until Sima Yi, a foreigner, took charge of the army that the generals who had been suppressed by the Cao clan had thrown themselves into the Sima family, causing the Sima family to easily replace Cao Wei and seize the fruits of the victory of the four generations of the Cao family who had fought hard for a hundred years, and the three kingdoms returned to Jin and dominated the world.

This was the inevitable result of cronyism, and it was also the decisive factor in the eventual demise of Cao Wei's country.

However, time and space rotate, and now this situation of relying on the children of the family to fight the world is extremely beneficial to Cao Cao. Li Li could have easily gotten rid of Cao Cao, but he was quite scruples about the children of Cao Cao's family, worried that after getting rid of Cao Cao, it would inevitably prompt the leaderless Cao army to defect to Yuan Shao, and then completely change the entire battle situation. This was a situation that Li Li did not want to see, and it was also the key reason why he could not make up his mind to get rid of Cao Cao as soon as possible.

Unexpectedly, the sudden sense of crisis just now prompted Li Li to change his mind, making him keenly aware of the threat from Cao Cao. But this impromptu decision will inevitably disrupt all previous plans, so he needs to consider the whole thing at the moment and weigh the pros and cons. Before he thinks it through, he won't reveal half a sentence to anyone, even Guo Jia.

―――――― To be Continued ―――――――――――― (To be Continued......