Regarding Guo Jia and Jia Xu's praise, Li Li smiled and shook his head, noncommittal, and did not respond positively.

Looking down at the two armies facing each other in front of the pass, he said softly: "What does Wen He think about today's battle, might as well speak up?" ”

Hearing this, Jia Xu looked at the front of the allied formation, frowned slightly, and thought thoughtfully.

"My lord, in my opinion, although the princes and allies are knocking on the pass today, they are not actually deliberately coming to attack the city, and the real intention should be to test the strength of our army and the generals in the army, so as to boost the morale of the allied forces and enhance the confidence of the allied forces in overcoming the passes. In fact, it is just a bluff, showing a formation to deter our army, that's all. ”

After a pause in his tone, Jia Xu chuckled and said, "As for Yuan Shao's act of inviting the Lord to speak in front of the Lord's Array, it is nothing more than taking the opportunity to humiliate me and others, showing his face in front of 300,000 allied soldiers, showing the majesty of his princes and alliance leaders, and increasing his prestige." Unexpectedly, he misestimated the current shape and underestimated the lord's ability to adapt to the battle, and as a result, stealing chickens and rice did not lead to a loss, not only losing face, but also losing two generals. It can be said that being smart is mistaken by cleverness, and the majesty is swept away, and the gains outweigh the losses! ”

Li Li bowed slightly, his eyes were still looking at Guan Qian, and asked Guo Jia casually: "Now that Guan Qian is in a stalemate, what does Feng Xiao think Yuan Shao's reaction will be next, retreat the troops, send generals to call for battle in front of Guan Qian, or order the siege of the city in anger?" ”

"Today's battle is the first battle in which the allies and our army have gone head-to-head in two months, and it is also the first major battle in which Yuan Shao was elected as the leader of the princes' alliance. But at present, the morale of the Allied soldiers has been weakened, and the power of the lord's sword has still made the Allied soldiers unable to slow down. Morale is low, and it is useless to fight again, and the wisest way is to withdraw the troops immediately and return to the camp. Rest for a few days, and then start the siege after regrouping. However, Yuan Shao, as the leader of the princes' alliance, hundreds of thousands of allied troops, came with great fanfare, but the result was to retreat without a fight, and directly collected his troops and returned to the camp. In this way, what kind of face does he have? How to continue to dominate the army of princes, and how to convince hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers? ”

Speaking of this, Guo Jia paused. chuckled: "Maybe Yuan Shao is not the master of the world, let alone the hero of Wen Taowu, but he has a family history and has been in the top position for a long time, and he is well versed in the way of power and the art of controlling the subordinates." At this moment. He must have known that he must not retreat. Even if you bite your front teeth, you have to force the pass, even if you lose tens of thousands of soldiers and horses. Because, for the princes and overlords, the defeat is not terrible, and the loss of tens of thousands of soldiers and horses is not important, it is not a pity; But if you lose face and lose the battle, or even flee without a fight, this is tantamount to digging your own foundation and losing your reputation. It is equivalent to self-defeat.

The stakes and consequences of this, Yuan Shao must know very well. Know it. Therefore, he will inevitably continue to fight next, and as for how to continue to fight with our army, there are only two possibilities for the current situation. First, send the generals under the accounts of other Allied princes to challenge in front of the battle, so as to save morale and reverse the decline of the Allied army. Second, forcibly attack the city, attack Hangu Pass at any cost, even if you know that you can't capture Hangu Xiongguan, you have to attack the city on a large scale.

Of these two possibilities, the former is extremely unlikely, because Yuan Shao will never send his generals to challenge again. Just lost two generals, Yuan Shao is probably still sighing at this time; After all, it is easy to get a thousand troops and it is difficult to find a general, and the death of the general has undoubtedly weakened the strength of the Jizhou army. However, if Yuan Shao did not send his own generals to fight, but forcibly sent other princes' generals to challenge, I am afraid that these princes would also try their best to prevaricate and refuse to fight. In front of everyone's eyes, such a thing as sending generals out of battle to send them to death, the princes of all towns would not do it; Once it is done, it will inevitably chill the soldiers under the account, and then there will be no more soldiers willing to die for them. ”

"What Feng Xiao said is extremely true." When Li Li heard this, he shouted loudly to more than 5,000 war horsemen such as Huan Fei and Zhang Liao who were in front of the pass: "Feihu and Wenyuan listen to the order, the princes and allies are a group of rabble, cowardly as rats, and these people are not worthy of fighting in front of the formation of my Xiliang generals." You don't have to wait any longer, quickly return to the gate! ”

"Ugh!" Huan Fei, Zhang Liao, Xu Huang and other generals who stopped in front of the formation were stunned when they heard this, and immediately turned their heads to look at the city behind them, but saw Li Li beckoning them to collect their troops and enter the customs.

"It's ??? Is this going to collect the troops and go back? Zhang Liao looked at the crowded Allied army formation with great disappointment, and muttered to himself in disappointment.

The look on Xu Huang's face was the same as Zhang Liao's: "The army of 300,000 princes, no one dares to go out to fight, this is also ??? It's inferior, it's incredible! ”

Xu Chuhu's eyes were round, and he glared at the many generals in front of the allied army with a fierce light on his face, and said in an urn voice: "I heard that Yuan Shao's account has 'a unique double sword Hebei Four Court Pillars', and Cao Cao's account also has a 'Cao's Four Heroes' who boast of being a general, Sun Ce Xiao'er calls himself the 'Jiangdong Little Overlord', and there are also 'Four Loyal and Righteous Generals' under him, Lu Bu boasts of being an undefeated god of war and is known as the world's first general, and there are also four brave generals of the three armies under his command; Wait a minute. There are so many pretentious generals, in the opinion of a certain person, these so-called generals and healthy generals are all vain people, one by one, greedy for life and afraid of death, unable to shrink back and refuse to fight, which really makes a certain big disappointment and makes people laugh! ”

Hearing the generals' discussions, Huan Fei and Zhang Liao glanced at each other, and shook their heads in disappointment with disdain on their faces as the allies looked at each other.

"It's all a group of rats, such an unbearable person, it's really not worthy of fighting against Huan! Now that the order of the lord's army has been issued, we do not need to hesitate, and we are immediately ordered to withdraw our troops. Huan is really too lazy to look at these soft eggs anymore, let's go, go back to the city! ”

In the angry shouts, Huan Fei controlled the Golden Lion Beast and turned around and left, without any love. When the other generals heard this, they also glanced at the huge Allied forces with disdain, and then turned around on their horses and waved their horses to retreat to the pass.

"The lord is clever. This sentence of 'don't have to wait any longer' was like a slap in the face of Yuan Shao and the princes of various towns, humiliating them severely, and then pouring another basin of cold water on the already demoralized Allied soldiers, making them completely lose their fighting spirit. It's a clever move, just in time, just right! Hehehe???" Guo Jia said with a smile.

Li Li smiled lightly, shook his head lightly, and said, "The facts are all there, and it can't be talked about." What makes things worse is not necessarily a bad thing, as the saying goes, things must be reversed, and mourning soldiers will win. If Yuan Shao and Cao Cao and others can skillfully take advantage of the shame in the hearts of the Allied soldiers and turn the humiliation into motivation, they may be able to cause us a lot of trouble, and even bring huge casualties. It's a pity that this army in front of him is not the soldiers and horses of the princes of a certain town, but an alliance formed by the princes of the seven towns. In this case, it is almost impossible to turn the situation around and boost morale in an instant. ”

Before Li Li's words fell, Jia Xu continued: "Because of this, the lord ordered Huan Fei and the others to withdraw their troops, completely cut off their opportunity to revive their morale, and then forced them to attack the pass. Since the construction of Hangu Pass in the Spring and Autumn Period, there has never been a precedent for being broken in one fell swoop, and even if it is unprepared, there is no precedent of a single blow. What's more, now that our army is guarding the pass with more than 100,000 soldiers, Hugh said that the 300,000 allied troops can't break through this pass, even if there are millions of troops in front of the pass, they don't want to step into the pass for half a step within half a year! ”

"What Wen He said is good." Li Li bowed his head happily, watching Huan Fei and the others under the city retreat to the gate without hurry, his eyes were deep and cold.

"It has been two months since the princes met the alliance, but there have been no heavy casualties, the soldiers and horses have not been damaged, and the strength has not been damaged.

Therefore, this time I want to force Yuan Shao to order the siege of the city, and our army will take advantage of the Xiongguan to kill and injure a large number of the living forces of the allied army, so as to weaken the strength of the allied army. The more soldiers and horses are lost, the more worried the princes of each town will become, and they will inevitably intrigue in secret, breeding more and greater contradictions. As long as there are many contradictions between them, it means that the resistance to our army's victory will become smaller and smaller, and the casualties of soldiers will be reduced to an acceptable range. When the contradictions between the princes and allies are completely intensified, it is the time for us to take the initiative; If you don't move, you will win, and you will completely defeat the princes' allies in one go, and destroy the princes of each town until the final victory is achieved! ”

――――――――――

In front of the Allied front.

Seeing the generals under Li Li's command swaggering back to the pass, and then closing the city gate, Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, Lu Bu and other allied princes in front of the Le Ma array were full of anger, and their cheeks were bulging with anger.

For a moment, Yuan Shao wanted to wave his troops to storm the city gate, directly seize the city gate, and then fight a bloody battle with the Xiliang army and capture Hangu Pass in one fell swoop. It's a pity that this kind of idea can only be thought about, and the implementation will inevitably be very different and counterproductive, not only will it not be able to capture the city gate, but it will float in front of the gate and be defeated.

Look at the defensive equipment on the head of the city, there are as many as 300 bed crossbows above the city gate alone, and 4,000 archers on each side of the city head, and at least a thousand Allied soldiers can be killed under a single round of arrows. And that's just the tip of the iceberg of the city's defenses, as well as mountains of rocks and rolling logs, and hundreds of steaming pans, which are definitely as lethal as the giant crossbow arrows.

These dazzling defensive equipment are tantamount to Senluo Hell for the Allied soldiers on the besieging side. Sharp arrows ready to be fired, pieces of rocks and rolling logs the size of clay pots, and boiling water emitting stench, like a soul hook rakshasa, waiting for the Allied soldiers to take the initiative to send them to death.

"Now that the situation is deadlocked, what is Mengde's opinion?" Yuan Shao, who had already made up his mind in his heart, turned his head and asked Cao Cao beside him in a loud voice.

――――――――――― (To be continued......)