The cold night is silent, and there are few stars.

A round of crescent moon looms, and the girl who seems to be just cardamom Shaohua replied shyly, wanting to welcome and refuse.

Over Hanya Pass.

Thick smoke fills the night sky, obscuring the stars and the moon.

On the city tower, Li Li led his subordinates to climb the city tower at night, and the railing looked at the sky above Feiyundu dozens of miles away. I saw clouds of smoke rising continuously, and a piece of fire lit up the dark sky, exposing the huge Allied camp under the firelight; In the meantime, the crowd surged, the war horses neighed, the noise was incomparable, and the mixed sound floated up the Hangu Pass Tower with the wind.

"This fire burned well, a fire stabbed on the gully of the princes and allies, and the pain made the allies jump and want to cry without tears!"

"Isn't it? In this cold winter season, it is really enjoyable to come to such a fire, the roasted Allied skin is charred and tender, and you don't need to warm it for half a month! ”

"That makes sense. These days have suffocated us, and now it is finally the turn of the princes and allies to have a headache, happy! ”

"This is a great goodness, and it should be revealed!"

"Hahaha!"

“??????”

On the tower of the city, the generals watched the fire reflecting the red sky, and laughed heartily.

In the pavilion, Li Li, Jia Xu, Guo Jia and Gao Shun and Bo Cai, who were in charge of guarding the city, stood on the railing, looking high and far away, looking at the smoky Feiyundu sky, silent and thoughtful.

"What a fire in winter!" There was a gloating smile on the corner of Li Li's mouth, and his eyes were full of joy, and he sighed meaningfully.

Jia Xu was shocked when he heard this. He laughed: "This fire has completely awakened the Allies, and made them realize clearly what to think about!" ”

Guo Jia was quite surprised when he heard this, and turned his head to look at Jia Xu. He said softly: "Brother Wen He seems to have something to say. Do you mean that the Allies want to escape, or will they evacuate the Loudiyuan camp and cross the river to the east of the river in the near future? ”

"That's right, doesn't Bonghyo think so?" Jia Xu said with a smile.

Guo Jiasi nodded lightly: "It's not that there is no such possibility." However, it is now a cold winter, and Feiyundu happens to be in the wide water area of the Yellow River, and the river surface has frozen. But it was not enough to carry people and horses across the river, and boats could not be launched to cross the river. However, the war ships used by the Allied army on the grain route were only a few dozen, which was far from enough for 300,000 Allied troops and tens of thousands of war horses to cross the river. If you cross the river by chiseling ice. It will take at least a month and a half to withdraw all the Allied forces to the north bank of the Yellow River. If our army takes advantage of the situation and sends troops, it will definitely be able to attack the Allied forces in a half-crossing, even if they cannot completely annihilate them on the river. It can also wipe out most of the Allied forces. Such a dangerous thing. Presumably, the Allied princes would not have thought of it, and did not dare to venture across the river.

Therefore, I do not think that the Allies have the courage to cross the river and retreat north at this time, and it is very likely that they will continue to stay in the original stronghold of Loudi. When the spring flowers bloom in the next year, they will either fight to the death with our army, or withdraw their troops and return to Hedong, and the alliance of princes will be dissolved. ”

Jia Xu continued: "Feng Xiao still has some words that have not been said, that is: even if the allies want to escape. We should also ask our army if they will agree. So far, we have been fighting fiercely with the princes and the allied forces for more than four months. In another ten days, it was a full five months, and the two sides fought in a stalemate, losing hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses. When this battle is fought, the allies want to pat their butts and leave, but they are a little whimsical, and they are foolish dreams! ”

As soon as these words came out, Gao Shun, Bo Cai, and the generals on both sides of the city tower nodded approvingly, obviously Jia Xu said what they thought.

Immediately, Gao Shun, who had always been taciturn, said in a low voice: "As the two military advisors said, at this point in the battle, it is a foolish act for the allies to want to withdraw halfway. As long as they make the slightest move, we will switch and attack, and we will inevitably kill them without leaving a piece of armor, and we will finish the battle in one battle, and completely end the battle of Sili! ”

Bo Cai nodded happily and said, "What Xiao Gong said is extremely true. In fact, as early as half a month ago, our army was able to switch to meet the enemy and attack the army of the princes. However, it has snowed one after another in recent days, and the ground is slippery and frozen, which is not conducive to the rush of war horses, so we have been defending and have not moved. Tonight's Allied grain and grass camp was robbed, which was a great opportunity for us to go out and attack the Allied camp; If you can break through the Allied Dazhai in one fell swoop, you will definitely be able to kill the Allied army, and then wipe out the 300,000 Allied troops in one go. Yes, the last general will ask for battle, please ask the lord to answer! ”

"Hehehe!" Li Li turned around when he heard this, looked at Bo Cai with a smile on his face, and said with a smile: "You yourself said that now that the snow has not disappeared, the slippery and icy ground is not conducive to the battle cavalry to rush and kill, why do you still want to fight?" It must be known that it is the second watch in the middle of the night, and the slippery and muddy road during the day is frozen at the moment, and it is still very difficult to walk, and it is easy to slip, let alone ride out? ”

Jia Xu echoed: "It's exactly as the lord said." Now that the Allied camp is in disarray, it is indeed a good opportunity to attack the Allied camp; However, we can think of this kind of good opportunity, can't Yuan Shao and others think of it? As long as they do not slacken their defense, even if they do not increase their troops to assist in the defense, they can keep our army out of the camp. After all, the 300,000 allied troops are not ornaments, nor are they soft eggs to be ravaged by, although the allied camp is not as strong as Hangu Pass, easy to defend and difficult to attack, but the gate is more than three zhang high, extremely strong. In addition, there are five trenches and fence antlers several feet deep in front of the main gate, which are extremely well defended and difficult to attack.

If I wait for the night to attack the Allied camp and send too few troops and horses, it will be useless; If the whole army is dispatched, the siege equipment cannot keep up, and there will inevitably be heavy casualties. Therefore, for now, it is better for us to wait and see what happens, we have survived more than two months of continuous siege, so why rush.

Keep waiting, the longer you wait, the more beneficial it will be for our army, and the situation of the allies will become more and more unfavorable, even very difficult, and a dilemma. When they are tortured to the point of exhaustion and the morale of the army is weakened, it is the time when our army will defeat the allied forces in one fell swoop. ”

Seeing that Jia Xu had said everything to this point, and analyzed it so thoroughly, Bo Cai no longer insisted, and said stupidly: "The last general originally wanted to lead the infantry army of the Wushu battalion and Xiaogong to go forward to test it, if we can capture the allied Dazhai in one fell swoop, it is gratifying, if the enemy army has already taken precautions, we can quickly withdraw to the pass." However, since the military division has already made a plan, the final general should follow it, how dare he mobilize troops and horses to attack without authorization? ”

Jia Xu and Guo Jia looked at each other and smiled when they heard this, while Li Li, who was looking at the Allied camp with his hands behind his back, bowed his head slightly, and explained with a chuckle: "In this battle of Sili, the reason why our army shrank its forces and defended the pass was not to fear the allied forces, but to minimize unnecessary casualties and preserve strength. Don't look at the great momentum of the Central Plains Princes' Alliance, in fact, although the states and counties occupied by the princes of the seven towns are located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, the actual area is not large, and most of the states and counties in the world are still in the hands of the princes of other towns who have not come to the alliance, and their strength is not weak.

If our army and the allies are defeated and defeated, even if we win this great battle in the end, we will not gain anything, but will be taken advantage of by other princes, and then become the new princes. And our Xiliang army will inevitably be reduced to a medium princely force, and without three or five years, I am afraid that we will not be able to recover our vitality, let alone be able to capture the states of the Central Plains. ”

Speaking of this, Li Li paused and sighed softly: "Three or five years may not seem like a long time, and it doesn't seem to matter, but the situation in the world is changing rapidly. Hugh said that in a few years, even if it is a year or a few months, the general trend of the world will change accordingly. And time is extremely important to the princes of each town, and it is simply a priceless treasure. You might as well imagine how difficult the situation of our Xiliang Army was three years ago, what was the situation in the world, and what is it now? In just three years, we founded the Wuwei Army from scratch, and then annexed the Xiliang Army, unified the Xiliang, and then entered the Central Plains. Now is the perfect time for us to capture the Central Plains, and what will happen if we lose both sides with the Allies, or if we win a crushing victory, thus delaying our development for three years?

Three years! Once these three years are missed, we will completely lose the opportunity to fight for the Central Plains, and we will definitely be surpassed by the princes of various towns one after another, and then become the target of their conquest and extermination. Therefore, this battle of Sili is extremely important to our Xiliang army, winning this protracted war is secondary, and the most important thing is that we must not only win this war, but also preserve our strength as much as possible to avoid excessive casualties of soldiers and horses. Only in this way will we have the ability and strength to continue to lead the pack, further expand our territory, and recruit troops.

Only in this way can our Xiliang Army prosper forever, become stronger and braver the more they fight, and finally sweep away the princes of all towns in the world, clear the universe, and return the world to a bright future! ”

This was the first time that Li Li had publicly stated the strategic intention of this fierce battle, and he had made it clear without concealment. After hearing these words, the Xiliang civil and military forces really understood the intention of the various incomprehensible military orders before, and it turned out that everything they had done before was to preserve their strength and reduce casualties. If Li Li said these words in advance, I am afraid that all the generals will not understand it, and even think that there is no need to do it at all; However, after four months of fierce fighting, the stark contrast between the forces of the enemy and our armies clearly told the generals of Xiliang that the decision of their lord was undoubtedly correct, fruitful, and a wise and wise move.

After more than four months of fierce fighting, the once mighty army of 500,000 princes now has only 300,000 soldiers and horses left, and nearly half of the troops have been lost; It's like dragging a tall and mighty fat man to lose a lot of fat, and the weight loss effect is very significant. In contrast, although the Xiliang Army has also lost nearly 100,000 soldiers and horses, these soldiers and horses are the total number of casualties in a piecemeal and patchwork combination, in fact, the main camp of the Xiliang Army has lost less than 50,000 soldiers and horses.

The comparison between the two is clear at a glance. At this point, Li Li's strategy of luring the enemy deep and exhausting the enemy has been realized, and after the appetizer, the next thing is the feast, the fighter plane has appeared, and the decisive battle is imminent.

―――――――――――― (To be continued......)