Tongguan is the east gate of Chang'an, bordering the Yellow River in the north, standing on the mountainside in the south, because the Yellow River flows in the south of Tongjiguan Mountain in the pass, so it is called Tongguan.

Historically, Tongguan was built in the first year of Jian'an, but now it is built four years ahead of schedule.

Since the pacification of the Chang'an Rebellion, in order to consolidate the defensive fortresses of Chang'an and the towns of the Central Plains, Li Li mobilized heavy troops to defend the western capital of Chang'an, and the town of three passes, one of which is to build the Tongguan, the east gate of Chang'an.

History is born because of people, and things change because of people.

Historically, the reason why Tongguan was completed was because the Han Emperor Liu Xie fled to Luoyang and was obtained by Cao Cao of Yanzhou, which caused Li Dao, Guo Yan and others to build Tongguan to resist the army of the Central Plains princes for fear of the Central Plains princes' soldiers attacking Chang'an. At the same time, the escape of the Han Emperor caused the counties of Sili to break away from the control of the Xiliang army one after another, and were subsequently captured by Cao Cao. As a result, the Xiliang warlords Li Dao, Guo Yan and others lost the front line of defense of Si Li, and had to retreat to Chang'an to build the Tongguan defense line to protect their own safety.

However, with the strong rise of Li Li of Xiliang, he quickly pacified the rebellion of Chang'an with the momentum of thunder, and then unified the Xiliang army and pacified the entire territory of Xiliang. What followed was that Tongguan was built four years in advance, but Li Li's original intention in building Tongguan was not to save his life, but to build a defensive barrier to Chang'an City in case of accidents. Once the counties of Sili fell, Tongguan would become a fortress to resist the Central Plains princes' attack on Chang'an, and it would also be the last defensive barrier of the Western Liang army.

The world is unpredictable, and the situation is changing rapidly.

Li Li never thought that his original thought would come in handy after two years. At the beginning, he sent Bocai to lead the army into Tongguan, purely temporary, the impression that the geographical location of Tongguan is very important, is the only way for Chang'an to Luoyang, is to guard the throat of Chang'an, is really a place for soldiers to fight. Heavy troops should have been sent to garrison it. But what he didn't know was that Tongguan was just a small town at that time, and there was no strong city to garrison as he imagined, and the importance of geographical location had not yet been revealed. However, Bocai, who was ordered to lead his troops to garrison Tongguan, meticulously carried out the military orders, and there was no ready-made city pass available, so he led his troops to build the city pass.

It lasted for half a year, Bocai led 30,000 cavalry to build the city day and night, and finally built a strong fortress in the small town of Tongguan, firmly guarding the east gate in and out of Chang'an.

Originally, the battle of Tongguan's fame was the battle of Tongguan between Cao Cao and Ma Chao more than ten years later. As a result, it has truly become a battleground for soldiers, and it has been very important in the change of dynasties for thousands of years. However, Li Li led the army to the east this time, and the heavy grain and grass were hoarded in Tongguan, making Tongguan a transit point connecting Chang'an to Sili, and the strategic location was immediately highlighted. However, at present, the Xiliang army has not yet reached the point of relying on Tongguan to defend against enemy attacks. It is the Tongguan camp that is still the rear of the Xiliang Army, and the 30,000 defenders under Bo Cai will also send a part of their troops to follow Li Li this time.

"———Boom, boom, boom!"

At this moment, Li Li stood at the head of the city and looked down at the Xiliang Iron Cavalry who had cleared the customs under the city. I can't help but feel excited. Blood boil.

After two years of training and precipitation, the Xiliang Army has improved a lot compared with two years ago in terms of the mental outlook of the soldiers, the weapons and equipment, as well as the excellent Cheng Cheng and protective gear configuration of the war horses. Now the Xiliang War Cavalry has truly become a brave and warlike iron cavalry, and the Xiliang Army is also a truly elite army.

Two years ago, most of the officers and men of the Xiliang Army had a lot of vices. Such as being arrogant and domineering, penchanting for forcible robbery, ravaging women, and burning, killing and looting, etc., are almost all evil, and they are notorious, and they are really not flattering. Until after Li Li took charge of the army. Military discipline should be strictly enforced, the whole army should be scattered and reorganized, a part of the extremely vicious ruffians should be eliminated, the officers and men of the whole army should be strictly restrained, and heavy rewards and punishments should be given in a two-pronged manner. In this way, after two years of strict management of the army, the mental outlook of the officers and men of the whole army has taken on a new look, the ruffian spirit of the soldiers has disappeared, the phenomenon of lax military discipline has been completely eradicated, and bad habits have been abandoned. Now the officers and men of the whole army have ruddy faces, strong bodies, resolute expressions, orders and prohibitions, and every move is in order, and it is already a well-trained and battle-hardened elite division.

This is the army that Li Li wants to see the most, a Xiliang Xiaoqi that can fight tough battles, dare to fight tough battles, can't be defeated or grinded, but can fight bloody to the end if there is still a breath.

At this moment, Bo Cai, the main general of Tongguan, was standing beside Li Li, looking at the endless stream of war horses in Tongguan under the city, he sighed thoughtfully: "Our army's movement in this Eastern Crusade is not small!" In addition to the Tiger Battalion and more than 10,000 Jin Yiwei who are fighting in the Xiongnu grassland, the lord almost mobilized all the main cavalry battalions to participate in the battle, and now there are only tens of thousands of foot cavalry left in Yongliang and the two states, and the Chang'an Tun soldiers are all out except for the county soldiers. The last general roughly calculated that among the soldiers brought by the lord this time, there were less than 40,000 infantry troops, including baggage soldiers, but there were as many as 150,000 war horses. Although these 150,000 war cavalry are unevenly equipped, they are the strongest combat power of our army, and they can sweep most of the world. ”

After sighing, Bo Cai's tone changed abruptly, and he said in a low voice: "But as far as the last general knows, our army is in a defensive posture in this battle of the Central Plains, and has not seized the opportunity, and has fallen into a passive place. This means that our army has to rely on the defense of cities or passes most of the time, so that the lord can not mobilize so many war horses, and it is far less agile than the infantry army? If the cavalry is used as an infantry army, it is inevitable that some overkills will be used, and it will be disadvantageous to war. These are all the speculative words of the last general, if there is anything inappropriate, please also ask the lord Haihan! ”

"Hehehe!" Li Li laughed frankly when he heard this, waved his hand to signal that Bo Cai did not need to be restrained, and said with a smile: "Wen Xian's words are not wrong, he hits the nail on the head, and he really does it!" It seems that you have not slackened in the past two years, not only have you led the troops well, defended the city meritoriously, but also studied a lot of military books, and you are already a general in charge of your own affairs, congratulations! ”

"The lord has won the prize." Bocai bowed and said humbly: "The last general is dull, when he followed Zhang Jiao to raise troops in the early years, he was illiterate, he only knew how to blindly rush and fight, and finally was defeated and captured. After being captured, he hibernated beside Zhu Jun for seven years, although he waited until Zhu Jun fulfilled his promise, he learned to read and write, and read several military books. After ten years, he has achieved a small success, and now he is fortunate to be appreciated by the lord and can lead an army alone, and he has benefited a lot from picking up the missing and filling the gaps. It's just that I don't know if what the last general said is true, please make it clear. ”

Li Li bowed his head slightly and said with a smile: "It is true that as Wen Xian said, the battle to defend the city does not require war horses, the cavalry is far less agile than the infantry, and the foot fighting is not as skilled as the infantry army. At present, there are a total of 50,000 infantry troops in the two large camps of Anyi and Xu Rong, plus the 15,000 infantry soldiers drawn from you, and the 30,000 soldiers and horses I brought this time, these 100,000 infantry troops are enough to garrison the city pass. However, if you defend it for a long time, you will lose, there is no city in the world that cannot be attacked, not to mention that blindly defending the city is not my Li Li's style of fighting. In other words, if you simply defend against the enemy, even if you can ensure that the city is not lost, you will not be able to defeat the enemy, and at most you will lose both sides, regardless of victory or defeat.

Therefore, if we want to reverse the unfavorable situation of our army's passive defense, we must take the initiative to attack, so that we have a few chances of winning. This time, the Central Plains princes and allies are outnumbered, and if our army only uses 350,000 cavalry to take the initiative to attack, even if it can win, it will only be a small victory, at most it can be regarded as a sneak attack, and it will not be able to inflict heavy losses on the allied forces. I, Li Li, disdain to make a small fuss, and I don't want to tickle the princes and allies, if it is only a sneak attack, I would rather defend the city and refuse to fight. In this way, Wen Xian must have known it? ”

Bo Cai nodded when he heard this, and said in response: "What the lord means is that our army will either not attack, and once it attacks, more than 100,000 war cavalry will all be dispatched to give the allies a thunderous blow!" In this way, no matter how many Allied troops there are, they will not be able to stop the frontal attack of our 150,000 cavalry. If the timing is right and the troops are used carefully, once our cavalry rushes out, the Allies will surely be defeated. ”

"Well, what Wen Xian said is extremely true." Li Li nodded approvingly.

Seeing this, Bo Cai thought about it and said: "The princes of the world all know that my Xiliang Iron Cavalry is brave and good at fighting, and I think they must be wary of this. However, the last general heard that the soldiers and horses under the command of Yuan Shao in Jizhou were quite disciplined in dealing with the cavalry, and the white horse under the command of Gongsun Zan of Youzhou was destroyed in the hands of Yuan Shao. In addition, the Central Plains is vast, with strong bows and crossbows, chariots, and giant shields, which can effectively resist the charge of cavalry. Therefore, the lord has to be guarded, light yì can not send out cavalry, the choice of fighters is very important, once the attack must be hit, otherwise it is inevitable to startle the snake. In the end, if there is anything wrong, please ask the lord to give advice. ”

Li Li smiled happily: "Wen Xian's sentences are reasonable, which impresses me!" As you said, the reason why I have mobilized so many cavalry to go out is not to fight the Allies head-on, but to defeat the Allies in one fell swoop at the most opportune time. If we face each other head-on without giving an inch, even if our army can defeat the allies, it will inevitably suffer heavy casualties, and in the end the gains outweigh the losses. After all, the hundreds of thousands of Allied troops are not decorations, and no one will be slaughtered in a head-to-head duel, and they will inevitably fight with all their might. And this is exactly the last thing I want to see, nominally victorious, but in reality with huge casualties. If this is the case, I would rather not go to war, and fight with the allies to defend the city, anyway, they have a lot of soldiers and horses, and the cost is huge, while our army is fighting on the ground and occupies a geographical advantage. Even if the two armies hold each other for a year and a half, our army can afford to consume them and drag them down! ”

Bo Cai was stunned when he heard this, and then smiled dumbly: "The lord is angry, and he will definitely not respond to such a battle." The last general has followed the lord for many years, and he has never seen the lord fight to the death, and this time is naturally no exception. But then again, this time our army's grain and grass is indeed very sufficient, only our Tongguan camp has more than 400,000 stone grain and grass, and the Anyi camp and Xu Rong camp have more than 100,000 stone grain and grass before, plus the 200,000 stone grain and grass sent by Jingzhou Liu Biao and other princes, all add up to more than 700,000 stones, which is enough to supply our army for half a year. This is a battle of prosperity that our army has never had so far; If we fight with the allies to consume food and grass, we can really afford to consume them, and we can drag them down to death. Hehehe! ”

—————————————— (To be continued)(To be continued......