Xiaoqi

Amidst the loud laughter, Li Li saw compromise and struggle in Cao Cao's eyes, while Cao Cao saw doubt and understanding in Li Li's eyes.It goes without saying that it is really not easy for Cao Cao to speak to this level.Although this may not be what he said in his heart, it shows the sincerity of his alliance.The so-called killing is nothing more than nodding, even though Li Li is the leader of the alliance.But he couldn't force Cao Cao again and again.Rabbits will bite people when they are in a hurry, let alone humans?

After the laughter, Li Li changed the topic and said: "At present, Yuan Shao is usurping the throne, and he has nearly 20 troops under his command. There are many soldiers and many generals. The foundation is solid. In addition, after he proclaimed himself emperor, he wanted to win over the princes of various towns, and tried every means to win people's hearts. It is really well-intentioned and ulterior motives to strengthen his momentum and stabilize his throne.

Therefore, the current situation faced by our allied army is not optimistic. Although it has twice the strength of Yuan Jun, it cannot get the support and support of the people of Jizhou.Moreover, Yuan Jun has the advantage of a city, so he waits for work with ease.Such is the situation.I don't know if brother Mengde has a good strategy to defeat the enemy? "

Cao Cao shook his head slightly, stroked his beautiful beard and beard, which was more than a foot long, and stared in thought.After a while, he thought about it and said: "To tell you the truth, General Cao, on the way to Liyang with his army, he has been thinking about how to defeat the enemy, and he is still at a loss. However, as the general said just now, we The allied army has twice as many troops as Yuan Shao, so it would not be difficult to break through Yecheng. So Cao has a strategy, I wonder if it will work?"

Li Li's expression was startled, he nodded and said: "Brother Meng De may as well speak out, there is no need to be shy."

Cao Cao nodded happily, and said bluntly: "At present, our allied forces have besieged Jizhou on all sides, and Yuan Shao has become a trapped beast. However, it is better to concentrate our forces to attack Yecheng than to attack the city and village. After all, Yecheng is Yuan Shao's old nest, and also the capital of the false emperor. If Yecheng is breached, the remnants of its forces can be determined. Therefore, Cao suggested that the general should mobilize a large army to besiege Yecheng, and launch attacks from all sides at the same time, day and night, taking turns to attack City; if it is as long as one month, and as short as ten days, it will definitely capture Yecheng and capture and kill Yuan Shao and his son. Once Yecheng is destroyed, other counties and counties in Jizhou will surely surrender upon hearing the news, and the battle will be successful!" After finishing speaking, Cao Cao seemed confident, his eyebrows were beaming, and his expression was quite excited, as if he could break through the city of Ye with just a snap of his fingers, which was extremely contagious.

Li Li was silent after hearing the words, looked at Cao Cao's expression from time to time, and thought to himself: "This is really a trick. It sounds very exciting, but it is not the case at all. The strategy offered by Cao Cao To put it bluntly, it is to concentrate troops and horses to attack Yecheng. Is this strategy still useful? As Yuan Shao's old nest for many years, Yecheng is not inferior to the Luoyang imperial capital in the past, and it is even worse than Shouchun City. Facing such a strong city, the consequences of forcibly attacking the city can be imagined. To exchange the lives of countless soldiers for this city!"

Li Li has always disdained such a storming of a city without regard to casualties.Taking the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers for the sake of a city is really not worth the loss, and a wise man would not do it.

But isn't Cao Cao a wise man?Could it be that he didn't know the huge casualties of the forced siege?Since he is well aware of this, why should he openly offer advice?What is his intention?

All of a sudden, Li Li's mind was full of doubts, which were very difficult to understand.When he had no idea, he turned his head to look at Guo Jia, but saw Guo Jia was also contemplating, his eyes full of doubts.Not only Guo Jia was like this, but even Zhou Yu who was sitting next to him was the same. Then the two of them squinted their eyes and looked at Cao Cao who was drinking tea by himself, as if they wanted to see through Cao Cao's mind and see why he made such a bad plan.

Seeing this, Li Li asked bluntly: "Brother Meng De's strategy is indeed a last resort. I wonder if Meng De has ever thought about the cost of casualties in attacking the city?" If he couldn't figure it out, he asked directly. , This is Li Li's right as the leader. There is no need to pretend to understand. Making full use of the leader's right is the right thing for him to do.

Cao Cao was not surprised when he heard the words, and said calmly: "What the general said is absolutely true. The law of war says: 'Attacking the heart is the top, attacking the city is the bottom; ten is to encircle, five is to attack, double is to fight, and the enemy is to fight. If you can divide them, if they are small, you can escape them. If you don't, you can avoid them. At present, our allied forces are twice as large as the enemy's. We can attack them. However, Jizhou has a vast territory and many cities. It is not suitable to attack one city and one place one by one. The best strategy is to gather and destroy them. In addition, the Allied forces have a large number of soldiers and horses, which consume a lot of money and food, which is not conducive to a long-term war, and should be resolved quickly. In view of this, Cao has no choice but to come up with this bad strategy. Whether it is feasible or not depends entirely on The general made a decision with one word, and Cao has no objection." After speaking.Cao Cao picked up the teacup again and blew on the hot air, sipping the tea slowly and carefully.

Li Li was silent in thought, as if hesitating, when Guo Jia said: "Dr. Cao's strategy is the most timely way to defeat the enemy. Guo Jia admires it very much. Of course, you should know, Mr. Cao, that my lord has been in a row recently. Leading the army to fight, the soldiers under his command have already been exhausted, and they still need to rest for a while before they can fight again. In this way, Mr. Cao led the soldiers under the tent to be the vanguard of our allied army. I don't know what Mr. Cao wants?" , The idea is yours, then you, Cao Cao, will lead the army to fight the vanguard, and wait until all the soldiers under your tent are wiped out.Our army will go to support again.

This is a living spear attacking one's own shield.If Cao Cao refused, he would be teasing the generals of Xiliang.Despise the leader Li Li.Therefore, Guo Jia's words were tantamount to forcing Cao Cao to a corner, with no way out, so he could only bite the bullet and push forward.

"I don't know how the general respects you?" Cao Cao asked respectfully as he looked up at Li Li.In fact, he just wanted to ask if what Guo Jia said could represent your meaning?

Li Li nodded slightly, smiled and said nothing.Seeing this, Cao Cao took a deep breath, as if trying to suppress the anger in his heart, then nodded slightly with a solemn expression, and said: "In this case, Cao is willing to be the vanguard of the former army. However, Cao still has some difficulties, please ask me to help you." The general will help you." Although Cao Cao gritted his teeth and agreed, it was a conditional compromise.

Li Li said indifferently: "Brother Meng De, it's all right, as long as Li can do what he can, he will definitely not disappoint Brother Meng De."

If you want a horse to run, you have to feed it first, so that you can work hard!On this point, Li Li has never been stingy, as he did with Xuzhou Lu Bu and Jiangdong Sun Ce before. The food, grass, supplies that should be given are fully supplied, and they should be properly supplemented with a little more troops, so that they can maximize their potential.

This time when Cao Cao led the army to join the alliance, Li Li did not intend to repeat the old tricks. After all, Cao Cao is a scheming old fox, completely different from Xuzhou Lu Bu and Jiangdong Sun Ce, and cannot be compared.

Unexpectedly, Cao Cao's strategy was to attack Yecheng by force. Although this is the only way to solve the battle quickly, but this strategy was spoken by Cao Cao, but Li Li had to suspect that he had sinister intentions and tried to attack Yecheng. The city battle weakened the strength of the Xiliang army.But Guo Jia interjected at the right time, letting Li Li push the boat along the way, and simply let Cao Cao lead the army to fight in the vanguard.So unknowingly, Li Li repeated the old trick again, and made Cao Cao follow in the footsteps of Lu Bu and Sun Ce, and became a pawn under the leader of the Yuan League.

Seeing Li Li nodding his head, Cao Cao thought about it and said, "First, almost all the soldiers in Cao's tent are infantry, lacking the ability to make quick raids, and the opportunity to fight is fleeting. I hope the general can help Cao with five thousand battles." No matter how bad it is, please ask the general to allocate [-] horses to Cao.

Second, the soldiers under Cao's account have been fighting for years, and there is a shortage of food, grass and supplies, so he begged the general to help him.Thirdly, Cao has limited generals, so Cao would be very grateful if the generals could call in a few capable generals to support them.Fourthly, uh, hehehe!That's all for now. Cao Cao originally wanted to make a fourth request, but he saw Guo Jia, Zhou Yu, Huan Fei, Xu Chu and others had gloomy and scary faces, and Li Li seemed a little unhappy, so he immediately smiled embarrassingly, and stopped talking abruptly.

Seeing Cao Cao's hypocritical smile without changing his expression, Li Li realized for the first time that Cao Cao, despite his age, was a full-fledged black-bellied person with a deep palace, and his emotions were invisible. It was impossible to fathom his thoughts.In addition, this guy is really good at looking for opportunities to reach out, and the lion opened his mouth, five thousand horses and fifty thousand army food and supplies, and openly asked Xiliang generals to go to his tent for use.

"War horses and food are not a problem, and they will arrive later. As for other difficulties, Li is helpless, please forgive me, Brother Meng De."

Cao Cao was quite disappointed when he heard the words: "That's okay, thank you General! After the army rests for three days, Cao will lead the troops to fight!"

Chapter 055 The Stubborn Cao Cao

The spring begins, and the white sun rises slowly.

Within half a month, the battalions under Li Li's command arrived at the Liyang camp one after another, and then slowly marched, approaching Yecheng step by step.

During this period, Cao Cao's army, supplemented by war horses, food and supplies, took the lead in setting out to open roads and build bridges for the follow-up army.

However, to Li Li's surprise, Cao Cao himself did not go ahead with the army, but stayed in the Chinese army and set off with Li Li.

At this point, Li Li's previous suspicions about Cao Cao were swept away. He often talked with Cao Cao over wine, and many opinions coincided with each other.

In fact, Cao Cao is now in his forties, while Li Li is only 25 years old, and there is a generation difference between the two.If Cao Cao's eldest son, Cao Ang, was still alive, he would be about the same age as Li Li, at most two or three years apart.

But Li Li's status and strength are far above Cao Cao's, so he is qualified to discuss friendship with Cao Cao's peers, and Cao Cao has to be careful everywhere and dare not neglect at all.In this way, one of them intends to take the opportunity to figure out each other, and the other also intends to get closer and observe closely, so they are very close to each other and talk happily.

However, they all knew in their hearts that at the moment it was only the interests that drove people's hearts, bringing each other together, and the day when Yecheng was captured would be the time when both sides would reveal their true colors.

Liyang is only a hundred miles away from Yecheng, the army marched fifty miles a day, and they reached the city of Yecheng in three days.

When Li Lili's army arrived, Cao Ren had already set up a camp on the north bank of Zhanghe River, ten miles southeast of Yecheng.

After seeing this scene, Li Li frowned slightly.Immediately ordered the army to camp on the south bank of the Zhang River [-] miles southwest of Yecheng.Afterwards, Li Li ordered the commander-in-chief of the Chinese army to stay temporarily on the south bank, and Gao Shun's troops were stationed in the camp.He also ordered Zhou Yu to lead the Youzhou Camp and the Qinglong Camp to cross the river and enter the camp on the north bank.

Seeing this, Cao Cao, who had been following Li Li all the time, changed his expression slightly, but it was fleeting. Then he followed Li Li calmly, step by step, kept silent, and did not express any opinions.

Since then.After the army was stationed, Li Li's army was divided into two.The Youzhou camp led by Gongsun Zan and Ke Bineng and the Qinglong camp led by Xu Chu and Pound were stationed on the north bank of the Zhang River, while Li Li was stationed on the south bank.There are also three battalions of soldiers stationed around them, namely: Jin Yiwei, Feixiong Ying and the trapped camp.The [-] soldiers and horses under Cao Cao's account were all stationed in the camp on the north bank, and they were charged with the important task of attacking Yecheng first.

The next day, Cao Ren led an army of [-] infantry to attack the city.As expected before the war.Yuan Jun, who defended the city, was extremely well prepared before the battle.Starting from the moat, trenches, pits, antlers, fences, and horse-repelling arrays are densely scattered, and a line of defense with bows and crossbows of more than [-] people was placed under the city in advance, making it difficult for the Cao army who attacked the city to move forward. The cost of casualties.

After sieging the city for five consecutive days, Cao Ren just led his army to break through the layers of defenses below the city, and led the troops to attack the city.For this reason, Cao Jun suffered huge casualties.More than [-] soldiers were lost.Even so, the strong combat power displayed by Cao Jun also caught the attention of Li Li, Guo Jia, Zhou Yu and others who were watching the battle from behind.His tenacity in fighting, rigorous formation of troops, and bravery of soldiers are far above those of Lu Bu in Xuzhou and Sun Ce in Jiangdong.

And Cao Ren, who commanded the siege before the battle, was calm and calm from beginning to end, calm and calm, commanding with determination, with the style of a general.Under his command, even if the siege soldiers encountered Yuan Jun's stubborn resistance and saw the soldiers under their tents fall one by one and die in groups, he still took it calmly, stood still, actively thought about countermeasures, and then increased troops to go up. .From the side of the moat to the south gate of Yecheng, Cao Jun's soldiers usually attack twice in front of each checkpoint to capture it, no more than three times at most.And every time a checkpoint is captured, the casualties of Cao Jun's soldiers are controlled within 3000 to [-] people, without exception.

Such a well-founded siege method really opened the eyes of Li Li's generals, and they were amazed.This also allowed Li Li, Guo Jia, Zhou Yu and others to see the amazing combat power of the soldiers under Cao Cao's command. The infantry under his tent were well-trained, ordered and prohibited, with extremely strong will to fight, brave and tenacious in battle.In particular, the generals under Cao Cao's command are extremely rare. Most of the leading generals are members of the Cao clan, and their loyalty is unquestionable. What is eye-catching is that Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Cao Zhen and Cao Xiu all have the talents of generals. Can line up troops and lead troops to attack fortified positions.

After seeing Cao Jun's siege with their own eyes, Li Li, Guo Jia, Zhou Yu, Huan Fei and others had to admit that the overall combat effectiveness of the Xiliang infantry was slightly inferior to Cao Jun's, especially in terms of siege.This is also the biggest weakness of Li Li's Xiliang army. They are good at field battles but not good at attacking fortified areas. Therefore, they have fought extremely difficult battles in all previous siege battles, far inferior to the brave and good warriors.

And this is also due to Li Li's consistent strategy of destroying the enemy in the movement.For a long time, he didn't care about the gains and losses of a city or a place, and he didn't want to see the soldiers under his command suffer unnecessary casualties in the siege battle, and preserve the vitality to the maximum extent, so he would not order the soldiers under his command to attack the city until he was forced to .Over time, it caused his soldiers to be good at field battles and long-distance raids, but not good at siege.At the same time, after so many years of development and growth of the Xiliang Army, the number of cavalry is increasing day by day, but the infantry is growing slowly.Until now, the number of infantry under Li Li's command only accounted for half of the cavalry, and they had been used as reserve troops for a long time and became a vassal of war cavalry.

Due to this situation, in the previous battle against Shouchun, Li Li had to use Xuzhou Lu Bu and Jiangdong Sun Ce to lead the army to attack the city.

Coincidentally.This time when he moved to Jizhou, he once again encountered such a situation of defending the city. Fortunately, Cao Cao's troops in Yanzhou rushed to the front. Otherwise, Li Li would really be in trouble and would face a difficult choice.However, Li Li was not unprepared for this.The reason why he transferred Gao Shun's camp from Hangu Pass this time was precisely to deal with the very likely tough battle.

It is no exaggeration to say that the trapped camp is the most elite infantry under his command, well-equipped and capable of both offense and defense.In a frontal battle, the trapped camp can confront the powerful cavalry head-on; in a siege battle, the trapped camp can also attack the city with one enemy ten.So far, Gao Shun's camp has been invincible, and they have not lost any battles for many years.

The siege battle was in full swing, the offensive and defensive sides fought fiercely, and the battle was extremely tragic.

After half a month, Cao Cao's [-] soldiers and horses were almost lost.However, Cao Jun also achieved impressive results. Following the south gate, he successively pulled out the defensive lines outside the west gate, north gate and east gate of Yecheng, and climbed to the top of the city several times to fight in close combat with the guarding Yuan army.

Seeing that Cao Cao's soldiers and horses suffered heavy casualties and were unable to fight any more, just when Li Li was about to send the trapped camp to take over the siege, Cao Cao rejected Li Li's kindness without hesitation, and ordered Cao Ren to continue besieging Yecheng while sending troops to attack the city. He returned to Yanzhou, and quickly dispatched [-] cavalry from the rear of Yanzhou and Qingzhou to join the battle.

Li Li was happy to see the success of this, so he no longer insisted, and let the stubborn Cao Cao dispatch troops, while he led more than [-] Xiliang troops to watch from the sidelines.

At this moment, sentry cavalry came to report, and the south gate of Yecheng suddenly opened, and Yuan Jun, who was huddled in the city, finally went out of the city to fight.

After Li Li heard the news, he immediately led his army to the south gate of Yecheng.It goes without saying that Yuan Jun went out of the city to face the battle at this time, no doubt seeing that most of the Cao army under the city had been killed and injured, so he thought there was an opportunity to take advantage of it, and tried to rush out by surprise, intending to completely wipe out the more than [-] soldiers under Cao Ren's troops under the city.

Li Li, who hurriedly led his army, saw a Cao Jun general and two Yuan generals fighting fiercely in front of the south gate from a distance.Looking at his figure, Li Li recognized Cao Hong as Cao Hong at a glance, but the two Yuan generals who fought against him were very unfamiliar, as if they had never seen him before.

Raising his hand to signal the army to stop, Li Li rode his horse to a slope not far away, followed by Cao Cao, Guo Jia, Zhou Yu, Li Zhi, Cao Chun and others.

"General Cao Hong is extremely brave. Now these two Yuan generals are fighting evenly with him. I am quite surprised. Can Meng De know these two?" On the mound, Li Li stared into the distance and asked Cao Cao softly.

Cao Cao replied after hearing the sound: "General, these two people are not unknown, but their reputation was not obvious before. They are a pair of brothers. The man in black armor is called 'Lu Kuang', and they are dressed in silver and white. Person A is Lu Xiang. These two have been with Yuan Shao very early and are highly valued. However, at that time Yuan Shao had Yan Liang and Wen Chou as attendants, so they had no chance of becoming famous and remained unknown. , was buried. It wasn’t until after Yan Liang and Wen Chou died in battle that the Lu brothers had a chance to come into Yuan Shao’s sight, so they were promoted and reused, and they stayed close to each other on weekdays.

"Lv Kuang, Lu Xiang?" Li Li pondered, then nodded thoughtfully, and said softly: "These two people are not weak in martial arts, and they cooperate very well, but they are not among the top-ranking generals. However, they are compatriots Brother, the fighting generals in front of the battle are still inseparable. Presumably there must be something special about them, or the two of them must have an unknown joint attack technique. In this way, after a long battle, General Cao Hong may be in danger. Don't worry!" This is a kind reminder.

With Li Li's rich experience in the battlefield, after a little observation, it can be seen that the two sides in the war are stronger and weaker.In view of the current situation and the fact that he and Cao Cao are allies fighting side by side, it is necessary for him to remind Cao Cao to make preparations in advance to prevent Cao Hong from making mistakes.