Li Jue was almost ruined by Zhang Ji's death at a banquet that intimidated his ministers.

Although he pretended to throw the cup as a sign and killed "Liu Bei's Insider Han Rong" for a moment, he did not dare to play with fire anymore, for fear of breaking the ball and announced the end of the banquet, which made the group of treacherous ministers disperse themselves.

After the banquet was dispersed, Li Jue was depressed and asked in detail about every detail of the military situation brought back from the front, realizing how serious the problem was.

I have to say that Li should not let Wang Fang try his best. Although he lost nearly a thousand cavalry, the overall price was still very cost-effective.

At least after realizing the reality, he avoided letting the 35,000 vanguard troops of the Mei County go directly to give it to free. Li Jue also realized that with his garrison in Chang'an, he would not be able to ensure his victory over Liu Bei.

From the standpoint of the Xiliang Army, we must now delay it, and even if we are embarrassed, we have to delay it. Anyway, Chen Cang has been lost, and Mei County is not in danger yet. Liu Bei has already gained a foothold, so it is meaningless to be eager to reverse.

In the afternoon of the same day, Li Jue issued a command from the General's Mansion to send troops to Hongnong County, asking General Duan Wei, Pingdong, to bring 30,000 troops back to Chang'an. He must set off within five days and be ready to stop within ten days to arrive in Chang'an.

As a result, the garrisons of Hongnong County were reduced to only 10,000. Li Jue asked Duan Wei to gather these 10,000 people to Hangu Pass on the front line, and temporarily give up Tongguan on the second line, and Dong Cheng from Puyangjin divided his troops to defend. In the future, Li Jue would also promise to recruit new recruits in Guanzhong, or let Duan Wei recruit new recruits in Hongnong by himself to strengthen the eastern defense line.

If the warlords such as Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, Zhu Yan really smelled the opportunity and sent troops westward, they would have to let Dong Cheng shrink his defense, give up all the Hedong area, and throw it to the already dying Baibo thief, exchange territory for deep isolation belts, and concentrate their forces against Liu Bei.

Today, the Hedong Baibo thief is much weaker than the same period in history, because Yang Feng and Li Le were killed by Guan Yu a few years ago, and the only ones left are the big leader Guo Tai, Han Xian Hu Cai and others.

After mobilizing the Eastern Front Defense Force, Li Jue calculated the general account again: There were 35,000 soldiers in Ji County, 40,000 soldiers in Chang'an, and 30,000 from Duan Wei. If all of them were included, it would be 105,000 people, which should be about the same size as Liu Bei...

However, judging by Liu Bei's ability to kill Zhang Ji in seconds, the number of troops of the two soldiers is probably a bit of good fortune. Moreover, as a country, it is impossible for Chang'an to keep no veterans at all. Even if 10,000 people are left to defend the city, it is the minimum limit.

"I still have to find a way to join forces with Guo Aduo. Otherwise, even if I defeat Liu Bei, the Chang'an court will probably be a marriage for others in the future and will be controlled by Guo Aduo. He took away a total of 70,000 elite troops, and there were 10,000 Zhang Xiu's men in Wuwei County. If Guo Adu and Zhang Xiu were united, we would have an army of 180,000. With the help of Liangzhou cavalry more than Yizhou's army, the chance of victory would be greater."

Li Jue finally planned like this.

After thinking about it, no one could discuss the generals under his command, and their IQ was not enough. Jia Xu was far away in Wuwei. People like the Grand Marshal Yang Biao were unreliable, and even if they knew the soldiers, they could not ask.

After thinking about it over and over again, he finally decided to find an old colleague who was deposed as a commoner by the emperor - Li Ru, the former Hongnong Wang Langzhongling.

Unlike what is written in the Romance, Li Ru, who was killed in Dong Zhuo and Wang Yun was in power, ran away in advance and hid in the two months when Wang Yun was in power. Wang Yun had a lot of trouble and didn't care about chasing him. Wang Yun had been in power for less than two months in total, so after Li Jue came back, he tried to recommend Li Ru as an official again.

With the recommendation of Li Jue, other followers around Dong Zhuo had to tolerate giving it to the official, but for Li Ru, Liu Xie had sufficient reasons not to give it to the official, because he was the direct murderer of Queen Mother He and the deposed emperor Liu Bian, and he also tried to punish Li Ru.

In the end, Li Jue excused Li Ru and made an excuse, saying, "Li Ru was just acting on the order of Dong Zhuo", and covered up his killing of the Shao Emperor, but he was not embarrassed to ask Li Ru for another official position. For the past year and a half, Li Ru has been idle at home.

Li Jue had not encountered any crisis before. He had a counselor like Jia Xu, who was not as good as Li Ru's historical crimes during Dong Zhuo's period, so he had no need to anger the emperor. He always asked the criminals who were deposed as commoners for advice on national affairs.

This time, the military situation finally came to a burning fire. Jia Xu was far away in Xiliang again, so he had to go to the hospital for illness. In contrast, even if someone reported to the emperor, Li Jue didn't care.

Respect for the emperor is only performed in peacetime. Of course, how can it be beneficial to victory when military situations are urgent? The emperor's mood is nothing.

Li Jue came to Li Ru's house in an ordinary carriage without the honor of the general, without a chariot and cavalry.

It can be seen that Li Ru's residence is not broken, but obviously there has been no paint and decoration in the past year and a half. He looks dirty. He probably knows that he is guilty and tries to hide in the environment and do not do anything that attracts the attention of his neighbors.

Hearing the sound of the carriage, Li Ru personally consciously poked his head in the crack of the door, and then walked out to greet him softly: "How dare you surrender to the general of the chariot and cavalry? Please ask me quickly, it's so rude."

While Li Jue pulled him back to the house, he waved his hand. Several soldiers from the Jinwu Guard held several plates of property and placed them directly on the desk of Li Jue's house, and then retreated.

Li Jue briefly said, "Brother Wenyou, it's not that I have not taken care of you for more than a year. It's because the emperor hates you. I'm also for your own good, so I won't let you show my face. I hope the emperor gradually forgets the hatred of killing your brother. Sooner or later the court will use you."

Li Ru hurriedly bowed: "How dare you expect me to be guilty? The General of the Carriage and Cavalry suddenly surrendered today, so there must be some advice."

He was no longer a fool. He knew that Li Jie had forgotten him for so long, and suddenly brought money to express his condolences today. It must be that Jia Xu was not here, and there was another military confidentiality committee that could not be decided. It was impossible for him to show his diligence without any trouble.

Li Jue directly said the situation: "...Liu Bei's power is great, far beyond our expectations. Zhang Ji's rapid destruction made me dare not fight Liu Bei alone with his own direct troops. I must join forces with Guo Aduo and Duan Pingdong.

But Guo Adu was strangled by Liu Bei to retreat to Chen Cangwei Valley, and he was afraid he would not be able to return to Guanzhong for a while. Our army is now separated from the news, and we don’t even know if he is determined to deal with Liu Bei, or is continuing to attack Ji County with great virtue and want to completely eliminate Han Sui. What can we do? Is there any way for him to work with us to break through Liu Bei’s blockade and join forces to at least form a tacit understanding to attack Liu Bei’s front and back?"

Li Ru touched his rat whiskers and sorted out his thoughts a little: "Guo Aduo is in Tianshui and Zhang Xiu is in Wuwei. The general of the chariot and cavalry wanted to join forces with them, but there were only two ways. Either attack Chencang and open up Weigu. Either attack Jieting and could catch the soldiers from Longxi.

However, Chen Cang's city was strong and was the throat of Liu Bei that he had to defend. There must be Liu Bei's entire army with heavy troops there. If Chen Cang can be captured, it will be able to directly damage Liu Bei's main force.

Therefore, it would be better to use an army to monitor and harass Chen Cang, so that Liu Bei's main force would not dare to move lightly, and then our army would attack Jieting with all its might. In this case, even if Liu Bei had 100,000 troops, he would have no more than 20,000 or 30,000 troops to leave Chen Cang and go deep into Jieting.

Our army is more than 100,000, and two or three thousand people are attacked in front and back. It will be destructive. Once General Guo and Zhang are brought back, we will join forces to attack Chen Cang with 180,000 troops."

This is a typical idea of ​​"concentrating our superior forces, dispersing the enemy's forces, and defeating them one by one", which is in line with the rules.

After hearing this, Li Jue couldn't help but ask: "How can our army monitor and harass Chen Cangcheng's troops, and ensure that they are not surrounded and annihilated by Liu Bei?"

Li Ru: "Our army attracted Liu Bei's main force from Chen Cang. As long as we stationed in Mei County and Beiyuanzhai, we can't stand it. If Liu Bei wants to annihilate this restraining force, we will defend the city to the death, and he will not be able to break it for a while.

Jieting has no city walls, it is just a natural valley pass. Liu Bei hastily seized it, and at most it is to set up some camps to defend. The attacking battalion is much easier than siege, and it is also quicker to fight and decide. If our army and Liu Bei try to swallow the opponent's restraining division at the same time, our army will definitely succeed first, and then the entire army can rescue it."

In a word, it is to bet that "I can swallow your restraining bait before you swallow my restraining bait." The defenders of Ji County harass and restrain Liu Bei's main force, while the defenders of Jieting restrain and obstruct Li Guo's main force, and bet to see who will win first.

There are still risks, but Li Jue has no other choice. Because he has lost the first battle and Zhang Ji is dead, the court is in panic, so he can only gamble this, otherwise it will be chronic death.

In addition, Li Ru’s strategist is not actually a military type, but a political power struggle. He has been unemployed for several years and has no understanding of the situation. He hastily only came up with such a safe deployment of Junluo.

In fact, not only Li Ru, but also Jia Xu can only be regarded as a military and political talent point of 55. A strategist who is really biased towards military strategy must be Pang Tong Fa Zheng, Xun You and Guo Jia, or simply a governor-type general like Zhou Yu and Lu Xun.

Li Jue made up his mind for a long time and finally slapped the table: "My plan is decided! Let's do what Wenyou said. I will send a scout messenger to cross the mountains and walk the path. Be sure to contact Guo Adu and Zhang Xiu.

Anyway, it will take ten days for Duan Pingdong's reinforcements to arrive in Chang'an. In just ten days, it will set out from Chang'an and take the Jing River through Anding to attack Jingyuan, Huating, and Jieting. The entire territory of Anding County is still in the hands of our army. Our army goes north by Jing River, and Liu Bei must not know the direction of our army's dispatch."

Seeing that Li Jue adopted the strategy, Li Ru also fulfilled his thoughts and reminded him out of caution: "If this strategy is implemented, it will take at least ten days for the army to assemble. Duan Wei is diligent in farming, and it is not as easy as the soldiers in Chang'an who are not in production. Perhaps the gathering of troops will be slower. When he is marching on the Jingshui River, he will only arrive at the Jieting battlefield in early March, or even in a half March.

In this way, Li Bei, Wang Fang and others on the front line of Ji County will have to stalemate with Liu Bei for at least one month. If we have no movement, we are afraid that Liu Bei will be suspicious - why did we not react at all after he took Chen Cang?"

Li Jue: "How should this matter be handled?"

Li Ru: "If there is no way, at least arrange the trick of reducing troops and increasing stoves. Let the defenders of Mei County go out of the city every few days, go back to the east, and then enter the city from east to west after dawn.

Every time he pretended to be reinforcements, he would set up more flags in the city and Beiyuan Village, and burn more stoves and cigarettes when cooking. I heard that Li Suxun You were all resourceful, and if he didn't do it in detail, he would be afraid that he would not deceive them.

Anyway, Liu Bei is powerful, and as long as our military exercises are similar, we can continue to spread the illusion: our army has more and more troops in Mei County. I just heard that Liu Bei has a population of 100,000, so our army did not dare to fight in the field before collecting 100,000, and just wanted to defend the city and consume Liu Bei.

As long as Liu Bei believes that although we did not fight with him, the army in Ji County gradually went from 30,000 to 100,000 in this month, we will not suspect that we have made other moves elsewhere.

Moreover, if you are worried about the false trick of increasing troops, Liu Bei cannot see it, we can still use the water route to make a falsification - wasn't Liu Bei at Wuzhangyuan and the entrance of the Baoxie Plank Road in Mazhong Mountain? In winter, I heard that the general was building a pass at the entrance of the valley to block the path of their harassment from the valley, and there was no force attack.

Now it is just right to use Fazhi's eyes and ears in Wuzhangyuan. You can easily see the Wei River on Wuzhangyuan. When we retreated from Beiyuan Village to the east, we clearly let Fazheng see that they were all empty ships, and when we went west to enter the village, there were soldiers all over the place. I don't believe in Fazheng and can't see it. As long as Fazheng sees it, I will try every means to notify Liu Bei."

Although the road to Weinan by Fa Zheng and Ma Chao was blocked by the level Li Jue repaired last winter, it was still possible to send a few messengers. At worst, a few messengers were placed from the Wuzhangyuan Heights to report the message, but the hanging baskets could not be used for large troops to march.

After hearing so many additional strategies, Li Jue thought about it more and more and more, he felt that it was feasible. Finally, he found his confidence back and felt that he was OK again.
Chapter completed!