Choose Liu Bei at the start, I am the only one who knows the plot of the Three Kingdoms.

Xie Heng was standing beside the bed at this time, holding a stick in his hand. When he saw Zhao Yun coming in, he swung the stick in his hand and hit Zhao Yun.

Zhao Yun dodged sideways and then grabbed Xie Yan's throat with one hand.

"who are you?"

"The one who will kill you."

After saying this, Zhao Yun exerted a little force and Xie Ying's neck was directly strangled.

Late at night, a big fire alarmed the entire Xuancheng population.

Because the place where the fire occurred was not an ordinary place, but the Xie family.

After everyone put out the fire, all they saw were corpses on the ground.

Originally, Zhao Yun thought that he had done it very secretly and no one would know about it.

But soon after he left, just when the fire started, someone had already discovered it, and that person was Xie Feng who was outside and about to go back.

He recognized at a glance that the person standing in front of the flames was Zhao Yun.

Xie Feng turned and left without alarming anyone, but he was already thinking about revenge against Gu Rubing.

Early the next morning.

Wei Yi came to Gu Rubing's room and learned that the Xie family was gone. He immediately began to manipulate the Wei family and started to annex the Xie family.

The speed was so fast that by the time the other two families reacted, Wei Xi had already swallowed up the Xie family. Of course, the blockade of the information and the speed of the annexation were also related to Gu Rubing's cooperation.

After resolving the affairs of the aristocratic family, Gu Rubing returned to the front line.

"My Lord, you are back. Is everything going well?"

Gu Rubing nodded and told Zhuge Liang a brief account of what had happened.

"My lord, you are right. It is indeed safer to cooperate with the Wei family than with the Xie family. As long as Zhao Yun does it cleanly and is not discovered by the remaining members of the Xie family, it will be fine."

"Don't worry about this, Prime Minister. Zhao Yun is very clean in his work."

Zhuge Liang nodded, and then seemed to remember something, and hurriedly said: "My lord, Surena is looking for you!"

"Surena? He's not with Zhang Liao, why is he here?"

"From what he said, he is going to take people back."

"Go back? He's ready to leave before he's done anything yet?"

In Gu Rubing's eyes, he really had not had time to do anything except annexing a few counties.

But he forgot that these things alone cost the Anluo army 100,000 men.

"My lord, you should meet him."

Gu Rubing nodded.

Soon Surena followed Zhuge Liang in.

"King Lie, I'm ready to go back. I want to tell you something before I leave."

"Go back? General Surena, we still have a lot of things to do. Why are we in such a hurry to go back? Did something happen in the Anluo Empire?"

Surena shook her head.

"Your Highness, King Lie, our expeditionary force of 100,000 arrived in the Han Dynasty, and less than a month has passed. Now there are less than 10,000 people left. We can't fight any more. If this continues, I'm afraid there will be no one left by my side."

Gu Rubing then realized that no matter how much loss any of his generals' troops suffered, he could replenish them in time, but he had no way to replenish the people from the Anluo Empire, after all, they were not his own people.

"In that case, I won't keep you here, General. I hope we can still be friends next time we meet. Remember to say hello to King Yi."

Surena nodded and turned to leave.

Looking at Surena's back, Gu Rubing made a decision, which was to rest.

And this time it was a complete rest, he had decided not to fight any more.

During this period of time, I have been fighting, which has consumed astronomical figures for my soldiers and food. Now that my goal has been achieved, it is naturally a good time to rest and recuperate. As long as Yangzhou is consolidated, my losses will be replenished soon.

As Gu Rubing calmed down, the Thirteen Prefectures of the Han Dynasty seemed to be quiet.

Five days later.

Gu Rubing washed up as usual and was about to go out.

A soldier came in with a cup of tea in his hand.

"Your Highness, please have some tea."

Gu Rubing nodded, and when he was about to drink, Zhuge Liang came in with Hua Tuo.

"Lord."

After seeing the two people coming, Gu Rubing put down the teacup and looked at Lai Hua Tuo.

Hua Tuo never comes to see me without a reason, and now he has come to me. He must have something to tell me.

When Hua Tuo was about to ask the soldiers to leave, he suddenly smelled something and the smile on his face disappeared instantly.

As the soldier reached the door, he was stopped by Hua Tuo.

"Who asked you to serve tea to the lord?"

The soldier hesitated for a moment and said nothing.

Originally, Gu Rubing was a little confused and didn't know what Hua Tuo meant, but after seeing the soldier's expression, Gu Rubing reacted instantly and hurriedly looked at the teacup beside him.

Hua Tuo immediately shouted: "Come here, take him down."

After hearing this, the soldier immediately drew out his dagger and was about to stab Hua Tuo.

Hua Tuo was okay at playing with medicinal herbs, but his skills were not as good as those of ordinary people. He could only watch the dagger stabbing at him and he couldn't even resist.

However, just as the dagger was about to reach Hua Tuo, a hand suddenly stretched out and directly grasped the dagger.

Drops of blood flowed from his hands.

Hua Tuo hurriedly looked at the owner of the hand and found that it was Gu Rubing.

"Lord!"

"Lord!"

Two voices came out at the same time.

Then several soldiers rushed in and grabbed the assassin to the ground.

Hua Tuo hurried forward and checked the wound.

I finally breathed a sigh of relief, at least there was no poison on the dagger.

After simply bandaging Gu Rubing's wound, Hua Tuo came to Gu Rubing's teacup.

He picked up the teacup, put it in front of his nose and smelled it, then threw the teacup on the ground in front of everyone.

The tea spilled onto the ground, creating some white foam.

Gu Rubing was shocked when he saw this.

If I were to drink this poison, I would probably die on the spot.

"who are you?"

Zhuge Liang walked up to the assassin and stared at him.

Zhuge Liang felt a little guilty at this time. With him around, an assassin was allowed to enter the army. The most important thing was that this assassin actually had the opportunity to get close to Gu Rubing.

No matter how you look at it, this is all my fault as the prime minister and military advisor.

Without saying a word, and just as he was about to bite his tongue to commit suicide, someone rushed out, grabbed his jaw with one hand, and gently applied force. With a "click" sound, the assassin's jaw was completely dislocated.

The assassin completely lost the ability to commit suicide.

Only then did Gu Rubing realize that the person coming was actually Zhang Ren.

"My lord, this is my subordinate. Please forgive me!"

Gu Rubing looked at Zhang Ren and said nothing. Zhuge Liang's tone was unusually cold.

"General Zhang Ren, this assassin has come to the Lord's side, and he is one of your men. If it weren't for Mr. Hua Tuo, I dare not imagine what the Lord would be like now. Do you still want the Lord to atone for his sins?"

Zhang Ren was trembling all over at this time. He had no idea what to do in this situation, but if he really lost his life because of this kind of thing, it would be a great loss for him. He gave up Liu Zhang and joined Liu Bei because he didn't want to die like that, but now it seems that there is no difference.

"okay."

Gu Rubing waved his hand and then looked at Zhang Ren.

"Pass the order down and clean up the barracks thoroughly."

"Yes!"

Zhang Ren nodded and left in a hurry.

Gu Rubing then looked at the assassin in front of him. He knew that no matter what he asked now, the assassin would probably not tell him anything.

Soon, several roaming crossbow captains came in and took the man into the cell.

After everyone left, Zhuge Liang looked at Gu Rubing.

"My lord, this assassin is definitely not one of the so-called princes like Sun Jian and Cao Cao. Instead, he has a style similar to that of the aristocratic families. If we need to track him down, we can start with the aristocratic families."

Gu Rubing nodded. He felt the same way. This method of assassination made Gu Rubing a little frightened and even a little scared. If Hua Tuo had not appeared here, even the legendary strategist Zhuge Liang might not be able to help him.

Gu Rubing was busy all day, but found nothing.

Not knowing when the assassin would appear made Gu Rubing unable to sleep. When he opened the door, he saw Zhao Yun standing at his door.

"Zilong, why don't you go and rest?"

"My lord, I heard that you encountered an assassin during the day. I'm afraid the assassin will attack you at night. I'll be guarding the door, so you can rest assured!"

Gu Rubing smiled and nodded, then came to the yard with a pot of wine, looked at the moonlight, and said nothing.

At the same time, Chengdu, Yizhou.

In a courtyard, there was also a person who was sitting in the courtyard like Gu Rubing, drinking wine and looking at the moonlight above his head.

"Shangxiang, why don't you go and rest?"

Cao Zhang came over.

It has been more than half a month since their wedding, but the two have not lived together and have always slept separately.

"Can't sleep."

Upon hearing this, Cao Zhang sat down opposite Sun Shangxiang.

Cao Zhang had never carefully observed Sun Shangxiang before, but this time, in the moonlight, Cao Zhang discovered that Sun Shangxiang was very pretty, especially when the silver moonlight shone on her, making people want to hug her.

"I just received a piece of news that might be of interest to you. Liu Bei was assassinated!"

When Sun Shangxiang heard the news, the wine glass in her hand fell on the table.

She reacted quickly, picked up the glass, and drank the remaining wine in it.

As the wine went down her throat, she calmed down a lot.

"Oh."

Cao Zhang was watching every move of Sun Shangxiang.

Seeing Sun Shangxiang's panic just now, Cao Zhang's heart seemed to be pierced by a needle.

"So he's your choice?"

Sun Shangxiang seemed not to understand what Cao Zhang said and continued to look at the moonlight.

Cao Zhang took a sip of the wine, then threw the glass in his hand to the ground, grabbed Sun Shangxiang and dragged her into the room.

Sun Shangxiang had no intention of resisting all this. No matter what Cao Zhang did, she was like a puppet, with no expression and no movement.

Cao Zhang held Sun Shangxiang on the bed, and looking at her lifeless eyes, he finally gave up.

Sitting on a chair nearby, he looked at Sun Shangxiang for a long time.

"You go!"

These three words seemed to turn on a switch in Sun Shangxiang.

Sun Shangxiang suddenly stood up from the bed and looked at Cao Zhang with surprise.

"Are you sure you want to let me go?"

"Let's go before I change my mind. I, Cao Zhang, can get anyone I want. There's no need to waste my energy on you."

"Thank you."

After Sun Shangxiang finished speaking, she walked straight outside.

"Wait a minute, take the token with you, otherwise you won't be able to leave Chengdu."

"Thank you!"

Sun Shangxiang held the token without any reluctance.

Looking at Sun Shangxiang's back, Cao Zhang clenched his fists.

"Liu Bei, I hope you won't let her down."

Gu Rubing was drinking and suddenly sneezed.

"My Lord, it's getting cold. Let's go back and rest."

Zhao Yun had been here with Gu Rubing for a long time, but he had never said a word until now.

"Ok."

Gu Rubing nodded, and when he was about to get up and leave, a man hurried over.

"Who is it, stop!"

Zhao Yun stood in front of Gu Rubing and looked at the person running towards him vigilantly.

"My lord, I am the Centurion Captain of the Lower Crossbow Division, Chen Feng."

Gu Rubing looked at the person who came over. Although he didn't remember the person named Chen Feng, he remembered that the face in front of him looked a little familiar.

"Zilong, he is one of us."

With Gu Rubing's affirmation, Zhao Yun finally relaxed.

Chen Feng came in front of Gu Rubing and knelt on the ground.

"My lord, something happened in the palace, His Majesty is missing!"

"what?"

Gu Rubing didn't expect that the emperor would be missing at this time.

"Have you blocked the city gates?"

"It was blocked. After we learned that His Majesty was missing, we immediately blocked the four city gates that could lead out of the city. However, we received the news relatively late, so at that time, we had no idea whether His Majesty was still in Xudu."

"What do you think of these people? What are Lu Su and his men doing? Where is Zhang Ren? Where is Chen Dao? Where are they?"

"My lord, before your majesty disappeared, there were suddenly many more bandits around Xudu for some reason. Almost everyone who wanted to enter Xudu was robbed by these bandits. Even Lord Lu Su was robbed. When General Zhang Ren found out, he took people out to clean up the bandits. So when your majesty disappeared, General Zhang Ren was not present."

"Send the Prime Minister here."

Not long after, Zhuge Liang hurriedly came to Gu Rubing.

Before coming, Zhuge Liang learned about what had happened.

"My lord, this bandit must be related to your majesty's disappearance, otherwise it is just too coincidental. Moreover, this incident should still have nothing to do with Cao Cao and Sun Jian. Our spies in both places have not sent back any intelligence. In addition, Sun Jian is busy organizing Jiaozhou, and Cao Cao is recuperating. It is impossible for them to directly attack Sili."

"So what the Prime Minister meant is the aristocratic family?"

Zhuge Liang nodded. This was the only explanation now. (End of this chapter)