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

First he pretended to be a bandit to lure people out, then he took Liu Xie away, and then he assassinated himself.

Gu Rubing couldn't imagine which noble family he had offended to deserve such revenge.

However, at this time, Captain Younu brought bad news.

That means the assassin who was captured is dead.

Hua Tuo also rushed over and explained.

It turned out that the assassin also had some poison in his body, inside his flesh. When hit hard, it would spread and eventually poison the person to death. During the interrogation, it was inevitable that the prisoner would suffer.

After Gu Rubing asked everyone to leave, he looked at Zhuge Liang.

"Prime Minister, what do you think?"

"My Lord, Liang thinks that this matter might be related to the four major families in Yangzhou. The Xie family was destroyed by us, and the Wei family surrendered to us, so only the Kong family and the Yu family are the most likely. But according to the rules of the aristocratic families, they should not be so cruel to us."

Zhuge Liang thought about it and finally stepped forward.

"My lord, the most important thing now is to find His Majesty. It seems that it is necessary for you to go back. Now that His Majesty is gone in Xudu, there may be some unrest."

Gu Rubing nodded, and in the end he only took Zhao Yun away.

Five days later, in the suburbs of Xudu.

Gu Rubing and Zhao Yun were sitting on the ground.

According to Zhao Yun's strength, he could reach Xu Du in less than a day, but Gu Rubing could not do that. In order to take care of Gu Rubing, Zhao Yun reduced his speed to a very slow level.

But even so, Gu Rubing still felt that it was too fast. He had hardly any rest along the way, and his physique as a second-rate general made him a little tired.

After resting for a while, Gu Rubing felt that his strength had recovered a little.

"Let's go!"

"Yes!"

However, the two were just about to mount their horses.

A group of bandits rushed out.

Zhao Yun had long sensed that there were people around, but as he was unsure of their identities, he naturally did not say anything. When he saw that they were bandits, Zhao Yun sneered and protected Gu Rubing behind him.

"Leave us your horses and money, and we promise not to kill you."

Gu Rubing only knew that there were bandits outside Xudu, but he didn't expect that there would be so many bandits.

There were only two of them, Zhao Yun and I, and a horse. We thought we hadn't alarmed anyone along the way, but now we were just taking a break and had attracted robbers. It was obvious that these guys were patrolling here every day.

The bandits robbed as they pleased, but now they were patrolling, which meant that there was probably no surplus food on the mountain, and these bandits must have already divided up their own territories.

"No."

Zhao Yun's tone was cold, which made the bandits feel that they were being looked down upon.

"Well, since you don't have it, we'll get it ourselves. Brothers, let's do it."

"Okay, big brother!"

Dozens of bandits walked towards the two men.

"Go ahead, leave the bandit leader here, I want to ask him some questions."

Zhao Yun nodded, and without bringing any weapons, he snatched a knife from a robber and swung it at the crowd rushing over.

The knife flashed, and a strong wind arose. All the robbers were cut in half at this moment.

Only the bandit leader managed to save his life under Zhao Yun's deliberate control.

Looking at his men who died in an extremely strange way, the leader collapsed to the ground, his eyes filled with horror.

Zhao Yun walked straight over and brought the leader to Gu Rubing.

"Lord, fortunately you have lived up to your fate!"

Gu Rubing smiled and nodded, then turned to look at the leader.

"Are you robbers?"

"Yes!"

At this time, the robber was so scared that his voice was trembling even when he spoke.

"When will you bandits go on patrol? And you don't look like bandits at all."

"Sir, we are indeed bandits, and we rarely kill people. We only rob some money and food. We are forced to become bandits."

"Oh? In that case, I still wronged you? You didn't kill that many people, how many people?"

"I……"

At this moment, the leader wanted to slap himself twice. Why was he so rude and had to say this?

Seeing that the leader didn't say anything, Gu Rubing continued to ask.

"I heard that there are suddenly a lot of bandits in Xudu recently. Do you know what's going on?"

"I know, I know..."

The leader nodded hurriedly, but stopped halfway through his words and looked at Gu Rubing.

"If I tell you, sir, will I be able to live?"

"I don't know whether you can survive or not, but I know that if you don't tell me, you will definitely die now."

Upon hearing this, the leader looked at Zhao Yun who was standing behind him and nodded quickly.

"Sir, a while ago, a group of people suddenly came to our side. They claimed to be bandits, and the people behind them were Caozhou Mu and Sunzhou Mu. They also brought a lot of money and food. At first, it was not that no one wanted to target this group of people, but anyone who fought with them ended up with only corpses. Gradually, we acquiesced to their existence."

“But within a few days, this group of people actually started recruiting a large number of people, which attracted many of us from the village. We had no way to confront them, but as soon as we fought, we found that this group of people was very strong and we were no match for them at all. In the end, we could only watch them grow bigger.”

At this time, Zhao Yun came to Gu Rubing's side.

"My lord, this man's strength is about that of a second-rate general. If he says he is strong, it seems that there should be a first-rate general among the other party."

Gu Rubing also thought so, but he didn't quite understand why someone with the strength of a first-class general would become a bandit. Wouldn't it be better to be a general?
"Where is that group of people? Take me there."

The leader shook his head when he heard this.

"We can't find them. That group of people disappeared six days ago. No one knows where they went. That group of people's territory is very large. We dare not invade their territory. We can only guard our small place. That's why they come out to patrol and rob."

"Disappeared?"

Gu Rubing calculated the time and found that six days ago was exactly the time when Liu Xie disappeared.

This group of people must be closely related to Liu Xie’s disappearance.

"How many people are there on the other side?"

"About a thousand people."

"So many people? Is there no one coming to attack us?"

"There was indeed a general a while ago, his name was Xu Rong, but we were all bandits, so when someone came to attack us, we hid in the mountains and no one could find us, so the general had no choice but to leave."

Xu Rong came here and according to his intelligence, it was because of Xu Rong's campaign against bandits that Liu Xie disappeared.

"Okay, come with me." "Ah? This..."

Before the leader could say anything, he felt like he was floating.

Zhao Yun grabbed the leader by the collar and threw him onto the horse's back like a chicken.

Gu Rubing quickened his pace and rushed to the city of Xudu.

At this time, Lu Su and others were already waiting at the city gate.

They all lowered their heads, and everyone knew in their hearts that the trouble they had caused this time was not small. If Liu Xie fell into the hands of Cao Cao or Sun Jian, it would be a big blow to everyone, and might even make all of Gu Rubing's previous efforts go to waste.

Gu Rubing came in front of Lu Su, and before he could say anything, Lu Su knelt on the ground.

As Lu Su knelt down, everyone knelt down as well.

"Please punish me, my lord."

Everyone's voices rang out at this moment.

"Okay, everyone, get up and go back and talk."

Gu Rubing saw that many people were looking over here curiously. Apparently, the news of Liu Xie's disappearance had not spread out. Gu Rubing was quite relieved about this. At least Lu Su and the others knew to block the news first.

Before coming, Gu Rubing was indeed very angry. With tens of thousands of troops, his top think tank, and the defense of the famous general Xu Rong, Liu Xie was still able to escape. Gu Rubing even wanted to kill Chen Dao.

But the bandit he met on the road made Gu Rubing feel a little more open-minded.

Even if Liu Xie killed them, he would not be able to come back, and the other side was obviously well prepared. No matter how many people on his side he had, he would definitely suffer some losses.

Everyone followed Gu Rubing to Prince Lie's palace.

"Tell me, what happened?"

"My lord, we don't know what happened. After we received Chen Dao's report, we rushed to the palace. His Majesty was indeed missing, and we searched the palace but couldn't find any trace of him. Wang Yue and his men also disappeared. We closed the city gates and searched door to door in the name of thieves, but we still couldn't find him."

"Wang Yue is missing too?"

Gu Rubing knew that someone had obviously contacted Wang Yue and took Liu Xie away.

"Xu Rong, I heard that you once led a group to suppress bandits. What did you find?"

Xu Rong's old face turned red when he heard this.

"My lord, I led people to suppress the bandits, but we didn't gain anything. The bandits got the news in advance. When I went there, they already knew about it and hid in the mountains. I had no choice but to return like this."

Just as everyone was talking, a soldier ran over.

"My lord, something bad has happened. A group of people have gathered outside. They seem to know that your majesty is missing. They are blocking your door and want to ask for an explanation."

"How is that possible? Didn't I order anyone not to tell anyone about your Majesty? Who spread the news?"

Xu Rong glared at the soldiers in front of him, as if he wanted to eat them.

"General, it really wasn't us who spread the news. It was a group of mysterious people. I don't know how they knew about His Majesty's disappearance, and they spread the news in all the major inns and taverns in the city. By the time we knew the location and went to catch them, they had already escaped. We came to nothing."

When Gu Rubing heard this, he immediately realized that someone had deliberately spread the news to cause trouble for him.

"Let's go and meet the people."

Soon, Gu Rubing brought everyone to the door.

At this time, many people indeed rushed to Prince Lie's palace.

After seeing Gu Rubing coming out, a commoner bravely asked.

"Your Highness Prince Lie, I heard that His Majesty was lost. Is that true?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, if this is lost, will this still be the capital? Will Sili be in chaos again?"

Listening to the noisy chatter of the people, Gu Rubing stretched out his hand.

The people quieted down instantly.

"Don't worry, His Majesty is not lost. I can assure you that His Majesty will appear in front of you in three days. His Majesty is just sick. I have already found a royal physician to treat His Majesty."

The people are very easy to fool. They don't care whether what others say is true or false. They will only believe what they want to believe. Gu Rubing is the person they want to believe. At least with Gu Rubing, they don't have to worry about war and domineering soldiers stealing their things.

After all the people dispersed, Gu Rubing led everyone back to the mansion.

A man wearing a bamboo hat standing on the street corner was watching all this. He snorted coldly and turned away.

"My Lord, we don't even have a target right now. Isn't three days a bit too rushed?"

Lu Su was also a little embarrassed at this time. He shouldn't have said this. After all, he was the one who lost the person. Now he was given three days to find him, but he still couldn't find him.

"What can I do? Those people will not let us go even if we don't say so. And I believe that the person who planned everything will find me soon."

late at night.

Gu Rubing was resting, and Zhao Yun was guarding in front of Gu Rubing's door as usual.

However, at this moment, a strong wind came from a distance.

He raised his hand and caught the incoming strong wind between his fingers.

"who?"

Zhao Yun looked towards the darkness. He could feel that there was someone there, but since he had to protect Gu Rubing, he did not chase after him.

Gu Rubing was awakened by Zhao Yun's voice. He immediately stood up and rushed out of the room.

"My lord, there was someone in the distance just now, but now that person has left, leaving behind this."

Zhao Yun handed the item in his hand to Gu Rubing.

Gu Rubing saw that it was a flying knife with a note on it.

If you want to see His Majesty, please come to the bamboo forest behind the city alone.

Gu Rubing's guess was correct, the person behind the plot did find him.

"I go."

Gu Rubing threw the note on the ground.

Zhao Yun naturally saw the above words and immediately stopped Gu Rubing.

"My lord, no, the other party has done so many things. Now it seems that the target is you. If you go, you will fall into the trap. If the other party attacks you, it will be too dangerous."

Gu Rubing smiled and whispered something in Zhao Yun's ear.

Zhao Yun was still a little worried when he heard this, but for a moment he couldn't find a reason to refuse.

Ugly time.

Gu Rubing walked out of Prince Lie's Mansion alone, without disturbing anyone, and quietly headed towards the bamboo forest on the back mountain outside the city.

After Gu Rubing left, a man in black came out from the corner. After making sure that Gu Rubing was the only one there, he followed him.

However, just after the man in black left, Zhao Yun followed him.

Gu Rubing left Xudu and headed straight to the bamboo forest in the back mountain. (End of this chapter)