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

Chapter 609: Seizing the City with a Clever Plan
Gu Rubing picked up Zhang Liao's battle report and took a quick look at it.

"Don't worry, reinforcements will arrive soon. However, since we are in the rear, we can't support too many of you. Please let Zhang Liao take care of it and find a solution."

Tiefutu turned around and prepared to leave.

"Wait a moment."

Zhuge Liang came up to the man with a brocade bag in his hand.

"Give this brocade bag to General Wenyuan and tell him to do as it says!"

The messenger nodded, put the sachet in his arms, turned and left.

"Prime Minister, what should we do next?"

"My Lord, don't be impatient. We will get news soon. Don't stop our attacks and keep putting pressure on them."

A day later, Zhang Liao indeed received the reinforcements sent by Gu Rubing, but the number was not large, only two thousand people. However, these two thousand people were all elite special troops, the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun.

Zhang Liao opened the brocade bag given by Zhuge Liang and frowned slightly after seeing what was written on it, but he soon understood Zhuge's intention.

After burning the brocade bag, Zhang Liao waved his hand.

"Siege!"

With more than 2,000 people attacking Jiangzhou City which was guarded by tens of thousands of people, even if Zhang Liao had special troops, he would definitely not be able to take it.

Cao Ren, who was recovering from his injuries, heard that Zhang Liao was attacking the city.

"Zhang Liao, you little brat, is bullying me too much. You dare to attack the city with such a small number of people? Do you think there is no one in Jiangzhou?"

Cao Ren rushed to the city wall with his wounded body.

Looking at the more than 2,000 people under Zhang Liao's command, Cao Ren grabbed the bow and arrow beside him and directly shot and killed one of the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun.

An hour later, Zhang Liao knew it was almost time.

Immediately order to stop the siege.

As Zhang Liao's troops retreated, Cao Ren became furious and immediately wanted to send people out to hunt down Zhang Liao, but was stopped by Li Dian and others.

"Zixiao, calm down. We are good at defending the city, but we are definitely no match for them in a battle."

After hearing this, Cao Ren finally calmed down.

Although Zhang Liao's attack had no effect, it had already made Cao Ren a little scared.

Because he saw that the two thousand people led by Zhang Liao were not ordinary people.

"My lord has begun to urge us to get food and grass. In addition, Liu Bei's attack frequency has increased. If the food and grass are not delivered, the front line may not be able to hold on."

Hearing this, Cao Ren looked at Zhang Liao in the distance with some embarrassment.

If you want to transport the food and grass safely, you must pass through Zhang Liao's defense line.

Cao Ren gritted his teeth and began to give orders!
"Li Dian, Cao Chun, Cao Zhen, Yu Jin, Le Jin, let's go out of the city together to escort the grain and grass. I don't believe that we can't escort the grain and grass out even if we fight to the death?"

"Zixiao, what about Jiangzhou City?"

"After we leave the city, we will definitely have a bloody battle with Zhang Liao. After this bloody battle, Zhang Liao will definitely not have much ability to attack the city. Jiangzhou City is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Only a small number of people are needed to defend the city."

Zhang Liao waited quietly outside the city.

Soon the city gates were opened.

Cao Ren, carrying food and soldiers, began to slowly walk out of the city.

Originally, Cao Ren thought that Zhang Liao would fight a decisive battle with them, and even the food and grass team was nervously observing the surrounding woods with every step they took.

However, after walking for half an hour, Cao Ren still did not see any danger, and he couldn't help but feel a little suspicious.

Looking far behind him, on the Jiangzhou city wall, the military flag with the word "Cao" on it was swaying in the wind.

Cao Ren thought about it and suddenly thought of something.

"Li Dian, you take the people to continue transporting food and grass. Everyone else, come back with me, immediately!"

Seeing Cao Ren so anxious, everyone didn't dare to say anything more and followed Cao Ren back quickly.

However, just after they walked for an incense stick of time, a group of people appeared in front of Cao Ren.

The leader among them was Zhang Liao.

"Zhang Liao? Why are you here?"

"I heard you want to go back? Since you've already left, why would you go back? From now on, I unilaterally declare that Jiangzhou City is ours."

"What did you say?"

Zhang Liao was too lazy to talk nonsense with him and just waved his hand.

The two thousand eighteen riders of Yanyun behind him rushed out directly.

Cao Ren only brought back more than 10,000 people, just enough for Zhang Liao to trigger a fatal battle.

With the bonus of a desperate fight, more than 10,000 people were like a piece of cake for the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun.

Cao Ren knew that Jiangzhou City was in danger, so he didn't care about these more than 10,000 people at all. He took Li Dian and others as well as a small number of his close associates and rushed to Jiangzhou City.

However, when Cao Ren and his companions arrived at the city of Jiangzhou, they saw that the flag on the city wall was no longer Cao, but Liu. Cao Ren was stunned as if struck by lightning.

If someone really attacked the city, it would be excusable for me to fail to defend it. But now, I lost Jiangzhou City inexplicably. If Cao Cao asks me about it, how should I answer?

"Zixiao, let's go! Jiangzhou is gone!"

Li Dian's urging voice rang in Cao Ren's ears.

It took Cao Ren a while to react. Looking at the people on the city wall, the armor on them was obviously that of the Iron Pagoda people.

Although the Iron Pagoda has a small number of people, it is obviously impossible for them to take the city wall with only more than a thousand people under their command. You know, Zhang Liao's reinforcements may come back at any time.

"go!"

Cao Ren gritted his teeth and finally decided to take his men away.

Not long after, Zhang Liao and his men returned.

The iron pagoda on the city wall immediately opened the city gate.

"General, there is still some food and supplies in the city, but there is nothing valuable left."

Zhang Liao nodded and took out the map.

Now the two cities closest to Fuling have been taken by himself.

As long as we control these two cities, we can effectively block Cao's army's support to the front line.

But the biggest problem now is that he has limited manpower and is simply unable to support the defense of the two cities.

Moreover, Zhang Liao guessed that after Cao Ren left, he would definitely take Linjiang City. He had limited manpower, and even if he took Linjiang City, Cao Ren would probably come back to Jiangzhou City.

If this continues, Cao Ren will have a lot of reinforcements, but he only has these two thousand people.

After considering for a long time, Zhang Liao immediately wrote a letter and sent it to the front line.

Gu Rubing did not expect that Zhang Liao's speed would be so fast. He captured two cities in just a few days.

"My lord, we need to capture Linjiang and Jiangzhou. This way we can completely cut off their food supply. If we capture Ba County, we will have the capital to negotiate with Cao Cao."

Hearing this, Gu Rubing nodded.

This time when he came here, in addition to the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun, the Iron Pagoda, and the Taishan Tiger Bandits for Zhang Liao, he also had a special type of soldier at his disposal, that is, the Qinglong Swordsmen.

Gu Rubing assigned the Qinglong swordsman to Zhang Liao.

This is also the last special force in Gu Rubing's hands.

When the last Qinglong swordsman arrived in front of Zhang Liao, Zhang Liao felt more confident.

Zhang Liao then arranged two thousand and eighteen cavalrymen from Yanyun to guard Jiangzhou City.

He led all the remaining people to Linjiang City.

When they arrived at Linjiang City, Cao Ren was indeed guarding Linjiang City.

Zhang Liao knew very well how many people were around Cao Ren, so he led his men to attack the city. Cao Ren led his men to fight Zhang Liao briefly, and immediately realized that he was no match for the other party, so he simply led his men away.

With only more than 2,000 people, Zhang Liao had no way to guard the four gates in the city. He also had no way to prevent Cao Ren from escaping.

Two thousand Qinglong swordmen were left behind, while Zhang Liao led the remaining Iron Pagodas to camp in the wild, wandering between the two cities, ready to take action at any time.

After learning that their retreat was cut off, the Xiahou brothers immediately prepared to send troops to retake the two cities.

But due to Pang De's fierce attack on the city, the Xiahou brothers had to give up first.

Xun You came to Cao Ren and said a few words in his ear.

Cao Ren immediately looked at Xun You and nodded after a long time.

Then Cao Ren disappeared on the city wall.

No one knew what Cao Ren was going to do.

Zhang Liao's military camp was stationed at the foot of a barren mountain between the two cities.

After inspecting the camp, Zhang Liao was about to go back to rest when he suddenly saw a dark shadow flash by.

"Someone come out!"

When the surrounding Iron Buddhas heard Zhang Liao's voice, they immediately gathered around and looked at him with confusion.

"General, what's wrong?"

"There are outsiders in the camp, search!"

"Yes!"

The surrounding iron pagodas began to search.

After several battles, there were only two hundred people left in the Iron Pagoda. The camp was naturally not very big, and the entire camp was quickly searched.

"General, no one!"

Zhang Liao frowned slightly when he heard this. He even wondered if he had seen it wrongly because he could only rely on torches for lighting at night?

After returning to his tent, Zhang Liao simply washed his face. At this moment, he suddenly felt a strong wind coming from behind him.

As a famous general who had fought his way through the battlefield, Zhang Liao was all too familiar with this feeling. He simply turned sideways and quickly retreated.

Zhang Liao then noticed that there was a man in night clothes standing behind him with a long sword in his hand.

Zhang Liao was not familiar with this sword, but the more he looked at the hilt, the more familiar it seemed to him.

The silver hilt was the same color as the scabbard that had been shot at him, and even the patterns on it were extremely similar.

"Are you the one who attacked me in the woods?"

The man in black did not answer Zhang Liao's words, but waved the sword in his hand and rushed towards Zhang Liao again.

Zhang Liao, who had no weapons in his hands, was at a disadvantage in the battle against the man in black. He made a quick move and was stabbed in the arm by the man in black.

The noise of fighting in the tent finally alarmed the people standing guard outside, and several people immediately ran in.

When they saw the man in black, several people immediately shouted.

"There are assassins."

As the voice fell, the whole camp was in an uproar.

Seeing this, the man in black turned and left.

A group of Iron Buddha people quickly chased after them.

Zhang Liao also took the opportunity to put on his armor.

However, when the camp was in chaos, a man quietly disappeared into the night from outside the camp.

After searching for a whole day and night, the man in black seemed to have disappeared, and Zhang Liao had to give up.

"Okay, stop looking, let's take a rest."

Looking at everyone who had been busy all day, Zhang Liao had no choice but to give up on letting everyone rest. After all, things were not quiet here and Cao Cao might send people to counterattack at any time.

Just one day later, Zhang Liao received a notice that Cao Ren was heading this way with a vanguard force of more than 10,000 people.

Zhang Liao immediately reorganized the Iron Pagoda and prepared to stop Cao Ren.

However, when Zhang Liao was lying in ambush and saw the lineup of more than 10,000 people, he gave up immediately.

Because among these more than 10,000 people, 5,000 are special troops, namely the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, the Grave Diggers, and the Fachou Lieutenant General.

If they were ordinary soldiers, Zhang Liao might not care, but if the enemy had special troops, then his number of people might not be enough.

"withdraw!"

Zhang Liao finally had to give up his plan of sneak attack and quietly followed Cao Ren's team.

After tracking for a while, Zhang Liao discovered that Cao Ren’s target was actually Jiangzhou City.

The two thousand men of the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun were responsible for the defense here.

Soon the two sides started fighting.

Cao Ren directly sent out special troops to attack the city, determined to capture Jiangzhou City as quickly as possible.

However, this also gave Zhang Liao a good opportunity.

Just when all the special troops under Cao Ren's command went to attack the city, Zhang Liao rushed out with the Iron Pagoda in an instant.

The entire military camp was thrown into chaos because of Zhang Liao's sudden appearance.

Cao Ren did not want the situation in the camp to interfere with the siege of the city by the troops in front, so he immediately mobilized all the soldiers in the camp and began to encircle and suppress Zhang Liao.

The Iron Pagoda had a small number of people, but they were all elite. Under the leadership of Zhang Liao, they were extremely flexible, constantly moving around in the camp, charging left and right.

Cao Ren led his men to stop him, but they were no match for Zhang Liao.

In desperation, Cao Ren could only take action to at least stop Zhang Liao, so that the Cao army in the camp could stop the highly flexible Iron Pagoda.

Cao Ren took out his long sword and rushed towards Zhang Liao.

The two sides quickly exchanged blows.

With Cao Ren's action, Zhang Liao's speed did slow down.

Zhang Liao is the leader. If Zhang Liao slows down, the speed of Iron Pagoda will naturally slow down as well.

Thousands of Cao's troops began to surround the Iron Pagoda.

Zhang Liao fought with Cao Ren for several rounds. After forcing Cao Ren to retreat, Zhang Liao discovered that the Iron Pagoda had been surrounded.

Once the speed advantage is gone, even if they are elite, they will not be of much use.

Zhang Liao reacted immediately, broke free from Cao Ren's entanglement, and began to rush out of Cao Ren's camp with the Iron Pagoda.

Just as Zhang Liao was preparing for the next charge, a strong wind suddenly appeared.

Zhang Liao waved the yellow dragon hook sickle in his hand.

The blade blocked a sword.

The owner of the sword was the person who had attacked him before.

"It's you?"

The man said nothing and began a rapid attack on Zhang Liao.

However, it must be said that using swordsmanship on horseback is very disadvantageous. The horse under you is far less flexible than your own legs. Both of them were famous generals, and the man in black launched a sneak attack. Zhang Liao was indeed a little panicked at the beginning, but after adjusting his state, Zhang Liao quickly reversed the previous disadvantage.

After a few rounds, Zhang Liao knocked the sword out of the black-clothed man's hand. When he was about to kill him, Cao Ren rushed over. Zhang Liao had no choice but to change his target and turn to Cao Ren.

The man in black took the opportunity to withdraw from the battle, immediately dismounted, and picked up the sword that fell to the ground.

However, the man in black did not choose to continue riding his horse, but chose to fight on foot.

(End of this chapter)