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

According to the report from his spies, Cao Cao mobilized a large amount of food and fodder from Chengdu and sent it to Annan. The food and fodder was enough for 100,000 people to use for half a year.

Cao Cao's total force, even with the troops in Yulin County, barely totaled 100,000. He couldn't send them all here, could he? After checking, it was found that the troops in Yulin County had not decreased, and Cao Cao had not transferred the troops there.

This made Gu Rubing a little worried whether Sun Jian would really cooperate with Cao Cao.

Soon, a letter was delivered to Gu Rubing.

The owner of this letter is Sun Jian.

According to the one month that was set at that time, it was now quickly approaching, and Sun Jian was urging Gu Rubing to go back and prepare for the engagement.

Now that Sun Jian’s position is unclear, Gu Rubing is a little worried that this might be Sun Jian’s trick to trick him back.

Gu Rubing handed the letter to Deng Ai and showed it.

"My Lord, we cannot go back now. We are still unclear whether Sun Jian is a friend or an enemy."

Just when Gu Rubing was hesitating.

a few days later.

According to intelligence, a large number of Westerners entered Annan to garrison and were placed under the command of Cao Ren.

This made Gu Rubing guess that Sun Jian had already stood on Cao Cao's side.

"Lord, what should we do?"

After receiving the news, Deng Ai immediately came to Gu Rubing's room and looked at Gu Rubing with some fear.

He said at the beginning that it was impossible for Sun Jian to really stand on Cao Cao's side and at most give some marginal support. But now it seems that this is not marginal support at all. He has sent an army of 100,000, which shows that Sun Jian is giving his full support.

Sun Jian's rebellion meant that Liang Province was in danger.

Gu Rubing was even considering whether to give up the territory currently occupied in Yizhou and transfer all the remaining people to Liangzhou.

Just as Gu Rubing was thinking about it, Pang De on the side looked at Gu Rubing.

"My Lord, everything we have right now is just our guess. Isn't your engagement with Miss Sun about to begin? We can take this opportunity to go and have a look. With the old general and I protecting you, even if Sun Jian wants to take action, he doesn't have the ability to do so."

Gu Rubing looked at Pang De and Huang Zhong in front of him and felt more confident.

"Deng Ai, Wei Yan, you stay here and make sure to defend Guangyang County for me. Do not attack without orders."

"Yes!"

After explaining everything, Gu Rubing took Huang Zhong and Pang De and quickly rushed to Liangzhou.

When he saw Liangzhou, there was nothing wrong. In fact, there was not even a single spy of An Luo around Liangzhou.

Taishi Ci was also confused about Gu Rubing's sudden visit.

"My Lord, what are you doing in Liangzhou this time?"

"Ziyi, is there any danger in Liangzhou recently? Is there any action from Sun Jian?"

This problem made Taishi Ci feel troubled.

Because he had just received some food and grass sent by Sun Jian, who said that the two countries had formed an alliance, and in order to enhance the relationship with Liangzhou, he specially sent food and grass as a token of consolation.

Taishi Ci didn't understand what Gu Rubing meant, so he told Gu Rubing about the food and fodder.

"forage?"

Gu Rubing immediately asked Taishi Ci to take him to the place where the grain and grass were stored.

"My lord, I have seen all the food and grass sent by Sun Jian. They are all good stuff. There is no sand or other things mixed in to make up the number."

Hearing this, Gu Rubing became even more suspicious and immediately asked people to check whether the food and fodder were poisonous.

But after checking, all the food and fodder were found to be in good condition.

"Lord, what are you doing?"

Taishi Ci looked at Gu Rubing in confusion.

"Ziyi, don't you know that Sun Jian and Cao Cao have joined forces?"

"what?"

Taishi Ci looked at Pang De who was speaking with his eyes wide open.

"My lord, is there any misunderstanding here? It's impossible. I did receive news that Cao Cao's envoy had contact with Sun Jian, but I also received news that the envoy only stayed with Sun Jian for a few days. I don't know what I said wrong, so Sun Jian killed one envoy and drove out the rest."

"After that, we received food and grass sent by Sun Jian. I thought that Sun Jian had a falling out with Cao Cao and he sent us food and grass to express his apology."

"Killed a messenger?"

Gu Rubing indeed did not receive such news, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Liangzhou is quite close to the Anluo Empire, so all the latest information can be obtained. However, Yizhou where he is located is very far away, and all the information is nearly ten days old.

"Yes, my lord. The information should not have been delivered to you yet, but you are here."

Gu Rubing nodded, and after thinking about it for a while, he no longer considered this matter.

Early the next morning.

Gu Rubing took Huang Zhong and Pang De and left Liangzhou, preparing to go to the Anluo Empire.

Taishi Ci was worried, so he immediately mobilized 5,000 soldiers to follow behind them. He also notified the captain of the mobile crossbow army in advance and provided secret protection along the way.

Gu Rubing knew clearly that if the other party really wanted to harm him, these roaming crossbow captains could do nothing except pass on the news of his assassination. However, this was Taishi Ci's kindness after all, and he couldn't refuse.

The group arrived at the Anluo Empire without any danger along the way.

Sun Jian had already been waiting outside the city with Sun Ce and others.

"King Lie, I haven't seen you for a month. How have you been?"

"Haha, he's doing very well. I think King Wu is in better shape now."

After the two exchanged greetings for a while, Sun Jian brought Gu Rubing to the banquet hall.

Along the way, Gu Rubing observed his surroundings and found nothing wrong.

"King Lie, it's almost time. When will our engagement ceremony begin?"

"Let's set it for three days later!"

"Okay, then three days later!"

Sun Jian smiled and nodded.

After saying this, Gu Rubing looked towards Sun Jian with a sharp look in his eyes.

"King Wu, I heard that Cao Cao's envoy has come to your place. I don't know where he is. Can I go and see him?"

"Messenger?" Sun Jian originally wanted to play it safe and avoid the matter, but when he saw the way Gu Rubing was staring at him, Sun Jian knew that he could not avoid it.

"Yes, Cao Cao's envoy did come here, but didn't King Lie know? After I killed one of their envoys, they left. Before leaving, they gave me a lot of gold, saying that they wanted to hire my fleet. After all, they were paying me gold, so why not accept it? Besides, the fleet was just a errand for them, and I only sent them a few times."

Upon hearing this, Gu Rubing suddenly seized a loophole.

“How many times did you send it?”

Gu Rubing knew very well the scale of the Dongwu fleet. It was considered the largest fleet of the Han Dynasty. When they seized Anluo, part of Anluo's fleet was also included in the fleet. Now the scale of the Dongwu fleet was frighteningly large. Even if there were 100,000 people, they could take them away in one trip. Why would they need several trips?

What scale does this have to be? How many trips will it take?
When Sun Jian heard Gu Rubing's words, he wanted to slap himself a few times. He could have just said it once, why did the despicable guy have to say it several times.

"Yes, several times. This is the last time we delivered the population promised to Liu Zhang, as we promised to split Anluo with him."

Gu Rubing looked at Sun Jian, hesitated for a long time, and said nothing more.

At this time, cold sweat had appeared on Sun Jian's forehead, but he wiped it off without leaving any trace.

Soon, a group of dancers came in, and no one mentioned Cao Cao anymore.

After the banquet, Gu Rubing and others were arranged to stay around the palace.

"My Lord, I feel that Sun Jian's words cannot be fully believed. I feel that Sun Jian has something that he doesn't want to tell us!"

Huang Zhong is an old and experienced man. Although he is not as smart as Zhuge Liang, he is older and has met more people. He can tell whether what the other person says is true and whether he has said everything.

Gu Rubing naturally also felt it. At least there were many things that Sun Jian did not say, such as why he killed an envoy?
"Tonight, let's go investigate."

"My Lord, let's just investigate. If your identity is discovered, it will be difficult to explain."

"It's ok."

Now that Sun Jian was standing there for a hundred years, he represented his future actions. Now that he was already here, he had to figure it out. Otherwise, it would be very uncomfortable to be worried every day.

Seeing that Gu Rubing insisted, the two of them didn't know what to say.

Late at night, Gu Rubing quietly walked out of the room. As soon as he reached the street, he saw Sun Ce and a group of people coming to them.

"King Lie, what are you going to do so late at night?"

"Oh, I've been here for a day and haven't seen Shangxiang, so I want to go see Shangxiang."

"Oh? You want to see my sister, that's fine, but Prince Lie, it's getting late now, wouldn't it have a bad influence if you went to see Shangxiang at this time? You two haven't got engaged yet, and going to a girl's boudoir so late at night, no matter what, it won't sound good to tell others, right?"

Gu Rubing smiled and nodded, and Pang De and Huang Zhong returned to the room.

"Lord, this..."

Pang De was about to say something when he was stopped by Gu Rubing.

He knew very well how sensitive the ears of this legendary general were, so he immediately stopped Pang De from speaking and looked outside through the crack in the door.

Sure enough, he saw Sun Ce standing not far away, pretending to say something to his men, but actually looking towards Gu Rubing's room from time to time.

"It's getting late. Let's go back to sleep tomorrow morning and then we'll go look for Shangxiang."

Upon hearing this, the two looked at each other, turned around and walked out of Gu Rubing's room.

Sun Ce did not leave immediately. Instead, he waited outside for an hour, and after making sure that there was no movement, he returned to the palace.

"Cer, how is it?"

"Father, Liu Bei did intend to come out late at night, but I stopped him. The reason he gave was that he wanted to go see Shangxiang, but I always felt something was wrong. Now they have gone to bed."

"See Shangxiang? Why can't you see her at any time? Why must you do it at night? It seems that Liu Bei must have discovered something, or something went wrong when I explained it during the day. So tomorrow..."

Early the next morning.

When Gu Rubing walked out of the room, Huang Zhong and Pang De were already waiting outside the room.

"My Lord, what are we going to do today?"

"Yesterday I said I was going to go see Shangxiang today, so I must be going to see my fiancée."

"fiancée?"

Gu Rubing was too lazy to explain. He led the two of them out of the house. When they were about to go to the palace, he suddenly saw people around him talking and then rushing to a place.

"What are these people doing?"

"I don't know. My lord, this is Anluo. They are all Westerners. We don't understand what they say."

"Come on, let's follow and take a look."

The three of them quickly changed their route and followed the crowd to a location outside the city.

Gu Rubing saw that there was a corpse hanging on the city wall, and there were two notices posted at the city gate.

One speaks Western language, and the other speaks Chinese language.

Huang Zhong looked at the notice and immediately walked to Gu Rubing's side.

"My lord, this man was Cao Cao's envoy killed by Sun Jian. According to the notice, Cao Cao threatened Sun Jian, so Sun Jian killed an envoy to establish his authority. At the same time, he was also telling Cao Cao that he would never form an alliance with Cao Cao."

"Oh? Didn't Cao Cao's envoy get killed a few days ago? Why is the body being hung out now? Who is this for?"

Gu Rubing asked a series of questions.

However, killing the opponent's envoy was tantamount to declaring war with the opponent. Now hanging the opponent's envoy on the city wall was like rubbing the opponent's face on the ground, causing great humiliation. It was impossible for ordinary people to form an alliance with Sun Jian.

This made Pang De and Huang Zhong feel more at ease.

However, Gu Rubing knew clearly where Sun Jian, Cao Cao and himself came from. How could such a thing really make them angry, let alone a great shame and humiliation?

Just when Gu Rubing wanted to let the messenger down from the city wall to see who the other person was, Sun Ce came over.

"King Lie, why are you here?"

"I see everyone is coming here to see the excitement, but I didn't expect King Wu to make such a big fuss."

"My father said that it was impossible to form an alliance with Cao Cao, but you must have known about the news of Cao Cao's envoy. In order to show you our determination, my father found a random excuse, killed one of the envoys, and sent the rest back. It was because we knew you were coming that we hung the envoy's body out for you to see our determination."

Sun Ce was honest. He told Gu Rubing directly about the hanging of the corpse, just for you to see.

Often, words spoken directly like this are the easiest to believe. Even Gu Rubing had some doubts as to whether he had really wronged Sun Jian.

"We are going to go see Shangxiang. Do you want to come with us, Master?"

"I won't go. I still have a mission to complete. But King Lie, please be careful when you go. Shangxiang is very angry and has a lot of complaints about you."

"You have a problem with me?"

"Shangxiang said that you didn't visit her for a whole day."

"I..." (End of Chapter)