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

"General, are you just going to let him go?"

"Let's go. I owe Liu Bei a life, and this time I've paid it back. From now on, there will only be war between Liu Bei and me."

Upon hearing this, the deputy general looked at Jiang Wei and said nothing.

Compared to the Yinping Trail, Deng Ai in Jianmen Pass is much safer.

Although Cao Ren led an army of 100,000, Deng Ai's defense was impenetrable, with no weaknesses for Cao Ren to exploit.

The two sides could only remain in a stalemate outside Jianmen Pass.

Deng Ai originally thought that nothing would happen and he just needed to keep things stable.

But he didn't expect that Zhong Hui actually lost the Yinping Trail.

The Yinping Trail is the gateway to the rear of Jianmen Pass, and it is just Jianmen Pass. Apart from being rather steep, it has no other special features.

But behind the Yinping Trail, there is everything, and the three county towns have become other people's back gardens.

Compared with strategic locations, Yinping Trail is much more important than Jianmen Pass.

It’s just that the Yinping Trail is not suitable for large-scale marches.

Looking at Zhong Hui kneeling in front of him, Deng Ai really wanted to chop him to pieces, but after learning what had happened, he could only sigh helplessly.

We have to admit that from the beginning to the end, Zhong Hui's choices were the most correct. When he couldn't defend, perhaps taking the initiative to attack was a good way out.

But no one expected that Jiang Wei had already anticipated that Zhong Hui would use this method and had been preparing for it many days in advance.

Deng Ai knew that if he were in the same situation, he would definitely do the same.

No one expected that Cao Cao would actually burn his boats and cross the river this time, and send all his troops forward. There were a total of 180,000 soldiers and horses, even the troops from Yulin County were sent over.

He and Zhong Hui only had 100,000 soldiers at their disposal, and they had to guard two places respectively. Deng Ai was sure that Jiang Wei's ability was superior to both of them.

Deng Ai knew that if he were fighting against Jiang Wei, he would definitely lose.

Deng Ai felt a little regretful. He had already captured Jiang Wei, so why didn't he insist on killing Jiang Wei? Even if his lord and prime minister disagreed, he could have killed Jiang Wei secretly. If Jiang Wei had died at that time, the current situation would not have become like this.

Thinking of this, Deng Ai asked Zhong Hui to stand up first, and then look at the map.

Now, the three counties are like a wide open door for Jiang Wei. Jiang Wei can attack any county he wants at any time.

He only had 40,000 men to defend the city and Zhong Hui. The rest of the generals had been transferred to Youzhou by Gu Rubing.

Thinking of this, Deng Ai made a decision, which was to abandon Jianmen Pass and retreat directly.

However, as soon as this decision came out, it was opposed by all the generals, including Zhong Hui.

Jianmen Pass changed hands repeatedly between them and Cao Cao, and they lost countless people before they finally managed to recapture it.

Now Deng Ai actually asked to withdraw from Jianmen Pass. Doesn’t that mean that all their previous efforts were in vain?
Deng Ai also guessed that once his order came out, everyone would oppose him, but there was nothing he could do about it.

The Yinping Trail was lost, and Jiang Wei only needed to lead his troops out of the Yinping Trail to quickly take the three counties into his hands.

The troops he left in the three counties were no more than 20,000 in total, and they were scattered. It was okay for them to manage the cities normally, but if a real battle came and his opponent was Jiang Wei, I'm afraid no city would be able to hold out for more than an hour.

Once the three county towns are lost, Jianmen Pass will become a dead pass, and these tens of thousands of people will be suffocated to death.

Moreover, they are the last troops of Yizhou, and Jingzhou has no way to resist Jiang Wei's troops. Once he is killed in the battle, the gate of Jingzhou will be opened, and even Sili may fall into Jiang Wei's hands. Then they will lose two or three states in a short time.

Not only Deng Ai, but even Zhuge Liang could not afford such a price.

The only way now is to give up Yizhou completely, gather all the troops, stockpile them in Jingzhou, and create a confrontation.

This will also help control Jiang Wei and prevent him from moving towards Sili.

As long as Jiang Wei dared to send people to Sili, he could attack Yizhou and cut off Jiang Wei's food supply. At that time, Jiang Wei would be a dead chess piece. As long as Jiang Wei had a brain, he would not do such a thing. However, the prerequisite was that the troops in their hands were enough to threaten Jiang Wei.

Thinking of this, Deng Ai threw his sword directly onto the table.

"If any of you disagree, you can just kill me, and then you can do whatever you want. As long as I am alive, everyone must listen to me."

Zhong Hui looked at the map and understood that Deng Ai's choice was correct. The reason he opposed it was that he was unwilling to accept it. Seeing that Deng Ai was so persistent, Zhong Hui didn't say anything.

Seeing that everyone was silent, Deng Ai immediately ordered everyone to start evacuating, and withdrew all the troops from the three county towns back to Nanjun.

Nanjun is close to Hanzhong and Bajun, and poses a threat to the safety of Yizhou's grain route at any time. For Deng Ai and his men, it is a perfect place to attack or defend.

Cao Ren was guarding Jianmen Pass, but he found that there was no sound from the city for a whole day, and he became curious for a moment.

However, when he looked at the city wall, he found that there were still soldiers of the Lie Army standing guard. Cao Ren was a little doubtful. Was he wrong?
After a day's rest, Cao Ren led his army to attack the city again.

However, this time, their army advanced unusually smoothly without encountering any hindrance.

When the first troops climbed up the city wall, they found that the so-called fierce army defending the city were all straw men wearing armor.

Cao Ren immediately realized that he had fallen into a trap.

But looking at the temperature of the firewood in the city, Cao Ren concluded that these people had been gone for almost a day, and even if they wanted to chase them, they would definitely not be able to catch up.

Cao Ren could only guard Jianmen Pass and send troops to support Jiang Wei.

Jiang Wei left a part of his men to guard the Yinping Road, while he led most of the men to the three county towns and took over them as quickly as possible.

Soon, Jiang Wei also saw Deng Ai’s military camp at the junction of Ba County and Nan County.

After investigation, it was found that Deng Ai's army had a total of 60,000 people.

This also made Jiang Wei very cautious and he dared not expand outward.

Jiang Wei's actions are still within Deng Ai's calculations.

After Zhuge Liang heard about the situation in Yizhou, he took a look at the map and immediately mobilized 40,000 troops from the camp to support Deng Ai. At the same time, he wrote a letter of praise to Deng Ai, praising his decisiveness.

With Zhuge Liang's support, Deng Ai was relieved. After all, his decision led to the loss of three counties in Yizhou. He was not sure whether his behavior had destroyed the plans of Gu Rubing and Zhuge Liang.

Little did people know that the reactions of Cao Cao and Liu Zhang were actually within Zhuge Liang's calculations. The reason why he didn't tell Deng Ai was to allow Deng Ai to buy some time for Gu Rubing.

At this time, Gu Rubing had successfully arrived in Youzhou.

At this time, the reinforcements led by Wei Yan and Zhang He broke through the county town guarded by Wang Yue.

Now the army has successfully occupied the entire Dai County, and when Zhang He arrived with reinforcements, Lu Su took Chen Dao and the remaining Bai Li soldiers and rushed to Xu Du.

Wei Yan and Zhang He were standing at the gate of the camp. When they saw Gu Rubing coming, they immediately knelt down.

"My Lord, we are slow."

Both of them knew that Shi Xie had no regular soldiers or generals in the battlefield, only two famous generals, both of whom were swordsmen, but he still delayed their attack speed. The two generals were responsible for this. "Get up, it's not easy for you. With a group of new soldiers, you can take over the entire Dai County so quickly, and the losses are not too big. It's beyond my imagination."

The two men stood up and walked behind Gu Rubing.

After the three of them entered the camp, Wei Yan informed Gu Rubing of the current situation.

Wang Yue led an army of 30,000 and stationed them in Baitu County, Shangjun, blocking their way.

After Wei Yan finished his introduction, he immediately knelt in front of Gu Rubing.

"My lord, I am willing to lead 30,000 elite soldiers to break through Wang Yue's defense within one day."

"My lord, I only need 20,000 elite soldiers to break into the city in half a day."

Wei Yan glanced at Zhang He, snorted coldly, and continued: "My lord, I only need 10,000."

"I only need to..."

Zhang He reacted immediately before he finished speaking.

"Ten thousand? General Wenchang, are you kidding? Ten thousand men attacking a city? Wang Yue has thirty thousand men. Can you do it?"

"It works."

Wei Yan knew that he couldn't do it, but who could blame him for being so quick-witted? By the time he realized what he had said, he had already said it. He just hoped that Zhang He would continue to talk, and then he would just have to agree to let Zhang He go.

Who knew that Zhang He actually reacted and stopped going on, which meant that he could only use 10,000 people to attack the enemy's 30,000 people, and it was a siege war.

"My Lord, I..."

"Okay, ten thousand is ten thousand. Wenchang, I'll give you ten thousand, but you must capture the city for me."

"My lord, I..."

Wei Yan looked at Gu Rubing and had to swallow the words that were about to come to his lips.

After Wei Yan left dejectedly, Zhang He immediately came over.

"My lord, Wen Chang..."

Gu Rubing waved his hand.

"Don't worry. I know it's impossible to take the city with 10,000 men, but Wenchang's 10,000 men are just for show. I really need you to take the remaining troops and prepare for a surprise attack."

"Yes!"

Zhang He heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that Gu Rubing knew that Wei Yan was competing with him.

If Wei Yan was punished because of this incident, I would really regret it.

Soon, Wei Yan reorganized 10,000 people and began to rush towards the Baitu County.

Wang Yue, who was on the city wall, was so angry that he laughed when he saw that Wei Yan only brought 10,000 people.

He didn't understand how much Wei Yan despised him that he dared to attack him with 10,000 men.

"Wei Yan, are you crazy? Do you think 10,000 men can break into my city?"

"Hmph, Wang Yue, come over here if you have the guts. Let's compete one-on-one to see which one is more powerful, your Yuewang Sword or my White Tiger Sun-Devouring Knife."

When Wang Yue heard this, his face instantly turned gloomy.

Wei Yan's provocation has made Wang Yue want to compete.

But when he thought that the city was more important, Wang Yue suppressed his excitement.

"Stop talking nonsense. If you dare, just attack the city. I want to see how you can break through my city of 30,000 with only 10,000 people."

Wei Yan gritted his teeth and finally ordered the drums to be beaten to attack the city.

Ten thousand people rushed towards the city wall, and ladders were set up on the city wall at the first opportunity.

However, with ten thousand men against thirty thousand men, they were still the attacking party.

Wei Yan tried every possible way but failed to climb up the city wall. After three hours, Wei Yan had no choice but to call back his troops.

After counting the troops, Wei Yan found that in just one day, his losses had reached 4,000. If this continued, within two days, all 10,000 of his troops would be wiped out.

Wang Yue was a little excited.

After that day's siege, their own losses were less than 3,000, while Wei Yan had less than 6,000 troops.

Twenty-seven thousand versus six thousand. Wang Yue couldn't imagine how he could lose.

However, Wang Yue's original idea was to defend to the death, but soon a piece of news came, forcing Wang Yue to make other plans.

Shi Xie did not participate in any battles, but stayed in the rear, stabilizing the rear for Wang Yue and his men, recruiting soldiers and raising food and fodder.

However, Youzhou itself is a remote place with a small population and naturally not much food and grass.

Now that Shi Xie occupied Youzhou, he recruited a large number of soldiers to resist Liu Bei's counterattack. In just half a month, he recruited 60,000 soldiers, which was equivalent to one-tenth of the entire Youzhou population.

Including the 40,000 people brought from the Huns, Shi Xie now has a full 100,000 people under his command.

However, Youzhou was so poor that it was impossible to support so many people. In the end, Shi Xie could only report one piece of news: there was no food or fodder.

The location of Youzhou does not seem to be on the side of Sun Jian, Cao Cao or Liu Zhang.

The three princes are not far away from each other. If things like food and fodder are not enough, they can ask the other two parties for supply.

But Youzhou was far away from the three forces. Shi Xie had money, but now he was surrounded by Gu Rubing's forces. As a result, even if he had money, he had no way to buy the food and grass he wanted.

The only solution to the current situation is to stop the war.

After Shi Xie told Wang Yue what he meant, Wang Yue's face suddenly changed.

If you want to stop the war quickly, it is definitely impossible to talk to Gu Rubing. The only way is to beat Gu Rubing's troops back and force Gu Rubing to go back to raise more troops. This will at least give them enough time.

Wang Yue finally set his sights on Wei Yan.

Wei Yan's 6,000 men were definitely not enough for defense. As long as he brought 10,000 men with him, he could surround Wei Yan.

As long as Wei Yan could be captured, it would not be difficult to force Gu Rubing to retreat.

After making the decision, Wang Yue personally selected 10,000 people, quietly opened the city gate in the dead of night, and led them to Wei Yan's camp. (End of this chapter)