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

He hurriedly came in front of Gu Rubing and then knelt down.

"My Lord, why are you here?"

"Soldiers are fighting hard here. As your lord, I must come over and share the joys and sorrows with you!"

After saying this, Gu Rubing helped Ma Chao up.

"But my lord, if we rush to Jiangzhou City without logistical support, we..."

"Linjiang City is no longer defensible. The strength of the troops and the condition of the city walls are not suitable for us to continue defending it. Retreat is inevitable. But if we retreat to Jingzhou, and the Prime Minister is unable to send troops to support us, we will not be able to defend Jingzhou, and Jiangzhou City will surely be destroyed. But if we go there, Jiangzhou City may still have a chance to survive. With Jiangzhou City, Cao Cao will not dare to send troops to attack Jingzhou."

After hearing Gu Rubing's analysis, Ma Chao felt it made sense, but he did not have much confidence in defending Jiangzhou City.

With no pursuers, Gu Rubing and his men traveled at full speed and reached Jiangzhou City in just two days.

Deng Ai personally rushed to the outside of the city to greet him.

The moment he saw Gu Rubing, Deng Ai knelt down immediately.

"My lord, I have failed in my mission and put you in danger. I deserve death!"

Hearing this, Gu Rubing helped Deng Ai up.

“Haha, Shi Zai, what are you doing? Who said you failed in your mission? With such a huge difference in the number of soldiers and generals on both sides, you have not lost a single city and have held out for such a long time. It is already very difficult for you.”

Deng Ai looked at Gu Rubing with red eyes, and then he quickly lowered his head.

Gu Rubing patted Deng Ai on the shoulder, then led the army and slowly entered the city.

After entering the city lord's mansion, Deng Ai calmed down and then immediately introduced the situation to Gu Rubi.

"My lord, outside Jiangzhou City, there are Xiahou brothers and generals Cao Ren, Jiang Wei and others stationed, with a force of about 60,000. So far, we have only experienced a large-scale siege, but I stopped it. After that, they have no intention of attacking the city. It feels like they want to trap us to death here."

Gu Rubing nodded after hearing this. Given the current situation in Jiangzhou City, even he would choose to besiege it. This was much more valuable than attacking the city. There was probably only one person who could use such a method, and that was Jiang Wei.

"How long will the food and fodder last?"

"My lord, there are more than 30,000 soldiers in Jiangzhou City. With the troops you brought, we can barely make 50,000. As for food and fodder, plus the food and fodder you brought, the remaining food in the city is only enough for our 50,000 people to last for a month."

When the Wei army appeared near Jiangzhou City, Deng Ai realized something was wrong and began to stockpile large amounts of food and grass. Later, the Wei army also appeared near Linjiang City. Deng Ai directly stockpiled all the food and grass in Linjiang City to Jiangzhou City. Linjiang City could only wait for the subsequent food and grass to arrive so that it could barely survive.

However, it is precisely because of this decision that Jiangzhou City has been able to survive until now.

"Yes, one month is enough time for us to do a lot of things."

Gu Rubing smiled and nodded. Deng Ai's judgment and decision on the situation made him very satisfied.

"My lord, what should we do now? Can the Prime Minister send us some reinforcements?"

"You don't have to worry about the Prime Minister. Liu Zhang is launching a fierce attack on the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is more than capable of dealing with it, but it is almost impossible for him to provide you with some support. In addition, Sun Jian is also eyeing you covetously, so we can only rely on ourselves."

Seeing everyone's disappointed expressions, Gu Rubing just laughed.

"You don't have to be like this. We are not without any reinforcements. I have ordered Wei Yan to bring the Youzhou troops to support us. There should be about 100,000 of them. However, I didn't snatch them from Sun Jian. Their combat effectiveness is definitely not as strong as ours, but at least 100,000 is worse than nothing. However, Youzhou is a bit far away from us. Even if 100,000 troops rush at full speed, it will take at least more than two months to arrive. Before that, we can only rely on ourselves."

After saying this, Gu Rubing looked at the map and observed it carefully.

"Then my lord, what should we do now? We only have enough food and fodder for one month. How about I ask the soldiers to change their two meals a day to just one meal?"

"How can that be? We are in wartime now. We are ashamed that our soldiers are not well fed. If we don't let them have enough to eat, who will still fight for us? Don't worry, I have thought of a solution."

After saying this, Gu Rubing placed his hand directly on Hanzhong County.

"This time, our target is Hanzhong County. As long as we can get through Hanzhong County, we can contact Xudu and let Lu Su directly transport food and grass to us from Sili."

Upon hearing this, Deng Ai shook his head.

"My lord, no! I also want to go to Hanzhong County. It is not difficult to open up Hanzhong County, but it is difficult to defend Hanzhong County. We only have less than 50,000 people. If we send some of them away, Jiangzhou City will not be able to be defended!"

"Don't worry, as long as we are in Jiangzhou City and behave well, they won't dare to attack Hanzhong County."

The news that Gu Rubing led his men into the city soon reached Jiang Wei and his men.

The Xiahou brothers, Cao Ren and Jiang Wei were in the tent, discussing around the map.

In their opinion, Gu Rubing's behavior was extremely stupid and Jiangzhou City would certainly not be able to be defended. Since he had already broken out of the encirclement of Linjiang City, why did he come to Jiangzhou City to die?

"I think Liu Bei is so anxious that he is losing his mind. He is unwilling to give up Jiangzhou City, a piece of fat meat, and he is determined to defend Jiangzhou City at all costs. As long as Xu Huang's troops arrive and encircle it, Jiangzhou City will become a dead city."

Cao Ren’s words immediately made the Xiahou brothers laugh, as if they had seen the dawn of victory.

Jiang Wei on the side did not speak, his eyes were always looking at the map.

After experiencing so many battles, he has a general idea of ​​what kind of person Gu Rubing is. Although he is not a man of great wisdom, he is definitely not a fool. How could he not see that Jiangzhou City is doomed to fail.

But since Gu Rubing dared to come, he must have achieved his goal, or was sure of breaking the impasse.

Cao Ren saw Jiang Wei and said nothing.

"Boyo, what's wrong with you?"

"General, Liu Bei is not a stupid person. Just a Jiangzhou city is not enough to make him lose his mind. So I suspect that Liu Bei has other purposes."

"Purpose?"

After hearing this, everyone looked at the map.

Not long after, Xiahou Yuan suddenly shouted: "I know, Liu Bei's target should be Deng Ai and the tens of thousands of soldiers under his command. Liu Bei wants to take these people away. Now there are 50,000 soldiers in Jiangzhou City. It is easy to break through Xu Huang's defense line. In this way, Jiangzhou City is given to us, but our purpose of encirclement will fail."

Everyone nodded after hearing this.

But Jiang Wei always felt that Gu Rubing's purpose would definitely not be so simple, and there must be other purposes, but he couldn't think of what Gu Rubing was going to do.

But soon, Jiang Wei found out.

Two days later.

Xu Huang's reinforcements have arrived, and Jiangzhou City has been completely surrounded by various armies. Several armies have directly occupied all important routes around Jiangzhou City. The baggage camp has no way to transport food and grass in.

Just when the Wei army let down their vigilance.

Hanzhong County, outside the city of Nanzheng.

Zhong Hui brought a group of people and went directly outside the city.

Nanzheng was also part of the Wei army's encirclement of Jiangzhou, with nearly 10,000 soldiers and horses stationed there.

When they saw Zhong Hui and others wearing Wei army uniforms, they were all confused. They had not received any orders to change guards.

"Who are you?"

Hearing the sound from the city wall, Zhong Hui and others immediately stopped.

"General Cao asked us to change guard. Here is the token."

Then Zhong Hui took out a golden token.

After seeing the token, the soldiers guarding the city did not dare to delay. On the one hand, they asked people to open the city gate, and on the other hand, they went to find Xu Zhi who was guarding the city.

Soon the city gate opened, and Zhong Hui led everyone into the city.

A deputy general came in with several soldiers.

"We haven't received any orders to change guard from General Cao. Which General Cao are you talking about?"

"Of course it's our lord, King Lie!"

"King Lie? You are..."

Before the deputy general could finish his words, a knife was inserted directly into his body.

The deputy general widened his eyes. He had not expected that Liu Bei's men would actually use this method to raid them at this time.

Xu Zhi was still reading a military book in the room. When he heard the guard say that General Cao's men had come to replace him, Xu Zhi immediately became alert.

But then Xu Zhi thought, they were in Hanzhong County, which did not conform to Gu Rubing's strategic goals at all, so there should be no danger. It should be that Cao Ren replaced a group of old, weak and disabled soldiers to guard here.

Xu Zhi took the military token and went to the city gate with the guards without any vigilance.

However, after taking a few steps, he saw flames rising into the sky at the city gate.

Seeing this scene, Xu Zhi reacted immediately.

"Everyone get ready, there is an enemy attack."

Needless to say, Xu Zhi, although Hanzhong County, according to Cao Ren and others' speculation, was not Gu Rubing's strategic point, he still sent 10,000 elite troops here as a gesture of respect.

These were elite soldiers. Even without Xu Zhi's command, when they saw that something was wrong at the city wall, they, led by their captains, consciously rushed to the city wall and joined the battle.

Zhong Hui occupied the city gate, and then nearly 10,000 troops rushed into the city.

In addition, the Wei army had no commander and was like a pile of loose sand. It was quickly defeated and began to retreat into the city.

Zhong Hui didn't want to miss this opportunity and chased after him.

By the time Xu Zhi arrived, the Wei troops he could muster were less than two thousand men.

In this situation, no matter who it is, there is only one decision to make, which is to retreat.

Xu Zhi led the remaining people and retreated directly to the South Gate, intending to leave through the gate and rush to the next city in Hanzhong County, Chenggu County.

However, Zhong Hui was well prepared. After occupying the East Gate where they were, Zhong Hui immediately divided his troops and sent people to forcibly occupy the South Gate.

This is the fastest way to Chenggu County.

I saw that the South Gate was also occupied.

Xu Zhi immediately took the others and left through other city gates.

However, Xu Zhi did not choose to take a detour to other counties in Hanzhong County. Because he had few troops and all his elite troops had been killed, he chose to go directly back to Cao Ren's camp in Jiangzhou City.

Without Xu Zhi's elite troops, the entire Hanzhong County no longer had the power to resist Zhong Hui. Wherever Zhong Hui passed, all the cities were easily occupied.

Thus the passage to Hanzhong County was opened, and it all happened so smoothly that Gu Rubing didn't have time to react.

Deng Ai was also speechless about this.

After Xu Zhi ran back to the camp, Cao Ren heard what had happened and wanted to chop Xu Zhi to death.

But he was stopped by Jiang Wei. Now it was a time of war and they really needed people. Moreover, as the city gate had been robbed, Xu Zhi's choice could not be said to be wrong.

Even if Xu Zhi retreated to other cities in Hanzhong County, he could only follow Zhong Hui's ass, which probably wouldn't be of much use. No matter what, Zhong Hui took a shortcut, while Xu Zhi took a longer route.

Seeing that Jiang Wei had stepped forward to stop him, Cao Ren snorted coldly and let Xu Zhi go directly. However, he still gave Xu Zhi thirty lashes as a punishment.

After Xu Zhi left, Cao Ren and the Xiahou brothers looked at Jiang Wei at the same time.

"Bo Yue, what do you think of Liu Bei's action this time?"

Jiang Wei heard this, looked at the map, and finally sighed.

"Generals, get ready, we have no choice but to fight!"

"War?"

Everyone looked at Jiang Wei with confusion.

The order Cao Cao gave them was to surround the enemy without attacking, and wait until the enemy's food and supplies ran out, and then they would naturally surrender.

This was exactly the situation when they arrived at Jiangzhou City. Did they have to change Cao Cao's original order now?

"That's right, we are going to start a war. We have underestimated Liu Bei. From the very beginning, Liu Bei had no intention of breaking out. Instead, he wanted to rely on Jiangzhou City and fight a big battle with us."

After hearing this, they all understood.

Gu Rubing opened up Hanzhong County in order to open up a grain and grass passage so that grain and grass could enter Jiangzhou from Hanzhong County from Liangzhou or Sili.

"This Liu Bei is really brave. Where does he get the confidence to fight against so many of us? Could it be that he has reinforcements?"

"impossible."

Jiang Wei looked at the map and immediately denied Xiahou Dun's words.

"Liang Province currently has only 50,000 soldiers and horses. Even if all of them are mobilized, there is no way to solve the current difficulties. Moreover, he can't really mobilize all the soldiers and horses from Liang Province. After all, he still has to guard against Sun Jian. Liu Bei doesn't trust Sun Jian that much. As for Sili or Xudu, there are not many troops at all, and they can't help them in any way."

Hearing this, everyone fell silent for a moment.

Everything Gu Rubing did was beyond their imagination and was totally inconsistent with normal human behavior.

"No matter what, we must take back Hanzhong County and never let him open the grain route."

Cao Ren nodded, and immediately ordered the Xiahou brothers to lead 30,000 troops to rush to Hanzhong County. (End of this chapter)