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

Looking at the furious Cao Cao, Xun Yu immediately cleared his throat.

"My lord, please be patient."

Then Xun Yu walked to the map.

"My Lord, please take a look. Liu Zhang's biggest problem right now is that his territory is small, but with a population as large as that of the Anluo Empire, his population is seriously out of proportion to his territory. The amount of food he consumes every day is staggering, but the amount of arable land is pitifully small, and most of it is occupied by the people to build houses. In this case, why don't we give them a piece of land?"

"What? You want me to divide the territory among them? How much territory do I have in total? If I give it to them, what will we do with it?"

"My lord, Liu Bei's troops have left Jiangzhou City, but he is stationed in Dianjiang City, which is very close to Linjiang City. Although I don't know why Liu Bei did this, I always feel that he seems to be waiting for something. I speculate that Liu Bei may have reinforcements coming. If it is reinforcements, then Linjiang City will probably have to fight again soon. Once Liu Bei's reinforcements arrive, what are our chances of winning?"

Upon hearing this, Cao Cao immediately understood what Xun Yu meant.

Anyway, in the end, both Linjiang City and Jiangzhou City might not be able to be defended. Now he doesn't have many soldiers in Yizhou, and most of them are new recruits. It is very difficult to fight against Liu Bei, and the chance of winning is not great. Rather than failing to defend them and letting Liu Bei gain an advantage for nothing, it is better to give them away directly. Liu Zhang wants a county, and he gives him half a county. It should be reasonable.

Thinking of this, Cao Cao immediately made a decision.

Early the next morning.

Xun Yu called the two of them into the Prince of Wei's mansion.

When the two men saw Cao Cao, they sat opposite him with angry faces, and were too lazy to say hello to Cao Cao.

"You two, don't be so angry. I didn't say I wouldn't compensate you, did I? But you two are asking for too much. Let's put it this way. I definitely can't give you the county you want, King Yi. After all, you want too much. But I can give you two cities, Jiangzhou City and Linjiang City. I think you know how big the territories of these two cities are, right?"

When I heard that they were Jiangzhou City and Linjiang City, I realized that these two cities were large and easy to defend but difficult to attack, and their territories were extremely large.

"In that case, thank you, King Wei."

Liu Zhang was quite satisfied with this transaction.

As for Sun Jian, it was much easier.

Cao Cao agreed immediately and provided an army of 200,000 and three months of food and fodder.

Sun Jian also agreed.

The main reason is that Sun Jian has to agree, and it is not up to Sun Jian to decide. With Liu Zhang around, he can at least have some confidence, but Cao Cao was the first to convince Liu Zhang, which led to him being isolated and helpless. Cao Cao gave him food and grass, and if he didn't, Sun Jian couldn't say anything. In this situation, Sun Jian must find his own allies, otherwise, he will be swallowed up by Gu Rubing.

Cao Cao explained to Liu Zhang the importance of Jiangzhou City and Linjiang City with some concern, and reminded Liu Zhang to defend them carefully.

Liu Zhang also immediately nodded in agreement.

Liu Zhang occupied half of the entire Jiaozhou, Gu Rubing occupied half, and with the half of Ba County given by Cao Cao, Liu Zhang's territory was basically sufficient.

For this purpose, Liu Zhang directly dispatched 200,000 troops and entered Jiangzhou City and Linjiang City, which was something Gu Rubing had not expected.

During the two months that Gu Rubing was waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

Because Liu Zhang had a territory, he expanded his territory a lot, which led to a large increase in new soldiers.

In just two months, Liu Zhang's troops increased sharply to 400,000.

But this is Liu Zhang's limit.

With these 400,000 soldiers and horses, Liu Zhang also gained confidence. He directly mobilized all the 200,000 soldiers and horses on the front line of Cangwu County to Jiangzhou City and Linjiang City. All the remaining recruits were placed on the front line of Cangwu County and trained by Surena.

Gu Rubing finally waited for the arrival of 100,000 reinforcements, but when he looked at the 100,000 troops stationed in Linjiang City in front of him, he suddenly fell silent.

"Cao Cao, you are so shameless."

Gu Rubing was so angry that he could only curse Cao Cao continuously. As for his own affairs, he was powerless to do anything about it.

In a siege battle, with 100,000 against 200,000, and they were all ordinary soldiers, it would be difficult for Gu Rubing to win.

Looking at the current situation, Gu Rubing knew that even if he was here, it would be of no use. He would have to delay the counterattack and look for new opportunities.

In the end, Gu Rubing took Zhao Yun and left Yizhou.

And these 100,000 troops were all handed over to Deng Ai.

Gu Rubing must teach Sun Jian a lesson this time.

Soon, Gu Rubing arrived outside Longbian County.

Zhang Liao and others have been stationed here.

When they saw Gu Rubing coming, Zhang Liao and Zhang Ren immediately rushed to greet him.

"Lord!"

Gu Rubing nodded. From Zhang Liao's aerial report, Gu Rubing learned that the situation was almost the same as before he left. The only difference was that Sun Jian had already stockpiled as many as 200,000 troops in the two cities.

Apparently, this place has become an iron barrel just like Jiangzhou City and Linjiang City.

However, the reason why he did not take action against Jiangzhou City and Linjiang City was because he felt it was unnecessary, but it was different for Sun Jian.

Not to mention that Sun Jian made it look like an iron pipe, even if it was made of stainless steel, Gu Rubing would have smashed a hole in it.

"My lord, we only have 100,000 troops at the moment. It's a bit difficult to take Longbian County. How about we talk to the Prime Minister and ask him to send us some reinforcements?"

Upon hearing this, Gu Rubing just smiled bitterly.

"What do you think the prime minister is? Can he raise his own troops? The prime minister is also a little nervous and can't send reinforcements. Otherwise, why would I have such a hard time fighting in Yizhou, and finally forced me to negotiate with Cao Cao."

Upon hearing that there would be no reinforcements, Zhang Liao smiled helplessly.

In the absence of reinforcements, using 100,000 people to attack a city garrisoned by 100,000 people, even he would not have much confidence.

"My Lord, if there is no reinforcement, should we consider holding back a little longer?"

"No, we must teach Sun Jian a lesson."

Seeing that Gu Rubing insisted, Zhang Liao had no choice but to wait for Gu Rubing's order.

Although Longbian County is a good county, it is not very big overall. It is already very difficult to station 100,000 soldiers and horses. If you want to store the food and fodder needed by 100,000 soldiers and horses, there must be no place to store them. So Gu Rubing guessed that the food and fodder might be placed somewhere else, and the most likely place is the middle of the two cities.

Afterwards, Gu Rubing directly ordered Zhang Liao to take five hundred Iron Pagodas and go directly to the vicinity of Longbian City and Xiyu City to check and find out the storage location of the grain and grass.

After receiving the order, Zhang Liao immediately set out with the Iron Pagoda.

Zhang Liao searched for three days in the middle of the two cities but couldn't find the place where the grain was stored. Just as Zhang Liao was thinking about what to do, an Iron Buddha scout came back.

"General, we found a baggage train escorting food and fodder heading in our direction."

Upon hearing about food and fodder, Zhang Liao stood up excitedly.

"Go, follow."

After saying that, Zhang Liao immediately approached him quietly.

There was a reason why Zhang Liao had been looking for a place to store grain and grass for such a long time but still couldn't find it. It could only be that Zhang Liao was unlucky.

Gu Rubing's guess was correct. Sun Jian did place a large amount of food and grass in the middle of the two cities. However, Sun Jian hid the food and grass. In order to prevent the loss of food and grass and the occurrence of food shortages in the city, the two cities would take enough food and grass for the 100,000-strong army for ten days every ten days.

When Zhang Liao arrived here, it was the second day after the people from the two cities had just taken away the food and grass. According to the rules set by Sun Jian, it would take at least eight days for Zhang Liao to see the baggage camp passing by, but Zhang Liao was sure that he could not waste eight days here.

But this time Zhang Liao encountered Sun Jian transporting grain and fodder simply because the grain and fodder that Cao Cao paid as compensation had already been delivered.

In order to prevent any accidents, Sun Jian decided to send the grain and fodder to the warehouse outside the city in advance.

This action was a good thing for Zhang Liao.

Zhang Liao followed the grain transport team and came to a canyon.

But it's not like Zhang Liao had never been here before. In the valleys on both sides, apart from rocks, is there anything else?
But soon, Zhang Liao discovered a scene that surprised him.

After entering the canyon, the supply team actually stopped. Then, for some unknown reason, a hole appeared on the stone walls on both sides.

These people began to carry food and supplies inside.

"Is this okay?"

Zhang Liao couldn't help but let out a cry of surprise.

Even Zhang Liao was surprised by this operation.

Even Zhang Liao didn't know how Sun Jian did it.

What Zhang Liao didn't know was that Sun Jian had gone to great lengths to protect the food and grass, and he even asked his three legendary generals to hollow out the stone walls on both sides of the valley. He then used modern theories to reinforce the inside of the stone walls and installed mechanisms. Thus, a semi-natural granary appeared.

Moreover, it is so hidden that even if Gu Rubing came here in person, he would not be able to find this place.

Soon, they saw the baggage camp, stored the food and fodder, and then turned around and left.

Following Zhang Liao's observation, there was not even a single sentry post around the warehouse. It was obvious that Sun Jian had full confidence in his warehouse.

After all the people from the baggage camp had left, Zhang Liao immediately came into the valley with the Iron Pagoda.

However, looking at the stone walls on both sides, Zhang Liao found that he had no idea how to open them.

In the end, Zhang Liao could only choose the most traditional method, which was to smash it.

After several days of hard work, Tiefutu finally smashed a big hole in the stone wall.

A centurion from the Iron Pagoda was the first to crawl into the hole.

When the centurion saw what was inside, his eyes widened.

The space inside was larger than he had imagined, and it was filled with densely packed food and fodder, as well as a lot of armor, weapons, and other supplies.

After the centurion leaves, report everything here to Zhang Liao.

Zhang Liao was also a little surprised.

But besides being surprised, I was even more excited.

After searching for so long, he finally found what he was looking for.

Zhang Liao did not hesitate and sent people in to start spreading kerosene.

After Zhang Liao had prepared everything, he set the entire granary on fire.

Thick smoke billowed out from inside.

Zhang Liao simply hid in the dark.

Burning the granary is indeed the first step.

If the food and fodder caught fire, at most 50% of them would be lost if rescued in time.

So Zhang Liao had other preparations.

Sun Jian, who was in the city, saw thick smoke billowing in the distance and suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart, because the direction of the smoke was exactly where the food and grass were stored.

Sun Jian immediately ordered a centurion to take his team to the location of the granary to investigate whether the thick smoke came from inside the granary.

The centurion knew that this matter was serious, so he immediately set off with his team.

When they rushed to the stone wall and saw the thick smoke billowing from inside, their faces suddenly changed.

Then the team of a hundred people turned around and rushed into the city, wanting to tell Sun Jian the news immediately.

However, just as they walked a short distance, a group of people suddenly appeared and stopped them.

"Who are you?"

"The person who wants your life."

These people were naturally Zhang Liao and others who were lying in ambush here.

As Zhang Liao waved his hand, five hundred Iron Pagodas rushed out directly.

The hundred-man team is made up of ordinary soldiers, how could they possibly be a match for the Iron Pagoda?

In just one stick of incense, the team of a hundred people was wiped out.

Zhang Liao immediately ordered people to clean up the battlefield.

Soon, the battlefield was cleaned very cleanly, even the soil on the ground was covered with new soil and fallen leaves.

Sun Jian looked at the people he sent out and saw that there was no news coming back. Also, looking at the thick smoke still rising in the distance, Sun Jian became even more worried.

In the end, Sun Jian directly asked Cheng Pu to take 500 people to check it out.

Cheng Pu was still a little curious. Was it necessary for him to take action on such a small matter?
Soon Cheng Pu and his men rushed into the canyon. When they saw the thick smoke in the canyon, Cheng Pu and his men headed back.

However, just after they ran a few steps, several tripwires appeared and tripped Cheng Pu and the others to the ground.

After Cheng Pu and his companions got up from the ground, they saw Zhang Liao and his companions appeared in front of them.

"Zhang Liao!"

Cheng Pu looked at Zhang Liao with some surprise.

He soon thought of the fire of food and grass, and thought that it must have been set by Zhang Liao.

But Cheng Pu didn’t understand. They had clearly camouflaged the granary very well, so how could it be discovered? And there was no way to open the mechanism, so how did Zhang Liao get into the granary?

Because of Sun Jian's extreme confidence, there were no sentries around the granary, and Cheng Pu knew nothing about the situation in the granary.

But the most important thing right now is to pass the news here back to Sun Jian.

If you want to go back, you need to get rid of Zhang Liao in front of you.

But when he thought about dealing with Zhang Liao, Cheng Pu suddenly felt a little overwhelmed. How could he possibly be Zhang Liao's opponent? Not to mention himself, even those famous generals were not sure they could deal with Zhang Liao. (End of this chapter)