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

"You're talking nonsense. How many people does Zhang Liao have? At most 2,000. Aren't we still his match with our 200,000-man army?"

Sun Jian started cursing at the soldiers in front of him.

But no matter how angry he was, after listening to the chaos outside, Sun Jian had to admit that Huang Gai really failed to stop Zhang Liao.

Just as Sun Jian was hesitating whether to retreat, another person rushed in.

"King, this is bad. Tens of thousands of people have rushed out of Longbian City and are rushing towards the main camp. The rear army has already tried to stop them, but these people are extremely powerful. They are like the Taishan Tiger Bandits in Liu Bei's hands. The one leading them is Zang Ba."

"Taishan Tiger Thief?"

Sun Jian didn't expect that he was just there for the formality, but Liu Bei actually wanted to swallow him up.

"retreat!"

The three armies are in chaos now. Even if Sun Jian wants to counterattack, it is definitely not now.

However, with an army of 200,000 soldiers, Sun Jian's orders could not be made known to everyone under these circumstances.

In the end, Sun Jian could only leave the battlefield with tens of thousands of people.

Gradually, people could see Sun Jian's back as he left, and soldiers chasing after him.

Zhang Liao and the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun quickly joined up with Zang Ba's Taishan Tiger Bandits.

Both sides were elite forces under Gu Rubing, and in a blink of an eye, they broke through Sun Jian's three-army camp.

"Xuan Gao, you take the Taishan Tiger Bandits back to the city first. I will lead the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun to charge again."

"Okay! Wenyuan, be careful on your own."

Zang Ba led the Taishan Tiger Bandits and turned around and left. After all, their goal had been achieved and Sun Jian had already lost. Moreover, based on the situation on the battlefield, Zang Ba felt that even if Sun Jian could gather the remaining troops, he might only be able to pull back 100,000 troops this time.

The Wu army watched Zang Ba and his men leave and were about to breathe a sigh of relief when they saw Zhang Liao rushing back.

This made Wu Jun's people panic.

Compared to the Taishan tiger bandits, these people are more afraid of Zhang Liao, who is like a god of war.

Zhang Liao, leading the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun, charged left and right at the Wu army, completely ignoring the battle formation that the Wu army had barely assembled.

Two hours passed.

The sky also became completely bright.

Zhang Liao knew that it was almost time, so he led the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun and swaggered into Longbian City.

The entire Sun Jian's Wu army camp was in chaos, with many corpses lying on the ground and people wailing on the ground.

When Sun Jian rushed back with tens of thousands of people, all he saw was this scene.

"Liu Bei..."

Sun Jian gritted his teeth and looked at the city wall of Longbian City in the distance.

Of course he couldn't see it, because the imposing Gu Rubing was also on the city wall, looking in his direction.

"My lord, Liao has fulfilled his mission!"

Upon hearing this, Gu Rubing immediately helped Zhang Liao up.

"Wenyuan, you did a great job. We took advantage of this opportunity to severely strike Sun Jian's 200,000-man army. This time Sun Jian will not be a threat to us and will not have the power to fight back."

Gu Rubing's guess was correct. Sun Jian counted all the troops and found that there were 200,000 troops when they arrived. Zhou Yu had transferred 50,000 troops, so there were 150,000 troops left.

Now, after Zhang Liao's commotion and the losses in the two-day siege, he still had less than 80,000 soldiers and horses.

During these two days, a total of 60,000 soldiers were lost, and most of them died at the hands of Zhang Liao and his men.

Although Sun Jian was unwilling to accept Zhang Liao's abilities, he had to admire them.

In the entire Wu army, no one could achieve the same record as Zhang Liao.

But Gu Rubing has many people like Zhang Liao in his hands.

This made Sun Jian feel somewhat powerless.

Just when Sun Jian was preparing to lead his men to retreat, Liu Zhang's food and supplies arrived.

After Sun Jian told Liu Zhang's envoy about his situation, the envoy only replied with one sentence.

"If the King of Wu wants to stop the war, then we have to pay back ten times the grain and grass we paid before. The King of Wu also knows that these grain and grass do not belong to our King Yi, but to the King of Wei. We also borrowed them from the King of Wei, so of course we have to pay some interest. No matter what, the King of Wu can't let us lose money, right?"

Hearing this, Sun Jian's expression suddenly changed.

Tenfold return? I have no idea how much food and fodder I have used in the past few days.

If he retreated at this moment, it would mean offending Liu Zhang. Once the war began, the right to end the war would no longer be in his hands, but in the hands of Gu Rubing and Liu Zhang.

As long as Liu Zhang can continue to supply food and grass, he will continue to fight. Unless his 200,000 troops are all killed, or Gu Rubing gives up Longbian City, there will be no day to stop.

Today, Sun Jian dares not offend either side because of the geographical location of Xiyu City. It's not that he cannot afford ten times the food and grass, but if he offends Liu Zhang, his last retreat, the wharf, will be completely gone.

"Please tell the messenger to go back and tell King Yi that we will hold on until the last moment."

Watching the envoy nod and leave with satisfaction, Sun Jian slapped the teacup in front of him to pieces.

There was a wound on the palm of his hand caused by the teacup, and it was still bleeding.

Seeing this, the soldiers nearby immediately called for a military doctor.

While Sun Jian was being bandaged by the military doctor, he looked at Huang Gai and others.

"What should we do next? Do you have any ideas?"

Hearing this, Huang Gai hesitated for a moment and walked out slowly.

"My lord, is it possible that Liu Bei doesn't know our purpose? Should we talk to Liu Bei alone and tell him our purpose, and then let Liu Bei act out for us that Liu Zhang's food and grass won't last long, and we will withdraw our troops after we have exhausted all of Liu Zhang's food and grass?"

Sun Jian nodded after hearing this. This was the only solution now.

"Okay, then let's do as you said and send someone to contact Liu Bei."

Gu Rubing was sitting on a chair at this time. He had already decided that since he had already taken action against Sun Jian, he had to defeat Sun Jian completely.

He will launch another surprise attack tonight. Zhang Liao has returned to the camp and is resting in the camp. He will take action when Zhang Liao has rested well in the evening.

However, just as Gu Rubing was thinking about it, a soldier walked in.

"My Lord, Sun Jian's envoy has arrived." "Sun Jian's envoy?"

Gu Rubing could guess why the envoy came here, but he didn't expect that Sun Jian's speed would be so fast. His plan was going to fail.

"Let them in."

Not long after, the messenger came in.

"Meet King Lie."

After the messenger finished speaking, he knelt on the ground.

"You are the messenger of the King of Wu. Stand up and speak."

The messenger nodded.

"Your Highness, King Lie, our King Wu wants to meet with you."

"Oh? Meet me? With the current relationship between us, it might not be a good idea to meet each other, right?"

"Don't worry, Your Highness King Lie. Our King Wu has absolutely no other thoughts. He just wants to tell you something to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings between the two of us."

Gu Rubing knew that Sun Jian came here just for acting, and couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.

"Okay, tell your King Wu to come here to meet me within an hour."

Hearing this, the messenger was stunned for a moment and hesitated for a moment.

"Your Highness, this is inside the city. If any unnecessary misunderstandings arise, won't it be difficult for both of us to explain?"

"It's all right. We have become like this now. What else is there to be said?"

Seeing that Gu Rubing insisted, the envoy didn't know what to say and could only nod in agreement, but he did not agree. He just said that he would go back and report to Sun Jian.

Gu Rubing hoped that Sun Jian would disagree, so that his actions at night could proceed as usual.

After Sun Jian learned of Gu Rubing's plan, he understood that he had to bow his head under his roof, and finally Sun Jian agreed for the first time.

However, in order to meet Gu Rubing, Sun Jian also made sufficient preparations. Huang Gai led an army of 80,000 and directly prepared to attack the city, while Sun Jian took Sun Ce and Gan Ning and quietly entered the city from another gate.

After seeing Sun Jian coming, Gu Rubing was a little disappointed and even looked down on Sun Jian. If Sun Jian was not timid, he would definitely be able to inflict a heavy blow on Sun Jian.

Compared with the two legendary generals and bodyguards around Sun Jian, Gu Rubing's side is monotonous and ruthless, with only Zhang Liao by his side.

As for Zhao Yun and Ma Chao, Gu Rubing did not allow them to appear.

When Sun Jian saw that there was only Zhang Liao beside Gu Rubing, an idea suddenly popped into his mind.

If I let Sun Ce and Gan Ning take action suddenly here and now, they will definitely be able to kill Liu Bei before Zhao Yun and the others can react. As long as Liu Bei is dead, the eleven states of the Han Dynasty may all be mine.

But soon, Sun Jian gave up.

Because Sun Jian knew that Gu Rubing was not a fool. Since he dared not bring any legendary generals with him, he must have his confidence. If he really took action, the result might not be what he imagined.

"King Wu, we are no longer allies now. Isn't it a bit inappropriate for us to meet like this before the war?"

Upon hearing this, Sun Jian burst out laughing.

"King Wu, you are such a joke. We have always been allies. Haven't we already explained away all the previous misunderstandings?"

"Really? Are we still allies? If we are allies, then I wonder what the King of Wu is doing here with an army of 200,000? If they are here to visit us, aren't 200,000 troops a bit too many? Are you planning to bankrupt us?"

Hearing this, Sun Jian smiled awkwardly and immediately explained: "King Lie, you have indeed misunderstood this matter. I am here to explain it to you."

Then Sun Jian told the story of how he came to act.

This is the same as what Gu Rubing guessed.

It’s just that Gu Rubing could pretend not to understand and take action against Sun Jian before, but now he knows Sun Jian’s plan. If he still takes action, wouldn’t he be pushing Sun Jian completely to the side of Cao Cao and Liu Zhang?

"So that's how it is. Look, isn't this a misunderstanding? I thought you were going to betray your alliance again and attack your ally. You said it was like this earlier. Okay, okay, I will order the entire army to cooperate with your performance."

"Thank you, King Lie."

Hearing Gu Rubing's personal words about the camp, Sun Jian stood up excitedly. However, just as he was excited, Gu Rubing immediately waved his hand.

"King Wu, I know you are very excited, but don't get excited yet. You also know that acting requires performance fees. I have no problem cooperating with you in acting, but you can't just not pay me at all, right? I suffered a lot of losses in the past few days, and these soldiers have no obligation to help you act. Do you understand what I mean?"

Sun Jian knew that Gu Rubing was about to ask for too much.

"King Lie, just tell me directly, what do you want?"

"Food and war horses!"

"This……"

When Sun Jian heard these two, he was stunned.

I also lack these two things.

Otherwise, how could he be restrained by a small Liu Zhang.

It's because the wharf is in someone else's hands, and all of our supplies have to pass through their territory, and we really lack food, fodder, and horses.

"King Lie, I don't have much of what you said. Do you want to change it? Otherwise, how about I give you population? I can give you 100,000 people, and these 100,000 people can also produce 10,000 soldiers. You can use the remaining 90,000 people to strengthen the city defense, which is not bad?"

"One hundred thousand people? Are you kidding me? I don't even have enough food for one hundred thousand people. You want your people to eat me up. Do you know that everyone is short of food now? You give me one hundred thousand people. Doesn't that mean I have to feed your people? Do you think people are material goods? You can give them at will? If they are not happy with me, won't they leave anyway? If they leave, what do you want me to do? Capture them and make them my slaves?"

Sun Jian's plan was about to hit Gu Rubing in the face, which made Gu Rubing very unhappy.

However, this time Gu Rubing really misunderstood Sun Jian. Sun Jian really had no intention of playing tricks on him. The main reason was that the only thing Sun Jian could show off now was his population.

Did Sun Jian have supplies? Of course he did. The Anluo Empire was so large, with a territory comparable to the entire Han Dynasty and a large population. How could it be possible that it lacked food supplies?

Even if I have it, I can’t transport it.

In order to transport supplies, Liu Zhang's wharf is necessary. Once Liu Zhang knows that Sun Jian is transporting these things to Gu Rubing, Liu Zhang will guess that there may be a transaction between him and Gu Rubing.

Under such circumstances, it won't be long before Liu Zhang discovers my plan. If Liu Zhang turns against me, I will still lose my last port.

Thinking of this, Sun Jian could be very sure that no matter what, he would not use any materials of the Anluo Empire, and he must not expose his purpose at this time.

Seeing Sun Jian's refusal, Gu Rubing simply waved his hand.

"Since you don't want to give me what I want, let's continue." (End of this chapter)