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

But even if Cao Cao was casual, how could he arbitrarily appoint a deputy general as the commander-in-chief?

After walking for a while, General Wang simply ordered the main force to stop.

The lieutenant immediately stepped forward.

"General, the time our lord has given us is almost up in two days. Military orders are absolute. If we are late, others may be forgiven, but the two of us who lead the troops will certainly not escape punishment. If we linger any longer, we will definitely be late."

"Do you think I don't want to arrive on time? Something's not right here; we have to be careful."

“Something’s not right. I think you’ve become a coward now that you’ve become a general. Before, you were always there to lead the charge. Now that you’re a general, you’re so timid. Who will respect you?”

After hearing this, General Wang looked at the deputy general with a gloomy expression.

"You don't respect me? I don't see anyone who doesn't respect me except you, right? You think I've risen to the top so easily? Do you really think your lord can be so casual about it?"

General Wang snorted coldly.

Just as they were talking, the surrounding yellow sand suddenly rose up.

A group of people emerged from the yellow sand.

When General Wang saw that the leader was Zhang He, his expression immediately changed.

"Oh no, it's Zhang He! Retreat!"

This time, the deputy general remained silent, and as it turned out, everything General Wang said was correct.

However, just as they were preparing to retreat, they discovered that troops had appeared behind them at some unknown time, completely blocking their escape route.

General Wang knew that if things continued like this, everyone would be buried here.

The only solution now is to send reinforcements to them.

But given their current position, seeking help from Yizhou would be pointless; the only option is to seek help from Youzhou.

General Wang then looked at his deputy.

"Take your personal guards and break through the encirclement. Go find Shi Xie immediately and ask him to reinforce us."

The lieutenant hadn't expected that after speaking to the general like that, now, at this critical moment of life and death, the general would actually tell him to go first.

Such a vision and approach left the deputy general with no choice but to admire it.

"General, please take care. I will return with reinforcements to rescue you."

After saying this, the deputy general turned around and led his personal guards to break through towards Youzhou.

"Everyone, cover their breakout."

General Wang then issued an order.

With the help of everyone, a gap was quickly torn in the encirclement, and the deputy general, leading a group of personal guards, broke through the encirclement.

However, Zhang He didn't care at all. Breaking through the encirclement was part of their plan.

Soon, Zhang He commanded his army to block the breach.

General Wang was still directing his soldiers to hold off Zhang He's army when he saw Zhang He charging straight at him.

Zhang He originally thought that he could kill General Wang with a single spear thrust.

Unexpectedly, his full-force shot was blocked by this person, and the only price the other party paid was almost falling off his horse.

Zhang He knew that the opponent who could block his shot was definitely not weak, but he didn't recognize him. He had more or less come into contact with the generals under all the warlords, so someone with such ability could not be an unknown person.

"Who are you? I, Zhang, do not kill nameless nobodies!"

"Hmph, I am Wang Ping, a general under the command of Duke Wei."

"Wang Ping?"

Zhang He had fought Cao Cao many times, but he had never seen or even heard of this man named Wang Ping.

Could he be another rising star?

Zhang He hesitated for a moment, then swung his Five Tiger Soul-Severing Spear and thrust it at Wang Ping.

Wang Ping fought back with all his might.

However, with just one strike, his entire body was sent flying by the powerful force transmitted from the tip of the spear.

Wang Ping fell off his horse, but immediately got up and assumed a defensive stance again.

The powerful impact caused him excruciating pain, but in the face of life and death, this pain was not so important.

Upon seeing this, Zhang He nodded in agreement. Wang Ping's strength was top-tier even among first-rate military generals.

Zhang He had to admire Cao Cao's ability to recognize talent, given that he could find such a formidable general.

Cao Cao's discovery of Wang Ping was indeed an unexpected event for him.

When Cao Cao learned that the situation in Youzhou was not good, and that several other warlords also intended to hold the decisive battle with Gu Rubing in Youzhou, at least not on their own territory, so that even if they were defeated, their own territory would not suffer any losses.

Moreover, Shi Xie was originally their scapegoat. And frankly, Youzhou was Liu Bei's territory. Why would they be dissatisfied with using him as a scapegoat on Liu Bei's territory?

Therefore, Cao Cao immediately contacted Liu Zhang and organized a second wave of reinforcements.

However, the person leading the army gave Cao Cao a difficult problem.

The generals under their command have all gone their separate ways. They are looking for other people, but they worry that the leaders are not strong enough and lack military ability, which would delay the progress of the 20,000-strong army.

Just when Cao Cao was in a dilemma, Jiang Wei brought someone to him.

And this person is Wang Ping.

Originally, Wang Ping was Jiang Wei's deputy general.

Trusting Jiang Wei, Cao Cao directly promoted Wang Ping to the rank of commander.

The people in the camp had no objections to Jiang Wei and his men, but the fact that Jiang Wei's deputy general was now on equal footing with their generals who had fought for many years made them very unhappy.

Cao Zhen stepped forward at this moment.

"My lord, we want to lead troops to support Shi Xie. We are not satisfied with Wang Ping. At least let us have a match with Wang Ping."

Cao Cao knew that Jiang Wei was not the kind of person who appointed people based on personal connections, but if he wanted others to be convinced, Wang Ping would have to prove himself.

If Cao Zhen loses and others find out, wouldn't it make his old brothers lose face?
In the end, Cao Cao decided to let the two test their skills in a real battle.

Wang Ping and Cao Zhen fought for dozens of rounds, and the two were evenly matched, but Cao Zhen was, after all, one of the top generals.

Their overall strength is higher than Wang Ping's.

Half an hour later, Wang Ping's strength gave out, and he finally gave up.

However, this also proves that Wang Ping is very strong.

He is perfectly capable of being a general leading troops in battle.

However, Jiang Wei's actions also caused some of the generals in Cao Cao's camp to harbor hostile thoughts.

Guo Huai, whom Jiang Wei recommended, has now become a figure comparable to Cao Ren. With the addition of Wang Ping and Jiang Wei's own status, Jiang Wei's power in the military camp is growing, causing those around him to harbor some thoughts of exclusion.

Seeing that Wang Ping made no move, Zhang He assumed that Wang Ping had given up struggling. "Hmph, spineless."

Zhang He snorted coldly and charged towards Wang Ping, intending to finish him off with one blow.

But to Zhang He's surprise, just as the spear tip was about to reach Wang Ping, Wang Ping suddenly lay down on the ground and rolled over.

Although he looked somewhat disheveled, he had indeed dodged Zhang He's deadly attack.

Zhang He's expression instantly turned ugly.

His two consecutive failures made him somewhat embarrassed.

Zhang He simply jumped off his warhorse, picked up his spear, and walked towards Wang Ping again.

Wang Ping knew that Zhang He was now truly enraged, and that he was doomed to die this time.

However, at that moment, several soldiers suddenly stepped forward and stopped Zhang He.

Upon seeing this, Wang Ping turned and ran, leading his personal guards and commanding the remaining troops to break through the encirclement.

According to Zhang He's plan, they would first release a portion of the people to notify Shi Xie to come and reinforce them. As for the remaining people who were surrounded, they were not so important.

So after seeing someone run out, Zhang He completely blocked the passage leading to Shi Xie's side and reinforced it.

This resulted in the encirclement behind them being somewhat weaker.

Zhang He had a good plan: to take down the enemy general in a few moves.

What use is a coalition army without a commander? Can it even be a match for us?
But Zhang He did not expect that Wang Ping would actually escape three seemingly certain deaths.

Ultimately, Wang Ping found a weak point in his encirclement, allowing him to break out with a large number of troops.

Wang Ping led the remaining troops and began to retreat along the same route they had come from.

According to Wang Ping's memory, it would take at most half a month to reach Sun Jian's territory.

Zhang He would absolutely not dare to enter Sun Jian's territory without permission.

To speed things up, Wang Ping ordered everyone to bring enough food for five days, and to throw away any remaining food and fodder.

However, Zhang He also ignored these grains.

The two groups, one running and the other chasing, gradually moved away from the encirclement.

Gu Rubing, who was closely watching the battle, noticed that Zhang He was in the wrong position and immediately sent someone to call Zhang He back.

In the end, Zhang He could only return to the encirclement with a helpless expression.

After a two-day journey, the lieutenant finally arrived before Shi Xie.

Shi Xie had been waiting with a smile for the arrival of 20,000 troops and supplies, but all he saw was his deputy general leading a few thousand remnants of his army.

As for provisions, they were nowhere to be found.

"General, where are the reinforcements?"

"Your Excellency, our reinforcements were ambushed on their way and are in grave danger. Please send troops to reinforce us."

"ambush?"

Shi Xie's eyes widened immediately.

Since the deputy general chose to ask him for help, it means that the ambush location is very close to him. But right now, there is probably only one force capable of ambushing an army of 20,000: Liu Bei.

He had asked for reinforcements because he couldn't defeat Liu Bei. Now that the reinforcements had been ambushed, he had to go and rescue them. If he could be Liu Bei's opponent, why would he need reinforcements?
Upon thinking about this, Shi Xie's first reaction was to refuse.

Just as Shih-hsieh was about to say his refusal, he suddenly felt someone touch his arm.

Turning his head, he saw Wang Yue frantically giving him meaningful glances.

Following Wang Yue's gaze, Shi Xie saw that Cao Cao's soldiers and Liu Zhang's soldiers were all looking at him in his camp, as were Meng Huo and Xun You.

Given the current situation, if he really said he wouldn't let it go, these people probably wouldn't let him off the hook.

Now, less than one-tenth of the original Youzhou troops remain in his army; his camps are filled with Yizhou and Jiaozhou troops.

Having realized this, Shi Xie immediately went to the deputy general.

"Don't worry, I'll send people to support them right now. Sir, do you have any ideas on how to rescue them?"

Shi Xie turned to look at Xun You beside him.

Xun You had just realized that Shi Xie didn't want to save people and was about to step forward to dissuade him, but unexpectedly, Shi Xie changed his mind, which made things much easier for him.

"In reply to the governor, what we should do now is to quickly mobilize troops to provide support and at least rescue those 20,000 people. Most importantly, those provisions are also very useful to the army."

Upon hearing this, Shi Xie nodded and immediately mobilized 20,000 troops, following his deputy general, to the place where they had been ambushed.

For safety, Shi Xie even sent Shi A along with the army.

Shi Xie's actions greatly pleased the Yizhou and Jiaozhou armies who came to his aid.

Regardless of the outcome, at least they got to sit there, and they did a good job of making a good impression.

Even Xun You was very satisfied with Shi Xie's behavior.

"Quickly," the lieutenant led everyone to the place where Wang Ping and his men were ambushed.

However, two days had passed since Wang Ping escaped, and there was nothing on the ground except for some corpses. The air was filled with the stench of decaying bodies.

"It seems these people won't survive. Let's retreat."

After saying that, Shi A prepared to leave with his men.

"Wait a minute, there might still be a chance."

After saying that, the lieutenant began searching among the corpses.

However, after searching around, they couldn't find Wang Ping's body, and the number of corpses on the ground was clearly incorrect.

When he broke out, he took several thousand soldiers with him, but now there are only a few thousand corpses lying on the ground, which proves that Wang Ping broke out with at least ten thousand men.

"What chance do you have? It's been two days already. This is an ambush. Do you think the enemy will fight your general here for two days? You are a general who leads troops into battle. Don't you understand this simple principle?"

Upon hearing this, the deputy general fell completely silent.

Shia is right, two days is enough time for them to finish a battle.

If Wang Ping wins, they will see his army on the road. If they don't, it means Wang Ping has lost, and there is only one outcome: death.

"Sigh, let's go back."

After saying this, Shi A turned to leave with his men.

However, at that moment, a barrage of arrows rained down from the sky.

In a short time, countless people in Shia died or were injured.

But these were all battle-hardened soldiers. Before the second wave of arrows arrived, and before Shi A's orders came, the remaining men raised their shields and began to defend themselves. (End of Chapter)