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

"My lord, should I go and take care of them?"

Zhao Yun already felt guilty and wanted to help Gu Rubing with something to make up for his guilt.

Therefore, he no longer cares about the original rules that legendary generals are not allowed to act arbitrarily.

Looking at Zhao Yun's expression, how could Gu Rubing not know what he was thinking?

"Zilong, this is a small matter, you don't need to take action. Besides, I have no intention of taking action against them."

"Huh? Not going to fight? Brother, are you sure you don't want to fight them? But they've rebelled against us, and besides, didn't you say you were going to take care of them?"

"Of course we need to deal with them, but now is not the time to take action."

Gu Rubing's words left those present even more confused.

However, Lu Su guessed what Gu Rubing meant.

"Zijing, in which area are those counties located?"

"The Right Fufeng Commandery of Sili also has the Prefect of Jingzhao."

Gu Rubing looked at the map beside him and found that these two places were very close to Cao Cao. Although they were still under his control, even if they failed in their rebellion, they could still sneak into Cao Cao's territory.

Given how close Cao Cao was, Gu Rubing simply did not believe that Cao Cao had no involvement whatsoever.

Gu Rubing knew that Cao Cao was provoking him.

It's just a few counties. Even if they really rebel, it would be a piece of cake to take them down. It wouldn't cause them any trouble at all.

But in this day and age, public opinion is a powerful force. If I were to suppress it with violence, the situation would develop terribly, and I would become a cruel tyrant in everyone's eyes.

If you lose the hearts of the people, your foundation will be weakened.

"Cao Cao, Cao Cao, you don't actually think I'd fall for your trick, do you?"

Gu Rubing muttered something under his breath, then turned to look at Lu Su.

"Zijing, what is the current situation in Youzhou?"

"My lord, with the reinforcements brought by General Zhang He, our total military strength in Youzhou is now about 100,000. With our current strength, defense is absolutely no problem, and we can even launch a counterattack at any time."

Upon hearing this, Gu Rubing nodded in satisfaction at Lu Su.

"In that case, Zilong, accompany me on this trip. We'll go to Youfufeng and the Prefect of Jingzhao."

"No problem, my lord. Should we bring some troops with us?"

Zhao Yun was traumatized by the loss of Gu Rubing and never dared to take Gu Rubing out alone again.

"No need. We're not going there to fight; we're going to reason with them."

"Reasonable?"

The group looked at each other with puzzled expressions.

The two set off quickly, but for Gu Rubing's safety, Zhao Yun still had Lu Su send a hundred cavalrymen to accompany them.

Lu Su originally planned to send a thousand cavalrymen to accompany him, but Gu Rubing stopped him. Cavalrymen are very important now, and it would be somewhat redundant to use them all to protect himself.

After some pushing and shoving between Gu Rubing and Lu Su, the two finally agreed on a deal involving a hundred cavalrymen.

Worried about the situation in Sili, which was spiraling out of his control, Gu Rubing sped up his pace, even working for two days and two nights without rest.

However, the journey was simply too long, and it was clearly impossible to run there in one go.

Two days later, Gu Rubing could no longer hold on and finally had to take a break.

The camp was quickly set up.

Gu Rubing entered the tent and immediately began to rest, as every second counted.

However, setting up camp in such a wilderness would inevitably attract some of the unsavory mountain spirits and monsters in the vicinity.

late at night.

Outside Gu Rubing's camp.

A group of bandits surrounded the camp.

These bandits appeared to number nearly a thousand.

The number of people has reached ten times that of Gu Rubing and his group.

Zhao Yun was resting when he sensed something was wrong with the atmosphere around him. He suddenly opened his eyes and looked around.

Zhao Yun soon left the camp.

Seeing that there was nothing unusual in the camp and that the soldiers on guard were getting drowsy, Zhao Yun did not wake them.

After all, they had traveled for such a long time, and Gu Rubing was so exhausted, so the soldiers must have been tired too.

We can't let them not even have time to rest.

However, just as Zhao Yun was about to take a walk around the camp, a whooshing sound suddenly came from afar.

By the time Zhao Yun figured it out, the soldiers guarding the door were shot through the body by arrows and fell to the ground.

Upon seeing this, Zhao Yun immediately shouted, "Enemy attack!"

The noise was so loud that it woke up Gu Rubing, who was fast asleep.

Gu Rubing was not in a hurry to react. The continuous journey had left him extremely tired, and he habitually walked out of the tent.

However, what came head-on was a hail of arrows.

By the time Gu Rubing realized what was happening, it was already too late.

Just then, Gu Rubing suddenly felt as if he had been hit by a train, and his whole body was like a cannonball, crashing directly into the tent, but in doing so, he dodged the arrows.

Soon, Zhao Yun arrived in front of Gu Rubing.

"My lord, are you alright? I'm so sorry, my lord. This was the only way I could save you."

Gu Rubing stood up from the ground, feeling as if all the bones in his body were about to fall apart.

However, Gu Rubing also knew that Zhao Yun was doing it for his own good. In that situation, this was the only way to avoid hurting himself.

"It's alright. Do you know who they are?"

"My lord, judging from their clothes, I feel that they are probably just some mountain bandits, numbering around a thousand. However, we are outnumbered, so we may have to retreat."

The thought that he had been forced to retreat by a group of bandits and robbers was terrifying. If this got back to the city, wouldn't his reputation be ruined?
Thinking of this, Gu Rubing drew his sword and walked to the entrance of the tent.

“A bunch of bandits and thugs, a motley crew, forced us seasoned soldiers to retreat. What’s the point of all our years of fighting on the battlefield? The enemy only has a thousand men, we have a hundred. The advantage is on our side. Follow me and kill them.”

After saying that, Gu Rubing rushed out.

Seeing this, Zhao Yun quickly followed him out.

The soldiers had originally decided to retreat when they saw that the enemy numbered a thousand, but when they saw that Gu Rubing had already charged out, they no longer cared about that.

"Protect our lord."

Soon, a hundred cavalrymen began to surround Gu Rubing.

These people protected Gu Rubing in the middle.

The sheer number of these thousand bandits was enormous and terrifying, and Gu Rubing's hundred cavalrymen were indeed initially taken aback.

However, with the addition of Gu Rubing, the hundred cavalrymen calmed down and began to attack and defend in an orderly manner. Under Zhao Yun's command, they gradually formed a battle formation.

The thousand-strong bandit attack was repelled four times, and more than half of them had been killed.

Of the hundred light cavalrymen, less than a tenth had been lost. Soon, the bandits began to retreat, no longer daring to attack Gu Rubing.

Seeing this, Gu Rubing sneered, and then led everyone to charge out.

These bandits were already afraid of Gu Rubing and his men.

Seeing that Gu Rubing and his men had actually come out to fight, they became even more frightened and completely collapsed.

Gu Rubing led his men in a fierce battle for quite some time before finally withdrawing and returning to their camp.

At this time, there were still several bandits in the camp who had been captured because they were injured.

Gu Rubing looked at the bandits in front of him and ordered his men to take them to his tent.

Several people knelt on the ground.

Gu Rubing knew that there were indeed some bandits and robbers in the vicinity.

But there would absolutely not be a band of such a scale.

Someone must have gathered the bandits and robbers from the surrounding area together, which is why such a large-scale event occurred.

And that person is definitely targeting you.

"Tell me, where are you bandits from?"

Upon hearing this, the group knelt on the ground, looking at Gu Rubing in terror.

"Our lord is speaking to you, didn't you hear him?"

A centurion stepped forward and kicked one of the bandits.

The bandit cried out in pain.

But he quickly got up from the ground.

"I'm asking you one last time, where are you bandits from? My patience is running out. If you don't tell me, I'll treat you like cripples. You should know what will happen to you then."

Gu Rubing's words terrified the bandits present.

One of them immediately stepped forward.

“King Lie, I will tell you, I am from Qingyun Village.”

"I am from Fengyun Village."

"I am from Tieguzhai."

Gu Rubing saw that there were only five people kneeling on the ground, who actually came from three different mountain strongholds.

"Were you the only three from your mountain strongholds involved in this operation?"

"No, no, there are seven mountain strongholds of varying sizes in total, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to gather this thousand or so people."

"Write down the names of all these bandit strongholds for me, and also their locations."

"Yes Yes!"

Soon, the locations of the seven mountain strongholds were laid out in front of Gu Rubing.

After glancing at the positions above, Gu Rubing nodded directly to the centurion beside him.

The centurion understood Gu Rubing's meaning, drew his sword, and killed the five men.

"My lord, now that we have their positions, should we go up the mountain and wipe them out?"

The centurion looked at Gu Rubing. He knew that if he could wipe out all seven mountain strongholds, his contribution would be immense, and he would definitely be able to become a chiliarch.

However, Gu Rubing shook his head.

“There are seven mountain strongholds here. It would be a waste of time to wipe them out one by one. We still need to go to Sili Prefecture to deal with things there. We don’t have time to waste here.”

After saying that, Gu Rubing took out paper and pen and wrote seven letters in a row, which were then sent to the seven mountain strongholds.

"My lord, what's wrong?"

“I invite them to come see me tomorrow. If they don’t come by tomorrow, kill them all.”

Zhao Yun nodded.

An hour later.

The leaders of the seven mountain strongholds all received Gu Rubing's letter at the same time.

Eventually, the seven of them came together.

Inside Qingyun Village.

The seven chieftains gathered together.

"Everyone, I think you've all received Liu Bei's letter, right? I wonder what your thoughts are on this matter?"

Chief Qingyun looked at the six people in front of him, but finally focused his gaze on two of them.

It is said that the seven mountain strongholds work together, but in reality, only three of these seven strongholds are large strongholds with more than 300 people, while the rest are small strongholds with only a few dozen people.

Qingyun Village is one of these three mountain villages.

After a moment's hesitation, the Iron Bone Chieftain stood up.

"Chief Qingyun, didn't you say that someone gave you money and food to come to us? Where is that person now? We've offended Liu Bei, someone has to stand up for us, right?"

"correct."

"Let that person come out."

As the surrounding noise grew louder, Chief Qingyun sighed.

"Everyone, let me tell you the truth. After that person gave me money and food, he never showed up again, and I don't know who he is."

"What? You know nothing and you want us to provoke Liu Bei?"

The leader of Fengyun Village was so excited that he stood up from his seat.

Who is Liu Bei? He is the most powerful warlord at the time, with hundreds of thousands of troops under his command. Moreover, the soldiers under Liu Bei are all battle-hardened, and they are not even in the same league as this rabble.

Liu Bei could have crushed them to dust with a flick of his finger, but they provoked him and their patron ran away. Isn't this just using them as cannon fodder?

The six chieftains immediately understood and turned their anger towards Chieftain Qingyun.

“You need to give us an explanation. If you can’t explain it, then go explain it to Liu Bei. You don’t want to live, but we do. You were the one who said that someone should take the blame if something happens. Now that something has happened, you’re not going to make us take the blame, are you?”

Upon hearing the six people's words, the chieftain of Qingyun Village's face instantly darkened.

When the money was being divided, they didn't say they'd give me a bigger share. Now that something's happened, they're trying to take all the blame on me?
"Gentlemen, if you put it that way, don't blame me."

After saying that, Chief Qingyun smashed the teacup in his hand on the ground.

Soon, countless people entered the room.

Upon seeing this, the chieftains of Fengyun and Tiegu instantly drew their weapons and looked at the chieftain of Qingyun warily.

"What are you going to do? If you kill us here, all the big and small mountain strongholds around will know what you did today, and they won't let your Qingfeng Village off the hook."

"Is that so? As long as I kill you, I can take your heads to Liu Bei to apologize, and then we will all join Liu Bei's army. What are we still bandits for? What do we care what the people around us think? I originally wanted to have a good talk with you, but since you don't want to talk, then don't blame me."

"No, we..."

The chieftain of Qingyun Village ignored what the others were saying and simply waved his hand.

The bandits immediately began to act. (End of Chapter)