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

"Haha, of course I know about the situation in Liangzhou. If King Lie needs it, I have already prepared troops. As long as King Lie gives the order, 50,000 troops can enter Liangzhou to help King Lie quell the rebellion."

"Oh? Fifty thousand troops, that's quite a lot. Well then, I thank King Wu for his generosity. I'll accept these fifty thousand troops."

"Huh? This..."

Just as Sun Jian was about to say something, Gu Rubing immediately interrupted him.

"Since the King of Wu is so generous, I naturally cannot be stingy. I have also prepared a gift for the King of Wu."

"Gift?"

When Sun Jian heard the word "gift," his heart pounded wildly.

Sun Jian knew Gu Rubing all too well; he was the kind of person who wouldn't act until he saw a clear benefit.

What kind of gift would someone like that prepare for themselves? They'd definitely be sabotaging themselves, so this gift is unacceptable.

"Haha, Your Highness is too kind. We are in-laws, family. There's no need for formalities. I won't accept this gift."

"You don't want it? That won't do. I brought it with great difficulty. No matter what, the King of Wu must take a look."

After saying that, Gu Rubing waved his hand.

The cloths on all the carriages were lifted up at the same time.

The soldiers, who had been waiting for a long time, overturned the carriage to the ground.

Sixty thousand heads rolled off the carriage.

The heads piled up like a small mountain, blocking Sun Jian's view and completely blocking the gates of Constantinople.

Not only Sun Jian saw it, but the people in the city and the soldiers on the city wall also saw it.

The charred human head made everyone's eyes widen, and some people even vomited on the spot.

Sun Jian's face was also somewhat pale.

It took Sun Jian a while to recover.

"Prince Lie, what do you mean by this?"

Sun Jian suppressed the churning in his stomach and forced out these words through gritted teeth.

"Of course, these are gifts for the King of Wu. These are all my spoils of war. Sixty thousand men, all neatly assembled, are standing before you."

After Gu Rubing finished speaking, his face was full of smiles, but anyone could see that there was a cold chill in his smile and a murderous aura emanating from his body.

Upon seeing this, Sun Jian closed his eyes and calmed down from his shock.

He regained his composure.

"Your Highness, this gift is too precious, I won't accept it."

"Don't you want it? I thought the King of Wu would like it very much. After all, the King of Wu went to great lengths to gather these 60,000 people. Now I'm giving you back everything you like."

"What does King Lie mean by this? I don't quite understand."

"King Wu, you know very well that it's not good to say things too clearly. This matter is also something I wanted to tell you, so don't try to get on my good side. I'm not the kind of person who would suffer a loss without telling the truth. If you want me to suffer a loss, you'd better be prepared to bleed. I'll accept King Wu's 50,000 troops. I really like King Wu's gifts. If you have any more gifts like these, you can keep sending them to me, and I'll accept them all!"

Upon hearing this, Sun Jian could only awkwardly force a smile, not daring to utter a single word.

It was obvious that Gu Rubing had come here to demonstrate, and he already knew that he was connected with the rebel army, but he had no evidence, so he came to intimidate him.

"If Your Highness has nothing else to do, I'm quite busy here, so I won't see you off."

"Alright, I'm quite busy too. This one has been delivered, but I still have 60,000 corpses over there that haven't been dealt with yet. King Wu, I hope you'll behave yourself in the future!"

After Gu Rubing finished speaking, he turned to leave, but at the last moment, he stopped.

"Furthermore, I expect to see the 50,000 men of the King of Wu in the Youzhou camp within half a month. Otherwise, I will personally lead men to demand them, and we will settle all our old and new scores together!"

"Haha, don't worry, Your Highness, it will be delivered soon."

Seeing Gu Rubing's departing figure, Sun Jian's smile vanished instantly.

A deathly pallor returned to his face.

"Liu Bei, you're ruthless."

Sun Jian gritted his teeth, looking at the dark heads in front of him. Without even thinking, he knew what they had gone through in their lives.

"Is this still a human being?"

Those of them who had fought for many years had all witnessed the devastation of fire attacks, and each of them had at least seen the power of fire attacks to some extent.

Most of them were simply killed by arrows from a distance, or by choking on the thick smoke, because the fire blocked their way.

But these people in front of us are different. It's obvious at a glance that they were burned alive, and each one of them is like that, their faces unrecognizable, extremely terrifying.

With Gu Rubing's departure, Sun Jian finally sent someone to Liangzhou to investigate.

Finally, they learned the whole story of how Gu Rubing took action.

When they learned that Gu Rubing had killed 60,000 people in just one day, Sun Jian was completely stunned.

The news of the 60,000 heads burned to death quickly spread throughout the Han Dynasty.

Cao Cao, Liu Zhang, and Shi Xie all felt a chill run down their spines.

Sixty thousand people were killed, and they were burned alive.

This made them feel not only fear but also a sense of dread towards Gu Rubing; they were all afraid of such an end.

And this matter became even simpler: the idea of ​​a three-way alliance.

At least they decided that they couldn't let Gu Rubing continue to grow stronger, otherwise their heads would also end up among those 60,000 people.

Gu Rubing hadn't expected that his original intention of intimidating Sun Jian would end up scaring everyone.

After resolving the matter in Liangzhou, Gu Rubing instructed Zhang Liao to strengthen the defenses of Liangzhou before sending Zhang Liao back to Zhuge Liang's side.

He himself headed to the Youzhou camp.

As soon as he arrived at the camp, he saw Lu Su and his men come out.

"My lord, that was a brilliant move. You burned down a valley with 60,000 troops, and suffered less than 2,000 casualties yourself. We could never achieve such a feat."

“That’s right, elder brother is truly a genius. I think his military talent is no less than that of the Prime Minister.”

Zhang Fei was also standing to the side, laughing incessantly.

For Zhang Fei, killing 60,000 people was no big deal; the method used was completely unimportant, and he felt no psychological burden whatsoever.

"Alright, let's go inside and talk. What are you doing standing at the camp entrance?"

Gu Rubing was too lazy to listen to their flattery, and then led everyone into the central army camp.

After entering the camp, Lu Su reported the current situation to Gu Rubing.

The situation was largely the same as before Gu Rubing left. With provisions in hand, Xun You, relying on his army of over 100,000, did indeed begin harassing Lu Su's camp, but Lu Su repelled them all.

Although the two sides clashed, neither suffered significant losses, and both sides had their share of wins and losses.

Their current base is in Changcheng.

Changcheng doesn't have any tall city walls; it's just that it's relatively close to Xun You.

Therefore, Xun You often dared to send people to harass their camp outside the city.

“Xun You and his men have 150,000 men, and with the troops I brought from Sun Jian, we should be able to muster 100,000 men. Even if we do end up fighting, we won’t be at a disadvantage.”

Upon hearing that Gu Rubing had brought back 50,000 troops, Lu Su's pressure immediately eased considerably.

After everything was arranged, Gu Rubing led everyone directly to the top of a mountain.

From this vantage point, one can clearly see the scale of Xun You's camp.

Looking at the vast camp that stretched as far as the eye could see, Gu Rubing also felt that things were getting a bit complicated.

He now wanted to recover Youzhou, not confront Xun You. If the stalemate continued, he would have fallen into Cao Cao's trap.

Looking at the endless camp, Gu Rubing suddenly felt a sense of powerlessness.

A direct assault would be difficult to win, and even if he did win, his losses would be enormous, leaving him with no chance to recapture other cities.

If it comes to scheming, given Xun You's intelligence, it would be difficult for the other party to fall for it. The last incident should have been enough to make Xun You wary.

Gu Rubing looked at Lu Su beside him and found that Lu Su was also deep in thought about how to defeat the enemy.

Previously, without troops, Lu Su had always been on the defensive, but now with 50,000 troops as support, Lu Su found that it was still the same as before, and he could only defend passively.

While the two of them remained silent.

A soldier came before the group.

"My lord, a letter has arrived from the Prime Minister's side."

"A messenger? Has something happened in Jiaozhou?"

Gu Rubing immediately stepped forward, opened the letter, and found that there was only a brocade pouch inside.

Open the brocade pouch; inside were only three words.

A counter-espionage plot!
Seeing this, Gu Rubing, somewhat skeptical, opened the brocade pouch completely, only to find it completely empty, containing nothing but those three words.

"This prime minister is truly sparing with words, not writing a single word more than necessary, just a counter-espionage plan. Who am I supposed to betray? Does he expect me to win over Xun You?"

After Gu Rubing finished speaking, he laughed self-deprecatingly.

The entire Xun family was under Cao Cao's control. How could Xun You possibly betray the entire Xun family for his own sake?
Lu Su, who was standing to the side, took the paper and stared at the three words "counter-espionage plot" on it, lost in thought.

After a long time.

Lu Su's eyes lit up, and he immediately took all the recent intelligence.

After observing for a long time, Lu Su finally understood what Zhuge Liang meant.

"My Lord, I understand!"

Lu Su immediately walked up to Gu Rubing.

"Hmm? Zijing, you're going to try and win over Xun You?"

Lu Su smiled and shook his head upon hearing this.

"My lord, of course not. Xun You is not someone we can win over. The Prime Minister's intention is not for us to win over Xun You, but to make it look like a counter-espionage plot. In reality, he wants us to use someone else to do the dirty work."

Gu Rubing still didn't understand Lu Su's meaning.

"My lord, please take a look."

Lu Su presented several intelligence reports to Gu Rubing.

"My lord, Youzhou now belongs to Shi Xie, at least in name only. The people of Youzhou also know that they are under the command of Shi Xie, the governor of Youzhou. The 150,000-strong garrison in Youzhou is basically all under Liu Zhang, and they are all from the Western Legion. However, they are all commanded by Wang Yue and Shi A, subordinates of Shi Xie, the governor of Youzhou. Even the strategist is Cao Cao's strategist, Xun You."

Upon hearing this, Gu Rubing frowned immediately.

This is also the most difficult part for Gu Rubing. Now, Youzhou is a combination of Shi Xie, Cao Cao, Liu Zhang, and even Sun Jian who provides supplies. He is essentially trapped in Youzhou and has to fight against all sides.

Most importantly, the outcome of this decisive battle was completely unaffected by Liu Zhang, Cao Cao, or even Sun Jian; on the contrary, it was himself and Shi Xie who suffered the most.

"My lord, with this configuration, it seems that each of these parties is playing to its strengths in Youzhou: Cao Cao's top strategist, Liu Zhang's large army, Sun Jian's food and supplies support, and Shi Xie's territory. But have you noticed that there is a very big problem?"

"what is the problem?"

"confusion!"

Upon hearing this, Gu Rubing finally realized what was happening.

Yes, how could it not be chaotic?
Let Cao Cao and Shi Xie's generals and strategists command Liu Zhang's troops, or the western legion.

Then Liu Zhang's troops were put in charge of the people of Youzhou under Shi Xie's rule.

In such a situation, any decision made by the higher-ups will inevitably elicit complaints from those below, because these people are completely incapable of reaching a consensus on anything other than opposing you.

If it weren't for Wang Yue, Shi A, and Xun You desperately suppressing the situation, things would probably have descended into chaos long ago.

Upon realizing this, Gu Rubing instantly understood.

The reason why Youzhou has not yet fallen into chaos is entirely because Wang Yue, Shi A, and Xun You are relatively peaceful. However, if the three of them were to cause trouble, it would completely throw the entire Youzhou army into chaos.

But how to incite internal strife is something I need to consider.

Gu Rubing and Lu Su spent a whole day discussing in the camp, and finally finalized all the plans.

Inside the Youzhou army camp.

Wang Yue walked up to Xun You.

"I heard that Liu Bei has returned and obtained 50,000 reinforcements from Sun Jian. They will all arrive soon, and we only have these few days left."

Upon hearing this, Xun You immediately shook his head.

"No, we have no chance. Lu Su alone is already a huge headache for us, and with Liu Bei on top of that, even if we have three times the number of troops, we can't win in a short time. So we can only remain in a stalemate."

"A stalemate? Hmph, that's probably exactly what Cao Cao and his men want to see. I don't think Cao Cao ever intended for us to win or lose; he just wants us to hold Liu Bei back."

When Wang Yue thought about how he had three times the number of troops as Liu Bei, but his attacks were still not going well, he felt that this was entirely because Xun You was not putting in any effort.

However, Wang Yue was right. Cao Cao did not intend for Shi Xie to win or lose; he simply wanted them to hold Gu Rubing back.

However, Xun You was not just going through the motions as Wang Yue thought; he simply had no other choice but to devour Lu Su.

"Wang Yue, how could you think like that? In all this time, when have I ever let Liu Bei go? Wasn't it me who helped you win every time? If it weren't for me, everyone would be dead by now. Have you forgotten how Liaoxi Commandery was returned to us?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Yue realized he had gone a bit too far, but he made no attempt to apologize to Xun You; he simply turned and left. (End of Chapter)