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

As he spoke, Xun You drew his sword and placed it against his throat.

Now, driven to the brink of despair, the Western Legion, which had been suppressed for so long, finally began to rebel against Xun You.

These people knew that Gu Rubing wanted Xun You alive, but whether Gu Rubing wanted the dead one was completely unclear to them.

Just when the two sides were at a stalemate.

Chaos erupted on the battlefield where the two sides were locked in combat.

A huge explosion resounded throughout the entire battlefield, and even the ground in Xun You's camp trembled.

No one could react in time to what had just happened.

In the distance, Gu Rubing was watching the battle.

He saw a burly man with a dark face rush into the chaotic crowd, and then, Evil's phantom appeared in the air.

"Dian Wei?"

Gu Rubing immediately realized what was happening.

Only Dian Wei can summon evil.

Zhao Yun stood guard protectively in front of Gu Rubing.

Although they are quite far apart, if Dian Wei wants to find them, he can quickly pinpoint their location by searching carefully.

Dian Wei wielded his double halberds, and with a single move, he killed the more than two thousand soldiers who had surrounded him.

Wei Yan and Zhang He witnessed all of this.

They knew perfectly well what kind of person Dian Wei was.

The two instinctively moved away from Dian Wei.

Dian Wei's purpose in coming this time was not for them, much less for Gu Rubing, but for Xun You.

After this move, none of the soldiers dared to approach Dian Wei; they all retreated quickly.

Dian Wei rushed into Xun You's tent at top speed.

"This is what you are doing?"

Dian Wei saw that the six lieutenants had surrounded Xun You, and Xun You's sword was placed right in front of his throat.

"General Dian Wei, what brings you here?"

"Sir, I have brought a secret letter from our lord. He said that he has not reached any agreement with Liu Bei. Don't be fooled. Our lord has never even met Liu Bei."

Upon hearing this, Xun You immediately realized that they had fallen into a trap.

Just as Xun You was about to say something, Dian Wei suddenly turned around and looked outside.

"You go first."

After shouting, Dian Wei rushed out of the tent.

Xun You saw a fire phoenix flying towards Dian Wei outside the camp.

However, it was shattered by Dian Wei's double halberds.

The flames from the shattered phoenix scattered on the ground, burning many people.

Among these people were his own people and Gu Rubing's people.

That's how it is when legendary warriors clash; there's absolutely no way to avoid accidentally injuring others.

At this moment, Huang Zhong was standing at the back of the crowd, holding the Eight Treasures Qilin Bow, staring at Dian Wei in front of him.

"Dian Wei, you have broken the rules."

"I'm just here to deliver a message for my lord. It's your people who are blocking my way. If I wanted to make a move, none of these people would survive."

Dian Wei was telling the truth; in the face of a legendary general, killing an army of 100,000 was as easy as killing 100,000 ants.

After saying this, Dian Wei immediately turned his head to the side, to the location of Gu Rubing.

This made Huang Zhong even more nervous.

Zhao Yun, who was standing next to Gu Rubing, also felt Dian Wei's gaze.

"My lord, please step back. Dian Wei has already spotted us."

Gu Rubing subconsciously took a few steps back.

"Dian Wei, what are you doing?"

After Huang Zhong finished speaking, a fire arrow condensed again on the Eight Treasures Qilin Bow, aiming at Dian Wei.

"I'm not doing anything. My orders this time were just to deliver a message, not to kill Liu Bei. Now that the order has been delivered, I should go. Also, I'd like to tell Liu Bei that I'd better advise him not to make any moves."

After saying this, Dian Wei turned and disappeared from the battlefield.

Apart from the large crater left by Dian Wei's earlier attack, there was no other trace of Dian Wei on the entire battlefield, as if he had never been there at all.

But Dian Wei's strike left a deep impression on everyone's mind.

Having been intimidated by Dian Wei's move, the six lieutenants calmed down.

The slight rebellious thought that had just arisen was completely suppressed by Dian Wei.

Upon receiving Cao Cao's message, Xun You immediately understood Gu Rubing's plan and ordered a retreat.

It has been almost five hours since the start of the battle.

Both sides' soldiers have reached their physical limits. Now it is no longer a contest of tactics, nor a contest of numbers, but a contest of willpower, and both sides will be determined by their willpower.

Xun You knew that Wang Yue's reinforcements had not arrived after so long.

This means that the reinforcements will not be coming.

"retreat."

This time, no one resisted Xun You; they all followed Xun You and retreated in disgrace.

With Xun You's retreat, Gu Rubing and his men finally managed to break into Xun You's rear camp.

However, at this moment, the place was completely empty.

Five hours of fighting had left Gu Rubing's side exhausted. Everyone collapsed on the ground, and even the hands that were holding their weapons were weak.

Gu Rubing knew that now was not the time to pursue, so he could only order a rest.

"My lord, in this battle, we killed 60,000 enemy soldiers, while our army suffered 30,000 casualties."

Upon hearing Wei Yan's report, Gu Rubing couldn't help but feel somewhat disappointed.

On his side, there were two famous generals leading the way, as well as his own buffs, while Xun You's side had nothing.

Despite this disparity, the casualty ratio was still one to two.

Gu Rubing found it hard to accept the gap, but he also knew that it was entirely because only a portion of his troops were veterans, while the majority were new recruits with relatively low combat effectiveness.

In the end, Gu Rubing decided that the army would rest for two days.

Xun You then led the remaining men to Wang Yue's camp.

Meanwhile, Wang Yue, his face flushed from drinking, was chatting and laughing with Shi A.

Upon hearing his subordinates' report that Xun You had arrived, Wang Yue immediately led Shi A to the camp gate to greet him.

"Strategist, what brings you here? Is the battle over?"

"General Wang, you even know that the Southern Camp is under attack? So what have you been doing? I've asked you for help six times, and you've been drinking here? Five hours, and you haven't even left the camp?" Upon hearing this, Wang Yue immediately waved his hand and laughed, "I say, strategist, what are you saying? You were the one who sent someone to tell us that we could handle it ourselves and not to move. Besides, there were no six messengers, only two. Once you told us we needed support, and once you told us we didn't need it and could handle it ourselves."

"what?"

Xun You looked at Wang Yue in front of him, trying to read something from his face, but all he saw was Wang Yue's drunken face.

In the end, Xun You finally gave up.

He led all his troops and joined forces with Wang Yue and his men.

After Xun You left, the drunkenness on Wang Yue's face vanished instantly.

"Shi'er, have all the bodies of those messengers been disposed of?"

"Don't worry, Master. Everything has been taken care of. Xun You will never be able to tell the difference."

"Ok!"

Silent all night.

Early the next morning.

Xun You then came before Wang Yue.

"Strategist, why are you here so early in the morning..."

Before Wang Yue could finish speaking, Xun You slammed a letter down in front of him.

Wang Yue curiously opened the letter.

The above is the letter from Cao Cao in which Xun You listened to Gu Rubing's words.

After reading it, Wang Yue's smile gradually faded, replaced by a murderous aura.

So Xun You isn't even putting on an act anymore; he's about to lay his cards on the table.

But then Xun You immediately produced a second letter, which was delivered by Dian Wei.

The above is Cao Cao's warning to Xun You, and Cao Cao also explained in it that he had never met Gu Rubing.

After reading it, Wang Yue instantly suppressed his murderous aura and looked at Xun You with a blank expression, completely unaware of what Xun You meant.

“We’ve fallen into their trap. The first letter was sent by Liu Bei, so it’s probably fake. The second one was sent by General Dian Wei, so it’s definitely real. In other words, we’ve fallen for Liu Bei’s scheme. I suppose when you discovered that I was meeting with Liu Bei, and all those random things Liu Bei said to me, it was obviously part of Liu Bei’s calculations.”

Upon hearing this, Wang Yue immediately looked at Meng Huo.

"Could you please make a trip to the rear and ask the lord if he has summoned me and Shi A?"

Meng Huo was a legendary general with incredible speed. Moreover, the distance between them and Shi Xie's location was such that even an ordinary famous general would only need two days to reach the destination at full speed. With Meng Huo's speed, he could make a round trip in half a day at most.

After Meng Huo left, no one present spoke; they all waited quietly.

But by this time, they already had some guesses about everything.

Half a day later.

Meng Huo is back.

And it also brought a definite message.

That means Shi Xie never asked anyone to look for Wang Yue and Shi A.

Upon hearing this, Wang Yue slumped into his chair.

He then recounted everything that had happened during that time to Xun You.

After hearing this, Xun You's face instantly darkened. He slowly stood up and looked in the direction of Gu Rubing's camp.

"Liu Bei, Liu Bei, you have truly mastered the art of counter-espionage! I, Xun You, admire you."

While Xun You was marveling at the plan, he also knew that Gu Rubing's talent alone was not enough to complete such a complex scheme. A strong intelligence network and informants were also needed for perfect coordination.

These messengers, along with various messages, must have been the work of Gu Rubing's informants, who had been lurking in the army for a long time.

Xun You has made up his mind to start eliminating Gu Rubing's spies here.

At this time, Gu Rubing was unaware that the misunderstanding between Wang Yue and Xun You had already been cleared up.

After a few days of rest, Gu Rubing led his army and slowly approached the Northern Camp.

"My lord, the Northern Camp still has 90,000 troops, while our army still has 70,000. Defeating Wang Yue is not a problem, but if we do that, our army will probably be short of manpower. Therefore, we cannot launch a direct attack; we must outsmart them."

Gu Rubing nodded; he knew this situation even without Lu Su telling him.

"Also, my lord, there is something I may need to tell you."

"Ok?"

“I’ve done some analysis. We’ve been getting less and less intelligence lately, and a lot of it is vague. It feels like we’re missing something. I suspect there’s something wrong with our informants.”

"Eyeliner?"

This eyeliner is one of Gu Rubing's trump cards.

If something goes wrong, I'll have to work much harder in the future.

"Didn't you ask the Colonel of the Crossbows what happened? Did our informants get discovered?"

"That's the strange thing. I contacted the nearby crossbow captains, and they said that none of the spies had been discovered, but quite a few had died. Even several centurions had died mysteriously without any warning. It didn't seem premeditated; it seemed more like an accident."

In these chaotic times, deaths happen all the time, and normally no one cares about these things.

But if all these things happen at once, anyone would have to be suspicious.

Gu Rubing then took the list of the informants.

As a result, Gu Rubing saw that the highest-ranking of these dead informants had become a centurion under Wang Yue, while the lowest-ranking were still squad leaders in the supply battalion.

Some were crossbowmen disguised as passing caravans.

Although these people all died, their deaths were completely different.

Some were killed by robbers, while others were killed in the street after arguing with certain people.

Anyway, everyone has their own way of dying, and they can all be quite different.

Seeing all this, Gu Rubing felt that something was wrong.

"Immediately contact the Colonel of the Crossbowmen and have him investigate thoroughly what these dead people did before."

Upon hearing this, Lu Su immediately went to carry it out.

"My lord, we have now reached the northern camp. Although the enemy outnumbers us, half of them are Xun You's men. Xun You and Wang Yue are currently at odds with each other, which is a perfect opportunity for us. We can continue to sow discord between them. I bet if we make a move against Xun You now, Wang Yue will just watch the show."

With victory in sight, Wei Yan was also somewhat excited.

Wei Yan even felt that they could decide the outcome of the battle in one fell swoop.

However, Gu Rubing was not like Wei Yan; he knew very well what kind of person Xun You was.

The little trick they used could easily be resolved once the two met and cleared up all the misunderstandings. There is currently no evidence to prove whether Xun You and Wang Yue had a proper conversation, so Gu Rubing did not want to take the risk.

“No, we need to wait a little longer. Our informant in the Northern Camp has run into trouble. If this is related to Xun You, then it's possible that Xun You already knows everything and is about to take revenge on us.”

Just as Gu Rubing was talking to Wei Yan, Lu Su walked in with a gloomy expression.

"Zijing, didn't I tell you to contact the Colonel of the Crossbowmen? Why are you back? Did something happen?"

Gu Rubing could also tell that Lu Su's expression was not good.

"My lord, all our spies in the Northern Camp have disappeared, a total of sixty-eight. According to the last intelligence I obtained, all sixty-eight of them died from various causes." (End of Chapter)