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

Sun Jian only cared about one thing: whether he could gain any benefit from it.

In Sun Jian's view, it was no longer a question whose side Liu Zhang was on.

After all, a year is still a long time, and by then, he will have many more opportunities to win over Liu Zhang.

Now, all the various warlords are somewhat frightening to Gu Rubing. Under this fear, everyone will feel apprehensive and want to unite to fight against those who frighten them.

Liu Zhang only chose to ally with Liu Bei because of hunger, a person he feared. Once Liu Zhang was full, he would immediately distance himself from Liu Bei.

At least that's what Sun Jian thinks.

"Alright, now that everything is settled, there shouldn't be anything else for me, right? If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving."

After saying this, Sun Jian, along with Gan Ning and Sun Ce, turned and left.

Looking at Sun Jian's retreating figure, Gu Rubing hesitated for a moment.

“Sun Jian, you’d better think about whose side you should stand on. I don’t really want to be your enemy, after all, I have a relationship with Shang Xiang.”

Upon hearing this, Sun Jian paused for a moment, then sighed and continued walking out.

After everyone had left, Gu Rubing looked at Liu Zhang.

“King Yi, I can give you 30 million shi of grain, but I don’t have it right now. I’ll give you 300,000 shi of grain first, and you can hold out for a month. I’ll give you the rest after a month.”

"No problem, thank you, King Lie."

"We don't need to be so polite between us."

After Gu Rubing finished speaking, he turned around and left with Zhao Yun and Guan Yu.

After everyone had left, the smile on Liu Zhang's face gradually faded.

"Surena, come out."

As the voice faded, Surena slowly emerged from behind the screen.

"Your Majesty, we should still be careful of Liu Bei. This guy doesn't seem to genuinely want to help us."

"Alas, do you think I don't know? I know too, but what can I do? We are desperately short of food. Everyone avoids us like the plague when they hear how much we need. Only Liu Bei is willing to help us. What can I do?"

Surena knew Liu Zhang's predicament, so after offering some simple words of advice, he gave up.

However, he still secretly remained cautious around Gu Rubing.

Gu Rubing rushed back to the Jiaozhou camp and told Zhuge Liang everything that had happened in Jiaozhou.

Zhuge Liang nodded with a smile.

"My lord, everything is going according to plan. However, you must be careful. Liu Zhang has Surena, whose abilities are no less than Zhou Yu's."

"Don't worry, even Zhou Yu probably wouldn't be able to see through our plan."

Soon, the first batch of 300,000 shi of grain was sent to Liu Zhang.

To prove that there was no problem with the food supplies.

Before the grain supplies were dispatched, Gu Rubing inspected the grain in front of Liu Zhang's men and also tested it for poison.

After confirming with Liu Zhang that there were no problems.

Only then did the provisions leave Gu Rubing's camp.

After several days, the supplies safely arrived at Liu Zhang's camp.

Surena was not at ease with Gu Rubing, so she personally inspected the grain and even found a doctor to test for poison.

Only after confirming that there were no problems did Surena order the grain to be stored in the warehouse.

With supplies in hand, Liu Zhang's worries eased considerably.

That evening, he hosted a banquet for all the soldiers in the camp.

They used all of Gu Rubing's provisions.

Among them were members of Gu Rubing's grain transport team.

Everyone ate the food and fodder that Gu Rubing had brought.

There were no problems at first.

But as the banquet was drawing to a close...

Then people began to scream in agony.

Immediately afterwards, those people began to foam at the mouth and then fell to the ground.

Not only them, but even Liu Zhang was the same.

Because of his unease, Surena did not eat or drink anything at the banquet.

Seeing the appearance of these people, Surena immediately suspected that Gu Rubing was behind it.

It turned out that the people escorting the shipment also developed the same symptoms.

Do these people know it's poisonous, yet still eat it, just to trick us into eating it?

Surena immediately rushed out of the tent, arranged for the soldiers to help all the poisoned people away, and ordered the front line to prepare for Liu Bei's sneak attack. He also transferred all the army doctors in the camp to Liu Zhang's side to treat him.

Soon, all the physicians came to Liu Zhang's side, examined him, and finally came to the conclusion that Liu Zhang was poisoned. As far as they knew, perhaps only people from Hua Tuo's lineage could detoxify him.

Hearing this, Surena became even more suspicious that Gu Rubing was behind it all.

However, an hour has passed since Liu Zhang was poisoned, and there has been no movement at the front line. Gu Rubing has not taken the opportunity to attack the front line.

This made Surena somewhat doubt his own guess.

After a moment's hesitation, Surena came up with a tentative approach.

"Someone, go find King Lie and tell him that King Yi has been poisoned. Please ask King Lie to bring Master Hua Tuo here."

"Yes!"

Gu Rubing was still walking around the camp.

Zhuge Liang, meanwhile, was leisurely sipping his tea.

"My lord, don't be nervous. Just wait patiently. Liu Zhang's men will arrive soon."

"Prime Minister, how can I not be nervous? Only Hua Tuo possesses this poison. Aren't you afraid their people will recognize it as Hua Tuo's poison?"

Upon hearing this, Zhuge Liang burst out laughing.

"Don't worry, my lord. I'm just trying to make them suspect, or even completely believe, that we poisoned them. That way, we'll have a chance to prove it. As for the poison, it might not be us who put it in."

Zhuge Liang waved his hand, indicating that Gu Rubing should not worry.

In fact, the current situation is no longer part of Gu Rubing's plan.

According to Gu Rubing's plan, when poisoning someone, he should choose a common poison and then, when delivering the medicine, subtly reveal to Surena that the poisoner was someone from Cao Cao's side. However, the current situation is entirely due to Zhuge Liang's manipulation.

Just as Gu Rubing was about to say something, a soldier walked in.

"My lord, Prime Minister, there is a man outside who says he is an envoy."

"Let him in."

Zhuge Liang smiled and waved his hand.

After the soldiers left, Zhuge Liang looked at Gu Rubing.

"How is my lord? Was I right?"

Gu Rubing nodded. The fact that someone came to him wasn't the most troublesome thing. The most troublesome thing was how to make them suspect that he was Cao Cao. After all, Surena was a smart man. How could he let himself be manipulated so easily? How could people believe whatever he said?

Not long after, the messenger entered.

"Your Majesty, my king has been poisoned. The physician says that only your physician Hua Tuo can cure the poison. Please, Your Majesty, and Mr. Hua Tuo, come with me." "Poisoned?"

Gu Rubing feigned surprise, then looked at Zhuge Liang.

"Prime Minister, let's go together."

"Alright, my lord, let's set off now. The health of the alien king is the most important thing."

Soon, the two, along with Hua Tuo, Guan Yu, and Zhao Yun, followed the messenger and quickly headed towards Liu Zhang's location.

With two legendary generals present, everyone's travel speed increased considerably.

They arrived at Liu Zhang's side in just one day.

When Surena saw that Gu Rubing had only brought Zhuge Liang with him, his wariness of Gu Rubing lessened considerably.

According to Surena's guess, Gu Rubing would probably bring tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of troops, ostensibly to treat Liu Zhang's illness, but actually to take advantage of Liu Zhang's illness and kill him.

"King Lie, please follow me."

Surena didn't bother with pleasantries with Gu Rubing and led them directly to Liu Zhang.

Throughout the journey, Surena remained silent. Whether Gu Rubing had poisoned her or not, no one knew. Even if Gu Rubing had, Surena had no evidence to accuse him.

Until there is conclusive evidence, Gu Rubing remains their ally, and Surena can only treat Gu Rubing as an ally.

Hua Tuo stepped forward to examine Liu Zhang's condition and immediately exclaimed in surprise, "This is impossible!"

After saying this, Hua Tuo, still not believing in superstition, examined Liu Zhang's body again.

He then looked at Gu Rubing with a shocked expression.

"My lord, the poison this alien king is afflicted with seems to be a unique poison of our lineage, the Heart-Burning Poison."

"Burning Heart?"

Gu Rubing looked at Hua Tuo with curiosity.

"That's right. Only people in my lineage have this poison. It was developed more than ten years ago. Although it's called a poison, it was originally developed to save lives, using poison to fight poison. After that patient recovered, I never used it again."

Hua Tuo looked at Gu Rubing with a blank expression.

In this whole affair, Hua Tuo was the most innocent one.

This "Burning Heart" was something Zhuge Liang stole from Hua Tuo's room when he visited Hua Tuo.

Because a long time ago, Zhuge Liang heard that this poison was only possessed by Hua Tuo's lineage, and no one else had it.

It was this point that made Zhuge Liang take notice of it.

"Impossible. Before our king fell into a coma, he only ate the food sent by the King of Lie, and the food was tested for poison and there was no problem with it."

Surena deliberately steered the conversation toward the supplies.

However, Hua Tuo shook his head after hearing this.

"Although Burning Heart is a poison, it is also a tonic. It doesn't contain much toxicity on its own. Only when used in large quantities will it become toxic. Your usual methods of testing for poison are of course not enough. But what I'm a little curious about is who poisoned you. People of my lineage should all be in the mountains and forests."

After Hua Tuo finished speaking, he fell into deep thought.

"King Lie, has anyone had contact with your grain supplies?"

"It shouldn't be. I personally tested the grain for poison before it was delivered. My men haven't returned yet. Have they been alright?"

"They were also poisoned."

"He's been poisoned too? Hua Tuo, quickly detoxify the King of Yi, then go and detoxify our own people."

"Yes!"

After saying this, Hua Tuo took out several pills and gave them to Liu Zhang to eat.

Liu Zhang's complexion improved significantly in an instant, though he remained unconscious.

"They'll be awake first thing tomorrow morning. Give these pills to everyone who's been poisoned, and they'll be fine after a good night's sleep."

"Thank you sir."

Surena distributed all the antidote.

"Prince Lie, what exactly happened?"

“Surena, don’t ask me, I don’t know what happened either. This poison is only available to people from Hua Tuo’s lineage, but the one who poisoned him was definitely not Hua Tuo. If it were, I wouldn’t have brought Hua Tuo here.”

"The lineage of Hua Tuo?"

Surena had already come to believe Gu Rubing, since all of this seemed to have nothing to do with Gu Rubing.

People kindly delivered food and even brought people to help detoxify the poison.

Surena kept muttering to himself, after all, Hua Tuo had many disciples, but no one knew exactly what they were doing.

Many of his disciples were actually Hua Tuo's students, but they did not mention Hua Tuo's name.

Just then, Surena suddenly remembered someone.

As for the lineage of Hua Tuo, he only knew one person, Wu Pu, who claimed to be Hua Tuo's disciple everywhere, and this person was also working for Cao Cao.

Moreover, when Liu Zhang joined forces with Gu Rubing, Cao Cao was very angry and clearly intended to take action.

Surena never expected that Cao Cao would be so angry at that time that he would resort to such means to retaliate.

"Prince Lie, this matter is probably related to Cao Cao."

Upon hearing this, Gu Rubing burst out laughing.

Normally, Gu Rubing shouldn't be laughing at this point in the play.

When Zhuge Liang saw Gu Rubing smile, his heart jumped into his throat.

Gu Rubing realized what was happening, but since he had already laughed, he might as well laugh it off.

After going around in circles for so long, we've finally gotten to the main point.

"Haha, Surena, you must be joking. You're saying Cao Cao poisoned him, but you might as well say I poisoned him. Cao Cao was in Yizhou and didn't show up at all. How could he poison him? I might have a chance."

"King Lie, you are joking. How could you be the one who poisoned them? If you were the one who poisoned them, there would not be just a few people here now, but an army of 100,000."

Surena waved his hand.

Just as Gu Rubing was about to say something, Zhuge Liang knew it was time for him to step in.

"My lord, it is possible that Cao Cao has many spies, and these people may be in this military camp as well."

"Eyeliner?"

Gu Rubing pretended to think for a moment, then nodded.

"Cao Cao is really ruthless; he didn't even spare my people."

"Rest assured, Your Majesty, I will make Cao Cao give an explanation for this matter. Even if we were allies in the past, his actions have crossed our bottom line, and we will not let Cao Cao get away with it."

"Well, I'll leave this matter to you. Our affairs in Youzhou are still unresolved. Once we've settled them, we'll turn around and help you."

"Alright, thank you very much, King Lie, for this matter."

Watching Surena turn and leave, Gu Rubing couldn't help but chuckle.

"My lord, you'd better stop laughing. Everyone around us is Liu Zhang's man. If anyone tells others about your behavior, we'll be in big trouble."

Upon hearing this, Gu Rubing immediately wiped the smile off his face.

However, to avoid saying anything that might cause trouble, Gu Rubing left with Hua Tuo that very night, without even waiting for Liu Zhang to regain his senses. (End of Chapter)