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

Three hours later.

Gu Rubing immediately ordered a retreat.

Wei Yan and the others could only retreat from the city wall with resentment.

Lu Su counted the number of people and found that the number of dead and wounded in the siege that day had reached 10,000.

Their side consists of seasoned veterans, so their combat strength is definitely not a problem.

The only thing that could potentially be the problem is the city wall.

The city walls of Jiangzhou have been reinforced several times and are now considered impregnable.

The siege ladders were too high, resulting in many soldiers being killed by arrows while on them.

Lu Su told Gu Rubing the news.

Gu Rubing was also somewhat surprised by this.

"My lord, we can't continue fighting like this. If we keep going, we won't have any problem winning, but we'll suffer heavy losses. Although we've been recruiting soldiers in the rear, it takes time for new recruits to be ready for the battlefield. These are our elite troops, and we can't afford to waste them all here."

Gu Rubing understood this principle. After observing Jiangzhou City for a long time, Gu Rubing finally made a decision.

Soon, Gu Rubing led a group of archers to a safe distance and began firing arrows wildly at the city wall.

However, the so-called safe distance is the distance at which no harm can be caused.

These arrows posed absolutely no threat.

Just as Jiang Wei was getting curious, he discovered that each of the arrows had a letter attached to it.

And quite a few people have already found these letters.

Jiang Wei opened the letter and saw that it was not a letter urging them to surrender, but rather instructions on how to safely evacuate Jiangzhou City.

Others may not know the current situation in Jiangzhou City, but the soldiers defending the city are certainly aware of it.

This is a doomed situation.

These soldiers joined Cao Cao's army just for a bite to eat. Although they were all prepared to die in battle, none of them wanted to die if they could survive.

A lieutenant walked up to Jiang Wei.

"General, Lie Jun has already pointed out the retreat route for us. Let's retreat directly. General Cao hasn't given us any support at all. With just these few people, we simply can't hold Jiangzhou City."

Upon seeing the letter, a lieutenant seemed to see a glimmer of hope for survival and rushed to Jiang Wei's side to dissuade him.

Looking at the letter and seeing the pleading expressions on the faces of the others, Jiang Wei knew he had lost this battle.

Previously, Gu Rubing had surrounded the city on all sides, giving them no hope of survival, so these people were desperately defending the city.

But things are different now. The way to survive is right in front of them, and the enemy has already told them, and the letter also said that they can retreat at any time. Now no one wants to continue fighting.

Guo Huai didn't speak, but walked to Jiang Wei's side and quietly waited for Jiang Wei's reply.

"us……"

Jiang Wei didn't finish speaking. Instead, he looked at the others present and sighed when he saw their eager gazes.

"Retreat."

Jiang Wei hadn't expected that they would lose so easily, and with almost no struggle at all.

As soon as Jiang Wei gave the order to retreat, the soldiers throughout the city cheered.

Guo Huai, standing to the side, understood that Jiang Wei must have made a great decision to issue such an order.

Guo Huai stepped forward and patted Jiang Wei on the shoulder.

"Don't be too discouraged. It's just Jiangzhou City. We still have many places to defend. The most important thing now is to leave and bring General Cao back. He has 70,000 troops in his hands. As long as they come back, it's still possible to hold Ba County. Jiangzhou City is gone, but we still have Linjiang City. Although it's not as fortified as Jiangzhou City, it's still a good option for us at the moment."

With Guo Huai's encouragement, Jiang Wei smiled helplessly and nodded.

Jiang Wei's retreat was extremely careful, without alerting anyone.

By the time Gu Rubing discovered this, Jiang Wei and his men had already completed their retreat, which took half a day.

After successfully capturing Jiangzhou City, Gu Rubing knew that the next step was Linjiang City.

Jianwei Commandery.

Cao Ren looked at Jiang Wei's letter pleading for help in his hand.

His eyes were full of confusion.

The Xiahou brothers also entered the military camp at this time.

"What's wrong with Zixiao?"

The Xiahou brothers could tell that Cao Ren was not in good condition.

They are now chasing after Zhang Liao, which should be a happy thing, but Cao Ren looks completely bewildered and shows no sign of happiness.

Cao Ren did not speak, but placed the letter in his hand in front of the two men.

"Just take a look."

The two took the letter with some curiosity and read it.

Then their expressions changed drastically.

"Jiangzhou City has fallen? How is that possible? Boyue also said that Liu Bei is in Jiangzhou City, how is that possible? Then who are we chasing?"

The three of them had seen Gu Rubing appear not far from them more than once recently, and he would just watch them.

They believed that their eyes could not be wrong.

And even if one person's eyes are wrong, does that mean all three people's eyes are wrong?
There must be a demon in the abnormal situation.

Now that Jiangzhou City has been lost, it means that Jiang Wei must have fought against Liu Bei, and it is absolutely impossible for Jiang Wei to mistake Liu Bei.

So the only ones who could possibly be wrong are them.

At this moment, Cao Ren realized that all along, they had only seen Liu Bei's shadow, and had never actually seen Liu Bei's face.

"Has any of you actually seen Liu Bei?"

Upon hearing this, the Xiahou brothers looked at each other and then shook their heads.

Only then did the three of them realize what was happening.

It turns out that none of the three of them had ever met Liu Bei. Was the person they had been chasing all this time actually Liu Bei?
Soon, all three of them realized what was happening.

"Damn it, we've fallen into a trap! Immediately mobilize the army and retreat!"

"Yes!"

Soon, the three men, leading an army of 70,000, quickly headed towards Linjiang City.

Zhang Liao, watching from a distance, was somewhat surprised by this scene; the reaction speed of these people far exceeded his expectations.

Even so, Zhang Liao was not worried, after all, he had already completed the task given to him by Gu Rubing.

"General, they are retreating. Should we continue to harass them?"

A lieutenant approached Zhang Liao and cautiously asked.

"No need, we should go back too. We've been putting on this show for so long, I'm too lazy to play along. Since they've withdrawn their troops, it means things are going very smoothly for our lord. Our mission is complete."

Soon Zhang Liao led his troops to retreat from another direction.

Upon arriving in Linjiang City, Jiang Wei immediately began fortifying the city's defenses and also sent a letter to Chengdu. Two days later...

Gu Rubing led his army and finally arrived outside Linjiang City.

Looking at Linjiang City, which was much smaller than Jiangzhou City, Gu Rubing smiled and stood outside the city.

"Jiang Wei, may I have a meeting with him?"

Upon hearing Gu Rubing's voice, Jiang Wei walked to the city wall and shouted to Gu Rubing, "Your Highness, you really have some clever tricks up your sleeve! You had someone lure General Cao away and then launched a sneak attack on my Jiangzhou City. Aren't you afraid I won't fall for it?"

"I'm afraid, of course I'm afraid. And the fact that you're saying these things now shows that you weren't fooled at all back then. But so what? I wanted to deceive Cao Ren, not you. Of course I know that this kind of trick won't fool you, but so what? In the military camp, does anyone listen to what you say? Even if Cao Cao speaks up for you, I'm afraid no one will listen to you, right?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Wei fell silent instantly.

Because what Gu Rubing said was true. If someone had listened to him back then, even just leaving him 50,000 troops, things wouldn't have turned out this way.

The vast city of Jiangzhou was lost in an instant.

"Alright, Prince Lie, just tell me directly, what exactly do you want?"

"It's simple, I want the entire Yizhou."

"You just returned these counties to us, are you already going to break your promise and attack us?"

"Excuse me, let me correct you. I did give it to you, but if you couldn't hold onto it, is that my fault? It's only because you weren't strong enough. You couldn't even hold onto the resources I gave you, so what else could I do? Did you expect me to stop developing your business?"

Jiang Wei knew that Gu Rubing had said a lot.

All of this is because I simply failed to protect it.

"No matter what, Jiangzhou City has already been taken by you. There is no way I will give Linjiang City to you. Just give up on that idea. Does Prince Lie have anything else to say? If not, I will go back first. After all, I still have a lot of things to take care of."

Hearing Jiang Wei's words, Gu Rubing knew that there was no point in saying anything more, so he could only return to the camp helplessly.

At this moment, Lu Su also came over with some intelligence.

"My lord, according to the intelligence, Cao Ren has already led a large army back."

"So fast?"

Gu Rubing hadn't expected that Cao Ren's reaction speed would actually exceed his expectations.

"Yes, my lord. Moreover, according to our calculations, if Cao Ren's vanguard travels day and night, they should be able to arrive within two days. Jiang Wei still has more than 20,000 men under his command, so they should be able to hold out for two days. By then, when Jiang Wei's reinforcements arrive, it will be even more impossible for us to take Linjiang City."

Upon hearing this, Gu Rubing smiled.

He casually wrote a letter to Jiang Wei, saying that he didn't want to fight anymore, but wanted to meet with Jiang Wei.

When Jiang Wei saw the letter, he originally wanted to refuse directly, but for some reason, he agreed to Gu Rubing's request.

Perhaps it was because Gu Rubing spoke very sincerely, or perhaps it was for some other reason.

Early the next morning.

Gu Rubing built a pavilion not far outside Linjiang City and prepared a pot of wine.

Behind Gu Rubing, there was only Wei Yan.

Jiang Wei was also about to appear before Gu Rubing, but there was no one by his side.

Upon seeing Jiang Wei, Gu Rubing immediately stood up and pulled Jiang Wei to sit down opposite him.

This intimate gesture was witnessed by tens of thousands of soldiers on the city walls of Linjiang, and everyone had a question in their hearts.

That's one of our own generals, how come he has such a good relationship with Liu Bei?
At the same time, someone quietly entered Jiang Wei's room.

Jiang Wei was also somewhat bewildered by Gu Rubing's enthusiasm.

"Your Highness, since you wish to withdraw your troops, could you please return Jiangzhou City to me?"

This was Jiang Wei's true objective; he still wanted to reclaim Jiangzhou City.

"Of course not. I conquered Jiangzhou City bit by bit. How am I supposed to explain this to the brothers below if I give it back to you?"

Jiang Wei knew it was impossible, but he still wanted to ask because he was unwilling to give up.

Seeing Gu Rubing's firm refusal, Jiang Wei smiled helplessly.

However, just as Jiang Wei was feeling somewhat disappointed, Gu Rubing suddenly changed his tune.

"It's not impossible for me to have Jiangzhou City, but I have one condition."

"What are your conditions? Please speak freely, Your Highness."

"It's simple, I want you to join me."

"This……"

Jiang Wei hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and refused.

But Jiang Wei was still secretly surprised.

He wasn't surprised that Gu Rubing had invited him, but rather that he himself had hesitated.

In the past, when faced with a similar situation, she would have refused Gu Rubing without hesitation, but this time, she hesitated.

Moreover, when Jiang Wei rejected Gu Rubing, he felt a sense of loss and regret.

"Since you've refused, I'll accept Jiangzhou City. I just wanted to see you before I left, nothing more. We've fought so many times, we've developed a certain mutual respect. If we meet again, we'll be enemies. Cherish this moment."

After Gu Rubing finished speaking, he drank the wine in front of him.

Jiang Wei followed Gu Rubing's example and drank the wine in front of him in one gulp.

The two of them took turns drinking, and soon finished the whole pot of wine.

Gu Rubing shook the wine pot in front of him, muttering with a hint of lingering enjoyment, "I should have prepared more wine."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Wei burst out laughing.

Gu Rubing stood up, clasped his hands in a fist salute to Jiang Wei, and was somewhat drunk.

"Alright, all good things must come to an end. Farewell!"

After saying that, Gu Rubing turned and left without showing the slightest reluctance.

Watching Gu Rubing leave with Wei Yan's help, Jiang Wei sighed and returned to the city.

Jiang Wei soon noticed that the soldiers around him were looking at him with a strange look in their eyes.

Just as Jiang Wei was about to ask what was going on, Guo Huai walked over.

"Boyue, you knew Liu Bei before?"

"I guess so. Why do you ask that?"

"It seems like you two have known each other for a long time. Liu Bei doesn't have any of the airs of a king in front of you. It's like you've known each other for a long time and are just meeting for the first time."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Wei didn't take it to heart and waved his hand with a smile.

In Jiang Wei's view, these were all rumors. If he were to rush to prove them, he would only make things worse. If he left them alone, the rumors would soon be dispelled on their own.

However, Jiang Wei oversimplified the problem this time.

He himself hadn't expected that this meeting with Gu Rubing would have such a big impact.

As he had instructed, Gu Rubing began withdrawing his troops a day later.

The soldiers, seeing that they no longer needed to fight, cheered excitedly. (End of Chapter)