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

Upon hearing Taishi Ci's words, Wang Yue gritted his teeth but ultimately remained silent. He was genuinely afraid that Taishi Ci would stay and watch over them.

After Taishi Ci left, Wang Yue angrily stabbed the gentleman's sword in the ground.

He glared angrily at Surena beside him.

"Haven't the reinforcements arrived yet? Are we going to have to endure this indefinitely?"

"Let's wait a bit longer. We're quite far apart, and at this time, our letters probably haven't even reached our respective lords yet."

After letting out a heavy sigh, Wang Yue ordered everyone to return to their tents to rest.

However, such things happen every day.

Wang Yue and his men dared not attack the city, so Taishi Ci and his men slept during the day and came out at night to admire the moon.

The city only needs a token force of 50,000 men to defend it.

On the other hand, Wang Yue and his group faced an enemy force of 100,000. None of them could sleep and had to enjoy the moon with Taishi Ci and the others. They dared not sleep during the day for fear of being attacked.

After a day like this, almost no one can get a good night's sleep.

After three days, everyone in the camp was extremely exhausted. Even the soldiers on guard duty could fall asleep leaning against their weapons in broad daylight.

At first, Wang Yue tried to manage the situation, but as time went on, he became too lazy to do anything about it because he was also sleepy.

Gu Rubing calculated the time and felt that it should be almost time to proceed with the next plan.

Soon, it was evening again.

Wang Yue gathered all the soldiers together, and they looked wearily at Taishi Ci and his men who were rushing over.

However, they soon discovered that this time was different.

Taishi Ci did not stop in the original place, but continued to move forward.

Wang Yue realized something was wrong and immediately shouted, "They're going to make their move this time! Everyone get ready!"

However, the distance was too close, and even though Wang Yue shouted in time, not many soldiers reacted.

Moreover, these soldiers were extremely exhausted.

As soon as the two sides clashed, many soldiers were killed.

Wang Yue and Shi A immediately drew their swords, ready to attack Taishi Ci.

However, to their surprise, Xu Rong was secretly hiding in the crowd.

Before Shi A could get close to Taishi Ci, he was stopped by Xu Rong.

The two sides immediately clashed.

Xu Rong's combat strength was not considered strong among famous generals, and was even somewhat weak. Naturally, he suffered a loss when fighting Shi A.

However, Xu Rong didn't care at all; his orders were simply to stop Shi A.

Even Taishi Ci's task was simply to stop Wang Yue.

The main event this time is the soldiers on both sides.

More than 200,000 troops from both sides began fighting on the plains.

Although Wang Yue and his men were struggling to hold on, there were still over 100,000 people there, so they could hold out for a while.

Two hours later.

The battle continued, with both sides' troops still fighting fiercely.

But Xu Rong was starting to feel the strain; he already had quite a few wounds on his body.

Moreover, these wounds varied in depth, and some were even bleeding continuously.

However, Taishi Ci was in pretty good shape, and he fought back and forth with Wang Yue.

Taishi Ci observed that Xu Rong's situation was not good and immediately ordered a withdrawal of troops.

As the sound of the golden bell rang out, all the soldiers quickly broke free from their opponents and retreated swiftly.

Seeing that he had finally turned the tide and won, Wang Yue immediately decided to press his advantage.

Surena had been observing the battle from the rear. He noticed that although the soldiers sent out by the Lie Army were all very strong, even to the point that they were completely unable to resist, there were no truly elite soldiers among them.

He had heard from Shi A that Gu Rubing's elite troops, including the Taishan Tiger Bandits, had come this time.

Are those 50,000 Taishan Tiger bandits still in the city?
Surena pondered for a moment, then noticed that although the Lie army was retreating, they were doing so in a very orderly manner, and there was even a faint formation still visible within them.

"This is bad. Immediately send someone to bring Wang Yue back and tell him to be careful of a trap and not to pursue him."

Upon hearing this, the messenger beside Wang Yue immediately caught up with him.

However, by the time the messenger arrived at Wang Yue's side and relayed Surena's orders to him...

They had already chased after them for a long distance.

Wang Yue also sensed something was wrong and immediately ordered a retreat.

However, the transitions between advancing and retreating formations involving these hundreds of thousands of people inevitably resulted in a period of chaos.

Just as they were in confusion, Zang Ba suddenly attacked from the shadows.

Behind Zang Ba were 50,000 Taishan Tiger Bandits.

This is the most elite force that Gu Rubing brought this time.

The 50,000 Tiger Bandits of Mount Tai were no less powerful than the previous 100,000, and were even stronger.

After these 50,000 men charged into Wang Yue's formation, they immediately tore it apart.

Wang Yue then realized that he had completely fallen into a trap.

"retreat."

At Wang Yue's command, everyone quickly retreated.

It was less a retreat and more a defeat.

Wang Yue's troops ran wildly, throwing their weapons to the ground, paying no heed to them.

Soldiers without weapons are faster.

Even the Tiger Thieves of Mount Tai couldn't catch up with them.

Watching Wang Yue and the others run faster than rabbits, Zang Ba couldn't help but sigh, what a waste of such a good opportunity.

After cleaning up the battlefield, Zang Ba had no choice but to retreat.

After Wang Yue led the remaining soldiers back to the camp, he told Surena about his ordeal.

Upon hearing this, Surena immediately understood Gu Rubing's plan.

All previous plans were prepared for the Taishan Tiger Bandits, and Gu Rubing's trump card was the Taishan Tiger Bandits.

Even the previous harassment, and the 100,000-strong army led by Taishi Ci and Xu Rong, were all intended to lure them into a trap.

"Liu Bei, Liu Bei, I have always underestimated you. Your strategy of harassing the enemy and luring them in deep into your territory, using 100,000 troops and two famous generals as bait, was all to lure us out. Your final 50,000 elite troops were your killing move."

Listening to Surena's self-talk, Wang Yue finally understood.

"We underestimated Liu Bei."

Upon hearing this, Surena nodded. "This Liu Bei will definitely be no less capable than Zhuge Liang in the future. This man cannot live; he must die!"

One Zhuge Liang is not scary. After all, Zhuge Liang is only the prime minister, second only to the emperor. There is at least one person who can control him, and that person can decide Zhuge Liang's life and death.

In contrast, a monarch comparable to Zhuge Liang is the most terrifying.

With such a monarch in charge, wouldn't his army be invincible?

Upon hearing Surena's words, Wang Yue could only manage a wry smile.

Others may not know how difficult it was to kill Liu Bei, but Wang Yue knew it very well.

Every time they ambushed Liu Bei and were about to succeed, someone would always appear to save him. Wang Yue even suspected that Liu Bei might have some kind of luck about him.

"I also want to kill Liu Bei. If Liu Bei dies, the world will be in chaos, and the Han emperors can rise again. But how could we possibly kill Liu Bei?"

After saying this, Wang Yue shook his head and walked out.

Surena stared at the map, lost in thought.

Gu Rubing watched as everyone returned safely, but Xu Rong's face was pale and he had many wounds on his body.

"Xu Rong, go and get your wound bandaged first."

Xu Rong nodded and turned to leave.

"My lord, in this battle, our Taishan Tiger Bandits killed at least 30,000 enemies. If those guys hadn't run away so fast, our Taishan Tiger Bandits could have swallowed up all of Wang Yue's troops."

“That’s right, my lord. They haven’t had a proper rest these past few days. In addition, they just fought a fierce battle with 100,000 of our men. When I fought Wang Yue, I could feel that Wang Yue was somewhat weak. If even Wang Yue is like this, then his troops are already at their limit. They definitely cannot be a match for the Taishan Tiger Bandits.”

Taishi Ci, who was standing to the side, nodded repeatedly.

Zang Ba felt a pang of regret. If Gu Rubing hadn't given the order not to pursue the fleeing enemy too far after they escaped, he would have killed his way into their camp.

"In this battle, Wang Yue suffered at least 60,000 casualties, which is a great victory for us. How much did we lose?"

"Less than 20,000 people."

Upon hearing this number, Gu Rubing burst out laughing.

With over 10,000 casualties compared to 60,000, such losses are not something anyone can easily achieve.

"After this, Wang Yue will definitely not dare to fight us again. Ziyi, you will have to work hard and take 50,000 men to their camp every night to enjoy the moon. If they counterattack, fight if you can, and retreat if you can't. I will have the crossbow captain keep an eye on them. If they counterattack, I will immediately send reinforcements."

"Don't worry, my lord!"

Taishi Ci smiled and nodded, then turned and left.

"Alright, you can all go and rest now. Our task from now on is to defend the city."

"Yes!"

After everyone had left, Zhang Fei looked at Gu Rubing with some confusion.

"Brother, now that we know most of their soldiers are new recruits while ours are veterans who have survived countless battles, our strength is clearly superior. Why not just send troops to wipe them out in one fell swoop? Why waste so much effort on them?"

Hearing Zhang Fei's words, Gu Rubing smiled helplessly.

At present, Zhang Fei can only serve as a general; he really has no talent or ability to be a commander.

"Third brother, let alone the fact that the enemy has 200,000 new recruits, even if they were 200,000 pigs, if we wanted to kill them all, our losses would be considerable. Now that both sides are in the open, it is obviously impossible to arrange the plan as the Prime Minister did before. We can only fight face to face. Do you think that even if our combat strength is stronger than theirs, how many of us will survive this battle?"

After considering the difference in strength between the two sides, Zhang Fei said, "Brother, I've calculated that around 60,000 people should be able to survive."

Gu Rubing was quite satisfied with Zhang Fei's calculation, as it was roughly the same as the number he had calculated initially.

"Yes, only 60,000 men means we'll lose at least 90,000. But in this chaotic battle, capturing Wang Yue and Shi A is almost impossible. And the ones attacking us this time are Liu Zhang and Sun Jian. They have one thing in common: they have a lot of men. They control the resources of the entire Anluo Empire. They can have as many troops as they want. Can we afford to fight them?"

Gu Rubing knew in his heart that the 100,000 men that Zhuge Liang had sent him were already the limit of Zhuge Liang's power.

At present, Zhuge Liang only has 100,000 troops, and Yizhou also only has 100,000 troops, so he has the most troops.

If these 150,000 men are wiped out in Liangzhou, the battles that follow will likely be much tougher.

"So, you were worried about what would happen later, brother. I hadn't thought that far ahead. Don't worry, brother, I will definitely think about it carefully in the future."

Gu Rubing completely ignored Zhang Fei's words.

If Zhang Fei could really think things through, he wouldn't be called Zhang Yide.

Upon seeing this, Zhao Yun burst out laughing.

In Zhao Yun's view, there are many people who can win battles, and even the ever-victorious generals are not that formidable.

But a truly capable person is one who can achieve the greatest victory with the least loss.

Moreover, although Zhao Yun was a general, he knew the hardships of the lower-ranking soldiers. Every one of them had a family, and they even joined the army just to ease the burden on their families.

Zhao Yun didn't want to see his soldiers die in vain. He hoped that if they could make more contributions before they died, they could receive higher compensation after death and their families could live a better life.

Therefore, Zhao Yun greatly admired Gu Rubing's idea.

After explaining everything, Gu Rubing was too lazy to say much more to Zhang Fei. It was all pointless anyway, so he simply went back to rest.

Zhang Fei stood to the side, understanding nothing except for laughing.

Early the next morning.

Gu Rubing had just stepped out of the room when he received some bad news.

The officer discovered that Sun Jian and Liu Zhang's reinforcements would arrive at Surena's camp in five days.

How could it be so fast?

Gu Rubing never expected that their reinforcements would arrive so quickly.

The reason the reinforcements arrived so quickly was entirely due to...

Not long after Wang Yue and the others left.

Liu Zhang and Sun Jian gathered together.

When the two men discussed the troops they had sent out, they discovered that both sides had sent out recruits, or rather, conscripts.

Both of them went there with the idea of ​​training their troops.

War is the fastest way to train soldiers.

Any soldier who survives a major battle is a veteran, possessing extremely rich combat experience.

This is much more practical than training in a military camp for three to five months.

But these 200,000 new recruits, fighting against Liu Bei, an expeditionary force at that—isn't that a joke?

The two of them were immediately terrified and broke out in a cold sweat.

After meeting, both sides immediately returned to their respective military camps and selected 50,000 veterans to support Wang Yue.

Moreover, among these 50,000 veterans, there are some elite troops.

Although they arrived a little late, the two sides were not far apart, and the leader of the group was a member of the Gu clan.

Gu Rubing looked at the intelligence in his hand and suddenly felt a little hesitant.

Given the current situation, the best course of action is to seize the opportunity and completely overwhelm Surena's forces in one fell swoop. (End of Chapter)