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

After saying that, Zhang Liao opened the door of the warehouse in front of him.

"That's my goal."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Cang looked into the warehouse.

Only then did they see that the warehouse was filled with bags of grain and fodder.

Zhang Liao explained as he walked inside.

"Now is the time when the autumn grain has just been collected and stored. All the warlords are not short of grain. The two grain teams we robbed on the road did not have much grain at all and could not have any impact on Cao Cao. Yizhou is a major grain-producing area. As far as Cao Cao is concerned, the little grain we robbed cannot harm him in the slightest."

After saying that, Zhang Liao walked up to a grain sack.

"But it's different here. The grain stored in Zhicheng is enough to supply the 150,000 troops at the front. The grain here is almost equivalent to half a year's grain income for Yizhou. If we burn this place down, Cao Cao will be eating dirt for the next six months."

After Zhang Liao finished speaking, he slapped the bag of grain with a hint of pride.

Soon, the smile on Zhang Liao's face froze, and his expression turned gloomy.

Zhang Liao then drew his sword and slashed directly at the grain sack.

A crisp sound rang out, and a hole appeared in the grain sack.

What emerged from within were all rubble, with a few pieces bearing sword marks, clearly indicating that Zhang Liao's sword had struck the stone directly.

"This……"

Upon seeing this, Zhou Cang and Zhang Liao were stunned into silence.

Soon the two pulled out some more food bags, but they were full of sand or gravel, with no food in sight.

"Oh no, we've been tricked."

Zhang Liao immediately realized that he had underestimated Jiang Wei this time.

At that moment, a lieutenant ran up to Zhang Liao.

"General, this is bad! Enemy troops have appeared outside the city, numbering approximately 30,000."

"enemy?"

Zhang Liao immediately realized that he had fallen into a trap.

The two immediately climbed onto the city wall.

At this time, Jiang Wei and Guo Huai had already set up their formation.

When Jiang Wei saw Zhang Liao climb onto the city wall, he immediately burst into laughter.

"Zhang Liao, what do you think of the stone I prepared for you? Is it as heavy as your current mood?"

Hearing Jiang Wei's mockery, Zhang Liao gritted his teeth and looked at Jiang Wei.

"Jiang Wei, you really have some tricks up your sleeve. You actually managed to deceive me with a city."

"There's no other way. If you want to fish, you need bait. The size of the fish you want to catch depends on the size of the bait. You, Zhang Liao, are such a big fish that you can't be caught without a whole city. To catch you, Zhang Liao, I spent an hour hiding all the grain and fodder, and arranged so many stones and sand. It kept my 30,000 soldiers very busy."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Liao finally understood.

It turned out that Jiang Wei had seen through all his plans.

Everything was just an act by Jiang Wei, and the real supplies should be somewhere in the city, but he didn't have enough time to find them.

Zhang Liao knew he had been tricked this time, and he didn't blame anyone.

"General, let's break out."

Zhou Cang's words startled Zhang Liao, who was still deep in thought.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Liao nodded.

The Azure Dragon Swordsmen and the Ironclad Cavalry are both true elites, but defending a city completely weakens the ability of elites on the battlefield; plains warfare is their advantage.

"Everyone, prepare to exit the station!"

As Zhang Liao finished speaking, the city gates opened directly.

Led by Zhang Liao, the Azure Dragon Swordsmen and the Ironclad Cavalry charged out.

Jiang Wei commanded 30,000 soldiers to begin encircling Zhang Liao in layers.

However, with Zhang Liao fighting to the death, these people were no match for him at all, and they didn't even have the ability to stop Zhang Liao and his men.

Finally, after leading his men in a series of attacks, Zhang Liao found the weak point in Jiang Wei's formation and then led everyone to charge out.

Watching Zhang Liao's departing figure, Jiang Wei didn't seem disappointed at all.

After all, Jiang Wei had no expectation that his troops could stop Zhang Liao.

"What a pity, we still couldn't capture Zhang Liao."

Jiang Wei smiled at Guo Huai's words, and then led everyone directly into the city.

Zhang Liao never dreamed that the grain he was looking for was hidden in a civilian house in the city.

As all the grain and fodder were being carried out, Guo Huai moved closer to Jiang Wei.

"Boyue, how did you guess that Zhang Liao's target was Zhicheng?"

Guo Huai was a little curious. Their original goal was to lead 30,000 men to drive away Zhang Liao.

However, after they had all left the city and traveled for some time, Jiang Wei surprisingly ordered the entire army to rest.

Not long after, news of a rescue operation from Zhicheng arrived, and they rushed back.

Clearly, Jiang Wei's goal was not to drive Zhang Liao away at all; he deceived everyone, including Guo Huai.

"It's very simple, just look at Zhang Liao's marching route."

"route?"

Guo Huai curiously picked up the map, which showed the locations where Zhang Liao would appear, marked by Jiang Wei, and the marching route predicted by Jiang Wei.

And the end of this line is Zhicheng.

"Zhang Liao's marching route was gradually approaching Zhicheng. I hadn't originally included Zhicheng in my calculations, but just as I was about to leave the city, a centurion walked up to me and asked if I was going to deal with Zhang Liao. I immediately realized that if a centurion could think of this, surely Zhang Liao could too. So I immediately studied Zhang Liao's route and finally determined that the only valuable city on this route was Zhicheng, where we were. It provided Yizhou with half a year's worth of grain."

Guo Huai then understood.

"Then should we replace the grain with sand?"

"This was prepared long ago. The granaries have always been filled with sand to confuse the public. Every time grain was distributed, I would have my trusted confidants secretly move grain from civilian houses into the granaries to create the illusion that the grain was being moved from the granaries. I never expected that this time it would actually fool Zhang Liao."

Jiang Wei sighed after he finished speaking.

"I knew that Zhang Liao had elite troops under his command, and I thought of using Zhicheng as bait. The best way to deal with an elite force like Zhang Liao would be to trap him in the city and use the city's terrain to surround and attack him. Unfortunately, Zhang Liao chose the best option for him and charged out directly. He truly deserves to be called a veteran general. If it were a rookie general who had just started out, he would definitely have fallen into the trap."

Looking at Jiang Wei's expression, Guo Huai smiled helplessly.

After Zhang Liao led Zhou Cang and the others out of the encirclement, he immediately took a headcount.

Although Zhang Liao made the most correct judgment at the most dangerous moment, the battle still resulted in the loss of nearly half of his troops.

"General, what do we do next?"

Although Zhang Liao was thoroughly outmaneuvered this time, some of Zhang Liao's ideas and plans completely exceeded Zhou Cang's expectations, and Zhou Cang could be said to admire Zhang Liao extremely. "Now we have suffered too many losses, and the plan has been exposed. Soon Jiang Wei will begin to clear the area around Zhicheng, and it will be difficult for us to carry out our plan. We should hurry back to help our lord. This plan failed, and it was indeed my carelessness."

Zhang Liao sighed helplessly.

He had always been adept at carrying out rear-area interference operations, and was quite skilled at them. However, this time his opponent was Jiang Wei. Although he was very careful, he was still no match for Jiang Wei's cunning.

In the end, Jiang Wei retraced his steps and entered Jiangzhou City through the south gate.

Upon learning of Jiang Wei's return, Gu Rubing immediately went to Jiang Wei's side.

"My lord, Liao has failed in his duties. Please punish him."

"Haha, Wen Yuan, you've done a great job. I've heard that Cao Ren has been without food for two days. If it weren't for you, Cao Ren wouldn't be in such a predicament. No matter what, we've won this time."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Liao smiled and nodded.

Gu Rubing wasn't making things up; Cao Ren had indeed been without food for two days.

Jiang Wei transported grain twice, but Zhang Liao seized it both times. He then tricked Zhang Liao into wasting some time, which caused him to completely overlook the situation on Cao Ren's side.

Cao Ren has already begun sending people to the rear to urge the supply of provisions.

For the past two days, Cao Ren has been living off the grain that the people have been taking from them.

By the time Jiang Wei finally delivered the supplies, Cao Ren had already sent a letter to Cao Cao criticizing Jiang Wei for his poor performance.

With the support of supplies, Cao Ren was already considering launching a full-scale war against Gu Rubing.

Cao Ren had this thought entirely because he was frightened.

Zhicheng is some distance from their Linjiang City, and he has 150,000 troops under his command, while Gu Rubing, who is confronting him, also has 150,000 troops, and his generals are in no way inferior to his own.

Therefore, provisions became of paramount importance.

Previously, when food supplies ran out, if I hadn't been so ruthless as to seize food from the people, there probably would have been a mutiny.

Gu Rubing's greatest skill was cutting off supply lines. If the previous situation were to occur again, even he might not be able to control these soldiers. Therefore, Cao Ren wanted to end the battle quickly.

Moreover, Cao Ren was extremely well-prepared for this decisive battle.

After having this idea, Cao Ren discussed it with all his generals and immediately decided to send 150,000 troops to attack Jiangzhou City.

When Gu Rubing saw the army outside the city, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"What's wrong with Cao Ren? He's brought out an entire army of 150,000? Does he want to decide the outcome in one battle?"

Everyone looked bewildered upon hearing this, and even Lu Su couldn't understand what Cao Ren was thinking.

Jiang Wei personally delivered a batch of provisions, only to find that Cao Ren was nowhere to be found in Linjiang City, and his entire army had also disappeared.

After inquiring, it was learned that Cao Ren had led all his troops to attack the city.

Jiang Wei knew that Cao Ren was doomed to defeat this time.

Jiang Wei then immediately transferred all 30,000 troops from Zhicheng to Linjiang City to reinforce its defenses.

Upon learning of Jiang Wei's decision, Guo Huai immediately tried to stop him, since in Cao Cao's eyes, this act of mobilizing troops without authorization was no different from a rebellion.

However, Jiang Wei couldn't care less about that at this point. He completely ignored Guo Huai's advice and stubbornly insisted on mobilizing troops.

They even transferred some of the city defense troops from the surrounding cities.

Seeing Jiang Wei's actions, Guo Huai had no choice but to write a letter to Cao Cao, telling him the whole story.

Outside Jiangzhou City, Gu Rubing was still discussing with everyone the purpose of Cao Ren's actions.

They soon discovered that Cao Ren's army formation had changed.

Upon seeing the changed formation, Gu Rubing's eyes widened in astonishment.

He was very familiar with this formation.

This is the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation that Zhuge Liang originally devised.

Zhuge Liang's use of this formation can be described as masterful.

Surena, who copied this formation, used it with a strange feel, but it was still quite powerful.

As for Cao Ren, Gu Rubing didn't believe that Cao Ren could actually unleash the power of the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation.

However, the fact that the Xiahou brothers and Xu Huang were in charge of controlling the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation made Gu Rubing somewhat worried. Moreover, when Cao Ren set up the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation, Gu Rubing could clearly feel that Cao Ren's aura had changed.

Gu Rubing and Lu Su observed the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation from the city wall and ultimately decided not to engage in battle. Although they believed Cao Ren's formation was not very effective, they still did not want to take the risk.

However, they did not want to fight, but Cao Ren wanted them to fight.

"Liu Bei, you're familiar with this formation, aren't you? How about we make a bet? If you can break the formation, I'll leave with my men right now. If you can't break it, then you can hand over Jiangzhou City to me, how about that?"

"Cao Ren, you really have no shame! You're trying to do business with me for free? You're not losing anything, so why should you take my Jiangzhou City?"

Upon hearing this, Cao Ren realized that he had indeed been a bit unreasonable.

"Um... how about this, if you break the formation, I'll give you Linjiang City; if you don't, you give me Jiangzhou City, is that alright?"

"Okay, it's a deal."

Gu Rubing originally did not want to go out, but since they had challenged him to a duel and used a city and 150,000 men as a wager, if he did not go out, his prestige in the army would be easily suppressed.

After speaking, Gu Rubing looked at Lu Su.

"Zijing, what do you think?"

"My lord, I'd like to give it a try."

"Okay, then I'll give it a try."

After saying that, he handed the command flag in his hand directly to Lu Su.

Gu Rubing knew his own abilities. He could use his cleverness to fight a battle without any problem, but when it came to breaking through such a complex formation, he was far from capable. Cao Ren had just happened to step on his Achilles' heel.

It's better to hand it over to someone who understands it than to give orders haphazardly yourself.

After receiving the command flag, Lu Su hesitated for a moment before immediately giving orders.

"Wei Yan, I order you to lead 30,000 men and enter through the Life Gate."

"Leader!"

As the sound faded, the war drums began to beat.

Wei Yan led 30,000 men directly into the formation.

Cao Ren looked at the spot where Wei Yan had entered and a cold smile appeared on his lips.

"Did you really think this gate of life was for you?"

Cao Ren waved the command flag in his hand.

The entire Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation began to change rapidly.

Wei Yan's 30,000 men were immediately surrounded. (End of Chapter)