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

On Lotus Mountain in Wuwei.

A person dressed entirely in black, with a black cloth covering their face, is lying prone under a tree in the distance.

Looking at the massive grain transport convoy in the distance.

Before long, several people dressed in simple armor and carrying worn-out weapons appeared in front of that person.

"Sir, is this the big business you were talking about?"

"That's right, this grain is enough for you to use for five years, and I will also give you 100,000 gold. When you have grain and money, why would you need to be a robber or a bandit?"

The man in black's words agitated these people.

But they also knew that the army in front of them was the army of King Lie.

Over this long period of time, they had also heard some news: any bandits or outlaws who had attacked King Lie did not fare well.

This made them hesitate for a moment.

If you're alive to earn money but not alive to spend it, no amount of money matters.

The fact that the men in black could remain calm in the face of a mountain of gold shows just how great their fear of Liu Bei had been.

He couldn't help but sigh inwardly; these people weren't as easy to fool as the people of the past.

Immediately, the man in black produced a token.

The token has the character "吴" written on it.

Do you know whose token this is?

Several literate bandits immediately stepped forward, and their eyes widened when they saw the character "Wu" on it.

"Sir, are you a man of the King of Wu?"

"Of course, otherwise why do you think I would let you take action?"

The man in black smiled smugly, but his smile quickly faded.

Upon hearing that he was one of Sun Jian's men, everyone turned and left without pausing, and even looked at him with disdain.

"Hey, what do you mean by this?"

The men in black immediately stopped them.

"If we had known you were working for the King of Wu, we wouldn't have bothered with you. We've never succeeded in cooperating with Sun Jian, and he's extremely cowardly. When something goes wrong, he'll throw us brothers out as shields. Do you think we're stupid to cooperate with you?"

Upon hearing this, the man in black gave a helpless, bitter smile.

He hadn't expected Sun Jian's reputation to have become so tarnished here!
Left with no other option, the man in black removed the black cloth from his face and then replaced the token.

"If you don't trust Sun Jian, you must trust the King of Wei, right? I am Xun You, the King of Wei's strategist."

Upon hearing this, the group looked at the token in Xun You's hand and, confirming that it was indeed the token of the King of Wei, nodded.

At least Cao Cao's strength was greater than Sun Jianqiang's, and Cao Cao's Yi Province was relatively far from Liang Province, so even if he wanted to retaliate against them afterward, he would not be able to send a large army over.

This reduces the suspicion that someone could stab them in the back.

Xun You was able to come over entirely because of Cao Cao's intentions.

After forming an alliance with Gu Rubing, Liu Zhang quickly contacted Cao Cao.

Cao Cao knew that, given Gu Rubing's temperament, he would probably contact Sun Jian as well. Moreover, Gu Rubing was the kind of person who wouldn't act without self-interest. If he wanted to form an alliance with Sun Jian, he would have to make Sun Jian suffer, and he would inevitably have to go to Sun Jian's Anluo Empire.

This gave Cao Cao the idea of ​​ambushing Gu Rubing, at least to see what benefits Gu Rubing had gained from Sun Jian, and if the opportunity arose, to take those benefits back into his own hands.

Thinking of this, Cao Cao directly ordered Xun You to secretly follow Gu Rubing's team.

The reason Xun You was sent was because he had little combat power and a weak aura. Even if a legendary general discovered him, he would only be regarded as an ordinary person, or even someone with a weaker aura than an ordinary person, and no one would care.

Xun You followed Gu Rubing's army for a while, but soon lost track of them, as Gu Rubing and his men were simply too fast.

However, Xun You also knew that Gu Rubing's goal was the Anluo Empire, and Liangzhou was the only way to get to the Anluo Empire.

He then traveled alone to Liangzhou.

However, after only a few days in Liangzhou, Xun You, who had no guards by his side, was quickly targeted by local bandits.

After being captured by these bandits, Xun You's belongings were instantly looted. Just as they were about to kill him, Xun You suddenly came up with a good idea.

Gu Rubing was going to skin someone alive, and the person who followed Gu Rubing discovered that Gu Rubing was only accompanied by five hundred Iron Cavalry, Zhang Liao, and Zhao Yun.

It's highly unlikely that they would be able to transport any supplies.

Since that's the case, it would be better to inform the nearby bandits. With their numerical advantage, they might be able to keep Gu Rubing's belongings.

Xun You immediately informed the bandits present of Gu Rubing's whereabouts.

That's how this ambush came about.

“Since they are the King of Wei’s men, we naturally trust them. I wonder if you have any good ideas, sir? This is, after all, Liangzhou territory, and Liangzhou is the territory of the King of Lie. As long as we make a move, the King of Lie’s reinforcements will arrive in less than an hour. Even if we have more men, we are definitely no match for the local garrison.”

Xun You nodded and then opened the map.

"This is Lotus Mountain, a dangerous place with many caves and forests. We have nearly five thousand people. We will send three thousand to block King Lie's men, and the other two thousand to transport all our belongings to the nearby caves and forests to hide them. Once Liu Bei and his men can't find what we've hidden, we'll take it away. What do you think?"

Upon hearing this, everyone nodded in agreement.

They immediately decided to take action.

Of the five hundred Ironclad Cavalry, two hundred were at the head of the supply train, responsible for clearing the way, while the other three hundred followed Zhang Liao and Zhao Yun, ensuring Gu Rubing's safety from the rear.

Looking at the complex mountain landscape around him, Zhang Liao remained on edge. After all, he only had five hundred men, while the amount of grain and fodder here was enormous, something even Zhang Liao himself would envy.

Seeing Zhang Liao's nervous expression, Gu Rubing smiled and patted Zhang Liao on the shoulder.

"Wen Yuan, why are you so nervous? This is our own territory. Do you think anyone can lay a hand on us?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Liao gave a helpless, bitter smile.

“My lord, although Liangzhou is our territory, it is far from Xuchang, so the management here is bound to be a bit lax. Sun Jian only gave us provisions, not guards. The supply battalion that escorts the provisions only has a few thousand men, and they are all old, weak, sick and disabled. If anything happens, these men will definitely be the first to run away. Even if they don't run away, they don't have much fighting power. The only ones we can really rely on are our Iron Pagoda.”

Gu Rubing was certainly aware of this situation, but in his view, how could the Iron Pagoda, which always chose to fight tough battles, be unable to deal with some bandits and robbers?

Just as he was about to speak, a whistle-piercing arrow ripped through the sky.

Immediately afterwards, thousands of people rushed down from the distant mountains.

Upon seeing these people, Zhang Liao immediately shouted, "Everyone, protect our lord!"

"Yes!"

Three hundred Ironclad Cavalry immediately surrounded Gu Rubing.

Gu Rubing had been engaged in military campaigns for many years, and he could roughly estimate the size of the enemy's forces just by looking at their scale.

“Wen Yuan, judging from the dust and scale of the enemy, there are probably around five thousand people. How do you Iron Pagoda usually fight battles like this?” Upon hearing this, Zhang Liao looked at Gu Rubing, hesitated for a moment, and then knelt down in front of Gu Rubing.

"My lord, the Ironclad Cavalry can only die on the way to their charge!"

"Okay, let's go then."

"But my lord, if we leave, what will happen to your safety...?"

“Wen Yuan, remember this: the Iron Pagoda is the sharpest blade in our army. Such a blade is best suited to tear apart the enemy’s shield. If this blade were to give up its sharpest part and become a shield, wouldn’t that be a waste? You don’t need to worry about my safety. Zilong is here. Go, let me see the Iron Pagoda that once penetrated deep behind enemy lines and destroyed the enemy’s entire army with five hundred blows.”

Upon hearing this, Zhang Liao was immediately excited, and his blood was pumped up.

"Brothers, our lord wants to see the strength of our Iron Pagoda. Right now, we can only contact three hundred of you. I need to leave one hundred men to protect our lord. The enemy has five thousand men. Do you two hundred dare to help me break through their army?"

"Dare! Dare! Dare!"

Three shouts followed, each one more powerful than the last, until the final shout even surpassed the momentum of ten thousand people.

"Alright, brothers, follow me out of the station!"

Zhang Liao left a hundred men with Gu Rubing to protect him, while he led the remaining two hundred men to charge directly at the enemy's five thousand men.

The Anluo soldiers in charge of escorting the bandits clearly remembered Zhou Yu's words when they saw the bandits rushing out.

If you encounter danger, turn around and run.

However, just as they were about to turn and run, they saw a cavalry force of about two hundred men charging towards the enemy's five thousand-strong army.

"This is Zhang Liao, Zhang Wenyuan!"

Many soldiers recognized Zhang Liao.

Seeing the imposing presence of Zhang Liao and the Iron Pagoda, the soldiers who were about to leave stopped in their tracks.

Zhang Liao immediately launched a desperate battle.

With the added boost of fighting to the death, the combat power of these two hundred Ironclad Cavalrymen instantly rose to the level of quasi-famous generals.

The combination of two hundred near-famous generals and one famous general completely overwhelmed these bandit members.

The fight lasted only fifteen minutes.

The loss of 5,000 people is already more than half.

The bandit leaders standing at a distance immediately realized something was wrong, and they had a feeling that they had been tricked.

So you can still send two thousand men to plunder grain? Are you kidding me? Let alone three thousand men stopping the enemy cavalry, even if all five thousand went, they might not be enough to kill them.

The bandit leaders immediately ordered a retreat.

However, these people were ultimately bandits, not a regular army, and their retreat was extremely slow.

In the end, of the 5,000-strong team, less than 500 managed to escape.

Most importantly, Zhang Liao had already charged towards them.

These people then realized what was happening and started looking for Xun You.

However, not long after the battle began, Xun You discovered that the two sides were not even in the same league. Three thousand men could not stop Zhang Liao at all and turned to run away.

Zhang Liao eventually caught up with the more than 500 men, and the bandits immediately knelt down and surrendered.

Gu Rubing nodded in satisfaction as he observed Zhang Liao's rapid advance.

The Ironclad Cavalry and Zhang Liao will never let themselves down.

Zhang Liao's bravery inspired the soldiers escorting the goods, which resulted in no one leaving the battlefield from start to finish.

Not long after, Zhang Liao returned with a dozen or so men.

"My lord, these people are the leaders of the bandits. This time, we wiped out 5,000 enemy soldiers, but lost 40 men."

Gu Rubing was quite satisfied with the result.

Forty against five thousand—he was almost at a loss when it came to calculating the casualty ratio.

However, Gu Rubing also knew that the opponent's combat strength was not strong, and their fighting spirit was even weaker, which was one of the reasons.

"Indeed, Wen Yuan has made a great contribution this time."

After Gu Rubing finished speaking, he looked at the bandit leader kneeling in front of him.

"You guys are the ones in charge of this ambush?"

They knew that the person in front of them was Liu Bei, so they knelt on the ground and kowtowed frantically.

"Your Highness, we were blinded by greed and attacked you. Please be merciful and let us go. We promise we will never do it again."

"Bewitched? I wonder who you mean by ghost?"

Gu Rubing knew that the amount of grain he was transporting was astonishing, and naturally there would be bandits or robbers in the vicinity who would covet his grain. But no matter what, it was unlikely that more than a dozen bandits or robbers would gang up on him.
This was clearly organized by someone, but the people in front of us didn't seem to have any organizational skills.

"Yes, it was Xun You, a man under Cao Cao, who told us to join forces and attack Your Highness. He promised us 100,000 gold coins in addition to this batch of grain, so we did it..."

Gu Rubing hadn't expected that Cao Cao's influence had already extended to this place.

Gu Rubing then waved his hand, instructing Zhang Liao to eliminate these people, and the army advanced again.

After hearing the news of this failure, the surrounding bandits and robbers dared not make a move against Gu Rubing.

They all hid when they saw the long line of grain supplies passing by.

After escaping the bandits in Liangzhou, Xun You sped back to Yizhou.

After learning of Xun You's failure, Cao Cao did not blame him. After all, if Liu Bei were so easy to deal with, Cao Cao wouldn't be in such a difficult situation.

The alliance between Cao Cao and Liu Zhang went very smoothly, without any interference, and was completed in just one day.

Both sides are very happy about this alliance.

Lu Su and his companions were the ones who were unhappy.

After Cao Cao and Liu Zhang successfully formed an alliance, the military strength of Linjiang City had increased to 200,000.

Among them were 100,000 men, all of whom were Liu Zhang's reinforcements.

Not only that, Sun Jian also disregarded Zhou Yu's objections and made a deal with Cao Cao, allowing Cao Cao to buy a large amount of grain and a large number of troops at an extremely low price through a trade, which are now being transported to Yizhou by waterway.

Upon learning of this news, Lu Su immediately contacted Zhuge Liang, seeking his support.

Unfortunately, Zhuge Liang only ordered him to defend Jiangzhou City, without offering any support.

Because if we can hold out for a while longer, 200,000 new recruits will arrive in the rear and be ready to enter the battlefield. (End of Chapter)