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

After seeing Deng Ai off, Gu Rubing quickly cleaned up the battlefield.

The results came out quickly.

Deng Ai's army was almost completely wiped out.

When Zhang Liao's troops returned, there were only a little over 10,000 men. Wei Yan and Zhang He's troops did not suffer many losses, but they still lost 30,000 men.

After calculation, Gu Rubing discovered that the loss of soldiers in this battle was as high as 70,000.

Almost half of it was lost.

But all they got was a right battalion, which was completely unimportant and had almost no strategic value.

All of this was because he underestimated the defensive capabilities of the right wing. Xun Yu had put in a lot of effort to ensure the safety of the right wing.

With Xiahou Yuan running back, Cao Ren knew that this battle was over.

Cao Ren collected the battle damage from various places and found that the losses amounted to as many as 100,000 men.

Such a loss surprised even Cao Ren.

Xun Yu, standing to the side, frowned slightly.

Clearly, the losses exceeded his expectations.

"Contact our lord immediately. It seems we need reinforcements. Liu Bei clearly has no intention of defending."

"it is good!"

After making up their minds, the two immediately sent a letter to Cao Cao.

Gu Rubing did not return to Jiangzhou City, but instead directly occupied the Right Camp.

Although this right wing has no strategic significance, as long as it is stationed here, the people in Linjiang City will not dare to make any rash moves.

But Gu Rubing knew they couldn't hold out for long.

The news of their losses would soon reach Xun Yu's ears. If a large army did not arrive to reinforce them, Xun Yu, being intelligent, would soon realize something was wrong and might even send the left wing to attack Jiangzhou City.

Gu Rubing found everyone inside the commander's camp.

"Gentlemen, we have suffered considerable losses this time, and Deng Ai's serious injury has left our army without a key general. What are your thoughts on the upcoming battle?"

Upon hearing this, Wei Yan and the others all fell silent.

Then everyone turned their attention to Lu Su, who was standing to the side.

Lu Su pondered for a moment before looking at Gu Rubing.

"My lord, my suggestion is that we withdraw our troops!"

"Ok?"

"My lord, we have now lost more than half of our troops. According to my statistics, Cao Ren also lost about 100,000 troops in this battle. It is a great victory for us, but we are slow to replenish our troops. Xun Yu and Cao Ren will soon realize that something is wrong. When they attack Jiangzhou City, we will have no way to retreat. Moreover, Jiangzhou City is related to the safety of the entire Ba Commandery and even Jingzhou."

Upon hearing this, Gu Rubing looked at the map in front of him and fell into deep thought.

The battle was won, but the losses exceeded his expectations. If the fighting continued like this, he probably wouldn't gain anything. But leaving like this made Gu Rubing very uncomfortable. A territory that had no meaning—didn't that mean that the 70,000 people had died in vain?

After a moment's thought, Gu Rubing looked at everyone present and said, "Do you all think the same way as Zijing?"

The generals looked at each other and finally nodded.

Looking at their expressions, Gu Rubing smiled slightly.

"Alright, then we'll retreat, but we can't go like this!"

After finishing speaking, Gu Rubing immediately revealed his plan.

Upon hearing this, everyone expressed their appreciation for Gu Rubing's plan, but at the same time, they also had some concerns.

Recently, Gu Rubing's strategies have all been risky, and each one leaves one feeling apprehensive.

Seeing the losses, Xun Yu no longer wanted to fight and ordered Xiahou Dun to simply defend.

Xiahou Dun nodded after receiving the order. He had no intention of attacking anyway, as he only had 50,000 men under his command. What could he possibly achieve by attacking?
Just as Xiahou Dun was pondering, a deputy general rushed over.

"General, something terrible has happened! We've received news from the front that Liu Bei is leading an army of 80,000 men towards us!"

"Liu Bei has arrived?"

Upon hearing this, Xiahou Dun's expression changed immediately, and he ordered all the archers to return to their positions and begin preparing for defense.

An hour later, Gu Rubing's army slowly arrived outside the left camp.

Xiahou Dun had been waiting for a long time.

"Liu Bei, you've just been through a major battle, do you want to fight again?"

Upon hearing Xiahou Dun's words, Gu Rubing stepped out from the ranks.

"Xiahou Dun, I advise you to open the camp gates and surrender. My reinforcements will arrive soon, and when they do, your end will be near."

"Hmph, you think you're the only one with reinforcements? You dare ask me to surrender? You really think you've won? You ambushed us, and you lost tens of thousands of men, and you're still so proud of yourself? How can you be so shameless?"

"Xiahou Dun, I kindly tried to persuade you to surrender, how dare you speak to me like that? You're courting death!"

"You want to die? You dare hit me?"

"So what if we fight? Let's launch a full-scale attack on the city!"

Upon hearing this, Wei Yan and the others immediately surrounded them.

"My lord, you mustn't! Xiahou Dun is deliberately provoking you. The reinforcements haven't arrived yet. We should just surround them and wait for them to arrive before we attack the enemy."

"Am I the lord or are you the lord? Didn't you hear the orders I gave?"

After saying that, Gu Rubing kicked Wei Yan directly.

Upon seeing this, Xiahou Dun burst into laughter.

"Haha, Liu Bei, look at this! Your generals no longer listen to you. Look at how low your prestige in the army has fallen! If I were you, I would take my troops back to Jiangzhou City and sort out the internal situation before coming out to embarrass myself again!"

After Xiahou Dun finished speaking, the entire Left Camp erupted in commotion.

Gu Rubing's face was extremely gloomy as he turned to look at Wei Yan and the others.

"Didn't you hear me say 'attack'? Aren't you ashamed? Anyone who refuses to fight again will be killed without mercy!"

After saying that, Gu Rubing drew his longsword.

Seeing this, Wei Yan and his men had no choice but to order everyone to attack.

Xiahou Dun was not afraid of the 80,000 men brought by Gu Rubing at all. What he was afraid of was that Gu Rubing would wait until reinforcements arrived before launching an attack.

Before that, being able to weaken Gu Rubing's forces would be a good thing.

Seeing the soldiers charging forward, Xiahou Dun immediately ordered his men to fire arrows, without even engaging in combat.

Standing inside the camp, Xiahou Dun saw the fallen soldiers of the Liejun army and felt somewhat satisfied. But he soon discovered something.

The besieging army all seemed to be fat men, with bulky figures.

"Is the food under Liu Bei's command very good? What do they eat in the military camp every day? How can someone so fat fight?"

"My lord, according to our intelligence, the food in Liu Bei's army is indeed quite good, and they eat three meals a day, one more than we do. As for this fat man, he probably has a lot of strength too."

Hearing his deputy's words, Xiahou Dun nodded, making up his mind that after this battle, he would also apply to Cao Cao to improve the soldiers' meals, as the fat man had an advantage—he was strong.

After several waves of arrows, more than 30,000 men on Gu Rubing's side had fallen to the ground.

Upon seeing this, Wei Yan immediately stepped forward.

"My lord, we cannot fight any longer. We are no match for them and need to wait for reinforcements."

Lu Su, who was standing nearby, quickly stepped forward to dissuade Gu Rubing.

Meanwhile, Xiahou Dun, in the distance, kept mocking Gu Rubing.

"My lord, the Prime Minister's order has arrived. Please return to camp."

A messenger ran over and told Gu Rubing the news. The messenger's voice was so loud that even Xiahou Dun could hear it.

It was nothing new for Gu Rubing to obey Zhuge Liang's orders; everyone had long been accustomed to it.

"Haha, Liu Bei, your prime minister has sent you back. Are you leaving?"

Upon hearing this, Gu Rubing snorted coldly, turned around and left, leaving Xiahou Dun behind, constantly mocking him.

However, he didn't see that Gu Rubing revealed a cold smile as he turned around.

After Gu Rubing left, Lu Su wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and turned to look at Xiahou Dun.

"Xiahou Dun, we're withdrawing our troops. Can't we at least take the bodies back for burial?"

Xiahou Dun had no objection to this; it was only right that both sides take their respective bodies back.

After ordering his men to clean up the battlefield, Lu Su immediately commanded his army to retreat.

"Liu Bei must be furious this time. He lost 30,000 soldiers for nothing and even had his prime minister take him back and give him a good scolding. No matter how you look at it, we didn't lose out."

Upon hearing Xiahou Dun's words, everyone present burst into laughter.

Xiahou Dun quickly reported the entire battle to Xun Yu.

Cao Ren laughed when he saw the intelligence, but Xun Yu, who was standing next to him, had a rather gloomy expression.

As far as he knew, Gu Rubing was not someone who was easily agitated, and he would not allow Xiahou Dun's instigation to create a rift between him and his subordinates.

Everything was a bit too strange.

But according to Xiahou Dun's report, this battle was indeed a great victory for them.

He killed 30,000 enemies while suffering zero losses himself, only losing some arrows, which was nothing to Cao Cao.

Looking at the excited soldiers, Xun Yu could only suppress his doubts.

Five days after Gu Rubing's failed attack on the left wing.

Xun Yu discovered that there was no sign of reinforcements coming from Gu Rubing's camp, and that Gu Rubing had only brought 50,000 troops, all of whom were stationed in the right camp.

Why hasn't Liu Bei sent reinforcements from Jiangzhou City yet?

Cao Ren looked at Xun Yu with a puzzled expression.

Xun Yu also couldn't quite understand this.

In any case, the reinforcements should have arrived by now. Jiangzhou City is a day and a night away from the Right Camp. If they travel at full speed, they should be able to reach it at most.

Five days have passed, and there is still no sign of reinforcements.

An idea that excited Xun Yu popped into his mind.

"Liu Bei had no reinforcements at all."

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at the speaker in shock.

Then, Jiang Wei and Guo Huai slowly walked in from outside.

"Boyo, what brings you here?"

Since Cao Cao brought Jiang Wei back last time, he has placed Jiang Wei in the rear.

While ostensibly ensuring the safety of the rear, everyone knew that Cao Cao was actually observing whether Jiang Wei had been recruited by Liu Bei.

However, after observing Jiang Wei for two months, Cao Cao confirmed that there was nothing unusual about him before releasing him from Chengdu and ordering Jiang Wei and Guo Huai to lead 50,000 troops to reinforce Linjiang City.

“We have come to your aid on the orders of our lord.”

After saying this, Jiang Wei handed the transfer order to Cao Ren.

Cao Ren was relieved to see that it was indeed Cao Cao's order, and then looked at Jiang Wei.

"Boyue, what did you mean by that? What do you mean by Liu Bei not sending reinforcements? There are 200,000 troops in Jiangzhou City. Even if 100,000 were to be transferred out, it wouldn't be a problem to reinforce the front line. Why won't Liu Bei send reinforcements from Jiangzhou City?"

"General Cao, what I mean by no reinforcements is not that Liu Bei is not sending reinforcements from Jiangzhou City, but that there are no reinforcements in Jiangzhou City at all. There were none at the beginning, and there are none now. Liu Bei is using the 150,000 troops in Jiangzhou City to fight us with our backs to the river."

"what?"

Everyone present stared at Jiang Wei in shock upon hearing this news.

Xun Yu, on the other hand, looked at him with admiration, having only just come to understand all of this himself.

"That's impossible. Liu Bei has 200,000 troops and is on his way to Yizhou to support Jiangzhou City. Moreover, Liu Bei has ample supplies. With his supplies, he could easily hold out in Yizhou for a year. There is absolutely no need for him to take such a risky move and fight a desperate battle. He is not in dire straits."

"If there is no desperate situation, then create one. It must be said that Lord Xun Yu's defensive plan is impeccable. However, Liu Bei took advantage of the darkness and put himself and everyone in his camp in a do-or-die situation, which greatly enhanced their combat power. This caught us off guard and caused us to suffer such heavy casualties."

No one agreed with Jiang Wei's words. They all turned to look at Xun Yu. After all, no one cared about the words of a junior general, even if he was right about many things and had even saved their lives. They were unwilling to believe a junior general.

However, Xun Yu's next reply made them all gasp in shock.

"Boyue said a lot. Liu Bei is fighting with his back to the river. There should be no reinforcements in Jiangzhou City. Their reinforcements should arrive at least half a month later, just as we calculated. Judging from the current situation, they should arrive in at least seven more days."

Upon hearing this, all the generals exchanged glances.

Only then did they truly admire Liu Bei's audacity. The losses from a failed attack on the right flank were something even Liu Bei himself could not accept.

"Since Liu Bei has no reinforcements, what are we waiting for? Liu Bei only has 50,000 men, and there are at most 10,000 in Jiangzhou City, which adds up to no more than 60,000. We have 150,000 men, so why should we be afraid of them? Now is the best opportunity to defeat Liu Bei. We can also take advantage of the situation to take Jiangzhou City and even the entire Ba Commandery."

After Cao Ren finished speaking, all the generals in the command camp became excited.

Upon hearing this, Xun Yu frowned immediately.

At this moment, Jiang Wei frowned, looking at everyone present. (End of Chapter)