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

Although Gu Rubing had already agreed to transfer all the catapults to Wei Yan.

However, because Yizhou is mountainous, transporting catapults is extremely difficult, and many are damaged along the way, resulting in very few being available. But Mianzhu Pass was not Gu Rubing's original destination.

After Wei Yan left, Gu Rubing looked at everyone present, finally fixing his gaze on Zhang Liao.

"Wen Yuan, I want you to take the Iron Pagoda, the Eighteen Riders of Yan Yun, and the Azure Dragon Swordsmen to block the area between Mianzhu City and Mianzhu Pass. Once you see any reinforcements, stop them immediately. Make sure to keep these reinforcements outside Mianzhu Pass."

"Yes!"

Zhang Liao received the order and turned to leave.

Only Zhang He remained present.

"Junyi, the army is setting off, with Mianzhu City as our target."

"Yes! But how many men should we bring, my lord?"

"Bring them all!"

"All of them? But our lord also needs troops to guard Linjiang City. If the enemy bypasses us and enters Linjiang City, then we..."

Zhang He wanted to say something, but Gu Rubing stopped him.

"We are short of troops right now. Tell the soldiers that everyone should be prepared to fight to the death."

"Yes!"

Zhang He knew that Gu Rubing intended to end the battle quickly, so he was prepared to fight to the death.

Gu Rubing's large-scale troop mobilization could not be contained by the news.

Cao Cao soon learned of the news.

"You've finally arrived, Liu Bei. I've been waiting for you for a long time."

Cao Cao then transferred Xu Huang to Mianzhu Pass, while the rest of his men remained in the city to prepare for a decisive battle with Gu Rubing.

However, before Gu Rubing even reached Mianzhu City, Deng Ai and Zhong Hui were the first to engage the Wei army.

Following their designated strategy, the two conquered city after city, eventually meeting up in Hanyang and enveloping the entire Jianwei Commandery.

However, just as the two had captured several cities along the way and were about to meet up at the foot of Hanyang City, the city walls were already covered with Xiahou's flags.

The Xiahou brothers, on the other hand, stood on the city wall.

However, when they saw Deng Ai and Zhong Hui's army of 100,000, they were somewhat flustered, after all, they only had 30,000 men.

"Zhong Hui, Deng Ai, how dare you attack this place? Aren't you afraid that our lord's reinforcements will arrive and surround you all here?"

"Haha, Xiahou Dun, you should use your scare tactics on other people. We brothers aren't afraid of yours. I don't believe Cao Cao would send 100,000 troops. Does he not want Mianzhu anymore?"

After Deng Ai finished speaking, he burst into laughter.

"Hmph, with us brothers here, you won't be able to enter Hanyang City."

Xiahou Yuan's words put Deng Ai in a difficult position.

It is clearly unlikely that the goal is to capture Hanyang with minimal losses.

In the end, Deng Ai decided to attack the city.

Soon, an army of 100,000 men surrounded the entire city of Hanyang and began attacking the city from four directions.

However, with the Xiahou brothers guarding the city, Hanyang was clearly not so easy to conquer.

After a day of siege warfare.

Deng Ai and his men never even went up the city wall.

Zhong Hui was so anxious that he wanted to personally lead the attack on the city, but Deng Ai stopped him.

Deng Ai knew in his heart that neither he nor Zhong Hui could be a match for the Xiahou brothers. Once he personally attacked the city, it would inevitably mean fighting the Xiahou brothers. If something happened to the commander-in-chief, then the 100,000-strong army would be nothing more than a decoration.

"If you won't let me attack the city, what can we do now? If we don't take over the entire Jianwei County soon and delay the lord's operations, what will we do?"

Zhong Hui was extremely anxious. Their orders were to take Jianwei County, and they were about to succeed when the Xiahou brothers blocked their path. It seemed that their glory was about to slip away, so how could Zhong Hui not be anxious?

Upon hearing this, Deng Ai glanced at the distant city of Hanyang.

After hesitating for a long time, he suddenly thought of something and a smile appeared on his lips.

Zhong Hui knew Deng Ai very well. Whenever Deng Ai showed this expression, it meant that Deng Ai was about to come up with some insidious plan.

“Our orders were to take Jianwei County, not Hanyang. In that case, we can bypass Hanyang.”

After Deng Ai finished speaking, he immediately took out a map.

“We can leave 50,000 troops here, with one of us guarding this place and the other leading 50,000 troops to take control of the entire Jianwei Commandery. We will also block all roads leading to Hanyang. Then, the Xiahou brothers will be without supplies, and we'll see how long they can hold out here.”

Upon hearing this, Zhong Hui nodded hurriedly. It must be said that Zhong Hui's plan was extremely insidious.

Ultimately, the two decided that Zhong Hui would stay here to guard the four city gates, while Deng Ai would bypass Hanyang City and begin to occupy other surrounding cities, and block all roads leading to Hanyang.

This also prevented Cao Cao's grain supplies from entering Hanyang City.

Xiahou Dun soon discovered that the army surrounding them had shrunk considerably. After discussing it with Xiahou Yuan, they immediately guessed Zhong Hui's intentions.

They immediately seized all the grain and fodder from the city's inhabitants. At first, they tried to buy it, but the people didn't have much grain left. Even if Xiahou Dun and his men offered money, the people were unwilling to buy it, so in the end, they simply resorted to robbery.

After gathering all the grain and fodder together, Xiahou Dun took stock of it.

They found enough for them to use for about a month.

This was the last bit of time they were giving Cao Cao.

At this point, Cao Cao also felt that things were getting a bit complicated.

When Mianzhu Pass was attacked, Xu Huang immediately sought help from Cao Cao after learning the number of Wei Yan's troops.

Looking at the 50,000 troops in his hands, Cao Cao gritted his teeth and sent 10,000 men to reinforce them.

As a result, these 10,000 people returned in less than half a day.

Moreover, when they returned, there were fewer than three thousand people.

On the way, these men were ambushed by Zhang Liao and almost wiped out.

Cao Cao was also somewhat nervous as he looked at the letters of appeal for help sent by Xu Huang.

Just as Cao Cao was at a loss for what to do, a soldier came over.

"My lord, General Jiang Wei requests an audience!"

“Jiang Wei? No…”

Cao Cao instinctively wanted to avoid seeing Jiang Wei, but unfortunately, he had already reached a point where he had no troops left to deploy.

Cao Cao was starting to regret his decision and was already considering asking Liu Zhang and Sun Jian for help.

Now, facing Gu Rubing's fierce offensive, only sufficient troops can alleviate the immediate crisis.

"Let him in."

Cao Cao didn't have much hope for Jiang Wei either, after all, the lack of troops at his disposal was a major weakness.

Jiang Wei walked in quickly.

"I've met my lord!"

"Well, Boyo, do you have any solutions to this predicament?"

Jiang Wei nodded.

"My lord, I do have a solution."

After saying that, Jiang Wei told Cao Cao about his idea.

Cao Cao's eyes lit up when he heard Jiang Wei's suggestion. According to Jiang Wei, it was indeed possible to send reinforcements to Mianzhu Pass. However, even if that were the case, it wouldn't solve the current problem. Liu Bei's 50,000-strong army was outside the city, watching them intently even though they weren't attacking.

If the number of troops inside the city is too small, who knows whether Liu Bei will actually take action against them?

Seeing Cao Cao's troubles, Jiang Wei immediately smiled and said, "My lord, Liu Bei's random attack is meant to trouble us. We don't know what his target is, so we can only defend. But we don't have enough troops, so we are forced to divide our forces."

"Well, so what do you think, Boyo?"

"It's very simple. Wherever Liu Bei attacks, we'll go there. We have the advantage of defending the city, while Liu Bei only has 100,000 troops. We have 70,000 against 100,000, and we still have the advantage of defending the city, so there's no problem."

Upon hearing this, Cao Cao immediately realized what was happening.

He was caught off guard by Liu Bei's chaotic attack and lost his composure.

Because he could never guess Liu Bei's thoughts, he was somewhat troubled. Jiang Wei was right; why should he care what Liu Bei was thinking? He only needed to follow his own ideas.

I'm the one defending the city, what am I afraid of? I should be the one afraid of Liu Bei.

"Alright, Jiang Wei, I'll give you 13,000 troops. You must go and support Xu Huang."

"Yes!"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Wei immediately nodded, and then led 13,000 men, along with Guo Huai, out of the city.

Gu Rubing knew, of course, that they had left the city, so he wasn't too worried.

After all, Zhang Liao was right on their path, and with only a little over ten thousand men, Zhang Liao could definitely handle the situation.

However, this time, Gu Rubing was wrong.

Zhang Liao led three special forces teams and hid in the woods.

Zhang Liao already knew about the reinforcements coming out of Mianzhu City.

So Zhang Liao waited here the whole time.

Before long, a group of soldiers appeared in Zhang Liao's field of vision.

Once these people got close, Zhang Liao seized the opportunity and immediately led everyone out to fight their way out.

In just half an hour, only a small number of people managed to escape, while the majority perished there.

Zhang Liao did not pursue, but instead began to clean up the battlefield.

Before long, Zhou Cang arrived.

"General, something's not right!"

"What's wrong?"

"General, according to intelligence, there should have been more than 13,000 people coming, but only 3,000 of them are here. Where did the other 10,000 go?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Liao immediately looked around, but the surroundings were quiet and there was no movement.

Did those 10,000 people go back?
Although Zhang Liao had doubts, he knew that now was not the time to consider these things.

"No matter what they've been doing, clean up this place and continue the ambush."

Zhang Liao was unaware that his failure to investigate the whereabouts of these ten thousand men had caused Wei Yan considerable trouble.

However, Zhang Liao cannot be blamed for this.

According to the map of Yizhou, the place where Zhang Liao and his men were guarding was the most suitable route for large-scale troop movements, but there were also many smaller paths that led to Mianzhu Pass.

However, Zhang Liao had limited manpower and could only guard the mainland. In Zhang Liao's view, even if a small group of enemies passed through the side roads, there would not be many of them, and they could not possibly have a significant impact on the 50,000-strong army.

Yizhou is mountainous, and the mountain roads are intricate and complex, which Zhang Liao simply cannot manage.

Zhang Liao's judgment was indeed correct; these narrow paths could only accommodate one or two thousand people at a time.

However, Jiang Wei had divided the 10,000 men into ten small teams, which then took various paths to Mianzhu Pass and eventually reunited there. The remaining 3,000 men were merely for show.

Before long, Jiang Wei led ten thousand men to the outskirts of Mianzhu Pass.

"General, we have already contacted General Xu. Shall we enter the city through the back gate?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Wei shook his head.

Looking into the distance beyond Mianzhu Pass, countless boulders have fallen onto the city walls of Mianzhu Pass.

Although the walls of Mianzhu Pass were tall and extremely sturdy, they could not withstand the constant bombardment from these catapults.

In the end, Jiang Wei turned his attention to the catapults.

"Let's prepare a big gift for General Xu before we enter the city."

After Jiang Wei finished speaking, he whispered a few words in the deputy general's ear, and the deputy general's eyes widened immediately upon hearing them.

He then looked at Jiang Wei.

"General, our mission is to defend Mianzhu Pass, and your actions..."

"I'm here to prepare for the defense of Mianzhu Pass. I'm the general, so just listen to me. If anything goes wrong, the lord will come to me."

"All right!"

The deputy general immediately relayed Jiang Wei's words to Xu Huang.

late at night.

The day's battle left Wei Yan and his men feeling somewhat exhausted. Although they still hadn't captured Mianzhu Pass, Wei Yan could sense that the city walls of Mianzhu Pass were starting to weaken. If the catapults continued to bombard the area for another day, the city walls would crumble.

However, just as Wei Yan was considering how he would rush into the city after the city walls were breached...

Inside the catapult camp.

Several soldiers on patrol were sitting on the ground drinking and eating meat.

After all, the soldiers who followed the catapults faced extremely high dangers, and transporting huge stones also required a lot of strength. Therefore, Gu Rubing made a special exception and allowed these soldiers to drink alcohol and eat meat at will.

But at this moment.

Jiang Wei and his men had already surrounded them.

After eliminating several sentries, Jiang Wei had completely surrounded the catapult camp.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Jiang Wei immediately led everyone out to fight.

The soldiers who were drinking and eating meat initially thought they were seeing things and hurriedly rubbed their eyes.

When he finally saw clearly, he found that his companion's blood had splattered all over his body.

The man cried out, but before he could retaliate, a spear pierced his throat.

Jiang Wei quickly rushed into the camp.

Wei Yan was still asleep when he heard a commotion outside the camp.

He opened his eyes groggily, and before he could even ask a question, he heard the voices of soldiers coming from outside the camp.

"General, something terrible has happened! The catapult camp has been attacked!"

"what?"

The catapult was Wei Yan's only siege weapon. If he lost it, how would he attack the city? Squadrons? Are you kidding me?
Wei Yan immediately rushed out of the camp and looked towards the location of the catapult camp in the distance.

By this time, flames were already shooting into the sky there.

Wei Yan immediately led 10,000 reinforcements to the catapult camp.

However, when Wei Yan arrived, he only saw corpses everywhere on the ground, and more than a dozen catapults were still on fire. It was clear that even if the fire was extinguished, these catapults would be unusable.

Wei Yan then punched a tree stump.

"Where did these people come from?" (End of Chapter)