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

Cao Ren was also startled by his own guess.

If the 200,000-strong army was just a ruse, then Liu Bei's investment this time was considerable.

Thinking of this, Cao Ren immediately sent someone to contact Xu Huang in Jianwei Commandery.

The next few days were peaceful.

However, in a valley behind Cao Ren's army.

Zhang Liao is hiding here with his army.

Not far ahead of them, a grain transport team was passing by.

"The general has investigated thoroughly; they came from Yangquan."

Upon hearing Zhou Cang's words, Zhang Liao immediately opened the map.

Soon, they found the city of Yangquan on the map.

"I didn't expect them to store the supplies in such a small city. What's the situation inside?"

"I don't know. There are no civilians left in Yangquan now. All the civilians have been transferred away. Everyone who enters or leaves Yangquan needs to be screened. Our people can't get in there."

With 300,000 troops stationed at the front, the required provisions are enormous. If a small city were to store all that provisions, there would be no extra space for the civilians to use.

Moreover, given that it concerns the provisions for an army of 300,000, how could they possibly allow civilians to appear in the vicinity and cause trouble for the army?

"Since we can't get in, let's make them come out."

After saying that, Zhang Liao waved his hand.

Thousands of people emerged from the shadows and attacked.

When the soldiers escorting the grain saw Zhang Liao and his men rush out, they immediately abandoned the grain and ran away.

Zhang Liao's gaze was not on the provisions, but rather he chased after the remaining soldiers.

However, Zhang Liao did not kill them, but instead chased after them slowly.

Soon, these people entered Yangquan.

Zhang Liao did not leave; he simply stood outside Yangquan City.

Not long after, the city gates opened.

Jiang Wei led Guo Huai out from inside.

"Zhang Liao, I didn't expect you to find our grain supplies hidden here. But even if you did find them, so what? There are 50,000 troops in Yangquan City. Do you really want to attack a city defended by 50,000 men with only 5,000 men?"

"It's not necessarily impossible."

"Then you are welcome to give it a try."

Jiang Wei gave a cold laugh and slowly entered the city.

However, after confirming that Jiang Wei and Guo Huai were inside the city, Zhang Liao immediately led his men to evacuate. After taking some provisions with them, he burned the Wei army's provisions.

Jiang Wei stood on the city wall, looking at the distant flames soaring into the sky, feeling completely calm.

These were all Sun Jian's provisions, not their own, so Jiang Wei didn't feel any remorse.

However, he always felt that Zhang Liao had other intentions in forcing him to show himself this time.

Jiang Wei then walked into the hall, looked at the map on the city wall, and kept thinking about what he would do if he were Gu Rubing.

Ultimately, Jiang Wei set his sights on Jianwei County.

Jiang Wei also realized that Gu Rubing's target might be Jianwei County, and that opening up Jianwei County could pose a threat to Chengdu, but this could only be temporary, or rather, a way to force them to retreat.

Gu Rubing has a large army, but he lacks the advantage of defending the city. Mianzhu City is not very significant, so why use such methods, wasting time and effort, just to force them to retreat?
Jiang Wei couldn't understand what Gu Rubing was up to, so even though he could tell that Gu Rubing's ideas were not simple, he didn't dare to report it to his superiors.

However, after Zhang Liao appeared in Yangquan once, he never appeared again, and no one knew what Zhang Liao was doing.

Hanyang County.

Xu Huang received a letter from Cao Ren.

But the entire area surrounding Hanyang County was unusually quiet.

Xu Huang now commands an army of 150,000.

There was indeed a camp of Deng Ai's army in the distance, but they only had 100,000 men. If it weren't for the need to defend the city, he would have led his army out to fight long ago.

Just as Xu Huang was having some doubts, a voice interrupted his thoughts.

"General, our army's provisions are three days late, and the remaining provisions are only enough to last for seven days."

"Late? Why is Boyue back and can't even manage the provisions?"

Cao Cao entrusted all the supplies for the front lines to Jiang Wei, so if there was a problem with the supplies, everyone would think of Jiang Wei first.

"General, I heard that General Cao Ren is leading an army of 300,000 to attack Mianzhu. Is the situation at the front too complicated, causing General Jiang Wei to overlook our position?"

"No matter what, we have 150,000 troops waiting for food. If 300,000 troops are people, aren't we people too?"

Xu Huang roared angrily before sitting down in a chair with a sigh of resignation.

Regardless of the circumstances, the shortage of food supplies is now an unchangeable fact.

"Someone, go and urge them to expedite the delivery of the provisions."

"Yes!"

One of the lieutenants immediately turned and left.

However, the deputy general had only been out of the city for a short time.

An arrow pierced his chest.

Then a group of people rushed out and cleaned up the deputy general's horse, the corpse, and the bloodstains on the ground.

three days later.

Xu Huang looked into the distance, but there was still no sign of grain or provisions, and he couldn't help but feel anxious.

"General, the provisions are only enough to last four days."

Upon hearing this, Xu Huang punched the city wall.

"What exactly is Jiang Wei doing? Why haven't the supplies arrived yet?"

"General, the supplies haven't arrived yet. Should we try to conserve our food? There's no fighting going on right now. Although Deng Ai and his men are nearby, they haven't shown any intention of attacking the city. How about we reduce our food rations to one meal a day?"

Upon hearing this, Xu Huang fell silent instantly.

While one meal a day can reduce food consumption, soldiers who are not well-fed will inevitably suffer a significant loss of fighting strength during battle.

But this is still better than everyone going hungry.

"Alright, one meal a day, and the number of soldiers on guard duty will be halved."

"Yes!"

However, with only four days' worth of provisions left, even with only one meal a day, it wouldn't last long. Xu Huang had no choice but to send a troop of soldiers to Yangquan, where Jiang Wei was located.

However, this group of men was attacked by a hail of arrows not long after leaving the city, and none of the ten men survived.

And this group of people quickly cleaned up the battlefield again.

Xu Huang was completely unaware of this situation.

They were still anxiously waiting for Jiang Wei's supplies.

Xu Huang stood on the city wall, waiting anxiously for six days.

There was still no sign of the supply battalion.

"General, we only have one last meal left. If the supplies don't arrive soon, the brothers really won't be able to hold on."

Xu Huang was at a loss for what to do. He had a vague feeling that something was wrong.

Provisions are of paramount importance in an army camp. Even if Jiang Wei were negligent, it's impossible that he wouldn't have provided provisions by now; something must have happened.

After hesitating for a long time, Xu Huang led 50,000 men to open the city gates, preparing to personally go to Yangquan to find Jiang Wei.

However, at that moment, Wei Yan led an army of 50,000 out.

"General Xu Huang, what are you planning to do?" Xu Huang's eyes widened when he saw Wei Yan appear.

However, he now understood why the supplies had been delayed.

Just as Xu Huang was hesitating whether to finish off Wei Yan in one fell swoop, since Wei Yan only had 50,000 men, Deng Ai, with Zhong Hui and an army of 100,000, slowly surrounded them.

Xu Huang looked at Deng Ai, Zhong Hui, and Wei Yan, and immediately led the army back into the city.

Xu Huang knew that if he went out of the city to fight, he would definitely not be a match for the three opponents.

However, the presence of these three people indicates that they must have run out of food supplies.

"General, we've run out of supplies, what should we do?"

The deputy general standing to the side looked at Xu Huang with some anxiety.

"Okay, you go down first."

Xu Huang waved wearily at his deputy.

The lieutenant hesitated for a moment, then turned and left.

After the deputy general left, Xu Huang slapped the table, shattering it.

What do we do when we run out of food? I want to know what to do too! You all just ask me, what can I do? Do you expect me to grow food for you?
After venting his frustrations, Xu Huang sighed.

The best solution now is for someone to break out and tell Jiang Wei what's happening here; otherwise, people outside might not even know that they've run out of food.

Thinking of this, Xu Huang immediately ordered his 150,000 troops to attack at once.

Zhong Hui, Deng Ai, and Wei Yan each led 50,000 troops and blocked the three city gates leading to Yangquan.

However, the dispersion of 150,000 troops resulted in some weaknesses in the defense of each city gate.

When Xu Huang aimed at a point and broke through, he easily rushed out.

However, after breaking through Wei Yan's encirclement, Xu Huang sent out a hundred-man squad.

Xu Huang then led the remaining troops into the city.

Wei Yan watched the hundred-man squad leave, a cold smile appearing on his lips.

"Xu Huang, Xu Huang, do you really think that's all we've prepared?"

The centurion led his squad of a hundred men toward Yangquan.

However, halfway there, they saw a group of people blocking the road.

The leader was none other than Zhang Liao, who had been missing for a long time.

The centurion recognized the man as Zhang Liao and knew that Zhang Liao's troops were the elite of the army, and he was no match for them.

Fortunately, Xu Huang had already made some arrangements before they set off.

"Everyone disperse and find your own way to Yangquan."

"Yes!"

The hundred-person team was immediately dismantled.

Zhang Liao hadn't expected that his opponent would pull this trick on him.

One hundred people scattered instantly, each taking a different path; some paths led to survival, others to certain death. Clearly, it was impossible to completely stop them.

In the end, Zhang Liao could only do his best to capture him.

An hour later.

Zhang Liao counted the number of people. They had captured seventy-three people, and nine others fell off a cliff and died while trying to escape.

Clearly, there are still a dozen or so who have definitely run away, and their destination is Yangquan.

It would take at least five more days to transport the grain from Yangquan to Hanyang, and that was their last chance.

After Zhang Liao sent someone to inform Wei Yan and the other two about the situation, he led his men and went into hiding again.

Upon learning that there were still five days left, Wei Yan immediately stood outside the city wall.

"Xu Huang, you should leave. Your supplies will definitely not arrive. The men you risked your life to send out have already been intercepted and killed by Zhang Liao and Zhang Wenyuan, who were lying in ambush outside. No one knows the situation here."

Xu Huang was surprised to find that Zhang Liao had also come.

Moreover, the other party is Zhang Liao, so what Wei Yan said is very likely true.

Thinking of this, Xu Huang hesitated for a moment, then looked at the soldiers present.

After a long while, Xu Huang finally left the city wall and returned to the government office.

"Everyone, what do you all think? Should we continue defending the city, or should we leave?"

The several deputy generals present had all fought alongside Xu Huang through thick and thin; none of them spoke, but instead looked at Xu Huang.

"Everyone, please feel free to speak your mind. Since I've asked you, you can say whatever you want."

"General, you're in charge. We'll do whatever you say."

Upon hearing this, Xu Huang hesitated for a moment before slowly standing up.

"I've decided, I'm leaving!"

Seeing that Xu Huang made no move, Wei Yan became anxious and even considered whether to attack the city.

It was here that Deng Ai also arrived at Wei Yan's military camp.

"General Wei, during this period, we must not make any moves, and we can even relax the defense of the camp a little."

"why?"

Wei Yan looked at Deng Ai with a blank expression.

"General Wei, our target is this city, not the 150,000 people here. If we push them too far, we may not be able to gain any advantage in a battle."

Wei Yan nodded.

"Therefore, we must leave them a chance to break out, and we must also make Xu Huang truly believe that their message has not been sent out. We must appear to be as fearless as possible."

"understood."

late at night.

The city gate slowly opened.

Xu Huang led 150,000 troops and charged directly towards Wei Yan.

On the way, Xu Huang discovered that Wei Yan's camp was extremely poorly defended.

"Hmph, do you really think I'll hold out here to the death? As long as the green hills remain, there's always firewood to burn. I'll take back Hanyang City sooner or later."

After muttering something under his breath, Xu Huang led his army to smash through Wei Yan's camp and quickly left.

After seeing Xu Huang leave, Wei Yan slowly walked out of the camp and then led his army into the city.

Deng Ai and his men were relieved to enter the city only after they saw that the flags on the city wall had been changed.

Jiang Wei was resting in his room when a sudden, loud knocking woke him up.

"General, someone from Hanyang has arrived."

"Hanyang?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Wei immediately stood up and opened the door.

Jiang Wei saw that standing next to his deputy was a man covered in blood.

Upon seeing Jiang Wei, the man immediately knelt on the ground.

"General, please go to Hanyang and dispatch provisions."

"What? Food supplies? Didn't I already distribute a month's worth of food supplies to you?"

"General, we have been without food for several days. We haven't seen any supplies in the past two weeks. Hanyang can't hold out any longer."

"Not even a single grain of food?"

Jiang Wei immediately realized that this matter must be related to Zhang Liao, who had left back then. (End of Chapter)