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

During the march, small groups of defeated soldiers from Penglai and scattered sorcerers continued to harass and launch surprise attacks, like maggots clinging to bones.

They hide in dense forests, deep caves, or the ruins of long-abandoned villages, using their familiarity with the terrain to launch sneak attacks, set traps, or use small-scale sorcery to cause trouble from time to time.

"Report! About a hundred fleeing soldiers have been spotted in a valley three miles ahead, looting a group of refugees!"

"A sorcerer has cast a poisonous miasma in the mountains on the left flank, and several scouts have already been poisoned!"

"The vanguard on the right flank was ambushed, and the enemy is using the abandoned mine shafts to maneuver!"

Similar military reports kept coming in.

Although these battles were not large in scale, far less grand and brutal than the siege of Guzang, they were exceptionally tedious and grueling, requiring a great deal of effort to carefully investigate and eliminate the enemy, much like combing through this wounded land with the finest comb.

Faced with this situation, Gu Rubing decisively divided his forces.

Generals such as Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, and Ma Chao each led an army, like several sharp knives, advancing in a coordinated attack to wipe out the remaining enemy forces in the northwest of Liangzhou.

They needed to carefully search every mountain forest where the enemy might be hiding, explore every deep cave, and clear out every abandoned village—a slow and arduous process.

At the same time, Gu Rubing also adopted the advice of his military advisors, and while carrying out military suppression, he also focused on restoring order and winning over the hearts and minds of the people.

He ordered people to make numerous copies of the proclamation to reassure the people and post them wherever he went, announcing a tax reduction or exemption for Liangzhou for the next three years, and promising that the government would distribute seeds and farming tools to the surviving people to help them rebuild their homes and resume production.

Despite his own army's limited food supplies, Gu Rubing gritted his teeth and allocated a portion of his army's provisions to set up several temporary relief points along the way, distributing porridge to the dying disaster victims and keeping them alive.

He also ordered the accompanying medical officers to do their best to treat the wounded and sick civilians while ensuring the health of the soldiers.

These measures, though seemingly insignificant and ineffective on the devastated and hopeless land of Liangzhou, were like a drop in the ocean.

But like a faint yet steadfast candle in endless darkness, it gradually warmed the hearts of the people of Liangzhou, which had been almost frozen by suffering and fear.

A faint glimmer of light began to reappear in the numb eyes, and some civilians who had been hiding at a distance began to cautiously approach the soup kitchens set up by the army after confirming that it was safe to do so.

However, progress remains frustratingly slow.

Liangzhou suffered too much damage over too wide an area, and Gu Rubing had very limited resources to allocate. Suppressing the remaining enemy forces was like finding a needle in a haystack, and pacifying the people would require an even longer and more painstaking process.

Gu Rubing stood beside a withered farmland. Beneath his feet was hardened, cracked earth with an ominous grayish-white hue. The once fertile soil now seemed to have lost all vitality, and even the most tenacious weeds could hardly grow.

Not far away, a winding stream flowed through murky water, emitting a faint fishy stench. On both sides of the riverbank, there were piles of dead fish with their white bellies turned up!

The old farmer who accompanied them knelt on the ground, grabbed a handful of soil, tears streaming down his face, and choked up, barely able to speak.

This scene deeply pierced Gu Rubing's heart.

The evil magic of Penglai has corrupted this land to such a deep and ingrained degree that it cannot be resolved by simple appeasement and relief.

Land corrupted by evil energy is uncultivable, and water sources are undrinkable; this cannot be changed immediately by distributing some seeds or reducing taxes for a few years. The hope of rebuilding their homes seems so faint in the face of such harsh reality.

What is even more worrying is the mental state of the people. The deep-seated fear and bewilderment of witnessing their loved ones being slaughtered, their homes being occupied by evil spirits, and the complete loss of faith in the future are like invisible shackles, imprisoning their souls. This fear cannot be easily eliminated by a few bowls of thin porridge or a few words of comfort.

The restoration of Liangzhou was destined to be a long, arduous, and difficult road.

However, the external pressures gave Gu Rubing no chance to catch his breath.

While he was busy eliminating the remaining enemy forces and trying to stabilize the region, urgent military reports from the east kept arriving at his desk like snowflakes.

A secret report from a spy monitoring Cao Cao's movements clearly pointed out...

After Cao Cao's main force joined up with the remnants of Penglai, numbering about 20,000, it did not immediately advance westward to seek out Gu Rubing's main force for a decisive battle as expected.

Instead, they occupied several important cities and passes in eastern Liangzhou and then began to consolidate their strongholds on a large scale.

They repaired and reinforced the city's defenses, dug deep trenches, and set up numerous defensive works such as chevaux-de-frise and barricades, displaying an attitude of steady progress, preparing for a long-term garrison, and waiting for the enemy to tire themselves out!

Their intention was quite clear: to take advantage of the fact that Gu Rubing's army had just experienced the bloody battle of Guzang, was exhausted, and needed time to rest and digest the results of the battle, to firmly establish themselves, digest and absorb the newly incorporated forces of Penglai, and wait and see what happens.

Another battle report from the northern border was filled with bloodshed and anxiety.

After learning that Guzang had changed hands and that Gu Rubing's main force was deeply entangled in western Liangzhou, Sun Jian of the Anluo Empire launched an unprecedentedly fierce offensive against its eastern border!
He clearly wanted to take advantage of the precious window of opportunity when Cao Cao was inactive and Gu Rubing was unable to look eastward, and to seize as much territory in eastern Liangzhou as possible and as quickly as possible, at any cost!
Intense battles are taking place daily along the border, putting immense pressure on the troops remaining on the front lines, with casualties steadily rising.

Cao Cao in the north and Sun Jian in the east, these two powerful external forces, were like two huge and heavy shadows looming over Liangzhou, which had just suffered heavy losses and had not yet recovered.

This forced Gu Rubing to accelerate the pace of his originally planned, relatively leisurely campaign to eliminate the remaining enemy forces and appease the people, making it seem somewhat urgent.

He must stabilize western Liangzhou as soon as possible before he can free up his resources to deal with the enormous threats coming from these two directions.

Meanwhile, in eastern Liangzhou, on a city whose city walls had just been adorned with Cao Cao's banners.

Cao Cao, draped in a black cloak, stood with his hand on his sword, his deep gaze sweeping over the battlements, looking towards the vast and empty horizon in the west, the direction in which Gu Rubing's army was moving.

His face was calm, revealing neither joy nor anger, except that his slender eyes occasionally flashed with an elusive glint.

The encounter between his army and the defeated remnants of Penglai proceeded unexpectedly smoothly.

The Penglai remnants, who had lost their high command and were like headless flies, did not put up fierce resistance when they encountered Cao Cao's well-organized and high-spirited army.

After a brief encounter and standoff, some sorcerers and low-ranking officers in the remnants of the army who still held positions of power chose to submit and cooperate. They presented Cao Cao with fragmented information about the principles of Penglai sorcery, the process of creating the Divine Marching Army, and intelligence they knew about the geography and resource distribution of western Liangzhou, especially the area around Guzang.

In exchange, they prayed for Cao Cao's protection and to obtain the food and supplies they needed to survive.

Cao Cao stroked his long beard, listening to his strategists report the scattered information they had extracted from the surrendered soldiers of Penglai, his eyes flashing with a deep and complex light.

Born into an official family, he aspired to restore the Han Dynasty and eliminate all rival warlords. He felt disgust and contempt for the heretical and evil sects of Penglai who practiced supernatural tricks and trampled on human ethics.

However, the outcome of the Battle of Guzang, and the various bizarre methods described by the surrendered soldiers, instilled in him a strong sense of vigilance regarding the extraordinary power displayed by Penglai, which surpassed that of ordinary armies. At the same time...

An uncontrollable thought arose within him: to try to control or even utilize this power.

"If we could remove the dross from this power, control its core, and turn it for our own use..."

Cao Cao pondered to himself.

"The setbacks we face now may be transformed into great opportunities to overcome obstacles in the future."

He was an extremely pragmatic and ruthless leader who knew that in chaotic times, power was the most important thing, no matter where that power came from, as long as it could be used for his own purposes.

Therefore, he was not in a hurry to immediately head west to find Gu Rubing's main force for a decisive battle. He already knew in detail about the tragic outcome of the Battle of Guzang.

Although Gu Rubing conquered Guzang and destroyed the evil formation, it was a Pyrrhic victory for him. His elite troops suffered heavy losses, his soldiers were exhausted, and his supplies were depleted. He was at his weakest point.

At this moment, Cao Cao had a fresh army at his disposal, and had also been replenished by the remnants of Penglai. He was able to wait in comfort and wait for the enemy to tire themselves out, while slowly absorbing and studying the "legacy" left behind by Penglai.

While consolidating the newly occupied eastern region of Liangzhou, he should observe the mutual attrition between Gu Rubing and the remaining forces of Penglai in western Liangzhou, as well as the fighting between Sun Jian and Gu Rubing's garrison in the east. This was the best strategy that suited his interests.

He even secretly rejoiced at the sight of Sun Jian fighting fiercely with Gu Rubing's garrison troops on the eastern border.

In his view, it would be advantageous for him to suffer heavy losses on either side. Ideally, both sides would be severely weakened, at which point he could then lead his troops westward or northward to achieve the greatest results with the least cost.

Therefore, under Cao Cao's explicit orders, Cao's army began to build and improve defensive fortifications on a large scale in the occupied areas.

Deep trenches, like giant snakes, encircled the city and camps. The reinforced city walls were guarded by vigilant sentries, and a dense array of antlers and barricades were set up on all the main roads leading to the core area.

The entire area controlled by Cao Cao's army has become like a curled-up, spiky steel hedgehog, displaying a clear posture of long-term defensiveness.

At the same time, Cao Cao dispatched a large number of elite light cavalry squads to harass Gu Rubing's army's vulnerable supply lines extending westward into Liangzhou like ghosts, hunting down their scouts.

Cao Cao, like an experienced and patient old cheetah, was entrenched in the newly conquered cities in eastern Liangzhou, his cold eyes half-open, quietly waiting for the best opportunity to strike.

He was waiting for Gu Rubing's forces and morale to be further depleted by Sun Jian's fierce attacks from the east, and he was also waiting for new variables to emerge in the western part of Liangzhou, which he had not yet fully controlled.

Whether it's a counterattack from the remaining forces of Penglai, or other unexpected chaos, time is his best ally. The longer he delays, the greater his advantage of being able to wait and see.

However, on the eastern front, Sun Jian's offensive contrasted sharply with Cao Cao's composure, becoming increasingly fierce and ruthless!

The fierce cavalry of the Anluo Empire, like a relentless surging tide, relentlessly assaulted wave after wave of the already weak and battered defensive line in eastern Liangzhou.

Iron hooves trampled the ravaged land, and sabers gleamed with a bloodthirsty cold light.

Although the border garrison was fighting desperately, relying on the strategic terrain and the fortifications they had built, and fierce battles were taking place at every pass and every beacon tower, the disparity in troop strength between the two sides was simply too great.

In addition, Sun Jian had many brave and skilled generals under his command who took the lead in battle, which greatly boosted the morale of Anluo's army.

Under this dual pressure, new breaches were constantly being torn in the defenses. Urgent calls for help and military reports pleading for reinforcements flew up from one border town to another like snowflakes, each report worse than the last—a certain pass had fallen, a certain city was besieged, a certain general had been killed in battle…

Sun Jian's intentions were simple, direct, and could even be described as naked greed!

He wanted to seize as much land in eastern Liangzhou as possible as quickly as possible, before Cao Cao had finished digesting the spoils of war and before Gu Rubing's main force returned from the west to reinforce the east. He wanted to plunder the remaining warhorses, minerals, and all the people who could be taken away as slaves!

He may not value the land of Liangzhou itself, but he coveted the war resources and manpower reserves it could provide.

Wherever his army went, it was almost no different from Penglai, and even more brutal in some ways—burning, killing, looting, and committing all sorts of atrocities, dragging the already suffering eastern Liangzhou, which had been ravaged by Penglai, into another bloody catastrophe.

Cries, pleas, the crackling of flames, and the dull thud of weapons piercing flesh and bone formed a new symphony of despair for this land.

The immense pressure from both the eastern and western fronts was conveyed to Gu Rubing, who was working tirelessly to eliminate the remaining enemy forces in western Liangzhou, through urgent military reports filled with the atmosphere of war and filled with anxious words.

Inside the makeshift military tent, the light from the oil lamp flickered constantly due to the howling night wind outside, making Gu Rubing's already gloomy and tired face, which was exhausted from days of travel, appear even more uncertain.

Before him lay a huge map of Liangzhou.

On the map, the blue marker representing Cao Cao's forces is like a cold iron nail, firmly wedged in the eastern part of Liangzhou. Not only is it as stable as a rock, but its edges are also slowly but steadily expanding and infiltrating into the surrounding areas that are not yet fully controlled.

The orange arrows representing Sun Jian's forces, like several poisoned thorns, have already plunged deep into the heart of Liangzhou from the eastern border, and are continuing to spread and devour deeper and wider areas. Wherever they pass, it seems as if even the maps are stained with blood.

The atmosphere inside the tent was so heavy it was almost palpable.

Gu Rubing's brows furrowed into a deep "川" shape, his gaze shifting back and forth between the western and eastern parts of the map.

Continue to do everything in our power to eliminate the remaining enemy forces in the west?

Vast swathes of eastern territory would then fall completely under Sun Jian's iron hooves, the people there would suffer utter annihilation, and the little bit of popular support that had just been gained through the conquest of Guzang would be completely lost. (End of Chapter)