Three Kingdoms: I choose Xiao Qiao and Da Qiao, why are you crying, Diao Chan?

Chapter 393: Soldiers use deception as a means of warfare! (Thanks to princes Tietie for his four monthly tickets~)

Chen State, Chen County.

After a few days of calm, the aftershocks here finally gradually disappeared.

Lu Bu personally led thousands of troops back here.

Seeing the county town where they had originally settled, it was now in ruins as expected!
Only the most solid outer city wall remained relatively intact, while 90% of the buildings inside the city collapsed.

The most important thing is that many places in the county town have sunk directly!

A giant ravine more than ten meters deep was formed!

There are also countless hideous cracks in the ground, the thickest of which are even one or two meters wide and dozens of meters long!

With such terrifying power, I’m afraid the magnitude of the earthquake is at least above 8!

It’s a pity that there is no tool to record the magnitude of earthquakes.

Even the seismometer invented by Zhang Heng in the early Eastern Han Dynasty could only indicate the direction of an earthquake.

The occurrence of this earthquake is unprecedented in history.

It may also be that it has not been recorded in history.

Perhaps such an earthquake had never occurred in Zhuge Liang's previous life.

But in this life, due to the rebirth of many people and the time travel of Lu Bu, the historical line has undergone serious changes.

This has led to a geological butterfly effect...

But no matter what the reason was, this earthquake happened right before our eyes.

Lu Bu once again felt the terrifying pressure from Zhuge Liang's foresight.

But if you think about it carefully, this cunning genius almost extended his life by twelve years in his previous life.

But predicting an earthquake a few days in advance doesn't seem so remarkable...

Without giving it much thought, Lu Bu ordered his soldiers to search the affected area to see if there were any survivors.

In particular, the situation in the missing villages is serious and needs to be searched in a focused manner.

But unfortunately, after a whole day of searching, a few lucky people were rescued from the small crack in the ground.

But there was no trace of Yan Jun, so it was likely that he had fallen into a deep crevice in the ground...

When a major earthquake occurs in a plain area, the damage does not come from the buildings or mountains above the head, unlike in mountainous areas.

For major earthquakes in plain areas, the threat comes more from underground because subsidence, ground fissures and collapse are very likely to occur.

In this situation, Lu Bu can only pray that Yan Jun can survive.

Or maybe he had traveled to another world like himself or Zhuge Liang, or was reborn...

Lu Bu did not stay here for too long to prevent aftershocks, so he led his army back to Qiaocheng.

In this battle, in addition to the one thousand people lost in the earthquake, more than one thousand Bingzhou cavalry were lost in the battle with Wang Kuang.

In the battle with Xu Chu, more than 3,000 troops were lost.

Of the 50,000-strong army, only more than 43,000 are left.

Of course, they also captured two or three hundred of Xu Chu's clan members and hundreds of ordinary soldiers.

Ordinary soldiers are easy to deal with. After some training, they can be broken up and incorporated into various units.

But Xu Chu's two or three hundred clan members obviously would not surrender so easily, and keeping them would be a hidden danger.

Therefore, Lu Bu decided to deal with them secretly in prison...

After completely stabilizing Qiao County, Lu Bu planned to go north to continue attacking Xiaopei.

During this period, he received news that Zhuge Liang had led a large army into Xiaopei and intended to personally command the subsequent battles.

Liu Bei stayed in Dongjun, Yanzhou, and waited for an opportunity to attack Yuan Shao with the help of Pang Tong. When Lu Bu attacked personally, Zhuge Liang actually planned to attack both fronts at the same time.

It seems that in the process of annexing Yanzhou and Qingzhou, Liu Bei's army's strength has been greatly enhanced!
According to the spies, Xiaopei's current military strength includes the 10,000 troops brought by Liu Yuanqi and the 10,000 troops in the city itself.

At present, Zhuge Liang has also brought 10,000 troops with him, for a total of 30,000 troops.

Lu Bu had to leave at least 10,000 men to guard Qiaocheng, so he transferred 20,000 men from Jiujiang.

Therefore, he can still lead an army of 50,000 to attack Xiaopei this time!
But his opponent was Zhuge Liang after all, so Lu Bu felt that he had to be fully prepared, otherwise he might suffer defeat...

On this day, Lu Bu summoned his ministers to discuss the plan to attack Xiaopei.

School Chancellor Zhou Yu suddenly came to report:

"My lord, news has come from the court that Emperor Liu Xie has appointed Liu Bei as the Left General and Marquis of Zhuo County!

"This is to reward him for unifying Yanzhou and Qingzhou."

Upon hearing the news, none of Lu Bu's subordinates took it seriously.

After all, my lord is already a duke, and the title of marquis is a thing of the past.

But Lu Bu keenly realized that Liu Xie's sudden conferring of title on Liu Bei was most likely intended to fight against him.

If his guess is correct, once Liu Bei takes over Jizhou, Liu Xie will probably confer the title of Duke on Liu Bei!

After all, Liu Xie would not allow a duke like Lu Bu to exist.

Having two dukes restraining each other could both win over Liu Bei and reduce the credibility of his Lu Bu army.

But he couldn't stop this kind of thing.

The only way was to open up the road to Jizhou as much as possible before Liu Bei's army captured Jizhou, so as to take over Yuan Shao's defeated army.

Lu Bu waved at Zhou Yu, motioning him to sit aside, and then said to the crowd:

"The imperial court intends to support Liu Bei's army to suppress our army. This is something I expected.

“But this will not have any impact on our army for the time being.

“Although the State of Chen has been abolished, other counties besides Chen County have also been severely affected.

“But I have already sent troops from Runan to the north to support the counties of Chen State, in order to win over the people and increase our army’s influence in Yuzhou.

“In addition, once the State of Chen is stabilized, we may be able to avoid a direct confrontation with Zhuge Liang and instead head north from the State of Chen to secretly attack the State of Liang!
"I wonder what you guys think?"

After listening to Lu Bu's plan, everyone discussed it for a while, and then Qin Mi stood up and said:

"My lord, your idea is indeed good. But if we attack Liang State, Zhuge Liang may take the opportunity to send troops to recapture Qiao County.

“Therefore, I think that instead of trying to avoid his edge, it is better to fight Zhuge Liang head-on.

"Our army has gunpowder cans and various other derivative weapons. In a head-on confrontation, the advantage is mine!"

Before Lü Bu could respond, the Imperial Censor Zhang Song stood up and said:

“As the saying goes: War is all about deception.

"My lord's decision makes sense and may be feasible.

"We can pretend to attack Xiaopei and secretly concentrate our forces in the Ku County area in the north of Chen State.

"We will launch a surprise attack on Liang State. If Zhuge Liang withdraws troops to rescue them, we can push the troops in Qiao County to Xiaopei, making it difficult for Zhuge Liang to take care of both ends!"

After listening to Zhang Song's words, Lu Bu still maintained a smiling expression, and it was unknown what he was thinking.

When everyone who wanted to express their opinions had finished speaking, Lu Bu immediately made a decision:

"Just follow what Ziqiao said, spread the news to pretend to attack Pei State, but actually concentrate the troops in Ku County, and then launch a surprise attack on Liang State!"

(End of this chapter)