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

Chapter 342: Yangzhou Situation, Gu Rubing Returns to Qingzhou
"The decisive battle, the decisive battle is coming, the decisive battle between Liu Caoxie and Sun Menghu. This battle between the two will tell who is the hero and who is the loser!"

"The result is beyond doubt. Liu Caoxie will definitely win. Now Liu Caoxie's Yellow Turban Army reserves are already able to join the battle. In addition, the three eastern counties of Yangzhou have lost their generals, and Yuzhang County is about to be lost. Not only that, the total number of Sun Menghu's troops now only adds up to more than 200,000. Add Zhou Yu's remaining remnants, and the total number of troops is less than 300,000. Liu Caoxie's Yellow Turban Army reserves alone are as high as hundreds of thousands! Although these hundreds of thousands are not regular troops, Sun Menghu can be killed directly even if he uses human lives to pile up."

"It's useless. Those Yellow Turban reservists are good at fighting small battles, but when it comes to a large-scale war like this, they are probably useless except for training Sun Menghu's soldiers. Besides, Cao Zhonger will definitely make other moves and will not let Liu Caoxie and Sun Menghu fight to the death."

"I don't agree with that. Cao Zhonger has a sinister personality. He would rather let the world betray me than let the world betray me. He must be happy to see the final battle between the two. No matter who wins or loses, it will not affect Cao Zhonger. If both lose, Cao Zhonger will reap the benefits. He would rather both suffer heavy losses so that he can recuperate on the side. With this, Cao Zhonger will soon become the common ruler of the world."

"Why have Jiaozhou and Liangzhou been so quiet recently? The Central Plains is in chaos, but they are still keeping their troops on hold. How can they sit still?"

"Brother, do you think Liang Province is very quiet? Ma Teng and Han Sui have become enemies. They are now dividing Liang Province and are fighting each other with cavalry in the Gobi Desert. It's just that Ma Teng's live broadcast room is not very popular and has not many fans, so you probably haven't paid much attention to them. The two brothers are really fighting to the death now. Ma Teng's son Ma Chao has personally led the troops and defeated Han Sui three times."

"I have only been paying attention to Liu Caoxie, Cao Zhonger, and Sun Menghu, three war maniacs. I can't even keep up with the live broadcast rooms of these three people, let alone the other live broadcast rooms."

"Jiaozhou is just like Yangzhou, it's a solid block. All seven counties of Jiaozhou respect Shi Xie as their lord or are allies with him. In addition, Shi Xie has no ambition to compete for the world, so he has always been content with a corner and has never shown his face. Shi Xie's live broadcast room is also very boring. Every day, he is busy with official business. It has to be said that in real life, he must be worth tens of millions, otherwise it would be unfair for him to be so diligent in his work."

"I originally thought that the combination of Cao Zhonger and Sun Menghu could defeat Liu Caoxie back to the pre-liberation era, but I didn't expect that Liu Caoxie would be beaten up by the two in the end. I can only say that Liu Caoxie has both strength and luck to get to this point. He can be called the biggest dark horse. He started out as a mat weaver and shoe seller, but became the biggest lord. It's amazing."

The decisive battle between Gu Rubing and Sun Jian pushed the live broadcast rooms of both sides to a climax of popularity. Almost all netizens gathered in their live broadcast rooms, unwilling to miss a minute, for fear that a war that would affect the whole world would break out at any time.

At the same time, the live broadcast rooms of other players became deserted. Cao Cao, who was originally known as the three giants together with Gu Rubing and Sun Jian, is now losing popularity in his live broadcast room. After all, Cao Cao has just suffered a defeat and is still in the recuperation stage. He will not make any big moves in a short time, so some of Cao Cao's fans have also gone to Gu Rubing and Sun Jian's live broadcast rooms, not wanting to miss this exciting battle.

Gu Yong, the governor of Nanchang, the county seat of Yuzhang, was one of Sun Jian's capable subordinates and a first-rate strategist. He held an important position among Sun Jian's subordinates, otherwise he would not have sent 50,000 troops to garrison Yuzhang County, let alone subsequently sent Gan Ning and Lu Xun, both first-rate strategists and generals, to support Gu Yong.

In addition to the importance of Gu Yong, Yuzhang County also has a very important geographical location. Yuzhang County is the first line of defense against Jingzhou, and it is also the last line of defense for Jingzhou and Wu County. This means that as long as Yuzhang County is broken, the next county to be besieged will be Wu County, the seat of Yangzhou, which is also Sun Jian's old nest.

Gan Ning, Lu Xun, and Gu Yong, one first-rate military general and two first-rate strategists, can be said to attach great importance to the Jingzhou army. On the other hand, although Jingzhou has more troops, there is only one first-rate general, Huang Zhong, and there is only one second-rate strategist. Kuai Liang, who was originally going to come to Changsha County to command the battlefield, was unable to come in the end for various reasons. Only Kuai Yue is still on his way.

Huang Zhong stationed his troops in Jianchang, looking at Jiancheng from afar. The next target must be Jiancheng. On the other side, Gu Yong was stationed in Nanchang County, just waiting for Gan Ning and Lu Xun to arrive with their army. By then, the war between the two sides would probably break out in Jiancheng. By then, Jiancheng would probably become a Shura field. Not to mention ordinary people, even the soldiers would have little chance of survival. This was destined to be a fierce battle.

Huang Zhong and Gu Yong were both aware of this, so they both kept their troops on hold and waited.

Huang Zhong is waiting for a military advisor who can truly command the three armies. For an army, it is extremely important to have a good military advisor, as the difference in combat power will be huge.

Gu Yong was waiting for the arrival of Gan Ning, Lu Xun and reinforcements. After all, the Jingzhou army had a full 200,000 troops, but he only had 50,000 troops. With a four-fold difference in strength, the Jingzhou army could take Nanchang City even if they attacked it by force.

Jiujiang County, Zhao Yun, Zhang Fei, Zhang He and more than 100,000 troops were blocked in Chengde Military Town by Sun Jian and Sun Ce. This military town was originally established by Sun Jian to radiate Xuzhou and Jingzhou, so a large amount of food and grass were stored in Chengde. Even if Zhang Fei and his men were trapped in the city and did not come out, they would have no problem holding out for a month. Even if they used large siege equipment to recapture Chengde Military Town, the desperate counterattack led by the three of them with 100,000 troops would be very terrifying.

Sun Jian was not stupid. He now knew clearly what Cao Cao was thinking. He first sent people to lobby him to form an alliance, but the actual alliance was fake. The real purpose was to use his own power to contain Liu Bei. It had been nearly ten days since the war broke out, and he had not received any news from Cao Cao. Even the messages he sent out had no reply. This situation forced Sun Jian to suspect that Cao Cao had betrayed the alliance and intended to use him as a gun.

But what Sun Jian didn't know was that Cao Cao did not break the alliance. On the contrary, Cao Cao even contributed manpower and effort. Although it was only to seize Bingzhou, he still put in some effort.

What Sun Jian didn't know was that not only did Cao Cao not break the alliance, he thought he had broken the alliance. From then on, there was a rift between the two sides, and it would be difficult for them to join forces again in the future.

Therefore, Zhuge Liang's most perfect move was to send Zhao Yun and Taishi Ci, leading all the scouts, to block and kill all the messengers who were delivering information between Cao Cao and Sun Jian. Otherwise, if the two had exchanged information, they would probably have launched a general attack on Gu Rubing long ago.

To this day, the strategies given by Zhuge Liang are still playing a huge role. The brilliant plan he prepared before the war allowed Zhang Fei to go north and escape the pursuit of the enemy army led by Sun Ce. At the same time, it allowed Zhang He to go to Jiujiang County to meet Zhang Fei after rescuing Zhang Liao.

At the same time, after failing to intercept any messengers from either side for three days, Zhao Yun immediately turned his horse around and headed for Jingzhou to borrow siege equipment. This is how the five catapults and twenty giant crossbows were transported to Chengde military town.

Not only that, Zhuge Liang also informed everyone that Sun Jian would definitely launch a massive attack, allowing everyone to prepare in advance. This was truly a plan that took every possible measure.

On the other side, in Qingzhou, Gu Rubing has returned to the camp. Now there are only a few hundred thousand Yellow Turban reservists left here. These Yellow Turban reservists are different from the army. The bonuses they enjoy from military advisors and generals will be reduced by 50%. This makes their combat effectiveness much weaker than Gu Rubing's army. Fortunately, the quantity can make up for the quality slightly. All in all, these hundreds of thousands of Yellow Turban reservists are roughly equivalent to 150,000 regular troops under Gu Rubing.

Although they are the reserve forces of the Yellow Turbans, they cannot enjoy the characteristic bonuses of the Yellow Turban Army because Zhang Jue is dead and the Yellow Turbans are destroyed, so the characteristic bonuses from the Yellow Turban Army naturally disappear.

Not only did Gu Rubing return to Jingzhou, Taishi Ci also led another 500 scouts back to Qingzhou. Now Sun Jian and Cao Cao are currently harboring resentment towards each other. Even if they get in touch, both sides will no longer trust each other, let alone conclude an alliance. The effect of the alienation strategy has been achieved.

In the camp, Gu Rubing and Zhuge Liang sat opposite each other and played Go. Taishi Ci sat aside and waited for them. Gu Rubing knew a little about Go. In his previous life and the life before that, he cultivated it as a hobby. His skills were not bad, but compared with Zhuge Liang, he was nothing. After a few moves, Gu Rubing was forced into a dead end by Zhuge Liang. Helplessly, Gu Rubing had to resign on the chessboard and admit defeat. "Mr.'s Go skills are as profound as his wisdom."

"My lord, thank you for your praise."

Zhuge Liang is still as ethereal as ever, like an immortal descending to earth.

"My lord, I went to the craftsman's shop yesterday and saw that Zhuge Crossbows have already made more than a thousand. Which armies will you equip these crossbows to?"

"This type of continuous-fire crossbow is a huge boost to combat effectiveness, but if the two armies are fighting, the effect of this type of crossbow will not be as good as that of a single soldier. So my idea is to first equip these 1,000 crossbows to the 1,000 scouts led by Ziyi and Zilong. Sir and Ziyi, what do you think?"

Gu Rubing expressed his plan. The role of scouts was more for reconnaissance and spying, but the situation has changed now. With the addition of various characteristics, the current scouts have extremely strong individual combat capabilities. If they can be equipped with Zhuge Crossbows, then in small-scale encounters and battles, the scouts under Gu Rubing will have an absolute advantage.

This was the first step of Gu Rubing's plan, to strengthen the scouts' individual combat capabilities to the extreme. Gu Rubing's second step was to build these scouts into special teams, spread them out in groups of several, and while completing tasks such as gathering intelligence, they could also carry out decapitation operations.

This is Gu Rubing's ultimate goal, to build an army of thousands of people, where every soldier has strength above that of a third-rate general, and with the bonus of various weapons, they can reach the level of a second-rate general!
At that time, a second-rate military force of a thousand people will be able to command the troops wherever they are directed. Such a team will be more powerful and more deterrent than an army of tens of thousands of people.

"My Lord, your thoughts coincide with mine."

Zhuge Liang nodded slightly. The original intention of designing Zhuge Crossbow was to enhance the combat capability of individual soldiers. If it was not equipped to scouts, the best choice would be Zhang Fei's Eighteen Riders of Yanyun. However, Zhang Fei's Eighteen Riders of Yanyun paid more attention to speed and were strong in surprise attacks. The improvement of Zhuge Crossbow was not that great. Therefore, giving it to scouts was the best choice, no doubt about it.

Taishi Ci was listening on the side and looked at the two of them with some confusion. How come he knew every word in what his lord and the military advisor were saying, but couldn't recognize them when they were put together?
Looking at Taishi Ci's puzzled expression, the two smiled knowingly.

"Come on, Ziyi, let me show you the military advisor's latest invention."

Gu Rubing stood up first and walked outside, followed closely by Zhuge Liang and Taishi Ci. The three of them came to the parade ground. Gu Rubing took the Zhuge Crossbow from a soldier nearby. Taishi Ci looked at the Zhuge Crossbow in Gu Rubing's hand and became even more confused.

"My lord, isn't this just an ordinary crossbow? What's so special about it?"

"Ordinary crossbow? Ziren, come, use it on that straw man in the distance."

In the face of Taishi Ci's question, Gu Rubing did not answer, but handed the Zhuge Crossbow to Taishi Ci and asked Taishi Ci to use it. After Taishi Ci took the Zhuge Crossbow, he only felt that it was a little heavier than other crossbows, and there was nothing special about it.

"My lord, this straw man is three hundred meters away from us. Can a crossbow reach that far?"

Taishi Ci raised the Zhuge Crossbow and aimed at the straw man in the distance.

"You'll know once you try it."

After hearing what Gu Rubing said, Taishi Ci no longer hesitated and pulled the trigger. The crossbow flew out of the air and pierced directly into the straw man three hundred meters away. The crossbow arrow penetrated the armor and still had some power left, until the arrow penetrated the armor on the back, then it stopped.

"Keep firing!"

Gu Rubing said on the side that although Taishi Ci did not understand, he pulled the trigger again. Another crossbow arrow flew out and hit the straw man again, and also penetrated the armor.

"continue."

Gu Rubing and Zhuge Liang were watching this scene with a smile. Taishi Ci was extremely shocked and pulled the trigger three times in succession. Three crossbow arrows were shot out in a straight line and hit the straw man in armor. The shock in Taishi Ci's heart at this moment could not be described in words.

Taishi Ci tried to pull the trigger several times again, and five crossbow arrows in a row all hit the straw man in armor.

At this moment, Taishi Ci finally understood the conversation between his lord and the military advisor in the tent.

(End of this chapter)