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

Chapter 378: Various Trends, Inventor Gu Rubing

It took three days for the Western Regions to gather 220,000 troops at the foot of Mount Nalanda. Led by the Six-Jade Bodhisattva, they passed through Wudu County of Liangzhou, went straight to Silizhou, and then rushed to Xudu.

Xiahou Dun had already left and returned to report the news here to Cao Cao. Once the monk soldiers arrived, they could start the battle immediately. This time, even without Sun Jian's help, they could defeat Liu Bei, so they must prepare in advance.

Ever since Gu Rubing came out of Xu Du, the entire Han Dynasty seemed to have quieted down. Sun Jian quietly dealt with the mess in Yangzhou. He was almost defeated in the last battle. Chengde Military Town has now become an empty city, with ruins everywhere, tombs and mass graves everywhere.

Even though Sun Jian sent out tens of thousands of troops and recruited many strong men from all over Yangzhou to deal with the corpses, it still took more than a month to complete. The entire Chengde Military Town was full of graves of all sizes. When the town could no longer hold the bodies, they were buried outside the city wall. A cemetery city was built in the town.

The bloody rain on the surrounding battlefield could not wash away the blood. The people who were dealing with the corpses had to dig three feet into the ground to get rid of the mud that had been soaked with blood and turned blood red. The top of the hill was directly turned into a mountain of blood. It would feel extremely eerie if you passed by it at night.

They can dig out the blood soil and then cover it up, but they cannot dig the mountain. They can only plant some trees to cover the mountain as much as possible.

Compared with the disposal of corpses in Chengde, what gave Sun Jian the most headache was where to resettle the refugees who had fled from Yuzhang County. After learning that the Jingzhou army had controlled Yuzhang County, many people chose to flee Yuzhang County, especially those counties controlled by Jingzhou. Almost half of the people chose to escape.

As the news of Chengde Military Town spread, nearly 30% of the people in almost every county in the other half of Yuzhang County that was still under the control of Sun Jian fled, wanting to live in some safer counties and not wanting to experience what happened in Chengde.

Nearly 45% of the people in one county all poured into other counties in Yangzhou. Although it made it very convenient for Sun Jian and his men to recruit soldiers, problems also followed. Yangzhou was already a rich area with a saturated population, and it could usually accommodate a small number of refugees. But this time, with so many refugees, it was difficult even for them to sleep on the streets, not to mention food and other things.

Fortunately, it was the vernal equinox, and summer would come in two months. If it had been winter, Sun Jian dared not even think about how much damage would have been caused.

In addition to people's livelihood, military aspects also gave Sun Jian a headache. Originally, he planned to let Zhou Yu fight those alien races to harvest a wave of attributes, but when he thought that Zhou Yu had so many attributes and he would have to discount them by 10% after harvesting, he held back. Instead of harvesting by other means, it is better to keep this attribute and use it when he fights Liu Bei next time.

Therefore, Zhou Yu, who was originally sent to deal with the invasion of foreign races, was replaced by Sun Ce, which also happened to maintain Sun Ce's attributes.

In order to have enough food to eat and find a place to stay for their families, the young and middle-aged refugees chose to join the army and receive training. However, they were all guerrillas without any foundation, and it took a very long time to train them into regular troops.

In this regard, the Yellow Turban reserve has a great advantage. After the last battle, plus the training over the past month, 180,000 of the remaining 260,000 Yellow Turban reserves have successfully transferred to other positions. Presumably, the remaining 80,000 will not be much different.

Gu Rubing, Cao Cao, and Sun Jian all entered a state of development. It seemed that things had calmed down, but in fact, everyone knew that this was just the calm before the storm. If a war broke out again, it would probably be the final decisive battle, so everyone was developing themselves as quickly as possible.

At the same time, Cao Cao personally left Xu Du to visit Liu Zhang. Yizhou had not participated in any fights since the rebellion, and its power was well preserved. The next time a war breaks out, he and Shi Xie will not be able to sit idly by. If they still choose not to take sides, then they will only be met with destruction.

Liu Zhang was obviously well aware of this. After all, he saw that the neighboring Jingzhou easily took over half of Yuzhang County. How could he not be jealous? However, Yizhou was the southwestern border of the Han Dynasty. The southwestern barbarians and the countries in the Western Regions had always been eyeing Yizhou, so this was also the reason why Liu Zhang had never participated in their fight.

So when Cao Cao came to Yizhou, Liu Zhang personally went out of the city to welcome Cao Cao, and the two entered the city together. In fact, compared to Cao Cao, Liu Zhang was more inclined to cooperate with Liu Bei. Cooperating with Cao Cao was tantamount to seeking the skin of a tiger, and one would fall into an abyss if one was not careful. But it was different with Liu Bei. The two were both relatives of the Han royal family and had blood ties. In addition, Liu Bei's name for benevolence and righteousness was praised by the world, and Liu Bei was now the number one prince. So cooperating with Liu Bei was the best strategy no matter how you looked at it.

However, there was always a hurdle in Liu Zhang's heart that he could not get over, and that was Liu Biao and Ma Teng.

According to Liu Zhang's speculation, Liu Bei must be a player, and so should Liu Biao and Ma Teng. However, after Liu Bei took control of Jingzhou, Liu Biao died and was replaced by his son. After Liu Bei secretly took control of Liangzhou, Ma Teng also died. These two things are enough to show that Liu Bei simply could not tolerate other players. Then could he tolerate himself? Obviously not.

Maybe after he formed an alliance with Liu Bei, he would die inexplicably, and his son would eventually control Yizhou and serve Liu Bei. That's why Liu Zhang chose Cao Cao instead of Liu Bei, who had the best strategy.

At that time, when Cao Cao sent an envoy to deliver a letter to Liu Zhang, wanting to invite Liu Zhang to form an alliance, Liu Zhang directly replied to Cao Cao and asked him to come to Yizhou for a meeting. When Cao Cao learned about it, he was puzzled, but he soon figured it out and realized that Liu Zhang chose him because of the matter between Liu Biao and Ma Teng.

Cao Cao's plan turned out to be a blessing in disguise. He sent people to kill Ma Teng in order to control Liang Province, but was intercepted by Liu Bei. As for Liu Biao, he simply died of illness. However, Liu Zhang was not aware of the inside story. In his opinion, Liu Biao and Ma Teng were killed by Liu Bei. How could he dare to cooperate with Liu Bei? This was like lighting a light in the toilet, seeking death.

By some strange coincidence, Cao Cao, who had nothing to do with him, actually joined forces with Liu Zhang. The two chatted for several hours and felt that they had met too late. In the end, they hit it off and formed an alliance to fight Liu Bei.

It's just that Cao Cao did not tell Liu Zhang about sending Xiahou Dun to the Western Regions. After all, Liu Zhang had been fighting with the Western Regions for many years. In addition, Liu Zhang was a relative of the Han royal family. He might be willing to form an alliance to fight Liu Bei, but it should be impossible for him to betray his country. Cao Cao was afraid that telling him would cause unnecessary trouble. As for giving Yizhou to the Western Regions regime, Cao Cao did not mention a word about it. He was willing to exchange Yangzhou and Jingzhou for him. He did not believe that he would not agree.

On his way back to Xu Du, Cao Cao, who had reached an agreement on the deal, met Xiahou Dun, who had also reached an agreement on the deal. When he heard that the number of soldiers sent to the Western Regions had been increased from 100,000 to 220,000, Cao Cao was ecstatic. He now had a total of less than 150,000 troops, and nearly half of them were reserve forces, whose only role in the battle was cannon fodder. Now with 220,000 soldiers from the Western Regions, plus the help of Liu Zhang, Cao Cao was absolutely sure to fight Liu Bei and defeat him.

Not only Cao Cao was trying to win over Liu Zhang of Yizhou, but Sun Jian was also trying to win over Shi Xie of Jiaozhou. Compared to Liu Zhang's feelings towards the Han Dynasty, Shi Xie was different. He was a complete profiteer and had never participated in the war before, purely because Jiaozhou was too far away, and the long journey and the long battle line would not benefit him. In addition, he was doing a thriving smuggling business in Jiaozhou and was very rich, so he was not willing to participate. You guys just fight your own battles. He just wanted to make some money in Jiaozhou. Even Cangwu County under Jiaozhou defected to Jingzhou. At that time, he was too lazy to care about Liu Biao, and just blackmailed Liu Biao for a lot of money and let it go.

So when Sun Jian came to him this time, he also clearly expressed his demands to Sun Jian. After the matter was accomplished, Jingzhou would belong to him, including all the existing silver and money in Jingzhou.

Sun Jian naturally agreed. After all, he didn't have to hand over Yangzhou. The two of them successfully reached an alliance.

At this point, after more than half a month, the thirteen states in the Central Plains were divided into three camps. The most powerful one was undoubtedly Gu Rubing, who controlled eight states and was also the King of Lie. The second was Cao Cao, who governed two states and signed an alliance agreement with Liu Zhang. He also invited more than 200,000 troops from the Western Regions, including 120,000 powerful monks. The weakest was Sun Jian, who only had Yangzhou, and a part of it was occupied by Jingzhou. The same was true for Shi Xie, who also lost a county in Jiaozhou to Jingzhou.

All three major forces lay dormant, hiding in the seemingly calm pool of the Han Dynasty, quietly waiting for the coming of a great war.

Soon, another half a month passed. During this half month, no war occurred, not even some minor frictions. It was so peaceful that it was scary and chilling.

The weather was gradually getting warmer, and in the past half month, a new type of official salt suddenly appeared on the market. It was only available in Qingzhou. The salt had small particles, a delicate and fresh taste, and was easy to use. The price was not much more expensive than the original large pieces of official salt.

As soon as this fine salt was launched, it was immediately sought after by the general public. A few days ago, no one was interested in it in Qingzhou, but a few days later, it was hard to find in Silizhou. Those who traded fine salt from Qingzhou to sell in Silizhou made a fortune, but were arrested the next moment.

After another half a month of fermentation, official salt shops selling fine salt were opened in Qingzhou, Xuzhou, Yanzhou, Bingzhou, Jizhou, Jingzhou, Youzhou and Liangzhou. However, there was not a single shop in the territories of Cao Cao and Sun Jian. When Cao Cao and his men heard the word "fine salt", they immediately understood that this was Liu Bei's trick. They all knew about the existence of fine salt, but they had no idea how to refine coarse salt.

If Gu Rubing knew that they were beating their chests and stamping their feet now, he would definitely shout out a famous saying: "Study math, physics and chemistry well, and you will not be afraid of traveling around the world. No, it should be that you will not be afraid of traveling through time!"
After the introduction of fine salt, it quickly occupied the market of official salt. Not only that, within a month, official salt shops selling fine salt were opened in Sili, Yuzhou, Yangzhou and Jiaozhou. Cao Cao and his men did not think much about it. After all, they did not want to eat coarse salt. Everyone tacitly agreed to Gu Rubing's occupation of their territory.

In the Palace of Prince Lie in Qingzhou, Gu Rubing was looking at the piles of silver in front of him and smiling so happily. Now he could understand Liu Biao a little bit. It was really fun to make money.

"My Lord, I have asked a skilled craftsman to make some of the gunpowder you told me about last time. Take a look."

As Zhuge Liang spoke, he handed a pile of black powder to Gu Rubing. Gu Rubing stood up instantly, stopped looking at the silver on the other side, and began to observe the black powder in the tray.

“Is this prepared according to the proportions I gave?”

Gu Rubing asked curiously. Although he knew the simple method of making gunpowder, he had never seen this thing before, so he was naturally very curious.

"One part saltpeter, two parts sulfur, and three parts charcoal. One part saltpeter, two parts sulfur, and three parts charcoal. It is made strictly according to this ratio."

"Get a box, pack it up, and then I'll show you what it is and how to use it."

Gu Rubing was very excited. He had only focused on developing his own strength before and had completely forgotten about these things. If Zhao Yun had not told him by accident that the military funds were insufficient, he would not have thought of doing this now.

Originally he just wanted to do something new to make money, so Gu Rubing naturally thought of sugar. After all, if he had salt, he would not need sugar. However, Gu Rubing had no idea about how to make sugar. Instead, he had a catchy saying: "One nitre, two sulphur, three charcoals, add a little sugar and you get Big Ivan." It was so magical that Gu Rubing remembered it after seeing it once by accident.

In addition, the formula was simple, so Gu Rubing asked Zhuge Liang to try it out. If it was successful, gunpowder would have the potential to replace the catapult and become the most powerful siege weapon. The prerequisite was that they could produce larger amounts of gunpowder, otherwise it would still be inferior to the catapult.

Soon, the gunpowder was packed into a wooden box. Gu Rubing personally made a simple fuse with rush, and then brought Guan Yu and others to the martial arts field.

Because there has been no war recently, Guan Yu and his companions have not left Qingzhou. This may be the most complete gathering of Gu Rubing's civil and military officials in history. Even Zhang Liao, who has been stationed in Xuzhou to guard against Sun Jian, has stayed in Qingzhou for some time. After all, Sun Jian is very busy and he can't even figure out Yangzhou, so how can he have time to take care of Xuzhou?

Soon, all the civil and military officials gathered in the martial arts arena. The amount of gunpowder this time was not much, and Gu Rubing estimated that it would not have much effect, so he demonstrated it directly in the martial arts arena.

Everyone looked at Gu Rubing holding a tinder and something like a rush, and couldn't help wondering what this was. However, before they could ask any questions, Gu Rubing had already lit the fuse and signaled everyone to stay away.

With a loud bang, a huge hole more than one meter deep appeared on the originally flat ground!

(End of this chapter)