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

Chapter 386: Defeat, the disappearance and reappearance of the Bai Li soldiers
"Retreat, there's an ambush!"

Lu Meng roared so loudly that it almost spread throughout the city. The powerful voice resounded throughout the city.

"emission!"

A voice that also shook the entire city of Nanchang rang out almost at the same time as Lu Meng's voice. Then, on the ground nearby, the floor tiles were suddenly lifted up, and countless soldiers came out from them. The moment those soldiers came out, they drew their bows and arrows and shot without any hesitation.

Then, countless flames lit up everywhere in the city, accompanied by huge roars, and countless arrows exploded among the cavalry or infantry. In such a narrow place in the city, they couldn't even hide or disperse, and could only let the arrows carrying gunpowder fall among them, and then explode, blowing away everything around them.

"Enemy attack, kill them!"

Zu Mao rushed towards an archer, raised his sword and killed him, but the arrow in the soldier's hand was still fired and landed in the crowd, causing more than a dozen casualties.

Looking at this scene, Zu Mao's eyes were bloodshot. He never thought that the enemies he had been patrolling around the city had actually been hiding right under him. Perhaps they had stepped on their hiding places countless times but failed to discover them.

"Evacuate towards the nearest city gate. Don't fight. They have the gunpowder that the lord mentioned. It has great killing power and can explode. You can't defeat them!"

After all, Lu Meng had experience in dealing with this situation once, and he was now commanding them to retreat. If all of them wanted to retreat from the South Gate and eventually gathered at the East Gate, that would be a huge disaster.

"Listen to General Lu and evacuate in an orderly manner!"

After once again finding an archer hiding underground, Zu Mao mounted his horse and shouted. As a veteran on the battlefield, he knew very well that once the army was defeated and began to flee, the number of deaths from a simple stampede might be more than the number of people who died in the war.

At this moment, Taishi Ci was still quietly lying in ambush on the city wall. He was at the southeast gate, the largest city gate besides the east gate, and also a gate very close to them. Taishi Ci's eyes moved with the movement of the army. Just when the people in the front were about to approach the city gate, Taishi Ci suddenly stood up and shouted angrily.

"kill!"

Before he could finish his words, an arrow flew out, pierced through a soldier and embedded itself deeply into the ground. It then suddenly exploded. The arrow that penetrated deep into the ground blew a hole in the ground. The collapsed rocks were like daggers, leaving countless bloody holes on their bodies, which were even more deadly than a dagger.

However, in addition to that arrow, countless arrows also fell into the crowd.

"There are people at the southeast gate! Retreat quickly!"

Someone in the crowd yelled. Fear had gradually taken over them. The morale that had just been restored was now gone. Only fear was left gradually occupying their hearts.

"There's an ambush at the west gate too!"

“There’s also one at the northwest gate!”

"There are some over here, don't f*cking come here, go!"

"There's no ambush at the South Gate. Come quickly!"

Amid the sounds of ambushes, this shout seemed particularly loud. All of a sudden, Sun's army, which had been running around in the city like headless flies, rushed towards the south gate together. Everyone was afraid that they would be left behind and then pierced through by an arrow, or be annihilated by the explosion that seemed like an attack from hell.

But they didn't know that there was a big river outside the South Gate, and there was only one way to escape, and that was the bridge over the river. Above the bridge, there was a young man with a spear in hand, standing on his horse, blocking the bridge. On the bridge, which was more than two meters wide, there were six rows of cavalry with spears pointing to the sky, just occupying the entire bridge. They waited here quietly, waiting for the soldiers who fled from the South Gate to pass by. By that time, how could a group of defeated soldiers and generals withstand the charge of the elite cavalry.

Gu Rubing was standing across the river at the moment, quietly watching the war-torn city of Nanchang, and a smile appeared on his face.

It turned out that on the night when they formulated the plan, Captain Younu captured six spies who released carrier pigeons inside and outside the city, and all six were captured alive. With their means, it was easy for them to force some information out of them, and they easily obtained their mission, which was to monitor all troop movements, personnel movements, and all abnormal behaviors in the entire Nanchang city at all times, and notify Jiangdong.

There were eight people in total, but only six were caught. None of them knew each other's contact information, but the other two were all caught within two days. From the eight of them, the entire task was finally pieced together. Gu Rubing and his team also took advantage of the situation and changed the original plan to what it is now.

He first used the contact information of eight people to pass false news to Jiangdong in order to stabilize the morale of the army. After the spies from Jiangdong sent the news that it was Lu Meng who was attacking the city, Gu Rubing became cautious. After all, Lu Meng had been fooled once last time and would definitely be wary. So he evacuated all the people in the entire Nanchang County City, dug various underground passages in the city to hide the archers, and also deployed defenses on the city walls for double protection.

At the same time, among the nine gates of Nanchang County, he selected the South Gate which was most suitable for ambush. This place with only one escape route was the last line of defense for his subordinates. As for Huang Zhong, when he learned that there were only 80,000 soldiers attacking Nanchang County, Gu Rubing sent Huang Zhong to support Cangwu County. It was simply a pipe dream to want to stop the all-out attack of Shi Xie's state with only the limited manpower of Cangwu County.

At the same time, Gu Rubing also sent the news he obtained to all the county governors and Liu Qi, asking them to be prepared in advance. This time, Gu Rubing took the initiative to join the game and entered the encirclement of Cao Cao, Sun Jian, Liu Zhang, and Shi Xie. However, a larger encirclement composed of Ma Chao, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Xu Rong, Zhang Liao, and Zhang He surrounded Cao Cao and his men again. The current situation is the same as it was in Xu City at that time.

After Sun's army rushed out of the South Gate and climbed onto the bridge, they suddenly saw soldiers quietly waiting for them in front of them. They were distracted for a moment. By the time they reacted and tried to walk back, the soldiers behind them had already surged over like a tide. It was simply wishful thinking to want to retreat. The soldiers in front were pushed forward by those behind them. The soldiers behind had no idea what was happening in front of them and only wanted to escape.

In this way, the soldiers in front were pushed in front of Zhao Yun and his men.

"kill!"

Zhao Yun shouted loudly, and the Night-Shining Jade Lion rushed out suddenly, carrying Zhao Yun to kill the enemy. The cavalrymen behind him also rode their horses and began to charge, and their sharp edges could no longer be concealed.

It was hard to imagine how big the gap was between an elite cavalry that was gathering strength and an army that had already been defeated and was beginning to flee. The current situation was simply a one-sided massacre, and there were still deserters rushing towards them, so they didn't even have a chance to retreat.

Zu Mao no longer organized his soldiers to escape. Instead, he led some people to charge into the prefectural governor's mansion. The mansion was located in the center of Nanchang City and covered a large area, making it a good place to garrison.

Lu Meng led other soldiers and started to attack the Prefectural Governor's Mansion from the back door. The shouting and screaming from the South Gate was deafening, even comparable to the sound inside the city. As long as they had a little bit of brains, they knew that there must be an ambush outside the South Gate. Therefore, they quickly made a choice, charged into the Prefectural Governor's Mansion, relied on each other, and tried to gain a glimmer of hope.

Gu Rubing narrowed his eyes slightly, quietly watching this crushing battle situation. The main reason why this battle could be so easy was because of gunpowder. It was the first time they saw such a lethal weapon. It was obviously just an arrow, but it could produce huge explosive damage. In addition, there were ambushes on all sides and soldiers on all sides. In this situation, collapse was normal, unless Lu Meng and Zu Mao had the characteristic bonus of reducing the army's rout attributes.

Now it seems that the two of them do not have this characteristic bonus, which is why this battle is unusually smooth.

Ten thousand elite cavalrymen had already rushed out of the long bridge and started fighting on the other side of the river. The fleeing soldiers even took off their armor and threw it away in order to run faster. Suddenly, they encountered such a bloodthirsty cavalry and they didn't even have the heart to resist.

Suddenly, there was a huge splash. Some soldiers jumped into the river to escape. They would die if they stayed on the shore, but there was still a chance of survival if they jumped. Although these people were frightened and could no longer fight, their desire to survive reached its peak at this moment.

With the first person taking the lead, countless people began to jump into the river, all wanting to survive. As a result, the originally bustling South Gate quickly became empty. Those who were still trying to squeeze out finally saw the ambush outside and stopped trying to squeeze out. Instead, they headed towards the Prefectural Governor's Mansion, because Lu Meng and Zu Mao had already captured the Prefectural Governor's Mansion.

Seeing that there were fewer and fewer people at the South Gate, Zhao Yun gave up fighting and turned his horse back to Gu Rubing on the other side of the bridge.

"My lord, there are fewer and fewer people at the South City Gate. I think Zu Mao and Lu Meng have discovered that the defense of the Governor's Mansion is empty and have attacked the Governor's Mansion."

"Okay, let's give them a joint attack today."

Gu Rubing smiled, then he and Zhao Yun rode their horses towards Nanchang City. In addition to the Nanchang County City, the north city wall was also captured by Sun's army. Because the north city wall of Nanchang City was the shortest and the city gate was the smallest, the number of defenders was the least. Under the leadership of a second-rate general, they captured the north city wall.

More than 10,000 soldiers fled out of the north gate, more than 20,000 were trapped in the prefectural government, and there were about 20,000 scattered soldiers from various gates. Together with those who jumped into the river to escape, a total of about 30,000 people escaped, more than 20,000 were trapped, and more than 20,000 were killed.

The loss on Gu Rubing's side was only more than 3,000 people, and most of them were because the northern city wall was captured, which caused such heavy damage. Otherwise, there would probably be only more than 1,000 casualties. This is the absolute suppression of hot weapons over cold weapons in war, coupled with the information gap. In this battle, it can only be said that Lu Meng and Zu Mao's defeat was not unfair.

At the same time, in the prefectural mansion in Nanchang City, Lu Meng and Zu Mao sat dejectedly. Lu Meng clenched his fists tightly. He seemed to be back in the Chengde military town, facing the all-out attack of Gu Rubing's army. The feeling of fear surged into his heart again.

Zu Mao truly felt the power of Liu Bei. The archers under Liu Bei were able to match the cavalry in close combat, and the gunpowder they used was the most terrifying. Before they set out, Sun Jian had told them about the power of gunpowder, but none of them paid attention. Now Zu Mao deeply felt the power of gunpowder.

Nearly 30,000 of them were killed today, more than 20,000 of whom were killed by this explosive thing called gunpowder.

"Do you believe what I told you now?"

Lu Meng said in a weak voice that he was hit by the explosion of gunpowder when he attacked the prefectural governor's mansion. At this moment, his chest was covered in blood and flesh, and a soldier was bandaging Lu Meng.

"I believe it. Damn it, why is Liu Bei so evil? What on earth is this thing?"

Zu Mao said dejectedly that he had killed hundreds of enemies in this battle, but still could not stop their defeat. Lu Meng shook his head slightly, his tone even more dejected.

"I don't know either. Not only the gunpowder, but also the crossbows that their archers carry are weird. They can fire crossbow arrows continuously without changing arrows. Even if they do change arrows, they can do it quickly and then continue to fire continuously."

"Damn it, I shouldn't have come."

Zu Mao brushed off the dirt on his body. He no longer had the momentum he had before when he angrily scolded Lu Meng, and his voice even dropped two octaves.

The entire governor's mansion was filled with soldiers lying in all directions and snoring. They had just escaped from a life-and-death situation, and their tense minds relaxed and they soon began to snore. From time to time, soldiers who were standing guard outside the mansion would come back to sleep, and then another group would take over to stand guard.

In this noisy environment, a group of people seemed to suddenly appear in the prefectural governor's mansion. They had yellow cloth strips tied on their right arms and moved around the yard silently. After passing by the snoring person, the soldier who was originally sleeping soundly suddenly became silent. Looking closely, a bright red blood was flowing from his neck.

This group of people who appeared inexplicably wandered around the prefect's mansion. With a wave of their swords, they killed a sleeping soldier. Soon, a soldier fell to the ground and made a sound, which woke up the people around him. Turning around, they suddenly found that many people around them had fallen down, and blood was gushing out like a small spring.

"Enemy attack!"

A loud roar resounded throughout the governor's mansion. The soldiers who were originally asleep, including Zu Mao and Lu Meng in the house, rushed out and saw that the Bai Li soldiers, who seemed to have disappeared in the entire battle, appeared in the yard and a large-scale fight had already begun.

Seeing that they were discovered, those Bai Li soldiers no longer hid, but started killing in the courtyard. Each of them had the basic attributes of a third-rate general, and had a high bonus from their characteristics. If a real fight broke out, they would not be afraid even against second-rate generals.

Zu Mao himself is a general who is better at fighting than leading troops, so the bonus he gives to his troops is not high. It mainly depends on the bonus of the commander Zhou Yu and Lu Meng, but it is still not enough for their soldiers to withstand the powerful offensive of the Bai Li soldiers.

(End of this chapter)