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

Chapter 402: Prime Minister Zhuge is still in C!

With Huang Zu's defeat and escape, the defense of Xiakou was gradually coming to an end.

After several major battles, the defense of Xiakou City became weaker and weaker. First, the east wall was destroyed, forcing Huang Zu to cut the suspension bridge to block the attack of Sun Jian's army. This move undoubtedly hurt the enemy and injured his own army. Although Sun Jian and his men were temporarily blocked, it also meant that when the city was broken in the future, they would have one less way to escape.

But Huang Zu had to do this. Otherwise, if Sun Jian and his men broke into the city from here, it would be extremely fatal to the entire Xiakou City.

The seriously injured Huang Zu returned to the city. As soon as he entered the city, he fell off his horse. Fortunately, Huang She's quick eyes and hands prevented Huang Zu from falling to the ground.

"Father, are you okay?"

Huang She said anxiously, his eyes wide open and red.

"Father, I will go and help you avenge yourself right now."

Huang She stood up and was about to leave, but was grabbed by Huang Zu.

"Don't go, you are no match for him."

"But father, how can I watch the thief who hurt you get away with it? Even if it costs me my life, I will bite off two pieces of his flesh!"

Huang She was so angry that even his voice was shaking. Huang Zu had been his idol since he was a child and the person he aspired to become. However, he watched helplessly as his father was injured by a traitor. How could he not be angry?

"Child, don't go. Now we just need to wait. When Uncle Liu comes, we will be saved. Ahem... Ahem."

As Huang Zu spoke, he spat out another mouthful of black blood. His hidden illness had not recurred for a long time, but because of the battle with Gan Ning, the hidden illness in his body was triggered. In addition, he was seriously injured by Gan Ning. It can be said that Huang Zu was lucky to be able to speak here now.

There were more than a dozen bloody wounds of varying sizes on Huang Zu's chest and back, all oozing blood. In this situation, it would be difficult for an ordinary person to survive, let alone an old veteran who was over sixty years old and had many hidden diseases.

"Uncle Liu, you have been saying that he will help us, but where is he now? Why hasn't he come yet? Doesn't he know the situation in Jiangxia County?"

"Shut up! You are not allowed to disrespect Uncle Liu!"

Huang Zu, who was leaning weakly against the wall just now, suddenly exerted a huge force from nowhere and slapped Huang She in the face.

"Rebellious son! Uncle Liu is your father's master's master, how can you question him?"

As soon as Huang Zu finished speaking, he let out another "wow" and spat out a mouthful of black blood. Because of his anger, Huang Zu, who was already in a bad state, became even more depressed. Seeing this, Huang She quickly slapped himself twice in the face.

"Father, I won't say anything more. Father, please don't be angry. Please don't be angry. I know I was wrong."

Huang She said nothing more and supported Huang Zu as they walked towards the city.

This time the battle ended with Huang Zu's retreat. Of the 80,000 troops in Huang Zu's city, only 60,000 were left. However, Sun Jian still had a full 140,000 troops outside the city, ready to pounce on them at any time and give them a beating.

The Xiakou City is now just putting up a meaningless desperate resistance. As long as Sun Jian can be ruthless, Xiakou City will be captured in three days. However, Sun Jian, who had already suffered heavy losses in Yuzhang, would not be willing to attack at all costs at this time.

Although the four of them are now in an alliance, they are divided into two small groups in private. Cao Cao and Liu Zhang, Sun Jian and Shi Xie have formed an alliance in private. This means that once any disputes over interests arise between the two parties, they will definitely give priority to their own small groups.

The reason why the four people were able to form an alliance was simply because Gu Rubing's strength was too powerful. If they did not unite, the only fate waiting for them would be destruction. Even if Gu Rubing did not think so, they would definitely not believe it. In other words, they formed an alliance simply because they had a common enemy. Once the enemy Gu Rubing was gone, their alliance would instantly collapse.

After that, the four of them will form a new hostile relationship. Maybe the two-person alliance can still be maintained, but what if only two of them can survive? Wouldn't it still be a final battle between the two of them? At that time, without any external assistance, whoever is stronger will dominate the world.

This is the reason why Sun Jian has always been reluctant to launch a large-scale siege. Otherwise, with Sun Jian's temper, he would have taken Xiakou long ago.

In the west of the city, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei hid in the dark, quietly watching everything in front of them. They saw how Gan Ning seriously injured Huang Zu and killed all of Huang Zu's generals, but they were also powerless. If these less than 20,000 cavalrymen were to be deployed to the battlefield, the role they would play would not be negligible, but it would be a drop in the bucket.

The two men must deploy these 20,000 troops into the battlefield at the right time to play a decisive role. In the northeast of Jiangxia, a great battle is also in full swing.

Because Cao Cao did not follow the established route and take the already famous general Xiahou Dun to support Cao Zhen, Cao Xiu and Xu Huang who were resisting Zhang He, they did not have a single famous general on their side and were badly beaten by Zhang He who had just been promoted to a famous general.

None of these are the most important things. The most important thing is that Zhuge Liang came out of seclusion and came straight here from Qingzhou, sitting in the rear and helping Zhang He with advice and strategies. All of these, including the secret bag given to Guan Yu and the 20,000 cavalry sent to Zhang Fei, were from Zhuge Liang's hand.

At that time, Zhuge Liang, who had just arrived at the battlefield, did something that was enough to overturn the situation of the war. He only arranged three people. The three people disguised themselves, shaved their heads, put on three sets of armor and iron spears stolen from other battlefields, disguised themselves as Western Region monks, mixed into Cao Cao's grain transport team, and followed them all the way to the place where the reserve military supplies were stored.

Since the three of them could speak the Western dialect, and the Western people in the grain transport team did not know each other, they were able to take advantage of the opportunity and successfully enter the camp where the grain was stored. The rule that monks were not allowed to rest with other soldiers also gave them the opportunity to act.

Even Zhuge Liang did not expect it to be so easy. Originally, Zhuge Liang planned to let the three men act as insiders and then send troops to raid the baggage camp. However, the three men completed all the tasks and escaped successfully. On a dark and windy night, the three men worked together to set the entire granary on fire. When they left, they threw several bags of black things into the fire.

That thing was none other than black gunpowder. The huge explosion resounded throughout the entire granary, attracting all the Wei troops nearby. By the time they reacted and wanted to chase after them, it was too late. This unreasonable move destroyed the entire granary of Cao's army.

Not only that, after the food supply was cut off at Cao Zhen's place, Cao Ren, who was downstream of Cao Zhen, also lost his subsequent source of food supply. Now, Cao Zhen did not wait for Cao Cao's support, but instead received the news that Dian Wei was seriously injured by Guan Yu and food supply could not be delivered for the time being.

Helplessly, Cao Zhen could only send people to nearby cities and military towns to buy food. However, the devastated Jiujiang County had no surplus food. They did not even have enough food for themselves, so where would they get food to sell to them? If they robbed them, it would inevitably intensify the conflict between Cao Cao and Sun Jian. For a while, Cao Zhen was caught in a dilemma. Not only Cao Zhen, but also Cao Ren, who tried to stop Zhang Liao from going south, was in the same situation.

Just a few days ago, the situation of Cao's army was bright, but now it showed signs of decline. The reason was simply because Guan Yu was promoted to a legendary general, killed Dian Wei, and helped Zhang Fei seriously injure Xu Chu. Zhuge Liang entered the game, destroyed the food supply, and cut off the reserves, leaving Cao Zhen and Cao Ren in a situation where there was no food available. The good situation was fleeting.

The ultimate personal strength can influence the outcome of a battle. This statement is perfectly reflected in Guan Yu.

Gu Rubing, who knew nothing about Guan Yu's promotion to legendary general and Zhang He's promotion to famous general, was currently engaged in the closest tug-of-war with the cavalry of the Shi family in the past few days. The two sides were less than a mile apart at the closest point. Gu Rubing also wanted to test the maximum release distance of the opponent's mysterious poison.

The Shi clan had lost their initial ambition at this moment. They were exhausted by Gu Rubing's mysterious marching route. As Shi Xie's anger gradually subsided, they didn't want to continue wasting time like this. But just when they were about to reunite with Shi Xie, Gu Rubing and his men came up again. At that moment, Shi Zhen greeted Gu Rubing's eight generations of ancestors in his heart.

After losing three thousand soldiers, they finally got rid of Gu Rubing's entanglement and met with Shi Xie smoothly.

"My lord, Liu Bei has been harassing our army. It is obvious that he does not want to fight with us. He accidentally delays time to prevent us from entering the Central Plains. I believe that as long as we go straight out of Hengduan Mountain, Liu Bei will definitely come to stop us. Please make the decision, my lord."

Shi Xie really couldn't stand Gu Rubing's constant harassment and the ubiquitous and pervasive attacks. They were obviously the ones who were being pursued, but they were led by the nose and finally lost more than 3,000 people. Shi Xie knew that if he kept following Liu Bei, he would be killed by the enemy one day, so he came back to report the situation even though he was scolded by Shi Xie.

Just as Shi thought, after three days, his anger had basically subsided, and he also realized Gu Rubing's true intention, so he no longer ordered a pursuit and became much more honest.

"In that case, let's head north to join Xin'er."

Shi Xie also took the opportunity to back off and no longer mentioned the matter of chasing Gu Rubing. He gave the order to advance in the direction of Hengduan Mountains. Gu Rubing, who had been following along the way, saw that not long after Shi Xie and Shi Xie reunited, they started to head north, and he immediately understood their intention.

"When a dog is cornered, it will jump over the wall."

Gu Rubing smiled brightly. Just now, good news came from the rear. The elixir that Hua Tuo had refined to cure all poisons was successful. It could not only prevent poisons, but also strengthen the body. Since the poison could be cured, Shi Xie's army seemed vulnerable to them.

"Hey, our wall is not something that everyone can jump over."

Wei Yan chuckled, but then the others looked at him strangely. Wei Yan immediately knew that he had said something wrong. He wanted to explain, but found that no matter how he explained it, he couldn't make it clear, so he simply shut up.

"I don't know how my second and third brothers and Wenyuan are doing."

Gu Rubing raised his head and looked towards the north. The war had already begun for more than ten days. With Jingzhou as the center, it affected Yizhou, Yuzhou, Silizhou, Yanzhou, Yangzhou, Xuzhou, Jiaozhou and other states. Except for a few states far to the east and north where there was no fighting, other places had already been engulfed in war.

Although he knew that Guan Yu and his men were extremely powerful, Gu Rubing couldn't help but worry. Due to wars happening everywhere, the intelligence system that Gu Rubing had just established was paralyzed, and a lot of intelligence could not be sent out. Even if he had intelligence, many things were beyond his reach.

"My lord, don't worry. Once we have destroyed Shi Xie and his strange poison, we can return to Jingzhou."

Zhao Yun said beside Gu Rubing, and Gu Rubing nodded.

"Go north!"

Gu Rubing and his 1,000-strong cavalrymen galloped quickly toward the Hengduan Mountains in the north. Shi Xin had been stationed in the Hengduan Mountains for four days, but had never been able to wait for Gu Rubing. What he didn't know was that the 100,000-strong army under Gu Rubing's command was only ten kilometers away from him.

At night, in order not to be discovered, Shi Lin ordered his men not to make a fire. In the past few days, they had been eating only the dry food they brought with them. However, at Gu Rubing's camp, ten kilometers away, many soldiers had delicious food and drinks, and when they had nothing to do, they could go to the nearby mountains to catch some game to taste, and even had time to deliver meals to Gu Rubing and his men. The difference in making fire between the two was more than one level.

Just as Gu Rubing and Shi Xie were heading north together, preparing to fight a decisive battle in Hengduan Mountains, a cavalry of 20,000 men broke through the defense line opened by Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, headed south, and headed straight for Jiangxia County.

The person who came was none other than Xu Rong, who had been invisible throughout the entire battle. He had arrived at the battlefield on the fifth day. Before joining the battle, he met with Zhuge Liang, who assigned him a new task. After one of Cao Cao's defense lines collapsed, he should bypass the defense line from that collapsed point and support Zhang Liao.

This special force has been hidden until now, but because the war spread across several states and information was not shared between them, no one discovered that there was a general under Gu Rubing who had not appeared, and no one knew that he had been quietly waiting for the opportunity.

Although the plan was executed by Xu Rong, the real core was Guan Yu. If the defense line deployed by Cao Cao could not be broken, then all Zhuge Liang's plans would be in vain. But it was just such a coincidence that Guan Yu was promoted to a legendary general and broke through the original defense line. This allowed Xu Rong to pass through here and provide support from behind, thus completely defeating the entire defense line.

At the border of Xuzhou and Yangzhou, amidst a sea of ​​blood and corpses, Zhang Liao led 800 cavalrymen to break through Cao Ren's defense line and successfully entered the territory of Yangzhou.

(End of this chapter)