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

Chapter 413: Getting something for nothing, Cao Cao’s plan

After this battle, all five parties suffered heavy losses, and the heaviest losses came from the five major regimes in the Western Regions. At this moment, the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva was waiting for Cao Cao in his mansion. In this battle, they deployed a total of 220,000 troops in the Western Regions, which was almost all the troops of the five major regimes in the entire Western Regions. Even the eighteen golden arhats who were only responsible for protecting the five kings were transferred over.

However, they were defeated miserably in this battle, which made the already weak and sparsely populated Western Regions even more vulnerable. Now, let alone which prince would lead the troops, perhaps some powerful family could gather some vagrant soldiers and defeat them.

"It's already noon, the Prime Minister hasn't gotten up yet?"

Six-Pearl Bodhisattva has been meditating in the courtyard for a whole morning. She came to Cao Cao early in the morning, wanting an explanation, but she has been waiting from morning till now without seeing Cao Cao. In this hot summer, being exposed to the sun like this is unbearable for even someone like Six-Pearl Bodhisattva who has lived in the Western Regions for many years. She can only meditate in the courtyard to calm her mind.

Outside Cao Cao's house, in the corridor, a man holding a big knife was sitting there, eating half a watermelon. There was a pile of ice cubes beside him to cool down. He sat outside the door and quietly watched the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva meditating in the yard. From time to time, he took a few bites of watermelon, and then put his arm on the huge ice block beside him, so that his body wearing armor could feel some coolness.

"The Prime Minister has been mentally exhausted lately and needs more rest. It is normal for him to sleep until the evening."

"So I have to wait here until evening?"

The Six-Pearl Bodhisattva clenched his fists, and fire was about to spit out of his eyes. If he could defeat Xiahou Dun, the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva would have taken action right now. Xiahou Dun ignored the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva's anger and just said in a calm tone.

"If you want to wait here, then wait. If not, you can come back at night. Maybe the Prime Minister will be awake by then."

Liuzhu Bodhisattva stopped talking, closed his eyes, and continued to sit there waiting. She just didn't believe that Cao Cao could stay at home for the whole day.
The scorching sun of summer shone on the body of Liuzhu Bodhisattva, making her originally bronze skin look even darker. In this way, Liuzhu Bodhisattva stayed under the scorching sun for another half an hour. Finally, she couldn't bear it anymore and finally got up and left. After leaving, she turned around and gave instructions to Xiahou Dun.

"When your Prime Minister wakes up, please tell him that I have been here."

After saying that, the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva left without looking back. After Xiahou Dun confirmed that the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva had gone far away, he turned around, pushed the door and walked into the room.

"Prime Minister, the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva has left."

Cao Cao, who was in the room, was lying on an ice block covered with a thick quilt, which made Xiahou Dun feel a little cold in the hot summer. Cao Cao waved at Xiahou Dun, then called Xiahou Dun over and pointed to a hot pot next to the ice bed, with mutton boiling in the pot.

"Just go, don't worry about him, come, sit down."

Cao Cao kept using his chopsticks to pick up two slices of mutton and dipped them in some salt water and crushed dogwood. Cao Cao had searched all over the country for chili peppers, but in the end he couldn't find any. Dogwood was the only substitute, but it was better than nothing.

Xiahou Dun sat opposite Cao Cao, but did not eat. Instead, he looked at Cao Cao with a serious expression.

"This time, almost all the troops of the five major regimes in the Western Regions died, leaving only more than 10,000 people. I'm afraid it will be difficult to explain to those regimes."

Cao Cao had already swallowed the two pieces of mutton and kept rummaging around in the pot. Then he picked up two more pieces of mutton and put them in his bowl.

"Explain? As the prime minister, who do I need to explain to?"

As Cao Cao spoke, he flipped the mutton in the dogwood a few times and put it into his mouth. A spicy taste burst in Cao Cao's mouth, and Cao Cao quickly grabbed the bowl of ice water beside him and drank it.

"If they can provide more troops, then I will agree to give them Jiaozhou. If they can't provide troops, they can provide money. If they can't provide anything or don't want to provide anything, then let them go back to the Western Regions. Do they really think I want to cooperate with them? I'm just borrowing their strength."

As he spoke, he swallowed two more pieces of meat. Cao Cao picked up a pile of meat slices from the plate beside him and put them into the pot. These were freshly cut from the slaughtered sheep and were the most delicious. Although there were no good seasonings, Cao Cao still ate them with relish.

After hearing what Cao Cao said, Xiahou Dun realized that this was nothing but a free gift. He didn't pay anything, and he got a lot of things for free. For example, the special weapons in the Western Regions that were specifically designed for cavalry were a huge gain for them. They had never seen such a magical weapon that was so effective against cavalry before.

Moreover, after this battle, the troops of the Western Regions were almost completely lost. Ma Chao of Liangzhou, Guan Yu of Bingzhou, Zhang He of Jizhou, Zhang Liao of Xuzhou, and Zhang Fei of Yanzhou, all of these first-class generals under Gu Rubing, lost a lot of troops because of the 220,000 troops of the Western Regions, which greatly weakened Gu Rubing's manpower and caused him to lose a lot of troops.

Originally, Xiahou Dun really thought that Cao Cao really wanted to exchange Yizhou for help from the Western Regions. In the end, he found out that he was completely overthinking. From the very beginning, Cao Cao should never have thought about really using Yizhou for exchange. He was just deceiving people and getting the Western Regions to send troops to help him.

"Cao Zhonger! Lao Cao! I knew you weren't the kind of person who would sell out your country for personal gain. I knew I wasn't wrong about you. What about those who called Cao Zhonger a bad name? Do you want to slap them in the face? I know that although our Cao Zhonger is a little bit stupid, he will definitely not be a traitor, Lao Cao, man!"

"Wow, Cao Zhonger pulled off a trick in seconds. Not only did he trap the Western Regions, but he also caused Liu Caoxie to lose a large number of people. Moreover, Cao Zhonger has been training soldiers since the last Xudu incident. And it seems that Cao Zhonger is the only one who didn't suffer any losses in this battle? Those who died were all the people brought by Liuzhu Bodhisattva from the Western Regions. He is the one who reaps the benefits!"

"I knew, Lao Cao, you wouldn't let me down. It's worth my support for you all this time!"

"This move is brilliant. It not only weakened the power of all the princes without any effort, but also solved the external threat. I can only say that Cao is still very capable."

After seeing that Cao Cao did not really betray the Central Plains, netizens in the live broadcast room changed their reputation of Cao Cao. After all, they were disappointed with Cao Cao before only because Cao Cao colluded with the Western Regions and exchanged Yizhou, so they lost interest in Cao Cao. But now, the misunderstandings have been resolved, and Cao Cao's original fans have returned to Cao Cao's live broadcast room, posting comments like "Old Cao is a real man" on the barrage.

Xiahou Dun, who was sitting with Cao Cao in the room, also picked up his bowl and chopsticks and began to eat heartily. Cao Cao looked at Xiahou Dun and couldn't help but smile. He naturally knew that Xiahou Dun and his men had some opinions about him because of his alliance with the Western Regions, but they didn't say anything because they were under his command and were his relatives. But this didn't mean that they agreed with everything he did. For something like betraying their own country, they would definitely have some resistance in their hearts, because Xu Chu and Dian Wei had expressed to Cao Cao many times that they didn't want to cooperate with the Western Regions.

Cao Cao did not explain to them before because there were so many people and they would talk too much. If he let something slip, how could he use the Western Regions as a good knife to stab Liu Bei? Although many things happened that Cao Cao did not expect when planning to this point, fortunately, the final results were all good.

Xu Chu was promoted to famous general, Xiahou Dun was promoted to famous general, and Xiahou Yuan was also promoted to famous general when the war was about to end. The seriously injured Xu Chu and Dian Wei were also cured by Wu Pu. Cao Cao also gained Wu Pu, a capable doctor. Not only did Gu Rubing have a miracle doctor, but Cao Cao also had one.

Moreover, Wu Pu's abilities also provided Cao Cao with a lot of combat power bonuses, especially Wu Pu's characteristic Wu Pu Herb, which could increase the corresponding attribute bonus by taking the corresponding herbs. It could be said to be a walking energy agent.

Sun Jian of Yangzhou, Shi Xie of Jiaozhou, Liu Zhang of Yizhou, and Gu Rubing all suffered varying degrees of damage. Only he himself not only suffered no losses, but also achieved rapid development during this period of time. Because no battlefield was carried out in Yuzhou or Silizhou, he did not have so many messes to clean up. With the rapid development during this period of time, the strength of the troops under Cao Cao's command has increased from 150,000 to a full 250,000.

Originally there were not so many, but after Xiahou Yuan was promoted to a famous general, he gained a characteristic of training soldiers. This characteristic allowed Xiahou Yuan to achieve twice the result with half the effort when training soldiers, and allowed soldiers to quickly transfer to become regular troops. Therefore, in the past few days, Xiahou Yuan was stuffed into the barracks and was responsible for training new recruits.

As one of the most densely populated provinces, although Yuzhou is not large in area, its population is larger than that of larger provinces such as Yizhou, Liangzhou and Youzhou. Therefore, when Cao Cao used the gold and silver treasures that should have been spent on soldiers in the Western Regions to recruit soldiers, as Cao Cao expected, many young and middle-aged people of military age from the entire Yuzhou, including Silizhou, and surrounding counties came to join the army.

Because what Cao Cao gave was so much, so much that as long as one person was able to enlist in the army, a family of four could have enough food to eat. In this Central Plains land where wars were raging and famine was everywhere, being able to afford to feed a family of four was a temptation that almost no one could refuse.

Although Gu Rubing made a fortune from selling fine salt in a short period of time, he also had to support nine provinces, so he needed more soldiers and more gold and silver. Therefore, although there were many people who joined Gu Rubing because of his benevolence, there were more people who joined Cao Cao in order to survive.

In terms of financial resources, Gu Rubing could not make money faster than the special soldiers who had the special attribute of extorting money from the dead. After all, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, plus the accumulation of 400 years of heritage of the Han Dynasty, there were too many ancient tombs to count. Cao Cao made money too quickly to offer such military pay that a family could afford to eat, thus attracting countless soldiers who could not afford to eat to come and join him.

It can be said that Cao Cao may be the person with the most troops under his command now. Although his combat power is not the first, he is definitely the first in quantity.

Cao Cao and Xiahou Dun sat opposite each other and ate voraciously. The ice bed was right under Cao Cao's butt, but he still made him sweat profusely. After eating, Cao Cao ordered the servants to clean up everything and then opened the door.

"If Six-Pearl Bodhisattva comes again, tell her that we need more troops to start a war. Otherwise, Liu Zhang will have nowhere to go. How could he give up Yizhou? Hahahaha..."

Cao Cao left with a loud laugh, while Xiahou Dun behind him showed a mysterious smile.

As the sky gradually darkened, the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva came to Cao Cao's courtyard again. Xiahou Dun still looked the same as when the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva left in the afternoon, except that the big ice block was no longer beside him. Only a small ice block that was more than half melted was left.

"Is the Prime Minister not up yet?"

The veins on Liuzhu Bodhisattva's forehead were throbbing. She tried hard to control the anger in her heart and tried her best to speak to Xiahou Dun in a peaceful manner. Xiahou Dun waved his hand and said indifferently.

"The Prime Minister got up a long time ago. He got up after you left."

After she finished speaking, Six-Pearl Bodhisattva frowned, but she still forced herself to restrain herself.

"Can I go in and see the Prime Minister now? I have something very important to report to the Prime Minister."

At this moment, the tone of Six-Pearl Bodhisattva was still calm, but Xiahou Dun's next words made Six-Pearl Bodhisattva go into a state of rampage.

"The Prime Minister went out as soon as he got up. Oh, yes, I told the Prime Minister that the Bodhisattva was waiting for him, so the Prime Minister waited here for more than an hour before going out."

"What does Cao Cao mean by this? Does she want to break up our alliance? Could it be that Cao Cao wants to make another enemy? We are not easy to mess with."

Liuzhu Bodhisattva almost gritted her teeth to squeeze out these words, but all she got in response was Xiahou Dun's still indifferent attitude.

"What you said doesn't matter, but who do you think you are? How dare you address my Prime Minister by name? Are you worthy? Let those so-called kings in your family come to talk to my master, and send a little girl like you for nothing."

"you wanna die!"

The Six-Pearl Bodhisattva roared angrily and threw out the two rope darts that had been wrapped around his hands. The rope darts flew straight forward, trying to take Xiahou Dun's head. However, Xiahou Dun was not the same Xiahou Dun who went to the Western Regions before. The current Xiahou Dun had been promoted to a famous general.

Xiahou Dun stood up suddenly and kicked the big knife that was placed diagonally on the wall. The big knife rolled and turned and came into Xiahou Dun's hand. Xiahou Dun also stood up with the force of stepping on the handle of the knife. With one slash of the knife, he knocked away the two rope darts thrown by the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva.

"How dare you! You actually dared to do this in the Prime Minister's courtyard! You are courting death!"

Xiahou Dun immediately pulled a big hat and put it on the head of the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva, then bent his legs, gathered his strength and jumped up, ready to kill the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva with one blow.

(End of this chapter)