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

Chapter 430: Meng Huo in the Southwest, Gu Rubing's Conjecture

Shi Xie's tactic of retreating to advance was a good one. Shi Xie was not short of money, not at all. The purpose of Sun Jian coming here was, firstly, to let Sun Jian improve his ability in leading troops, and secondly, to ask Shi Xie for money. He couldn't even make ends meet, so the first choice would definitely be this rich but weak neighbor.

The two men fell silent again. Both were thousand-year-old foxes and knew each other's intentions clearly. Now Shi Xie brought out some things that should not be said openly. His real intention was to let Sun Jian stop while he was ahead and not think about anything else.

"Wei Yan, you misunderstood me. I definitely didn't mean that."

Sun Jian picked up the teacup with a smile on his face. Shi Xie glanced at Sun Jian and thought that Sun Jian was taking advantage of him. He was about to say something, but Sun Jian continued to smile.

"But Wei Yan, since you've already said it, it's not right for me to refuse. I'll remember your favor! As for the garrison, let my son stay here first. I've assigned him 20,000 troops, who are on their way now and should be here in two days."

Sun Jian was smiling from ear to ear, but he knew the right balance. He gained benefits himself but did not make Shi Xie feel too painful, so both parties were satisfied.

"Brother Wentai, you are too polite. Now that my nephew is here, I will be like the head of the family. If you need anything, just come to me."

It was just some silver and a garrison, which meant nothing to Shi Xie. What Shi Xie lacked most were soldiers and combat power, and he had completely offended Gu Rubing. Only by holding on to Sun Jian firmly could he avoid being the first to be swept away in this historical torrent.

Sun Jian is naturally not the strongest. Gu Rubing and Cao Cao are both stronger than Sun Jian. Even Liu Zhang of Yizhou dares to challenge Sun Jian. After all, he has Cao Cao behind him. But none of them can form an alliance with Shi Xie. Shi Xie can only choose Sun Jian, and only Sun Jian will accept him. The two are like grasshoppers on the same rope.

"Bofu, listen to your uncle in everything here, don't be willful."

"Don't worry, father. Bofu will definitely follow your orders. Uncle, I'm sorry to bother you for a while."

Sun Ce immediately stood up, clasped his fists and bowed to Sun Jian and Shi Xie, and his words were particularly sweet. Shi Xie also smiled. It was just some silver, which was insignificant to him, but in exchange for a favor, it was definitely worth it.

During this reunion, both of them could be said to have got what they wanted. Shi Xie was worried that Sun Jian was too busy to take care of other things and would ignore him, while Sun Jian wanted to take advantage of him and let Sun Ce get more training. However, what Shi Xie didn't know was that this time Sun Jian not only sent Sun Ce, but also brought Sun Quan, who was hidden among the two hundred cavalrymen. These two brothers could be said to be one of Sun Jian's two trump cards.

As for the other one, it was an exclusive task that Sun Jian accidentally triggered. Until now, he still hasn't figured out why he suddenly got such a task with no requirements but such a high reward. This exclusive task was nothing but survival.

This was an exclusive task that Sun Jian obtained after he escaped his own death. The longer he survived, the more rewards he would get. Now, the bonus provided by this exclusive task has reached 700% bonus to all attributes, which is not small even compared to the bonus of first-rate generals. And it has only been seven months. According to Sun Jian's calculations, the ratio of this exclusive task is roughly that if he lives one more month, he can get an extra 100% bonus to all attributes.

An exclusive task of unlimited growth, and the bonus is so huge. Sun Jian only discovered the existence of this thing after the Jingzhou War. Otherwise, he would never agree to Cao Cao's request to start the Jingzhou War. Wouldn't it be better to grow steadily? Why would he fight to the death with Gu Rubing?

If he continues to develop like this for a year or two, that would be thousands of bonuses to all attributes. By then, Sun Ce and Sun Quan would have grown up, and who in the world would be able to compete with him? So now Sun Jian has changed his development direction, avoiding battles. You can fight Cao Cao however you want, and I will just focus on developing myself. Other things have nothing to do with me.

Sun Jian must also win over Shi Xie as his ally. After all, it is only a state with an army of 100,000. What's more, Shi Xie has what Sun Jian lacks the most: money!

Before coming to Jiaozhou, Sun Jian had sorted out everything. As long as he could survive and develop for a period of time, the world would be within his reach. His way of development was to refuse all behaviors that might conflict with Gu Rubing. Even the soldiers who had been stationed at the junction of Xuzhou and Yangzhou all year round were withdrawn by Sun Jian, in order to avoid any conflict with Gu Rubing and to avoid affecting the progress of his own exclusive mission.

After discussing all matters, Sun Jian took Gan Ning and more than a hundred cavalrymen away, leaving only Sun Ce and a few dozen cavalrymen, as well as Sun Quan hiding among the dozens of cavalrymen, preparing to let them show their skills in Jiuzhen County and Rinnan County. According to Sun Jian's understanding of those barbarians, they were not much different from the barbarians in southern Yangzhou. For Sun Ce, it was no different from training. Moreover, there were 20,000 cavalrymen who were about to arrive at the battlefield. For those barbarians, anything would be enough.

In addition to Cao Cao, Sun Jian and Shi Xie who were all taking actions, Liu Zhang of Yizhou was also not idle. Before the battle of Jingzhou was completely over, he led his army of more than 100,000 together with Cao Cao's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, the General of the Fa Qiu and the Captain of the Mojin Army to the Western Regions. They plowed the land in the Western Regions very hard, and the entire Mount Nalan had been emptied by them. Not only was the magnificent hall smashed and moved away by them, but all the gold in the hall was moved away and put into the pockets of Cao Cao and Liu Zhang as military expenses.

In addition to gold, silver and treasures, they also swept through more than 30 countries of the five major regimes in the Western Regions. More than 100,000 young and strong men of military age in these 30 countries were all captured by Liu Zhang and his men. Of course, Liu Zhang did not capture them directly. Most of them were conscripted soldiers with military pay. For some of them, he also left them gold, silver or food after they were captured. He could be said to have done his utmost.

More than 100,000 people were all sent to Cao Cao, asking Xiahou Dun under Cao Cao to train these soldiers so that they could be transferred to regular troops as soon as possible. In addition to these more than 100,000 strong men from the Western Regions, there were also 300,000 reservists who came from the battles in Yizhou, Silizhou and Yuzhou. Among the three states, only Yuzhou had a relatively dense population, reaching more than 10 million. The populations of Yizhou and Silizhou were both close to 10 million.

The three states had a total population of about 4000 million. It took a lot of effort to recruit these soldiers. After all, most of the soldiers joined the army because their families were unable to make ends meet. They had no food and had to join the army to earn some military pay to supplement their family income. A total of reservists were all thrown to Cao Cao. The training ground in Xudu could not accommodate so many new reservists, so they could only bring part of the army outside the city of Xuchang, next to a small hill outside the city, and flatten all the trees near the hill. Finally, they created a piece of land that could accommodate hundreds of thousands of troops for Xiahou Yuan to train his soldiers.

These 400,000-strong troops can be said to be the trump cards of Cao Cao and Liu Zhang. They will be the first-line troops to deal with Gu Rubing. After sending these hundreds of thousands of troops to Cao Cao, Liu Zhang returned to his Yizhou. As soon as he returned to Yizhou, Liu Zhang received a piece of news that made him depressed.

When he led all the troops of Yizhou to attack Jingzhou, a barbarian force suddenly rose in Yongchang County in the southwest of Yizhou. Led by a young general named Meng Huo, they began to rebel and prepared to take over Yongchang County and divide and rule it. The local army of Yongchang County and some barbarian tribes in the south began to obey this young general as their tribal leader. In just one month, they had already taken over Yongchang County, and there was even a tendency to make Yongchang County an iron plate.

How could Liu Zhang tolerate such a needle sticking under his nose? So as soon as he returned to Yizhou, Liu Zhang led all the troops of Yizhou to the south, ready to capture this small general. If he failed to do it, then who among the other county governors and aristocratic families under his command would obey his orders in the future? By then, Yizhou might fall apart from within.

He absolutely could not tolerate such a thing happening. Although he did not perish at the hands of Gu Rubing, he was disintegrated from within.

Therefore, Liu Zhang led an army of more than 100,000 and set out to conquer this young general who had become famous in just one month. This general was named Meng Huo, a strange man who was born in Yizhou County but was recognized by foreign barbarians.

Gu Rubing was still unaware of what had happened in Yizhou. If he knew that Meng Huo had appeared, he would have gone to Yizhou no matter what to see if he could recruit this powerful general of the Later Shu Dynasty. Historically, in order to intimidate the barbarians in the southwest, Zhuge Liang captured Meng Huo seven times. Of course, at that time, Meng Huo had already unified the southern barbarians for many years.

Gu Rubing is also busy training soldiers now, and with Wei Yan's presence, Gu Rubing can convert those newly recruited soldiers into regular troops more quickly.

Not long after the war ended, the three parties started a fierce arms race again. They were constantly recruiting and training new soldiers, while also upgrading the levels of their own generals because they all realized how powerful the generals were.

Netizens who originally thought that the Battle of Jingzhou would be the start of a decisive battle are somewhat disappointed. Almost 90% of netizens believe that after the Battle of Jingzhou, the pattern of the Han Dynasty should be determined, and one of Gu Rubing, Cao Cao, and Sun Jian will unify the thirteen states and even replace the Han Dynasty.

But the final result was that the Battle of Jingzhou ended hastily and did not trigger the decisive battle they imagined. Moreover, they also launched a more intense military preparation than last time. This situation made netizens have to doubt that as long as there is any sound of fighting, it will definitely trigger the final decisive battle.

While training the soldiers, Gu Rubing naturally did not let Zhang Fei and others idle. Since Guan Yu had been promoted to a legendary general, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Zhang Liao, Zhang He and other famous generals naturally could not be idle either. They must improve their own general levels as soon as possible. Especially after seeing how powerful Guan Yu was, Gu Rubing became more determined in his ideas.

Just like Cao Cao and Sun Jian's plan, Gu Rubing also knew that killing generals of a lower level or the same level would gain a large number of famous general points and legendary general points. Now there are still a large number of first-class generals, and the only one left is the Huns in the north. As for starting a decisive battle with Cao Cao and others now, it is not a good choice.

It’s not that Gu Rubing is not their opponent. On the contrary, with Guan Yu around, Gu Rubing can do it even with his current strength. It’s just that it will cost too much. If other ethnic groups start to attack the Han Dynasty on a large scale at that time, it may trigger a tragic event similar to the Five Barbarians Invasion in history.

Gu Rubing would never allow such a thing to happen, so before he could deal with Cao Cao and his men without expending too much strength, he would not rashly start a decisive battle. Moreover, when he just entered the game, he clearly remembered that the game system had a prompt, and the prompt was to compete for the world.

Although the Han Dynasty could be said to rule the world, there were still many large and small ethnic minorities outside of it. Not to mention the five major regimes that had already been destroyed in the Western Regions: the Xiongnu, Xianbei, and Wuhuan in the north, the Goguryeo and Buyeo on the peninsula, the barbarians, Qiang, and Di in the southwest, and the Shanyue in the southeast.

Besides them, Gu Rubing knew clearly that there was also the Western Continent and the Middle East Peninsula. As time passed, the more Gu Rubing felt that it was definitely not just a fight for hegemony for the Han Dynasty. Perhaps when the day of true unification came, other tasks would come.

Therefore, Gu Rubing needs to be fully prepared to deal with anything that might happen. Since coming here, Gu Rubing has become more and more committed to ensuring security in everything, striving to be perfect and not fighting an unprepared battle.

On the same day that Sun Jian went to Jiaozhou, Gu Rubing sent Ma Chao and Huang Zhong to Wuhuan. Since they had followed Gu Rubing for a short time, they were still first-rate generals. The most urgent thing now was to promote them to famous generals. The four famous generals, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Zhang Liao, and Zhang He, went to the Xianbei tribe together, ready to defeat the most powerful nomadic people in the north in one fell swoop and scare them. At the same time, they could rely on the Xianbei generals to accumulate legendary general points and even be promoted to legendary generals.

As the largest nomadic people in the north, the Xianbei were even more powerful than the Xiongnu and Wuhuan combined. Even if they were combined, they could not match the Xianbei. They had the strength to annex Wuhuan and the Five Xiongnu Courts at any time. The reason they did not do so was because they hoped that the Xiongnu and Wuhuan could become a buffer zone between their tribe and the Han Dynasty.

Against the backdrop of this huge chaos, the vassal states that had previously submitted to the Han Dynasty were now like a group of hungry wolves surrounding a fat sheep, ready to pounce on the fat sheep at any time and tear off some pieces of meat.

(End of this chapter)