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

Chapter 541 Change strategy and divide the troops!
Seeing that his number of people was decreasing, Cao Cao became a little anxious.

Originally I thought that with Gu Rubing's limited military force, plus the famous generals and quasi-famous generals from all directions, it might be a bit difficult to defeat Gu Rubing in one fell swoop. After all, the legendary generals are still more powerful than Gu Rubing. But it is still no problem to make Gu Rubing give up Jingzhou.

But judging from the current situation, let alone asking them to give up Jingzhou, he can't even get back his own Sili.

"Prime Minister, we can't go on like this. With this formation in place, no matter how many people we put in, it will be useless. This formation is like a bottomless pit. It can never be filled."

After listening to Sun Jian's words, Cao Cao hesitated for a moment and ordered the troops to retreat.

Several famous generals retreated one after another. As for Xu Huang and others who entered first, they found a breakthrough in the chaos and managed to rush out. However, everyone was seriously injured.

As Cao Cao retreated, Zhuge Liang also commanded the army and returned to the city.

It's just that Guan Yu and Zhang Fei still haven't come back. But Gu Rubing is not worried. In this world, only legendary generals can stop legendary generals. Unfortunately, there are only four legendary generals, and two of them are in his own camp.

"Congratulations, my lord. We won this battle."

Gu Rubing didn't expect that he could win this battle so easily. If it had happened in the past, who knows what the fight would have been like between the two sides.

"Okay, let's go back and hold a celebration party to celebrate this success."

In fact, Gu Rubing mainly wanted to celebrate the success of the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation.

Cao Cao's army of 100,000 was destroyed, while his own loss was less than 20,000. This was all thanks to the Eight Gate Golden Lock Formation.

However, just when everyone was excited, Zhuge Liang shook his head.

"My lord, now is not the time to relax."

"Don't worry, I know the next attack will come soon."

Gu Rubing smiled. Although an army of 100,000 might be a bit painful for Cao Cao, it would not be fatal. Cao Cao still had the ability to resist, and it was hard to tell when he would attack again. So although Gu Rubing was holding a celebration banquet, he also planned not to let people drink.

"No, my lord, that's not what I'm talking about. The frontal attack has failed. Next, an all-out melee will begin. We must speed up and redeploy all the generals and troops."

After saying that, Zhuge Liang took out the map and placed it in front of everyone.

"My lord, please look. There are three important counties around us, namely Huarong, Zhijiang, and Dangyang. Generals must be sent to guard these three places. These places must be places that Cao Cao is fighting for. Once these three counties are lost, our food supply will most likely be completely blocked. Without food, even if we can fight, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold out for long."

Gu Rubing nodded.

"It seems that we have to wait until our celebration banquet is completely over before we can have it. Zhang He will lead 30,000 troops to enter Huarong to defend against Cao Cao. Ma Chao will lead 30,000 troops to guard Zhijiang. Xu Rong will lead 30,000 troops to enter Dangyang."

"Leader!"

After the three of them finished speaking, they led their troops away.

Zhuge Liang looked at the map, hesitated for a moment, and said directly: "My lord, ordinary soldiers are not enough."

"Don't worry, I have my own preparations."

At this time, Cao Cao was looking at everyone present with a gloomy face.

Sun Jian could see that Cao Cao was in a bad mood, so he naturally didn't dare to speak.

"Why is everyone silent? Don't you have anything to say about the outcome this time?"

After hearing this, the three of them looked at each other, and finally Sun Jian gritted his teeth, stood up and looked at Cao Cao.

"This situation is indeed beyond our expectations. This is because of the formation. I feel that we must find a way to break the formation before we can continue to attack the city."

"Breaking the formation is easy as you say. We have an army of 600,000, no, now there are only 500,000. How much food and grass do we consume every day? How long can we hold on? How can we have so much time to study the method of breaking the formation?"

After Cao Cao finished speaking, he looked at the map on the table, thought for a long time, and suddenly a smile appeared on his lips.

"Is there a way?"

Sun Jian looked at Cao Cao with confusion.

"Of course, our food and grass won't last long, but at least we still have food and grass. If Liu Bei and his men have no food and grass, what will they do?"

"Of course we should withdraw our troops!"

Sun Jian also understood.

In just one day, Ma Chao brought his men to Zhijiang.

After arriving, the first thing Ma Chao did was to strengthen the city defenses.

Ma Chao knew clearly that according to what his lord and the prime minister had said, there would probably be a tough battle in the place he was guarding, and the city walls must be stable.

Just as Ma Chao was reinforcing the city, he heard bursts of horse hooves sounds in the distance, and then an army of 50,000 people appeared outside the city.

The leader of this army was Xiahou Dun under Cao Cao.

"Ma Chao? Why are you here?"

Xiahou Dun remembered that when Cao Cao gave him this task, he said that there should be no one here. But now there is not only someone here, but also a famous general.

Facing Ma Chao alone, even Xiahou Dun felt a little flustered.

"Go back and find the Prime Minister and tell him that Ma Chao is here."

After hearing this, the deputy general on the side nodded quickly.

"Xiahou Dun, I didn't expect that you would be the one coming. I was thinking that it would be a pity that I couldn't come to the battlefield to take your life, but I didn't expect that you would come like this. Since you are here, I will spare your life."

After saying that, Ma Chao walked out of the city directly, swung the tiger-head golden spear in his hand, and stabbed at Xiahou Dun.

With the effect of Jin Ma Chao, the attack power of Ma Chao's shot instantly increased by 1500%.

It seemed like an ordinary shot, but the moment it approached Xiahou Dun, its speed suddenly increased, and there was even a sound of breaking wind from the tip of the gun.

Seeing this, Xiahou Dun tried his best to resist.

Seeing that his attack was blocked, Ma Chao immediately used his Thirty-Six Deadly Spears.

Every gun was aimed at Xiahou Dun's vital points.

Xiahou Dun could only resist with difficulty and could not find a suitable opportunity to counterattack.

After an incense stick of time, Xiahou Dun already felt a little tired, while Ma Chao, on the other hand, became more and more courageous, and even the power of each of his strikes was increasing.

Xiahou Dun knew that if he continued like this, he would definitely not be a match for Ma Chao.

Xiahou Dun tried his best and swung the long sword in his hand.

Ma Chao immediately blocked it with his spear.

After a "ding" sound.

Xiahou Dun turned and ran.

"Xiahou Dun, where are you running to?"

At this time, Ma Chao was already bloodthirsty. Every time he faced Xiahou Dun, he allowed him to escape, which made Ma Chao very unhappy.

Seeing that Ma Chao was chasing him faster and faster, Xiahou Dun sneered and immediately stopped his horse.

It was not until this time that Ma Chao realized that he had rushed into the enemy camp.

"Haha, Ma Chao, you've been fooled. Do you think I'm not prepared at all? There are 50,000 troops here. I don't believe that I, with 50,000 troops, can't stop you?" "Coward, you don't dare to fight me face to face. You always use such tricks. No wonder your level hasn't improved."

"you……"

Xiahou Dun glared at Ma Chao, then waved his hand, and everyone rushed towards Ma Chao together.

Looking at the people who were besieging him, Ma Chao showed a smile.

Immediately afterwards, Ma Chao blew a whistle.

Li Feisha immediately understood what Ma Chao meant and shouted to the people around him.

Immediately afterwards, Xiahou Dun felt that the ground was shaking.

Before Xiahou Dun could react, five hundred Iron Pagodas appeared from somewhere.

Each of these five hundred people has a cultivation level above that of a third-rate general.

The Iron Pagoda was completely wiped out before, and Gu Rubing replenished the Iron Pagoda later, but the overall combat power decreased a little. However, it is still no problem to use it to deal with ordinary cavalry. Even if the strength of third-rate generals is eliminated, heavy cavalry is heavy cavalry, and against light cavalry, it is a dimensionality reduction attack.

With the appearance of the Iron Pagoda, the 30,000 cavalrymen in the city also launched a charge.

Xiahou Dun's 50,000 cavalrymen suddenly began to fall into chaos.

"Haha, Xiahou Dun, you fell into the trap this time."

"Is it?"

Xiahou Dun laughed loudly, and then shouted, "Sir, if you don't come out, you won't be able to eat meat."

"Haha, here I come."

As soon as the voice fell, Cao Zhang, with four thousand Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, five hundred tomb-raiding lieutenants, and five hundred Fa Qiu Lieutenants, rushed in from a distance.

The advantages that Ma Chao had worked so hard to gain disappeared in an instant.

Cao Zhang waved the Fang Tian Hua Ji in his hand and rushed towards Ma Chao.

Ma Chao immediately engaged in battle with Cao Zhang. The 300% increased attack power and 300% attack speed of the Tianyuan Jueming Ji made Ma Chao unable to react for a while, and he suffered some minor losses.

Just as the two were fighting, Xiahou Dun shouted and joined the battle.

Ma Chao swung the tiger-head golden spear directly at Cao Zhang's abdomen, forcing Cao Zhang to return to defend, while Xiahou Dun took the opportunity to slash at Ma Chao's back.

Ma Chao immediately half-hung on his horse and avoided Xiahou Dun's attack.

After this fight, the three of them took a few steps back.

"Cao Zhang, I didn't expect you to be okay. It seems like you are really lucky."

"Humph, thanks to King Lie, we stayed in bed for two whole days. You guys are really good at this."

"No ruthlessness, no hero. Although our master is full of benevolence, he has to treat people with virtue, but when dealing with beasts like you, he can only use beastly methods."

"You dare to scold me, this time you will die."

After Cao Zhang finished speaking, he swung his Fang Tian Hua Ji and rushed forward again.

But when Ma Chao looked at the battle situation around him, the situation was not very good for him.

Although his Iron Pagoda was a heavy cavalry, their number was too small after all. Their performance on the battlefield was still a little inferior to the three special forces brought by Cao Zhang.

"withdraw."

After Ma Chao shouted loudly, he sounded the horn to call back his troops, and all the people returned to Zhijiang City.

"General, we still have 23,000 men."

A deputy general stepped forward and told Ma Chao the number of people that had been counted.

Ma Chao knew in his heart that it was not impossible to defend Zhijiang with the help of these people, but he needed someone to help him.

When Xiahou Dun saw that Ma Chao had sounded the horn to call back his troops, he had no intention of attacking the city, but instead set up camp.

Ma Chao's side is not easy, and Zhang He's side is not easy either. The one fighting against Zhang He is Xiahou Yuan.

Compared to Ma Chao's violent temper, Zhang He seemed much calmer.

Since Zhang He came to Huarong, he made the same choice as Ma Chao, which was to strengthen the city defenses.

When he saw Xiahou Yuan coming, Zhang He was very calm and guarded the city wall. No matter what Xiahou Yuan said, Zhang He pretended not to hear it. Xiahou Yuan still came with 50,000 people. It was extremely difficult to rush into a city with 30,000 people in a short time with only 50,000 people, not to mention Zhang He who was no weaker than himself.

The only way now is to let Zhang He come out. Without a commander, the strength of the 30,000 people in the city will be greatly reduced. However, no matter how Xiahou Yuan scolded him, Zhang He refused to come out, which left Xiahou Yuan helpless.

However, among these three routes, the most difficult and dangerous one is Xu Rong.

Xu Rong’s ability is not very high among the famous generals, and the one he faced this time was Gan Ning, the second strongest fighter in Yangzhou.

Gan Ning wielded his ancient ingot sword with great power, and eighteen black shadows were assisting him.

This made Xu Rong retreat again and again.

After finally putting some distance between himself and others, Xu Rong gave a helpless smile. He had thought that after becoming a famous general, the gap between him and others would not be that big. However, he still could not beat anyone. Even the general from Yangzhou, who was suppressed by Gu Rubing, was still not defeated by him.

In desperation, Xu Rong could only retreat back into the city.

"Hey, do you think you'll be fine if you hide in the city? You're dreaming."

After saying this, Gan Ning ordered an attack on the city.

Xu Rong tried his best to defend the city, but the gap between him and Gan Ning was so huge that he could not stop Gan Ning at all.

Just then, a loud noise came from behind the Yangzhou army.

There were also many screams.

Gan Ning turned around and saw Zhang Liao leading the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun rushing towards him from a distance.

Wherever the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun passed, people and horses fell to the ground.

The name Zhang Liao has become a hatred in the hearts of everyone in Yangzhou. No one does not want to kill him with their own hands, but unfortunately no one is Zhang Liao's opponent.

"Okay, Zhang Liao, you're here too. This time I'm going to break your spell."

When Xu Rong saw Zhang Liao coming, he breathed a sigh of relief and rushed out of the city directly, attacking Zhang Liao from the front and back.

With the enhancement of Commander Zhang Liao's skill of fighting to the death, the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun reached an unprecedented level in terms of speed and attack power.

After one round of charge, only 40,000 of the 50,000 Yangzhou cavalry were left, and the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun lost less than 100 people.

Looking at this astonishing casualty ratio, Gan Ning hesitated for a moment and shouted to the side: "If you keep hiding, I'm really finished. If I die, do you think these people will let you go?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Liao immediately looked in the direction where Gan Ning was speaking.

As the voice fell, Cao Ren came over from a distance with nearly 10,000 cavalrymen and surrounded the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun.

"Cao Ren? How did you recover so quickly?"

(End of this chapter)