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

Chapter 557 Western forces!

Because he had to guard against Cao Cao in Yizhou and Sun Jian in Yangzhou, and also prepare for the war in Jiaozhou, he really did not have the extra energy to manage such a large area.

The most important thing is that the city defense construction of the thirty-six countries in the Western Regions is completely substandard. The city walls are not even as high as a county town in the Han Dynasty. If troops are stationed in such a place, there will be no defense capability at all.

In order to defend these places, the city walls must be strengthened, and Gu Rubing cannot afford such an investment.

The continuous wars had already caused Gu Rubing to spend more than he earned, and the fine salt business could no longer sustain such consumption.

"What is this Parthian Empire and the Roman Empire? A small country in the Western Regions?"

Zhang Fei looked at the information in his hand with some curiosity and asked in a low voice.

Upon hearing this, Gu Rubing didn't know how to explain. According to the standards of the Han Dynasty, any foreign country was a small country. But he knew in his heart that the Parthian Empire and the Roman Empire were both powerful countries that were not much weaker than the Han Dynasty.

Although it was one of the four great empires, the Kushan Empire was surrounded by small countries and had no ambition to conquer, which led to a significant weakening of its domestic strength. The rank of its generals was not high, and there were even only two famous generals in the country. But it was different for Parthia and Rome. According to intelligence, they had been fighting all the time and had annexed many countries, including Athens and Greece.

And because of the disordered timeline, many powerful generals from the two empires appeared together. Even Gu Rubing had to pay attention to the two empires now.

In terms of intelligence, Zhuge Liang was also asking whether it was necessary to send reinforcements to Taishi Ci.

Gu Rubing looked at the people he could use and the troops he had. The successive battles had consumed too much resources, and Taishi Ci no longer had any extra troops to send.

The only way at the moment is to ease the situation when meeting with Cao Cao and others, so that I can have more time to recover.

"Send the old general here."

Guan Yu nodded.

Not long after, Huang Zhong walked in and looked at the four legendary generals in the tent.

Even though Huang Zhong had lived for many years and was indifferent to everything, he couldn't help but feel envious. He had fantasized countless times that he could become a legendary general and fight for Gu Rubing. But unfortunately, he made no progress. Every time he was the commander of the central army, he had few opportunities to play in the battlefield.

"My lord, what are your orders?"

"I just heard you say that Guangxin County is within easy reach?"

Huang Zhong nodded. It was just a county town, and Huang Zhong didn't care about it. He thought Gu Rubing wouldn't care either. But at this time, when Gu Rubing brought it up, Huang Zhong became a little curious.

"My lord, are you going to attack Guangxin County? I'll go right away. Just give me half an hour!"

After saying this, Huang Zhong prepared to turn around and leave.

"No hurry, send a message to Cao Cao and tell him to meet in Nanhai County in three days!"

Huang Zhong nodded, but his expression soon changed.

"My lord, this Nanhai County is Sun Jian's territory. If we go there like this, isn't it a bit..."

"It belongs to Sun Jian now, but it may not be the case in three days. The first fire will be set in Guangxin County."

Huang Zhong immediately understood what Gu Rubing meant and nodded quickly.

Night is falling!

In order to prevent Sun Ce from taking action, Gu Rubing deliberately did not bring Guan Yu and others. He only brought Zhao Yun, a legendary general, and followed him from a distance to prevent any accidents.

Huang Zhong and Wei Yan, following behind Gu Rubing, led an army of 50,000 and rushed directly towards Guangxin County.

The last time, after Guangxin County was attacked, Zhou Yu learned the news and immediately ordered people to strengthen the city defenses. There are now 5,000 people stationed in the county, and Xu Sheng is personally stationed there.

This time, an army of 50,000 people marched towards Guangxin County. Due to the large number of people, they were discovered by Sun Jian's spies at the first time, and the news was told to Xu Sheng.

And Xu Sheng was also fully prepared.

A large number of defensive equipment were moved onto the city walls, and 5,000 Yangzhou troops were also on the city walls, ready for battle. At the same time, Xu Sheng sent someone to inform Zhou Yu of the situation here, asking Zhou Yu to be ready to provide support at any time.

When Gu Rubing and his men arrived outside the city, they saw the heavily defended county town and even saw Xu Sheng's figure. He smiled and nodded to Huang Zhong standing beside him.

Huang Zhong understood immediately and walked out of the crowd with two hundred White Feather Light Cavalry.

"Huang Zhong, have you forgotten that we are in a truce period? Are you going to destroy our peace? Last time you attacked Guangxin County, our Grand Commander did not cause trouble for you because we were in a truce. How dare you come here again? If something happens, can you afford it?"

In the darkness, Xu Sheng could only see Huang Zhong walking out, and could not see Gu Rubing in the crowd in the dark.

However, Huang Zhong sneered at Xu Sheng's words, did not respond, but waved his hand directly.

Two hundred White Feather Light Cavalry directly pulled out their rockets and shot them towards the city.

Seeing this, Xu Sheng quickly hid himself, only to discover that the arrows seemed to have been shot off target and did not hit any part of the city wall, but instead fell into the city.

"Haha, Huang Zhong, you are really old. You can't even shoot an arrow accurately."

"What's the hurry? Let the arrow fly for a while!"

Gu Rubing's voice then rang out.

"Fly for a while? What do you mean by fly for a while?"

Xu Sheng was a little surprised to see Gu Rubing appear, but he didn't have any extra time to think about what to do.

Xu Sheng obviously did not understand what Gu Rubing meant.

Soon Xu Sheng discovered that it was late at night and there were only a few torches around him, so why did it feel like daybreak?

"Oh no, General. The city is on fire."

"You're talking nonsense. Huang Zhong just shot over here. Two hundred arrows can set the city on fire. How big of a fire can that be?"

Xu Sheng cursed while looking towards the city.

This time he finally understood why the city wall was so bright.

At this time, the entire city was covered in fire, especially the warehouse, which was directly ignited.

How could this be?
Xu Rong looked bewildered. It was not that he had never launched rockets before. To be more precise, he launched them quite often. But no matter how many times he launched them, more than 200 rockets could never create the current effect.

"Fire...the God of Fire is coming?"

After seeing this situation, several soldiers widened their eyes and kept shouting.

The appearance of these voices directly alarmed the other people. The people here believed in and feared the gods very much. Once it was related to the gods, they couldn't even muster the slightest desire to fight.

Soon, more and more people knew about the God of Fire, and in the end, the entire 5,000 Yangzhou troops were in chaos. "Bullshit, what God of Fire?"

Seeing that the army was somewhat out of control, Xu Sheng immediately spoke out in rebuttal.

"So, General, what do you think it is? How could two hundred rockets have such an effect?"

A centurion pointed excitedly at the sea of ​​fire below. Under the threat of the so-called God of Fire, these people had given up their awe of Xu Sheng.

Upon hearing this, Xu Sheng swung his sword and killed the centurion in front of him.

This action indeed calmed down the panicked crowd.

Soon, Xu Sheng smelled kerosene in the air and immediately understood.

At the beginning, Zhou Yu was also a little curious about Huang Zhong and his men's departure after the sneak attack. He originally wanted to come and check it out in person, but was stopped by some things and just asked Xu Sheng to come and take charge.

After Xu Sheng arrived, he simply checked the city walls, city gates, supplies and so on, without any detailed inspection. After all, it was just a county town, who would care about those things? But this time he suffered a loss.

"This is not Vulcan, this is kerosene, retreat!"

Xu Sheng saw that his men had no will to fight anymore. Although they knew it was kerosene, the city was already a sea of ​​fire. The defensive equipment in his hands was not enough. The things in the warehouse were also burned. Now, except retreating, he had no other choice in the face of an army of 50,000.

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As Xu Rong retreated, Gu Rubing led his army into the city smoothly.

"My lord, where shall we attack next?"

"We're not going anywhere. We'll just wait here and put out the fire first!"

Huang Zhong and Wei Yan immediately organized people to put out the fire. At the same time, they began to deploy the city defense equipment they brought with them, and dispatched reinforcements from the camp.

Zhou Yu was also very surprised when he learned that Xu Sheng had been defeated. He had already prepared everything and was ready to provide support immediately when Xu Sheng needed it. But what he got was that Xu Sheng returned with 5,000 men, and the city was lost?
After seeing Xu Sheng, Zhou Yu shouted, "Come here, take Xu Sheng away. I will beat him forty times!"

Soon a soldier came forward and tried to pull Xu Sheng, who was kneeling in front of them, down.

"Grand Commander, I refuse to accept the defeat!"

Xu Sheng stood up, pushed the soldiers around him aside, and looked at Zhou Yu unwillingly.

"Don't accept it? Five thousand men defended a county town. Even if you couldn't hold the town, I wouldn't say anything to you. Now the town is lost, and the five thousand men didn't lose anything. Aren't you deserting the battlefield? According to military regulations, deserters shall be executed immediately. However, considering that you, Xu Sheng, have many years of military merit, I will spare your death, but you can't escape the punishment of life. Forty strokes of the sword are a warning to you, and also a warning to everyone!"

When everyone heard this, they looked at each other and suppressed their urge to plead for Xu Sheng.

"General, I did not flee from the battlefield."

Then Xu Sheng recounted what had happened.

"Kerosene?"

Zhou Yu immediately reacted when he heard this and realized that Huang Zhong must have been prepared when he left.

At this time, Zhou Yu was also a little regretful. He wondered why he didn't go and take a look. If he had gone, he would definitely have found the kerosene loophole.

"This kerosene must have been placed there deliberately by Huang Zhong when he left. I'm charging you with the crime of lax supervision. You have nothing to say, right? Come here, twenty sticks."

This time Xu Sheng really had nothing to say. He had lost the battle and lost so miserably, so naturally he needed some punishment.

Immediately afterwards, Xu Sheng's screams were heard outside.

When the people in the tent heard this sound, they all frowned secretly.

This was a losing situation from the beginning. It's just a small county, why should the punishment be so severe? A strong man was beaten and screamed. How much strength must have been used?

"Grand Commander, is that enough? It was originally a warning, why do you have to do this? Besides, Guangxin City itself cannot be defended. Doesn't the Grand Commander know this?"

Han Dang was quite disgusted with Zhou Yu's behavior. In addition, he had followed Sun Jian in his early years, so he was naturally not afraid of what people around him said.

"Humph, today I am going to give all of you a warning. Anyone who dares to beg for mercy will be guilty of the same crime as Xu Sheng."

As soon as these words came out, everyone fell silent. Everyone could see that Zhou Yu was angry. No matter what, Zhou Yu was also the Grand Commander and had a high prestige in the army for many years, which was even higher than that of Sun Jian. Everyone present also believed in Zhou Yu, so they could only endure it.

Not long after, the screams outside stopped and Xu Sheng was dragged in by two soldiers.

Seeing Xu Sheng being beaten and bleeding, everyone frowned slightly.

"Grand Commander, you have gone too far. I will report this to the Lord and let him make a fair judgment."

Han Dang has always treated Xu Sheng as a junior, and the two of them have a very good relationship in private. Xu Sheng also regards Han Dang as his elder. Whenever they have time, the two of them will get together to drink. Now seeing Xu Sheng like this, Han Dang finally couldn't help it.

"Go ahead if you want to go. Okay, send General Xu back to recover. Everyone, go home now."

After that, everyone left the tent. Han Dang pulled his mount and wanted to leave the camp to complain to Sun Jian.

But just as he was about to mount his horse, a soldier came in front of Han Dang.

"General, the Grand Commander invites you!"

"Invite me? What? Do you want to lock me up? Zhou Yu has some prestige, but he is not qualified. If he attacks me and loses the battle, he will be beaten with a stick. Doesn't Zhou Yu have many defeats? I haven't seen how the lord treats him? He can be so cruel to his own brother. He is too cruel."

Han Dang deliberately amplified the sound to attract the surrounding soldiers to come and watch. This was also Han Dang's strategy.

The more people knew that he was leaving, the less courage Zhou Yu had to take action against him even if he wanted to.

After all, the news cannot be covered up. Sooner or later, Sun Jian will find Zhou Yu and ask him for the person.

This army was indeed handed over to Zhou Yu, but no one knew how many spies Sun Jian had in secret.

Of course, there are not only Sun Jian’s spies in this camp, but also Gu Rubing’s.

It didn't take long for Gu Rubing to receive information from Zhou Yu's camp, including Xu Sheng who was beaten by Zhou Yu, and the angry Han Dang.

"What's wrong with Zhou Yu? Why is he so cruel?"

Gu Rubing muttered softly.

Zhang Fei, who was standing by, heard Gu Rubing's words and waved his hand indifferently, saying, "Brother, you should be punished for being defeated and deserting the battlefield! Why bother about it!"

Gu Rubing nodded and didn't care about it.

Just as Han Dang was shouting, another soldier came up to him and whispered something in his ear.

(End of this chapter)