Chapter 378: Trends of All Parties, Inventor Gu Rubing

It took three days for the Western Region to gather all 220,000 troops at the foot of Mount Nalanda, led by the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva, through Wudu County of Liangzhou, directly into Silizhou, and then rushed to Xudu.

Xiahou Dun had already left and went back to report the news here to Cao Cao. Once the monks arrived, they could start the war immediately. This time, even without Sun Jian's help, they could defeat Liu Bei, so they must prepare in advance.

Since Gu Rubing came out of Xudu, the entire Han Dynasty seemed to have calmed down. Sun Jian quietly dealt with his mess in Yangzhou. The last battle almost emptied him out. Chengde Military Town has now become an empty city, with ruins everywhere, and tombs and mass graves everywhere.

Even though Sun Jian sent out tens of thousands of troops and recruited many strong men from all over Yangzhou to deal with the bodies, it still took more than a month to complete. The entire Chengde Military Town was full of graves of all sizes. Chengde Military Town could not bury them, so they buried them outside the city wall. A grave city was built from Chengde Military Town.

The bloody rain on the battlefield around could not wash away the blood. Those who dealt with the bodies dug three feet into the ground to deal with the blood-soaked and blood-red soil. The hilltop directly became a blood mountain, and it would feel extremely gloomy when passing by at night.

They could dig out the blood soil and then cover it, but they could not dig the mountain, so they could only plant some trees to cover the mountain as much as possible.

Compared with the handling of the bodies in Chengde, what gave Sun Jian the most headache was the refugees from Yuzhang County. Where should they be resettled? After learning that the Jingzhou Army controlled Yuzhang County, many people chose to flee Yuzhang County, especially those counties controlled by Jingzhou. Almost half of the people chose to flee.

As the news of Chengde Military Town spread, nearly 30% of the people in almost every county in Yuzhang County, which was still under Sun Jian's control, fled to some safer counties and wanted to live there. They didn't want to experience what happened in Chengde.

Nearly 45% of the people in one county all poured into other counties in Yangzhou. Although it made it very convenient for Sun Jian to recruit soldiers, problems also came with it. Yangzhou was rich and saturated with people. Usually, a small number of refugees could be accommodated. But this time, with so many refugees, it was difficult to sleep on the street, not to mention food.

Fortunately, it was the spring equinox, and summer would come in two months. If it was winter, how much damage would it cause? Sun Jian didn't dare to think about it.

In addition to the livelihood, the military aspect also gave Sun Jian a headache. He originally planned to let Zhou Yu fight those foreign races to harvest a wave of attributes, but when he thought about Zhou Yu's many attributes, he would have to give up 10% after harvesting, so he held back. Instead of harvesting in other ways, it is better to keep this attribute and wait until the next battle with Liu Bei.

So Zhou Yu, who was originally sent to deal with the invasion of foreign races, was replaced by Sun Ce, just in time to maintain Sun Ce's attributes.

In order to have enough food and to find a place for their families to settle down, the young and middle-aged refugees chose to join the army and receive training, but they were all wandering soldiers without any foundation, and it would take a long time to train them into regular troops.

In this regard, the Yellow Turban Reserve has a great advantage. After the last battle, plus the training over the past month, 180,000 of the remaining 260,000 Yellow Turban Reserves have successfully transferred their jobs, and the remaining 80,000 must not be much different.

Gu Rubing, Cao Cao, and Sun Jian, all three of them entered a state of development. It seemed that they had calmed down, but in fact, everyone knew that this was just the calm before the storm. If the war started again, it would probably be the final decisive battle, so everyone was developing themselves at the fastest speed.

At the same time, Cao Cao personally left Xudu to visit Liu Zhang. Yizhou had not participated in any fights since the rebellion, and its power was well preserved. The next time the war started, he and Shi Xie would not be able to sit on the sidelines again. If they still chose not to stand on the side, then they would only be destroyed.

Liu Zhang obviously knew this very well. After all, he saw that the neighboring Jingzhou had casually taken half of Yuzhang County. How could he not be jealous? However, Yizhou was the southwestern border of the Han Dynasty. The southwestern barbarians and the countries in the Western Regions had always been eyeing Yizhou, so this was also the reason why Liu Zhang had not participated in their fight.

So when Cao Cao came to Yizhou, Liu Zhang personally went out of the city to welcome Cao Cao, and the two entered the city together. In fact, compared to Cao Cao, Liu Zhang was more inclined to cooperate with Liu Bei. Cooperating with Cao Cao was tantamount to seeking the skin of a tiger. If you are not careful, you will fall into an abyss. It was different with Liu Bei. The two were both relatives of the Han Dynasty and had blood ties. In addition, Liu Bei's reputation for benevolence and righteousness was praised by the world, and Liu Bei was now the number one vassal. No matter how you look at it, cooperating with Liu Bei is the best strategy.

But Liu Zhang always had a hurdle in his heart, that is Liu Biao and Ma Teng.

According to Liu Zhang's speculation, Liu Bei must be a player, and Liu Biao and Ma Teng should also be, but after Liu Bei took control of Jingzhou, Liu Biao died, and was replaced by his son. After quietly taking control of Liangzhou, Ma Teng also died. These two things are enough to show that Liu Bei can't tolerate other players at all. Then can he tolerate himself? Obviously not.

Maybe after he formed an alliance with Liu Bei, he would die inexplicably, and his son would eventually control Yizhou and serve Liu Bei. That's why Liu Zhang chose Cao Cao instead of Liu Bei, who had the best strategy.

At that time, when Cao Cao sent an envoy to send a letter to Liu Zhang, wanting to invite Liu Zhang to form an alliance, Liu Zhang directly replied to Cao Cao and came directly to Yizhou for an interview. Cao Cao was puzzled after learning about it, but he soon figured it out. Liu Zhang chose himself because of Liu Biao and Ma Teng.

And Cao Cao made a mistake. He sent people to kill Ma Teng and wanted to take control of Liangzhou, but Liu Bei intercepted him. As for Liu Biao, he simply died of illness, but Liu Zhang didn't know the inside story. In his opinion, Liu Biao and Ma Teng were killed by Liu Bei. How could he dare to cooperate with Liu Bei? Isn't he lighting a lamp in the toilet and seeking death?

Due to a strange combination of circumstances, Cao Cao, who was incompatible with each other, joined forces with Liu Zhang. The two chatted for several hours, and it felt like they had just met at a late date. In the end, the two hit it off and formed an alliance to fight Liu Bei.

It's just that Cao Cao didn't tell Liu Zhang about sending Xiahou Dun to the Western Regions. After all, Liu Zhang had been fighting in the Western Regions for many years. In addition, Liu Zhang was a clan member of the Han Dynasty. He might be willing to let him join forces to fight against Liu Bei, but if he was allowed to treason, It should be impossible. Cao Cao was afraid that telling him would cause unnecessary trouble in the future. As for giving Yizhou to the Western Region regime, Cao Cao didn't even mention a word. When the time came, he would give Yangzhou and Jingzhou in exchange. He didn't believe it. agree.

On the way back to Xudu, Cao Cao met Xiahou Dun, who had also reached an agreement. When he heard that the number of soldiers assigned to the Western Regions had been increased from 100,000 to 220,000, Cao Cao was ecstatic. He now had a total of There are only less than 150,000 troops, and nearly half of them are reserves. Their only role in the battle is cannon fodder. Now with 220,000 soldiers from the Western Regions, and Liu Zhang's help, Cao Cao now has absolute certainty and Liu Bei In one battle, he defeated Liu Bei.

Not only is Cao Cao wooing Liu Zhang from Yizhou, but Sun Jian is also wooing Shi Xie from Jiaozhou. Compared with Liu Zhang's feelings for the Han Dynasty, Shi Xie is different. He is a complete mercenary. He has never been involved before, purely because of Jiaozhou. The distance was too far, the long journey, and the battle line stretched too long, would do him no good.

In addition, he is doing a prosperous smuggling business in Jiaozhou and is very rich, so he is not willing to get involved. You can just fight your enemies. He can just make some money in this three-acre land in Jiaozhou. Lian Jiaozhou's Cangwu County defected to Jingzhou. At that time, he was too lazy to care about Liu Biao, so he just blackmailed Liu Biao severely and settled the matter.

So after Sun Jian came to him this time, he clearly expressed his request to Sun Jian. After the matter was completed, Jingzhou belonged to him, including all the existing money in Jingzhou.

Sun Jian naturally agreed. After all, it was not about handing over Yangzhou, and the two of them successfully concluded an alliance.

So far, after more than half a month, the thirteen states of the Central Plains have been divided into three camps. The most powerful among them is undoubtedly Gu Rubing, who holds the land of the eight states and also has the identity of the Lie King. The second is Gu Rubing. It was Cao Cao, who governed two states, signed an alliance agreement with Liu Zhang, and also invited more than 200,000 troops from the Western Regions, including 120,000 powerful monk soldiers. The weakest was Sun Jian. A part of Yangzhou was also occupied by Jingzhou, the same was true for Shixie, and Jiaozhou was also divided into a county by Jingzhou.

The three major forces were all dormant, hiding in the seemingly calm water pool of the Han Dynasty, quietly waiting for a big war to come.

Soon, another half month passed. During this half month, there was no war, not even some small frictions. The calm was a bit terrifying and made people shudder.

The weather is gradually getting hotter. In this half month, a new type of official salt suddenly appeared on the market. It is only available in Qingzhou. This kind of salt has small particles, delicate and fresh taste, and is easy to use. The price is not much more expensive than the original large pieces of official salt.

Once this kind of fine salt was launched, it was immediately sought after by the general public. A few days ago, no one was interested in it in Qingzhou. In the next few days, it was hard to find even a single salt in Sili Prefecture. Those who poured fine salt from Qingzhou to Sili Prefecture Those who sold them in Lizhou all made a fortune, but they turned around and were caught.

After another half month of fermentation, official salt shops with fine salt were opened in Qingzhou, Xuzhou, Yanzhou, Bingzhou, Jizhou, Jingzhou, Youzhou, and Liangzhou. Cao Cao and Sun Jian did not have a single family in their territory. Cao Cao and the others listened. After saying the word "fine salt", I immediately understood that this was Liu Bei's trick. They all knew that there was such a thing as "fine salt", but they didn't know how to refine coarse salt at all.

If Gu Rubing knew that they were beating their chests now, he would definitely shout out a famous saying, learn mathematics, physics and chemistry well, and you will not be afraid of traveling around the world, no, you should not be afraid of traveling across time!

After the launch of fine salt, it dominated the official salt market at an extremely fast speed. Not only that, within a month, official salt shops of fine salt were also opened in Sili, Yuzhou, Yangzhou and Jiaozhou, and Cao Cao and the others did not. Think about it, after all, they don't want to eat coarse salt, and everyone tacitly agrees to Gu Rubing's encroachment on their territory.

In Qingzhou Lie Prince's Mansion, Gu Rubing looked at the white silver in front of him and smiled so happily. Now he could understand Liu Biao a little bit, and making money was indeed very satisfying.

"My lord, I have asked a skilled craftsman to make some of the gunpowder you told me about last time. Take a look."

Zhuge Liang said and handed a pile of black powder to Gu Rubing. Gu Rubing stood up instantly, stopped looking at the silver coins on the other side, and began to observe the black powder in the tray.

"Is this prepared according to the proportions I gave you?"

Gu Rubing asked curiously. Although he knew the simple method of making gunpowder, he had never seen this kind of thing, so he was naturally very curious.

"One saltpeter, two sulfur, three charcoal, one part saltpeter, two parts sulfur, three parts charcoal, strictly follow this ratio."

"Take a box, put it in, and then I will demonstrate what this is and how to use it."

Gu Rubing was excited. He was only concerned with developing his own strength before, and had completely forgotten about these things. If Zhao Yun hadn't told him that the military budget was insufficient, he wouldn't think of making this thing now.

Originally just wanting to make some new things to make money, Gu Rubing naturally thought of sugar. After all, if there is salt, there is still a lack of sugar. However, Gu Rubing didn't have a method for making sugar in his mind, but there was a jingle, one saltpeter, two sulfur, three charcoal, add some white sugar, big Ivan, it was too magical, Gu Rubing remembered it after reading it once unintentionally.

In addition, the formula was simple, so Gu Rubing asked Zhuge Liang to try it out. If it was successful, gunpowder would likely replace the catapult and become the most powerful siege weapon, provided that they could produce a larger amount of gunpowder, otherwise it would still not be as good as the catapult.

Soon, the gunpowder was put into a wooden box, and Gu Rubing personally made a simple fuse with rushes, and then brought Guan Yu and others to the martial arts arena.

Because there was no war recently, Guan Yu and his men did not leave Qingzhou. This may be the most complete gathering of civil officials and military generals under Gu Rubing in history. Even Zhang Liao, who had been stationed in Xuzhou to guard against Sun Jian, had been in Qingzhou for some time. After all, Sun Jian was so busy that he could not figure out Yangzhou, so how could he have time to manage Xuzhou.

Soon, a group of civil officials and military generals gathered at the martial arts arena. The amount of gunpowder this time was not much, and Gu Rubing estimated that it would not have much effect, so he demonstrated it directly at the martial arts arena.

Everyone looked at Gu Rubing holding a tinder and something like a rush, wondering what it was. However, before they could ask, Gu Rubing had already lit the fuse and motioned everyone to stay away.

With a loud bang, a large pit more than one meter deep appeared on the originally flat ground!