Chapter 430 Southwest Meng Huo, Gu Rubing's Conjecture
Shi Xie's move 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 to let Sun Jian lead the troops to improve his ability, and secondly, to ask Shi Xie for money. He couldn't even make ends meet, so the first choice must be this rich and weak neighbor.
The two of them fell silent again. They were both foxes of a thousand years, and they knew each other's intentions very well. Now Shi Xie brought out some things that shouldn't be said openly, and his real meaning was to let Sun Jian stop while he was ahead and stop wanting 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 the situation and was just about to say something, but Sun Jian continued to smile.
"But Wei Yan, you've already said it, it's not good for me to refuse. I'll remember your favor! As for the garrison, let my son stay here first. I've transferred 20,000 troops to him, and they're on their way now. They should be here in two days."
Sun Jian smiled so happily, but Sun Jian grasped the degree very well. He got the benefits himself, but he didn't make Shi Xie too painful, so both sides were satisfied.
"Brother Wen Tai, you're too polite. My nephew is here, just like the head of the family. If you need anything, come to me."
Just some silver and garrison, it's nothing to Shi Xie. What Shi Xie lacks most is soldiers and combat power, and he has completely offended Gu Rubing. Only by firmly holding on to Sun Jian's thigh can he avoid being the first to be washed away in this torrent of history.
Sun Jian was not the strongest, of course. Gu Rubing and Cao Cao were stronger than Sun Jian. Even Liu Zhang of Yizhou dared to challenge Sun Jian, after all, Cao Cao was behind him. But they could not form an alliance with Shi Xie. Shi Xie could only choose Sun Jian, and only Sun Jian would accept him. The two were on the same boat.
"Bofu, listen to your uncle here, don't be willful."
"Father, don't worry, Bofu will definitely follow your uncle's command. Uncle, I will bother you for a while."
Sun Ce immediately stood up, clasped his fists and bowed to Sun Jian and Shi Xie, and his mouth was very sweet. Shi Xie also smiled. It was just some silver, which was insignificant to him, but in exchange for a favor now, it was definitely worth it.
This time, both of them got what they wanted. Shi Xie was worried that Sun Jian would ignore him because he had no time to care about other things, while Sun Jian wanted to get some money and let Sun Ce exercise more. However, what Shi Xie didn't know was that Sun Jian not only sent Sun Ce this time, but also brought Sun Quan, who was hidden among the two hundred riders. 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 and such a high reward. This exclusive task is nothing but survival.
This is the exclusive task that Sun Jian got after escaping his own death. The longer he survives, the more rewards he will get. Now, the bonus provided by this exclusive task has reached 700% of all attribute bonuses, which is not less than the bonus of first-class generals, and it has only been seven months. According to Sun Jian's calculation, the ratio of this exclusive task is about 100% of all attribute bonuses if he lives one more month.
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 ended. Otherwise, he would never agree to Cao Cao's request to start the Jingzhou War. Wouldn't it be better to develop steadily? Why fight with Gu Rubing to the death.
If he develops like this for one or two years, that would be thousands of all attribute bonuses. By then, Sun Ce and Sun Quan will also grow up. Who else in the world can compete with him? So now Sun Jian has changed his development direction, avoiding war. You, Cao Cao, can fight as you like. I will just focus on developing myself. Others have nothing to do with me.
Sun Jian must also win over Shi Xie, his ally. After all, it is a state with 100,000 troops. Besides, Shi Xie has what Sun Jian lacks the most: money!
Before coming to Jiaozhou, Sun Jian had sorted out all of this. 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 any behavior that could conflict with Gu Rubing. Even the soldiers stationed at the junction of Xuzhou and Yangzhou were withdrawn by Sun Jian, just to avoid any conflict with Gu Rubing and avoid affecting his exclusive mission.
After discussing all matters, Sun Jian took Gan Ning and more than a hundred cavalry away, leaving only Sun Ce and dozens of cavalry, and Sun Quan hiding among the dozens of cavalry, ready 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, and there were 20,000 cavalry about to arrive on the battlefield. For those barbarians, everything was enough.
In addition to Cao Cao, Sun Jian and Shi Xie, 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 people and Cao Cao's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, General Fa Qiu and the Lieutenant of Mojin to the Western Regions. They plowed the land three feet in the Western Regions. The entire top of Mount Lantuo had been emptied by them. Not only was the magnificent hall smashed and moved by them, but all the gold in the hall was moved away and put into the pockets of Cao Cao and Liu Zhang's military expenses.
In addition to gold and silver treasures, they also swept through more than 30 countries in the five major regimes in the Western Regions. More than 100,000 young and strong men of the right age in these more than 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. Some of them were captured and left with gold, silver or food, which was considered to be the utmost kindness.
More than 100,000 people were all sent to Cao Cao, who asked Xiahou Dun under Cao Cao to train these soldiers so that they could be transferred to regular army as soon as possible. In addition to these more than 100,000 strong men from the Western Regions, there were 300,000 reserve troops from Yizhou, Silizhou and Yuzhou. Among the three states, only Yuzhou had a relatively dense population, reaching tens of millions, while the populations of Yizhou and Silizhou were close to 10 million.
The three states together had a total population of about 40 million. It can be said that it took a lot of effort to recruit these 300,000 troops. After all, most of the people who joined the army were because their families could not afford to eat and had no food, so they had to join the army to earn some military pay to subsidize their families. A total of 400,000 reserve troops were all thrown to Cao Cao.
The training ground in Xudu simply could not accommodate so many new army reserves, so they could only bring part of the army outside the city of Xuchang. They leveled all the trees near a small hill outside the city, and finally created a site that could accommodate hundreds of thousands of troops for Xiahou Yuan to train his soldiers.
These more than 400,000 troops can be said to be the trump card of Cao Cao and Liu Zhang, and they will be used to deal with Gu Rubing's front-line army. After sending these hundreds of thousands of troops to Cao Cao, Liu Zhang returned to his own Yizhou. As soon as he returned to Yizhou, Liu Zhang received a piece of news that made him a little 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. It was led by a young general named Meng Huo. They wanted to start a rebellion and prepare to take Yongchang County and divide and rule. The local army of Yongchang County and some barbarian tribes in the south began to obey this young general as the leader of the tribe. In just one month, Yongchang County was taken down, and there was even a tendency to make Yongchang County an iron plate.
How could Liu Zhang tolerate such a needle under his nose, so as soon as he returned to Yizhou, Liu Zhang led all the troops of Yizhou to the south, ready to take down this little general. If he couldn't do it, then who would obey his orders in the future? At that time, Yizhou might fall apart from the inside.
He absolutely couldn't tolerate such a thing happening. He didn't perish under Gu Rubing's hands, but was disintegrated from the inside.
Therefore, Liu Zhang led an army of more than 100,000 troops to conquer this young general who became famous in just one month. This person was called Meng Huo, who was born in Yizhou County but was recognized by foreign barbarians.
Gu Rubing was still unaware of what happened in Yizhou. If Gu Rubing knew that Meng Huo had appeared, he would have to go to Yizhou to see if he could recruit this fierce general of Hou Shu. In history, in order to deter the barbarians in the southwest, Zhuge Liang had captured Meng Huo seven times. Of course, Meng Huo had unified the southern barbarians for many years at that time.
Gu Rubing is also busy training soldiers now, and with the presence of Wei Yan, Gu Rubing can transfer the newly recruited soldiers to regular troops more quickly.
Not long after the war ended, the three parties began a fierce arms race again, constantly recruiting and training new soldiers, and at the same time improving the level of their generals, because they all realized the power of the generals.
Netizens who originally thought that the Battle of Jingzhou would be the beginning of a decisive battle were somewhat disappointed. Almost 90% of netizens believed that after the Battle of Jingzhou, the pattern of the Han Dynasty should be determined. One of Gu Rubing, Cao Cao, and Sun Jian would 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 set off the decisive battle they imagined. In addition, they also launched a more intense military preparation than the last time. This situation made netizens have to doubt that as long as there was any more fighting, it would 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. They must upgrade their generals as soon as possible. Especially after seeing Guan Yu's strength, Gu Rubing became more determined in his thoughts.
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, Gu Rubing can do it even with his current strength, but it will cost too much. If other foreign races start to attack the Han Dynasty, it may cause a tragic event similar to the Five Barbarians' Rebellion in history.
Gu Rubing will never allow such a thing to happen, so before he can deal with Cao Cao and others without spending too much strength, Gu Rubing will not rashly start a decisive battle. Moreover, when he just entered the game, he clearly remembered that the game system had a prompt, which was to compete for the world.
Although the Han Dynasty can also be called the world, there are still foreign races of all sizes outside the Han Dynasty. Let's not talk about anything else, just say the five major regimes that have been destroyed in the Western Regions, the Xiongnu, Xianbei, and Wuhuan tribes in the north, the Goguryeo and Buyeo tribes on the peninsula, and the barbarians, Qiangs, and Di tribes in the southwest, and the Shanyue tribe in the southeast.
Besides them, Gu Rubing clearly knew that there were also the Western Continent and the Middle East Peninsula. As time went by, Gu Rubing felt that it was definitely not just the Han Dynasty that was fighting for hegemony. Perhaps when the day of true unification came, there would be other tasks.
Therefore, Gu Rubing needed to be fully prepared to deal with everything that might happen. Since coming here, Gu Rubing has become more and more pursuing security in everything, striving to be perfect and not fighting unprepared battles.
On the same day that Sun Jian went to Jiaozhou, Gu Rubing sent Ma Chao and Huang Zhong to Wuhuan. Because they had been with Gu Rubing for a short time, they were still first-class generals. The most urgent thing now was to promote them to famous generals. Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Zhang Liao, and Zhang He, four famous generals, 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 generals of the Xianbei to accumulate legendary general points and even promote them to legendary generals.
As the largest nomadic people in the north, the Xianbei tribe was even more powerful than the Xiongnu and Wuhuan combined. Even if they were combined, they were not as powerful as the Xianbei. They had the power to annex Wuhuan and the five Xiongnu kings 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.
In this huge chaotic background, the vassal states that had previously bowed to the Han Dynasty were now like a group of hungry wolves surrounding a fat sheep, ready to pounce on the fat sheep and tear off a few pieces of meat.