Transmigrating to the Three Kingdoms as Lu Bu: I Have a Pseudo-Apocalypse System

Lu Bu replied, affirming Cheng Lian's actions and ordering him to send people to conduct a detailed survey of the Wuguan Road, especially the passes, towns, grain reserves, and potential locations for recruiting soldiers in the mountains.

This is his planned escape route and potential base of operations, which he must know thoroughly.

Meanwhile, the scouts that Lü Bu sent towards Chang'an also brought back the latest intelligence.

As predicted by Lü Bu, after the Liangzhou warlords Li Jue, Guo Si, Zhang Ji, and Fan Chou entered Chang'an, they indeed fell into fierce infighting.

Although they jointly controlled the court and held Emperor Liu Xie hostage, they were constantly arguing over the distribution of power.

The men suspected each other and all wanted to control the government and exclude others.

Although they wanted to pursue and kill Lü Bu who had escaped from Chang'an, their main focus was on court infighting and stabilizing the situation in Chang'an. After Zhong Huan's force of more than 2000 men was defeated by Lü Bu, they were temporarily unable to organize a large-scale army of tens of thousands of men to suppress him.

Upon receiving this news, Lü Bu felt much more at ease.

What he lacked most was time, and the infighting among Li, Guo, and others gave him a chance to catch his breath and grow stronger.

Even disregarding supplies, the two skill points he receives daily from the safe zone are enough to make him stronger.

Two days later, Lü Bu had increased his perception from 94 to 98. A Liangzhou cavalry force of about two hundred men appeared on the north bank of the Ba River, seemingly sent to investigate the situation.

Upon receiving the scout's report, Lü Bu's lips curled into a cold smile.

Why would you refuse supplies that are delivered to your door?

He resorted to his old tricks again, changing into ordinary military uniform, carrying a powerful bow, blending in with the scouts, quietly crossing the bridge, and approaching stealthily from the side.

When they were about 150 paces apart, Lü Bu drew his bow and arrow in the roadside bushes and aimed at the Liangzhou soldier (a high-level zombie) who was riding a horse and gesturing wildly.

The bow is drawn to its fullest extent, and the arrow flies like a shooting star!

"Whoosh—Pfft!"

The military officer fell from his horse, struck in the face by an arrow, and died on the spot.

[Ding! Congratulations, host, for killing one high-level zombie. Items dropped: ...]

As the notification sounded in his mind, the Bingzhou cavalry, under Zhang Liao's command, launched a fierce charge.

With their commander instantly killed, the two hundred Liangzhou soldiers were thrown into chaos, losing all will to fight. They were quickly scattered by the Bingzhou cavalry, suffering dozens of casualties, while the majority of the rest knelt down and surrendered.

After the battle, Lu Bu looked at the more than one hundred trembling surrendered soldiers in front of him, feeling nothing but anticipation for the system's rewards.

Following procedure, he ordered the weapons to be confiscated, and then announced that those who were willing to surrender would be spared death and incorporated into the auxiliary troops.

Most of the surrendered soldiers chose to surrender in order to save their lives.

Lu Bu received another wave of "purifying zombies" rewards, and the gold, silver, copper coins, food, and military equipment in his storage space saw another significant increase.

Although the drop rate of a single soldier is not as high as that of an officer, the sheer number of them, combined with the double rewards, makes the gains extremely substantial.

Although Zhang Liao and the others still had doubts about Lü Bu's merciful approach to accepting surrenders, they saw that it could indeed quickly replenish troops (even auxiliary troops), and that Lü Bu seemed confident, so they said no more.

They discovered that the current Marquis of Wen, though seemingly illogical in his actions, often had remarkable effects.

Lu Bu, meanwhile, was calculating in his mind that at this rate, by constantly defeating these small groups of enemy troops, he could both train his soldiers and acquire resources and manpower, and the snowball effect would soon become apparent.

He even somewhat hoped that Li Jue and Guo Si would send more "zombies".

For the next ten days or so, Li Jue and Guo Si were busy with internal strife and controlling the court, and did not send anyone to suppress Lü Bu. Lü Bu entered a relatively stable period of development.

By June 20th, Lu Bu's strength, stamina, damage resistance, reaction, agility, perception, halberd skills, archery skills, and horsemanship skills had all reached the maximum value of 100. Only a few skills such as speed, willpower, and swordsmanship were not yet maxed out.

Once these skills are maxed out, you can start pushing your limits and use the exchange rate of 10 skill points to improve one attribute to further enhance your skill attributes.

In addition, all the passes and towns along the Wuguan Road have been included in Lu Bu's safe zone, which has brought the population under his protection to over 1. The safe zone has been upgraded to level three, and the daily resources he receives have increased by an order of magnitude. He can also collect three skill points every day.

Once the safe zone is upgraded to level three, the daily rations received will be an order of magnitude higher, which will not only meet the army's daily needs but may even leave a surplus.

With Lu Bu's continuous supply of materials, the morale of the troops in the cities and passes along the Wuguan Road stabilized, and the people gradually gained their support.

In this era of war, Lü Bu's army not only refrained from looting, but also provided porridge and relief to displaced people, which was quite incredible.

The strategy of using work-for-relief in various county towns and passes also had an effect. Some refugees and poor people began to participate in the repair of city defenses and the reclamation of wasteland. The defenses of county towns and passes were strengthened, and the market was restored to its former vitality.

The county commandants rigorously trained their troops, breaking up and reorganizing veterans and newly recruited soldiers, with veterans serving as junior officers. They drilled day and night, and although it took time to improve combat effectiveness, at least their military discipline and formations were now quite respectable.

Lü Bu's forces had grown from the initial 800 cavalrymen to over 5000. Of course, the Wuguan Pass and Yaoguan Pass at both ends of the Wuguan Road required a large number of garrison troops, so the number of cavalrymen that Lü Bu could take out for field battles was not many, only a little over a thousand.

Under Zhang Liao's management, the Bahe Camp was as solid as a rock.

During this period, they also repelled several small-scale harassment attacks by Liangzhou troops, and each time they managed to achieve some gains and capture surrendered soldiers.

Lu Bu's archery skills were on full display in several small-scale skirmishes. His feats of sniping enemy leaders from over a hundred paces or even nearly two hundred paces away made the Bingzhou army revere him like a god and the Liangzhou army tremble with fear. The title of "Flying General" not only added a layer of mystery and terror to his bravery.

Besides handling military and political affairs, Lü Bu spent his days practicing martial arts and familiarizing himself with the strength and skills of this body.

On June 21, Lü Bu once again summoned his core members to the Lantian County government office.

Pointing to the map, he said to Zhang Liao, Hao Meng, Cao Xing, Meng Cheng, Zuo Feng, and others, "Our army has now initially established a foothold. Li Jue and Guo Si are busy with their internal strife and have no time to launch a major attack. This is a golden opportunity, and we cannot remain trapped in the mountains."

He pointed to other areas around Chang'an: "My plan is to send small elite forces, disguised as refugees or defeated soldiers, to infiltrate westward and northward, contact the scattered former Bingzhou troops, and gather the defeated soldiers. At the same time, they should investigate the enemy's troop deployments and grain storage locations around Chang'an."

He looked at Zhang Liao: "Wen Yuan, you are in charge of selecting clever and reliable soldiers to carry out this task."

Zhang Liao clasped his hands in a fist and said, "This humble general obeys!"

He then said to Meng Cheng, "Magistrate Meng, continue to intensify efforts to recruit refugees. You can send people to spread the word in the surrounding prefectures and counties that I, Lü Bu, am here and am willing to provide food, lodging, and land to recruit refugees and able-bodied men."

Meng Cheng: "Your subordinate obeys."

Finally, Lü Bu's gaze swept over the crowd, and he said in a deep voice, "Gentlemen, the difficult times have passed, but the road ahead remains fraught with peril. I hope you will all work together to help me, Lü Bu, carve out a place for myself in this chaotic world and achieve great things!"

"We are willing to follow the general and achieve great things!" the crowd responded in unison, their morale soaring.