My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 668 Fan Dunqiu Po
Shi Huan, however, was more worried than pleased, because the troops gathered here were already his most elite forces.

When Shi Huan entered Shu, his 4,000 men were the most elite of Cao Cao's main force. Most of them were experienced veterans with good equipment, and the rest were young and strong men.

However, the battles after entering Shu caused considerable casualties to Shi Huan's troops. Apart from the wounded soldiers returning to their units, the rest were replenished by selecting strong and healthy young men from the Hanzhong County soldiers and the young men and men of Shu.

As a result, although Shi Huan's troops were still at full strength, their combat effectiveness had decreased.

The thousand or so men currently engaged in fierce battle with Wen Ping's troops are the most elite veterans under Shi Huan's command. Not only are more than 70% of the soldiers veterans, but they are also equipped with most of the iron armor of Shi Huan's troops, as well as the best protective leather armor and long and short weapons.

With such elite troops, plus the crossbows on the giant shield wagons providing cover, they could only gain the upper hand. Not to mention driving the Zuo Mu army out of the camp walls, they were even struggling to repel them. How could Shi Huan be happy about this?

It should be noted that the Left Army on the other two sides was also attacking the stockade walls, but because they lacked the siege equipment from Wen Ping's side, they had to resort to swarming attacks, and their progress was minimal.

The problem is that prolonged defense inevitably leads to defeat, and the defending army must maintain a strong mobile force for counter-offensive operations. However, the mobile force under Shi Huan's command is currently being held tightly by Wen Ping's troops.

Once the Left Army made progress and breakthroughs in other directions, Shi Huan had almost no effective forces left to use for a counterattack.

Shi Huan's face was grim. Although extremely unwilling, faced with such a crucial matter, he made the right decision: to seek help from Cao Ang. In Shi Huan's view, the war had only just begun, and he, possessing a strategically important stronghold, was the first to ask for reinforcements. He wondered how Cao Ang, the commander-in-chief, would view him.
However, compared to Cao Ang's possible contempt and dissatisfaction, the consequences of losing Fandunqiu were undoubtedly more terrible, and Shi Huan dared not gamble with Cao's army.

In fact, Shi Huan was overthinking things.

Upon seeing the unusual events at Fandunqiu from afar, Cao Ang, on Sima Yi's advice, appointed Cao Gong as general and led two thousand reinforcements on a swift journey.

No one understood better than Cao Ang and Sima Yi what the loss of Fandunqiu would mean.

That would be the starting point for the collapse of the entire coalition.

After sending out a messenger seeking reinforcements, Shi Huan breathed a sigh of relief and turned his attention back to the main battlefield.

Just as he had expected, Zuo Mujun not only did not back down, but kept raising the price.

Two more elite soldiers stepped onto the battlefield, replacing their tired comrades from the two older garrisons. After the two sides switched lines, the elite soldiers continued their fierce attack on Cao Cao's position.

The casualties among armored soldiers in battle were quite small.

The greatest casualties among armored warriors often occur at two points in time. The first is after defeat and collapse, when the armored warriors will be like frightened rabbits, allowing their opponents to hunt them down at will.

The second type is close-quarters melee combat. In this situation, the unit is often disorganized and the cover of comrades is lost. The fighting only lasts for a moment, and the casualty intensity naturally rises sharply.

But neither of those situations applies now. As a result, the fighting on the front lines is fierce, but the casualties are not high. Instead, fatigue is increasing rapidly, and both sides have to rotate their troops.

This rotation process puts a great strain on the commander's experience and judgment; otherwise, the enemy can easily exploit weaknesses and open up the situation.

The soldiers who were relieved of their duties removed their heavy armor with the help of their auxiliary soldiers, and large amounts of sweat gushed out, like small fountains, wetting the soil on the ground.

But the soldiers didn't care about any of that. They were panting heavily as they poured water from their water bags into their throats.

Shi Huan frowned. At present, the casualty ratio was that of Cao Cao's army, with the exchange ratio between the two sides being about seven to ten, with Cao Cao's army at seven and Zuo Mu's army at ten.

However, Shi Huan became increasingly worried. Wen Ping's troops were suffering from an unfavorable casualty ratio, yet they were continuously sending in reinforcements. In just half an hour, all ten melee detachments under Wen Ping's command had been deployed and rotated.

Wen Ping did not back down at all. He continued to rotate the rested soldiers back up. He even advanced himself to the outskirts of the camp. If it weren't for his personal guards holding him back, he would have already entered the range of the crossbows to command.

Wen Ze, who was charging at the forefront, also suffered three arrow wounds, two spear wounds, and was even hit in the chest by Tie Gua, which dented the breastplate of his Mingguang armor. But he still shouted that he was fighting fiercely, and after only resting for the time it takes to drink two cups of tea, he charged back up.

Based on Shi Huan's experience, the Left Guard Army was already quite exhausted at this point, and the situation was very favorable to Cao Cao's army.

If Shi Huan still had a fresh force at his disposal, not many, just five hundred armored soldiers, a counter-charge could very well disrupt the enemy's formation and drive the Left Guard Army out of their camp.

Outside the camp was a slope. Once the Left Army was driven out of the camp, they could not regroup and could only retreat all the way down the hill.

Then, the remaining giant shield wagons can be used to block the gap, and the Left Army's efforts over the past hour will instantly be in vain. Shi Huan will then have the spare strength to deal with the Left Army's attacks from both flanks, and the danger will be eliminated.

Does Shi Huan still have the strength to spare?

The answer is no.

The only force they could muster was Shi Huan's personal guard, which numbered a mere hundred. Even with the archers, they couldn't muster three hundred men. Moreover, Shi Huan's archers had been engaged in continuous combat, and the constant firing had caused many of them to experience arm fatigue and exhaustion, making them no less physically drained than the armored soldiers on the front lines.

Could it be that troops were drawn from the other two stockade walls?

The thought had barely formed in his mind when Shi Huan nipped it in the bud.

His purpose in risking a counterattack was to have the capacity to deal with any sudden changes that might occur on the flanks. Now, by withdrawing troops from the flanks, doesn't this actually increase the possibility of such changes?

This is completely putting the cart before the horse.

At the critical moment, Shi Huan gritted his teeth and endured it. He did not withdraw troops from the two flanks, but only issued an order for the Imperial Guard to prepare for battle.

If given the opportunity, he still wants to launch a counterattack against Wen Ping.

Just as Shi Huan was patiently searching for an opportunity to strike, and Cao Gong's reinforcements were rushing to the rescue, a sudden and dramatic change occurred on the right side of Fandun Hill.

Suddenly, an armored officer leaped onto the stockade wall, first using his left shield to deflect the thrusts of two long spears from the guards, then rolling forward and slashing with his longsword, instantly cutting the calves of the two guards. He then used the momentum to smash a third guard down, and then used his shoulder armor to withstand the slashes of a fourth guard, before slashing his throat with a backhand.

In just a moment, the armored officer cleared out the four defenders on the city wall, and more Zuo Mu soldiers began to climb the wall in an endless stream.

"Excellent! This general is extremely brave!"

Liu Feng saw it from afar and was overjoyed. He pointed at the officer and praised, "This should be the first to charge!" In fact, Liu Feng's words could easily cause controversy. Although Wen Ping's troops were firmly blocked outside the second line of defense and had not made any progress, they had in fact already broken into the wooden palisade.

At this point, Liu Feng's decision to grant the first ascent to this general was not entirely wrong, but it was still somewhat unfair to the soldiers under Wen Ping's command.

"My lord, although this general is brave and has climbed the wall, Wen Zhongye has been fighting fiercely on Fandun Hill for a long time."

The speaker was Pang Hua from Jingzhou, who had recently been transferred to Shu with a group of scholars in order to assume important positions in Shu and stabilize the situation.

If we can defeat Cao Ang in today's battle, the overall situation in Shu will be settled. Next, we need to govern the region and restore people's livelihoods.

There are more than a dozen superior counties in Sichuan. In addition to Chengdu, counties such as Pixian, Luoxian, Guangdu, Jiangyuan, Wuyang, and Linqiong are all superior counties with more than 10,000 households. Moreover, they are rich in resources, including salt, iron, and lacquerware.

Liu Feng could leave more than half of the prefects of each prefecture to the local gentry of Yizhou as a means of appeasement, but for the counties below, especially the upper counties, Liu Feng planned to draw personnel from other provinces to replace them, with the number being at least 70%.

This approach can both stabilize the hearts of the people of Shu and prevent locals from forming cliques and undermining their authority.

Pang Hua was appointed by Liu Feng as the magistrate of Mianzhu and accompanied the army on the expedition.

Among the people present, Xu Shu was from Yuzhou, Sun Quan, Zhou Dao, Zhou Jun, and Gu Shao were all from Yangzhou, Chen Wan was from Xuzhou, and only the newly arrived Pang Hua was from Jingzhou.

As a native of Jingzhou, Pang Hua naturally had to argue his case for Wen Ping.

“What the mountain folk said is quite right; it was Feng who misspoke.”

Upon hearing Pang Hua's words, Liu Feng burst into laughter and directly admitted his mistake.

Pang Hua immediately knelt down: "General, you are pleased to hear criticism and readily accept advice. You are truly a wise ruler."

As Liu Feng's status rose and news of military victories came frequently, those around him became increasingly respectful, to the point of being overly flattering. Even a more flexible scholar like Pang Hua would choose very tactful words and accompany his advice with praise.

Although Liu Feng knew that this situation was not normal, he had no choice but to accept it. Right now, his every move would be over-interpreted by scholars from all over the country. Moreover, it was during a major war, so it was not a good time to make changes. He could only put it aside for the time being and try his best to maintain his own clarity of mind, reminding himself that he was also a mortal and could not lose his self-awareness.

Although Liu Feng patiently helped him up, he immediately turned his gaze back to where Fan Dunqiu was.

The general had just killed a Cao army officer and cut off his head. He held it high with one hand, seemingly shouting something.

The next moment, a deafening battle cry of victory rang out from the direction of the Left Army. It was very likely that the main general of Cao's army in this direction had been killed, or at the very least, a brave general of Cao's army had been killed.

As Liu Feng had guessed, the Cao army's banner on the eastern wall of Fandunqiu camp was quickly cut down and replaced with the banner of the Left Army.

Liu Feng was overjoyed. He immediately thought that victory was assured in this battle.

Shouts came from afar, and after listening carefully for a moment, Liu Feng's face showed surprise. He hadn't expected that the armored general of the Left Guard Army who had killed the enemy general and seized the flag was actually Lü Meng.

After capturing the enemy general and seizing the flag, Lü Meng commanded the left-wing army to expand outwards from the stockade walls.

After losing their commander, Cao Cao's army continued to fight desperately against the Left Guard Army. However, without a general to command them, their resistance could not form a battle line. The Left Guard Army easily found a breakthrough, and the number of Left Guard soldiers in black armor on the wall increased, eventually overwhelming Cao Cao's army.

During this process, Shi Huan did take some measures. He immediately dispatched his personal guards, who were already prepared for battle.

Even if the elite guard of only one hundred men was well-equipped, how could they possibly turn the tide?
Not to mention that they immediately ran into Lü Meng's troops who came to seize the gate, and the two sides immediately engaged in a fierce battle.

Lu Meng, with the ferocity of a tiger, killed three men in succession, and like a river flowing and a rock standing firm, he suppressed the counterattack of Cao's troops.

Seeing that Lü Meng had captured the North Gate, and looking at Cao Gong's reinforcements, who were still more than a mile away from Fandunqiu, Shi Huan sighed to the heavens.

Immediately, Shi Huan led the few remaining guards down from the watchtower, drew his sword from his waist, and silently walked towards the front line.

Shi Huan's appearance and entry into the battle undoubtedly boosted the morale of Cao Cao's army, but this was only a final burst of energy before it died down.

When Quan Cong, who followed, led his troops to charge Cao Cao's army from the rear, the already exhausted Cao Cao's army could no longer hold on.

Moments later, the shouts of Wen Ping's killing of Shi Huan rang out from the ranks, announcing the complete collapse of Cao Cao's army in Fandunqiu's camp.

A steady stream of Left Guard troops surged in, and Quan Cong even emerged directly from the North Gate, assuming a posture to confront Cao Gong.

The capture of Fandunqiu by the Left Army in just over an hour caused a great shock to the Cao army on the right flank and the Shu army on the left. Not to mention the lower-ranking soldiers, even Liu Zhang, Pang Xi, Zhang Ren and others couldn't help but feel fear.

It should be noted that in the previous military conference, their plan was to rely on Fandunqiu to suppress the center of the battlefield in order to gain the advantage of maneuverability in the inner lines.

No one expected that Fandunqiu, which was heavily guarded, would fall so easily.

It should be noted that Cao Ang had already placed Shi Huan's most elite troops, besides his own personal guards and Cao Ren's personal guards, at Fandunqiu. This was a full-strength unit of four thousand officers.

It wasn't that Cao Ang and his men didn't want to send more, but Fandunqiu was only so big, and sending 4,000 people was already saturated. Sending more would only increase their casualties when facing long-range fire.

Cao Ang's face turned deathly pale, and he stared blankly in the direction of Fandun Hill.

Sima Yi was the first to react, grabbing Cao Ang's arm and saying, "My lord, we must quickly send an order to Cao Gong to hold the line. We must not allow the Left Guard Army at Fandun Hill to take advantage of the situation and break through, otherwise our army's formation will be divided."

Cao Ang was jolted awake by Sima Yi's words and immediately realized what was happening.

When Fandunqiu was in the hands of the allied forces, it was a fortress that suppressed communication between the central and right flanks of the Left Wing Army. But once it fell into the hands of the Left Wing Army, the connection between the Cao army in the center and the Shu army on the left became extremely precarious.

(End of this chapter)