My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 654: The will to break through the enemy lines, Wen Pin will be beaten up as well ( words long chapter)

With the assistance of Xiang Chong, a military officer, Gao Shun formulated a plan to attack the mountain.

On the top of Lumen Mountain, the generals guarding the Cao army were also busy deploying countermeasures.

Cao's army had a large stronghold at Lumen Mountain, with a total of more than 10,000 defenders.

Among them were several thousand direct troops of Cao's army, led by Du Xi, a general under Cao Ren. There was also a group of former soldiers from Jingzhou, led by Wen Pin, who was dragged by Cai Mao to surrender to Cao.

Du Xi, a native of Dingling County, Yingchuan Commandery, defected to Cao Cao in the early years of the Jian'an period and subsequently served in Nanyang Commandery for many years. Later, when Liu Biao marched north to attack Nanyang, Du Xi led his county's troops in defense, repelling Liu Biao's attacks several times.

But in the end, at the most critical moment for Cao Cao in the Battle of Guandu, because a large number of troops from Nanyang were withdrawn to Guandu, the counties of Nanyang were finally captured by Liu Biao.

It was at that time that Du Xi was forced to retreat, and then he continued to defend the Tongbai Mountain defense line between Nanyang and Yingchuan with Yu Jin. After Cai Mao surrendered to Cao, Du Xi continued to follow Yu Jin south to take over the territory of Nanyang.

This time, Cao Ren and Yu Jin stationed heavy troops in Xiang and Fan, and handed over part of the flank defense line on the eastern front to Du Xi.

Although Wen Pin held a high position when he was under Liu Biao, now that he has joined Cao's army, he can only assist Du Xi.

Although Wen Pin was relatively loyal to Liu Biao in history, after Liu Biao's death, he made a little show and surrendered to Cao along with Liu Cong, helping Cao Cao guard the Hanbei part of Jiangxia County.

Historically, he had a deep feud with the Jiangdong generals, and later repelled the Jiangdong army's attacks on the northern part of Jiangxia many times. But at the same time, Wen Pin's relationship with Liu Qi did not seem to be good, which was very different from Huang Zhong. In history, when Liu Bei raised the banner of supporting Liu Qi and pacifying Jingzhou, he was unable to take over the Hanbei part of Jiangxia County, which shows that Wen Pin did not care about him at all.

So in this life, although the situation has changed a lot, I still can't avoid a battle with Wen Pin.

At this moment, seeing Gao Shun's army going around to the north of Lumen Mountain, setting up their battle array, and preparing to attack along the valley road up the mountain, Du Xi was naturally quite worried, so he discussed countermeasures with Wen Pin.

"The enemy came from the south via the Han River, but they deliberately circled around to the north of the mountain to launch their attack. It seems they understand the terrain of Lumen Mountain, knowing that it's steep in the south and gentle in the north, allowing for a steady and upward attack. Captain Wen, what do you think is the best strategy for defense?"

Wen Pin was in a dilemma, and he really couldn't come up with any good strategy. He could only persuade Du Xi to take steady steps:

"Your Majesty, you can set up several temporary defense lines along the main roads leading up the valley. We can resist step by step, wear down the enemy layer by layer, and then retreat in an orderly manner. I've also heard that General Cao doesn't intend to support us in a long-term defense and won't send reinforcements. We still have to think about ourselves. After wearing down the enemy, we must plan our retreat in advance."

Wen Pin pointed out several key locations for Du Xi, pointing out that the slopes on either side of the northern valley road were ideal for ambushes. If Gao Shun reached these points, the ambushes on both sides could be deployed simultaneously, attacking the enemy from three sides.

Du Xi had no better idea and could only adopt this approach.

Time was short, and Du Xi and Wen Pin had no time to set up temporary defensive fortifications.

Fortunately, at the strategic points of the mountain road, there were some old defensive lines made of chevaux de frise and deer horns, as well as some simple pits and trenches, which could be used.

After deploying the defense strategy, Du Xi asked Wen Pin again just in case if there was any way of retreat if they couldn't hold the city.

Wen Pin was very familiar with the terrain of the border area between Jiangxia County and Zhangling County, so he could answer this question fluently:

"The south side is the enemy's way, so there is naturally nowhere to retreat. There are small paths on both the east and west sides of Lumen Mountain that can lead down the mountain. They are slightly steeper than the main path up the mountain in the north, and the west side is steeper than the east.

But the west is close to the Han River, and our navy is inferior to Liu Bei's. We can only retreat to Tongbai Mountain from the east, find another valley to go north, retreat to Caiyang County, and then return to Fancheng or Xinye."

Du Xi nodded, indicating that he understood what was going on.

It's not that he was cowardly, but before the battle broke out, Cao Ren had already informed the generals on the front line.

Cao Ren estimated that Guan Yu or Huang Zhong might advance rashly, so he had no intention of defending the first line of defense to the end. He just wanted to use the terrain to consume a wave of enemies, and then try to preserve the manpower of Cao's army and retreat in an orderly manner.

The place of Lumen Mountain is indeed very important for the army coming from the south and for opening up the road to Xiangyang.

But for the defenders in the north, not every node has to be defended step by step, and there are still trade-offs to be made.

……

As both sides had their own plans, the two armies quickly deployed their troops and the war was about to break out.

In the afternoon of that day, Gao Shun reorganized his troops and led the main force of the landing force to the north side of Lumen Mountain, and then launched an upward attack along the upper valley road.

Gao Shun and Zhang Liao were both former generals under Lü Bu who later defected to Liu Bei. However, their paths to Liu Bei were very different, which led to a significant disparity in the number of troops they had left.

Zhang Liao was recovering from his injuries in Xia Pi City when Chen Deng used an inside trick to secretly open the city gate and let Zhao Yun in. He was then defeated and captured by Zhao Yun. Therefore, most of the remaining Lu Bu soldiers in Xia Pi City surrendered to Zhao Yun.

Zhang Liao also had thousands of former cavalrymen under his command, including hundreds of veterans who had followed him all the way from Bingzhou, all of whom were able to join Liu. When Guan Yu later entrusted Zhang Liao with important tasks, Zhang Liao was able to rely on these former soldiers as the backbone to slowly expand and train his army.

In contrast, Gao Shun was captured with Lu Bu in Pengcheng when Lu Bu was defeated. It was only because Lu Bu surrendered to Cao Cao that Gao Shun was able to save his life and go to Xudu with him.

Later, the conspiracy between Lü Bu and Dong Cheng to murder Cao was exposed. Before Lü Bu took action, Gao Shun was entrusted by Lü Bu to go to the battlefield of Runan to help him, but in fact he helped Lü Bu move his family and took the opportunity to escape.

This way of escaping meant that Gao Shun could not take his former soldiers from the Xianzhen Camp with him. When he left Xudu, he only brought a few personal guards with him. Even though they were all elite veterans from the Xianzhen Camp, the total number was too small, only about a hundred people.

Anyway, the total number of people in the entire team, including their families who needed to be concealed, would never exceed three hundred.

Over the years, Gao Shun participated in several battles and was entrusted with important tasks by Guan Yu. He also thought about using the method of training the Xianzhen Camp to train a new army, but it was different after all.

There are only one or two hundred veterans of the Xianzhen Camp who have survived from the time of Lu Bu's demise ten years ago to today.

Except for those who were kept by Gao Shun as personal guards, all those who were released, even if they were just ordinary soldiers back then, are now at least garrison commanders, commanding a hundred soldiers.

However, there is always a gain for every loss. Although Gao Shun could no longer select soldiers according to the standards of the Xianzhen Camp, Guan Yu's weapons and equipment were still very good, far better than when he followed Lu Bu.

Gao Shun liked to concentrate high-quality equipment and take the route of elite troops, so he still assembled a force of about 4,000 people, each of whom was equipped with a steel-filled breastplate, as well as the hem and sleeves of lamellar armor.

Half of them were equipped with forged steel-filled halberds, the other half were equipped with steel-filled horse-slashing swords, and even a few strong soldiers were selected to be equipped with heavy steel battle axes.

Some officers were equipped with dexterous hand crossbows as secondary weapons, which made it convenient for them to shoot at the enemy at close range and break the situation when charging into battle.

Taking into account the extra weight of the crossbow, the main weapons of these officers also had to be lightened. They could no longer use horse-cutting swords, but only one-handed waist knives and round shields.

Of course, these swords are also made of fine cast steel, and the quenching process is constantly improved, so the quality standards are definitely higher than those of the soldiers.

Historically, when Zhuge Liang was on a northern expedition, he asked the famous craftsman Pu Yuan to forge 3,000 knives in Xiegu. These knives were called magic knives, and they could split bamboo tubes filled with iron sand without curling the edge. It is said that this was because Pu Yuan was good at quenching, which could make the cooling process of the blade faster during quenching, thereby increasing the surface hardness.

In this life, Pu Yuan and his uncle had been found in Wuchang by the Zhuge brothers a few years ago (the plot in chapter 170 or so, if you forgot, go back and read it).

With Zhuge Jin's modern thinking and Pu Yuan's understanding of the physical and chemical principles of quenching, Liu Bei's army's high-end weapon quenching technology has become more and more sophisticated, and has opened up a generation gap with Cao's army.

The swords of these elite officers under Gao Shun could even cut through the rusty armor plates of Cao's army when they were chopped.

Of course, if you are facing a relatively well-made brand new lamellar armor, and the thickness is not cut corners, it is still a bit difficult. After all, a weapon like a saber is destined to be difficult to strike hard, and the pressure when cutting is too low.

But even this level of power is enough to scare the enemy.

Gao Shun's arrangement of troops and equipment for his "New Formation" was obviously designed specifically for siege missions such as attacking camps and cities.

Because if it is a field battle scene on the vast plains, it would be meaningless to equip the troops with so many horse-slashing swords, swords and shields with crossbows. It would be more convenient to equip the entire army with halberds/super-long spears.

On the vast plains, there is no room for maneuvering. It's a fair fight, and whoever has the longer weapon wins.

However, when attacking a city, the first batch of warriors cannot carry long spears, otherwise they will easily be shot down when climbing ladders or charging through buses.

Gao Shun's configuration fully takes into account the tactics of attacking from low to high, making a desperate attempt to open a gap, and then deploying long troops.

In the past four years, because there was no war in the Xuyang area, Gao Shun just guarded one side and trained his troops, and many people have forgotten his ability to attack strongholds.

Today, he finally had the opportunity to test the results of his training over the past few years.

……

Because the terrain of the northern valley of Lumen Mountain was not very open, after Gao Shun and Wen Pin had each formed their battle formations, the front of the battle between the two sides was relatively narrow.

The front row can only accommodate more than a hundred soldiers, and space must be left in the corridor so that the reserve troops in the back can replace them at any time and allow the tired reinforcements to retreat temporarily.

Wen Pin observed Gao Shun's military formations and was slightly shocked. "I never thought that after the Xianzhen Camp was destroyed along with Lü Bu, Gao Shun would be able to train such a well-organized and powerful army several years later. Just looking at their formations and military discipline, they will be difficult to deal with."

Wen Pin can be considered a general who is good at defense. In later generations of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" games, he must have been given some skill traits such as "perseverance" and "unyielding".

But today, facing Gao Shun, he was completely unsure.

According to the tactics he and Du Xi had discussed before the war, the task of setting up layers of defense and resisting at every step in today's battle would be completed by his former soldiers from Jingzhou.

The task of setting up ambushes in the dangerous places in the valley and on the hillsides on both sides was completed by Du Xi and his direct troops of Cao's army.

This was also due to the fact that Cao's soldiers were less familiar with the local terrain. If they were asked to fight mobile warfare, they would easily be unable to maneuver into position in time while running.

Therefore, the work of staying in a certain place and fighting hard battles could only be done by the veterans of Cao's army. The soldiers of Jingzhou were responsible for wearing down the enemy and feigning defeat to lure the enemy.

Now it seems that there may be no need to "fake defeat".

While Wen Pin was still thinking, Gao Shun had already led the soldiers of the "New Formation" to charge forward.

In the valley, there was only a thin line of chevaux-de-frise, deer horns, and a simple trench only two or three feet deep as the defense line of the Wenpin tribe, so the defense was not very strong.

The original purpose of digging the trench was just to get soil to consolidate the foundation of the deer antlers. After getting enough soil, they stopped digging, so it was so shallow.

Faced with this kind of fortification, there was not much pressure to climb up and attack, so Gao Shun did not need to let the horse-sword soldiers and sword and shield soldiers clear the way to climb. The first line of attack went directly to the steel-filled halberd soldiers, and the soldiers in the first row even held shields.

Considering that he was the attacking side, Gao Shun did not arrange a very dense formation. Instead, he basically placed every two columns together, with a small gap between the two columns.

This allowed the soldiers to maintain a relatively fast advance speed, preventing them from being tripped by friendly forces and forced to slow down. As for the disadvantages of a slightly loose formation, such as weakened support and poor defense against arrows, Gao Shun was naturally well aware of this and was willing to bear these consequences.

"Shoot!" Wen Pin ordered the archers to shoot as hard as they could. The clanging sound of metal clashing against each other was endless.

Some arrows were shot at just the right angles, penetrating the crowd from a slightly sideways angle and hitting the ankles and calves of the soldiers in the battle line.

Some soldiers fell to the ground without making a sound, but basically no one shouted or screamed to disturb their comrades. Even when they fell down in pain, they would try to fall to the side as much as possible so as not to block the running path of the soldiers in the back row and avoid being trampled by their comrades in the back row.

Seeing this scene, even though his own archers' rain of arrows knocked down dozens of enemy soldiers, Wen Pin still felt a chill.

He had never seen an enemy who had such strict control over the formation and discipline of his soldiers.

Wen Pin had also accompanied Huang Zhong in an attack on Nanyang County nine years prior, before the Battle of Guandu, where they had engaged Cao Cao's general, Yu Jin. Yu Jin, though a Cao general known for his strict discipline, was incapable of such command.

"Gao Shun managed his troops so rigorously. If it were someone else, their attacking formation would have been scattered, and the fallen soldiers would have trampled on each other."

Unfortunately, Gao Shun didn't give Wen Pin time to think. After Wen Pin fired three rounds of arrows, Gao Shun's soldiers had already rushed to the front, and the two sides soon engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat.

This was the first time that Wen Pin felt this kind of oppressive force. It seemed that his three rounds of arrow rain only caused some physical damage to the opponent's body, but failed to undermine the enemy's spirit and morale at all.

On the contrary, it was Wen Pin's Jingzhou soldiers who were shocked by the calmness, uniformity and proper handling of the situation when the enemy was shot. The morale of the shooting side actually dropped slightly and they became panic-stricken.

This overwhelming pressure is unimaginable to those who have not experienced it firsthand.

Long spears surged forward like a forest, and the Jingzhou soldiers behind the barricades also brandished their spears to resist. The clashing of spears in the air created a continuous muffled sound, and Gao Shun's soldiers were unable to break through immediately. Because they were on the defensive, the Jingzhou soldiers could form a tighter formation, allowing more soldiers to be deployed on the same front, providing better support for each other.

Gao Shun's attacking force had to consider the speed of the charge and could only advance in two rows. When they rushed to the front, they often had to face three or four enemy spears with two long spears. For a while, they could only swing their weapons to block the attack and had little energy to fight back.

The horizontal branch of the Bu-shaped halberd is very suitable for blocking and sweeping ordinary spears. Gao Shun's halberd soldiers work together in pairs. Often one person can sweep and block the enemy's spear, while the other can suddenly stab it.

This kind of coordination is somewhat similar to the wolf-whip and long spear combination of Qi Jiguang's Mandarin Duck Formation in later generations.

The purpose of long weapons with horizontal blades and branches is to entangle the enemy's long weapons. The branches of later wolf-whips are only several times more than those of iron halberds.

After Gao Shun's vanguard troops struggled to hold on for a while, the gap in the number of people on the front lines of both sides was quickly narrowed as the attacking side gained a foothold and the subsequent formations filled the gaps in the formation.

At this time, Gao Shun's troops' advantage quickly became apparent. Some of them used horizontal blades to sweep, often entangled several times the enemy's weapons, creating opportunities for their comrades to assassinate.

After fighting for a while, Wen Pin's former Jingzhou soldiers realized that something was wrong and were almost in despair.

"How come these enemies are so well-equipped? Even if the spears hit them, they would slide aside!"

"How can there be such a powerful warrior who can only serve as a soldier? He was able to block the force of three people stabbing at him by himself?"

Thoughts like these kept popping up in the minds of the Jingzhou soldiers.

They all discovered that the steel-filled breastplates of Gao Shun's soldiers were of very good quality. As long as the spears did not hit them vertically, but were slightly tilted, the spears would easily slip away even if they were stabbed with all their strength, leaving only a white mark or scratch on the surface of the steel-filled breastplates.

Moreover, Gao Shun usually treats his elite men who receive special training very well.

In the past few years, after Guan Yu gave Gao Shun the power to command the army, he did not excessively interfere with Gao Shun's specific use of military supplies and materials, as long as he did not cause any withholding of wages.

Therefore, within the scope of his authority, Gao Shun tried his best to concentrate money, food and meat to subsidize the elite troops he trained as the "New Xianzhen Camp".

Although these soldiers could not be guaranteed to eat poultry and livestock, they were guaranteed to have one meal of fish every day, and occasionally eggs and yogurt products.

This level of nutrition is far more effective in training and growing muscles than the armies of other princes of the same period.

Therefore, Wen Pin's soldiers felt the opponent's obvious strength advantage as soon as they fought with them. In addition, Gao Shun's soldiers practiced using halberds very hard and knew how to use their strength to deflect the spears that were several times more powerful, which led to the crushing scene just now.

If the soldiers of Jingzhou had not used deer horns as cover, they would not have been able to hold out for even a cup of tea and would have been completely defeated.

As the halberds flew, Wen Pin's soldiers continued to fall, screaming. There were no scattered limbs or arms scattered across the battlefield, only intact bodies that fell to the ground with muffled sounds, occasionally with a few bloody holes.

Wen Pin inspected the battle line nervously, personally leading elite guards to supervise the battle and control the situation.

But he soon realized that he could not hold on for much longer. If he followed the original plan to wear out the enemy and then feign defeat, it would most likely turn into a complete rout.

"What should I do?" When the time came, he felt cold sweat on his forehead and had to make a decision.

However, within a few breaths, Wen Pin made the most correct decision: "The central and rear armies will retreat in batches immediately! Don't sound the horn! You guys go and give the order and lead the troops!"

If the horn was sounded, all the soldiers would retreat, and since they were the ones defending the line, there was no horn to sound. Rather than collapse completely, it would be better to withdraw as many as possible in batches.

Abandon the last line of soldiers to fill the line. At worst, let them surrender to the enemy after the collapse. At least most of them can be saved.

If you want to successfully feign defeat on the battlefield, this is a relatively low-cost way.

As a result, Wen Pin's rear formation soon began to loosen, and batches of reserve troops began to retreat, followed by the central army.

Gao Shun on the opposite side didn't notice it at first, because he was attacking from above and had a poor field of vision. But when Wen Pin's central army began to retreat, Gao Shun, who had a keen insight into the battlefield, immediately caught this.

"The enemy has been defeated! All the troops are pressing forward to make noise and shout!"

After Gao Shun made his deployment, the attacking troops under his command immediately increased their momentum, charging and roaring to undermine the morale of the Jingzhou soldiers.

The abandoned Jingzhou soldiers who were filling the line soon noticed Wen Pin's retreat, and their morale collapsed rapidly. In just a cup of tea or two, those soldiers who were cut off and separated surrendered one after another.

"General Gao, keep chasing! These enemies are so weak, they are definitely not Cao's elite troops." With the victory in the first battle, Gao Shun's generals were all in high spirits and encouraged Gao Shun to chase at full speed.

Gao Shun was cautious. He took a quick look at the mountains on both sides of the valley, and then said calmly, "It's not impossible to chase them. I've already seen that most of them are soldiers from Jingzhou. They were probably forced to surrender to Cao by Cai Mao. Let's quickly ask them which unit they belong to, and then make plans."

When Wen Pin attacked just now, in order to prevent Gao Shun from being alerted, he did not display his flag and name, so Gao Shun could not specifically confirm who the opponent's main general was.

This cannot be blamed on his lack of detailed intelligence work. It was just that it happened so suddenly that he could only do this much. There was nothing else he could do.

But now that they had captured some prisoners, those minor issues were no longer important. In just half a cup of tea, Gao Shun found out that the other side's general was Wen Pin.

"These are all soldiers from Jingzhou, and they are troops that have some friendship with Young Master Liu Qi and Huang Zhong. So, we are not afraid of continuing the assault. Even if there are ambushes, we can destroy them head-on... Moreover, the more fiercely I fight, the more likely it is that Tan Zhi and General Xiang will be able to attack us from both sides."

Gao Shun thought to himself that he had not expected that there might be an ambush on the mountain ahead, but he felt that he had the strength to do so.

Moreover, as long as we combine it with the shouting before the battle to attack the soldiers' hearts, and combine it with the situation of Wen Pin selling out his teammates just now, there is a chance that some of the Jingzhou soldiers will be shaken before the battle.

Wen Pin's desire to surrender to Cao does not mean that all his subordinates also want to surrender to Cao. Through this battle, Gao Shun also intended to teach Cao Cao a lesson and let Cao Cao know:
From now on, as long as Master Liu Qi and General Huang Lao are on the opposite side, do not send Liu Biao's old subordinates to fight the enemy in the field, as they may be taken away!

After figuring it out, Gao Shun led the main force to continue pursuing south along the valley.

Relying on the time difference he had just gained, Wen Pin managed to narrow the gap by two or three miles. After escaping seven or eight miles, they arrived at a valley deep in Lumen Mountain.

The road up the mountain became increasingly steeper, and there were steep slopes and dense forests on both sides.

After Wen Pin retreated to the valley, he immediately reorganized his defense line based on the existing simple fortifications in the area, intending to wait for the enemy to tire themselves out.

On the high slopes on both sides, there were Cao's direct troops led by Du Xi, who set up an ambush from a high position, all with their bows drawn and arrows loaded, crossbows fully strung, ready for battle.

As Gao Shun led his team into the preset position, Du Xi originally wanted to wait a while, until Gao Shun and Wen Pin were completely stuck in the battle, and then suddenly rush out.

He was worried that if he was exposed too early, Gao Shun would be scared away and would have a way to retreat.

However, the development of the situation soon exceeded Du Xi's expectations.

Because Gao Shun did not hesitate at all, and rushed straight at Wen Pin. While attacking, Gao Shun also asked his soldiers to shout:

"Soldiers of Jingzhou, stop working for Cao Cao! He doesn't treat you as human beings at all and will only lead you to your deaths!"

"Yu Jin was defeated by General Huang, and in the end, he only escaped by selling out the soldiers of Jingzhou! If it weren't for the Grand Marshal's kindness and General Huang's nostalgia, Cai Xun's soldiers would have been killed by Yu Jin long ago!"

"Wen Pin just abandoned his fellow brethren, why are you still working for him?"

Gao Shun's three words of persuasion were not made up, but all true. They started from the far and went to the near, with appropriate details and omissions.

Wen Pin's soldiers had just suffered a defeat and their morale was already unstable. Naturally, they began to waver at this moment, and even their efforts to rain arrows to stop the enemy became sparse.

After the two sides engaged in battle, as the bloody battle began again, Wen Pin's troops soon began to loosen up and some of them deserted.

Du Xi saw that Wen Pin was too weak and could not even hold on for such a short time, so he quickly issued two orders: one was to send people back to the camp on the top of the west mountain, and to pull as many reserve troops as possible from the guard camp, and to make sure they were deployed to the front to resist Gao Shun.

Another order, of course, was for all the Cao soldiers ambushed on the steep slopes on both sides to charge down from the high ground. Of course, before the charge, they should release as many waves of arrows as possible to suppress Gao Shun as much as possible.

"General! The Cao bandits have an ambush!" Some of Gao Shun's generals were a little panicked when they saw Du Xi coming to kill them.

Gao Shun, however, remained calm and resolute as he gave the order, "Why panic?! Charge forward with all your might and join Wen Pin's troops! Send the Cavalry Sword Team forward to engage in the melee!"

Gao Shun was very clear-headed. He knew that the charge of Cao's main force was nothing to be afraid of. As long as they were not allowed to continue shooting arrows from high places to harass and weaken their side, there would be no major problem.

The best way to prevent the enemy from shooting arrows continuously is to engage in a melee, so that the battle line is divided into two parts: you are in me and I am in you!
When Gao Shun's soldiers and Wen Pin's soldiers are mixed together, how can you, Du Xi, shoot arrows? Will you shoot at your own people as well?

Sure enough, as Gao Shun launched an all-out attack, he tore open another line of defense of Wen Pin's antler trench. The two sides became intertwined, and the threat of Du Xi's ambush was greatly reduced.

The reserve troops, armed with horse-slaying swords, rushed up from the corridors between the formations and joined the front line. They followed the gaps torn open by their comrades and poured in, engaging in a melee with Wen Pin.

While fighting, Gao Shun's soldiers were shouting slogans for surrender, and Wen Pin's troops were soon pushed to the brink of collapse.

Du Xi saw that the situation was getting out of control and was different from what he had expected. His actions became distorted and in a panic he ordered his men to shoot arrows to suppress the enemy without any hesitation.

As a result, this rain of arrows quickly caused the fighting spirit of Wen Pin's troops to collapse on the spot.

Gao Shun seized the opportunity to have his soldiers shout, "Brothers from Jingzhou! Cao Cao doesn't treat you as human beings at all! They're even shooting at their own people!"

The remnants of Wen Pin's troops collapsed and surrendered in large numbers like a flood that broke through a dam, and the battlefield became a complete chaos.

Although Du Xi still had the advantage of geographical location, the collapse of some friendly troops and their surrender to the enemy put him under tremendous pressure.

Not only did he lose all the advantage he had gained from the ambush, but he was also suppressed by Gao Shun to an absolute disadvantage.

The bloody battle lasted for a long time. Du Xi, who was struggling to hold on, finally managed to hold the front line with the help of the reserve troops guarding the camp from the rear camp, and he fought and retreated.

However, the morale boost brought about by the reinforcements did not last long.

Just over a quarter of an hour later, just as the sky was about to get completely dark, a huge fire suddenly broke out on the western hilltop.

The fire was so fierce and spread over a wide area, and it was dark, so it could be easily seen from several miles away.

"Oh no! Could it be that the Xishan camp was attacked?" Du Xi became panic-stricken for no reason when he saw the fire behind him.

Gao Shun, on the other side, led the remnants of Wen Pin's army who had defected from the battlefield, and pursued and attacked fiercely, while people shouted:
"Wen Pin is a scoundrel! Du Xi is a coward! General Guan has already divided his troops to attack the stronghold on the top of Lumen Mountain! Those who surrender will not be killed!"

Gao Shun's words were not a lie. Guan Ping was also General Guan. Although his position was not as high as that of a general of miscellaneous titles, and he had not even reached the rank of a general of a minor rank, this was not important.

When the Cao army heard the reputation of "General Guan", everyone naturally thought that Guan Yu had come with the main force.

And everyone could see the camp on fire when they turned around, so what was the point of fighting?

Du Xi's personal guards quickly lost their fighting spirit and fled under the cover of darkness. Only the most loyal guards escorted Du Xi as he fled east down the mountain.

Wen Pin, who was almost reduced to a commander without troops by Gao Shun and most of his subordinates were forced to surrender, could only abandon his armor and weapons, throw away everything that might reveal his identity as a senior general, and flee in panic.

Gao Shun took advantage of the situation and rushed to the west peak of Lumen Mountain. Late at night, he finally met up with Guan Ping and Xiang Chong.

"Tanzhi, well done! You are indeed a descendant of a military family, and you have inherited General Wei's true teachings. You have such military talent at such a young age!"

Guan Ping quickly thanked him: "It was General Gao who attacked head-on and defeated the enemy with his magnificent formation. We, the younger generation, just took advantage of it."

-

PS: I don’t want to interrupt the chapter about this small battle. Gao Shun hasn’t appeared for a long time, and his deeds in recent years also need to be reviewed interspersed, so I’ll just write a big chapter of 8,000 words in one go.

(End of this chapter)