Chapter 261: Ambush in the mountains and capture of two generals After Zhang Liao learned that there were troops in Lishan, he led his troops all the way towards Lishan. However, Zhang Liao made a miscalculation. The number of soldiers behind Li Shan was not 3,000, but 6,000. The reason why Qin Zhen sent troops north was not to hide them, but to give the two of them an illusion. As long as they defeat these three thousand men, they can foil his plan of breaking into the camp in four days. From the very beginning, he had no intention of directly attacking Zhang Liao and Gao Shun's camps. Sending troops north first was to attract the attention of Gao Shun and Zhang Liao. He then continued to harass the enemy, giving the two the illusion that he wanted to tire out the enemy during these four days and then launch an attack in one fell swoop. Lishan was the ambush place he had prepared for the two of them at the beginning. The reason was the same as what Zhang Liao thought. Lishan was the only place within a radius of 100 miles where troops could be hidden.

As long as the two of them are determined to take the initiative to attack, they will definitely target this place. At this time in Lishan, there were the 3,000 troops originally led by Xu Sheng, and the 3,000 people brought by Qi Ji from the north. As soon as Zhang Liao took action, the scouts on the mountain informed Xu Sheng in the mountain of the news. Hearing that Zhang Liao had indeed fallen into the trap and was heading towards Lishan, Xu Sheng was overjoyed and said: "The enemy has fallen into the strategist's trap. Now is the time for us to attack with light cavalry!" Having said this, he contacted Qi Ji and asked Qi Ji to set up camp in the mountains, while he set an ambush in the middle of the mountain road. At the same time, Qin Zhen in the city also received the news and couldn't help but smile to everyone: "The day before yesterday I said that we could defeat the enemy's main camp in four days, and you all said that the enemy's defenses were very strict and difficult to attack." "Now they have fallen into my trap. The camp is empty. Tonight is the time to defeat the enemy." When everyone heard this, they looked at each other in bewilderment, thinking, who knew you could really lure the enemy out of the camp! However, although the enemy troops have left the camp, there are still thousands of soldiers and horses in the camp. Xiahou Lan thought for a while and said: "Military Advisor, although the enemy's defenses are weak, we only have 4,000 soldiers in the city." "The enemy's main camp still has a large number of people. Even if we defeat the troops outside the camp, it will be difficult to defeat the camp!" But when Qin Zhen heard this, he smiled slightly, raised his hand and stood up and said: "This is not difficult. I will use a little trick to transfer the general guarding the camp out!" After saying that, he began to deploy his troops again, and after some arrangements, he finalized all the plans. As both parties completed their preparations, time quietly came to night time. As soon as night fell, the more than a thousand soldiers from the north finished their meal and came to the river to beat drums and gongs. When the soldiers of Lu Bu's army saw this, they informed Gao Shun of the matter. Gao Shun heard this, although he was not in good spirits, he stroked his beard and smiled:

"Don't worry about you guys, after tonight, I will lead you all north tomorrow to vent your anger!" After he said this, he ordered his soldiers to guard against the troops from the north. On the other side, Zhang Liao left the camp and headed all the way to the east of Lishan. On the way, he sent many spies to investigate unusual movements in the city. As the time came to the second watch, the spy reported: "General, there is no sign of the soldiers in the city leaving the city!" "The enemy is now trying to set up camp on the west side of the lake, and they don't seem to be prepared!" After listening to the two orders, Zhang Liao nodded and ordered the troops to enter the mountains. Although Lishan is just the name of a mountain, it actually includes two mountain ranges in the north and south! The mountains in the north are high and the terrain is quite low, with many roads leading into the mountains. To the south are endless mountains, and a natural depression in the middle accumulates rainwater to form a small lake. Zhang Liao led his troops all the way in from the eastern mountain path. When they reached the lake, they saw dim lights on the lakeside in the distance. Through the reflection of the lake, one could see soldiers moving back and forth and talking non-stop. When Zhang Liao saw this, he was overjoyed, thinking that the enemy was completely unprepared and could be defeated with just one surprise attack! He immediately led his troops to bypass the northern shore of the lake, and ordered a thousand men to advance from the southern shore to block the enemy's retreat. After making these arrangements, he led his troops through the narrow pass and arrived in front of the camp. When I got closer to the camp and took a look, I saw that Liu Bei's army had set up camp by the lake. Apart from a row of fences, there was no defense at all. Zhang Liao was delighted upon seeing this, and hurriedly ordered a few people to go forward and dismantle the fence. As soon as the fence was removed, he heard shouts and screams from the south bank. Zhang Liao knew that a breakthrough had begun in the south, so he immediately mounted his horse and shouted: "All troops, listen up! Charge into the camp and help me break through the enemy camp!" With a shout, his men burst into a fierce roar and rushed into the camp. After such an attack, Liu Bei's army fled in all directions without any intention of resisting! Zhang Liao led his troops into the camp and suddenly saw the lights in the tent go out. The next second, the lights in the entire camp dimmed, and then a loud shout of shooting was heard. Then a large number of arrows were fired from the entire camp. Zhang Liao, who was charging ahead, was horrified when he saw this and hurriedly said: "Oh no! Our army has fallen into a trap. Retreat quickly! Retreat quickly!" As he spoke, his personal guards quickly raised their shields and stepped forward to help him block the arrow. But ordinary soldiers were not so lucky. The sudden rain of arrows did not give them any chance to react. Hundreds of people were killed in just the first round of arrows. Zhang Liao knew he had fallen into a trap and quickly retreated, but suddenly he heard shouts and screams from the rear. At the same time, a large amount of grass piles rolled down the mountain, and as torches were thrown, a big fire started along the entire mountain road. Looking at this situation, Zhang Liao felt disappointed.

I thought that there were only three thousand enemy troops on this mountain road, where did so many soldiers come from? Obviously, this was not an enemy camp at all, but an ambush specially set up by Qin Zhen! Thinking of this, he saw fires everywhere and the enemy coming from all directions, so he raised his knife and said anxiously: "Don't panic, follow me and fight your way out of the enemy camp!" As he said this, he gathered his cavalry and rushed towards the rear. This time, in order to break through Qin Zhen's army, Zhang Liao brought out all 700 cavalrymen. At this time, under his call, the cavalry under his command gathered and rushed towards the rear of the camp. But at this moment, a group of shield soldiers appeared in the narrow passage where they were coming and waited in formation. Seeing the enemy shield soldiers blocking the way, Zhang Liao became ruthless and ordered a charge. Hundreds of cavalrymen rushed towards the front formation, but before they arrived, another rain of arrows shot out from the enemy formation. Suddenly, a large number of horses were hit by arrows and fell to the ground with a neigh. Seeing this, Zhang Liao was furious and said, "Charge, charge, quickly break through the enemy formation!" The army in front of him was led by Xu Sheng himself. Seeing the enemy rushing towards him, he directly gave the order: "All troops, line up and help me stop the enemy!" Normally, when cavalry charges infantry, it is difficult to block the impact unless the infantry is equipped with heavy shields. However, when Zhang Liao's cavalry approached, they suddenly saw a large number of spear heads protruding from below the enemy formation. As soon as the horses arrived, the spear tips slashed violently. Suddenly, there was a burst of horse neighing, and dozens of knights fell directly to the front line! Zhang Liao was shocked when he saw his cavalry falling down, and he didn't understand what was happening. I thought to myself, maybe Qin Zhen must have used some evil magic to make his soldiers fall down suddenly? But when he rushed to the front, he found that there were barbs on the enemy's gun tips. That’s right, these are the batch of hook-and-sickle spears that Qin Zhen had made before! He had originally intended to guard against the cavalry under Lu Bu, but unfortunately Chen Gong caused trouble and it was not used. Later, this batch of military equipment was transported to the Shouchun government warehouse and has been stored there ever since. This time, in order to fight against Lu Bu, he ordered Qi Ji and others to bring this batch of equipment with him, and it was finally used here. The hook-and-sickle spear is similar in shape to a halberd, but is much lighter than a halberd! Because halberd soldiers had to deal with not only cavalry but also spearmen, the halberd head was heavy. The hook-and-sickle spear was designed specifically to deal with cavalry, and it could be extended from below to chop off the horse's legs. This tactic had not yet appeared when cavalry was in its infancy, and was not developed until the Song Dynasty. Although Zhang Liao was both wise and brave, he had never seen similar tactics. At this moment, he was still shocked when he saw the soldiers and horses falling in front of him, but he saw a flash of cold light, and the legs of the horse under him were cut off. Caught off guard, his center of gravity shifted, he rolled, and fell to the ground, knocked unconscious on the spot. By the time he reacted, a large number of soldiers had already restrained him. Seeing this, Zhang Liao dared not move again and was captured on the spot. As Zhang Liao was captured, the situation of the war gradually became clear and the fighting stopped soon. At the same time, inside Lu Bu's military camp, Gao Shun was waiting for news of victory from Zhang Liao.

Until now, he has not had a good sleep for three days and three nights, but even so, he dare not sleep! Because Zhang Liao is leading his troops out of the camp tonight, Qin Zhen is likely to take the opportunity to launch a surprise attack. So even if he was in agony, he didn't dare to slack off at this time and could only force himself to stay spirited. Fortunately, these days without rest should be coming to an end. As long as Zhang Liao can defeat the enemy army in front of him, he can solve Qin Zhen's arrangement. With this thought in mind, he naturally kept waiting, but just as the fourth watch came, he saw a group of soldiers returning, covered in blood. When Gao Shun saw this, he was shocked and asked hurriedly, and then he heard the soldier crying: "General, that Lishan Mountain is where the enemy is ambushing!" "As soon as our army entered the mountains, we were ambushed by the enemy. I hope the general can rescue us quickly!" When Gao Shun heard this, he trembled and said hurriedly: "Since you have fallen into a trap, where is General Zhang Liao?" Upon hearing this, the soldier said anxiously: "The enemy troops have all been driven out of the city, and now the general is trapped in the mountains!" "The general is having trouble breaking through, so he ordered us to fight our way out and ask for help!" "I hope the general will send troops to rescue him quickly, otherwise General Zhang Liao will be in danger!" As he said this, his face was full of anxiety, which made Gao Shun frown. Before he could say anything, a lieutenant beside him said: "General, since General Zhang is trapped, we might as well go and rescue him!" Gao Shun listened, hesitated for a while and said in a deep voice: "But there are only 4,000 soldiers left in my camp. If I leave again, won't the camp be empty?" Upon hearing this, the lieutenant hurriedly advised: "There are not many soldiers in the city. Now they are besieging the general. Where can they attack us?" "We only need to guard against the thousand-odd soldiers in the north, and we don't need to worry about the rest." "If I don't save you now, and cause the general to suffer, I'm afraid the lord will blame you in the future." Gao Shun listened to these words, pondered for a while, and thought that it was indeed true. Zhang Liao's army has 4,000 men. If Qin Zhen wants to defeat and besiege Zhang Liao, he will need at least 6,000 to 7,000 men! Including the troops on the other side of the river, there should be less than a thousand people in Qin Zhen City! It is difficult for such a small number of troops to even defend, so how can we break through his camp? After thinking for a while, he no longer had any concerns. He ordered more than a thousand soldiers to guard the camp, and then led his men towards the direction of Lishan. But when they were halfway there, they saw several defeated soldiers walking towards them. Gao Shun saw this and thought that Zhang Liao had already lost, so he quickly sent someone forward to question him. Upon asking him, he found out that Zhang Liao had been captured by the enemy not long after the war began. The siege situation that the soldier mentioned does not exist at all! Hearing this, Gao Shun felt a chill on his back and shouted: "Oh no! I've fallen into Qin Zhen's trap. Return to the army immediately!"

After saying this, he led his troops towards the camp. As soon as he arrived at the camp, he saw that the gate was closed, so he hurriedly ordered the soldiers to open it. After shouting, Qin Zhen came to the sentry post and said with a smile: "General, you are too late. This stronghold has already been captured by our army!" It turned out that the troops just now were also sent by Qin Zhen. As soon as Gao Shun left, the troops in the north crossed the river and launched an attack. The soldiers hurriedly defended the rear, but the front gate was breached by Xiahou Lan and others. As a result, under the suppression of absolute military force, the camp was captured in just three quarters of an hour. When Gao Shun saw this, he was so angry that his eyes widened, and he cursed and ordered his troops to attack. However, he saw bows and arrows being fired from inside the camp, and he could not get close. He was getting angry when suddenly he saw two groups of soldiers and horses charging out from the side of the camp. These two groups of troops were none other than General Lei Bu and General Xiahou Lan, each with more than a thousand men. In the past, with Gao Shun's bravery, two people advancing at the same time might not necessarily be able to be his opponent. But Gao Shun was already exhausted at this time. After a fierce battle, he was defeated and had to retreat to the south with more than a thousand soldiers. The two of them gave chase for more than ten miles and then encountered Xu Sheng's troops who came to intercept them. The three generals fought again, and finally Gao Shun was wounded several times, fell off his horse, and was captured on the spot. At this point, all of Lu Bu's 8,000 soldiers and horses were wiped out, and the two generals were captured by Qin Zhen. (End of this chapter)