Chapter 27: The Ruthless Yuan Shao

  Yesterday, dozens of brave generals fought against Lü Bu, suffering heavy casualties. Those dozen or so brave generals were usually proud and invincible in the eyes of ordinary soldiers, but they were slaughtered by Lü Bu like cutting vegetables, and Lü Bu had become a god-like existence in the eyes of these soldiers.

  But today, Lü Bu, the god of war, was defeated and injured. The soldiers were stunned for a moment, and the entire battlefield was silent.

  Yuan Shao waited until Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan returned to the front lines, then burst out laughing: "The three generals are so brave, now that Lü Bu is injured, Tiger Trap Pass can be taken with just a flick of the wrist."

  Xiahou Dun took a glance at Taishi Ci and found that his expression was quite strange, so he leaned in close to Taishi Ci and asked in a low voice: "Zi Yi, is there something wrong?"

  Tai Shi Zi hesitated for a moment, then replied in a low voice: "I think my arrow probably couldn't hit Lü Fengxian, but why did he happen to get shot?"

  "Haha......" Xiahou Yuan laughed and said: "Lü Bu is not a god, being hit by an arrow is nothing strange. Didn't Zhang Liao get injured by Zi Yi's bow and arrow yesterday?"

  Xiahou Dun had always thought it strange that Lü Bu had hesitated for a moment when he shot the arrow, and now that Taishi Ci mentioned it, he was even more certain that Lü Bu had intentionally hit him. Although Xiahou Dun was somewhat rough around the edges, he also felt that his brother's words were not entirely sincere, so he lowered his head, afraid that Taishi Ci would see through something.

  After all, Tai Shi Cai is an outsider.

  Lü Bu retreated back to Tiger Trap Pass, and Yuan Shao immediately began deploying troops and dispatching generals. The army of over a hundred thousand was divided into five teams, each with 20,000 men, led by Cao Cao, Liu Dai, Chunyu Qiong, Bao Xin, and others, taking turns attacking the city. Yuan Shao integrated the most elite soldiers from the entire allied army and personally took command, waiting for the final blow to decide the outcome.

  The first team attacking the city was Cao Cao, this was Li Chong's first time seeing a large-scale war, tens of thousands of soldiers carrying cloud ladders rushed towards Hu Bao Guan like ants.

  Battle cries shook heaven and earth.

  Just as the soldiers attacking the city were fifty paces away from the city wall, arrows suddenly rained down from Tiger Trap Pass, and in the blink of an eye, dozens of soldiers were pinned to the snowy ground.

  Cao Cao sat on his horse with a cold expression and shouted loudly: "Xiahou Dun supervised the battle, those who retreat... will be beheaded."

  Xiahou Dun responded with a loud "Yes!" and stood behind the siege team with a group of fierce soldiers, each holding a large, shining knife in their hand and carrying bows and arrows on their backs.

  The soldiers attacking the city ran quickly to the foot of the wall, dodging a hail of arrows, but the rolling logs and boulders came crashing down on their heads.

  The inferior wooden shields in the hands of these cannon fodder could not withstand the heavy wooden stones, and under the Tiger's Pass, blood and flesh flew instantly, and the miserable cries made people's hair stand on end.

  The soldiers who were attacking the city let out a loud cry and retreated like a tide, Xiahou Dun was enraged, he jumped on his horse and killed more than ten fleeing soldiers, and used his spear to pick up the corpse of one of the fleeing soldiers and threw it into the midst of the fleeing soldiers, shouting: "Attack the city for me, those who retreat will die!" At the same time, the supervisors also drew their bows and shot a round of chaotic arrows, killing dozens more.

  Seeing the fierce and ruthless commander, killing people without blinking an eye, these soldiers had no choice but to retreat with a stiff upper lip, once again facing the rolling logs and rocks on the city wall.

  Li Chong was beside Cao Cao and couldn't help but ask: "Lord Cao, I have something unclear. Although Lü Bu is brave, under such an offensive, what impact can he still have on the battle situation? Why must we defeat Lü Bu before attacking the city?"

  Cao Cao looked up at the Tiger Trap Pass and replied in a low voice: "Lü Bu is not defeated, the morale of the defending soldiers inside the Tiger Trap Pass has not fallen, and they may launch a counterattack at any time. Look, these attacking soldiers are all infantry, if they are charged by the cavalry inside the city, they will collapse immediately, and the siege equipment will be burned to ashes by Lü Bu."

  Li Chong heard this and asked in doubt: "Defeating Lü Bu can confirm that there will be no cavalry sent out from Tiger Trap Pass?"

  Cao Cao shook his head and said: "There is no absolute thing on the battlefield, Benchu just tried to increase the chances of winning a little bit, doing one's best and leaving it to fate."

  Li Chong nodded silently to himself, turned his head and took a glance at Yuan Shao standing on the high platform, and sighed in his heart. These warlords who occupied one side, even if they were defeated in the end like Yuan Shao, were far superior to him in military strength, and the depiction of these warlords in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms was not flattering, but only compared to Cao Cao and others.

  In other words, any lord who can hold his own territory is unlikely to be a military or political idiot, and none of them are energy-efficient lamps.

  Not to mention Li Zhongzheng worrying about his future battles with these vassals, the army attacking the city had already set up cloud ladders, and one by one, soldiers climbed up, carrying rolling logs and rocks on their heads.

  Compared to the allied army soldiers attacking the city, the soldiers at Tiger Trap Pass had the upper hand in every aspect except morale. In terms of terrain, armor and bravery, they were absolutely superior. The soldiers who climbed up to the city wall disappeared in the cold light of swords and guns in the blink of an eye.

  This wave of siege troops fought for two hours, with heavy casualties, and more than 5,000 soldiers were killed or wounded.

  Yuan Shao ordered: Cao Cao to withdraw his troops and Liu Dai to attack the city.

  The besieging army heard the order to retreat and retreated with joy, making a loud noise as they returned.

  Yuzhou Governor Liu Dai's method of attacking the city was exactly the same as Cao Cao's, treating human lives as worthless, not giving the defenders of Tiger Trap Pass a chance to breathe, 20,000 soldiers rushed up like madmen and engaged in close combat with the defenders.

  The sound of killing cries echoed everywhere in front of Tiger Trap Pass.

  Cao Cao withdrew his troops and retreated to one corner of the battlefield. After reporting back to Yuan Shao, he returned to carefully observe Liu Dai's attack on the city.

  After about an hour, Cao Cao pointed to the Tiger Trap Pass and said: "It seems that Lü Bu is not easy to deal with. It's been almost three hours, but I haven't seen his shadow on the city wall yet. Xiahou Dun, take a closer look."

  Xiahou Dun led the order, rode his horse across the battlefield and returned to Cao Cao's side, saying: "Report to Your Excellency, there is no figure of Lü Bu on the city wall."

  Cao Cao stroked his chin whiskers and asked: "Where is Zhang Liao?"

  Xiahou Dun replied: "I have seen Zhang Liao's banner, but I haven't seen Zhang Liao himself."

  "Ah!" Cao Cao nodded, puffed out a sigh, and slowly said: "Wait until Liu Dai's troops retreat, you go check the casualties of our soldiers, make sure to investigate carefully, understood?"

  After about two hours, Liu Dai retreated and it was Xun Yuqiong's turn to lead the troops in attacking the city.

  Soon after, Xiahou Dun returned to report that Liu Dai's army had lost over 4,000 men and more than 10,000 were wounded.

  Cao Cao nodded secretly, it seemed that the defenders on Tiger Trap Pass were getting tired. As long as Yuan Shao continued to attack strongly, Tiger Trap Pass would definitely fall into the hands of the allied forces.

  The current casualty ratio is about 1:5, five besieging soldiers can take one defender's life. Li Dian calculated that according to the intelligence, there are about 20,000 defenders on Tiger Trap Pass, which means that in order to annihilate all these defenders, the allied forces would have to pay a price of 100,000 casualties. Can Yuan Shao afford such a heavy loss?