Chapter 69: Black-Faced Zhou Cang

  The halberdiers quickly formed a line, their shields densely packed into an impenetrable wall. The long spearmen stood behind the halberdiers, resting their steel-tipped spears on the shoulders of the halberdiers, the cold light glinting from the spear tips protruding through the gaps in the shields. The archers behind them also formed several rows of horizontal arrays, bows at the ready and arrows strung, while the cavalry guarded both wings, arrayed in a strict formation.

  From a column of marching troops to an immobile defensive formation, the transformation took only a few blinks of an eye. The term "well-trained" is far from sufficient to describe this. All soldiers moved in unison, swift and agile, responding to enemy attacks with ease and shouting in unison: "Immobile as mountains!" Their voices were like thunder, their momentum like a rainbow.

  Those mountain bandits originally wanted to take advantage of their numerical superiority to launch a surprise attack on Liu Ze's army, but they were stunned to see this long, winding column transform into an impenetrable wall of copper and iron, and involuntarily felt a bit disheartened, also halting at the corner of the formation.

  However, they didn't understand what formation or tactics were, standing scattered and disorganized, surrounding several bandit leaders on horseback. On a yellow flag with the character "周" written on it, one of the bandit leaders had a dark face, curly whiskers, and a wide mouth, shouting loudly: "Is Zhang Chun's turtle son from Zhongshan Country in our hands? If you want to be smart, hand over 500,000 taels of gold. If you dare to make trouble, I'll tear up the ticket!"

  A slit suddenly appeared in the middle of the shield wall, and Liu Ze, Guan Hui, Wu An, and others led a dozen guards to shine between the arrays. Liu Ze rode on the Zhaoye Jade Lion Horse, and said: "Is this good fellow the owner of Zhouzhai Mountain?"

  The bandit leader sized up Liu Ze, and the Night Jade Lion Horse made him greedy. He sneered: "Not bad, it's really you, Zhou Cang's grandson. You're that Zhang Chun's lackey, right? Is the gold ready? But if you want me to let that turtle egg go, you'll have to leave this horse behind!"

  Liu Ze listened and secretly smiled in his heart, never expecting to run into Zhou Cang here. He thought that although Zhou Cang was a third-rate general from a bandit background, he later followed Guan Yu with loyalty and bravery, making great contributions in battles across the south and north. In the end, when Guan Yu lost at Mai City, Zhou Cang took his own life to follow him, showing his unwavering loyalty. Liu Ze welcomed all famous generals from history, especially those from the Cao-Wei camp, and would stop at nothing to recruit them. If someone else poached one of his own, it would be a great loss. He said, "General Zhou has misunderstood, I am from Fenghuang Mountain in Quyang, not sent by Zhang Chun."

  Zhou Cang gazed at Liu Ze's troops, although there was no official flag, but all the soldiers were wearing bright armor and holding fine weapons. He snorted and said: "Fenghuang Mountain has indeed heard that there is a group of good men who have defected to the green forest, but do bandits have so many weapons and armor? Your words can only deceive a three-year-old child, you're still too tender to try to fool old man Zhou! I'll tell you clearly, if you hand over the gold within an instant, it's fine. Otherwise, you'll be waiting to collect your corpses!"

  Liu Ze laughed and said, "No need to wait for a moment, kill the meat ticket now, I don't have time to chat with you, after killing, we will have a fair fight!"

  Zhou Cang was taken aback and said in a bad temper, "Since you are not under Zhang Chun's command, why are you stirring up trouble? According to the rules of the green forest, my Sleeping Tiger Mountain and your Phoenix Mountain should be like well water not offending river water!"

  Liu Ze said leisurely, "Fenghuang Mountain is too small and can't support many people. I heard that the scenery on Wohu Mountain is quite good. I'd like to borrow a piece of land from Chief Zhou to raise some troops. Would Chief Zhou be willing to spare it?"

  Liu Ze's words were clearly meant to occupy the mountain, Zhou Cang was furious and smiled, saying: "If you really have that skill, let alone giving up Wuhu Mountain, it's not a problem! Yuan Shao, go and meet this great camp owner from Fenghuang Mountain!"

  "Charge!" A white-robed young general beside him galloped out of the formation, holding a spear and charging towards Liu Ze's army to challenge them.

  Guan Yu said to Liu Ze: "My lord, Guan Yu requests to go into battle!"

  Liu Ze looked at the young general opposite him and knew he was Pei Yuanshao, one of Zhou Cang's subordinates. He then said to Guan Hai: "Good, trouble you to go forward, but these two people can only be captured alive, their lives must not be harmed."

  Guan Hai slightly hesitated, the two armies clashed, what need to show mercy, but looking at Liu Ze's expression, it was clear that he had other plans. He nodded in response and galloped out of his formation. Guan Hai wielded a pair of iron short spears, held level at his chest, saying: "Who is the commander? Guan Hai of Fenghuang Mountain does not kill nameless people!"

  Pei Yuanshao flew into a rage and shouted: "I am Phei Yuan-shao, the second master of Sleeping Tiger Mountain! Look at my spear!"

  Guan Hai rode his horse and charged straight at Bie Yuan Shao with his spear. Guan Hai smiled slightly, patted his horse to meet him head-on, raised his halberd to block the attack. Guan Hai was born with divine strength, and his pair of short halberds weighed 72 jin. The blades clashed, making a loud "clang" sound, which shocked Bie Yuan Shao's tiger mouth open, and his long spear flew up into the air. Guan Hai followed up with another strike, aiming straight at Bie Yuan Shao's head. Bie Yuan Shao was frightened out of his wits, dodged his head, and the halberd chopped open his hair bun. Bie Yuan Shao's face turned pale, and he fled back to his own camp with disheveled hair. This was because Guan Hai had shown mercy after listening to Liu Ze's words; otherwise, this one strike would have smashed Bie Shao's head into pulp.

  Zhou Cang was enraged, and with a loud shout he galloped forward, his sword flashing in the sunlight as he struck at Guan Hai. Guan Hai parried the blow with his spear, and the two men clashed, their horses' hooves pounding out a fierce rhythm on the battlefield. Zhou Cang's strength was not to be underestimated, but Guan Hai's power was even more astonishing, and the two mighty warriors exchanged blow for blow, their movements swift and deadly.

  Guan Hai became more courageous as the battle raged on, while Zhou Cang was secretly shocked. He made a false slash and retreated from the battlefield, shouting: "The wind is strong, let's retreat!" He turned his horse around and withdrew. The bandits at Wohu Mountain were immediately thrown into chaos, fleeing desperately towards their stronghold. Guan Hai launched a surprise attack from behind, causing the bandits to trample each other, resulting in countless deaths and injuries. Zhou Cang escaped back to the stronghold, closing the gates tightly and defending his position.

  Liu Ze saw that the sky was already late, so he sounded the golden drum to retreat his troops. The next day at dawn, he personally led the large army to attack Wohu Mountain.

  After Zhou Cang returned to the mountain, he was very depressed. Originally, the green forest heroes from all over the world were each defending their own territory and did not attack each other. This had almost become an unwritten rule in the green forest, with each mountain and stronghold having its own sphere of influence. However, Liu Ze from Fenghuang Mountain broke this rule and launched a surprise attack on Wohu Mountain, with a military strength far beyond Zhou Cang's expectations. Yesterday's battle was intended to rely on the advantage of numbers to give Liu Ze a warning, but unexpectedly ended in defeat, also losing his younger brother.

  At this time, Pei Yuanshao hastily ran in and said: "Something's wrong with the master of the house, the strong man from Fenghuang Mountain has started attacking the mountain."

  Zhou Cang calmed down and said, "What's the panic about? With our defense on Sleeping Tiger Mountain, even if 10,000 government soldiers came, they wouldn't be able to break through. Let alone their mere thousand or so men. If they dare to attack the mountain, that's them asking for a dead end! Go take a look."

  Today, Liu Ze did not use the long spear soldiers and shield soldiers. After all, the mountain stronghold must have a large number of rolling logs and other things. If they want to launch a strong attack, they will inevitably lose troops and generals. He ordered the archers to approach within range of the wall and shoot with all their might, and anyone who showed their head on the wall was immediately pierced by arrows.

  Zhou Cang was enraged and ordered the archers in the mountain stronghold to counterattack, but there were only a small number of wooden bows and arrows in the stronghold. How could they compete with Liu Ze's iron-bow shooting range? The counterattacking arrows had not even approached their target before they fell to the ground. Zhou Cang had no choice but to order his men to retreat behind the fence and wait for the people from Fenghuang Mountain to approach the gate before engaging in a fierce battle.

  But Liu Ze didn't give him the chance to engage in close combat, and seeing that the walls and gates of Wohu Mountain were mostly made of wood, he ordered the arrows to be wrapped with cloth strips, soaked in tung oil, and turned into a large number of fire arrows, which were ignited and shot at the gate and wall.

  Zhou Cang is now at his wit's end, on the one hand organizing firefighting and on the other hand still having to be careful to guard against cold arrows. After fighting for two or three hours, he was completely passive and beaten, with at least several hundred casualties on his side, while the enemy had not a single injury. Zhou Cang, who had fought countless battles with government troops, was truly stunned this time. Looking at the camp gate being swallowed up by the fierce fire, Zhou Cang urgently summoned almost all of his brothers from the mountain to guard the gate. In his view, as long as he could hold the gate, Liu Ze would be at a loss for what to do.

  Just as the fierce battle was taking place at the front gate of the bandit's lair, Pan Feng led two hundred brave warriors to climb up the back cliff of Mount Sleeping Tiger. Although the back cliff was steep and precipitous, it was almost no difficulty for these heavenly troops who could climb to heaven and enter the earth. A few members with strong climbing ability climbed up the tens of feet high cliff with their bare hands, and then several ropes were dropped down. With a loud order from Pan Feng, all the members climbed up the mountain top as agile as leopards, and within the time it took to burn an incense stick, everyone had climbed up to the top. As for the few small bandits who were originally on the mountain top, they didn't even have time to react before their throats were cut by sharp daggers, and they didn't even have a chance to shout.

  Pan Feng surveyed the terrain, and the area of Wohu Mountain was not small. The front and back mountains were as far as ten miles apart. He immediately divided his troops into two routes, ordering Zhang Long to lead a small team to search for Zhang Gongzi's whereabouts, while he led the main force to advance on the front mountain, preparing to attack from both inside and outside, and take down the gate of the front mountain stronghold.

  Zhou Cang received the report when Pan Feng had led his troops to approach the front mountain and launched a fierce attack on the rear formation of the mountain bandits.

  "What? The enemy has climbed up from the Tiger's Tail Cliff?! Damn it! How did they climb up here?" Zhou Cang cursed, asking hastily.

  The little servant also had a look of horror on his face, saying: "I don't understand either, but these people are too powerful, they've been attacking all the way and killed several hundred of our brothers."

  "How many of them are there?"

  "There were over two hundred people."

  Zhou Cang turned around and said to Pei Yuanshao: "Yuanshao, take five hundred brothers over there and wipe them out!"

  "The enemy has launched a fierce attack, their skills are too powerful, our ten brothers can't even withstand one of them. They also have a mysterious black crossbow in their hands, the arrows shot out are extremely strong, many brothers were pierced by the arrows before they could even get close."

  At this time, the gate of the stronghold finally collapsed with a loud noise, and the sound of killing came from the mountain. It was clear that the Phoenix Mountain troops had launched a comprehensive attack. The chaos caused by the 200 elite soldiers inside the stronghold was like a snowball, affecting more and more areas. Countless Lüluo soldiers were pierced by black crossbow arrows and let out miserable cries. More Lüluo soldiers ran around like headless flies, trampling each other, with countless deaths and injuries.