Chapter Fifty-Three: Attacking the Mountain

  In the big account, Lü Bu was still recalling the scene of Bagong Mountain he saw during the day. Bagong Mountain is easy to defend and difficult to attack. If a strong attack is launched, it will definitely suffer heavy losses. This gave Chen Lan and Lei Bo two people the capital to be proud of.

  Hua Gong was humiliated by Chen Lan's book, how could Lü Bu possibly swallow this insult?

  "Set fire to the mountain?!" Lü Bu thought from a military perspective, and fire attack was indeed a necessary means of attacking a fortress. Before he could think carefully, someone poured cold water on him.

  "Mount Bagong, although the trees are lush and dense, they are all wet soil, Master's fire plan won't work, will it?" Chen Gong lifted up the big tent and walked in with a smile, followed by an armored general.

  "My lord!" The armored general bowed his hands towards Lü Bu.

  "Zang Ba has also arrived?!" Lü Bu was surprised. The person who came was indeed Zang Ba, Zang Xuan Gao, who had been blaming himself for the defeat in the Battle of Kaiyang.

  "If we can't attack with fire, then I'll besiege the mountain!" Lü Bu said. "I'll surround the mountain for a hundred days, and I won't believe that Chen Lan's troops can survive on the mountain and feed an army of 10,000!"

  "Lord, surrounding the mountain for a hundred days is absolutely impossible!" Chen Gong thought Lü Bu had gone mad again and hastily said, "Surrounding the mountain for a hundred days is to cut off his grain, grass, and water sources, right? Chen Lan and Lei Bo have just robbed Yuan Shu's grain and grass. Although Yuan Shu only has a thousand stones, this is all nonsense. At least ten thousand stones must have been robbed, so Chen Lan and Lei Bo don't lack grain and grass. As for the water source... not to mention whether there are springs in the Eight Public Mountains, but even if we talk about the weather in Huainan, it rains every seven days, and one rain lasts three days, which is very normal. So the water source can't be cut off either! If we surround the mountain for a hundred days..." Chen Gong was just about to explain the dangers of surrounding the mountain to Lü Bu when he suddenly saw a smile on Lü Bu's face that seemed like it wasn't a smile at all, and he immediately realized he had been fooled.

  "Gongtai, Gongtai, if you have a plan, just say it straight out! Do you want to keep me in suspense?! Lu Bu looked at Chen Gong with a hint of a smile. How could he not know that they couldn't surround the mountain? Not to mention whether they could kill them all, but even if they could, Lu Bu wouldn't be able to hold on for long. The plan they had set to head south absolutely cannot be delayed."

  When Lü Bu saw Chen Gong enter the main tent, he knew Chen Gong had a plan.

  "Master, Master!" When did Lü Bu also start to play tricks? Chen Gong shook his head and said somewhat helplessly, "It's not that I have a plan, but all of this depends on General Zang Ba!" Chen Gong stepped aside to let Zang Ba come forward.

  "What's going on?!" Lü Bu was puzzled. Zhang Fei's Taishan army had already been disbanded by Zhang Fei himself. If the Taishan army were still around, perhaps Zhang Fei would have some way to deal with it. After all, Zhang Fei used to be a king of the mountains and must be more familiar with mountain warfare than Lü Bu.

  "Yes! General Zang Ba has a plan!" Since Chen Gong said so, Lü Bu wanted to hear it. "Just say what you have to say, Zhang Chao!" To be honest, Lü Bu still admired Zhang Chao, who was generous and unyielding, just like himself. Most importantly, Zhang Chao could lead troops and was a great general. Originally, after receiving reinforcements from Chen Deng's soldiers, he should have been given his own army to command, but Zhang Chao had declined due to feelings of guilt, which is why things remained as they were until now.

  "Not to deceive your lordship, before surrendering to the government army, I was just a mountain bandit. It wasn't until I got the opportunity that I could shed my identity as a bandit and become a government soldier!" In his previous life, Zang Ba had been a bandit in Mount Tai, and at that time, Mount Tai was entirely under his control, with even government troops avoiding him."

  "What does it have to do with you?!" Lü Bu didn't care about Zang Ba's former identity at all. Heroes don't ask about one's birth, what about bandits? Liu Bei used to be a shoemaker, Guan Yu was a seller of red dates, and He Jin, the great general who was once invincible, was just a butcher. What does status matter?!

  "Mount Tai and Mount Ba Gongan are connected, although they are hundreds of miles apart!" Zang Bash said his thoughts out loud. Being a thief also requires skill, otherwise you'll be wiped out by the government army in no time. One of them is to have connections with each other. Zang Bash not only had connections with Mount Ba Gongan, but at that time even Hei Shan Zhang Yan knew there was such a person as Zang Bash.

  "Is there an insider?!" Lü Bu furrowed his brow, even if there was an insider, it wouldn't be easy to deal with, after all, the only path up Mount Bagong is that one road.

  "It's hard to open the mountain gate!" Lü Bu shook his head and said. "There is only one road up the mountain!"

  "No! There's still one more!" Zang Ba said what Lü Bu most wanted to hear at this moment.

  "What else?!" Lü Bu suddenly stood up.

  "Hmm! I've been to Bāgōng Mountain before, back when there were no Chen Lan and Lei Bu, and Yuan Shu only occupied Shòuchūn. At that time, this mountain was not yet occupied by government troops!" The time Zang Ba spoke of was during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, a chaotic era that forced people to become bandits, and it was then that he had gone to Bāgōng Mountain.

  "Another path to Mount Ba Gou, right after the main peak of Mount Ba Gou!" Zang Ba revealed this secret. He had obtained this secluded mountain road by coincidence, it was a bandit on Mount Ba Gou who got drunk and spilled the beans, which was heard by Zang Ba and thought to be just a joke, but who would have thought it would actually come in handy

  "What road after the main peak?!" The steepest part of Bagong Mountain is the main peak, and after the main peak there is a slope. This slope is almost 90 degrees vertical, let alone roads, even trees are difficult to grow. Now Zang Ba actually says where there is a road?!

  Zang Ba said, "It's precisely because it's so steep that a secret passage was opened up, just to make people unaware of this escape route!" Bandits will eventually be eradicated, and they made this hidden path for the day when they might need to use it to escape.

  "Hahaha! Chen Lan and Lei Bu, this time I'll see how you die!" Lü Bu sneered with a smile. He had his own pride, and the two of them had just hit upon it, so even if they surrendered now, Lü Bu would not accept it.

  "Xuan Gao, you've done a great job this time!" Lü Bu said with a smile to Zang Ba.

  "As long as the lord does not bring up the matter of scattering and dismissing the troops again!" Zang Ba said with a twisted expression.

  "Xuan Gao, Xuan Gao, are you still entangled in the past? It's all over! It's all over!" Lü Bu patted Zang Ba's shoulder. "Now I have Wen Far leading the Bianzhou Wolf Cavalry, and Gao Shun has the Trap Array Camp. Even Han Yang has the City Guard Army. And as for you, I'm waiting for your Taishan Army to flourish again under the heavens!"

  "Thank you, sir!" Zang Ba half-knelt down. Lü Bu forgave him, or it could be said that Zang Ba forgave himself.

  "Congratulations, my lord! Zang Ba's mighty tiger is about to awaken!" Chen Gong was also delighted, for Zang Ba was a brilliant talent who would at least elevate the Zang Ba-Lü Bu army by one level.

  "Good! Zhang Liao obeys your orders!" Lü Bu said with a hearty smile.

  "Yes!" Zang Ba half-knelt down.

  "Tomorrow we'll attack Ba Gong Mountain, and you'll be in full charge. Choose any troops from Pingzhou Wolf Cavalry to form a vanguard!"

  "Zang Ba received the order!"