Chapter 147: Pincer Attack

At the mouth of the Baoxie Valley, five thousand Wei soldiers were arrayed in battle formation, perfectly blocking Zhao Yun's force of ten thousand men within the Baoxie Trail. The point of contact was precisely the trumpet-shaped exit of the valley. While the Wei army could rapidly reinforce their numbers through the slightly wider terrain, the Shu army could only watch the frontlines clash from the serpentine plank roads, unable to advance and provide support.

This advantageous terrain offset the numerical superiority of the Shu army, rendering even Zhao Yun—a veteran of a lifetime of warfare—completely helpless. He had no choice but to bide his time, contesting the valley entrance position against the Wei army inch by inch.

Yet he was also well aware that his own mission was to serve as a feint, to draw the attention of the Wei army. It would certainly be better if he could attract a larger force, but if the Wei army refused to take the bait, it was simply fate. Fortunately, Cao Wei was currently facing enemies on two fronts, with its main forces concentrated in the southeast. Even if his mission to lure the enemy was less than perfect, it would not affect Prime Minister Zhuge's operations in Longyou.

The total force in Cao Wei's western theater was limited; even if all the personnel from Guanzhong were rushed to Longyou, it would do nothing to alter the disparity in strength between the two sides. To be realistic, his mission was entirely dispensable.

This realization filled Zhao Yun with a deep sense of frustration, and it also left Zhao Guang, who had accompanied Zhao Yun into battle, deeply indignant. With this mindset, there was no need for Zhao Yun to press his soldiers into a desperate struggle. Thus, the battle proceeded at a leisurely pace—it did not stop, but it could by no means be called fierce.

When Wei Yan arrived at the valley entrance, although the sun was still hanging in the sky, both sides had already withdrawn their troops and were preparing to rest. After fighting for a day, neither side was exhausted. The Wei army had grown accustomed to the languid nature of the Shu army; they were in high spirits and full of confidence in completing their mission.

Soon, however, they discovered that a spoiler had arrived at their rear.

Wei Yan had brought only four thousand elite warriors, yet facing five thousand Wei soldiers, he adopted an offensive posture, as if he intended to annihilate the entire five thousand Wei men.

The Wei army was infuriated. They left two thousand men to guard the valley entrance, while three thousand formed a back-to-back battle array, preparing to mount a localized counterattack relying on the favorable terrain. They immediately dispatched messengers to Mei County to request reinforcements.

To the reaction of the Wei army, Wei Yan responded with a sneer. On one hand, he ordered the battle drums to be beaten to notify Zhao Yun, who was inside the valley, of his arrival; on the other hand, he dispatched a death-defying squad of two hundred elite warriors to launch a tentative charge against the Wei army.

The two hundred elite warriors formed two wedge-shaped formations separated by a few paces. Holding shields and gripping ring-pommel sabers, they rapidly closed in on the Wei army. Although numbering only two hundred, they maintained seamless coordination and uniform movement. Even while running, their formation did not scatter, resembling a shape-shifting, bending double-headed arrow as they surged swiftly toward the Wei army.

Behind them, covering archers and crossbowmen began a volley, arrows hissing through the air above their heads. Making a sound like whirring locusts, the arrows plunged into the ranks of the Wei army. The Wei army refused to be outdone; on one hand, they formed a shield wall at the front of their lines, while on the other, they returned fire with bows and crossbows. The arrows of both sides intersected in mid-air, then parted to plunge into the opposing formations and strike the shields held by the elite warriors, creating a sound like bursting beans. A small number of colliding arrows fell upon the helmets of the elite warriors, but they paid them no heed whatsoever, their eyes fixed solely on the rapidly approaching shield wall of the Wei army.

Within a hundred paces, the crossbows of the Wei army began to unleash their might. Volleys of heavy bolts shrieked out of the shield wall, hurtling toward the oncoming Wei clan elite warriors.

"Spread out!" roared the commanding junior officer. The wedge formation suddenly scattered, and the frontline soldiers broke into a sprint. Crossbow bolts flew past them, plunging deep into their shields; some even pierced through the shields and embedded themselves in the bodies of the warriors. The tremendous force knocked running warriors to the ground, and some, losing their footing, tumbled off the nearby cliffs. Yet the other warriors cared nothing for this; they simply ran forward with their shields raised until struck down by crossbow bolts.

While crossbow bolts possessed immense power, their rate of fire was also slow. By the time the elite warriors charged to the front of the formation, the Wei army had only a single opportunity to shoot. To circumvent this limitation, whether Wei or Shu, armies employed a three-stage shooting method to maximize shooting density. After three volleys of arrows, more than thirty of the two hundred warriors in the initial charge had been wounded or killed. The remaining men rushed to the front of the array and, under the command of the junior officer, reassembled into a sharp, giant arrow that smashed headlong into the shields of the Wei army.

"Kill!" roared the Shu soldiers, throwing their bodies forward in a direct collision, sabers raised high and descending like lightning.

"Kill!" roared the Wei army, shield-bearers bracing their shoulders against their shields while spearmen gripped their spears tightly with both hands, thrusting outward through the gaps in the shields.

Those who volunteered for the suicide squad were all skilled in martial arts and utterly fearless of death. From the moment they stepped out of the formation, they had only two choices: either die a heroic death on the battlefield—in which case their families would enjoy generous pensions—or break through the enemy line, return alive, and receive lavish rewards, promotion, and wealth. The Wei clan elite warriors required no personal guards to compel them from behind, for they had no thought of fleeing the battlefield. They fought not only for the lives of their parents, wives, and children, but even more for honor. Wei Yan treated his soldiers generously, and the soldiers were equally willing to risk their lives for him. No one wished to become a deserter and bring shame upon their household head.

With a deafening crash, the two warriors charging at the very front were pierced by spears, blood spraying from their wounds. Yet they showed not a shred of fear, continuing to push forward with all their might. Letting the spears pierce straight through their bodies, they shattered the shields blocking their path and charged right up to the spearmen. Swinging their sabers, they lopped off the heads of the dumbfounded spearmen, took another step forward with their blood-drenched spears still through them, and, opening their arms wide, grabbed hold of a Wei soldier. With a mighty roar, they hurled themselves over the edge of the cliff.

The Wei soldiers were struck with sheer terror, shrieking in agony. Their screams echoed through the mountain valley, vibrating in the hearts of every single Wei soldier and chilling them to the bone.

The Wei clan elite warriors, however, felt no terror. They did not even spare a glance for their comrades tumbling down the cliff; they simply seized the opportunity bought with their comrades' lives, flooding through the tiny breach torn open in the Wei army's shield wall. They hacked and slashed wildly, avenging their fallen brothers with the blood of the enemy.

The ferocity of the Wei clan elite warriors far exceeded the expectations of the Wei army. Before they could react, the elite warriors had breached their first defensive line, causing casualties exceeding half their number. The surviving soldiers were panic-stricken and began retreating in disarray. Though bathed in blood, the elite warriors were high in morale. They rapidly shifted their formations: those who had just fought in the front ranks stepped aside, while those in the rear who had not yet engaged rushed immediately to the fore, charging toward the next defensive position of the Wei army.

The fierce elite warriors were like a knife slicing through bamboo. At the cost of just over a hundred casualties, they broke through three successive defensive lines of the Wei army in one breath, charging right up to the main camp of the Wei army.

Looking at the Wei clan elite warriors standing tall like figures carved of blood, the morale of the Wei army plummeted into the dust. Having fought the Shu soldiers in the Baoxie Valley for so many days, they had never witnessed such desperate, ferocious Shu soldiers. Looking at their scattered defensive positions behind them and listening to the groaning of their companions lying on the ground, every single Wei soldier felt a chilling draft rising behind their necks, as if the Shu soldiers standing before them were not men, but avenging deities descended from the netherworld.

As the Wei army panicked, Wei Yan accurately seized the turning point of the battle. He promptly dispatched a thousand elite warriors to hurl themselves at the main array of the Wei army.

Faced with the ferocious Shu soldiers, the Wei army had no alternative; they were forced to beat their battle drums and muster their remaining strength to meet the enemy.

Accompanied by the stirring sound of battle drums, the two sides engaged in bloody combat at the entrance of the Baoxie Valley. Yet one side possessed morale like a rainbow and pressed forward step by step, while the other suffered from collapsed morale, fighting a weary and futile defense without the strength to retaliate.

Deep within the valley, Zhao Yun heard the war drums sounding outside. Being extremely cautious, he did not launch an attack immediately. On one hand, he ordered his soldiers to prepare for battle; on the other, he sent men scrambling up the rocky cliffs to survey the battlefield outside the valley entrance. He had no inkling of who was engaging the Wei army. Could it be that Zhuge Liang had completely conquered Longyou and sent forces into Guanzhong?

The soldiers who climbed high to scout quickly brought back news: the forces engaging the Wei army outside the valley bore the banners of General of the Pacification of the North, Wei Yan.

Zhao Yun was struck dumb with astonishment. Exchanging a glance with Deng Zhi, who had hurried over, they cried out in unison: "Wei Yan?"

Wei Yan was the surprise force arranged by Zhuge Liang, of which Zhao Yun and the others knew nothing. They had all along assumed that Wei Yan, bogged down by Wei Ba, was still stationed farming in Nanzheng. Hearing that Wei Yan had appeared outside the valley, they were both astonished and overjoyed. What brought them joy was that if it truly was Wei Yan, with his unmatched valor, an inside-and-outside pincer attack would make swallowing these five thousand Wei soldiers an easy task. What alarmed them was that they had no idea whether Wei Yan's arrival here was arranged by Zhuge Liang or if Wei Yan was acting on his own accord.

Anyone else might not have dared to do such a thing, but who was Wei Yan? He was an utterly unreasonable man; as long as he believed something was right, he would go ahead and do it. Backed by his powerful personal retainers, even if Zhuge Liang did not give him troops, he possessed the strength to act independently. As for the outcome, that was never a consideration in his mind.

Regardless of how Wei Yan had gotten here, once it was confirmed to be Wei Yan rather than a trick by the Wei army to lure the enemy, Zhao Yun immediately gave the order to attack. Zhao Guang led five hundred soldiers, taking the lead in charging at the Wei army.

Zhao Guang had been cooped up and frustrated for far too long; upon hearing the order, he was filled with inexplicable excitement. Leading his five hundred subordinates, he rushed out of the camp like a gust of wind, holding his spear high and letting out a piercing roar: "Charge—!"

The Wei army had already been frightened out of their wits by the savage combat of the Wei clan elite warriors, and their formation was teetering on the collapse. Now that Zhao Yun had ordered an attack as well, caught between two fires, the Wei army disintegrated within a short time. Some threw down their weapons and knelt by the roadside, others scrambled up the mountainside, and a great many, in their panic, leaped off the plank roads and plunged into the rushing waters of the Xie River, crashing against the jagged rocks as shrieks of agony rose one after another.

The fierce battle concluded as the moon hung over the treetops of the eastern mountains. Traversing the chaotic battlefield, the General of the Pacification of the East and the General of the Pacification of the North of the Shu-Han achieved a triumphant reunion. The Wei general, kneeling on the ground with his hands clasped behind his head, watched the two Shu generals chatting and laughing merrily, and sighed inwardly to himself: "I truly am honored to be caught in a pincer attack by the two most formidable generals of Shu-Han!"

Zhao Yun grasped Wei Yan's arm: "Wenchang, how did you get here?"

"Through the Ziwu Valley."

"The Ziwu Valley?" Zhao Yun was startled, growing even more suspicious that Wei Yan had dispatched troops without authorization, his gaze tightening involuntarily.

"General Zhao, you need not worry." Wei Yan was in high spirits. Facing the veteran general whom he had always deeply revered, he burst into laughter, "I came on a surprise mission by order of the Prime Minister, not acting on my own accord. General Zhao, pack up your things and hurry with me to Mei County. That worthless disciple of yours has prepared a feast and is respectfully awaiting your grand arrival in Mei County."

Zhao Yun was both surprised and delighted: "Ziyu?"