How to fix error occurred during the login process while using DevExpress Xpo

I'm using XPO as the ORM to connect to my database but every time it throws this error -

DevExpress.Xpo.DB.Exceptions.UnableToOpenDatabaseException: 'Unable to open database. Connection string: 'data source=localhost\SQLEXPRESS;user id=employee_user;password=REMOVED;initial catalog=Employee;Persist Security Info=true;'; Error: 'System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (0x80131904): A connection was successfully established with the server, but then an error occurred during the login process.

Here is my code -

using DevExpress.Xpo;
using DevExpress.Xpo.DB;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
namespace XpoTest
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
            XpoDefault.DataLayer = XpoDefault.GetDataLayer(MSSqlConnectionProvider
                .GetConnectionString("localhost\\SQLEXPRESS", "employee_user", "admin", "Employee"),
                AutoCreateOption.None);
            using (var cnn = new UnitOfWork())
            {
                var persons = new List<Person>();
                persons.Add(new Person(cnn) { FirstName = "First", LastName = "Name", Email = "hmm@domain.com" });
                cnn.CommitChanges();
                Console.WriteLine(persons[0].FirstName);
            }
            Console.WriteLine("End of stream.");
        }
    }
}

I have another Blazor application, where I used Dapper as the ORM, there I used the very same connection string and login credentials, and it worked. So what seems to be the problem here?

Here is the full exception message -

DevExpress.Xpo.DB.Exceptions.UnableToOpenDatabaseException: 'Unable to open database. Connection string: 'data source=localhost\SQLEXPRESS;user id=employee_user;password=***REMOVED***;initial catalog=Employee;Persist Security Info=true;'; Error: 'System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (0x80131904): A connection was successfully established with the server, but then an error occurred during the login process. (provider: Shared Memory Provider, error: 0 - No process is on the other end of the pipe.)

---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception (233): No process is on the other end of the pipe.
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnectionTds..ctor(DbConnectionPoolIdentity identity, SqlConnectionString connectionOptions, SqlCredential credential, Object providerInfo, String newPassword, SecureString newSecurePassword, Boolean redirectedUserInstance, SqlConnectionString userConnectionOptions, SessionData reconnectSessionData, Boolean applyTransientFaultHandling, String accessToken)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnectionFactory.CreateConnection(DbConnectionOptions options, DbConnectionPoolKey poolKey, Object poolGroupProviderInfo, DbConnectionPool pool, DbConnection owningConnection, DbConnectionOptions userOptions)
   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.CreatePooledConnection(DbConnectionPool pool, DbConnection owningObject, DbConnectionOptions options, DbConnectionPoolKey poolKey, DbConnectionOptions userOptions)
   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.CreateObject(DbConnection owningObject, DbConnectionOptions userOptions, DbConnectionInternal oldConnection)
   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.UserCreateRequest(DbConnection owningObject, DbConnectionOptions userOptions, DbConnectionInternal oldConnection)
   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.TryGetConnection(DbConnection owningObject, UInt32 waitForMultipleObjectsTimeout, Boolean allowCreate, Boolean onlyOneCheckConnection, DbConnectionOptions userOptions, DbConnectionInternal& connection)
   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.TryGetConnection(DbConnection owningObject, TaskCompletionSource`1 retry, DbConnectionOptions userOptions, DbConnectionInternal& connection)
   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.TryGetConnection(DbConnection owningConnection, TaskCompletionSource`1 retry, DbConnectionOptions userOptions, DbConnectionInternal oldConnection, DbConnectionInternal& connection)
   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionInternal.TryOpenConnectionInternal(DbConnection outerConnection, DbConnectionFactory connectionFactory, TaskCompletionSource`1 retry, DbConnectionOptions userOptions)
   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionClosed.TryOpenConnection(DbConnection outerConnection, DbConnectionFactory connectionFactory, TaskCompletionSource`1 retry, DbConnectionOptions userOptions)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.TryOpen(TaskCompletionSource`1 retry)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.Open()
   at DevExpress.Xpo.DB.MSSqlConnectionProvider.CreateDataBase(IDbConnection conn)
ClientConnectionId:a0c10b86-a8a3-4c1f-abf0-86a8c164f4f9
Error Number:233,State:0,Class:20''