The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  Kunwu Training Camp had quite a sizeable number of Imperial Army experts. If the enemy were to attempt to forcefully overrun it with brute force, they would surely incur heavy casualties.

  Yet, Wang Chong failed to consider the possibility of utilizing master archers.

  With master archers, there would be no need for the assailants to be on White Tiger Peak at all. Given their attack range of several li, they could easily strike their targets from several mountains away.

  The guards that the royal court posted here posed no threat to them at all—everyone was no different from live target dummies.

  But that wasn’t what Wang Chong was concerned about.

  Wang Chong had never heard of the Kunwu Training Camp coming under the assault of Turk master archers in his previous life. He couldn’t tell whether the matter had been silenced then or whether his presence had changed the future.

  “As an important base for grooming future talents of the royal court, even the Sage Emperor views the Three Great Training Camps with grave importance. It seems like the Turks feel threatened by this matter.”

  Wang Chong’s heart felt heavy.

  The Three Great Training Camps were established to select and groom the nation’s elites.

  This was a completely unprecedented initiative. As a potential opponent of the Great Tang, it was impossible for the Eastern and Western Turkic Khaganate to be oblivious to this matter.

  Wang Chong knew that he was negligent in this matter.

  What he was the most worried about now was whether or not Ü-Tsang and Goguryeo would be alarmed into action as well.

  “Instructor Zhao, how many master archers are there in Kunwu Training Camp?”

  Numerous thoughts flashed through Wang Chong’s mind, and he suddenly turned his head around to ask.

  “There are around a dozen archers, but of them, less than five are master archers! Furthermore, they are scattered amongst the four barracks.”

  Zhao Qianqiu said bitterly.

  He understood Wang Chong’s intentions—the only ones who could deal with master archers were master archers themselves. However, this was only the first day since the establishment of Kunwu Training Camp. Other than some of the instructors specializing in archery, there were no other master archers stationed here.

  Kunwu Training Camp wasn’t prepared for such an assault.

  From the very start, the training camps only focused on preventing those with malicious intentions from sneaking into the premises. Who could have known that the Turks would send out troops on the level of the master archers?

  Zhao Qianqiu’s cultivation was exceptional but he possessed no talent whatsoever in archery. There was nothing he could do about master archers several li away.

  Xiu xiu xiu!

  In the darkness, the sound of arrows echoed ceaselessly in the surroundings. Other than that, only the screams of agony here and there could be heard. It was hard to estimate how many master archers had been dispatched for this mission.

  A single archer could shoot fifty to sixty arrows in a second from several li away. If there were ten of them, that would be five hundred to six hundred. And if there were twenty of them, that would be more than a thousand! That was more than sufficient to wipe out the entire White Tiger Peak.

  The aura of death seemed to slowly encroach, and at that moment, everyone’s faces were incredibly awful.

  “Wei Hao, you can only depend on yourself now!”

  Wang Chong thought anxiously.

  Of the entire Kunwu Training Camp, aside from Zhao Jingdian, the other person he was the most concerned about was Wei Hao.

  There were four barracks on four different peaks in Kunwu Training Camp—Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise.

  Wang Chong wasn’t sure which peak Wei Hao was on, but in any case, it was unlikely that the Turks would limit their attack to only the White Tiger Peak.

  Wang Chong could only hope for Wei Hao to notice the threat early and go into hiding. This was the best course of action he could make before the barrage of arrows.

  “Aoooooooooo! ——”

  As Wang Chong was harboring such thoughts, a wild and high-pitched howl suddenly echoed amidst the darkness, rattling the entire mountain forest. Hearing the wild howls, his face immediately warped.

  That was the call of the wolves!

  And from the sound of it, it wasn’t just a single one. There were hundreds, or perhaps even more than a thousand of them!

  These bastards weren’t satisfied with just shooting arrows at them. They wanted to slaughter everyone here!

  Chapter 207: Countermeasure!

  Aooo! ——

  A howl sounded, and many more echoed in response. Before long, the entire mountain was filled with the howls of wolves. It was impossible to estimate the number of wolves that were currently in the vicinity of White Tiger Peak.

  Even though Kunwu Training Camp was built in the depths of the mountain range more than twenty li away from the capital, still, it should have been impossible for so many wolves to appear here.

  “The indigenous wolves of Turkic grasslands!”

  Wang Chong’s face turned incomparably grim. The howling of the wolves were loud and powerful. In the entire world, there was only a single place where so many wolves would appear at once.

  The grasslands where the Turks live on.

  The wolves there possessed a significantly larger physique and were exceptionally aggressive. Living alongside with the wolves for a long period of time, some Turk experts gradually learned the art of controlling wolf packs.

  In the fights between Great Tang and the Turks in his previous life, Wang Chong had witnessed the Turks summoning wolves for support.

  If a large army were to cross the borders, it would be impossible for the royal court to not notice anything at all. However, if it was wolves instead, even if the sentry saw them, they probably wouldn’t pay them much heed.

  Clearly, this was the ace the Turks had up their sleeves.

  “This is bad. The Turks are planning to attack the peak with the wolves!”

  Zhao Qianqiu’s complexion turned incomparably awful. If it was just the wolves, it would still be within the capability of the guards on the mountain to deal with them. However, if the wolves were backed by master archers hiding in the shadows, everyone would be put into an extremely dangerous situation. The entire White Tiger Peak might just be wiped out.

  If the Three Great Training Camps were to suffer such a heavy blow on the day of its establishment, it would surely pose a huge blow to the empire’s prestige.

  As an instructor of the training camps, Zhao Qianqiu couldn’t accept this.

  “I can’t just wait here, I’ve to go out!”

  Zhao Qianqiu was anxious.

  The open landscape outside made it easy for one to be sniped by the Turk master archers, but at this crucial moment, Zhao Qianqiu couldn’t care so much anymore.

  “Instructor Zhao, how many men can you gather?”

  At this moment, a calm voice suddenly echoed—Wang Chong’s.

  On the inside, Wang Chong was even more anxious than anyone here. After all, this was where the future great generals of the empire were gathered. The death of any single one of them would be a huge loss to the empire.

  To change the fate of the Central Plains, Wang Chong would require their help.

  Until now, Wang Chong was unable to gauge whether this incident was fated or that it happened due to his intervention.

  Regardless of which one it was, Wang Chong couldn’t simply sit idly as such dire circumstances unfold before him.

  “I should be able to gather around six to seven people?”

  Zhao Qianqiu had no idea what Wang Chong was up to but even so, he still answered the other party’s query. He had a very favorable impression of Wang Chong—the latter was able to retain his calmness even in the midst of danger and use his wits to uncover opportunities. His prior suggestion of using the corp
ses of the tiger to dodge the rain of arrows served as the best example.

  “Can you find the other master archers in the camp?”

  Wang Chong asked.

  “What do you intend to do?”

  Hearing those words, Zhao Qianqiu’s body jolted. He seemed to have thought of something, and he immediately turned his gaze to Wang Chong.

  “Our defenses would be easier to breach if we were to separate and operate individually. The best we can do now is to gather the various master archers on the other mountains—only then would we have a chance to retaliate!”

  Wang Chong analyzed calmly.

  Everyone was scattered all around the peak presently. Under the strong suppression fire from the master archers, they could only fend for themselves at the moment. However, if this situation were to persist, their defenses would surely crumble quickly.

  The only way to free themselves of their current plight was to cooperate with the master archers on their side.

  “But have you considered that if we were to gather together, it’ll be easy for us to be spotted and killed by the Turk master archers?”

  Zhao Qianqiu had already deduced Wang Chong’s intentions.

  “There’s no other choice now. Even though it’ll be easier for us to be attacked if we were to gather, if we were to separate, we will only die even faster.”

  Wang Chong said.

  Zhao Qianqiu was also an experienced commander, but he couldn’t compare to Wang Chong, who had spent the latter half of his previous life in bloodshed.

  “I understand. Five to six Imperial Army guards and instructors and one master archer on White Tiger Peak—this is the maximum number of people I can gather for now under current circumstances!”

  Even though Zhao Qianqiu was an instructor, he couldn’t mobilize the Imperial Army as they operated by different chain of command.

  Thus, he could only look for those that he was closer with. This way, he could avoid wasting time convincing the other party. With danger lurking all around them, the time spent in speaking an additional word to another person might potentially result in one being noticed and killed.

  Sou!

  Zhao Qianqiu leaped up, and before Wang Chong could get a clear glimpse, he had already vanished from the room.

  After Zhao Qianqiu left, only Wang Chong, Zhao Jingdian, Zhuang Zhengping, Chi Weisi, and Su Hanshan remained… No, that’s not it. Sweeping across the room, Wang Chong realized that unbeknownst to him, Su Hanshan had left along with Zhao Qianqiu.

  The entire room fell into silence. With Zhao Qianqiu absent, the crowd started to feel uneasy.

  “Wang gongzi, what should we do now?”

  Zhuang Zhengping turned to Wang Chong and asked with a trembling voice. As a talented offspring of the Zhuang Clan, Zhuang Zhengping had his fair share of major occurrences and danger.

  But the matter was completely different this time. With at least twenty to thirty master archers hiding in the darkness, the training camp was no different from an abyss of death.

  Zhuang Zhengping felt as if a blade was placed right above his neck, threatening to fall at any moment.

  This was no longer a brawl among experts, this was a battlefield! No matter how formidable Zhuang Zhengping was, he was just a talented teenager. How could he have possibly imagined the horrors of the battlefield?

  “Do you know anyone here?”

  Wang Chong asked.

  “I do, they are all scions of prestigious clans. However, I don’t know whether they are still alive or not.”

  Zhuang Zhengping replied.

  “Alright. For the time being, you should try to find some way to bring them over here. Feel free to leave Chi Weisi here, he won’t be in any danger for the time being. Jingdian, take care of him. I’ll go out to take a look.”

  Saying so, before the crowd could say anything, Wang Chong executed ‘Dragon Ascending the Clouds’ of the Dragon Bone Art and dived out through a hole in the wall created by the assault of the master archers.

  Hu!

  The mountain wind blew. Leaping out of the room, Wang Chong suddenly felt as though he was plunged into a completely different world. The buildings around him were filled with holes, and under the dim moonlight, Wang Chong could see a dense congregation of wolves at the bottom of the mountain.

  The howling of the wolves, the whistling of the wind, the cries of agony, the clash of weapons… and the wolf fang arrows that whizzed through the sky as though the scythe of the Grim Reaper. All of these had turned the training camp into a land of death.

  Wang Chong’s worst premonition had come to be.

  Just the wolves themselves were far from sufficient to deal with the Imperial Army guards stationed on the mountain.

  Among the wolf pack, Wang Chong could see a few short figures sprinting about. What was peculiar about them was that each of them had several blades on them.

  They traversed through the wolves freely, and some were even riding on their backs. Yet, the wolves seemed to disregard them, allowing them to do as they please.

  “Ottokaji, ansahayo! …”

  Flurried footsteps sounded, and an authoritative voice sounded amidst the wolves. It wasn’t the language of the Turks, and the Turks wouldn’t use double blade or triple blades.

  “Goguryeons!”

  The thought flashed across Wang Chong’s mind. His worst conjecture had come to be—the establishments of the Three Great Training Camps had not only pulled the attention of Turks, it also drew the intervention of Goguryeo, which lay in the northeast of the empire.

  The two factions seemed to feel threatened by the establishment of the Three Great Training Camps.

  The Turk master archers paired with the Goguryeon warriors and the vast quantity of grassland wolves formed an invisible nook on Kunwu Training Camp.

  At that moment, Wang Chong realized that the attack wasn’t just limited to the White Tiger Peak or Kunwu Training Camp. Most likely, the other training camps were also under attack.

  Given the Turks were conducting such a huge operation—even going to the extent of allying with the Goguryeons for it—their motive definitely wasn’t just to slay a few people or cause some chaos in the Three Great Training Camps.

  What they wanted was to completely destroy the Three Great Training Camps.

  “Careful, Goguryeons! ——”

  A shout echoed in the air, but before his voice could reach far, a wolf fang arrow suddenly pierced through the Imperial Army commander’s throat. After which, three more impaled his forehead, left chest, and right chest. Peng! Falling backward, he crashed onto the ground.

  “Kill them all!”

  The wolves dashed forward alongside the Goguryeons hidden among them. At this moment, there wasn’t a single location on the entire mountain that was safe.

  Xiu!

  An arrow suddenly flew toward a Goguryeon warrior not too far away. The Goguryeon warrior reacted quickly, instinctively lifting his blade to deflect the arrow, However, something astonishing happened. As though anticipating his move, the arrow curved in an arc and pierced his arm.

  “You little bastard!”

  Wang Chong heard the Goguryeon warrior cursing in their native tongue. Abruptly turning his head around, he glanced at the direction where the arrow come from. However, before he could clearly assess the situation, an Imperial Army guard abruptly darted forward for the wounded Goguryeon warrior.

  “Be careful!”

  A familiar voice sounded, warning the Imperial Army guard. A short moment later, xiu xiu xiu, dozens of wolf fang arrows fell from the sky, covering the entire area.

  Peng peng peng!

  The ground trembled under the barrage and a cloud of dust rose. Twenty zhang away from Wang Chong, a dense mat of wolf fang arrows formed on the ground.

  “Chen Burang!”

  Wang Chong finally recognized the one who warned the Imperial Army guard—it was the youth hunter Chen Burang!

  Peng!

  Without any
hesitation, Wang Chong returned to the room, grabbed a tiger carcass, and kicked it outward. It fell near the boulder where Chen Burang was hiding.

  Pu pu pu! As soon as the carcass was thrown out, a dense rain of wolf fang arrows bombarded the area where Chen Burang was hiding at.

  “He has been marked by the Turk master archers!”

  As soon as Chen Burang yelled a warning to the Imperial Army guard, Wang Chong instinctively realized that the other party would be marked. Peng peng peng! The first tiger, the second tiger, the third tiger… Wang Chong was making use of the tiger carcasses to create a pathway from the boulder up to the room.

  “Jingdian, get some tables and chairs over!”

  Wang Chong said.

  Those broken tables and chairs were insufficient to stop the wolf fang arrows but still, they should do well in blocking the master archers’ vision.

  On the other hand, Chen Burang also understood Wang Chong’s intentions and dived out from the boulder. Walking along the path that Wang Chong paved for him, he swiftly darted for the room while staying close to the ground.

  Three to four figures followed behind him.

  “It’s you!”

  Upon seeing who it was that helped him, Chen Burang’s eyes lit up in delight.

  Chapter 208: Hope!

  “Wang Chong, why are you here?”

  Chen Burang asked in delight.

  “What about you? Why are you here?”

  Wang Chong returned with another question. He was rather curious about Chen Burang’s presence here as well.

  “It’s a long story. In order to save them, I ended up getting marked by a rather formidable master archer. His archery is formidable, and he can fire eighty arrows in the blink of an eye! The boulder that I was hiding at before got crushed by his relentless attacks. If not for your intervention, I might have really died there.”

  Chen Burang’s face was pale. It seemed like he had exerted himself greatly during this ordeal. However, he had an excited look on his face which showed no signs of fear at all.

  “You’re able to tell how many arrows he shot in a single second?”