The Human Emperor c1-2382
Page 434
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
"The White Elephant Corps?"
Wang Chong turned his head around. Although he had the memories from his past life, his experiences could never compare to these old veterans who had interacted with Mengshe Zhao for most of their lives and who had also experienced the battle of Erhai.
"Mm!"
Chen Shusun nodded, his expression extremely grave.
"The lands of Erhai are different from the Central Plains. The trees there are lush and the climate hot. There are many large beasts living there, and one of them is a beast with a long nose and incredible strength that Mengshe Zhao calls the elephant. Geluofeng began to train these massive beasts a long time, in the end training them into an army called the White Elephant Corps.
"The White Elephant Corps doesn't have many soldiers, but they are extremely powerful. In the battle of Erhai, they dealt us a heavy blow, with many of our soldiers dying to them," Chen Shusun said.
The earth rumbled and quaked as that army of massive beasts approached. Finally, Wang Chong was able to see the White Elephant Corps that Chen Shusun spoke of. These were massive elephants, and though Wang Chong had seen elephants before, these were completely different from the ones in Wang Chong's mind.
Wang Chong had never before seen elephants this large. Each of these elephants was six to seven meters tall, some of them even as tall as eight or nine. Their massive bodies alone were enough to shake one's resolve.
How could such a large elephant exist?
Wang Chong felt an incredible shock.
Wang Chong had never seen this White Elephant Corps, and he had no recollection of them in his memories. They had probably been annihilated in the foreign invasion. But now that he saw these elephants, Wang Chong felt an impact that was difficult to imagine.
At their largest, African bush elephants would only reach heights of around four meters, but the elephants of the White Elephant Corps almost doubled that height, and each of them was sixteen to seventeen meters long.
The tusks protruding from their mouths were three to four meters long.
In all of Wang Chong's experiences, he had never seen such a massive creature.
"Those elephants are even wearing armor!" Old Eagle muttered to himself. While Wang Chong had some experiences with which to mentally prepare himself, Old Eagle was completely lacking. It was hard to describe the astonishment Old Eagle had felt upon seeing these behemoths.
"It's inscribed armor!" Wang Chong muttered.
Old Eagle was correct. These elephants were wearing thick white armor, and it was plate armor akin to that used by the Tibetans. Each plate was a foot thick and covered in inscriptions.
Wang Chong needed only a glance to recognize that these were the toughening and defensive inscriptions that he was so familiar with. These inscriptions and the thickness of the plate armor meant that even ballistae would find it very difficult to harm these elephants.
But the most shocking thing of all was still the size of the elephants.
With the armor and inscriptions, these elephants probably each weigh more than ten thousand jin, even heavier than the steel walls! Wang Chong quietly said to himself.
Each one of the metal walls that Wang Chong had had forged weighed several thousand jin, but this was insignificant to the Mengshe Zhao elephants. In an instant, Wang Chong understood Mengshe Zhao's plan.
"Mobilize the ballistae; prepare to intercept!" Wang Chong ordered.
"Yes, Young Master!"
The messengers quickly went to pass down the order. At the same time, a change also occurred in the Mengshe Zhao army.
"Hey!"
"Ha!"
Shouting, the Mengshe Zhao army surged forward, forming a human wall in front of the massive white elephants and advancing together with them.
What the Tang had worried the most about had finally occurred.
Roar!
"Ha!"
The soldiers roared as they raised their massive shields over their heads and advanced toward the mountain. At this sight, it wasn't just Wang Chong, but Chen Shusun, Wang Yan, Xianyu Zhongtong, Old Eagle, Luo Ji, Lin Wushou, and the other generals who paled as well.
Even the slowest of them could understand that these shield soldiers were protecting the white-armored elephants.
The ground continued to quake as the White Elephant Corps advanced. From the vantage of the summit, one had a clear view of their relentless advance.
One, two, three, four…
Upon careful examination, more than one thousand of these elephants were approaching the mountain. Although this wasn't a lot, these massive behemoths scattered across the plain seemed to be exuding a mighty wave of pressure.
"Hey!"
"Ha!"
……
Finally, with a set of deafening blares, the first wave of the White Elephant Corps reached the base of the mountain.
"Ready, fire!"
With this order, a volley of arrow descended like locusts. Dingdingding! The arrows landed on the massive bodies of the elephants and were deflected away.
The white armor served as thick city walls that warded off every arrow.
"Get ready!"
At the same time, the soldiers of the White Elephant Corps responded, raising large shields over their heads. Seven or eight soldiers ran forward, with some of them sliding down the nose so that they could raise their shields over the eyes of the elephants.
Not a single one of the arrows was able to hit their mark.
But this was only the beginning.
"Go!"
A Mengshe Zhao general wearing white armor waved his longsword and swung it down. Woosh! Countless chains flew out, trembling in the air as if imbued with intelligence, and quickly latched onto a steel wall.
And the other ends of these chains quickly attached themselves to the body of an elephant.
"Pull!"
Dust began to stir from the mountain as a massive steel wall crashed to the ground. Pulled along by the chains, it was quickly dragged off the mountain.
In the face of the enormous strength of this elephant, even the steel walls that Wang Chong had invested a great deal of his fortune into, and that weighed seven to eight thousand jin, were barely worth mentioning. It took mere moments for that massive steel wall to be dragged away.
Without the protection of the steel wall, the Tang soldiers behind it quickly grimaced.
"Go, quickly!"
"Report to Milord and have them decide!"
……
In the face of the charging soldiers of the White Elephant Corps, the entire square formation paled and began to retreat farther up the mountain.
"Hahaha, they've lost, the Great Tang have lost!"
A burst of cheers rose from the Mengshe Zhao army.
Past examples served as lessons for those that followed, and the previous crushing defeat had made all of them extremely wary of the Annan Protectorate army. But the situation was completely different this time.
Without the protection of the steel walls, the Annan Protectorate army had lost its advantage and could no longer hold back the army.
Boom!
With yet another thunderous explosion, yet another steel wall crashed to the ground, dragged away by seven or eight chains. Boom! Boom! Boom! One wall after another toppled.
In just a few short moments, thirty to forty of these steel walls were dragged away.
"Stop! Don't let them drag them away!"
Twenty-some Annan Protectorate army soldiers ran up and grabbed onto the wall, engaging in a tug of war with the elephant. But right after, there was another boom and plume of dust. The twenty-some Tang soldiers had been dragged down the mountain along with the heavy wall.
"Ah!"
The summit resounded with cries of alarm. Although they knew that these elephants were enormously powerful, no one had expected them to be this powerful. Twenty-some elites at the peak of the True Martial realm w
orking together were still no match for the elephant.
"Not even someone at Tier 3 or 4 of the Profound Martial realm might be its match!"
As Old Eagle watched on, his eyes widened in surprise.
His current cultivation level was at Profound Martial Tier 3, nearly at Tier 4. In other words, in terms of pure strength, if he did not use the Six-Armed Ksitigarbha Vajra Guardian, even he was no match for this elephant.
And such elephants could be seen wherever one looked.
Chen Shusun exclaimed, "The situation is extremely unfavorable! Geluofeng has put great thought into dealing with the Great Tang, and the White Elephant Corps is actually the fruit of his labors, meant for dealing with the Great Tang in a defensive battle.
"These one thousand elephants are all between Profound Martial Tier 3 and Tier 9 in terms of strength, with some of the elephants even nearing the peak of Profound Martial." He gazed at a twelve-meter elephant in the distance.
That was probably the oldest, tallest, and strongest elephant of the White Elephant Corps. The hairs on its body were already a grayish white. But its feet still moved lightly and dexterously.
This was probably the Elephant King of the Whitestone Corps.
Not even Chen Shusun felt confident in dealing with the Elephant King. The Elephant King and the thousand more elephants below it were enough to pose a massive threat to the Great Tang.
"If we let the Mengshe Zhao army pull all the steel walls away, then even with our ninety thousand soldiers, the only fate awaiting us will be death," Chen Shusun sternly said.
The Annan Protectorate army had fought with the White Elephant Corps once, so Chen Shusun was well aware of its power. If one ranked the four elite corps of Mengshe Zhao in terms of strength, the White Elephant Corps was far above the Whitestone Corps.
The only reason they were not ranked first was because they were too few in number, numbering only around one thousand.
A voice suddenly spoke. "Hmph, elephants are just unthinking beasts. Can they be more flexible and intelligent than an actual warrior? If they didn't have the protection of the Mengshe Zhao army, those elephants would be nothing more than giant targets."
At some point, Lin Wushou and his fellow generals had arrived on the summit. The moment they arrived, they immediately turned to Wang Chong.
"Young Master, let me lead a group to hunt down those elephants! This general is confident in his ability to stop the Mengshe Zhao soldiers at the base of the mountain."
"No need!"
Wang Chong waved his hand, his gaze still focused below.
"It hasn't reached that stage yet!"
Boom! Boom! Boom! While they had all been speaking, another wave of steel walls had been pulled down, leaving long trails in the ground as they were dragged away by the elephants.
At the base of the mountain, plumes of dust rose more than ten zhang into the sky, further obscuring the movements of the Mengshe Zhao army.
Chapter 594: The Decisive Battle! The Danger of Wang Chong!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
"But, Milord, if this continues, our defenses at the base of the mountain will be completely dismantled," Lin Wushou worriedly said.
He had come here for the express purpose of requesting an order to move out. He would not normally have done such a thing, but Wang Chong was inexplicably slow in giving the order this time.
"Mengshe Zhao still hasn't attacked up the mountain yet. What they want is for us to leave our positions and attack them," Wang Chong calmly said.
As he peered down the mountain, his mind was a hive of activity, quickly considering countermeasures. He had to admit that Geluofeng and Dalun Ruozan truly deserved their reputation as powerhouses of the southwest border.
The White Elephant Corps was truly a thorn in Wang Chong's sole.
In a defensive battle, one hundred thousand could contend against five hundred thousand primarily by relying on advantageous geography, terrain, and defenses. Geluofeng, through the use of his White Elephant Corps, was slowly dismantling these defenses and was in no rush to attack.
The Mengshe Zhao soldiers were in no rush to attack, and it was impossible for Wang Chong's forces to leave the mountain and attack them. And as long as Wang Chong stood by and did nothing, the steel walls on the mountain that he had invested so much of his fortune into, his lifelines in this battle, would eventually all be dragged away.
The Annan Protectorate army would truly be forced into a corner.
"But, Young Master, do we really have to sit here and wait for death?"
Lin Wushou looked at Wang Chong, the disappointment in his eyes difficult to conceal.
"No need!"
After a few moments, Wang Chong suddenly ordered, "Order the master archer square over here for me."
It took only a few moments for the fully-armored captain of the master archer square to appear before Wang Chong.
"Young Master!"
The master archer captain lowered his head and bowed.
"What methods do you have to deal with the White Elephant Corps elephants?" Wang Chong asked.
"The elephants are covered completely in armor. When the Mengshe Zhao people were forging this armor, they already considered how to deal with a master archer square," the captain sincerely said.
The White Elephant Corps had only a thousand-some elephants. If they did not have the sufficient defense, they would be slaughtered in a single engagement, so Geluofeng had made ample preparations against this possibility.
"What about the joints? If we can fire at the joints, the elephants' movements will be hampered, allowing us to slow their operation."
Wang Chong's brow furrowed.
"No! Mengshe Zhao chose Tibetan plate armor precisely for this reason, and they made the armor even thicker than Tibetan plate. Besides the defensive capabilities of the plate armor itself, there are also very few places where the joints of the plate armor are linked together, so there's far too little chance of success."
The master archer captain sighed.
"What about the eyes? The plate armor can't be so formidable as to even obscure the eyes, right? If we can fire into the eyes of an elephant, we might even be able to kill it in one shot," Wang Chong sternly said.
"The eyes of the elephant truly are a potential weakness to be exploited, but their eyes are extremely small, completely unlike their massive bodies. In addition… Young Master also saw that the Whitestone Corps has stationed ten-some soldiers on each elephant devoted to defense. Moreover, these warriors are clearly well-trained. Our chances are very small."
"If we don't have a chance, then let's create one. Since the soldiers are protecting it, we'll just shoot down the soldiers!" Lin Wushou suddenly inserted himself into the conversation, sweeping down in a cutting motion with his hands as he spoke.
Before the master archer captain could speak, Chen Shusun spoke up. "It's useless! The White Elephant Corps will definitely have made plans against this possibility. In order to remove that sort of defense, we would have to kill the entire White Elephant Corps."
Things on the battlefield were never so simple. Since Geluofeng regarded the White Elephant Corps with great importance, he had equipped them with the best armor covered with many defensive inscriptions and even made armor for their underbellies. He had probably already thought of every possibility.
The only part that he couldn't defend was probably the eyes, because it would do him no good if his defensive measures blinded the elephants as well. Even so, Geluofeng had still prepared an extremely large army to protect them.
From a certain perspective, from the moment the Mengshe Zhao people had begun to develop this corps, they had thought of every possible flaw and developed countermeasures against them.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Dust continued to rise from the base of the mountain. While they had been speaking, the outermost circle of steel walls around the mountain had been pulled out. Each under the es
cort of several dozen soldiers of the White Elephant Corps, the elephants pulled away the heavy steel walls, dragging them step by step from the mountain.
Cries of alarm could be heard all over the base of the mountain. No longer protected by the outer perimeter of steel walls, having lost the tug of war with the elephants, the Annan Protectorate army was forced to move farther up the mountain.
And from start to finish, the Mengshe Zhao soldiers never attempted to pursue. Only when a few Annan Protectorate army soldiers got too close would they attempt to suppress them.
The dismantling of the walls proceeded with almost unbelievable calm.
And from the summit, one could see that Mengshe Zhao had dispatched a great number of generals for this operation. A general would be supervising at every location, immediately bellowing a stern rebuke at the smallest sign of attack. Anyone who seemed to cross a sort of invisible boundary would immediately suffer the lash of the whip.
This entire attack was difficult to imagine.
But this sight failed to alleviate the worries of the people on the summit. It only made their hearts sink like stones.
"The Mengshe Zhao soldiers are now very cautious."
"It's even scarier than if they were attacking with all they had."
"If this continues, it'll take three days at most for our defensive stronghold to be completely dismantled."
……
The entire mountain was quiet. Other than a few conflicts that took place during the process, an extremely rare peace was maintained. But this mood on the battlefield was completely different from what one would expect from such a peace.
The atmosphere was many times tenser than it had been during the fierce battles earlier. Worry and anxiety were spreading like a plague through the army.
"Hahaha, the Ü-Tsang Great Minister talked up this brat too much! I'd like to see how he can break my White Elephant Corps!"
In the middle of the White Elephant Corps, the white-armored Duan Yangyan looked up at the mountain and roared with laughter.
The White Elephant Corps had already dismantled an entire layer of the Tang defense, but other than a few scattered attempts at resistance and some tickling volleys of arrows, the Tang had not been able to form any sort of effective attack.