Rumble! As countless people watched in shock, the earth shattered as the massive bodies of the elephants toppled like mountains of flesh.
!!
Shock, endless shock!
As these elephants crashed to the ground, all the soldiers of Mengshe Zhao looked on in stupefaction.
"This is impossible!"
At this moment, the soldiers around the elephants were all flabbergasted, their minds completely blank. In the Six Zhao of Erhai, the elephants possessed a transcendental status.
All the soldiers of the White Elephant Corps treated these elephants like gods.
Their divine strength had left an indelible impression on the people of Mengshe Zhao.
No one had expected that even though these elephants were covered in that thick and hardy white armor, they would still be so easily killed by enemy arrows.
But these were far from the only deaths.
To some people, it might have been better if all the elephants had died after being shot. A few of the elephants had managed to block the arrows with their thick eyelids, but this was only the start of a tragedy…
"Ah!"
Trumpeting filled the air as a Mengshe Zhao soldier looked up in fright, his eyes widening as a massive foot quickly filled his field of view before smashing him into pulp.
Biaaah!
Their wounds had instantly caused the massive elephants to turn violent, entering a blind and fatal berserk state. No one could imagine that an elephant weighing more than ten thousand jin could move so nimbly and violently in this state.
Bangbangbang! In the blink of an eye, several hundred White Elephant Corps soldiers who were too slow to dodge were smashed into pulp by elephants, with those who were closest dying the fastest.
Those soldiers tasked with guarding the elephants now became their earliest victims.
"How could this be? These elephants really are afraid of loud noises!"
On the summit, Lin Wushou, Luo Ji, and Chen Guanshun were all in a state of extreme agitation, both shocked and surprised, none of them daring to believe their eyes.
"Hurry! Time is short. Seize this chance!"
An ice-cold voice roused them from their shock.
Everything was as Wang Chong had expected. The elephants had massive bodies, but their ability to tolerate loud noises was at the same level as regular elephants. Though his tactic had been effective, Wang Chong was utterly unmoved.
A commander always had to maintain a calm and rational mind that could never be allowed to be moved by external factors. Only by maintaining one's rationality could one make the wisest decision at the critical moment.
Roaaaarr!
The earth shook and the wind blustered. Wang Chong didn't need to give an order this time for Chen Guanshun's group to swiftly act. The six or seven top-notch generals once more gathered their energy into a massive beam of air that enveloped the elephants to the southwest.
Biaaaah!
The elephants blared, half of them falling while the other half went berserk. If the elephants still had their eyes, they would have taken the orders of the White Elephant Corps soldiers.
But the stabbing pain and blindness had made all the elephants regard the humans closest to them as the enemies on which they could vent their ire. And when an elephant at the Profound Martial realm, wearing thick and heavy armor, went berserk, it had a terrifying strength that was difficult to imagine.
"Ah!"
"AAAAH!"
"AAAAAAAH!!!"
Screams echoed over the battlefield. When an elephant went berserk in the dense ranks of the army, the soldiers were naught but wheat in the field, and as they were cut down, their blood and flesh was squeezed out from their armor, their armor becoming crumpled cans.
The battlefield instantly became a living hell.
"Hurry! Stop them!"
While the soldiers panicked, a few of the soldiers attempted to work together to attack the charging elephants. But their spears, pikes, and long sabers barely tickled the thick hides of the elephants. Not only did they fail to kill the elephants, the knockback from their attacks sent their own bodies flying.
Biaaaah!
The trumpeting of elephants mixed into a single din in the chaos of the battlefield.
On the summit, Wang Chong, the top-notch generals, and Zhao Hong's master archers continued to constantly change directions, seizing the moment to continue their attacks.
"The southeast!"
"Southwest!"
"Hurry!"
"Time is short! While they're still in chaos, we have the best chance!"
……
In a few short moments, Wang Chong's group had fired at least ten volleys of arrows, barely pausing between volleys and working with extreme efficiency. And the location Wang Chong had chosen for this battle once more amply showed its advantages.
The imposing wall of the mountain cut off vision of one side from the other, making it impossible to tell what was going on. The soldiers of the White Elephant Corps could only hear screams and the furious blaring of the elephants, and before they could react, they suffered the same fate.
It was the same plan and the same method of attack, but it succeeded in every attempt.
Biaaah!
The earth trembled. To the east, west, north, south, southwest, northwest… booms like mountains crashing down could be heard from all over, each boom signifying the death of an elephant.
In a few short moments, at least two hundred elephants had been killed!
Animals were still animals, and though they might be stronger than humans, they still could not be compared to humans. Once their weak point was exposed, these elephants that weighed more than ten thousand jin and were strong enough to pull down steel walls could easily be killed.
"Damn it! Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!"
Seated atop an elephant, Duan Yangyan was both shocked and furious, his entire person dumbstruck. Just a moment ago, he had been slowly dismantling the Tang defenses while the Tang were at a complete loss, but now, the arrows were raining down and his army had already lost more than two hundred elephants. The difference was simply too great.
"Hurry!"
This last word was spoken with all of Duan Yangyan's power.
And even more shocked than Duan Yangyan were the gathered generals of Mengshe Zhao as well as Geluofeng, Fengjiayi, and Duan Gequan. The tragic cries of the elephants as they fell had stunned all of them.
None of them spoke, all of them oppressed by a stifling mood.
"Quickly, order General Duan to withdraw!"
The first to break the silence was Crown Prince Fengjiayi. It was no easy task to build up the White Elephant Corps, and the thousand-some elephants had consumed a great deal of Mengshe Zhao's manpower and energy. Simply capturing them was hard enough, much less the decades of training.
If Wang Chong were allowed to continue firing, the entire White Elephant Corps would be wiped out to a man.
Roooaar!
Suddenly, a heaven-shaking roar rose from the southeast, promptly interrupting the roars of Chen Guanshun, Lin Wushou and the other generals.
At the same time, two other massive bellows, like the roars of primordial beasts, rose from the mountain and clashed against the roar from the southeast.
Huoshu Huicang, Wang Yan, and Xianyu Zhongtong had finally moved.
On the battlefield, the elephants were still restless, but now that Huoshu Huicang had intervened and Wang Yan and Xianyu Zhongtong had stepped in to stop him, the situation instantly improved.
"Okay, let's leave it at this for now!"
On the summit, Wang Chong waved his hand as he watched the White Elephant Corps retreat in panic, bringing this offense to an end. Sound wave attacks were less effective the farther one was.
Moreover, the critical element of this kind of attack was surprise. If the enemy were prepared, the tactic would be much less effective.
"Mm?"
Upon giving this order, Wang Chong suddenl
y realized that he could hear only silence, with no response whatsoever. It was like there was no one around him, like the summit was deserted. Freezing for a moment, Wang Chong turned his head in surprise. With a glance, he could see that everyone was looking at him in stupefaction: Chen Guanshun, Lin Wushou, Luo Ji, and even Chen Shusun.
Wang Chong creased his brow and asked in surprise, "What's wrong?"
Chapter 597: The Decisive Battle! The Great Minister's Night Probe!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Suddenly, Chen Guanshun took in a deep breath, walked out from the ranks, and bowed in front of Wang Chong. "Young Master, please accept this bow from your subordinate. Your subordinate was rude earlier!" And before he could finish speaking, all the generals behind him, the highest-ranking generals of the Annan Protectorate army, bowed as well.
When they raised their heads and looked at Wang Chong once more, their eyes were brimming with shock, admiration, and deep respect.
The generals of the southwest had all heard rumors of the White Elephant Corps. This was an army highly prized by Geluofeng, and one with a frightening fighting power.
All of them had witnessed this power in the battle just now.
But none of them could have expected that while the rest of them only knew bits and pieces about those massive elephants that lived in the lands south of the Erhai, Wang Chong had already found a method to easily defeat them.
Such abilities were practically divine and had already surpassed their collective imaginations.
"Young Master, can you tell us how you knew that the elephants would be afraid of large sounds?"
Lin Wushou stepped forward, his face filled with admiration.
In the battle of Erhai, if they had known of this method to deal with the White Elephant Corps, things would have been completely different. At the very least, they would not have lost so many soldiers to the charges and crushing of the elephants.
Although Wang Chong lived in the capital and rarely left its borders, his knowledge was so deep and experiences so vast that they made one gasp in astonishment.
"Haha, this actually isn't that hard to guess. These elephants have large bodies, but their eyes are absurdly small, only a bit bigger than the eyes of normal humans. It's obvious that the eyes are their weak point. Since their eyes are like that, then maybe the rest of their sensory organs are like that as well, which is when I thought about their ears."
Wang Chong held his hands behind him and spoke with a faint smile on his lips. No matter what, he could never reveal his memories of the other world in this one.
"Young Master's talent is truly formidable, standing above the rest!"
The Annan Protectorate army generals were all stunned beyond belief.
Although Wang Chong had explained the matter with just a few sentences, this was completely in line with Wang Chong's usual performance. As for Wang Chong's age, they had utterly forgotten about this problem.
……
Biaaaah!
Although the attack had stopped, the problems in the White Elephant Corps were still far from over. The berserk elephants were continuing to crash through the army, with the casualties inflicted on the White Elephant Corps almost totally due to their rampage.
At least two thousand soldiers had died to the berserk elephants.
But even so, the soldiers of the White Elephant Corps still had to do their utmost to calm the berserk elephants.
A White Elephant Corps without elephants didn't deserve the name.
"Your Majesty, what should we do now? Do you want to dispatch other soldiers?"
"Your Majesty, let this general go!"
"This general is willing to lead his troops and exterminate the Tang!"
……
In the central army of Mengshe Zhao, several generals were in a state of abnormal agitation, anxious to do battle.
"Let us end things here for today!"
Geluofeng gave a deep sigh, a rare hint of fatigue appearing in this ambitious character's eyes. The defeat of the Whitestone Corps and then the defeat of the White Elephant Corps that he had placed so much of his hopes on, the deaths of seventy to eighty thousand soldiers, had left a very deep shadow on his kingly heart.
"Generals, there is no need to speak of battle for now. Let me meet with the Ü-Tsang Great Minister. Once there is a plan, I will make a decision."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
The generals bowed in response.
In Erhai, Geluofeng's status was similar to that of the Great Tang's Sage Emperor, and his words truly were law. Any order would be implemented to the last letter.
"By the way, how are General Duan's injuries?" Geluofeng said.
"General Duan's condition has been stabilized," a Mengshe Zhao general reported, knowing that Geluofeng was speaking of Duan Wuzong.
"I'll go and see how he's doing."
With a sweep of his divine robe, Geluofeng took his leave from the central army.
The moment he left, the long blare of a horn came from the southeast. The vast Tibetan army retreated like the receding tide, drawing back from the Tang-occupied mountain.
Mengshe Zhao, with a sense of tacit understanding, also began to retreat.
In just a few moments, an empty zone of land had been created around the mountain.
Amidst the blustery winds at the summit, Old Eagle looked down and reported, "Young Master, they've retreated!"
"Mm, as they should."
Wang Chong sneered as he glanced up at the gradually darkening sky. The initial assault, the rain of fireballs, the White Elephant Corps… the Mengshe–Ü-Tsang army had launched three to four waves of attacks in a single day, but he had defeated every one of them.
"Since they know that now is the time to retreat, then perhaps it's not too late for them!"
Dalun Ruozan, Huoshu Huicang, and Geluofeng were influential figures of the southwest, on the same level as Zhangchou Jianqiong. All of them were people who needed to be regarded with vigilance.
If anyone else had said what Wang Chong had said, they would have been looked upon with contempt. But in Wang Chong's mouth, no one believed these words to be improper.
His actions had amply proved that he had the strength and qualifications to say such words.
Not even the Annan Protectorate army generals had realized that Wang Chong's place in their heart had gradually risen above Wang Yan and Xianyu Zhongtong, generals who they had spent the last month fighting to the death for.
"Pass down my order. The soldiers should begin to fire the stoves and begin to make their meals."
"But Young Master, what if they use this chance to attack?" Old Eagle said.
"Hmph, if they dare!"
Snorting, Wang Chong left with a flick of his sleeve. This sort of tactic was meant to invite them to attack, and Wang Chong looked forward to welcoming it.
……
"This is naked contempt! This child is jeering at us!"
As he saw the smoke of campfires rise from the mountain, Huoshu Huicang suddenly spoke, his eyes turning to Dalun Ruozan with an obvious meaning. While he said that Wang Chong was jeering at the Tibetans, he was actually saying that Wang Chong was challenging Dalun Ruozan.
"What can I do? This is beyond my abilities!" Dalun Ruozan said with a bitter smile.
"Hmph! You will concede?" Huoshu Huicang said, not believing any one of his words. Huoshu Huicang was extremely familiar with the Ngari Great Minister. Anyone who thought that he was actually conceding would be committing a fatal error.
Those people who thought that Dalun Ruozan would so easily concede had already had their bones ground into dust, transformed into a pile of dirt.
At the very least, if Zhangchou Jianqiong were present and saw the expression on Dalun Ruozan's face, he would have only increased his vigilance.
"However, this brat truly can't be underestimated! Even Zhangchou Jianqiong wouldn't have been able to push me to this state."
With these final words, Dalun Ruozan deeply furrowed his brow.
Huoshu Huicang also fell quiet. The deep understanding he had developed with Dalun Ruozan after working with him for so many years let him know that these words of Dalun Ruozan's had come from the heart.
With this sort of evaluation from Dalun Ruozan, Wang Chong was allowed to be proud of himself.
……
Dusk began to set in as light continued to gradually seep out of the world.
The entire battlefield had fallen into silence, the campfires blazing in the darkness like little stars. At this time, the Tang, the Mengshe Zhao, and the Tibetans were all minding their own business, descending into a rare calm.
Buzz!
Deep within the darkness, in a place that no one was paying attention to, several figures silently appeared on the northwest face of the mountain.
"This is the place!"
This person had two sabers sheathed on their back and stood next to Dalun Ruozan. It was the valiant Tibetan general who cultivated the Metal element, Tumi Sangzha. With him were Longqinba and Ciren Xiangxiong as well.
All of them had very grave expressions.
The Great Minister never did anything meaningless, much less at a time like this.
"Just what is this brat up to?"
Ciren Xiangxiong slowly raised his gaze from the base of the mountain to the summit. This was a long 'path', around ten-some zhang wide. It did not lead to any other place on the mountain, and there were no steel walls here, only an uncountable number of caltrops of all shapes and sizes.
The largest of these caltrops was five feet tall while the smallest was no bigger than a thumb, but all of them were brimming with thorns. These hundreds of thousands of caltrops, perhaps even reaching one million, had been poured down from the summit, forming a long and straight river of black thorns.
On this mountain covered in walls, this river of thorns was extremely striking.
In the rear, a Tibetan tribal general asked in confusion, "Was it because he was lacking in materials to make more metal walls?"
"Impossible! Look at how many metal thorns there are. Do you think that this much material isn't enough to wall off this path?" Longqinba coldly replied.
The Human Emperor c1-2382 Page 436