The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  In this battle, the two sides had been evenly matched. Neither formation had shattered, and both sides had suffered very few casualties.

  Huang Botian turned around and shouted, “Li Siye! How should we fight now?”

  The Wushang Cavalry had successfully utilized the Arrow Formation to charge through the Mutri Great Cavalry. The Meteoric Metal armor Wang Chong had equipped them with had played an extremely important role. Just like their Wootz Steel swords against the armor of the Mutri Great Cavalry, the scimitars of the Mutri Great Cavalry had similarly found it impossible to cut through the Meteoric Metal armor.

  “The current situation is not good. Their Stellar Energy is infused with a searing flame energy. We have to think of a way to break their core!” Kong Zi-an loudly shouted out.

  This was not their first time fighting with an elite Tibetan cavalry force. They were no stranger to the fiery energy running through the Mutri Great Cavalry. This was not normal Stellar Energy, but derived from some special ritual tool.

  Dayan Mangban and the White Braves had used a similar method at the battle of the triangular gap.

  “Don’t worry about that! If we just charge at them a few more times, we’ll shatter their formation! Their weapons and armors aren’t as strong as ours. With each charge, we can break more of their armor, and if we charge enough times, we can rout them!” Li Siye ordered, his voice firm and determined.

  Chapter 918 - Huoba Sangye!

  Chapter 918: Huoba Sangye!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  The Mutri Great Cavalry was much stronger than the White Braves or the Celestial Wolf Cavalry, and it was much more valiant as well, but the current Wushang Cavalry was also on a completely different level. If the Wushang Cavalry had had their current equipment at the battle of the triangular gap, the White Braves wouldn’t have been a problem at all, even with the Heart of the Great Bon.

  Bzzt! Following Li Siye’s order, the five thousand Wushang Cavalry kicked up a cloud of dust as they turned around and charged back at the Mutri Great Cavalry. This time, however, they had their backs to the morning sun and experienced a completely different situation. While the seven thousand Mutri Great Cavalry still had that dazzling red radiance about them, it was no longer so blinding that the Wushang Cavalry couldn’t even open their eyes.

  In addition, with the sunlight behind them, they could clearly make out each one of the Mutri Great Cavalry in the red light.

  Bang!

  The Wushang Cavalry were galvanized by this sight and let out an earth-shaking roar of elation.

  “Kiiill!”

  Armor rattled and horses neighed as the Wushang Cavalry once more entered the fray.

  “Kill them!”

  At the same time, Huoba Sangye bellowed, his eyes red and glowing with a savage light. His Mutri Great Cavalry made no attempts to run or evade, also turning to charge at Li Siye’s men. In that exchange just now, Huoba Sangye had grasped the strength of the Wushang Cavalry.

  This force of Tang cavalry truly was fierce and agile, but not to an unstoppable level.

  Meanwhile, in a place that no one was paying attention, Chekun Benba unsheathed his sword and rode forth on his stalwart Turkic steed. “All soldiers, assemble! Work with the Tibetans and kill them!”

  The Great Scarlet Sun Formation of the Mutri Great Cavalry had been weakened, its radiance dimming. This was not just a boon for the Wushang Cavalry. It also provided an opportunity for the defeated Celestial Wolf Cavalry to assist the Mutri Great Cavalry.

  This force of Tang cavalry was truly too powerful. If they had not seen it for themselves, they would have never believed that the infantry country that was the Great Tang would also possess such powerful cavalry. The primarily nomadic countries of the Western Turkic Khaganate and the Ü-Tsang Empire were finding it nearly impossible to defeat them, so the best solution right now was to work together.

  Rumble! The Celestial Wolf Cavalry gathered together and charged forward under Chekun Benba’s command, raising the curtain on a chaotic battle.

  ……

  “Pass on my order. Execute the plan!”

  While these three elite cavalry forces were drawing the attention of everyone else on the battlefield, behind the second line of defense, Wang Chong slowly looked away and swung down his hand. The outcome of this battle would still need some time to decide, making this a perfect time to begin his plan.

  Bong!

  War drums suddenly began to thunder from the eastern side of the battlefield, tinged with a metallic timbre. This sudden drumming instantly attracted everyone’s attention. On the hills beneath the tall white yak banner of the Ngari Royal Lineage, Dalun Ruozan almost instinctively looked to see what was happening.

  Wang Chong, mounted on the White-hoofed Shadow, locked eyes with Dalun Ruozan across the battlefield and gave him a profound smile.

  Buzz! Dalun Ruozan’s eyes widened at the sight of this smile, immediately sensing an ill foreboding. He and Wang Chong had exchanged so many blows in the southwest that he had a deep understanding of this seventeen-year-old. He would never do anything without reason or objective.

  But Dalun Ruozan currently had no idea what had gone wrong or what Wang Chong’s smile meant.

  “Attack!”

  Putting aside Dalun Ruozan, Wang Chong pointed his Wootz Steel sword forward and then swung it down in the direction of the tens of thousands of Tibetan and Turkic cavalry. In the next moment, the tens of thousands of Tang soldiers defending the second defense line suddenly surged forward like a landslide.

  Even Xu Keyi’s ballista soldiers left the line, advancing east under the protection of heavily-equipped shieldmen.

  Twangtwangtwang!

  The long black ballista bolts howled through the battlefield, leaving behind trails of death in the air as they shot toward the Tibetan and Turkic cavalry. Squelchsquelchsquelch! As the bolts pierced through them, throngs of Tibetan and Turkic cavalry were cut down like weeds, their corpses dropping into the dust.

  “Kill!”

  Their howls reaching the heavens, the countless mercenaries of the Western Regions lunged forward like a tiger leaping down from a mountain, their weapons flailing in the air.

  And this was not the only shift on the battlefield. Around a thousand zhang from the second defense line, Sun Zhiming, Zhuang Zhengping, Chi Weisi, Gao Feng, and Nie Yan had paired up, the soldiers led under these pairings ‘coincidentally’ distributed across the eastern, central, and western parts of the battlefield. When the drums began to thunder, these officers began to move together.

  “Lord Marquis has sent the signal! Go!”

  “Haha, Dalun Ruozan still took the bait. He’s still no match for Lord Marquis!”

  “Hurry! Don’t delay Lord Marquis’s plans! Sir Li Siye has already completed his mission, so it’s our turn now!”

  All these officers had eyes glowing with vim and vigor. Dalun Ruozan believed that he had a deep understanding of the marquis, but alas, the marquis was far more formidable than Dalun Ruozan could imagine. In terms of tactics and strategy, Dalun Ruozan and the marquis had always been on different levels. Rumble! The three groups of Tang soldiers in the eastern, central, and western parts of the battlefield immediately began to push out to their sides.

  If one looked down from the sky, one could see that these three groups had formed an enormous arc that divided the hundred-thousand-some-strong Turko-Tibetan army down the middle. The tens of thousands of soldiers charging out from the second defense line completed this trap, encircling about sixty thousand Tibetan and Turkic cavalry.

  An army of nearly one hundred thousand had surrounded an army of around sixty thousand, and the larger army even had the power of ballistae on their side. One could easily imagine what would happen to the encircled enemy.

  “Not good!”

  Dalun Ruozan immediately paled. All of this had been unexpected and had happened too quickly. Dalun Ruozan had sectioned off Wa
ng Chong’s forty thousand cavalry into three places, and he was confident that he had fully suppressed them. In Dalun Ruozan’s plan, he was on the verge of defeating them. But now, Dalun Ruozan understood that those three groups of cavalry hadn’t been forced into those positions at all.

  From the very start of the battle, they had intended on being partitioned into those areas.

  “Order all the soldiers on the vanguard to retreat!

  “Order the left wing and right wing to advance and do all they can to break the Tang’s blockade line!

  “Tell Huoba Sangye to abandon his battle with the Wushang Cavalry and advance to scatter the three groups of Tang cavalry!”

  Dalun Ruozan immediately gave a string of orders. The blustery winds on the hill stirred his robes and hair, and while Dalun Ruozan seemed calm on the surface, a hint of anxiety was still visible deep within his eyes.

  Dalun Ruozan had made his name many years ago, and even when he had been matching wits with a Great General of the Central Plains like Zhangchou Jianqiong, he had never felt the smallest ripple of emotion. However, when fighting Wang Chong, Dalun Ruozan had to put in all his energy and focus. Wang Chong’s art of war was a complete mismatch from this generation, and his strategy and tactics were unconventional and unpredictable.

  The fierce battle between the three supreme cavalry forces should have been the main draw of this battle, the clash that would decide the overall outcome. But in Wang Chong’s view, this was just bait, with the battle between the more than one hundred thousand Turko-Tibetan cavalry and the Tang cavalry being the true objective.

  One second ago, Dalun Ruozan had held the advantage, but now, the situation had suddenly reversed. His vast army had been cut in two, with half of it now in desperate straits and at risk of being completely wiped out! This sort of situation could only ever have happened to him when fighting against Wang Chong.

  Rumble!

  The army immediately began to move according to Dalun Ruozan’s orders. In a cloud of roiling dust, the Celestial Wolf, Wushang, and Mutri Cavalry were engaged in savage combat, but when Huoba Sangye received Dalun Ruozan’s order, he hesitated for only a few moments before turning around.

  “All soldiers, hear my order! Disregard the Wushang Cavalry and follow me!”

  The armor of the Wushang Cavalry was too sturdy and had been further bolstered by many toughening inscriptions. The weapons of the Mutri Great Cavalry were simply incapable of cutting through this armor. There was no way this battle could be brought to a close in a short time. In addition, he would still have a chance to fight a decisive battle with the Wushang Cavalry, but not if the rest of the army was routed.

  “Hyah!”

  With a shout, Huoba Sangye immediately led his Mutri Great Cavalry streaking like a fireball into the distance.

  “Great General has ordered us to go as well!”

  At almost the same time, Chekun Benba received the order from Duwu Sili as well. Duwu Sili and Dalun Ruozan currently shared in both victory and defeat. If the army were routed and suffered too many losses, there would be no way to continue this battle. Forty-thousand-some Western Turkic cavalry alone would be able to accomplish nothing.

  Moreover, Turkic cavalry were also included in the approximately sixty thousand men trapped in the encirclement.

  Gallop! A few moments later, Chekun Benba had led the several thousand Celestial Wolf Cavalry away. For these two cavalry forces to abandon the battle with their foe at almost the same time seemed absurd, but it had truly happened.

  If Wang Chong succeeded in dividing and wiping out those sixty thousand soldiers, he would win the battle outright. In comparison to this severe consequence, the stalemate between the three cavalry forces was not very important at all.

  Chapter 919 - Wang Chong's Art of War!

  Chapter 919: Wang Chong’s Art of War!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  “General, Lord Marquis has succeeded!!”

  Cheers broke out from the battlefield. As the Celestial Wolf Cavalry and Mutri Great Cavalry began to gallop off, Kong Zi-an could no longer contain his joy and excitement. The marquis did not lightly act, but once he did, the outcome of a battle would be decided. Based on the worried and anxious looks on the faces of the Celestial Wolf Cavalry and Mutri Great Cavalry, it was clear that the marquis’s plan had succeeded.

  “Mm.”

  Li Siye nodded. Only he roughly understood Wang Chong’s plan, with the rest of his soldiers essentially knowing nothing. With the plan executed, it was time for the Wushang Cavalry to withdraw as well.

  “All soldiers, hear my order! Immediately turn back and impede the Celestial Wolf Cavalry and Mutri Great Cavalry! Don’t let them disrupt Lord Marquis’s plan!”

  Li Siye’s eyes flashed with a sharp light as he patted his horse and immediately charged off in pursuit of the two cavalry forces.

  “Let’s go!”

  Huang Botian, Kong Zi-an, and the others followed, leaving a trail of dust as they galloped off. The three Halos of Dusk Stallion provided such an enormous boost in speed that the Celestial Wolf Cavalry were only able to charge a little distance before the Wushang Cavalry caught up.

  “Stop them!”

  After a brief flurry of thought, Chekun Benba had his Celestial Wolf Cavalry turn around and charge toward Li Siye. However, Chekun Benba had miscalculated. While still several dozen zhang away, Li Siye and the Wushang Cavalry made a sudden turn, completely ignoring inertia as they drew a massive arc along the earth and essentially swerved around the Celestial Wolf Cavalry.

  In all the world, only the Wushang Cavalry were capable of such a feat.

  Boom!

  Before Chekun Benba could catch up, the Wushang Cavalry had already bypassed them and were charging toward the Mutri Great Cavalry ahead.

  “Damn it! After them!”

  Chekun Benba was infuriated. Shamask had suffered a drastic drop in strength, plunging to the Imperial Martial realm, so he was no longer capable of using the Celestial Wolf Illusory Formation. Chekun Benba was also not at the Brigadier General level and was similarly incapable. Thus, the Celestial Wolf Cavalry simply could not catch up to the Wushang Cavalry boosted by three layers of the Halo of Dusk Stallion as well as the Ten Charges Ten Victories Formation.

  Neigh!

  Almost immediately after the Wushang Cavalry bypassed Chekun Benba’s forces, a mountainous figure on the hills suddenly charged out on his horse, leaping more than ten zhang into the air and landing on the plains, catching Dalun Ruozan and the others completely by surprise.

  “Duwu Sili!!”

  Dalun Ruozan couldn’t help but furrow his brow.

  Huoshu Huicang rode up on his horse and asked, “Great Minister, what do we do? Duwu Sili has moved out, completely against the plan we set out beforehand.”

  After a few moments of silence, Dalun Ruozan said, “Let him go!”

  In his original plan, the Imperial Great Generals would only move out at the final moment. It wasn’t because he was being overly cautious, but because Great Generals had a special status. Once one side mobilized their Great Generals, the other side would undoubtedly adopt their countermeasures, and in the end, what would occur was a battle between two Imperial Great Generals.

  Not only would this be of little help to the battle, but the fight between two Great Generals would spread to many ordinary soldiers and increase the meaningless losses on both sides.

  Thus, in large battles, Imperial Great Generals would not enter the fray unless absolutely necessary. However, this was an urgent situation, so Duwu Sili’s decision was within reason.

  “Huoshu Huicang, Dusong Mangpoje, you two might as well go too, to avoid any surprises!” Dalun Ruozan said.

  Huoshu Huicang and Dusong Mangpoje grunted and set off, their horses loudly neighing as they leapt from the hills like dragons flying out from the sea. In a flash, the entire battlefield began to quake.

  Duwu Sili, Huoshu Huica
ng, and Dusong Mangpoje descended upon the battlefield like a storm, immediately attracting the attention of everyone on the battlefield. Even the distant Abu Muslim had noticed.

  “The Tibetans and Turks have mobilized. We should move out as well. Pass on my order! All soldiers, attack!”

  With a rumbling, Abu Muslim placed his hands on the armrest of his golden throne and slowly stood up, a powerful desire to fight erupting from his body.

  Rumble!

  At almost the same time, a powerful energy rose from the high walls of Talas in response. All the Arabs could see a tall and slender figure, grasping a sword and wearing a full suit of black armor, standing on the southeast corner of the walls like a god, his eyes shining with a light more dazzling than the sun’s.

  At this moment, the tens of thousands of Arab soldiers seemed like fireflies in front of the bright moon.

  “Gao Xianzhi!”

  Abu Muslim’s body trembled, and though he had been prepared to step out just a moment ago, he suddenly stopped. Two months of bitter combat had made Abu Muslim quite familiar with this commander of the Anxi Protectorate army. This was the first person of the Great Tang to win his admiration, and though they were enemies, Abu Muslim still held a great deal of respect for Gao Xianzhi, both for his strength and for his resolve!

  “Lord Governor?”

  A voice came from his side. A burly Arab general was staring at the Abbasid Governor of Iron and Blood, awaiting his decision.

  “Inform Ziyad to continue commanding the battle. All soldiers, continue the attack!” Abu Muslim said as he sat himself back down.

  He and Gao Xianzhi had exchanged far more than just once. If they fought, the battle would take some time to be decided. Even though he had always held the advantage in this battle, Abu Muslim had never been able to do much against Gao Xianzhi. If it was Gao Xianzhi stepping forward, there was no need to continue this clash between Great Generals.

  Such a fight would be utterly meaningless!