The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  “Milord, they’ve all been taken care of. We managed to get three in total, all of which have been handed over to the bird trainers in the army,” the Anxi deputy general known as Kang Huaishun deferentially said.

  “Have the follow-up measures been enacted? Will our actions draw any suspicion?” Gao Xianzhi said.

  “Following Milord’s orders, we left behind three rock eagle corpses that appeared like Arabian hunting falcons at the Arab camp,” Kang Huaishun reported. “Only pulped flesh of those three rock eagles remain, so it’s very hard to differentiate them from hunting falcons. The Arabs will not be able to notice the difference. In addition, the members of the raiding party reported that the Arab camp has many hunting falcons. The loss of only three will not attract their attention.”

  Kang Huaishun was also a renowned general of the Anxi Protectorate army. He had been the main commander of the night raid.

  Listening on the side, Wang Chong gave a nod of approval. The primary objective of the Anxi Protectorate army in the raid against the Arabs was to steal a few hunting falcons, not kill Arab soldiers. Dalun Ruozan communicated with the Arabs through letters delivered by these fierce hunting falcons. If they could steal a few, they could intercept some of these letters.

  “But there is still one problem. The Arabian hunting falcons are extremely vicious and began to shout and cry the moment they were brought back from the Arab camp. Our men have done all they could, but they can’t get them to quiet down. In addition, they aren’t willing to eat any of the meat we give them,” Kang Huaishun said.

  If the hunting falcons could not be tamed, they could not be used. The results would be the same as if they had never been captured in the first place.

  “This problem is easy to take care of.”

  Wang Chong gave a leisurely grin.

  “General Kang, I have a bird expert known as Zhang Que under my command. He’s done a great deal of research on Arabian hunting falcons, so you can just leave this matter to him.”

  “Huaishun, do as Lord Wang says,” Gao Xianzhi said with a faint smile. “In addition, give that Arab general who led the raiding force known as Nurman to Protector-General Wang as well!”

  “Oh?”

  Wang Chong’s eyes brightened in pleasant surprise. He thought that Xi Yuanqing had killed Nurman. That he had been captured was quite unexpected.

  “Many thanks for this.”

  With the war hanging over his head, Wang Chong needed to get as strong as possible, needed his Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art to absorb the strength of more people. Only this way could he be of more help in the battles to come.

  “Yes!”

  Kang Huaishun bowed his head and quickly departed.

  “Lord Gao! Lord Wang!”

  At this moment, the new chief of the Karluks, Guli, suddenly spoke.

  “There is still another matter…”

  Guli’s expression was hesitant, his tone uncertain. His movements immediately attracted the notice of everyone in the hall. Both Wang Chong and the Ferghanan chief Banahan turned to see what was going on.

  “What’s wrong, Guli?” Gao Xianzhi said in surprise.

  “This… During the Arab raid last night, some of their troops mounted the walls and entered the city. They got in touch with us Karluks and mentioned that matter.”

  Guli was stammering, his expression fraught with deep apprehension. As he spoke, a strange feeling began to suffuse the mood in the hall. Although Guli had not mentioned exactly what ‘that matter’ was, everyone instantly understood what it was. The Arabs clearly did not know that Wanhe Peiluo had been killed, the treachery of the Karluks exposed. They had even sent out men to secretly get in touch with the Karluks.

  “Lord Protector-Generals, we Karluks truly have no intent to rebel. I ask for the understanding of the Lord Protector-Generals…” Guli sincerely implored.

  “Guli, there is no need for you to panic. We believe you,” Gao Xianzhi comforted, his words instantly calming Guli down.

  “Many thanks, Milord!” Guli said with deepest gratitude.

  The Arabs were clearly doing one thing as a cover for another. On the surface, they had sent the Wings of Death to attack the Tang army at the first defense line, but their true purpose was to send someone to get in touch with the Karluks within the city. None of them had expected this.

  That Guli had brought up this matter was proof of his sincerity to the Great Tang.

  “Wang Chong, what do you think about this matter?” Gao Xianzhi said.

  Wang Chong faintly smiled in reply. Under the light of the torches, his face seemed particularly energetic.

  “Since the Arabs are so impatient, why not agree to their request?” Wang Chong finally asked.

  At first dazed, everyone in the hall began to chuckle.

  ……

  While the Tang generals were gathered in the brightly-lit city of Talas, elsewhere in the restless darkness, the top-class Tibetan and Turkic generals had gathered to meet.

  But the atmosphere here was much heavier than that in Talas. All the generals responsible for the sentry posts around the Tibetan camp were standing at attention, their expressions fearful.

  On this night, the tens of thousands of men in the Tibetan camp had been thrown into complete chaos by not even one thousand Tang soldiers, so despite all the sentries and patrols, no one knew where the Tang were attacking from. Even after the battle, none of them knew.

  This was an absolute disgrace!

  “All of you, think carefully. Did you really not notice anything?”

  Dalun Ruozan sat on a chair, his eyes surveying the assembled generals. His voice was extremely gentle and soft, devoid of any anger, but this only made the Tibetan generals even more uneasy.

  “Bastards!”

  A thunderous roar came from beside him. Although Dalun Ruozan was not angry, Huoshu Huicang was not so restrained.

  On this night, the entire Tibetan camp had been played by Wang Chong, to the extent that they were incapable of even answering a simple question like this. This left Huoshu Huicang fuming.

  “Huoshu, you can’t blame them for this matter,” Dalun Ruozan soothed. “That person isn’t someone people of their ability can contend against. He only moves after making ample preparations. He definitely won’t have left us many clues.”

  His personality was never that irritable. However, the slight crease in his brows revealed what he was truly thinking. Just like Huoshu Huicang, he found it difficult to let this matter go.

  It wasn’t that Ü-Tsang could never lose, but it at least had to know how it had lost.

  “Great Minister!”

  At this moment, urgent footsteps came from outside the tent. A Tibetan messenger raised the tent flap, rushed into the tent, and got down on one knee.

  “On our patrol of the perimeter, we found some things that seem to have been left behind by the Tang!”

  “What was it?” Dalun Ruozan’s brow rose, and the other people in the tent turned to look.

  “They were wolf skins!” the kneeling messenger said.

  Buzz!

  While Huoshu Huicang and the others were still digesting this information, Dalun Ruozan trembled, a thought instantly occurring to him.

  “Take me there!”

  Dalun Ruozan immediately stood up from his seat.

  ……

  A few moments later, at a place several hundred zhang from one of the sentry posts, Dalun Ruozan, Huoshu Huicang, Dusong Mangpoje, Duwu Sili, and the other generals arrived at the site of the incident. Dalun Ruozan’s prestige and the training he had put the soldiers through had played a major role in preserving the scene. The surrounding Tibetan soldiers had not acted on their own, instead choosing to wait for Dalun Ruozan to arrive and handle the matter.

  “This is where they are?” Dalun Ruozan asked. His brows were furrowed and there was a grimace on his face as he looked at the large gray wolf skins lying on the ground. Huoshu Huicang and Dusong Mangpoje also had grimaces,
and Duwu Sili was faring no better.

  “Great Minister, we found wolf skins in other places, but the majority of them were found here,” a low-ranking Tibetan officer explained. “Our men didn’t notice them at first, but after the battle was over, they felt that something was wrong. These are all empty wolf skins with no bones, flesh, not even blood. They’re all very clean, which is clearly abnormal.”

  Everyone became eerily silent.

  Chapter 942 - The Stupefying Truth!

  Chapter 942: The Stupefying Truth!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  “This bastard!!”

  The first to speak was not Dalun Ruozan, nor was it Huoshu Huicang or Dusong Mangpoje. On the contrary, it was Duwu Sili, who had little to do with this night raid. He had finally understood that the Tang boy called Wang Chong had completely out-schemed them.

  Moreover, if his guess was right, the method he had employed for his ambush was intimately related to the Turks.

  “Haaah…”

  Dalun Ruozan gave a long sigh, an indescribable feeling in his heart as he looked at the wolf skins. In the more than half the night over which this battle took place, he had been utterly confused as to what was going on. But as he saw the abandoned wolf skins, he finally understood.

  “I lost! I managed to predict the beginning of this operation, but not the end. I didn’t think that he would even use the beasts brought by Great General Duwu Sili. I accept my loss this round!”

  Huoshu Huicang found it hard to hear these words. “Great Minister, everything is not yet certain. Perhaps these wolf skins have nothing to do with the Great Tang. It might just be a coincidence,” he comforted.

  “Ha! You still don’t understand?” Dalun Ruozan shook his head and stopped Huoshu Huicang. “After the successful infiltration, he could have just brought these wolf skins back. He only left them here so that I would understand how he managed to win. He wants to use them to beat me down!”

  Everything was now clear. Dalun Ruozan had spent so much effort setting up sentries and patrols, even establishing a system of signals and informing his men to be wary of any ‘allies’, requiring confirmation before they were allowed to approach… but all his efforts had been ineffective.

  Dalun Ruozan had only worried about defending against people, never about defending against ‘wolves’!

  Not even if he were beaten to death would he have ever imagined that Wang Chong would disguise his several thousand soldiers as those massive wolves and have them infiltrate the camp. He wholeheartedly accepted this loss.

  “It’s just a gutless and shameless scoundrel! What need does Great Minister have to make him seem so formidable?!” Duwu Sili growled out through clenched teeth.

  No one found all this more unbearable than him. He was the one who had brought over these gray wolves. The Turks had as many of these wolves as they wanted, and even losing all of them would cause him no heartache. He had brought them with the intent of restraining the Great Tang, but he had never imagined that Wang Chong would end up using them as a weapon against Dalun Ruozan!

  Duwu Sili was an Irkin of the Western Turkic Khaganate, one of its best Great Generals. How could he possibly bear being played around with by some insignificant Tang youth?

  Dalun Ruozan remained silent, as did everyone else.

  They naturally knew what Duwu Sili was thinking, but now was not the time to start blaming others. They could only say that while the righteous could rise one foot, evil could rise ten. Wang Chong’s methods were far too sly and unpredictable. Even someone like Dalun Ruozan found it hard to handle such a person.

  “Yundan Gongbu, how many people did we lose on this night raid?” Dalun Ruozan suddenly asked.

  “Nearly seven thousand!” a burly general standing near Dalun Ruozan loudly reported.

  Dalun Ruozan said nothing, but the atmosphere suddenly became extremely grave. On the side, Huoshu Huicang gave a deep frown. In a large-scale campaign, the loss of seven thousand men was barely anything, and even in a night raid, such losses were still acceptable.

  But for the Turko-Tibetan army, which was severely lacking in manpower, the loss of seven thousand men was a severe wound!

  “He’s aiming at our manpower!” Huoshu Huicang suddenly said. As a Great General of the Ü-Tsang Empire, Huoshu Huicang needed only a second to understand the strategic objective.

  “If I’m right, he will be frequently attacking us, making us the main target. As we lose more and more men, we will be more and more restricted, less and less able to pose a threat to him. In the end, it will be us, not him, in a dilemma where both retreating and advancing are wrong.

  “In addition, even if we realize it, even if we’re unwilling, we can’t change this fact. In reality, since yesterday’s battle, we’ve already fallen into his tempo.”

  Huoshu Huicang was brimming with worry.

  While the raid could initially be described as a ‘hidden scheme’, right now, it was an open scheme. Dalun Ruozan was correct that Wang Chong had left behind these wolf skins for them to discover, that this scene was apparently exactly what he wanted to see.

  Unfortunately, even though they understood the objective of their foe, they not only could not stage an effective counterattack, but would become more restrained as time went on!

  This was a mental assault as well as an ‘open scheme’!

  “No, this war isn’t completely going according to his tempo, nor is he the primary decision maker,” Dalun Ruozan suddenly said. “Huoshu Huicang, has Abu Sangji still not returned?”

  “No.”

  Huoshu Huicang shook his head. It had been a very long time since Abu Sangji’s raiding force had set out. The Tang had completely routed the force, and very few of them had returned, with Abu Sangji not amongst them. Some said that he should have returned long ago while others said that the Tang had already killed him. In short, the information the army had was a mishmash.

  But Dalun Ruozan had still held out a little hope for Abu Sangji, hoping that he could return.

  “It seems that Abu Sangji truly is dead.”

  A hint of sorrow appeared in Dalun Ruozan’s eyes. Abu Sangji was a doughty general of the Yarlung Royal Lineage. Ever since he had left the royal capital’s prison, Abu Sangji had been close at his side, a constant source of help. Moreover, in this expedition, a significant portion of the troops had been recruited by Abu Sangji from the Yarlung Royal Lineage.

  Abu Sangji’s assistance was unmatched, and Dalun Ruozan had reciprocated by making him one of his closest aides. Deep within his heart, Dalun Ruozan did not believe that he could die in battle.

  But reality was right before his eyes, and the outlook was grim for Abu Sangji.

  “Have our scouts returned? What did they say?” Dalun Ruozan asked.

  “I was just about to bring this matter up with you. The scouts have returned, and based on what they saw, although Abu Sangji and his men were routed, they succeeded in achieving their objective. Bits and pieces of Tang ballistae are currently strewn across the second Tang defense line. From the amount, we estimate that four to five hundred were destroyed.

  “Those soldiers who managed to return were not lying. If we didn’t have to account for the fact that Abu Sangji was killed, we could have regarded this operation as a major success,” Huoshu Huicang solemnly said.

  “Very good!”

  Dalun Ruozan’s furrowed brows finally began to relax. This could be considered the best news he had heard today. Although Abu Sangji had died in battle, he had completed his mission. The Tang army only had around two thousand ballistae, so the loss of five hundred was no small blow.

  Dalun Ruozan had achieved his strategic objective.

  “With five hundred ballistae destroyed, Abu Sangji cannot be said to have died in vain. This war isn’t settled yet.”

  Dalun Ruozan stared at the bright lights of Talas, a fierce light in his eyes.

  ……

  The Tan
g and the Tibetans were not the only ones holding meetings in the darkness. To the west, in the Arab camp, a similar undercurrent was flowing.

  “Rahman, have you received the report?”

  In his tent, Abu Muslim looked toward a thin, black-armored, and thickly bearded general.

  Rahman bowed and said, “Lord Governor, the report has been received. While General Nurman’s troops attacked the Tang defense line, we succeeded in infiltrating the Tang defenses and got in touch with the Karluks without gaining the notice of the Anxi Protectorate army.”

  Rahman was one of Abu Muslim’s trusted aides. He did not have many men under his command, but he was still treated with great favor. Very few people knew that Rahman was actually one of Abu Muslim’s most favored generals.

  Many people believed that the primary assault force in this night raid was Nurman and his Wings of Death, little knowing that Rahman and the several dozen men in his infiltration force were the true driving force.

  “Mm, I see. You are dismissed.”

  A satisfied glimmer in his eyes, Abu Muslim waved his hand. Rahman gave another bow before taking his leave.

  Once Rahman left, Abbasid Deputy Governor of the East Ziyad walked out from the rear.

  “Governor, can the Karluks really be trusted?”

  The pair truthfully did not care about how many Tang were killed in the night raid. They cared more about the Karluks within the city, upon which little attention had been placed.

  “The wealth of the Arabs has never been easy to obtain. Since the Karluks have taken our gifts, it doesn’t matter if they’re trustworthy or not. They’ve already promised, so they must carry it out!”

  Abu Muslim stared at the brightly-lit city of Talas, looming like a beast out of the darkness, a look of dreadful cold flashing through his eyes.

  On this continent, no one could have second thoughts after making an agreement with the Arabs. Such fickle people would end up paying a disastrous price!

  Ziyad said nothing, but the look in his eyes was the same as Abu Muslim’s. On this point, the Governor of the East and his deputy shared the same conviction, a conviction that they shared with all the other governors of the empire. None of them ever feared that someone would take the wealth of the Arabs and then go back on their word.