The Human Emperor c1-2382
Page 688
“Wang Chong, should we… send in another army?” Gao Xianzhi hesitantly asked.
“That’s not necessary. Believe in them,” Wang Chong said lightly.
As if in response to Wang Chong’s words, the Roaring Tiger Army soldiers once more lunged forward and began the second round. But the results of this clash were completely different.
As the four thousand soldiers of the Fearless Army gripped their scimitars and went to meet them, a cracking and groaning began to rise from the bodies of the Roaring Tiger Army soldiers. As others looked on in disbelief, the bones of the Roaring Tiger Army groaned, their energy swelled, and even their bodies grew larger.
Bang!
A heavy black sword once more slashed at the two scimitars. The same technique and same attack resulted in a completely different result. Bang! The scimitars blocked the black sword, but the tremendous power within the sword had the Fearless Army staggering backward several steps.
“Impossible!”
In the distance, Aybak’s eyes went wide in shock. No one understood the power of the Fearless Army more than he did. He had once personally witnessed the four thousand soldiers of the Fearless Army use their dual scimitars in the capital of the Sassanid Dynasty, carpeting the grounds of that city with the strongest soldiers of that ancient empire and drenching the streets in their blood. The last bits of courage in them had been utterly annihilated.
The strongest warriors of the Sassanid Dynasty had been filled with despair.
Aybak had never seen any force in the world that was able to drive back the soldiers of Abu Muslim’s Fearless Army.
But now, everyone had seen Abu Muslim’s strongest soldiers being sent staggering back by these infidel warriors. A second ago, the Fearless Army soldiers had been wreaking havoc through the battlefield, suppressing the strongest soldiers of the enemy army, but in the blink of an eye, they were now being pushed back.
They still didn’t even know what had happened.
How had those soldiers wielding black swords been no match a second ago and then so powerful in the next moment!
Abu Muslim said nothing, but his complexion was extremely gloomy. He had already sent the two strongest forces under his command, the Ironblood Army and the Fearless Army. He had no more elite soldiers to dispatch.
……
“Hahaha…”
No one was happier than Gao Xianzhi at this moment. After overcoming his initial shock, he immediately understood what was going on.
“Prefectural Duke of Nanyang, you truly are a deep schemer. Gao Xianzhi truly admires this clumsy act of yours!”
The Prefectural Duke of Nanyang was a noble title that the Sage Emperor had bestowed upon Andong Protector-General Zhang Shougui. Gao Xianzhi had never interacted with the Andong Protector-General before, as the two were on opposite ends of the empire. In addition, both of them were border commanders who needed to preside over their garrisons, making a meeting even more difficult.
In the court, Gao Xianzhi had once heard that this influential figure of the Great Tang, the number two figure of the military who was only second to Crown Prince’s Junior Guardian Wang Zhongsi, was an extremely shrewd and farsighted man. Gao Xianzhi had never understood what it was about, but now, he finally understood.
In this clumsy act, though perhaps it was done to protect himself, he had placed a seal on each soldier of the Roaring Tiger Army that restricted their cultivation. At a glance, the Roaring Tiger Army appeared on par with the Divine Martial Army and Dragon Stallion Army.
But once they encountered danger or an opponent that was hard to overcome, such as Abu Muslim’s Fearless Army, the soldiers of the Roaring Tiger Army could unlock the seals on their own and reveal their powerful cultivation.
This was the elite force trained by Zhang Shougui. It wasn’t just on par with Abu Muslim’s Fearless Army, but even a little stronger.
Boomboomboom!
The heavy black swords hacked and slashed with astonishing speed at Abu Muslim’s Fearless Army. Explosions rang through the air as the bright Arabian scimitars were wholly suppressed by the black swords of the Roaring Tiger Army.
Chapter 1079 - A Battle Between Top-Class Armies (V)
Chapter 1079: A Battle Between Top-Class Armies (V)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Bangbangbang! The Fearless Army soldiers, unable to block the heavy yet nimble strikes of the Roaring Tiger Army, were forced back and back. In the end, they had only the strength to block and not counter. Once, twice, thrice… the Fearless Army soldiers waved their scimitars in a flurry of attacks like wolves assailing the Roaring Tiger Army.
But this time, they realized that their opponents had seemingly transformed into completely different beings.
Clangclangclang!
The two scimitars glimmered with dangerously cold light as they attacked from above and below, back and front, left and right. But no matter the angle they attacked from, the heavy sword would come down with its enormous weight and block every single attack.
These heavy swords were stronger, faster, and more ferocious. It simply wasn’t possible for these Fearless Army soldiers to block them.
The Fearless Army soldiers swiftly began to grimace.
The Arab cavalry also became ghastly pale at this sight.
The Roaring Tiger Army’s attack had only one distinct trait: frenzied, ever more frenzied. The extreme speed of their attacks completely suppressed Abu Muslim’s Fearless Army.
Abu Muslim was known as the Governor of Iron and Blood, the strongest commander in the history of the Arabian east. But Zhang Shougui was one of those who competed for the position of Great Tang War God, a person second only to Wang Zhongsi. Moreover, he had even once had an opportunity to leverage his military achievements to attain the position of Great Tang Prime Minister.
Although Zhang Shougui was not personally at Talas, there was no doubt that in this contest with Abu Muslim, Zhang Shougui firmly stood above him.
“The Prefectural Duke of Nanyang is truly a legend of the army. Qianli is bursting with admiration.”
As he watched the rapid suppression of the fierce twin-sabered Fearless Army by the Roaring Tiger Army, Cheng Qianli couldn’t help but sigh in heartfelt admiration.
But the distant Abu Muslim and the other Arab commanders all wore gloomy grimaces.
For this Battle of Talas, the Arabs had already invested four powerful armies, more than twenty thousand men, but they had failed to break through the defenses of their enemy. On the contrary, they were the ones being suppressed. Such a thing had never happened before.
All of them turned solemn. As the elite forces of Arabia, whether it was the Ironblood Army or the Blood Beast Army, they all had their own dazzling histories and had rarely suffered defeat. Each army had its own reason to be proud. There was no question that Arabia had encountered a truly formidable opponent this time.
At this moment, an icy voice devoid of emotion spoke.
“Pass on my order! Deploy the Death Army!”
Buzz!
Four individuals raised their heads in shock toward the imposing and divine golden figure. But Qutaybah remained motionless. All of them could only see the dazzling profile of his face enclosed within his golden helmet. No one could see the look on his face.
The Death Army!
This was the second strongest army under Qutaybah’s command, above the Blood Beast Army. Abu Muslim’s army was the Fearless that did not fear death, but Qutaybah’s army was the true ‘Death’. It was rumored that for the sake of training this army, Qutaybah had designed a hellish training regimen.
Each battle, he would dispatch a group of around one hundred men to charge into the enemy ranks. When there were only two or three people left in this group, Qutaybah would mobilize his army to save them. If more than one person survived, Qutaybah would have them fight amongst each other until only one survived.
Qutaybah claimed that only a person li
ke this had the strongest will to live, a steely resolve that did not fear death, and the strongest martial arts and talent. This was the kind of person he needed the most.
But even so, this was only the first stage of many in Qutaybah’s training regimen. The forging and tempering that came afterward was far crueler. By the time a soldier had become a proper Death soldier, they would have already relinquished all human emotion, leaving behind a steely resolve, tenacious fighting power, powerful martial arts, and a desire to carry out orders and crush the enemy!
Qutaybah’s method was so harsh and caused so much loss of life that it had always been the target of much criticism and censure.
But later on, Qutaybah altered his policy so that he also recruited the strongest and bravest warriors from other regions and empires into his Death Army. Even though the losses continued to be astonishing, since a significant portion were the warriors of conquered empires, Qutaybah had gradually managed to obtain the tacit consent of the Caliph.
This was the only elite army under Qutaybah’s command that had more than half its ranks manned by non-Arabs!
From the moment the Death Army was established, it had always maintained an astonishing casualty rate. But through Qutaybah’s all-encompassing policy, the Death Army had always maintained a rather high number of soldiers and was very frequently replenished with new blood.
As the second most powerful army under Qutaybah’s command, the Death Army also possessed incredible fighting power.
Qutaybah had his Crimson Moon Vanguard to take the lead, and following that was the Blood Beast Army. If there was an opponent that not even the Blood Beast Army could overcome, or if Qutaybah determined that his opponent was stronger than the Blood Beast Army, he would send in the Death Army. In the battles in the northern Arabian war zone, the Death Army numbering ten thousand men was recorded to have defeated an elite enemy army of two hundred thousand while suffering very few losses.
In that battle, countless heavy cavalry of Tarsus had fallen to the ground and become the foundation for the Death Army’s invincible reputation.
Bang!
As Qutaybah’s voice rang through the air, the earth began to rumble and a gale howled out from the rear of the army, causing the four massive war banners to snap in the wind. At almost the same moment, a thick killing intent soared into the air along with a metallic clattering.
“Ah!”
The Arab soldiers rushed to the left and right as a black-armored army, its soldiers equipped with long spears and scimitars at their waists, marched out in an orderly fashion. Black mist seethed on their bodies, tinged with the aura of death.
But the most striking things about them were their faces.
All the Death Army soldiers had their features obscured behind masks of black and silver rendered into the faces of demons from hell. The nearly ten thousand soldiers of the Death Army marched forward, the masks on their faces perfectly fusing with the somber and gloomy aura of death around them.
“Get out of the way! Out of the way!”
“It’s the Death Army!”
There was chaos in the Arab army as the stalwart Arab cavalry fled in stark fear, getting out of the way of the emotionless Death Army as if it was the bearer of a plague.
Not a single soldier dared to get within a hundred feet of the Death Army. It was like an invisible wall had formed around them.
The Death Army!
This was one of Qutaybah’s legendary armies of the north. Even soldiers from Khorasan, Samarkand, and Cairo had heard its name. These soldiers had been forged from mountains of corpses and seas of blood. They were death incarnate. The other soldiers had witnessed the ten thousand men of the Death Army spend all of the previous night standing like sculptures, neither resting nor moving.
There was a rumor amongst the soldiers that the Death Army didn’t even need to sleep or that they stood while sleeping. They had nurtured an instinct to kill. Anyone who approached, even an ant, would cause them to wake up. Thus, the Death Army soldiers even maintained a strict distance around each other.
This oddity meant that while the Arab army had been stationed in this place, a very large area around the Death Army had been left vacant. Even though all of them were Arab soldiers, they all regarded the Death Army with dread.
Hrooom! The black war banner of the skeletal god of death was held aloft over the seething mist of the Death Army as this army continued its heaven-shaking advance.
……
“Milord, the Arabs are moving!”
Behind the first defense line, the mounted Xu Keyi stood next to Wang Chong, his eyes extremely grave. Besides the battles between the elite soldiers, the Great Tang had also been keeping a constant watch on the Arab rear.
The Death Army had only just moved out, but the Great Tang had already noticed its movements.
According to the report from the Khorasani, the Arabs had gathered two-fifths of the empire’s military strength, meaning that they had also gathered numerous elite forces. Arabia had a different system from the Great Tang’s. They divided their borders into four large war zones: East, South, West, and North. These large war zones were further divided into smaller war zones.
Qutaybah and Abu Muslim were undoubtedly the commanders of two major war zones, so they commanded immense armies. These armies together with the armies of an elite commander like Osman meant that the Arabs had many top-class soldiers ready to deploy.
“Xu Keyi, how many soldiers do we have right now?” Wang Chong said.
“We still have the four thousand Dragon Stallion Army soldiers of the Beiting Protectorate as well as the two thousand Ultimate Martial Army soldiers from the Duke of E! In addition, the Mo Saber Unit and the Wushang Cavalry have still not been deployed!” Xu Keyi sternly said.
This battle was far more intense than had been imagined. This was only the first day of battle, but the Great Tang had already committed more than seventy percent of its elite forces. The Arabs had committed about the same percentage.
Wang Chong slightly creased his brow.
In comparison to yesterday’s battle, both sides had now received all the reinforcements they would be receiving, and the level of this war was also on a far higher level. This time, the Great Generals had remained in the background. Qutaybah was still observing from the rear on the Arab side while on the Great Tang side, the Demonic Emperor Old Man and the Wushang Village Chief had yet to move.
Both sides were probing each other’s strength!
They were both waiting until the forces of the other side began to collapse or show some weakness. This was a battle of resolve and strength!
Chapter 1080 - A Battle Between Top-Class Armies (VI)
Chapter 1080: A Battle Between Top-Class Armies (VI)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Have the Dragon Stallion Army get ready. In addition, inform the Ultimate Martial Army to be ready to enter the battle at any moment!” Wang Chong suddenly said.
“Yes! Your subordinate will go!”
Xu Keyi immediately turned his horse around and galloped off.
Seconds ticked by as everyone continued to wait.
The skeletal god of death on its black banner was getting closer and closer, held high from out of a cloud of churning dust. In the howling wind, Wang Chong quietly sat upon his White-hoofed Shadow, his expression composed and maintaining a state of absolute calm.
The sounds of fighting continued unabated, with people dying at every second.
The battle had entered a state of eerie calm, but this calm could be shattered at any moment and bring on an even more intense melee. The Great Tang could not lose here and the Arabia also could not accept a defeat. This battle was vital to the morale of both sides and to their future battles.
The massive war banner of the Great Tang snapped in the wind, and beneath this banner, Wang Chong slowly surveyed the battlefield.
On the left flank, the Xuanwu Army was still fight
ing with the Beheader Army. The two sides had similar numbers and similar strength, making an outcome nigh impossible in the short term. Far on the other side, the intervention of the Divine Martial Army, Divine Prison Army, Iron Wall Army, and Roaring Tiger Army had brought to a halt those more than one thousand silver siege weapons that were threatening the Tang defense line.
Nearly twenty thousand of the Great Tang’s finest soldiers were gathered in this area. Any Arab cavalry that dared to approach this region would only face death.
Elsewhere, the five thousand ballistae were completely suppressing the Arab Earth Shield Army. In every moment, an Arab Earth Shield soldier would be shot down by the concentrated fire of ballistae, his shield exploding into smithereens. The intense fire of the ballista army made it impossible for the Arab cavalry to approach the steel defense line through this method.
On the right flank, Chen Bin was commanding his one thousand Tang ballistae in constant attack.
“Release!”
Chen Bin’s Wootz Steel sword was constantly swinging down, each volley sending countless bolts shooting toward the Arab cavalry, toppling countless Arabian warhorses amid clouds of dust and plaintive neighs.
Farther along the defense line, countless Arab cavalry were charging forward.
“Release!”
With shrill whistles, the numerous beehives stationed on the steel walls fired hundreds of thousands of short arrows, so many that they blotted out the sun. Each Arab horseman was fired upon by sixty to seventy arrows. Blood gushed out from them as these elite horsemen fell to the ground as pincushions.
For the time being, it would be difficult to determine the outcome between the elite armies of Arabia and the Great Tang. But Wang Chong had to consider the reality of the vast sea of Arab cavalry.
“Li Siye, Xi Yuanqing, Gangke King, pass on my order. Prepare to lead the Mo Saber Unit into battle!” Wang Chong said without turning his head.
“Yes!”
Li Siye, Xi Yuanqing, and the Gangke King confirmed their orders and left.