The Human Emperor c1-2382
Page 689
Li Siye was originally the commander of the Wushang Cavalry, but ever since Cui Piaoqi had arrived with the second group of Wushang Cavalry, Wang Chong had merged the two forces and had Cui Piaoqi command the combined force. One of the strongest war generals serving Wang Chong in the apocalyptic era had finally returned to his service.
As for Li Siye, in another time and space, he had always been the highest commander of the Mo Saber Unit. And it was only Li Siye’s fearless and loyal heart that could unite the will of the Mo Saber Unit and have it display its maximum power.
Rumble! As time slowly passed, an unnerving rumbling began to fill the air.
The ten thousand Death Army soldiers marched in orderly formation from behind the silver war machines. The earth trembled, the stones on the ground almost jumping into the air from how intensely they quivered.
Even before the Death Army had arrived on the battlefield, a somber and icy aura of death surged out and flooded the battlefield.
This aura was so thick that even the soldiers fighting could sense it.
“It’s the Death Army! Milord has dispatched them.”
The first to sense this aura were the soldiers of the Blood Beast Army, who were in the middle of fighting the Divine Martial Army. This was not their first time fighting alongside the Death Army.
This powerful army surpassed the top-class armies of the enemy side and was enough to break this present stalemate.
Clang!
At almost the same time, the crisp cry of swords being unsheathed could be heard from behind the steel defense line.
Rumble! The four thousand soldiers of the Dragon Stallion Army surged out from one of the gaps in the steel defense line.
The Dragon Stallion Army!
This was the strongest force under Beiting Protector-General An Sishun’s command. This force had allowed An Sishun to reverse the tides of battle time and time again, preventing the soldiers of the Eastern and Western Turks from invading the south.
The Dragon Stallion Army was made up of soldiers that An Sishun had carefully selected from amongst his troops. Each of these soldiers had a prodigious strength—An Sishun’s minimum requirement for them was that each one could use a sword to cleave in two an elite horseman charging at full speed and emerge unharmed.
This strict requirement meant that An Sishun’s Dragon Stallion Army didn’t even have one hundred people when it was first established. In the process of bolstering its ranks, An Sishun altered his plans to develop a comprehensive training regimen. As a result, the ranks of the Dragon Stallion Army slowly expanded.
Moreover, the position of the Beiting Protectorate meant that An Sishun could deal with the Western and Turkic Khaganates at the same time, even Ü-Tsang at times. The high frequency of battles proved to be an enormous advantage in training his soldiers.
The Dragon Stallion Army was able to benefit from this unique position such that in certain aspects, the tempering of war had made it even more skilled and refined than the elite armies of other protectorates.
Clang!
On the other end, the ten thousand Death Army soldiers with their demonic masks of black and silver swiftly advanced to the front line.
Boomboomboom! The four thousand Dragon Stallion Army soldiers swiftly began to do battle with the Death Army soldiers.
Clang! A Dragon Stallion soldier raised his head, strode forward, and slashed at a Death Army soldier, but in a flash of light, this thunderous blow was blocked by a long spear.
At the same time, the left arm of this Death Army soldier trembled and his scimitar swept across the left shoulder of that Dragon Stallion soldier. Splush! The armor was cut open and a stream of blood shot into the air.
Buzz!
Wang Chong, Gao Xianzhi, Cheng Qianli, and all the other Tang commanders stared in shock.
The strength of the Dragon Stallion Army could not be doubted. After all, this was a force that An Sishun had relied on to pacify the border. But in this one-on-one match, a Dragon Stallion soldier had already been wounded by a soldier of the Arab Death Army. This was almost unimaginable.
“Wang Chong, this army is different from any other. Each of them is trained in at least two weapons, and both weapons have been trained to a proficient level where their arms can wield them separately. The four thousand soldiers of the Dragon Stallion Army won’t be able to stop them alone,” Gao Xianzhi said, his brow fraught with worry.
The further along they went in the Arab army, the more elite the soldiers became. There was no question that the Arabs had sent one of their strongest armies. In the current situation, the Great Tang side would find it very difficult to stop this force.
“Lord Protector-General, there’s no need to worry. This battle has only just begun!” Wang Chong indifferently said, his face devoid of emotion. “Pass on my order! Deploy the Ultimate Martial Army!”
“Yes, Milord!”
A messenger behind Wang Chong galloped away.
In a clattering of armor, a storm of energy rapidly began to march onto the battlefield.
The two thousand soldiers of the Ultimate Martial Army marched forward according to a unique tempo, their heads held high and their armor shining.
As they watched the Ultimate Martial Army depart, the commanders behind the steel defense line all showed a sliver of concern.
The Death Army was too large. The four thousand Dragon Stallion soldiers and two thousand Ultimate Martial Army soldiers would find it very hard to stop so many soldiers. Even if the Ultimate Martial Army was extremely powerful, it wouldn’t be able to overcome the gap of four thousand men.
Cheng Qianli turned to Gao Xianzhi and uneasily said, “Milord, what do we do? Should we send another army? Perhaps the Mo Saber Unit!”
This was a decisive clash between the most elite forces of both sides. Defeat would deal a massive blow to the morale of the entire army.
Gao Xianzhi shook his head.
“Wang Chong is the commander of this battle. Since we’ve passed authority to him, believe in him. If more soldiers are needed or if we need to enter the fray, he will definitely say so.”
Gao Xianzhi was no less worried than Cheng Qianli, but as an Imperial Great General, he needed to be more composed than his subordinates.
Everyone had already witnessed Wang Chong’s abilities, and there was no doubt about them. Gao Xianzhi was confident that Wang Chong would always make the right decision and judgment at the right moment.
More importantly, even though there was some distance between him and Wang Chong, Gao Xianzhi had been keeping a constant eye on the young commander. Wang Chong had maintained a confident and assured expression. This was someone whose plans were going smoothly, not one who was in a state of panic.
Just as they were speaking, the situation on the battlefield changed…
Clang!
A cold and intimidating Sword Qi flitted through the air. A soldier of the Ultimate Martial Army gripped his sword and slashed it down at the nearest Death Army soldier, the edge of his sword suffused with a destructive energy that could cleave apart the earth.
When this Ultimate Martial Army soldier first pulled out his sword, he was still more than ten feet from his foe, but in the blink of an eye, that long and heavy sword had slashed through the air and was coming down on that Death Army soldier’s head.
Chapter 1081 - A Battle Between Top-Class Armies (VII)
Chapter 1081: A Battle Between Top-Class Armies (VII)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Bang!
Stellar Energy swept through the field in a heaven-shaking explosion. In the middle of a roiling cloud of black mist, the Death Army soldier raised his scimitar and barely managed to block the Ultimate Martial Army soldier’s stunning blow.
But even so, the enormous and unstoppable force of the sword jolted him back. Bzzz! The Death Army soldier’s body trembled and his face paled.
Whether fighting one-on-one or charging en mass
e, the Death Army soldiers rarely encountered anyone who was a match for them. Their infamous reputation had been built upon a mountain of corpses made of their foes.
Even top-class armies like the Dragon Stallion Army and Iron Wall Army were incapable of halting their offensive, but the brightly-armored Ultimate Martial Army had managed to force them back in a single clash. This was truly an incredible strength.
They had unquestionably encountered a truly formidable opponent.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The swords of the two thousand soldiers of the Ultimate Martial Army came as fast as lightning, as heavy and unyielding as mountains.
This sight wasn’t just a surprise to Abu Muslim, Osman, and Aybak. Gao Xianzhi and Cheng Qianli were rather taken aback as well.
The Ultimate Martial Army had restrained its aura as it stood in the rear, making it appear no different from the other armies.
But once it entered the field, it seemed to become a completely different army. These soldiers were as swift as the wind but had as much weight as a mountain. Each one of them was a storm in human form. All that was visible was the flickering light of their swords while the clashing of weapons rang out incessantly in everyone’s ears.
In terms of speed, strength, agility, and fighting techniques… this Ultimate Martial Army displayed a high level of proficiency. The fighting style employed by these soldiers was perhaps not the most efficient for killing a foe, but it was upright, honest, and imbued with an unstoppable momentum.
Moreover, their techniques were extremely tight and close, presenting no flaw to their foes. Even those Death Army soldiers who had grown numb from all the time they had spent killing couldn’t find any weakness. All their fierce and vicious attacks were stopped by these Ultimate Martial Army soldiers.
No matter how crafty the angle, how fierce the method, or how swift the speed, the Ultimate Martial Army soldiers would always be able to use a simple and obvious method to block these attacks, and even launch a counterattack. Qutaybah’s Death Army began to feel an enormous pressure.
“Ah!” Cries of alarm came from the dense ranks of the Arab army.
The soldiers Qutaybah had brought from the northern war zone had all witnessed the Death Army soldiers slaughtering enemy soldiers, and had also seen the gruesome trail of carcasses they had left in their wake.
They were the most efficient killing machines, avatars of the god of death.
The sight they were witnessing now gave them all an unprecedented shock.
Even the distant Qutaybah couldn’t suppress a slight twitch in his eyes.
He had seen all kinds of crafty, vicious, and fierce opponents, but he had never seen anything like the Ultimate Martial Army that used simple and honest techniques to overcome the Death Army. There were merely two thousand of these soldiers, but Qutaybah sensed that they had undergone an entirely different training regimen compared to the Divine Martial Army, Divine Prison Army, or Iron Wall Army, its own unique brand.
These two brands seemed to be of two entirely different eras!
“Wonderful!”
Behind the steel defense line, the Tang soldiers exploded in cheers when they saw the two thousand soldiers of the Ultimate Martial Army display their strength. Gao Xianzhi and Cheng Qianli also showed expressions of delight, as this Ultimate Martial Army had been far more outstanding than they had imagined.
“Alas, the Ultimate Martial Army is too small! Only two thousand people!”
At a time like this, the most apathetic person was probably Wang Chong.
He was not at all surprised by the transcendent fighting power of the Ultimate Martial Army, as they symbolized the power of another era, the supreme might of Tang Taizong’s era. That was an era of chaotic war. The Great Sui had just collapsed and all the world was seeking power. In many places, warlords had set up their own kingdoms. This was truly an era in which heroes vied for supremacy.
Although the people were in misery in that chaotic era, this era had produced the strongest and most valiant soldiers of the continent. The Ultimate Martial Army was the strength that had been passed down from that era.
Even though the Great Tang had reached an unprecedented golden age and hegemony under the Sage Emperor, its age of peak martial prowess had probably been under Emperor Taizong.
As a top-class army of that era, the Ultimate Martial Army was distinct in the forthright, open, grand, and honest nature of its style. The brands on the bodies of these soldiers symbolized the tyrannical power of that age. But as that era faded away, those elite armies that had vied for supremacy over that era faded with it.
Only the two thousand soldiers of the Ultimate Martial Army remained.
But even though there were only two thousand, everyone could see their power.
……
Regardless of what the commanders of the two sides thought, the Ultimate Martial Army had once more altered the course of the battle. As the soldiers of the Ultimate Martial Army pulled out their swords and entered the battle, bright and imposing halos of multiple colors burst from their feet, rapidly spreading to the entire army.
Hwooo! All the Origin Energy in a radius of one hundred li suddenly began to gather in the area, flowing into the bodies of the Divine Prison Army, Divine Martial Army, Dragon Stallion Army, Iron Wall Army, and Roaring Tiger Army.
Besides that, the boost provided by these halos caused the energy in the bodies of these soldiers to come alive, their Stellar Energy to flow even faster.
The Ultimate Martial Halo!
This was the halo for which the Ultimate Martial Army was famed. The purpose of this halo was not to increase strength, but to increase the speed at which soldiers could recover Origin Energy and Stellar Energy while in battle, as well as the speed at which energy and blood flowed through the body. It also increased the body’s physical strength and endurance.
This halo allowed the army to have more explosive bursts of strength, but also endure for longer.
The situation around the one thousand stalled silver war machines underwent a clear and obvious shift. The soldiers of the Divine Martial Army, Divine Prison Army, Iron Wall Army, Dragon Stallion Army, and Roaring Tiger Army appeared to have more energetic movements, and their attacks and reactions both became faster.
With this shift, the Blood Beast Army, Ironblood Army, and Fearless Army instantly came under tremendous pressure.
Even the Death Army lost much of its advantage.
This made all the Arabs widen their eyes in shock.
After some time, Gao Xianzhi finally spoke. “Wang Chong, this still isn’t enough! We don’t have the numbers. We should consider sending in another army!”
This was a battle in which neither side was willing to give an inch, and no one had begun to retreat as of yet. But the Great Tang’s disadvantage remained as obvious as ever: it was outnumbered. As time passed, the Death Army began to swiftly exert its advantage in manpower.
As the four thousand extra men surrounded the elite forces of the Great Tang, the situation once more became tense.
Bang!
A soldier of the Iron Wall Army was too slow to react and was stabbed through the right breast by a Death Army soldier. At the same time, an enormous force flung him into the air, and he crashed back down, his impact creating a large hole. Soon after, a Divine Prison Army soldier was wounded. Elsewhere, the Divine Martial Army and the Roaring Tiger Army were beginning to be pushed back.
“Wang Chong!”
Gao Xianzhi shot another glance at Wang Chong. Although his expression remained calm, the look in his eyes and tensed muscles revealed his unease.
The numbers were not equal!
The Arabs had more men, so once one corner began to collapse, the rest of the Tang army would follow like dominoes.
Bang!
In the time it took Gao Xianzhi to call out Wang Chong’s name, several dozen more soldiers were heavily wounded by the Death Army. In this round, even the soldiers of the Roaring Tiger Arm
y were wounded. The elite warriors trained by Zhang Shougui had even managed to suppress Abu Muslim’s Fearless Army, but they were also finding it difficult to hold up against the stronger and more numerous Death Army.
The howling winds blew about Wang Chong’s black hair, but his young face remained unperturbed and calm.
“There’s no need to worry! Have them continue!”
Wang Chong’s expression was firm.
The battle continued and intensified…
Swords and sabers flashed in the air as the weapons on both sides took aim at the vital points on the bodies of their foes. In this dangerous battle, both sides were displaying their best skills. The slightest lack of care would result in injury or death. And from start to finish, the Great Tang did not retreat.
The Arabs also did not dispatch any additional armies.
At this stage in the battle, almost all the elite forces of the Arab army had been deployed. There weren’t many reinforcements left to send.
In comparison to the white-hot battle, the area under the four black Arabian war banners and behind the steel defense line of Talas were both eerily quiet. The commanders on both sides maintained a silent stalemate.
The Blood Beast Army, the Divine Martial Army, the Ironblood Army, the Iron Wall Army… these armies were battling not only over Talas. They also represented a clash between Arabia and the Great Tang, a rivalry between the two strongest empires of the east and west, a contest of wills between their commanders.
“The Great Tang and Arabia! For one continent to have two such powerful empires is truly a misfortune for our Ü-Tsang!”
To the left of the four great war banners, the Eagle of the Steppe, Dusong Mangpoje couldn’t help but emotionally sigh.
These elite armies of the east and west were far too powerful, so powerful that they exceeded the realm of soldiers.
Any one of these soldiers could cleave in two a Tibetan horseman charging at full speed. These were the most powerful of warriors, but such powerful armies were an incredibly rare sight in Ü-Tsang. At the very least, in the Tibetan army present at Talas, only the Mutri Great Cavalry was capable of contending with these armies.