The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  “General Wang, this person… leave him to me!”

  A young and confident voice rang out in everyone’s ears. In a flash of light, a horse with four snow-white hooves appeared in front of Wang Sili, so transcendent and divine that it appeared to be treading on clouds. On this divine steed’s back was a young and slender figure.

  Although he appeared only seventeen or eighteen on the surface, his temperament and movements gave off the aura of a dignified and composed veteran. It appeared that a mountain, not a man, had appeared before them all.

  Wang Sili gave a deep sigh of relief as he looked at Wang Chong’s back. By this point of the battle, he had already consumed more than half of his Stellar Energy.

  “Haha, Lord Wang, since this is the case, I won’t interfere. I leave this person to you!”

  Wang Sili smiled and retreated to the side.

  ‘Hearing a rumor is far inferior to seeing the person.’ This was Wang Sili’s first impression of Wang Chong. The Big Dipper Army and Big Dipper Great General Geshu Han had quarreled with Wang Chong several times, and there had even once been plans to make trouble for his City of Steel.

  Even after he was made a marquis, none of the soldiers of the Big Dipper Army had a very good impression of him.

  But after seeing his face, Wang Sili had to admit that this person truly had a praiseworthy and trustworthy power.

  Not only did Wang Sili no longer have any prejudices about Wang Chong, he was actually quite proud about the decision he had made.

  Participating in this grandiose battle would probably be the proudest and most moving event of his life.

  Wang Chong had no idea what Wang Sili was thinking. His attention was completely focused on the Blood Beast Army’s Brigadier General.

  “Since you’re here, why are you in such a rush to leave?” Wang Chong said in Arabic to this Brigadier General.

  Blood Beast Army Commander Mansur trembled at these words as if he had been given a massive fright. Even though this was his first time on the battlefield of Talas, he knew that this youth was the commander-in-chief of these Tang, the most crucial individual in this battle.

  “Let’s go!”

  The halo under Mansur vibrated as he slashed out with his scimitar. A thick black cloud immediately surged at Wang Chong, and in the depths of this cloud, a black and red saber light, fierce and grandiose, was slicing through the air.

  As he slashed with his saber, Mansur’s entire body rose from the ground and he fled with astonishing speed.

  “Hmph, can you really escape?”

  An icy voice rang in his ears. Before he had even gotten one hundred feet, a powerful attractive force appeared in the air, seizing him and hauling him backward.

  Not only that, a fierce wind stirred for a thousand feet around him. Screams filled his ears, and Mansur could see that all the Arab cavalry in this range were being pulled backward by an invisible force.

  “Since you’re here, relax, and obediently accept your death!”

  Wang Chong and his White-hoofed Shadow stood stalwart in the middle of the churning dust. As he pushed his Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art to its limits, images of the sun and moon, gold and red, appeared on his shoulders, their colors growing more dazzling and their appearances more authentic.

  The power of the illusory sun and moon made Mansur fly backward even faster.

  “Sun Axe!”

  Mansur had no time to think, and golden light exploded out of his body. Mansur’s entire body transformed into a massive golden axe that hacked at Wang Chong.

  An, God of the Sun!

  This was one of the ancient gods worshiped by the Arabs. It was said that his weapon was a giant golden axe. Mansur’s supreme technique took the form of this god of the sun and his weapon.

  Mansur had used this technique to kill countless people on the battlefield, pulverizing foreign generals and their horses.

  But when Mansur’s Sun Axe fell, it seemed to strike an invisible wall that blocked it in midair. That invisible barrier of energy seemed to also possess a distortive power.

  Rumble! Before Mansur could react, the distortive force expanded to a radius of around a hundred feet, engulfing Mansur’s Sun Axe.

  A second later, with a heaven-shaking boom, Mansur’s Sun Axe shattered like a mirror.

  “Not good!”

  Mansur already felt a deep unease. He wanted to flee, but it was far too late. In a flash, a figure emerged through the thick cloud, a familiar face before Mansur’s eyes.

  “Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art!”

  The voice resounded through his ears. Before Mansur could react, Wang Chong had already struck his chest with a palm. A moment later, Mansur’s blood and martial energy surged into Wang Chong’s body.

  “No!”

  Mansur’s face was stricken with deep fear, but there was nothing he could do. His body was frozen and he could only watch with wide-open eyes as all his energy vanished into Wang Chong’s body.

  It took only the blink of an eye for Mansur’s energy to be drained away. His hair and skin shriveled as his body deflated like a punctured leather bag. In contrast, Wang Chong’s already prodigious energy swelled to even greater levels.

  Bang!

  Wang Chong dropped to the ground, and with a sweep of his hand, he slammed Mansur’s dried-up husk into the ground, ending the life of the Arab Brigadier General.

  With all of Mansur’s energy, Wang Chong had still not reached the Great General level, but he had received a major boost and could expect a breakthrough any day.

  What a pleasant feeling! If this continues, I can finally reach the Great General level and return to the cultivation of my last life!

  Wang Chong slowly retracted his technique as his mind buzzed.

  As the War Saint, Wang Chong had many powerful techniques floating around in his mind, but his cultivation level had made him incapable of using these techniques. The moment he broke into the Great General level, relearning these techniques would be as easy as water flowing through a canal for someone of Wang Chong’s talent and abilities. At that time, he would ascend to a whole new level of power.

  Buzz!

  As he was thinking, he suddenly sensed intense danger. Although he couldn’t spot this danger, his body was already reacting, his skull feeling like it was going to explode.

  “Chong-er, careful!”

  A voice suddenly spoke, the Demonic Emperor Old Man’s.

  Wang Chong almost instantaneously lunged to the side. At almost the same time, a figure appeared where Wang Chong had been standing, a palm thrusting through the air.

  Boom!

  Winds howled and dust churned. As countless people watched, a massive beam of golden Sword Qi, ten thousand feet long, slashed through the heavens like a descending pillar, but it was instantly struck by a palm as massive as a mountain. This collision instantly annihilated both the sword and the palm.

  Qutaybah!

  This name flashed through Wang Chong’s mind as his eyes turned to that golden-armored figure, the god descended to earth that was Qutaybah.

  Although Qutaybah said nothing, only silently stared, the moment he appeared, he became the unquestioned center of the battlefield. Indeed, it appeared as if he had become the center of the entire world.

  All fell silent, the sounds of battle dwindling away. The motionless Qutaybah did not look at Wang Chong nor at anyone else on the battlefield. His eyes were fixed on the Demonic Emperor Old Man standing across from him.

  At the same time, the Demonic Emperor Old Man, his robes flapping in the air, similarly stared at Qutaybah, his expression serene, his eyes deep and profound.

  The two strongest existences on the battlefield were in a stalemate, their energies vast and unyielding.

  After a long while, Qutaybah turned around and spoke a single word. “Withdraw!”

  He immediately began to ride back to the rear. The tens of thousands of Arab cavalry surged around him like the tide as they fell back to the wes
t.

  Gallop!

  Gao Xianzhi rode up to Wang Chong and dismounted at his side.

  “Wang Chong, what should we do now? Should we pursue?” Gao Xianzhi said.

  At the same time, Cheng Qianli dispelled his Supreme Desolation God transformation and rushed to Wang Chong’s side, a look of anticipation on his face.

  The Demonic Emperor Old Man also turned to Wang Chong, awaiting his decision.

  As he gazed at the fleeing Arab army, Wang Chong clearly appeared rather excited.

  If they pursued, they might be able to utterly defeat the Arabs.

  But Wang Chong quickly glanced at the overcast sky and suppressed this impulse.

  “There’s no time. This battle has already taken far too long. Besides the Tongluo Cavalry, everyone else is probably completely exhausted. Moreover, night is falling, and Qutaybah and Abu Muslim are still at their peak conditions. If we do pursue them, the victory we hope for is not guaranteed!” Wang Chong said.

  Chapter 1092 - After-Battle Conference!

  Chapter 1092 – After-Battle Conference!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  The greatest taboo in military strategy was to fight a battle at night. It was okay to engage in local ambushes or small-scale raids, but the conditions at night were not favorable to large-scale battles. If one carefully examined history, one would discover that decisive battles at night were extremely rare. The reason was that at night, vision, perception, and even the ability for a commander to order around their soldiers were all greatly reduced.

  There were even cases where fear and disorder led soldiers to attack members of their own side, or do the exact opposite of what they had been ordered to do. In the night, they would end up pursuing the enemy for several hundred li and ultimately become lost in the heart of enemy territory.

  “This is all we can do. The Iron Wall Army has sustained severe casualties and is exhausted in every way. I’m afraid that it wouldn’t even be able to pursue the Arabs,” Gao Xianzhi said with a sigh.

  This was an extremely rare opportunity, but the time was not right. The army had suffered severe losses, and even though he was unwilling, Gao Xianzhi had to give up on this opportunity.

  “No matter the time, Qutaybah will always be an obstacle!”

  Cheng Qianli responded with a sigh of his own. Until they resolved the massive threat that was Qutaybah, the Great Tang would never be able to talk about victory. When experts of his level fought, the shockwaves alone would be enough to inflict grievous casualties on the exhausted Tang forces.

  Bwoooom!

  A horn soon blew and all the Great Tang soldiers retreated like the receding tide. In the distance, the Wushang Cavalry also broke away from the Mamelukes, Mutri Great Cavalry, and Celestial Wolf Cavalry, returning to behind the defense line.

  Fighting outnumbered had also been extremely taxing on their strength.

  As the Great Tang withdrew, so did the Arabs. The Blood Beast Army, the Ironblood Army, the Fearless Army, the Death Army, and the Tiber Army completely withdrew from the battlefield under the cover of darkness.

  Wang Chong, Gao Xianzhi, Cheng Qianli, Wang Yan, and the Demonic Emperor Old Man stood side by side, motionlessly watching the Arabs. After a long while, Wang Chong finally looked away, pulling on his reins and riding back to Talas.

  “Tell Xu Keyi to begin taking stock of the losses!” Wang Chong said.

  ……

  Night fell very quickly, and Xu Keyi also very quickly finished counting up the casualties.

  “Lord Marquis, we suffered heavy losses in this battle. In total, more than forty thousand of our men were killed. We also have twenty thousand other casualties. We have sixty-thousand-some men able to fight, including the Tongluo Cavalry.”

  The night was settling in, but Talas was brightly lit. Xu Keyi had gotten down on one knee as he reported, his expression extremely grave.

  Talas originally had a hundred and ten thousand soldiers guarding it, and with the Tongluo Cavalry and the soldiers Su Zhengchen had trained, this number was brought up to one hundred and twenty thousand. But in this battle, more than forty thousand had been killed while twenty thousand had been wounded. More than half of the army had been lost in this battle. This was undoubtedly a massive blow.

  This was the price the Great Tang had paid to stand up against the charge of hundreds of thousands of Arabs.

  “What of the Arabs?”

  In the flickering light of the torches, Wang Chong stood with his hands held behind his back. Gao Xianzhi, Cheng Qianli, and the Demonic Emperor Old Man looked over upon hearing this question, focus in their eyes.

  “We haven’t obtained a definite number, but based on our estimates, they should have suffered casualties of more than two hundred thousand. Of these, more than eighty thousand were brought down by our ballista army!” Xu Keyi sternly said.

  From the moment the Great Tang had been established, the ballistae had always been a lethal and intimidating weapon on any battlefield. Under the command of Wang Chong and Su Hanshan, the method in which ballistae were used had taken a leap forward, undergoing extreme modification to create a ballista army that could inspire fear and dread in any army.

  Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at Xu Keyi’s words.

  “This means that the combined manpower of the Arabs, Tibetans, and Western Turks is only around two hundred and sixty thousand!” Gao Xianzhi said.

  The Great Tang had lost much in this battle, but their attacker, Arabia, had lost even more. The casualty ratio of this battle was nearly one to three. For the death of each Tang soldier, three Arab elites had come with him. This made the losses somewhat acceptable.

  “Yes!”

  The kneeling Xu Keyi respectfully added, “The greatest casualties on our side came from the Xuanwu Army, with the majority inflicted by Qutaybah’s Revelation Army. Of the more than twenty thousand soldiers that were killed by that army, nearly five thousand were soldiers of the Xuanwu Army.”

  Xu Keyi’s words cast a dour mood over the hall. The Xuanwu Army only had eight thousand men in total, and it was one of the top-class elite armies of the Great Tang. In that one clash, the Revelation Army had killed five thousand of them. This was a most grievous loss.

  Forty thousand men had died in battle, with twenty thousand of them having been buried by the Revelation Army. This was a truly chilling number.

  Xu Keyi lowered his head and continued, “…In addition, although the Arabs lost more than two hundred thousand, based on what we’ve observed, the losses in the earlier stage were from the weaker soldiers. The remaining soldiers will only be stronger, and their core strength is still there. In the future, the Blood Beast Army, Ironblood Army, Fearless Army, and Death Army will still be of enormous threat to us.”

  Those who could survive the cruel battlefield would always be the elite of the elite. This was a principle that would always remain true. Moreover, the defensive capabilities of a top-class army would always surpass those of other soldiers. Thus, the Death Army, Fearless Army, and Ironblood Army might have been engaged in a bitter and callous melee with the Great Tang forces, but their losses were not as severe as imagined.

  A thoughtful look flickered through Wang Chong’s eyes, but he quickly returned to his senses and waved his hand at Xu Keyi. “I understand. Rise.”

  The Tang still had more than fifty thousand soldiers at its disposal, but Arabia had around two hundred and sixty thousand soldiers. A ratio of one to five was not at all easy to deal with. However, the soldiers the Great Tang had left were the best of the best. Moreover, the more than six thousand ballistae were completely unharmed and would serve as the most critical force in the Great Tang’s future battles with the Arabs.

  Wang Chong turned to Su Hanshan.

  “Su Hanshan, what is the state of the ballista army? How many ballista bolts do we have left?”

  “We consumed a large number of ballista bolts to deal with the Arabs.
Although we also dispatched men to gather ballista bolts from the battlefield, we still don’t have many left. In total, we have around seventy thousand. On average, each ballista can still fire fourteen more times.”

  Each Tang ballista bolt was made from the highest quality of steel. This meant that they were extremely heavy and that the army would travel more slowly the more it carried. Su Hanshan had been forced to consider this problem, and so in order to arrive at Talas to reinforce Wang Chong as soon as possible, Su Hanshan had not brought a vast mountain of ballista bolts like most people had imagined. He had brought as many as he believed to be appropriate.

  But the battle with Dalun Ruozan on the road and then the battle with the Arabs had exhausted his stockpile, leaving him with only seventy thousand, and this was after Su Hanshan had done his utmost to salvage bolts from the battlefield.

  Wang Chong’s brow almost imperceptibly creased. If each ballista only had fourteen bolts, then he had to be extremely cautious with how the ballista army was used in the upcoming battle, with each ballista bolt only being fired after careful calibration and aiming. But if the method was appropriate, seventy thousand ballista bolts was enough to deal the Arabs a destructive blow.

  These thoughts very quickly passed through his mind, and Wang Chong then turned to Chuluohou and the several Tongluo officers.

  “General, my deepest gratitude!” Wang Chong sincerely said.

  Chuluohou coldly snorted and raised his head as he rudely retorted, “Hmph! There’s no need for you to thank me. We didn’t come for you. All this was by imperial decree, for the sake of the Great Tang!”

  Everyone else in the hall slightly grimaced at this display.

  After all, Wang Chong was the supreme commander of the Tang forces at Talas and had rendered great service. If not for him, the Great Tang would have already been defeated. Chuluohou and these other Tongluo were acting too arrogant.

  “Lord Marquis!”