The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  “Milord, the Arabs have agreed to the one billion taels of gold! They’ve really agreed!”

  “What?”

  These words sent shockwaves through the hall, everyone standing up in alarm.

  “Let me see!”

  The letter from the Arabs first went to Gao Xianzhi, and then Cheng Qianli, Xi Yuanqing, Lou Shiyi, Li Siye… Everyone in the hall had a chance to look at the letter. But other than Yuan Shusong, almost no one in the hall could read Arabic.

  This matter was truly too shocking. Wang Chong’s demand of one billion taels of gold was stunning enough, but even more stunning was the Arab response. It didn’t matter that they didn’t recognize the words on the letter. All of them were just using this method to confirm the matter for themselves. Gaining a compensation of one billion taels of gold for winning a war was unthinkable even for someone like Gao Xianzhi.

  The spoils he had taken from attacking the Shi Kingdom were far inferior, like the difference between the dirt and the clouds.

  With a simple letter, Wang Chong had made everyone else’s accomplishments lose their luster.

  “Wonderful!”

  Cheng Qianli clenched his fists in excitement. No matter how many words were said, none of them could bring about as much shock as the letter the Arabs had written in reply. In a flash, everyone suddenly understood Wang Chong’s strategic aim.

  “One billion taels of gold! If we report this to the Imperial Court, none of the officials would dare to believe it. Even the civil officials and the Bureau of Personnel will change their attitudes!”

  One billion taels of gold was an astronomical sum that even moved a Vice Protector-General like Cheng Qianli. Many soldiers had died at Talas, and the compensation payment alone was an enormous sum. Cheng Qianli had previously been contemplating what to do. As the commander of these soldiers, and as a general whose duty was to stand on the side of his soldiers, he had to do his best to fight for their benefit, but now, all his problems were easily solved.

  “But, the Arabs have also stated a few demands.”

  At this moment, Yuan Shusong spoke, his brow creased in thought.

  “The Arabs had requested that they can sign a treaty between us ending this war. The Arabs have said that they can promise to no longer invade the Great Tang, but they hope that we can withdraw from Khorasan and return the territory between Khorasan and Samarkand to them. In addition, we are no longer allowed to threaten or attack any other cities.”

  Buzz!

  Yuan Shusong’s words instantly caused the hall to fall silent, everyone exchanging glances. From the standpoint of the Great Tang, the Arabs’ requests were not unacceptable. Exchanging one billion taels of gold for what was formerly Arab territory had no downsides for the Great Tang. And the Great Tang had pushed all the way to Khorasan, a matter without precedent since the start of recorded history.

  And for the soldiers, venturing deep into strange and unfamiliar territory and staying for the long term would not be to their greatest benefit, nor would it be of great benefit to the Great Tang.

  “I object!”

  Su Hanshan suddenly spoke in his cold and aloof voice, his expression unyielding.

  “If we truly agree to the Arab requests, all our efforts will have been in vain. There must be a first time for everything. In the past, we occupied the strange lands of the Western Regions, and we operated in that region until the present. Now, we have occupied Khorasan and placed it firmly under our control. It is worth trying to control this place!”

  “Of course we can’t agree!”

  Wang Chong loudly laughed.

  “The situation as it stands is that the Arabs desired the Central Plains but were beaten back by us, who countered and occupied Khorasan. The Arabs are paying us one billion taels of gold to compensate us for our losses, not for some equal exchange. It seems like His Majesty Mutasim still doesn’t quite understand his situation, or how the losing side in a war should act. General Cheng, lead the army across the Tigris River and attack the closest city, Shandar. When you’re just about to occupy it, withdraw back to Khorasan! Let them understand their situation.”

  “Understood! Leave this matter to me!” Cheng Qianli said with a smile.

  The way this war had developed had already surpassed his ability to comprehend, but Cheng Qianli had complete faith in Wang Chong. No matter what Wang Chong said, he would do his utmost to carry out his orders.

  The generals discussed some more specific details of city defense before bringing an end to the conference and dispersing.

  When everyone was gone, leaving only Wang Chong and Gao Xianzhi, the latter couldn’t help but ask, “Wang Chong, Arabia still has quite a few capable people. Do you think that they will keep their promise?”

  “Lord Protector-General, you said it yourself. Arabia still has quite a few intelligent people. How could they actually be talking peace with us? They’re just trying to slow down our soldiers!” Wang Chong immediately declared.

  Arabia was a country founded on war, and it delighted in conquest. From the very beginning, Wang Chong had determined that they would never be truly pursuing peace talks or any sort of peace treaty.

  But whether the Arabs were willing or not, they had to hand over the one billion taels of gold that Wang Chong had demanded. This was no time for them to be making requests.

  ……

  After emerging from the conference hall, Wang Chong ascended the western walls of Khorasan. Down below, the Tigris River was rumbling past. This broad river was a natural barrier, a defense line for the city of Khorasan.

  From the moment he set eyes on this river, Wang Chong had understood its important military value. From a certain perspective, Abu Muslim had been correct. Khorasan was truly a city that was very difficult to breach.

  A firm and deep voice came from behind Wang Chong. “General, have you considered how to deal with the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and numerous governors and generals Mutasim III will send in his fury? One cannot truly discuss peace with the Arabs. Even if they agree, General will find it very hard to leave in one piece.”

  Wang Chong faintly smiled. “Haha, so General already knows of what’s going on between us and the Arabs. Does General really believe that we will relinquish Khorasan and withdraw?” he asked without turning his head.

  He had naturally not come to the high walls of Khorasan to admire the grandeur of the Tigris. The Central Plains had many rivers of this sort. Bahram had invited him here.

  “Of course not, or else you would not have appeared here.”

  Bahram spoke in rather stiff Arabic. Bahram did not know how to speak the language of the Great Tang, and Wang Chong did not know how to speak Khorasani. In the end, to communicate with each other, the two had compromised with speaking in Arabic.

  Bahram paused for some time before continuing, his brow creased in worry. “…But the rebel soldiers all have this doubt. If you retreat, it will definitely set off a panic, and the army that we have managed to gather through great effort will immediately scatter. The Arabs will definitely pursue us and inflict severe losses.”

  He truthfully did not care about the negotiations between the Great Tang and Arabia, and the one billion taels of gold was not his concern. From a certain perspective, Bahram believed this to be a good thing, because only if the Great Tang could obtain any benefit would it choose to remain.

  The Arabs were simply too strong, so strong that only the Great Tang in the east was capable of contending against them.

  So many rebels were willing to come out at this time because they saw a hope for resisting Arabia in the Great Tang. If the Great Tang withdrew from Khorasan, one could easily imagine the shock and dread this would instill.

  “I will have to depend on General’s prestige to soothe them. The Great Tang will not retreat. At the very least, I will not do so without extremely good reason.”

  Wang Chong smiled. “As for the hundreds of thousands of soldiers the Caliph will mobilize, there is
no need for General to worry about this matter. The Arabs will not get the chance, at least not for the next three months!”

  Chapter 1167 - Wrathful Arabia!

  Chapter 1167: Wrathful Arabia!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  “Ah?!”

  Even someone as experienced and knowledgeable as Bahram was momentarily taken aback by Wang Chong’s words, unclear as to why he was so confident.

  Wang Chong grinned, and shot an imperceptible glance at the sky. His face was enigmatic.

  “In addition, if Great General is still worried, I can reveal a certain matter to Great General. I have already had a large number of ballista and heavy ballista bolts sent over, and the Great Tang’s capital is also beginning to send reinforcements. The first group should already be en route and should arrive at Khorasan in just a few months. There should be no harm if General divulges this matter to the leaders of the rebel armies. This can at least help them dispel their worries and believe in the Great Tang’s resolve!” Wang Chong sternly said.

  Bahram was taken aback by Wang Chong’s words, and then he sighed in relief.

  “General’s words are enough! I will personally allay their worries.”

  Bahram quickly left.

  Winds howled over the high walls of Khorasan, like the wailing of ghosts. The weather was clearly much colder than it had been in the past. No one except Wang Chong knew that a crisis without precedent in history was silently approaching, and it would be far more savage and ferocious than anyone could imagine.

  “Heh.”

  With a soft chuckle, Wang Chong departed the walls.

  ……

  Upon learning that the Great Tang was sending more soldiers, the rebel soldiers in Khorasan quickly ceased to worry. Half a day later, a brief and fierce conflict broke out in Shandar, the city across the Tigris River closest to Khorasan. Cheng Qianli’s army occupied Shandar, vanquished its Arab garrison, and destroyed several dozen buildings before withdrawing to Khorasan.

  This was an expression of might to Arabia, an expression of the Great Tang’s will. If Arabia did not accede to the Great Tang’s request, this probing attack would become a complete sacking.

  Several days later, when the news reached Baghdad, just as expected, it unleashed a storm of fury in all levels of Arab society.

  “Bastard!”

  Within his palace, the Caliph was so furious that he even accidentally throttled his favorite hunting falcon to death. But even so, Wang Chong’s plan had proved effective. Arabian gold was shipped out from Baghdad overnight, carried to Khorasan on the backs of more than one thousand horses. A letter of much softer tone was swiftly dispatched to Khorasan.

  But at the same time, the speed at which the Arab army mobilized also increased. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers were marching from the various war zones of Arabia, converging like thousands of streams on Khorasan. Nearly half of the Arab governors, driven on by the wrathful Caliph, were surging to Khorasan. This was an unprecedented mobilization. The Great Tang’s actions had fully provoked the supreme ruler of Arabia.

  ……

  The Arabian gold arrived much faster than expected. The sight of thousands of horses with small mountains of gold crossing the Tigris River and entering Khorasan had an immense mental impact on the army, causing the soldiers to buzz with chatter.

  On the same day, Cheng Qianli composed a memorial in the names of Wang Chong and Gao Xianzhi, reporting this matter to the Imperial Court.

  Seven or eight days later, the news arrived at the capital of the Great Tang. As expected, it set off great waves.

  “This, how?! The Qixi Protector-General and Anxi Protector-General managed to get one billion taels of gold from Arabia?!”

  Upon hearing the news, even Wang Chong’s most ardent opponent, the Grand Preceptor, could not sit still in his chair. War was a burden on the people, and each one would result in terrible losses and consume the country’s resources. But he had never imagined that at the final moment of this war, Wang Chong and the others would send back one billion taels of gold to the Imperial Court.

  Even someone as composed and steady as the Grand Preceptor, who rarely showed a happy expression, couldn’t help but drop his jaw in astonishment.

  “One billion taels! And in gold! How could this be! Not even ten years of my Great Tang’s tax revenue could reach this sum!”

  All levels of the Bureau of Revenue were in a similar state of shock; from the Minister to the lowest secretary, all of them were dumbfounded when they heard the news. Every war had the Bureau of Revenue scratching its head and racking its brains for ways to scrape up enough money. For this reason, of the Six Bureaus, the Bureau of Revenue opposed the military the most.

  But one billion taels of gold…

  Heavens!

  This was an astronomical number. With this sum, the Bureau of Revenue wouldn’t have to complain about wars for a very long time.

  “This puny country was actually this wealthy?!”

  When King Qi heard about the news from Khorasan, he was completely dumbfounded. In his mind, Arabia was still an insignificant country that wasn’t even worth mentioning. The news that Wang Chong had extracted one billion taels of gold from this country left him in a daze.

  As a member of the imperial household, King Qi had never lacked for money, and he would often expend great sums of gold and silver to recruit powerful officials of the court. But no matter how self-assured he was in his wealth, not even he could produce one billion taels of gold.

  Even King Qi appeared dim and tiny before such a massive pile of gold.

  Even the strictest imperial censor of the Imperial Court suddenly found themselves mute. Meanwhile, back in Khorasan…

  “Unlocking ‘Power’ will cost user 10000 points of Destiny Energy. Is user sure?”

  Within Khorasan, the Stone of Destiny’s voice resounded in Wang Chong’s mind.

  Wang Chong was currently seated cross-legged on the floor, alone in his room. In front of him were five dazzling golden balls of light, showing the characters for ‘Mind’, ‘Body’, ‘Energy’, ‘Techniques’, and ‘Power’. Wang Chong’s eyes were fixed on the last ball of light, representing ‘Power’.

  Power represented fortune, terrain, as well as… heavenly phenomena!

  Wang Chong had long ago learned from the Stone of Destiny that this final category of rewards involved fortune, terrain, phenomena, and many other complicated things. Time, weather, terrain, and the minds of the people were all things covered by ‘Power’. ‘Taking advantage of the trend’ was the guiding principle of the abilities in this last category.

  Whether I can take advantage of the trends or not depends on whether these rewards from the Stone of Destiny are what I think they are,Wang Chong quietly said to himself.

  “Confirm!”

  With a thought, Wang Chong chose to spend the Destiny Energy to unlock ‘Power’.

  Rumble!

  The moment Wang Chong confirmed his selection, the room suddenly shook as if the entire world was quaking. In a massive boom and a furious howl of wind, Wang Chong felt like the entire world had vanished. He could see a trembling dark shadow that rapidly began to expand. In the blink of an eye, the continent had appeared under his feet.

  Bang!

  A vast energy exploded in Wang Chong’s mind. At that moment, Wang Chong felt like time and space had both vanished, and even his own body had vanished, leaving purely his senses.

  Down below, the miniature continent ballooned to one hundred times its original size, and then a thousand, ten thousand times. On the contours of the continent, many other objects began to take form. Whoosh! A river swept across the continent, and Wang Chong could even feel the splash of its waters. And even more objects began to appear next to this river.

  This is… Khorasan!

  Wang Chong recognized at a glance that tiny city emerging on the western end of the continent, next to the river.

 
Wang Chong was already very familiar with Khorasan, and he soon saw more things that he was familiar with: fluttering banners, many tents, and domed buildings the size of ants. If this was Khorasan, then the river next to it was undoubtedly the Tigris River.

  Farther west, Wang Chong could see even more of the continent, the first time Wang Chong had ever seen the entire Arabian Empire in this way. This was an extremely new and interesting sensation for Wang Chong.

  I wonder how the Arab soldiers are doing?

  With this thought, Wang Chong moved his eyes westward to Baghdad and the other war zones of Arabia. A moment later, as if in response to Wang Chong’s thoughts, he could hear the cries of soldiers and clattering of weapons and armor. On this projection of the continent, Wang Chong could clearly make out tens of thousands of warhorses marching from various parts of Arabia, converging on Khorasan like thousands of rivers.

  Countless soldiers were marching day and night across the continent, making the two hundred thousand soldiers in Khorasan appear insignificant.

  Seven hundred thousand, no! At least eight hundred thousand soldiers!

  Even though Wang Chong had already mentally prepared himself, knowing that his threats were certain to enrage the Caliph, this number still left him stunned. Taking into account the losses related to the Battle of Talas and the Arab militia that had been killed, Wang Chong and Gao Xianzhi had killed nearly eight hundred thousand Arab soldiers.

  This number in any other empire would be almost impossible to bear, perhaps even more soldiers than could possibly be mustered. And yet after such a severe wound, Arabia was still able to gather a vast force of seven to eight hundred thousand soldiers in a short time. This sort of mobilization capability and military reserve was enough to make any other faction tremble in fear.

  Even if a significant portion were just militia, it was still an astonishing number. From this, one could see why Arabia was known as a country of war.

  This time, the wrathful Caliph had mobilized almost his entire military. The two hundred thousand rebels at Khorasan would find it very difficult to stop them.