A few moments ago, they had still been an unstoppable flood seething with killing intent, but now, they were silent, and all they could see was mountains of corpses, abandoned weapons, and shattered armor, a fog of blood permeating the air.
“Retreat! Retreeeat!”
Upon seeing this hellish landscape, Apolis finally grew afraid. As Khatabah’s valiant vanguard general, Apolis had never retreated in front of anything, but in the face of these terrifying losses, Apolis felt a chill.
While this empire of the eastern world did not possess Arabia’s Behemoths or its enormous army of powerful cavalry, it could lay claim to its own formidable reapers of death.
If they did not fall back now, these lethal weapons would wipe out his army before they had any hope of breaking the Tang defense line. At this moment, Apolis finally understood the Great Tang’s strategic objective.
He had truly underestimated these eastern infidel armies too much. He should have never let them break through his flanks and surround them. If his army were not surrounded by the Tang army and unable to retreat, he would not have been pushed into such a grim situation and suffered such heavy losses.
“All generals, hear me! Follow me and focus on exterminating those two Tang commanders!”
Clang! Apolis raised his scimitar as he cried out, pointing his weapon at Zhangchou Jianqiong and An Sishun.
Apolis’s eyes were razor-sharp. He could not break through the Tang ballistae and the defense line. Such an action was little different from suicide. But even if he retreated, he could not go back empty-handed. He had to make this empire of the east pay a price.
Chapter 1844 - The Wrath of Amon!
Chapter 1844: The Wrath of Amon!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Apolis could see that Zhangchou Jianqiong and An Sishun were the pivotal characters on the battlefield, the commanders of their two armies. Killing them would inflict immense damage to the enemy’s forces.
At the same time, it would open a path for his army to retreat!
Boom!
Following Apolis’s order, the remaining seventy-thousand-some soldiers began to change directions, and the Governors and Deputy Governors began to gather around Apolis, ready to break out and at the same time kill Zhangchou Jianqiong and An Sishun.
“Hahaha, you want to leave now? Can you?”
Loud laughter came from the distance. Before the Governors and Deputy Governors had even finished gathering around Apolis, Zhangchou Jianqiong and An Sishun had already sensed his intentions.
The one who struck first was the strongest, and these two had no intention of letting Apolis gather his strength for a breakout attempt.
Boom!
The air rumbled as Zhangchou Jianqiong urged his horse onward, Stellar Energy bursting from his body.
Several dozen Arab cavalry in a range of several dozen meters in front of him screamed as they were swept up by this Stellar Energy and blasted away. In striking the soldiers behind, they created even greater disorder in the Arab ranks.
Zhangchou Jianqiong’s eyes coldly flashed as he continued onward, leading Xianyu Zhongtong and the other generals of the Annan Protectorate army in shooting toward Apolis.
“Charge!”
A furious roar came from several dozen feet away, and then in a white beam of light, An Sishun led the Beiting Protectorate army generals in joining Zhangchou Jianqiong against Apolis.
An Sishun and Zhangchou Jianqiong had been stationed separately in the north and the south. While they had heard of each other, they had almost never interacted, let alone worked together.
In the Regional Commanders incident, the two of them had even been on opposite sides!
But this did not prevent them from sharing a tacit understanding, one that even surpassed the connection An Sishun shared with his own subordinates. The powerful auras of these two made the distant Apolis pale.
“Protect Milord!”
“Kill them!”
The Arab Governors and Deputy Governors shuddered, and with no time to think, they knocked aside the cavalry in their way and charged in Apolis’s direction.
Some of them, sensing the danger, even jumped off the backs of their horses rather than continuing to ride through the army.
Apolis was the Hierophant’s general and the overall commander of the vanguard. If he died, the army would instantly crumble.
These Governors and Deputy Governors responded very quickly, but unfortunately, the moment Zhangchou Jianqiong and An Sishun took action, they had already estimated the time it would take for the Arab generals to gather.
“White Tiger Swallows the Heavens!”
“Mountain River Storm!”
With a furious bellow, murderous energy exploded from Zhangchou Jianqiong’s body and a vast sea of Stellar Energy was unleashed.
Zhangchou Jianqiong vanished, replaced by a massive white tiger. It leaped into the air, its several-dozen-meter body transforming into a white light that hurtled toward Apolis.
Space twisted and blurred around the white tiger, and that almost tangible killing intent seemed like sharp blades cleaving through space, leaving visible scars in their wake.
Bang!
At almost the same time, the Beiting Protector-General swept out his saber, and his body instantly began to surge with destructive Stellar Energy, a veritable waterfall that surged at Apolis.
Apolis’s pupils constricted upon sensing the grave danger he was in. But he instantly got ahold of himself, his fingers cracking as they clenched into a fist.
“Damn infidels! I’ll make sure you never go back!”
As an illustrious vanguard general and one of the Hierophant’s subordinates, Apolis had slaughtered countless foes of Arabia, many of them illustrious generals in their own right. But on his first step into the east, on his first encounter with these eastern Great Generals, he was being forced to retreat without even fighting. How could he allow this?
Thick and concentrated killing intent erupted from Apolis’s body and soared into the sky.
“Wrath of Amon!”
Apolis’s body rumbled with Stellar Energy, and in a flash, he vanished, replaced by a hellish Demon God with the body of a wolf and the tail of a snake.
Amon! In Arabian records, it was ranked as seventh of the Seventy-Two Demon God Pillars, the god that controlled flames!
(TN: Amon is the seventh demon of the 72 Demons of Solomon. It is a Marquis of Hell and is described as having the body of a wolf and the tail of a serpent, and it vomits fire.)
Bang!
Once Apolis used the Amon transformation, his Stellar Energy turned into raging flames. As the Hierophant’s vanguard general, he did not back down in the face of Zhangchou Jianqiong and An Sishun. On the contrary, surrounded by a sea of flame, he charged at the pair.
The air hissed and crackled, seemingly aflame, churning with thick smoke.
“Die for me, lowly infidels!”
Apolis’s cold voice resounded over the heavens. Alas, though he was powerful, he had underestimated the power of Zhangchou Jianqiong and An Sishun.
Five hundred feet, three hundred feet, two hundred feet…
The two sides drew closer and closer. When they were less than one hundred feet from each other and about to collide, boom! Zhangchou Jianqiong and An Sishun suddenly roared, and they held nothing back, unleashing all the energy in their bodies.
These two were already extremely powerful, but now, they soared to even greater levels of strength.
“What?!”
This terrifying display of power instantly made Apolis pale.
Originally, there had still been some question about who might come out victorious between them, but now, their strength completely surpassed his and he had no hope of victory.
“Shameless!”
Apolis’s face went white as he finally understood that this had been a trap from the very beginning. Apolis’s arrogance had caused him to lose his last cha
nce of escaping.
Rumble!
The world shuddered and groaned as Zhangchou Jianqiong and An Sishun smoothly worked together to come in on Apolis’s left and right. With a single strike, they blew apart Apolis’s Amon avatar, the wolf-headed, serpent-tailed Demon God exploding into pieces.
Rumble!
Two cold gleams of light swept across Apolis’s neck, and a moment later, Zhangchou Jianqiong and An Sishun appeared behind Apolis.
Winds howled as the battlefield fell silent.
Zhangchou Jianqiong, An Sishun, and Apolis stood motionless in the center of the battlefield. There was no one within two hundred feet of these three, only corpses.
In this fierce battle of elites, it would have been impossible for anyone within two hundred feet to survive that explosion of power.
“Milord!”
As the Arab Governors and Deputy Governors stared at Apolis’s motionless figure, they suddenly had an ill foreboding.
Thwishthwishthwish!
Their hearts tensing, they immediately began to rush toward Apolis, but before they could get very far, plssh! A sliver of blood shot out from Apolis’s neck, quickly turning into a geyser.
Thud! A few seconds later, Apolis’s stalwart body crashed to the ground.
As he fell, his head came off his body and rolled six or seven meters away.
“Milord!”
“Apolis!”
The Arab soldiers all shivered in fear, their hearts turning into blocks of ice. The distant Khatabah also had a dour expression.
Apolis was his strongest vanguard Great General. Khatabah did not mind losing subordinates, and any Arab soldier would be honored to die for the sake of expanding the empire, but Apolis’s death had never even been a consideration.
For a powerful general to die in the first probing attack had never been in Khatabah’s expectations.
“Hmph! Only killing one is far from enough!
“Everyone, listen up! Kill them all! No survivors!”
Zhangchou Jianqiong pulled on the reins of his horse as he wiped the blood off his sword.
The Arabs might have still been in shock about Apolis’s death, but the same was not the case for Zhangchou Jianqiong and his men. The horse had been shot down; the king had been captured. With Apolis dead, this was the best opportunity to wipe out the surrounded Arab soldiers.
“Kiiill!”
With the advantage created by their commanders, the Annan Protectorate army and Beiting Protectorate army charged into the disordered and fearful ranks of the Arab army.
Bang! Bang! Bang! The sounds of collisions and fearful screams mixed together. Although there were still tens of thousands of Arab soldiers left, they had already lost any semblance of an army and were in a complete rout.
Chapter 1845 - Surround Three and Leave One Open!
Chapter 1845: Surround Three and Leave One Open!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Release!”
In the distance, Su Hanshan’s face was cold and emotionless. Seizing the opportunity, he had his ballistae continue their harvest. One could see corpses pierced through by ballista bolts all over the battlefield.
“Retreat, retreat!”
The Arab soldiers had lost all will to fight. If this continued, there would be no survivors left of the two-hundred-thousand-strong vanguard. All of them would be wiped out by the Tang soldiers.
Bwoooom!
At this moment, a resounding blare came from the Arab base.
Khatabah had finally given the order to retreat, and all the Arab soldiers lost the will to fight. The Behemoth Army, the giant bird army, and the remaining sandworms began to retreat.
Amongst these armies, the Behemoth Army had the greatest harvest and was the only army to actually achieve its objective. They had advanced eight hundred meters deep into the center of the Tang defense line, destroying thousands of steel walls and even one of the giant ballistae. But the general rout of the main army forced the Behemoth Army to pull back.
Bang!
As the Arabs retreated and the mountainous figures of the Behemoths began to turn around, cheers exploded from the Tang army.
This first battle between the Great Tang and Arabia was extremely important. The Arabs had sent two hundred thousand soldiers, the Behemoth Army, the giant bird army, and even giant sandworms.
In this situation, the Great Tang had sent out only two of its major commanders and one-third of its soldiers. This was unquestionably a major victory.
“Kill!”
“Don’t let them run!”
The Great Tang forces continued to pursue the Arab cavalry and Behemoths, and even the master archers joined in, filling the sky with arrows.
“Milord, the Great Tang is continuing to pursue our men. If this continues, they will be completely wiped out. Should we send soldiers to receive them?” an Arab general standing behind Khatabah suddenly asked.
Khatabah said nothing, but as he stared into the distance, he slightly nodded.
At the same time, in the Tang army…
“Lord Zhangchou, Protector-General An, if all goes as expected, Arabia will send an army to receive their men. Surround three and leave one open! Leave them a path!” Wang Chong sent out a powerful mental wave toward Zhangchou Jianqiong and An Sishun.
“Heh, I’ll do as you say and let them keep their dog lives!” Zhangchou Jianqiong said.
He and An Sishun had worked together to create a large net that trapped the entirety of the Arab vanguard. Zhangchou Jianqiong really had wanted to wipe out the Arabs completely, but a moment later, he gave up on the idea.
“。”
“Mm.”
Wang Chong subtly nodded.
‘Surround three and leave one open’ was a basic principle of the art of war. Normally, when the battle was settled, a path would intentionally be left in the encirclement so that the enemy could escape. This was not out of kindness. On the contrary, it made it even easier to kill the enemy.
Completely surrounding the enemy might force them into a last-ditch struggle, and a determined counterattack could inflict heavy losses on the Great Tang. But if they were left a path, the enemy would lose all will to fight, making them die even faster. Meanwhile, the pursuers would suffer fewer losses.
“Run!”
When a crack appeared in the encirclement of the Annan Protectorate army and Beiting Protectorate army, the Arab cavalry who had been preparing to fight to the death saw a glimmer of hope and rushed for all they were worth toward that gap, ignoring the attacks coming in around them.
The Arab casualties continued to climb.
Khatabah, who had been preparing to send reinforcements, frowned. The soldiers were dying too quickly. Moreover, a significant number of soldiers had escaped through the gap, so there was no longer any need to send reinforcements.
“Pass on my order! All soldiers are to remain in their position! Do not send reinforcements!” Khatabah finally ordered.
“Kill!”
On the other side, after killing thousands more Arab cavalry, Zhangchou Jianqiong and An Sishun called their armies back and retreated to the defense line.
With this, the gruesome battle was over.
All that was left on the battlefield were mountains of corpses and fallen steel walls, everything pervaded by the thick stench of blood. Caw! A shriek came from the distance. Even those vultures of Ü-Tsang thousands of meters away had smelled the blood and begun to flock over.
These were not trained birds, but wild vultures. They gathered above the battlefield and began to circle the skies.
On the ground, both sides began to collect the bodies of their fallen and prepare for the second battle.
Behind the steel walls, Wang Chong asked, “What are our losses?” With him were Zhangchou Jianqiong, An Sishun, Wang Zhongsi, Abusi, and Gao Xianzhi.
With the battle over, it was time to take stock of the losses.
“Our losses are
n’t too bad. We lost three thousand men to the Behemoth Army, and when the Annan Protectorate army and Beiting Protectorate army were breaking through the flanks of the Arab army, they each lost around three thousand men. In total, we lost around nine thousand men in this battle!” Xue Qianjun reported to the six Great Generals. After the campaign in the Ten Eastern Islands, Xue Qianjun had been reborn into a veteran.
The Great Generals and King Song all nodded in approval. Nine thousand seemed like a rather bad loss, but it really wasn’t that large in the grand scheme of things.
“What of the Arabs?” Wang Zhongsi asked.
“We can’t get an exact count yet, but from the state of the battlefield, it should be more than two hundred thousand,” Zhang Que said.
Wang Chong’s scouts were all under the command of Zhang Que at this time. While he wasn’t a powerful martial artist, he excelled in observation and estimation.
The Great Generals and King Song nodded again.
Nine thousand to two hundred thousand was a 1:22 ratio, which was simply absurd. Even Zhangchou Jianqiong and An Sishun were shocked by this number.
Everyone understood that this stark contrast was possible primarily because of Wang Chong’s steel defense line and Su Hanshan’s ballista army.
Without the steel defense line, Zhangchou Jianqiong and An Sishun would never have been able to so freely choose the moments for their attacks, which had allowed them to pierce the enemy flanks. Moreover, while the battle had seemed intense, everyone knew that the primary force had been Su Hanshan’s ballista army. The Annan Protectorate army and Beiting Protectorate army were not that powerful.
The bolts of the ballista army could blast large holes through men, instantly ending their lives. Thus, there were few Arab survivors, and the vast majority of Arab casualties were deaths.
Gao Xianzhi turned to Wang Chong and asked, “Wang Chong, what do we do next?”
“Even two hundred thousand losses is nothing for the Arabs, not even touching their foundation. They’ll keep coming, and the next battle will be even harder,” King Song declared.
Although King Song had not taken part in the battle, he was a leader in the military and a staunch member of the war faction. Thus, he had a certain mastery of the art of war.
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