Chapter 218: Truth!
“…”
In an instant, everyone fell silent.
BlackTortoise Peak didn’t have the support of a Princess Ni Huang andneither were they as offensively oriented as White Tiger Peak either. Infact, they didn’t even have a single master archer like Zhou Huang.
Yet, with just a s.h.i.+eld, most of them actually managed to survive this ordeal.
Even the experts whom Marchioness Yi brought here felt that Wei Hao and the others were way too lucky.
“Young general, that person… seems like w.a.n.g Chong from the w.a.n.g Clan!”
Justas w.a.n.g Chong and Wei Hao were gathered together, no one noticed thatat the top of the peak, beside a blazing campfire, a few young men withHu characteristics along with some Han men were currently staring downwith cold gazes.
The Black Tortoise Peak was exceptionally high,making it easy to survey the surrounding situation from here. They couldeasily spot the escaping Goguryeons and Turks spreading themselveswithin the forest, as well as the wolves whom the Goguryeons ordered tostall the pursuing troops.
The Turks and Goguryeons had causedquite the uproar with this a.s.sault. However, none of the gazes of theseyoung Hu and Han were on them. Rather, their focus was on w.a.n.g Chonginstead.
“Hmph, that kid sure is lucky. White Tiger is thewest-most peak, closest to the capital, and exactly where the Turks andGoguryeons were focusing their efforts. Yet, he somehow managed tosurvive!”
Bythe campfire, a young Hu leader spoke coldly. The Origin Energy aroundhim coalesced into a green Halo of Thorns and slowly began to revolvearound him. Countless wolf fang arrows lay on the ground nearby but noneof them managed to even get close to him.
To most, this night wasno different than a nightmare. Yet, to those men standing by thecampfire, this was nothing more than a small game.
Be it theGoguryeon condor snipers or Turk master archers, regardless of howthickly the arrows poured in, they were no threat to them at all.
Thereason was simple. In this world, there wasn’t a single master archeralive who could threaten a true Tongluo tribe member. Members of theTongluo tribe were the best cavalry in the world, as well as the cavalrythat possessed the least fear for archers.
As the second son ofgreat Hu General Abusi, Abutong had been learning how to grab arrowswith his bare hands from young and could now easily do so even whenblindfolded.
The barrage of wolf fang arrows threatening Black Tortoise Peak couldn’t harm him at all.
“Young general, it is currently chaotic now. Why don’t we…”
BesideAbutong, a young Tongluo youth made a gesture to kill, hostileintentions simmering in his eyes. w.a.n.g Chong’s memorial regarding the Huhad already made him the thorn in the eyes of all Hu. Countless Hu hadbeen plotting how they could claim w.a.n.g Chong’s head, and this seemed tobe an ideal situation for them.
“No!”
Contrary to his expectation, Abutong waved his ma.s.sive hands and rejected the idea immediately.
“IfI’m not mistaken, that lady beside him should be Little Marchioness Yi,the daughter of the only marchioness in Great Tang. Any woman in thiscountry who was conferred a t.i.tle of n.o.bility and placed in command ofarmies is a lunatic, and that woman is a lunatic among lunatics!”
“EvenI don’t have the confidence to subdue her. If our operation fails andwe leave behind any evidence, the situation might backfire on us!”
Abutongreplied. He was clearly wary of Marchioness Yi. Different from w.a.n.gChong, she was a true expert who was reputable even among the geniusesof the capital.
“But young general, do we just let this matter go?”
TheTongluo youth replied indignantly. Tongluo men had always pridedthemselves on their feral and aggressive nature, and tolerance wasn’ttheir style of doing things.
“Hmph,let the matter go? How is that possible! Why do you think I chose thisKunwu Training Camp when I could have gone to Shenwei Training Campinstead? The days are long, and there will be plenty of chances to dealwith this w.a.n.g Chong in the future!”
Abutong sneered as he flung his sleeves backward and returned back into the hall on top of Black Tortoise Peak.
Thebattle at Azure Dragon Peak ended around the same time as that of BlackTortoise Peak. And by the time w.a.n.g Chong arrived, the attackingGoguryeons and Turks had already received the news and left.
The four peaks of Kunwu Training Camp were built from the very start with the intention of supporting one another.
Intruth, the battle had already ended from the moment that White TigerPeak triumphed over their enemies! At the time, the tides had alreadychanged, and no matter how indignant the Goguryeons and Turks were, theycould only flee in disappointment.
“It’s finally over!”
Belowthe Azure Dragon Peak, w.a.n.g Chong wore a pallid appearance. He panteddeeply as he supported himself with his hands on his knees. The battlehad lasted a long time, while he’d been running around without a breakthe whole time. Now that he could finally take a breather, he found hisOrigin Energy and stamina were nearly depleted.
Were it not forthe additional benefit of enhancing his Bane of the Battlefield slayingthe Goguryeon warriors, he wouldn’t have pushed himself so much.
However, it was all over now. All that was left was to sweep the entire area.
…
A strong mountain wind blew across the night sky.
Whilew.a.n.g Chong, Marchioness Yi, Wei Hao, and the other camp members wereclearing the corpses and carca.s.ses from the four peaks, no one knew thata pair of eyes had been silently observing their actions and the entireKunwu Training Camp from the shadows.
No one knew exactly howlong he had been standing there, but without a doubt, from the start tothe end of the a.s.sault, there wasn’t a single detail that had managed toescape his notice.
“Are the preparations complete?”
In thedarkness, a shadowy figure was standing atop a rocky prominence with hishands behind his back. His voice was authoritative and cold, and it wasimpossible to discern any emotions from it. A slight star-lit radianceshone upon him, allowing one to vaguely see the shape of Great Tang’suniform.
“All preparations are ready! Quill, Imperial, Serpent,Dragon, Tortoise… All six armies stand ready. Not a single one of thosemaster archers, warriors, or wolves will get away!”
A young man moved to kneel before that figure respectfully. His tone was composed but the content of his words was shocking.
Ifw.a.n.g Chong was here, he would definitely be astounded. Quill, Imperial,Serpent, Dragon, and Tortoise—they were all regiments under theImperial Army.
w.a.n.g Chong and the others thought that the masterarchers had sealed all news from getting out, but the royal palacesomehow seemed to have had advance knowledge.
“Very well! Relay myorders! Kill every single one of them, especially the master archers!Since the Eastern and Western Turkic Khaganates and Goguryeo sent us somany master archers and condor snipers, it’ll be a little embarra.s.singif we don’t accept them properly!”
The figure ordered coldly and callously.
IfZhao Qianqiu was here, he would be even more astounded. The personstanding here issuing orders was the very same one who said that hewould return to the capital to report to the Sage Emperor! Instead ofreturning to the royal palace, he was hiding here instead!
Thecommand was swiftly relayed, and in all directions, in places where nonecould see, another battle raged on. This one ended much quicker thanthe previous a.s.sault. There was no stalemate. It was a completelyone-sided slaughter.
Or perhaps, calling it as a battle was a little inaccurate. To be more exact, it was a prepared harvest.
“Lord, are we being a little too heartless here?”
The young kneeling man finally questioned after relaying the orders.
“Heartless?”
Thatfigure perched atop a towering prominence appeared taken aback,seemingly unable to comprehend the meaning behind the young man’s words.
“Overa hundred master archers and several hundred Goguryeon warriors… Intruth, this a.s.sault could have been entirely prevented. So why did wekeep the news from them despite receiving earlier warnings? Thoserecruits are still children; they aren’t at an age to enter abattlefield yet. Aren’t we being a little too callous to them?”
The young man was involved in this matter, so he was aware of the entire proceedings.
Itwas due to the lack of preparation that this sudden a.s.sault caught somany off guard, resulting in ma.s.sive losses. The Goguryeons and Turkshad concealed their movements well; their planning being also verythorough; and their sense of timing was, in addition, excellent.
But to the Great Tang, an operation of this level wasn’t in their blind spot yet.
TheThree Great Training Camps were just twenty to forty li away. At such adistance, how could the capital possibly be completely unaware of thehappenings here?
In truth, there was no secrecy behind thisa.s.sault in the first place. Even though the Turks were extremelycareful, and the wolves were slowly slipped across the border one by oneover an extremely long period of time, it was still insufficient tohide from the eyes and ears of the royal court.
Just that, theroyal court intentionally concealed the matter. Not only so, they evenallowed their enemies free reign, and this a.s.sault on the Three GreatTraining Camps was the result.
“You’re sympathizing with them?”
That person replied indifferently.
“Yes!”
The young man grit his teeth and affirmed.
“Heh, do you know of the death quota of the Three Great Training Camps?”
Weng!
Theyoung man was initially confused when suddenly a ghastly comprehensiondawned on him and his body trembled. He abruptly raised his head.
“Lord, you mean that…?”
“Hmph, do you think that I have the right to make a decision for such a huge matter?”
That person replied.
“So that means that the Sage Emperor…”
The young man’s face turned pale.
“It’sgood that you understand! Only after the quota is exceeded will we stepin, and currently… the number of deaths is still within the permissiblerange!”
The figure replied nonchalantly as he continued toobserve from above. On the other hand, the young man listening to thesewords trembled violently, as though he was struck by a bolt oflightning.
Tongluo Tribe -> Toŋra Tribe -> They are a part of a nomadic tribe cla.s.sified under Tiele.
are Turks coming from the heritage of Xiongnu.
Xiongnuis a confederation(alliance) of nomadic people who formed a powerfulinfluence in the third century BC to late first century AD.
Note:As China has a more organized method of recording history and theirrecords are more complete, most of the history of these tribes aretransliterated and pa.s.sed down in Chinese. According toWikipedia(Chinese), in the original language, Tongluo should refer toToŋra. However, for the sake of convenience, I’ll use the transliteratedversion.