Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Five thousand, seven thousand, nine thousand… in the distance, the losses of the Tibetan Mountain Army had risen to incredible levels, and this number was still climbing at an astonis.h.i.+ng pace. The power and efficiency of five thousand Wushang Cavalry charging in Arrow Formation simply couldn"t be compared to the three hundred from before.
But the battle was far from over.
"Ready!"
A loud voice echoed through the skies. In front of the scale-like steel walls, Chen Bin raised his sword. Cavalry charging at high speeds wouldn"t just stop, and though Li Siye had led the Wushang in a charge through their ranks, dividing the army in two, those two halves were still hurtling toward the walls.
Right now, with w.a.n.g Chong"s five thousand Wushang Cavalry already deployed, the Tang had only around fifteen hundred elites from the southwest and experts from the great clans. Sixty zhang, fifty zhang, forty zhang, thirty zhang… the distance was getting smaller and smaller, and if these Tibetan cavalry charging under their inertia were not stopped, the eight thousand craftsmen transferred from the City of Steel to the plateau would be crushed beneath the hooves of the Tibetan warhorses.
Twenty-five zhang, twenty-four zhang, twenty-three zhang…
At twenty zhang, Chen Bin finally gave the order.
"Release!"
Buzz!
Thousands of arrows suddenly exploded out of the foremost of the steel walls, covering the sky.
"Aaaah!" Screams filled the air as countless Tibetans and their horses were pincus.h.i.+oned, their corpses falling to the ground.
"Beehives", this heavy weaponry that w.a.n.g Chong had installed within the City of Steel, had also been installed on the plateau for this battle and were now displaying their formidable killing power.
"Release!"
Chen Bin waved his sword, and yet another volley of arrows was fired, felling several thousand more Tibetan cavalry before the walls. The operation of the "beehives" was extremely simple, and even though Chen Bin commanded only around fifteen hundred cavalry, he could utilize three thousand beehives.
And each beehive had forty to fifty arrows.
All fired at once, this was 150,000 arrows, and this was only with what w.a.n.g Chong had available to him. Even the Tibetans and their plate armor would suffer heavy casualties against these volleys of arrows that came at them from every angle.
"Careful!"
"Dodge the arrows!"
Tibetan shouts rang out over the battlefield. These terrifying attacks made all the Tibetan officers tremble in fear. No one had expected that even without the terrifying force of five thousand cavalry, the remaining Tang forces would still possess such frightening fighting power.
In this exchange, seven to eight thousand Tibetans had fallen beneath those silver walls, the dense gathering of human and horse corpses forming yet another barrier for the Tang.
"What"s going on here? They definitely aren"t the Qixi Protectorate army. Where could such a formidable Tang army have come from?"
All the Tibetans felt a deep shock and an even greater fear. The power of those five thousand cavalry and this dreadful volley of arrows had surpa.s.sed all their expectations.
The entire army was in chaos.
Roooar!
At this moment, everyone heard a heaven-shaking roar, a peal of thunder that cleaved open the skies and awed the entire plateau.
As the battlefield fell into chaos, Li Siye, the commander of the Wushang Cavalry, finally struck. A powerful Sword Qi soared into the sky like a storm, momentarily looking down from the sky before slas.h.i.+ng down at the greatest concentration of Tibetans.
"Aaaah!" Screams of the dying filled the air as the Sword Qi swept over the earth. It cleaved open a pitch-black fissure in the earth, twenty-some zhang long, and also cleaved apart the commander of the Tibetan Mountain Army, Buluhu.
Buluhu"s eyes were wide open as the two halves of his body were struck by the wind and toppled to the ground.
Although Buluhu was a Tibetan general of some fame in the northern region of the plateau, he was still no match for the future Invincible Great General Li Siye.
He had still died to Li Siye"s full-strength blow.
With Buluhu dead, the remaining Tibetans were leaderless, hastening their collapse.
"Run!"
The first to flee were Buluhu"s personal guards. Against the terrifying Wushang Cavalry and the surrounding corpses of their comrades, Buluhu"s elite guards had lost their nerve.
Regardless of where these Great Tang cavalry had come from, the Tibetans were simply no match for them.
The fleeing guards were like a signal. In an instant, the Mountain Army fell apart, all of the soldiers losing their confidence.
In the face of this army of unprecedented strength, the veteran Mountain Army that had subjugated so many countries was collapsing like a crumbling mountain face, all their ferocity and courage vanis.h.i.+ng into nothingness.
"Run!"
"Hurry and tell the Great General!"
The Tibetan cavalry took flight like startled birds, madly taking off in every direction. These soldiers with no will to fight were easy prey for the Wushang Cavalry.
Swish, swish, swish…
Sharp swords sliced through flesh as the five thousand Wushang Cavalry pursued the fleeing army. More and more corpses of the Mountain Army fell to the ground.
An hour later, when the battle was over, the plateau was awash with blood and corpses. The Tibetans had left more than twenty thousand corpses behind.
"There"s no need to chase anymore!"
Li Siye drew out a line on the gra.s.s with his sword, forbidding his soldiers from further pursuit.
"Do not pursue a cornered enemy. Lord Marquis means that defeating them is enough. Treat the wounded and clean up the battlefield!"
"Yes, Milord!"
There was a clattering of metal as the Wushang Cavalry gathered together and returned. All the wounded were collected and brought back for treatment.
This intense battle had not even lasted an hour, and in the end, it had been the side with greater numbers that had been thoroughly defeated.
"This is impossible! When did Wushang get such a powerful army?!" A cry of alarm could be heard, not from the Qixi Protectorate army scouts, but from Qixi"s general of the eastern line, Heba Ye. When he heard the news, he had immediately rushed his soldiers over, but he had never expected to see such a sight.
"General, should we go over?" a deputy general asked.
Heba Ye thought for few moments before answering, "There"s no need. First report to Lord Protector-General and wait for his orders."
There was no one in Qixi that didn"t know of the relations.h.i.+p between the Protector-General and the w.a.n.g Clan scion of Wushang. Until the Protector-General gave his orders, Heba Ye did not dare to rashly make any decisions.
Moreover, in w.a.n.g Chong"s battle with the Tibetans, the Qixi Protectorate army had never intended to send reinforcements, so Heba Ye and his deputies had come dressed in the armor of ordinary soldiers, so no one except those in the Qixi Protectorate army would know. Thus, it didn"t matter if he met with w.a.n.g Chong or not.
"Let"s go!"
Heba Ye turned his horse around and left.
"Lord Marquis, look! People from the Qixi Protectorate army!" Zhang Que suddenly pointed.
Following Zhang Que"s finger, w.a.n.g Chong"s group saw the back of Heba Ye"s group.
Cheng Sanyuan suddenly laughed and said, "Lightning Chaser, Fast Flyer, Bronze n.o.ble1—what excellent horses! When did the scouts of the Qixi Protectorate army ride such fine steeds?"
"If you want to act, you have to play the full part. Heba Ye and his officers are still a little lacking!" w.a.n.g Chong smiled as well.
Although he hadn"t seen their faces, from the quality of their horses alone, w.a.n.g Chong could guess at their ident.i.ty.
The Great Tang had regulations regarding this, and one basically needed to be a general to be able to ride a horse of that quality. Someone of the Qixi Protectorate army at this level who would appear here was highly likely to be Heba Ye and his deputies.
"Lord Marquis, these fellows would refuse help to the dying!" Su s.h.i.+xuan said, his voice rather furious and indignant. "They were so close by and yet refused to send soldiers, and their commander Heba Ye even disguised himself to come and take a look! Why don"t we go and talk things over with them?"
Tibetans were the greatest foe of the Great Tang, and they were constant threats, whether it was in Longxi, Anxi, or Qixi. By wiping out the Tibetans, w.a.n.g Chong was actually helping the Qixi Protectorate army.
But even though the Qixi Protectorate army was clearly capable of helping, it refused to send reinforcements. The thought of it made one laugh in scorn.
w.a.n.g Chong waved his hand and indifferently said, "Forget it. There"s no need to lower ourselves to their level, and besides, they also need to keep Fumeng Lingcha happy. Without Fumeng Lingcha"s order, he would never dare send soldiers."
This battle had always been a part of his plans, and he had never planned for the partic.i.p.ation of the Qixi Protectorate army, so their presence or non-presence was not important.
"Prepare yourselves and hurry the construction. This fortress will be very useful in the upcoming battle. In addition, I have a feeling that Dayan Mangban is about to get the news."
w.a.n.g Chong gave an enigmatic smile.
In this excursion to the plateau, w.a.n.g Chong"s main goal was still Dayan Mangban. In order to shoot the rider, one had to first shoot the horse, and in order to capture the king, one had to capture the underlings. And there was no bigger threat in Qixi than Dayan Mangban.
If he had not attacked the Qixi Protectorate like a madman, heedless of the price he paid, the armies of the Qixi Protectorate would not have ended up so short of soldiers.
In this aspect, the threat Dayan Mangban posed was even greater than the threat of an Ü-Tsang Great General like Dusong Mangpoje.
This was why w.a.n.g Chong had placed him at the top of the kill list.
"Hurry up! Lord Marquis has decreed that if we reach the third level within four hours, everyone will be rewarded fifty taels of silver."
In the rear of the army, the eight thousand craftsmen were busy at work, racing to put all their strength into building the fortress. Furnace after furnace was stoked to life, and waves of heat surged into the heavens.
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1. Lightning Chaser, Fast Flyer, and Bronze n.o.ble were the names of three of Qin s.h.i.+ Huang"s seven horses.