Chapter 1071: A Battle of Four Armies!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Clang!
As everyone awaited Qutaybah’s reply, they all heard the crisp hum of a sword. Before anyone could react, a vast stream of golden Sword Qi shot into the sky. Kabooom! With an enormous explosion, this incredible golden Sword Qi descended and crashed into the ground.
Kacrack! The earth cracked open in a long fissure before Qutaybah, spanning the battlefield and extending all the way to the Tang steel walls. The earth swayed and dust churned as if the entire world was quailing at Qutaybah’s feet.
“Qutaybah!”
“Qutaybah!”
“Qutaybah!”
In an instant, the entire battlefield was ringing with Qutaybah’s name. At this moment, Qutaybah was the strongest existence in history.
Now that everyone had experienced Qutaybah’s terrifying strength that could make G.o.ds take fright and ghosts weep, Qutaybah’s prestige in the army had increased to its maximum.
Bwooooom! Following Qutaybah’s strike, the horns blared and the vast sea of Arab cavalry took formation and surged toward the Tang defenses.
……
“Lord Marquis, the Arabs have begun their attack!” Xue Qianjun gravely said as he gazed at the rows of Arab cavalry charging at them.
Clangclangclang!
The air resounded with the clattering of metal as countless war halos began to emerge from the feet of the Arabs, rapidly forming a dense forest of halos. The momentum of this charge was enough to topple mountains and reverse the seas.
w.a.n.g Chong only glanced at them before turning his gaze to the nearby Su Hanshan.
“Su Hanshan, is it all ready?”
“Mm.”
Su Hanshan waved his hand toward his rear, and gears immediately began to groan as five thousand ballistae were loaded and aimed, the sharp points of their bolts coldly glimmering under the overcast sky.
w.a.n.g Chong glanced at the more than twenty thousand ballista soldiers and gave an approving nod. Although these ballista soldiers had been formed from the bandits and brigands of the Silk Road, after Su Hanshan’s training, these soldiers had already begun to give off a tenacious and determined aura.
With his own unique form of charisma, Su Hanshan had succeeded in was.h.i.+ng away any sign of their former lives as bandits. Even w.a.n.g Chong found himself admiring this feat.
In the future, he will definitely reach the goal he couldn’t reach in his last life and become a true Great General of the Great Tang, w.a.n.g Chong said to himself as he shot another glance at Su Hanshan.
Su Hanshan had an extremely sharp and incisive fighting style that excelled at penetrating defenses. Few Great Generals of the Great Tang could compare to him in this aspect. And only Su Hanshan was capable of turning unruly folk like bandits and brigands into top-notch soldiers.
“General Zhao!
“General w.a.n.g!
“General Long!”
w.a.n.g Chong loudly called out these names without turning his head.
“Milord, the Xuanwu Army awaits your orders!”
With the clang of a saber, Marshal Zhao Fengchen of the Great Tang Imperial Army reached behind his back and pulled out his seven-foot Earth’s Scar. In the gloomy light, the blade of Earth’s Scar seemed to be streaked with faint blood.
Behind him, the eight thousand heavily-armored soldiers of the Xuanwu Army began to move. In the face of the vast and crus.h.i.+ng sea of the Arab army, their eyes showed no fear, only a burning will to fight.
Soldiers were raised for a thousand days to be used in a single moment. Zhao Fengchen had trained these soldiers using a special method, and this Xuanwu Army was already beginning to sense the enormous strength of this method.
The other units of the Imperial Army were already unable to compete with them.
The Xuanwu Army currently had the confidence to defeat any opponent.
“Milord, w.a.n.g Sili awaits your orders!”
Not long after Zhao Fengchen spoke, another voice spoke from a nearby army, wholly distinct from the ranks of the Xuanwu Army. At the front of this army was a man with wise and profound eyes. On the left breast of his armor, seven stars brightly twinkled.
Starving Wolf War General w.a.n.g Sili!
This dauntless general serving under Big Dipper Great General Geshu Han now stood tall and straight, his body br.i.m.m.i.n.g with the will to fight as he stared at the approaching Arabs.
No matter what grudges w.a.n.g Chong had with Geshu Han in the past, at this moment, in this place, none of it was important.
Everyone had only one ident.i.ty: Tang!
Everyone had only one thing that they needed to protect: the Great Tang! And they only had one thing that they needed to defeat: Arabia!
“Long Jian of the Dragon Stallion Army awaits your orders!”
“Du Wuwei of the Roaring Tiger Army awaits your orders!”
One voice after another sounded out from behind the first defense line. Armor clanged and clattered as these soldiers turned to the battlefield, their eyes bursting with energy and will to fight. The Divine Martial Army, the Ultimate Martial Army, the Dragon Stallion Army… one elite Tang force after another stood tall behind the defense line, their bodies exploding with incredible energy.
Farther back, the stalwart figure of Cui Piaoqi stood tall upon his horse, and behind him were ten thousand strong and disciplined Wushang Cavalry. Even farther back were the several thousand warriors of the Iron Wall Army.
Behind the Iron Wall Army were the nearly ten thousand Mo Saber soldiers, their long sabers held high in the air as they formed a human wall at the very back of the defense line.
Although the battle had yet to begin, the Great Tang side exuded a somber aura that was not one bit inferior to the Arab side.
Whoos.h.!.+
As the winds howled, the neighing horses and cries of battle seemed to even alarm the heavens. The vast army of Arab cavalry approached like an avalanche, accelerating to incredible speeds.
w.a.n.g Chong, Gao Xianzhi, w.a.n.g Yan, Cheng Qianli, the Demonic Emperor Old Man, the Wushang Village Chief… all the highest commanders of the Great Tang had gathered behind the first defense line, their expressions solemn. Other than the occasional neigh of a horse and the flapping of clothes in the wind, the one hundred and ten thousand soldiers of the Great Tang were silent in the tense atmosphere, forming a stark contrast with the Arab cavalry.
Eighty thousand feet!
Fifty thousand feet!
Thirty thousand feet!
The earth shook and trembled as the Arab cavalry exploded with an astonis.h.i.+ng power, covering tens of thousands of feet in the blink of an eye. Soon, the Arabs were not even one thousand feet from the Tang defense line.
“Kiiill!”
A few moments later, the tens of thousands of Arab cavalry collided with the Tang defense line. Boooom! As if a comet had crashed into a planet, the sound of this impact was so loud that it could almost rupture eardrums.
Neigh!
As warhorses crashed into the line, countless soldiers were thrown more than a hundred feet into the air by the impact.
“Release!”
At almost the same moment, Su Hanshan waved his hand down, causing the five thousand ballistae to fire in unison. Thudthudthud! Like wooden pillars toppling down, tens of thousands of Arab soldiers dropped to the ground.
With just a single volley, Su Hanshan’s five thousand ballistae had immediately filled the skies with the screams of more than twenty thousand dying Arab cavalry. In mere moments, warhorses crashed into warhorses and corpses piled up in front of the first defense line as Arab bodies were strewn across the field.
A large open s.p.a.ce immediately appeared around these corpses.
Even the mighty Arabs couldn’t help but take fright at this sight. Beneath the black war banners, Dalun Ruozan and Duwu Sili blinked several times. Even now, the ballistae of the Great Tang were still the most terrifying killing machines of the Central Plains.
Even the Arabs, who had dominated the world through cavalry, appeared to be as fragile as paper before the ballistae.
“Release!”
Su Hanshan’s cold eyes didn’t even glance at these fallen corpses. His stalwart figure appeared to be a spear thrust into the earth as he stared at the approaching Arab soldiers.
For this volley, Su Hanshan had deliberately chosen to wait until the Arabs had collided with the front line, waiting until they were the most packed together to maximize the lethality of the first volley.
Boomboomboom!
The air howled as the five thousand ballistae fired again, the bolts leaving scars in the air as they shot at the Arab cavalry. Thudthudthud! Another pack of soldiers dropped to the ground. Although it was less than the first volley, fifteen thousand Arab cavalry had still been slain.
These two volleys had already brought down thirty-five thousand Arab cavalry!
If not for the fact that the soldiers Qutaybah and Osman had brought were elites dressed with thick and superbly forged armor, the Arab losses would have been even greater!
“Release!”
At the same time, Chen Bin commanded his own one thousand Tang ballistae to fire, and countless bolts shrieked through the air. Thudthudthud! More and more Arabs fell in front of the first defense line.
In the distance, Aybak and Osman widened their eyes, but n.o.body said anything. None of them had any intention of backing down.
“Kill!”
Tens of thousands of soldiers had fallen before the first Tang defense line, but these losses had no effect on the Arab a.s.sault.
“Send our soldiers as well!”
Dalun Ruozan, standing next to Aybak and Osman, gave the order to charge, his eyes flas.h.i.+ng.
With war came casualties. The Great Tang was not an easy opponent, so such losses were only to be expected. In this decisive battle, there would be no conclusion until one side was completely crushed.
“Kill!”
With another wave of heaven-shaking shouts, one hundred thousand Tibetan and Turkic soldiers charged forward like a tiger lunging down the mountain, their scimitars and sabers unsheathed as they followed up behind the Arab army. The cries of battle and the sounds of fighting rang out over the entire battlefield.