Chapter 1181: Pursuit in the Blizzard!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Anger!
Unwillingness!
Struggle!
It was so nearby, success so close at hand, and yet they really had to concede?
“Withdraw!”
As the blizzard intensified and the temperature continued to plunge, the order to retreat finally came from Fadi’s struggling face. Rumble! With the order from the Three t.i.tans of Black Radiance, the army immediately began to withdraw to the west.
……
They’ve begun to withdraw!
As w.a.n.g Chong stood in the blizzard, his eyes closed, he sensed what was going on. He could hear through the howling winds that the Arabs had begun to make much more noise. After struggling for a while, the Arabs had finally put down their ambitions and yielded to this frigid winter that preceded the Little Ice Age.
The strength of Man was simply too weak and insignificant before the might of nature!
The sounds of neighing faded toward the west. w.a.n.g Chong silently calculated, but he still did not give the order to attack.
The temperature was still falling, and retreating amidst the darkness and raging snowstorm was far more difficult than the Arabs could imagine.
“It’s about ready!”
When the blizzard was at its fiercest and the temperature at its lowest, w.a.n.g Chong finally raised his head, looking up at the snow-filled sky.
“We can set out!”
Boom!
With w.a.n.g Chong’s order, a group of elite soldiers charged through the blizzard and shot out of the western gate of Khorasan. Splas.h.!.+ Scalding hot water was poured onto the thick layers of ice, and once the ice was thawed, there was a mighty boom as the frozen gates of Khorasan opened once more.
Neeeigh! The soldiers immediately rode out, their horses neighing.
w.a.n.g Chong himself rode out of Khorasan like a sharp arrow. Bzzz! As he emerged into the world outside Khorasan, he felt like he was entering a whole new world. Even though w.a.n.g Chong had mentally prepared himself, he still couldn’t help but s.h.i.+ver in shock.
It was already extremely cold in Khorasan, but only when w.a.n.g Chong had the gates opened did he understand just how frozen the world was.
That tributary of the Tigris River had vanished long ago, the surging waters transformed into a thick sheet of ice. Meanwhile, the several feet of snow piled on the ground transformed the world into a white and frigid place. And on the other side of the frozen Tigris River, he could see innumerable figures in the Arab camp, frozen into sculptures of ice.
“Enemy!”
Suddenly, a cry of alarm came from the Arab camp, shattering the calm. w.a.n.g Chong squinted as he quickly regained his composure, his eyes turning sharp. After waiting for so long, it was finally the Great Tang’s turn to attack.
Clang!
The clang of a sword was audible even amidst the howling winds. Riding on the White-hoofed Shadow, w.a.n.g Chong held aloft Bahram’s golden sword and gave the order.
“Attack!”
Rumble! Hooves thundered through the blizzard, sending ice and snow spluttering in every direction. Stellar Energy erupted from w.a.n.g Chong’s body, repulsing the blizzard, and he pressed himself against his horse and began to charge to the other sh.o.r.e.
The earth trembled behind him as nearly twenty thousand hand-picked Tang, Khorasani, and rebel elites charged forth like a storm, transforming into an unstoppable flood!
“Enemy!”
No one had expected the Tang to attack in the middle of a blizzard. The Arab camp was in chaos, but many soldiers still gathered together in an attempt to stop this army.
But it was all too late.
Bang!
w.a.n.g Chong quickly crossed the several hundred feet of the frozen Tigris River and plunged into the Arab camp.
“Kiiill!”
At almost the same moment, the Arabs began to respond, thousands of them swiftly gathering together and charging toward w.a.n.g Chong. At this moment, w.a.n.g Chong’s army of nearly twenty thousand arrived with a thunderous momentum.
Boom!
With a ma.s.sive boom, two torrents of steel collided. A moment later, countless Arab cavalry were thrown screaming into the sky as if some mighty wave was pa.s.sing through. This was no fierce battle, but a complete ma.s.sacre. Bangbangbang! The elite coalition army mowed down the Arab cavalry.
These several thousand soldiers didn’t even succeed in slowing down the coalition force.
Rumble! Wherever the army pa.s.sed, thousands of Arab cavalry were felled.
“Hurry! It’s the Tang!”
“Hurry and stop them!”
Shouts of despair could be heard through the blizzard. There were still many people rus.h.i.+ng toward the Tigris River, but even more of them were unable to tell which direction was which. Bang! A snow-covered Arab soldier was just preparing to mount his horse when a sword suddenly swept out of the snowstorm and cut off his head.
At the moment of death, his eyes were round in disbelief that he had died in such a fas.h.i.+on.
Countless Arab cavalry were dying around him in a similar fas.h.i.+on, many of them not even aware of where the attacks were coming from before they were beheaded.
“These Arabs really are much weaker!”
w.a.n.g Chong could hear the howling of the wind and see the endless snow, but before any of these things could reach him, they were repelled by the Stellar Energy around him. In this battle, the Arabs were unable to put up any resistance. w.a.n.g Chong could clearly sense that the Arabs had been greatly weakened, not even showing thirty or forty percent of their original strength.
With this level of strength, there was no way they could fight against the well-prepared Tang force.
To survive in this harsh winter, one had to consume enormous amounts of energy. This was also why w.a.n.g Chong had chosen to wait one hour before attacking.
“Kill!”
As he was thinking, he heard a chorus of shouts as ten-some Arab hors.e.m.e.n charged out of the blizzard to attack w.a.n.g Chong. But w.a.n.g Chong merely turned his head and glanced, and these Arab hors.e.m.e.n fell to the ground before they could get within ten paces of w.a.n.g Chong.
Their blood and energy surged out of their bodies, merged into a misty pillar that not even the fierce winds could scatter, and vanished into w.a.n.g Chong’s body.
“All soldiers, hear my order! Pursue at full speed!”
w.a.n.g Chong came back to his senses, and with a metallic clang, he unleashed his Bane of the Battlefield, Bane of Generals, and Halo of Dusk Stallion. These halos quickly engulfed the western sh.o.r.e of the Tigris River, and the screams ringing through the air immediately became much more miserable.
The blizzard and extreme cold had already placed the Arabs in a terrible predicament. w.a.n.g Chong’s war halos were adding disaster upon disaster, completely plunging the Arabs into despair.
Bangbangbang! The Arabs were cut down in swaths, their blood flowing across the mantle of snow before quickly freezing.
w.a.n.g Chong quickly rode deeper into the blizzard.
As he rode through the blizzard, amongst the frozen white tents, he swiftly noticed something rising from the ground. Riding over, he saw that it was a fallen Arab soldier, his right hand pressed against the ground, his face stricken with fear.
His mouth was wide open and his body was covered in snow. w.a.n.g Chong could sense no life in him. The bandage on his leg clearly indicated his ident.i.ty.
A wounded soldier!
Although many Arabs had managed to escape from yesterday’s battle, many of them had been wounded. These casualties were the first to fall in this blizzard, the extreme cold, their weak bodies, and serious injuries working in concert to s.n.a.t.c.h away their lives.
Even though the clanging of metal, the shouts of fighting, the snorting of warhorses, and the galloping of hooves had created a ma.s.sive din around him, w.a.n.g Chong was completely focused on these ‘ice sculptures’ in the Arab camp. One, two, three… more of these frozen Arab casualties appeared in w.a.n.g Chong’s vision, far more than he had imagined.
The Arabs had retreated, with the only living soldiers being those who had been too late to retreat. Otherwise, this place was now a graveyard for the wounded!
What a terrifying winter! This is even colder than what I remember! w.a.n.g Chong quietly said to himself, his mind in turmoil. His intervention had caused a major s.h.i.+ft in history, but that unprecedentedly harsh winter he recalled, rather than disappearing, appeared to have gotten even more terrifying.
This was only the prelude to the Little Ice Age, and yet it was already so dreadful. w.a.n.g Chong didn’t even dare to imagine how cold it would be when the Little Ice Age actually descended.
“Lord Marquis!”
A loud voice boomed in w.a.n.g Chong’s ear. He turned his head and saw two faint lights, like the light of fireflies, rapidly approaching him. These lights were not from fireflies, but from two large metal cages. These cages were full of charcoal, and the fierce winds blowing through the cages only caused the charcoal to blaze more fiercely. Not even the blizzard could extinguish these flames.