Chapter 540: Impact! Tibetan Versus Tibetan
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
"d.a.m.n it!"
Jiaosiluo"s eyes went red at the sight of this battle. If nothing unexpected occurred, any of his soldiers who had turned around to fight the Tang cavalry were doomed.
"Fengjiayi, lead the rest of the army in retreat. I"ll hold the rear! Go!"
Roar!
With this mighty roar, Jiaosiluo"s entire body began to s.h.i.+ne with a milky-white light. His body began to rapidly expand, and in just a few moments, he had become a ma.s.sive white tiger that plunged back into the fray.
"Don"t worry about Jiaosiluo. If he dares to attack us, just deal with the Tibetan cavalry behind him!"
In the rain, w.a.n.g Chong sat on the White-hoofed Shadow, his fiery eyes locked onto the distant Jiaosiluo.
The current Jiaosiluo and Fengjiayi were no longer as great of a threat, and their twenty-thousand-some soldiers were also not much of a danger.
"If this fellow is willing to stay here, then let him die here."
w.a.n.g Chong"s eyes reflected the figure of the distant Jiaosiluo as a hint of killing intent flashed across his face. At this time and place, if Jiaosiluo dared to act rashly, then the strength of his father, Chen Shusun, Old Eagle, Xu s.h.i.+ping, Xu Andun, and the other southwest generals would be enough to make this place Jiaosiluo"s grave.
w.a.n.g Chong actually hoped that Jiaosiluo would stay and engage in a reckless slaughter, charging straight into the army and toward him so as to cut off the head of the army. Alas, Jiaosiluo still held on to a shred of rationality. After pus.h.i.+ng back the pursuit of ten-some Tang soldiers and making some distance between the two armies, Jiaosiluo immediately ran off without the slightest delay.
"Hmph, he runs fast enough!"
w.a.n.g Chong sneered, but he didn"t pursue.
At Jiaosiluo"s level, as long as he didn"t make a mistake and resolved himself to flee, not even w.a.n.g Chong could do anything about it.
"All soldiers, hear my order! Ignore the fleeing soldiers and quickly exterminate the remaining Tibetans! We don"t have much time!" w.a.n.g Chong sternly said.
This battle could be considered the easiest battle these soldiers had ever fought. Forty to fifty thousand soldiers dealing with only a few thousand Tibetan cavalry was like the autumn wind sweeping up fallen leaves. It took only a few moments for those Tibetan soldiers who had failed to listen to orders and turned around in rage to be cut down.
As for the fleeing Fengjiayi and Jiaosiluo, they were unimportant. w.a.n.g Chong had already achieved his goal, so they no longer mattered.
"Our time is running out. Clean up and let"s set off. We need to head to the next location.," w.a.n.g Chong ordered while seated on his horse.
Whoos.h.!.+
A unit of Great Tang cavalry immediately dismounted and began to clean up the battlefield, moving with extreme proficiency.
Everyone had their own duties, and under w.a.n.g Chong"s arrangements, everything was done in a neat and orderly fas.h.i.+on.
It took only a short time for the battlefield to be swept clean. w.a.n.g Chong"s forces left the battlefield, departing so quickly that they seemed to have never taken part in this battle.
……
"Reporting! A forward scout has discovered the tracks of Tang soldiers. He suspects that a large Tang force is approaching!"
"Reporting! Generals Fengjiayi and Jiaosiluo have requested reinforcements. They were attacked by Tang soldiers!"
……
In a few short moments, two scouts came from different directions to report to Huoshu Huicang.
"What?!"
Despite Huoshu Huicang wielding the cultivation of a Great General, even he had to knit his brow in astonishment upon receiving these two conflicting reports.
"Attacked by the Tang army? What"s going on here? Didn"t they have almost eighty thousand soldiers? And they were all cavalry, so how could they be attacked? What sort of force still exists in the southwestern territory that can attack almost eighty thousand cavalry on flat land?"
"Milord, forgive me, but this subordinate does not know. However, Generals Fengjiayi and Jiaosiluo truly have been attacked."
The Tibetan messenger immediately grew nervous and kneeled on the ground as he spoke.
A rough and wild voice, yet one that was also quite entrancing, came from Huoshu Huicang"s side. "Milord, why don"t we send someone to take a look or send out some reinforcements? Fengjiayi and Jiaosiluo had said that they were pursuing the Annan Protectorate soldiers, but now they"ve appeared in the northwest, in the complete opposite direction from the one they had set off in. Unless something happened, they shouldn"t be coming from that direction."
A muscular man wearing a horned helmet, his appearance like that of a giant python, was the one who had spoken. His eyes were bright and his forehead was p.r.o.nounced. He exuded a majestic energy that was even more powerful than Jiaosiluo"s.
The only person who could stand so close to Huoshu Huicang"s side was the leader of the Five Tiger Generals, Longqinba.
It was rumored that Longqinba was an orphan of the plateau, born from a response to draconic energy. However, his innate strangeness meant that, unlike other infants, he was abandoned in the Great Snow Mountain Holy Land. Later on, he was raised by the high priest of the Great Snow Mountain Holy Temple until he reached adulthood. This meant that Longqinba had learned all sorts of profound martial arts from the Great Snow Mountain Holy Temple.
Of the Five Tiger Generals, Longqinba knew the most techniques from the Great Snow Mountain Holy Temple and had the deepest understanding of them.
Boom!
Splitting up the army was a taboo, and while Huoshu Huicang was pondering his decision, a ma.s.sive explosion came from the southeast. He could hear the sounds of fighting and shouting at the base of the mountains, the clash of sabers and swords.
This was so unexpected that both Huoshu Huicang and Longqinba turned their heads to look.
That area wasn"t even close to the Annan Protectorate army. Logically speaking, nothing should have occurred there.
"Reporting!"
The report from the lines on the southeast came faster than expected. A slightly plump Tibetan quickly arrived and dismounted.
"Milord, there"s news from the front that they"ve been attacked by a large Tang force!"
"What?!"
Huoshu Huicang"s expression darkened as his face twisted into a nasty grimace. A Tang army had appeared, Fengjiayi and Jiaosiluo had been attacked, and now his own army of one hundred thousand was under attack. In this torrential downpour and with his forces scattered, not even Huoshu Huicang would be able to know how many enemies there actually were for a while.
"There are so many soldiers there; how could they be attacked by the Tang? Longqinba, immediately go and see what"s going on!"
"Yes, Milord!" Longqinba forcefully replied, and leaped onto his giant horse, galloping off.
……
In the southeast, a few moments ago…
Rumble!
Thunder rumbled overhead as a searing bolt of lightning arced across the clouds. The silvery lightning bolt allowed one to clearly see the dense ranks of the Tibetan cavalry lined up along the base of the mountain, suffused with a somber air as they prepared to charge to the summit.
The earth quaked as these soldiers suddenly heard a rumbling in the distance. Through the rain and the dim light, one could faintly see countless figures riding toward them on large horses.
"Who goes there!"
The commander of these forces immediately turned his head and shouted warily at those approaching figures.
"Your own! General Jiaosiluo and Crown Prince Fengjiayi sent us!"
After a while, he heard a soft and vaguely indistinct Tibetan voice from the distance. This familiar language caused that officer to lower his guard. The Great Tang regarded Tibetans with extreme contempt and very few of them knew how to speak Tibetan. This he was sure of.
"Crown Prince Fengjiayi? Didn"t they receive Great General"s orders to go ahead and chase down the other part of the Annan Protectorate army?" the commanding officer said, inwardly somewhat surprised.
"Those people were too formidable… We"ve come on behalf of the two generals to request reinforcements."
That person spoke softly, his response coming in bits and pieces.
Gallop!
The officer still seemed to want to say something, but those people had already made their way through the rain. The Tibetan armor they wore was obvious, even in the rain.
"They really are on our side. It looks like I was thinking too much, too wary."
The officer gave a long sigh of relief and completely let down his guard.
But right when he put down his guard, when he was most defenseless, a cold glimmer of light, the tip of a spear, quickly expanded before his eyes. Ploos.h.!.+ The spear stabbed into his neck and burst out the other side, covered in blood.
Such… such a fast spear!
With this final thought, everything went dark and he knew nothing else.
"Striiike!"
A roar reverberated through the dark clouds as w.a.n.g Chong cast the corpse of the Tibetan commander from his spear and gave the order to attack.
"Kiiiill!"
The four-thousand-some "Tibetans" instantly roared and leaped upon the surrounding Tibetan soldiers. Squelchsquelchsquelch!Sharp edges plunged into flesh. Many soldiers were run through by spears and flung from their horses before they could react.
"d.a.m.n it, it"s the Tang!"
"They weren"t our people at all!"
"Careful! Kill them all!"
……
The Tibetan soldiers were both astonished and furious, bellowing as they attacked these "Tibetan soldiers". But for most of the soldiers, who had missed the moment when w.a.n.g Chong had struck, they simply couldn"t distinguish their side from the enemy.
"What in the world happened? Why have our forces started fighting amongst themselves?"
"What in the world happened?"
"They aren"t our people but the Tang?"
"Which one of them is Tang!"
……
Shouting in alarm, the army quickly fell into chaos. The focus of the main army had been on Xianyu Zhongtong and the Annan generals on the mountain, and very few people besides the soldiers involved had realized what had happened. Perhaps such a mistake would not have been made in normal circ.u.mstances, but the downpour covering the battlefield had hindered their vision.
Other than the soldiers nearby, the majority of the Tibetan soldiers only saw their own side killing their own side.
"Don"t stop! Scatter them!" w.a.n.g Chong once more ordered.
The surrounding Tibetans vastly outnumbered the Tang soldiers, but as long as they didn"t stop, the Tibetans wouldn"t be able to distinguish Tibetans from people of the Central Plains. The current result was exactly what w.a.n.g Chong had hoped to create.
Clangclangclang!
Sparks flew everywhere as the Tang army charged through the Tibetans. The Tibetans in the southeast had been focused on the mountain, so none of them had expected an attack to come from behind. The impact of the four thousand soldiers of the Annan Protectorate army had created an expanding region of turmoil in the Tibetan army.