Chapter 565: The Decisive Battle! Initial Victory!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
"Raise s.h.i.+elds!"
"Raise s.h.i.+elds!"
"Raise s.h.i.+elds!"
……
The officers of the Whitestone Corps began to holler out their orders, but it was too late.
Boom!
Just as one of these Whitestone Corps officers was yelling his orders, the air shrieked as a ma.s.sive axe spun through the air and cleaved into his skull.
"Kiiiill!"
War cries rose up from all around. The s.h.i.+eld soldiers at the front lines of the Annan Protectorate army had already retreated, but at this moment, countless axe soldiers suddenly appeared and began to charge.
Ma.s.sive axes glimmered with a somber light that could cause anyone to widen their eyes in shock.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The flying axes howled through the air like drops of rain as they hacked into the ranks of the Whitestone Corps. Bang! Bang! Bang! Countless Whitestone Corps soldiers dropped to the ground like felled trees, their bodies thudding into pools of blood.
"Hold! Hold! Hold…"
The Whitestone Corps commanders in the rear urgently and frenziedly cried out. The Annan Protectorate army soldiers pressing in from their left and right weren"t numerous. At the very least, the Whitestone Corps far outnumbered them.
As long as they could resist the frenzied a.s.sault of the Annan Protectorate army, the situation could still be altered.
"It"s too late!"
On the summit, w.a.n.g Chong revealed a sliver of a cold smile as he watched on.
The armies of this era were still focused on advantages in numbers, knowing nothing about the true art of battle. No matter what army they belonged to or how powerful they were, as long as one soldier saw another charging, they would charge as well. At that point, the army was no better than a mob.
They were simply no match for their well-trained opponents who were retreating and attacking as a cohesive unit.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
That brief victory on the battlefield quickly transformed into a one-sided slaughter. Thousands of soldiers from the Annan Protectorate army charging down from the summit were running right over the Whitestone Corps.
In a short time, this test had become a complete reversal.
"Retreat!"
"Withdraaaw!"
At the base of the mountain, the Whitestone Corps Commander Duan Wuzong"s face had twisted into a nasty grimace. He was the one who had trained the Whitestone Corps, but not even he had imagined the battle to turn out like this.
"Pa.s.s on my order to immediately commit the reserve soldiers!" Duan Wuzong roared in rage.
But before Duan Wuzong could apply his reserve soldiers, right when the Great Tang soldiers had reached the base of the mountain, the pursuit suddenly stopped.
The thousands of soldiers suddenly came to a complete halt, as if there was some invisible line there.
All the soldiers acted uniformly as if they were part of a single person.
The spearmen and axemen retreated to the rear while the s.h.i.+eld soldiers halted their retreat and rea.s.sumed their places on the front line.
Clangclangclangclang!
Once more, metal s.h.i.+elds taller than a man gleamed with cold light as they were erected like walls at the base of the mountain. With s.h.i.+eld soldiers in front and spearmen in the back, the battlefield had returned to its former state, as if nothing had happened.
Other than the corpse-covered ground, there was no proof that any battle had taken place!
Silence!
Absolute silence!
Geluofeng and Dalun Ruozan stared at the well-disciplined and cohesive Annan Protectorate army with incredibly nasty grimaces. On the side, Huoshu Huicang narrowed his eyes, his expression turning solemn.
In last night"s battle, he had fallen for w.a.n.g Chong"s scheme to lure the tiger from the mountain. In the entire process, he had also been suffering from w.a.n.g Chong"s schemes, as w.a.n.g Chong had never once used his cavalry in a frontal confrontation.
By the time Huoshu Huicang had reached the battlefield, the Annan Protectorate army would have already safely retreated.
This was the first time Huoshu Huicang was seeing w.a.n.g Chong command a proper battle.
In this battle, neither side had yet mobilized their entire army. The Mengshe–Ü-Tsang army had only put forward a portion of the Whitestone Corps, and this was no reflection of their actual strength.
But on the mountain, the Tang army had also only utilized their soldiers at the base. From the middle of the mountain up, the rest of the Tang army remained unmoving. Even at that battle"s most intense point, they had not moved a single muscle.
There was no doubt that in this probing battle, the Mengshe–Ü-Tsang side had suffered a major defeat!
"b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
Geluofeng stared at the Tang army on the mountain, his entire body shaking in rage.
The Whitestone Corps was one of the elite corps that he had trained, and he had had high hopes of Duan Wuzong. He hadn"t expected that they would be so easily defeated, and in front of Dalun Ruozan and Huoshu Huicang as well!
"What is that b.a.s.t.a.r.d doing!"
Geluofeng couldn"t hold back his rage. In last night"s battle, the Tibetans had suffered two grievous defeats and lost more than fifty thousand soldiers. Geluofeng had acted like this was nothing, that he didn"t mind, but there was no way for him to not actually care.
What difference was there between Duan Wuzong"s performance and the Tibetans"? And to do it in front of Dalun Ruozan and Huoshu Huicang, wasn"t this pus.h.i.+ng his face into the dirt?
"There"s no need for Your Majesty to be angry. This was only a test. It doesn"t mean anything."
Dalun Ruozan shook his head and continued, "Huoshu Huicang, this is your field. What are your thoughts?"
After saying this, he turned to face Huoshu Huicang.
It took a while for Huoshu Huicang to speak, and his expression was exceptionally focused. "This brat isn"t simple! Under his command, the Annan Protectorate army is a completely different army! I"m afraid that this battle will be rather troublesome!"
"Ah!"
Dalun Ruozan couldn"t help but arch his brows at these words. His confident smile was no more.
Dalun Ruozan had worked with Huoshu Huicang for many years, and he had rarely seen this sort of expression, much less heard the word "troublesome" from his lips. Huoshu Huicang had a fierce personality that hungered for battle. When encountering a formidable opponent, he would only think about how to defeat them, not about whether they were troublesome.
"Is this brat really this formidable?"
Dalun Ruozan"s brow slowly began to crease. He truly didn"t understand military affairs that much, but if Huoshu Huicang was acting this cautiously, then things were completely different.
……
"Congratulations to user for killing 8700 Mengshe Zhao soldiers!"
Meanwhile, the mood on the summit was completely different. Right when the battle had ended, a familiar voice had sounded out like dew descending from the heavens.
Before the battlefield had cleared up, w.a.n.g Chong had already known the Mengshe Zhao losses. In these few moments, the Mengshe Zhao army had lost more than eight thousand soldiers!
“Wonderful!” Chen Shusun said from the side as he looked excitedly down at the silent Mengshe–Ü-Tsang army below.
It was hard to blame Chen Shusun for his lack of self-control. Mengshe Zhao and Ü-Tsang had come with a powerful momentum, their five hundred thousand soldiers stretching onto the horizon, covering the land and exerting an enormous pressure.
Though they didn"t show it on the surface, everyone, including Chen Shusun, felt this pressure. The Annan Protectorate army had lost in the southwest far too many times.
This battle held a major significance. If they had suffered defeat in this first round, the Mengshe–Ü-Tsang army wouldn"t even need to charge up the mountain for the morale of the Tang army to crumble.
They were already outnumbered. A defeat in the first clash would have destructive consequences for morale.
But as long as they could win, things were completely different.
The two commanders of the army, Xianyu Zhongtong and w.a.n.g Yan, had done nothing, and the majority of the army had not even partic.i.p.ated in the battle. This was already an expression of strength!
w.a.n.g Chong only faintly smiled in response. This was just an initial test that really didn"t count for anything.
Alas, it was just a little lacking!
This thought crossed w.a.n.g Chong"s mind as he looked down the mountain.
For every ten thousand enemy soldiers he killed, w.a.n.g Chong would get a five-hundred-soldier increase in the number of soldiers he could lose. 8,700 soldiers was clearly still some distance from 10,000.