Chapter 1184 - Stratagems in the Snow (I)
Chapter 1184: Stratagems in the Snow (I)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Ready!”
The moment the Arabs began to mobilize, in the distance, Wang Chong suddenly smiled.
“The Arabs have divided into three groups and have begun to attack. Lord Gao, Great General Bahram, let’s prepare to move out as well!”
Bang!
The twenty thousand soldiers immediately moved out, vanishing like ghosts into the blizzard. This time, however, Wang Chong’s men did not vanish in the direction of the army gathered by the Three Titans of Black Radiance, but to the northwest. As the thundering of their hooves faded into the wind, a somber air began to rise.
Rumble! Not much later, three pitch-black warhorses charged out of the blizzard, followed by a stampede of tens of thousands more, appearing at the place where Wang Chong’s forces had been.
“What’s going on? Where are the Tang?”
The Three Titans of Black Radiance were stunned by the empty whiteness before them.
A bearded Arab governor ground his teeth and angrily said, “These damn bastards! They escaped!”
It was obvious that the Tang knew that they were coming and fled like rats. They simply didn’t dare to engage in a direct confrontation with the Arabs.
Clang!
At this moment, the clanging of metal and other sounds of fighting could be faintly heard through the storm. From the sound, the fight was rather far away, and it immediately attracted everyone’s attention.
Fadi suddenly realized what it was and immediately yelled, “Not good! It’s from the soldiers on the left flank! Let’s go!”
Without a second thought, he turned his horse around and charged toward the left flank. Everyone else began to rush after him in a panic; even Hular was greatly perturbed.
For this attack, the army had been divided into three groups: left, right, and center. The left and right groups had set off first so they could circle around, leaving the center group to depart last. The strategy for the Arabs was extremely simple. The center group would be used to draw in the Great Tang, and while the Tang were locked in combat, the left and right groups would wrap around and deal the lethal blow.
At this moment, Hular came to the frightening realization that there was no sign of the left or right groups. And the sounds of fighting from just now had come from behind them.
I hope that the right flank is fine! Hular worriedly thought, an extreme unease emerging in his mind.
……
Rumble! A few moments later, the Three Titans and Hular finally found the left flank army, several li away. The snow here was trampled and covered in the marks of battle, something that not even the blizzard could cover up in such a short time. The left flank no longer existed, and the ground was now covered in Arab corpses. There were some warhorses lying on the ground, still gasping for breath, expelling white clouds of steam, but they were quickly frozen to ice and rendered motionless.
Amidst the many corpses, Fadi and the others found the body of the Flame Governor, Abusa. His body was covered in sword slashes, and his blood and energy had been sucked dry. His body was motionless, face-down on the ground. Nearby, the black Arabian war banner was thrust into the ground. The banner snapped about in the fierce wind, throwing off shards of ice.
Even this war banner had been frozen by blood.
“We’ve fallen into a trap!”
Firas’s eyes spat out flames of anger, and his fists were clenched so hard that they seemed about to break.
“But how did they know that we would split our men into three groups?” a governor asked.
No one was able to answer his question. The decision to split the Arab forces into three had been made on the spot, but the Tang appeared to have expected this. Not only had they successfully avoided the main force led by Fadi, but they had also successfully attacked one of the Arabs’ flanking groups.
The battle had gone very quickly, with the enemy holding the overwhelming advantage. The Flame Governor Abusa had been killed at almost the very start of the battle, and the remaining soldiers were simply no match.
“These bastards!”
Fadi was brimming with anger, but as he spoke, he spotted a figure brushing past him and riding ahead.
“Hular, where are you going!”
“The right flank!”
Hular’s reply was short, and he swiftly vanished into the blizzard. Behind him, Fadi and Firas both trembled in understanding and immediately began to follow Hular. Around five minutes later, the group arrived at the second battlefield.
The moment they had sensed the danger, they had set off at full speed, but they had still come too late. The battle was over, leaving nothing but snow and corpses.
“Too late! They’re already gone!”
Hular got down on his knees and picked up a bloodstained piece of ice.
The blood on the ice was still not completely frozen, indicating that the enemy hadn’t been gone for very long.
“Milord, can you identify their energies?”
An Arab governor walked up with clenched fists, his face brimming with anger.
“It’s very difficult! They’ve already mixed together with our soldiers, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers are spread out over these twenty to thirty li. It’s simply impossible to distinguish their twenty thousand men from amongst them,” Fadi spat out.
There was another reason that Fadi did not mention. This blizzard was not just a simple weather phenomenon, but was also accompanied by intense shifts in energy. This together with the plunging temperatures could disrupt even the senses of powerful Great Generals like the Three Titans of Black Radiance. The powers of Man were simply too negligible before the might of nature, and not even Great Generals were an exception.
“Can we find their commander?” another general said. “Only Great Generals can kill Great Generals. If we can’t find the ordinary soldiers, why don’t we target the commanders?”
These two consecutive massacres had provoked everyone’s fury.
Yes, these had been massacres!
The cavalry on the left and right flanks hadn’t even been able to hold out until reinforcements arrived.
“Impossible!”
Before Fadi could speak, Hular interjected, his eyes suffused with pain and surging with killing intent.
“These damn bastards have all restrained their energies. We can’t sense them at all. The ability for Great Generals to sense each other’s existences is of no use here.”
“What!”
Everyone was stunned by these words.
“But, Milord, only top-class techniques are capable of concealing the energy of a Great General. For the enemy to have so quickly killed our Great Generals, they must have sent more than one. Are all of their Great Generals so formidable that they can all conceal their energy?” another general said.
This person was wearing the armor of a high-ranking general and was standing behind a governor. It was clear that this was a high-level deputy governor.
Deputy governors were privy to a great deal of information. Great General experts all had a natural connection with each other, and concealing this information, blocking the other party’s senses, was no easy matter.
At least from what he knew, very few of the governors who had come on this campaign to conquer Khorasan could accomplish it.
“I will explain!”
The Blade of Black Radiance, Imron, rode out of the blizzard atop a muscular black warhorse, his gaze fixed forward and his expression solemn.
“Amongst the enemy’s top-class experts, there is an extremely formidable one who can control heavenly phenomena and the flow of Origin Energy to disrupt and obscure our senses. The enemy has come prepared for this battle, and the situation is extremely unfavorable for us! Rather than the connection between Great Generals, our eyes and ears are actually more useful. At least if we can hear the sounds of fighting, we can immediately rush to the scene.”
Imron’s words caused the other Titans and Hular to fall silent, their hearts sinking like stones. This battle was far more difficult than they had imagined. Although they had more than five hundred thousand soldiers, they had been scattered by the blizzard, rendering them incapable of exerting their advantage in numbers. In contrast, the Tang were inexplicably capable of always finding them. From a certain perspective, they had already lost this battle.
……
Several li away, tens of thousands of Arab soldiers were scattered across a field of white, trudging westward through the snow.
The entire world was silent.
“Kill!”
An abrupt cry shattered the calm. Before anyone could react, a group of cavalry, their armor covered in thick snow, came flying out from the north like an arrow toward the retreating Arab army.
Clang! Light coldly flashed, and heads immediately began to fly into the air in response. Soon after, a second and third group of cavalry charged out of the blizzard, killing intent boiling off their bodies.
“It’s the Khorasani!”
“Enemy attack! Run!”
An Arab horseman immediately identified the enemy. The Arabs had ruled over Khorasan for so long that they had long ago become accustomed to their appearance, able to recognize them at a glance from their bodies and demeanors. As this man called out, the entire army fell into chaos and began to flee in every direction.
However, after working through the snow for so many hours, these soldiers were exhausted in both physical strength and Stellar Energy. There was no way they could suddenly start running.
Thumpthumpthump! One Arab horseman after another fell. Some of them, their eyes filled with despair, wanted to bring down these Tang and Khorasani with them and slashed out with their scimitars, but their foes managed to easily dodge these blows.
And then, in a cold flash of light, the Arabs would be cut down from their horses.
They had been trudging through the blizzard for so long that their limbs had been frozen stiff, losing all of their former flexibility.