Chapter 918 - Huoba Sangye!
Chapter 918: Huoba Sangye!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The Mutri Great Cavalry was much stronger than the White Braves or the Celestial Wolf Cavalry, and it was much more valiant as well, but the current Wushang Cavalry was also on a completely different level. If the Wushang Cavalry had had their current equipment at the battle of the triangular gap, the White Braves wouldn’t have been a problem at all, even with the Heart of the Great Bon.
Bzzt! Following Li Siye’s order, the five thousand Wushang Cavalry kicked up a cloud of dust as they turned around and charged back at the Mutri Great Cavalry. This time, however, they had their backs to the morning sun and experienced a completely different situation. While the seven thousand Mutri Great Cavalry still had that dazzling red radiance about them, it was no longer so blinding that the Wushang Cavalry couldn’t even open their eyes.
In addition, with the sunlight behind them, they could clearly make out each one of the Mutri Great Cavalry in the red light.
Bang!
The Wushang Cavalry were galvanized by this sight and let out an earth-shaking roar of elation.
“Kiiill!”
Armor rattled and horses neighed as the Wushang Cavalry once more entered the fray.
“Kill them!”
At the same time, Huoba Sangye bellowed, his eyes red and glowing with a savage light. His Mutri Great Cavalry made no attempts to run or evade, also turning to charge at Li Siye’s men. In that exchange just now, Huoba Sangye had grasped the strength of the Wushang Cavalry.
This force of Tang cavalry truly was fierce and agile, but not to an unstoppable level.
Meanwhile, in a place that no one was paying attention, Chekun Benba unsheathed his sword and rode forth on his stalwart Turkic steed. “All soldiers, assemble! Work with the Tibetans and kill them!”
The Great Scarlet Sun Formation of the Mutri Great Cavalry had been weakened, its radiance dimming. This was not just a boon for the Wushang Cavalry. It also provided an opportunity for the defeated Celestial Wolf Cavalry to assist the Mutri Great Cavalry.
This force of Tang cavalry was truly too powerful. If they had not seen it for themselves, they would have never believed that the infantry country that was the Great Tang would also possess such powerful cavalry. The primarily nomadic countries of the Western Turkic Khaganate and the Ü-Tsang Empire were finding it nearly impossible to defeat them, so the best solution right now was to work together.
Rumble! The Celestial Wolf Cavalry gathered together and charged forward under Chekun Benba’s command, raising the curtain on a chaotic battle.
……
“Pass on my order. Execute the plan!”
While these three elite cavalry forces were drawing the attention of everyone else on the battlefield, behind the second line of defense, Wang Chong slowly looked away and swung down his hand. The outcome of this battle would still need some time to decide, making this a perfect time to begin his plan.
Bong!
War drums suddenly began to thunder from the eastern side of the battlefield, tinged with a metallic timbre. This sudden drumming instantly attracted everyone’s attention. On the hills beneath the tall white yak banner of the Ngari Royal Lineage, Dalun Ruozan almost instinctively looked to see what was happening.
Wang Chong, mounted on the White-hoofed Shadow, locked eyes with Dalun Ruozan across the battlefield and gave him a profound smile.
Buzz! Dalun Ruozan’s eyes widened at the sight of this smile, immediately sensing an ill foreboding. He and Wang Chong had exchanged so many blows in the southwest that he had a deep understanding of this seventeen-year-old. He would never do anything without reason or objective.
But Dalun Ruozan currently had no idea what had gone wrong or what Wang Chong’s smile meant.
“Attack!”
Putting aside Dalun Ruozan, Wang Chong pointed his Wootz Steel sword forward and then swung it down in the direction of the tens of thousands of Tibetan and Turkic cavalry. In the next moment, the tens of thousands of Tang soldiers defending the second defense line suddenly surged forward like a landslide.
Even Xu Keyi’s ballista soldiers left the line, advancing east under the protection of heavily-equipped shieldmen.
Twangtwangtwang!
The long black ballista bolts howled through the battlefield, leaving behind trails of death in the air as they shot toward the Tibetan and Turkic cavalry. Squelchsquelchsquelch! As the bolts pierced through them, throngs of Tibetan and Turkic cavalry were cut down like weeds, their corpses dropping into the dust.
“Kill!”
Their howls reaching the heavens, the countless mercenaries of the Western Regions lunged forward like a tiger leaping down from a mountain, their weapons flailing in the air.
And this was not the only shift on the battlefield. Around a thousand zhang from the second defense line, Sun Zhiming, Zhuang Zhengping, Chi Weisi, Gao Feng, and Nie Yan had paired up, the soldiers led under these pairings ‘coincidentally’ distributed across the eastern, central, and western parts of the battlefield. When the drums began to thunder, these officers began to move together.
“Lord Marquis has sent the signal! Go!”
“Haha, Dalun Ruozan still took the bait. He’s still no match for Lord Marquis!”
“Hurry! Don’t delay Lord Marquis’s plans! Sir Li Siye has already completed his mission, so it’s our turn now!”
All these officers had eyes glowing with vim and vigor. Dalun Ruozan believed that he had a deep understanding of the marquis, but alas, the marquis was far more formidable than Dalun Ruozan could imagine. In terms of tactics and strategy, Dalun Ruozan and the marquis had always been on different levels. Rumble! The three groups of Tang soldiers in the eastern, central, and western parts of the battlefield immediately began to push out to their sides.
If one looked down from the sky, one could see that these three groups had formed an enormous arc that divided the hundred-thousand-some-strong Turko-Tibetan army down the middle. The tens of thousands of soldiers charging out from the second defense line completed this trap, encircling about sixty thousand Tibetan and Turkic cavalry.
An army of nearly one hundred thousand had surrounded an army of around sixty thousand, and the larger army even had the power of ballistae on their side. One could easily imagine what would happen to the encircled enemy.
“Not good!”
Dalun Ruozan immediately paled. All of this had been unexpected and had happened too quickly. Dalun Ruozan had sectioned off Wang Chong’s forty thousand cavalry into three places, and he was confident that he had fully suppressed them. In Dalun Ruozan’s plan, he was on the verge of defeating them. But now, Dalun Ruozan understood that those three groups of cavalry hadn’t been forced into those positions at all.
From the very start of the battle, they had intended on being partitioned into those areas.
“Order all the soldiers on the vanguard to retreat!
“Order the left wing and right wing to advance and do all they can to break the Tang’s blockade line!
“Tell Huoba Sangye to abandon his battle with the Wushang Cavalry and advance to scatter the three groups of Tang cavalry!”
Dalun Ruozan immediately gave a string of orders. The blustery winds on the hill stirred his robes and hair, and while Dalun Ruozan seemed calm on the surface, a hint of anxiety was still visible deep within his eyes.
Dalun Ruozan had made his name many years ago, and even when he had been matching wits with a Great General of the Central Plains like Zhangchou Jianqiong, he had never felt the smallest ripple of emotion. However, when fighting Wang Chong, Dalun Ruozan had to put in all his energy and focus. Wang Chong’s art of war was a complete mismatch from this generation, and his strategy and tactics were unconventional and unpredictable.
The fierce battle between the three supreme cavalry forces should have been the main draw of this battle, the clash that would decide the overall outcome. But in Wang Chong’s view, this was just bait, with the battle between the more than one hundred thousand Turko-Tibetan cavalry and the Tang cavalry being the true objective.
One second ago, Dalun Ruozan had held the advantage, but now, the situation had suddenly reversed. His vast army had been cut in two, with half of it now in desperate straits and at risk of being completely wiped out! This sort of situation could only ever have happened to him when fighting against Wang Chong.
Rumble!
The army immediately began to move according to Dalun Ruozan’s orders. In a cloud of roiling dust, the Celestial Wolf, Wushang, and Mutri Cavalry were engaged in savage combat, but when Huoba Sangye received Dalun Ruozan’s order, he hesitated for only a few moments before turning around.
“All soldiers, hear my order! Disregard the Wushang Cavalry and follow me!”
The armor of the Wushang Cavalry was too sturdy and had been further bolstered by many toughening inscriptions. The weapons of the Mutri Great Cavalry were simply incapable of cutting through this armor. There was no way this battle could be brought to a close in a short time. In addition, he would still have a chance to fight a decisive battle with the Wushang Cavalry, but not if the rest of the army was routed.
“Hyah!”
With a shout, Huoba Sangye immediately led his Mutri Great Cavalry streaking like a fireball into the distance.
“Great General has ordered us to go as well!”
At almost the same time, Chekun Benba received the order from Duwu Sili as well. Duwu Sili and Dalun Ruozan currently shared in both victory and defeat. If the army were routed and suffered too many losses, there would be no way to continue this battle. Forty-thousand-some Western Turkic cavalry alone would be able to accomplish nothing.
Moreover, Turkic cavalry were also included in the approximately sixty thousand men trapped in the encirclement.
Gallop! A few moments later, Chekun Benba had led the several thousand Celestial Wolf Cavalry away. For these two cavalry forces to abandon the battle with their foe at almost the same time seemed absurd, but it had truly happened.
If Wang Chong succeeded in dividing and wiping out those sixty thousand soldiers, he would win the battle outright. In comparison to this severe consequence, the stalemate between the three cavalry forces was not very important at all.