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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1031 - Gao Xianzhi's Great General's Heart!
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1031 - Gao Xianzhi's Great General's Heart!
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Chapter 1031: Gao Xianzhi’s Great General’s Heart!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“This… How?”
Gao Xianzhi froze, finally realizing that there was something unusual about this long saber. That it could stop flicks from his finger meant that Wang Chong was already very experienced in forging this new kind of weapon. The sheer toughness and tenacity of the blade meant that the quality of this weapon had taken a massive leap, surpassing the vast majority of this world’s weapons.
“A good saber! A truly excellent saber! Long is easy to break, and I’ve never encountered a long saber that can break this rule. Wang Chong, I didn’t think that you had this skill. Wonderful!”
Gao Xianzhi was an illustrious Great General with ten-some years of battlefield experience, and he almost instinctively felt that these long sabers had enormous value. Whoosh! Gao Xianzhi immediately snatched the eight-foot Mo Saber from its silk box. As he turned it over in his hands and waved it around, his eyes grew brighter and brighter.
This saber was also easy to slash and hack with, so together with its toughness, it was essentially a hegemon amongst sabers.
A single such saber might not be that amazing, but thousands of men equipped with this Mo Saber would be a dreadful flood of destruction on the battlefield.
This saber was a weapon that was made to dominate the battlefield.
“Wang Chong, how many of these weapons do you have?”
Gao Xianzhi turned to Wang Chong. He now understood what Wang Chong meant with his Mo Saber soldiers. If a unit of elites were entirely equipped with these long sabers, they would possess unimaginable killing power. And Wang Chong could tell at a glance that this weapon was eight feet long precisely so that infantry could use it to deal with cavalry.
If this sort of saber were swung down, both the horse and the rider atop it would be in range of the Mo Saber’s attacks. Such was the terrifying power of this saber that Gao Xianzhi was wholly capable of imagining the scene of both rider and horse being cleaved into two on the battlefield.
“Zhang Shouzhi has already forged more than one hundred. As long as Milord agrees, all the craftsmen will begin to work on this task. Within a month, all the Mo Sabers should be completed. Before this, we can have the soldiers use wooden staves as substitutes,” Wang Chong seriously said.
Wang Chong had forged this Mo Saber using forging techniques from far beyond this generation. In terms of materials, Wang Chong had gathered up many of the Arabian scimitars and melted them down into the finest steel. By mixing this steel together with Meteoric Metal and a small amount of Wootz Steel, he was able to create this Mo Saber that was both tough and easy to wield, making it a true treasure amongst sabers.
“Wang Chong, we’ll follow this bold plan of yours! I will have the Anxi Protectorate army do everything it can to help you!”
Gao Xianzhi’s eyes flashed with a strange light as he made his decision.
Rumble! Gao Xianzhi would never know that the moment he agreed, the entire manner in which war played out on this continent changed with it. A soldier type that had never been seen before was about to take the stage!
After sending off Gao Xianzhi, Wang Chong himself soon left the study. In the northern training ground of Talas, Wang Chong met with Li Siye and his forty-six hundred Wushang Cavalry.
“Lord Marquis!”
Li Siye rode his Ferghana horse up to Wang Chong, placing a hand on his chest and bowing.
Wang Chong raised his head and asked, “Are they ready?”
“Lord Marquis, be at ease. Everyone is awaiting Lord Marquis’s call!”
Wang Chong nodded and sternly said, “Very good. Take these sheets of paper and have the Wushang Cavalry train according to them day and night. Our time is very limited. In one month, you must finish cultivating this formation.”
“Your subordinate will do all in his power to fulfill this order!”
Li Siye shot a glance at the contents of those papers, which caused his expression to turn grim and his pupils to constrict. After bidding farewell to Wang Chong, he immediately rode back to his men.
‘Asura Hell’!
This was the name of the formation that Wang Chong had described on those two sheets of paper. Li Siye had heard Wang Chong occasionally mention some Ten Great Formations. The Wushang Cavalry’s Ten Charges Ten Victories Formation was ranked the lowest of these ten, and the Asura Hell… was ranked second.
……
Gao Xianzhi entered the reception hall of the Lord of Talas and returned to his residence. After taking off the new suit of armor Wang Chong had forged for him, he seated himself before his own desk and began to handle military affairs.
Just like Wang Chong, Gao Xianzhi had many tasks to take care of. The treatment of the Anxi Protectorate army’s wounded, the distribution of supplies, the placating of the Ferghanans and the Karluks, the repairs to the city, the patrol routes of the scouts… there were far too many matters to handle.
By the time Gao Xianzhi had finished reviewing all his documents, it was extremely late.
Placing his brush on the rack, Gao Xianzhi rubbed his eyes, a hint of fatigue within them. Winds would herald a storm. Although Talas was peaceful now, everyone could sense an enormous pressure. The sixty thousand soldiers of the Tang army were seizing every moment, doing all they could to strengthen themselves for the vicious battle ahead.
There was a knock on the door, and a guard of the Anxi Protectorate walked in with a cup of tea.
“Milord has worked hard. Drink some tea and rest.”
“Put it down.” Gao Xianzhi lightly rapped on his desk.
After the guard left, Gao Xianzhi took up the tea cup and was just about to take a sip when his gaze flitted past two thin sheets of paper, which made him remember something.
“It’s that technique Wang Chong recommended to me.”
At Gao Xianzhi’s level of cultivation, it was extremely difficult to make any progress. Almost on instinct, Gao Xianzhi had not believed that this thing could be of any help to him. But in the end, Gao Xianzhi could not bear to deny Wang Chong’s good intentions.
“I should still take a look.”
Gao Xianzhi shook his head and smiled. He casually took up those two sheets of paper and gave them a glance, but this single glance was like a sharp jab, causing his entire body to tremble and all his fatigue to vanish.
“How could there be something like this?”
Gao Xianzhi stared at a line of words on one of the papers.
‘When heart and mind are one, Sword Qi melts into the void.’
This short sentence was exactly the same as one of the mantras in Gao Xianzhi’s Six Ultimate Majesties God Technique. Gao Xianzhi sat straight up on his chair and continued to read, his expression growing more diligent and solemn the more he read. After reading the last word, Gao Xianzhi gave a long sigh of wonder and slowly raised his head, but he remained speechless for some time.
The hall was quiet, but Gao Xianzhi’s mind at this moment was raging with torrential waves.
The technique that Wang Chong had given him was actually quite similar to the technique Gao Xianzhi cultivated, but its power… was much stronger than Gao Xianzhi’s technique. It was almost like it was an upgraded version! Gao Xianzhi had never encountered a situation like this before.
The two were different in various ways, but deep down, they inevitably shared the same root!
“I already did thorough research on this line of techniques, and I was sure that there were no offshoots. Could it be that I was wrong? The Six Ultimate Majesties God Technique that I cultivate is actually only a derivative of some ancient technique, and there’s an even stronger technique above it?”
Gao Xianzhi held the two sheets of paper as he muttered to himself.
The room was quiet, but enormous streams of energy surged around Gao Xianzhi. Lowering his head, Gao Xianzhi read the two sheets of paper several more times, eventually memorizing all their contents. After some time…
Bang!
An invisible force seemed to pull the two large doors of the reception hall open, and all the tables and chairs in the room were pushed out. Gao Xianzhi sat on the ground, a vast energy rising from his body. And the Stellar Energy within his body was slowly beginning to flow in a direction it had never gone before.
……
“Congratulations to user! For obtaining the Great General’s Heart (Gratitude) and obtaining Gao Xianzhi’s good opinion, you have subtly altered the course of this battle and have been rewarded 100 points of Destiny Energy!”
At this very moment, on the northern training ground of Talas, Wang Chong received a message from the Stone of Destiny. The voice caused Wang Chong to suddenly turn his head, whereupon he noticed a pure energy rising into the air from the direction of the reception hall of the Lord of Talas. At this sight, a faint smile appeared on his face.
Everything was on the right track!
In that apocalyptic age, many supreme experts had worked together to take Gao Xianzhi’s Six Ultimate Majesties God Technique and create one of the supreme Great General techniques, the Eight Ultimate Sunderings Art. Now, more than twenty years before it had actually been completed, it had returned to Gao Xianzhi’s hands. This subtle shift in history had been facilitated solely by Wang Chong. Yet another step had been taken off the original path.
The Eight Ultimate Sunderings Art had very strict cultivation requirements. One needed to have reached the Great General level, and one needed to cultivate it undisturbed and without pause for an entire month. This was the reason Wang Chong had not given Gao Xianzhi the Eight Ultimate Sunderings Art at the very beginning.
Wang Chong turned his head to a nearby Qixi messenger.
“Inform Cheng Qianli to dispatch men to ensure that no one gets within one hundred zhang of the Lord of Talas’s residence.”
“Yes, Milord!”
……
Time slowly passed. While Talas was a hive of activity where everyone was preparing for battle, more than sixty li away, the Western Turkic camp was fraught with tension.
Rumble!
Thunder rumbled and dark clouds seethed above the Turkic camp, with even more clouds being gathered in from the surroundings. Where the thunderclouds were most unsettled, a blue stream of energy soared into the sky, a dazzling landmark between the heavens and the earth.
Beneath this blue pillar of energy, floating in the air, was a muscular and tyrannical figure. He was equipped in a full suit of armor, and a black cape on his back snapped in the wind. His entire body exuded a despotic and scornful aura.
Shamask, Chekun Benba, and the other Turkic generals tightly guarded the area around Duwu Sili, and farther away, the thousands upon thousands of Turkic cavalry were a tide of steel that flowed around Duwu Sili, apparently adhering to some sort of law or rule. They roared as they galloped, their eyes shining with a fervent light.
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1032 - The Black Corrosion of the Sun! (I)
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1032 - The Black Corrosion of the Sun! (I)
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Chapter 1032: The Black Corrosion of the Sun! (I)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Great General!”
“Great General!”
“Great General!”
Stentorian cries shook the heavens. At this moment, Duwu Sili was like a god in the eyes of his soldiers. As they cultivated the formation phenomena, all of them had sensed Duwu Sili getting stronger and stronger. With every day that passed, the pressure exuded by his body grew more intense.
Kacrack!
Suddenly, the thundercloud in the center of the formation phenomena unleashed a hot white bolt of lightning that landed right upon Duwu Sili. Electricity hissed and crackled as it surged around his body, but Duwu Sili somehow managed to absorb all this lightning.
One lightning bolt after another cleaved down, and through the power of these lightning bolts, Duwu Sili’s strength continued to swell.
After some time, the formation phenomena in the sky began to weaken and Duwu Sili began to slowly open his eyes. His pitch-black Turkic steed slowly brought Duwu Sili down from the skies.
“Hahaha, formation phenomena truly are formidable. In just this little time, my strength has risen once again!”
Duwu Sili slowly raised his head, his eyes sparkling with bright light.
Duwu Sili had reached the Great General level a long time ago, and he had not needed much time to advance from the initial tier of Great Generals to the peak tier. Advancing any further was much more difficult. Duwu Sili had never imagined that his strength could rise even further at a time like this. The thought was simply unthinkable.
Seeing that Duwu Sili had descended, Shamask and Chekun Benba hurriedly went up to welcome him.
“Congratulations, Great General. If you advance another level, then in the future, not even Abu Muslim will be a match for Great General!”
“With the formation phenomena cultivated, the Khagan will definitely greatly reward Milord. Even Great General Wunu Shibi will have to lower his head to Great General!”
Wunu Shibi was the War God of the Western Turks, similar in status to Great General We Tadra Khonglo of Ü-Tsang and Wang Zhongsi of the Great Tang. Amongst the Western Turks, he was also known as the Solar Great General, and he was one of the few existences who exceeded Duwu Sili. Moreover, Duwu Sili had come into conflict with him in the past over military authority.
“Hmph, there’s no need for you two to congratulate me. Even with my current level of strength, defeating Wunu Shibi is still no easy task. However, if he hadn’t obtained the Sun God Art and its mantra, Wunu Shibi would have never been able to surpass me,” Duwu Sili coldly said.
Although he was filled with hostility toward Wunu Shibi, Duwu Sili was forced to admit that Wunu Shibi was the strongest general of the Western Turks.
The eyes of Shamask and Chekun Benba glimmered for a moment, but they said no more about this.
“Great General, we’re already capable of producing some basic phenomena and Milord is even stronger than before. When will we exterminate the Great Tang?” Shamask suddenly said.
“No rush!” Duwu Sili waved his hand leisurely. “I’ve only just begun to cultivate. In order to display our strength, I must first finish cultivating and stabilize my strength. Before that, without my order, I forbid you from exchanging blows with the Tang on your own.”
“Yes!”
Toward this serious matter, Shamask and Chekun Benba did not dare to shirk their duties, and they immediately bowed and assented.
“Shamask, what is the current range of our patrols?” Duwu Sili harshly said.
Shamask bowed and respectfully said, “Twenty li! We’ve dispatched twenty groups of cavalry to patrol day and night, and we also have golden eagles watching the skies. If the Tang even try to approach, our men will know immediately.”
“Enlarge the range to sixty li! I want the area between here and Talas to be patrolled night and day,” Duwu Sili harshly ordered. “We can’t give the Tang a single chance or weakness to exploit. In addition, double the number of men on patrol. For nighttime patrols, double the number again. The Tang are fond of night raids, and before we’ve finished cultivating the formation phenomena, I don’t want to see a single Tang appear before me.”
“Yes, Milord!”
Everyone lowered their heads.
Only once everything was settled did Duwu Sili finally appear a little relieved.
“In addition, send Dalun Ruozan a letter asking for his opinion. No one around Talas has a greater understanding of the Tang than he does.”
“This subordinate will deliver this order!”
……
While Duwu Sili was awaiting Dalun Ruozan’s reply, he had little idea that the Tibetan camp was already fuming with rage.
“Bastard! This Duwu Sili is too despicable! Using such a lowly method against us!”
In the Tibetan camp, Huoba Sangye slammed his fist on a table, barely restraining his anger.
After observing the Western Turks for seven whole days, he had finally managed to get the three letters recording formation phenomena from Dalun Ruozan. But Huoba Sangye would have never imagined that the crucial passages of these letters were missing several words. These omissions were enough to make those three precious letters into scrap paper.
“Unacceptable! I’m going to see him! No matter what, I’ll have him hand over the true formation phenomena!”
Huoba Sangye snatched the letters off the table and stood up to go and find Duwu Sili, but in the next moment, a fair and vigorous palm reached out and blocked his path.
“Wait a moment.”
Huoshu Huicang gave a slight shake of his head and shot a glance at Huoba Sangye. Huoba Sangye paused for a moment and turned to the motionless figure of Dalun Ruozan, whose brow was deeply creased and expression deeply contemplative.
The tent was quiet as everyone stared at Dalun Ruozan, but Dalun Ruozan seemed to be so lost in thought that he did not notice.
The taciturn Dusong Mangpoje suddenly spoke. “In truth, even if we go to Duwu Sili, we won’t be able to get much from him. He truly did hand us the papers regarding the formation phenomena. All four of us witnessed this. Even if we claimed that he messed with the papers somehow, we don’t have any firm evidence, and Duwu Sili would never admit to it.”
Duwu Sili’s actions had also made him very unhappy, but the four had also made a mistake. They could not completely blame Duwu Sili.
At these words, Huoba Sangye froze, momentarily lost for words.
“But Duwu Sili clearly managed to deceive us. Are we just going to let it go?” Huoba Sangye protested.
As the commander of the Mutri Great Cavalry, Huoba Sangye had never suffered such a loss before. Moreover, Duwu Sili had managed to pull off this trick even when all four of them were present.
“This is not what I’m worried about…”
A voice suddenly rang through the tent. As Dalun Ruozan spoke, he slowly raised his head.
“I’ve always felt that this matter can’t be that simple. Duwu Sili obtained the formation phenomena far too easily and smoothly. Even Duwu Sili’s own strength has begun to rise. This has only increased my unease. A matter that proceeds too smoothly is not necessarily a good thing. Moreover, Wang Chong is not the kind of person who would easily give something that could harm him to another person.”
“If that version of formation phenomena was fake, wouldn’t it be even more absurd that it could increase Duwu Sili’s strength?” Dusong Mangpoje said.
“This is the entire reason I’ve been unable to make a judgment,” Dalun Ruozan thoughtfully said. There were few things that left him indecisive, but he truly found himself completely incapable of determining whether this version of formation phenomena was real or fake.
“If this matter is truly as I imagine it to be, the Young Marquis of the Great Tang has significant ambitions. Duwu Sili might be walking into his trap!”
An imperceptible ripple flitted through the eyes of the three others in the tent. Up until now, there had been no sign that had been worth Dalun Ruozan’s suspicion. On the contrary, everything pointed to this version of formation phenomena being authentic.
But even so, until the truth was fully revealed, no one dared to doubt the intuition of a sage.
“Huoba Sangye, first cultivate the simplified version of the formation phenomena,” Dalun Ruozan said, raising his head. “Let me think about the rest. If I can’t give you an answer in a month about whether these formation phenomena are the real thing or not, I’ll go and see Duwu Sili and demand the complete version of the formation phenomena.”
“This…” After hesitating for a moment, Huoba Sangye nodded. “Very well.”
This was the best solution in their current circumstances. Moreover, Huoba Sangye would never treat Dalun Ruozan’s promises lightly. Since he had agreed to demand the true version of formation phenomena, he would definitely do so.
Neigh!
Their discussion was suddenly interrupted by the neighing of horses and sound of turmoil. It had been minor at the start, but the turmoil gradually increased, accompanied by the occasional shout or yell of soldiers.
“What’s happened? Have the Tang raided us?” Huoba Sangye confusedly asked.
The Tibetans were extremely disciplined, especially when Dalun Ruozan was present. Such an incident would normally never happen in the daily routine unless they were under attack.
“Great Minister, I will go and take a look.”
Dusong Mangpoje’s brow creased as he walked out of the tent, disappearing in the blink of an eye. Dusong Mangpoje was the Eagle of the Plateau, a Great General expert. Everyone believed that the turmoil would be quickly pacified once he intervened. But things developed in a completely unpredicted fashion.
“Great Minister, come out and take a look!”
Dusong Mangpoje’s voice came from outside the tent, extremely solemn and serious. Outside, the neighing of the warhorses had only gotten louder, not quieter.
Dalun Ruozan, Huoshu Huicang, and Huoba Sangye exchanged glances, and Dalun Ruozan quickly stood up from the table.
“Let’s go!”
Opening the flap of the tent, the three quickly exited. Before them, they could see that the sentry towers were still undisturbed, but the orderly army was now a scene of mayhem. The highland steeds were crying out in panic and unease while the Tibetan soldiers at their side were pulling on the reins to hold back and comfort the warhorses. But both man and horse had their eyes focused on one direction, and they all seemed ready to flee with all their might.
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1033 - The Black Corrosion of the Sun! (II)
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1033 - The Black Corrosion of the Sun! (II)
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Chapter 1033: The Black Corrosion of the Sun! (II)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“This is…”
The scene of disorderly horses and soldiers in the rear of his army made Dalun Ruozan’s brows rise and his expression turn solemn. To the north of the Tibetan camp, a fierce wind was sweeping a white and frigid fog toward the camp. The icy air caused the temperature to plunge, and that engulfing white fog also had an enormous effect on the Tibetan army.
From Dalun Ruozan’s position, he could see that one-fifth of the camp had been consumed by this fog, so thick that it was impossible to see through it. Moreover, the fog was rapidly spreading through the entire camp.
“Ah, so cold!”
“What’s going on here! I can’t see anything! Someone come and help me!”
“The warhorses don’t like cold. I’m about to lose control over them! Ah, shit, it got away!”
The entire camp was in chaos. As the cold fog swept through, the stronger soldiers felt barely anything, but the weaker ones became so cold that they began to shiver.
“Bastards! Can you trash not even keep hold of some warhorses!”
Huoba Sangye was instantly furious. Before the others could react, he had pulled over a warhorse, mounted, and charged off to where the fog was the thickest. Several Mutri Great Cavalry followed closely behind him.
“Great Minister, it’s still not the season for snow, so why did the temperature drop so much? Is this situation normal?” Huoshu Huicang suddenly said.
Tibetans also had an understanding of the Western Regions. The temperature would normally only begin to drop in advance of snowfall, but there was still at least two months until that time.
Dalun Ruozan said nothing, his eyes flashing. He had a vague idea of what was going on, but he was not able to fully grasp it just yet.
“Look at that!”
As he was thinking, he was interrupted by yet another alarmed shout. At the start, no one had noticed in all the chaos, but gradually, more and more cries of alarm could be heard as more and more soldiers looked up.
“Great Minister, look at the sky!” Huoshu Huicang blurted out, having finally looked up at the sky.
With a slight jolt, Dalun Ruozan raised his head upward. When he saw the source of the alarm, even Dalun Ruozan couldn’t help but be deeply astonished.
“This is… the black corrosion of the sun!”
A dim red sun hung up high in the sky, and in the center of the sun, several large black spots could be seen, as if those pieces had been corroded away.
“The oracle!” someone exclaimed—not Dalun Ruozan, but Dusong Mangpoje and Huoshu Huicang in unison. The two stared at the black spots on the sun, wearing expressions of unprecedented shock.
“How could this be? The Holy Temple’s prediction came true!” Dusong Mangpoje muttered to himself. At this moment, the same thought occurred in all three of their minds.
‘The black corrosion of the sun! The three-eyed golden crow! The horse riding upon white frost!’
This was the prophecy issued by the highest oracle of the Ü-Tsang Empire. When the oracle had issued the prophecy of ‘danger rises in the east’ three times in a row, the Tsenpo had conducted a shamanic offering at enormous price to finally obtain more specific information from the oracle. Every six thousand years, the Tibetan Plateau would experience a massive upheaval. All civilizations of the plateau would be wiped away and everything would return to the primal state.
This calamity would be preceded by three phenomena. The black corrosion of the sun would be the beginning of it all.
Based on what the oracle had said, if all three of these phenomena occurred, the entire Ü-Tsang Empire and the civilization it represented would be utterly extinguished.
At this moment, Dalun Ruozan, Huoshu Huicang, and Dusong Mangpoje, these three supreme figures of the Ü-Tsang Empire, felt their hearts sink.
“Great Minister, will the oracle’s words really come true?” Dusong Mangpoje gravely asked Dalun Ruozan.
Dalun Ruozan raised his head and said, “Whether they come to pass or not, we won’t let it happen. Isn’t that exactly why we appeared here?”
Dusong Mangpoje silently nodded his head.
The sun was a bright and resplendent existence of limitless energy. Its purity could never be corrupted. No one had ever seen anything as abnormal as the black corrosion of the sun. There had been a time where everyone believed that the time the oracle spoke of was very far away, but now that they had witnessed that black corrosion in the sky, they all felt a threat that cut deep into their bodies.
If you don’t die, I will die. The danger rises from the east, and all our threats arise from the Great Tang. If we want to avoid the disaster predicted by the oracle, we must exterminate the Great Tang. No matter what, we must win this battle! Dusong Mangpoje said to himself as he cast his gaze at Dalun Ruozan and Huoshu Huicang. Dusong Mangpoje knew that at this moment, these two were thinking the same thing.
The omens had already appeared. If they wanted to avoid the fate that the Zhangzhung Dynasty had experienced thousands of years ago, Ü-Tsang would have to defeat the Great Tang, and Talas would be the location of this most crucial of battles.
Whoosh!
Clouds gathered in from all directions, swiftly drowning out that dim red sun. The world became much colder and more sinister. Neither Dalun Ruozan nor Dusong Mangpoje knew that this would be the last time they would see the sun this winter.
Hssst! Streams of churning white wind swiftly engulfed the Tibetan camp. At the same time, the Western Turk camp several dozen li away, the city of Talas, and all of the north were swallowed by this white and chilling fog.
“It’s already about to begin?”
In the northern training ground of Talas, Wang Chong stood beneath the flapping banner of the Great Tang, staring at the white fog around him and looking up to the sky as he muttered to himself. At this moment, no one except himself knew what he was thinking.
……
Flap flap! Following the black corrosion of the sun, the arrival of eagles brought Dalun Ruozan some unexpected developments. These eagles that arrived at dusk carried news from the Tibetan Plateau.
The last two of the Ü-Tsang Empire’s three training camps, the Yarlung Royal Lineage, the great clans of the plateau, and the many valiant Tibetan generals had all written letters expressing their support of Dalun Ruozan.
The appearance of the black corrosion of the sun had threatened and worried these ancient clans and factions of the plateau. Even though the plateau was currently experiencing a severe shortage of soldiers, these ancient clans and factions were doing all they could to assist Dalun Ruozan.
A force of around forty thousand elite cavalry was setting out from the plateau to reinforce Dalun Ruozan at Talas.
……
While Dalun Ruozan, Duwu Sili, Wang Chong, and everyone in the north were experiencing a cold snap, down south in Khorasan, all was hot and torrid, with waves of heat reaching into the skies.
“Ho!”
“Ha!”
In the lordly estate at the center of Khorasan, fires burned and smoke roiled. The muscular and bare-chested Arab smiths stood in circles, wielding heavy hammers that they raised high into the air and brought swinging down in explosions of sparks. Boomboomboom! The ringing of the metal hammers resounded through the skies in a never-ending din.
Through the endless hammering of the Arab smiths, suits of armor slowly began to take shape.
Nearby, Aybak looked at the industrious scene in the courtyard and gave a satisfied nod.
“Not bad! In one month, all ten thousand suits of armor should be ready. When the time comes, we will make the Mamelukes the strongest existence in history!”
Aybak’s eyes exploded with ambition. The Mamelukes had always been the strongest force of the Arabian Empire, and now, with the metal of these Meteoric Stars gifted by the High Priest, an even stronger force of Mamelukes would appear under his command. The suits of Meteoric Star armor coupled with the superb fighting power of the Mamelukes would make it so that no force in the continent could compare to the Mamelukes, not even those Wushang Cavalry.
High upon the steps of the courtyard, Aybak asked, “Faisal, have the Sindhi sent over that Hyderabad ore yet?”
“Milord, it is still on the road. In three more days, it will arrive at Khorasan, and we can begin forging it into weapons at any time! Ghassan is personally leading the escort party, so there should be no mishaps.”
The speaker was an eagle-eyed and high-nosed Mameluke officer behind Aybak. A black crescent earring hung from his left ear. This man had an extremely sharp gaze, and he exuded an extremely dangerous aura.
Faisal was the deputy commander of the Mamelukes, the number two individual of the army.
It was rumored that once, when the Arabian Empire was conquering a powerful country in the north, Faisal had accidentally ended up separated from the main army and surrounded by the enemy. When the Mamelukes went to find him, he had been fighting the enemy for seven days and seven nights. Mountains of corpses had been piled up around him, including those of several renowned generals. The blood that had gushed from those corpses had painted all the streets of the city a deep red.
From this battle, Faisal gained the title of ‘Eagle of the Death God’!”
“Very good!”
Aybak’s eyes glimmered with a bright light. Ghassan was the number three individual of the Mamelukes, a peak Brigadier General with enough fighting power to threaten even a Great General. With him escorting the convoy, no problems would occur. Even if those remaining rebels wanted to try something, they would never succeed.
“Tell Ghassan that if he encounters any rebels while escorting the Hyderabad ore, he has the right to kill on sight!”
“Yes, Milord!” Faisal sincerely said.
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1034 - Troublemakers at Court! (I)
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1034 - Troublemakers at Court! (I)
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Chapter 1034: Troublemakers at Court! (I)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Hyderabad ore was extremely rare, its production rate extremely low. These unique traits made it the target of the various remnant armies of the dynasties that the Arabs had conquered. The Arabs were still not able to use Hyderabad ore like the Great Tang could, but after many trials, they had gradually managed to create a method of smelting the Hyderabad ore and mixing it with other metals, greatly increasing the sharpness of their weapons.
The weapons forged through this method were still not at the level of the Great Tang’s Wootz Steel swords, which could even cut through the dark green God Armor of the Skyquaking Army. But they had already surpassed all the other precious swords and sabers of Arabia in terms of sharpness.
These weapons forged from a mixture of refined Hyderabad ore and Meteoric Star metal might not be as good as Wootz Steel swords, but they were not too far behind!
At the very least, this was what Aybak and Faisal believed.
Gallop!
With everything taken care of, Aybak prepared to leave. Suddenly, a horseman galloped toward the courtyard.
“Stop!”
The air screeched as roaring Mamelukes surged in from all sides, their fierce energies instantly locking onto this intruder. On the outermost perimeter of the courtyard, ten-some Mamelukes stood in this horseman’s way. The other Mamelukes quickly converged on the intruder, surrounding him.
As sabers clamored and gleamed, it appeared that this intruder would soon be executed. But then, Aybak noticed the golden robes this person wore and his expression immediately morphed.
“Halt!”
Time seemed to stop for a moment as the ten-some Mamelukes halted their scimitars in mid-swing. Meanwhile, Aybak had lunged down the stairs toward the intruder.
The Caliph’s emissary!
This rider wearing robes of gold covered in intricate designs was the emissary of the Arab Caliph. Each of these emissaries was selected from a group of elites and was an extremely loyal expert. The Caliph would only send them out for missions of utmost importance.
“Aybak!”
The rider’s golden robes blew in the wind as he sat upon his horse and called out Aybak’s name. His face was concealed by a silver mask covered in tiny little holes, and his voice was ice-cold.
“The Caliph has decreed that the Tang at Talas must be destroyed. Once this mission is completed, the Mamelukes will work with Governors Qutaybah, Abu Muslim, and Osman to advance eastward. Once the eastern world is conquered, the Mamelukes will be rewarded with their promised land to serve as their eternal fief!”
The emissary’s words were simple and concise, cutting straight to the purpose of his visit.
Whoosh!
In a flash, the mood in the courtyard changed. Before Aybak had time to say anything, his deputy Faisal and the surrounding Mamelukes all took a step back in shock.
A promised land!
This was the great obsession of the many generations of Mamelukes, but one that they could never fulfill. The Mamelukes were hailed as the strongest and most loyal warriors of Arabia, and they had rendered great service for the empire. Any other army or general would have long ago obtained their own fief in the Arabian Empire, but because of an ancient law from when the Mamelukes were first established, the Mamelukes were restricted from this honor.
Thus, even though the Mamelukes had a reputation as high as the noon sun and a fighting power that none could match, they were constantly rushing about to fight battles, never having a place to put down their roots.
If they had a ‘promised land’, the Mamelukes could recruit troops, make homes, train men, collect taxes, start businesses… they could even have children and create an enormous city of Mamelukes. If the Mamelukes could break the restriction of ten thousand men, they would enter an unprecedented golden age!
This was precisely the dream of all Mameluke warriors!
“Milord!”
In a flash, the eyes of all the Mamelukes began to burn with a fervent light. Even Faisal found it hard to keep himself calm, stepping forward from the rear as his breathing grew hurried and ragged. No one had expected that the Caliph would regard the east with such importance, much less that the Caliph was willing to make an exception and offer up such a reward for its conquest.
“Aybak, this is His Majesty’s token of faith. If you wield this token, the Caliph will keep true to his promise. Take it!”
The golden-robed emissary took out a black crescent token embellished with metal filigree and tossed it over.
“However, the Caliph has yet another decree. This conquest of the east is the only chance for the Mamelukes to obtain their promised land. If Talas cannot be conquered, if the east cannot be pacified, the Mamelukes will be slaves for eternity and will never obtain any promised land!”
Buzz!
Aybak and Faisal both shuddered, their expressions turning grim. Both of them lowered their heads and proclaimed, “Your subordinate receives the decree!”
……
Time slowly passed. In Khorasan, the Arab smiths continued to work night and day to forge the Mamelukes their suits of Meteoric Star armor. On the front lines in the Black Forest, Abu Muslim restrained his army so that all conflict with the Great Tang could be avoided as he awaited the arrival of the two governors and the Mamelukes from the rear.
Every day, news trickled in, and countless soldiers arrived at Khorasan from Cairo and Tarsus, joining with the Mamelukes in preparation to set off to the Black Forest to join with Abu Muslim.
At the same time, the distant Talas was also a city of fire and smoke. Tens of thousands of Tang soldiers spent every day and night training and drilling. Meanwhile, nearly ten thousand men had been selected from amongst the Anxi Protectorate army, Qixi Protectorate army, and the mercenaries to become the first ‘Mo Saber Army’, which was also in the middle of intense training.
Every day in Talas presented a new scene.
Under Wang Chong’s command, all the Tang soldiers were preparing for battle.
Some several dozen li away, Duwu Sili was spending day and night training in the formation phenomena, using the lightning created by the formation phenomena to train himself and increase his strength in an effort to reach an even higher level.
Twenty li away, the Tibetan camp was calm, and Dalun Ruozan was sipping tea in his tent. But all of them knew that across the Cong Mountains, past the Western Regions, on the Tibetan Plateau, forty thousand Tibetan soldiers were being gathered by the great clans and nobles of the plateau so that they could be sent to Talas.
Four great empires, three sides… Although the surface was calm, each side restraining the other, under the surface, the current was far more dangerous and unpredictable than before!
The war could break out at any moment.
As the clouds of war gathered thick over Talas, in the distant Central Plains, the capital of the Great Tang was in an entirely different mood. The debate over Talas had reached an intense stage. Gao Xianzhi and Wang Chong’s joint request for reinforcements had still not passed.
“Your Majesty, this subject objects!”
The graying Assistant Minister of Revenue Zheng Chengli held aloft his ceremonial tablet and strode out from the ranks.
“In ancient times, I have heard of reinforcing the army after a defeat, but never of reinforcing an army after victory. Moreover, the Imperial Court’s yearly expenditures on military are extravagantly vast. The year before last, the Bureau of Military Personnel expended eighty million dan of grain, ten million head of livestock, and two million, four hundred thousand feet of cloth, and required one hundred and thirty-seven million taels as pay for the soldiers. Last year, the Bureau of Military Personnel consumed ninety-four million dan1 of grain, seventeen million head of livestock, and three million, six hundred thousand feet of cloth, and required one hundred and fifty-seven million taels as pay for the soldiers. It will only spend more this year, and these calculations do not even include the financial compensation for soldiers killed in battle.
“The Great Tang has six hundred thousand soldiers that are frequently engaged in battle with foreign enemies. They consume a great deal of the empire’s funds and are already a heavy burden on the Great Tang and its people!
“Not only that, the frequent battles result in severe casualties amongst the soldiers. Replenishing these lost soldiers can only be done by conscripting from the masses. This lowly subject happened to hear that in some places, because the people are innately suited for war, so many are conscripted that there are not enough people to work the fields!”
“That’s right!”
Zheng Chengli had barely finished speaking when the Minister of Ceremonies, Zhou Taiqin, stepped forward, tablet held aloft and expression grim.
“This lowly subject has just returned from an inspection of the Hedong Circuit. As this subject was passing through a town called Zhouzhuang in Luzhou, this subject saw nothing but the old, infirm, and the young, but not a single man. This subject was astounded and inquired as to what had happened. This subject then learned that all the able-bodied men of Zhouzhuang had been conscripted into the army. In the year before last, Beiting suffered a defeat in a battle against the Western Turkic Khaganate, resulting in over ninety percent of the men in the village dying in that battle. The remaining men were transferred to other regions, including the Anxi Protectorate.
“Although Zhouzhuang is just an example, it is the Great Tang in miniature. Every year, the Anxi Protectorate expends a great deal of the empire’s funds, and every year, the Central Plains sends over innumerable soldiers, and now, even more soldiers are needed at Talas. Must the plight of Luzhou be spread across the Great Tang so that even the boys are pulled onto the battlefield? This subject proposes that Anxi and Qixi recall all their soldiers to the interior!”
Zhou Taiqin’s voice was tinged with harshness as he reached the end of his speech, and his words received a great deal of support amongst the civil officials.
“Correct, this subject agrees!”
“This subject agrees!
“This subject agrees!
The civil officials in the hall voiced their agreement in agitation, but at this moment, a loud and cold voice resounded through the hall.
______________
1. The dan is a Chinese unit for dry measure volume equal to about 100 liters. Unfortunately, nowadays, people don’t use dry measure units to measure agricultural output, instead going with tonnes. A single US bushel is equivalent to around 35 liters, so for the sake of rough estimation, we can say that one dan is equivalent to 3 bushels. A bushel of milled rice weighs about 60 pounds, and there are around 2200 pounds in a tonne. Taking all these numbers and using the first figure of eighty million dan, assuming for simplicity’s sake that it’s all rice, the Bureau of Military Personnel consumed 6.5 million tonnes of rice. In comparison, in 2016, China produced 209.5 million tonnes of rice.↩
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1035 - Troublemakers at Court! (II)
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1035 - Troublemakers at Court! (II)
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Chapter 1035: Troublemakers at Court! (II)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“In the sixth month of the twenty-third year of the Sage Emperor’s reign, the Beiting Protectorate employed soldiers against the Western Turks and lost seventy-nine thousand men. In the third month of the twenty-fourth year of the Sage Emperor’s reign, the Andong Protectorate employed soldiers against the Xi and Khitans and lost thirty-five thousand men. In the seventh month of the same year, it lost sixty thousand men against the Goguryeo Empire. In the first month of the twenty-fifth year of the Sage Emperor’s reign, the Qixi Protectorate employed soldiers against Ü-Tsang and lost twenty-four thousand men. In the same year, it was resupplied with forty thousand soldiers. In the ninth month, it was raided by Dusong Mangpoje and lost around fifty thousand men. In the twenty-sixth year of the Sage Emperor, the then-Annan Protector-General Zhangchou Jianqiong employed troops against Ü-Tsang’s Ngari Royal Lineage and lost forty-nine thousand men. Sixty thousand commoners were conscripted as labor, and they suffered seven thousand casualties.
“This year, in the war of the southwest, the total casualties amount to one hundred and forty-three thousand people, and now, after not even a year has passed, another battle is beginning at Talas.
“In these few short decades, battles have never ceased! Your Majesty, now is the time to bring this to a stop!
“Talas is not the territory of the Great Tang, but a land outside the borders of our civilization, a barren land. Fighting on the borders is understandable, but should we also send our soldiers to perish on foreign soil as well? Moreover, the Western Regions is populated entirely by Hu. To maintain the Great Tang’s rule over the Western Regions, countless soldiers, money, and grain are sent each year. This is nothing more than a bottomless hole. But in contrast, the Western Regions offers barely any benefit to the Great Tang. Is it the grapes? The pomegranates? Or is it the Hu merchants that throng the capital?
“Your Majesty, this lowly subject should not have spoken, but this battle at Talas truly must be put to a stop!”
With these last words, the white-bearded old official standing by a cinnabar pillar clasped his ceremonial tablet and bowed. Half the hall was serene, all the civil officials staring at this elder with great respect.
Grand Scribe Yan Wenzhang was responsible for recording historical events and writing state histories, and was also one of the individuals who took part in drafting the court’s documents. All the nobles and officials, even the Imperial Princes, had their words recorded and entered into historical record by Yan Wenzhang. Amongst the numerous civil and military officials of the Great Tang, Yan Wenzhang occupied a most unique position.
This was because anyone who spoke inappropriately, whether civil or military, might have their words recorded by the Grand Scribe to be scorned at for generations. No one wanted this fate.
Similarly, if an official wanted to leave a good reputation in history, no matter how well they did, they could not record their own deeds. Only the Grand Scribe’s brush could do this.
The Grand Scribe was the recorder of history, a spectator, not a participant, so he rarely offered his opinion in court debates of his own volition. But the Grand Scribe was still an official. For certain important matters, the Grand Scribe would also step forward and carry out his duty as an official of the court.
A Grand Scribe was only allowed to volunteer his opinion three times over his career. If he exceeded this count, he would have to immediately resign and hand his position over to his successor. This was to ensure that the Grand Scribe was fair and objective, so that the historical records could remain as unaffected by emotion as possible.
This was only the second time Yan Wenzhang had spoken up in court. The first time was when the late Emperor had died of illness.
Quarrels between civil and military officials were not unusual throughout history, but rarely were they this intense. It was clear that even the Grand Scribe had been alarmed into action.
The Grand Scribe was from the Confucian school, and everyone knew that the Confucian school emphasized ruling the country and pacifying the world through cultivating oneself. At its very root, it emphasized peace. Yan Wenzhang was naturally a firm supporter of the anti-war faction. With his approval, the words of the civil officials instantly held more weight. And as could be expected, when Grand Scribe Yan Wenzhang had begun to speak, the entire hall had fallen silent and all the military officials clearly became much more apprehensive.
‘With a single brush, a civil official can kill and leave no trace.’ If one offended the Grand Scribe, one was highly likely to end up recorded in the annals of history as an ‘illustrious’ general who misled the country. This was a consequence that everyone had to consider carefully.
“Hahaha…”
At this moment, loud laughter broke the silence. From the center of the ranks, an old general of fifty-some years stepped forward.
“Minister Yan, this old man must press his luck. Record it if you want. This old man doesn’t even fear death, so why should he fear your cinnabar brush and eternal infamy?
“For matters of previous governments, we military officials can’t compare to you brush-holders, but for matters of this government, this old man still remembers them well. In the twenty-third year of the Sage Emperor’s reign, the Western Turks had raided the border repeatedly, plundering and slaughtering innocents, even managing to reach as far as the Guannei and Hedong Circuits. The war of that period was precisely to stop them. Although we lost seventy-nine thousand soldiers in that war, the Western Turkic Khaganate lost one hundred and eleven thousand elite soldiers. More importantly, after this war, the Western Turkic Khaganate finally became too fearful to advance southward.
“The deaths of seventy-nine thousand men were exchanged for twenty-some years of peace for the Guannei and Hedong Circuits. Did the number of civilians saved amount to only a mere seventy-nine thousand? This old man remembers that battle clearly because this old man took part in it!” Beacon General Jiang Yunrang sternly said.
Although his official status was not high, Jiang Yunrang was a veteran in the army who had participated in numerous battles. At a time like this, when everyone else was fearful of Grand Scribe Yan Wenzhang, only military veterans like Jiang Yunrang were willing to take their chances.
“…What exactly is it that our soldiers sacrifice their lives and shed blood for on the battlefield? Is it so that all of you in the rear can censure them, denouncing them with both brush and tongue? Without that war in the twenty-third year of the Sage Emperor’s reign, do you think that the losses would have been that small?
“In the twenty-fourth year of the Sage Emperor’s reign, the Andong Protectorate employed soldiers against the Xi and Khitan and lost thirty-five thousand men. But do you know how many people the Great Tang would have lost without that war? The Xi and Khitans are pugnacious people who delight in plunder, and they lacked any reverence for the Great Tang. Before this war, the Xi and Khitan would often invade Youzhou, taking women and children and slaughtering civilians. Many of the people in Youzhou began to flee into the interior out of fear of the Xi and Khitans. In ten years, the population of Youzhou went from five hundred thousand to only eighty-thousand-some, and this number was continuing to drop.
“If not for this battle, the territory of Youzhou would already be Hu territory. Moreover, the Xi and the Khitan had thriving ambitions and were secretly colluding with Goguryeo. In the three raids of the interior before the twenty-fourth year, the losses in Youzhou could be counted in the hundreds of thousands. But the war in the third month with the Xi and the Khitans and the war in the seventh month with the Goguryeo Empire completely altered the balance of power in the northeast. The alliance between the Xi, the Khitans, and Goguryeo was broken, and their offensive posture was shattered, allowing the Great Tang to firmly take control over the northeast. In addition, it also allowed the people to thrive, and in the coming years, they flourished and multiplied. The population in Youzhou rose from eighty thousand to the current eight hundred and seventy thousand, even more than before the war!
“As for the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth year, which wars of which year did not have their own causes? And which war did not bring long peace?”
Jiang Yunrang’s expression became extremely agitated as he finished.
“That’s right! And with the war of the southwest, Mengshe Zhao King Geluofeng was incredibly ambitious, secretly colluding with Ü-Tsang Great General Huoshu Huicang and Dalun Ruozan into forming an alliance. If not for the bloody battle fought by the Young Marquis and the Annan Protectorate army, the hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Mengshe–Ü-Tsang army would have advanced north past the Erhai. Do you know what would have happened then? The nearly one million civilians of the southwest would have already been massacred by this army. How could it possibly be as peaceful as it is now? Talas is currently in dire peril. The Young Marquis and Lord Gao Xianzhi have not retreated after their victory because they follow the policy of ‘opposing the enemy on the outside’. They did not wish for the civilians of the Great Tang and the Western Regions to be threatened by Arabia, Ü-Tsang, and the Western Turks. ‘I am willing to give my life for the good of the country, or is it that one should flee in the face of disaster and approach in times of blessing?’ This was the couplet hanging in the Young Marquis’s study. Just who in the capital does not know of this matter by now? Is this loyal subject and excellent general that bloodthirsty warrior who cares not for the lives of civilians like all of you make him out to be?
“Speed is paramount in war. There are still tens of thousands of Tang soldiers waiting in Talas for reinforcements. This lowly subject requests that reinforcements be immediately dispatched!”
Another general was inspired by Jiang Yunrang’s words to speak, the Assistant Minister of War, Cao Qianzong.
Who cared if the Grand Scribe gave him an infamous reputation in the annals of history? If these words were not said today, there might be no chance to say them in the future.
“This subject agrees!”
“This subject agrees!”
“This subject agrees!”
The words of Jiang Yunrang and Cao Qianzong were a rallying cry to the generals in the hall, and they all began to voice their agreement. Civil officials did not grasp for wealth and generals did not fear death. The generals that could stand here were all devotedly loyal to the country. The battle at Talas appeared to be some local conflict, but in reality, the safety of the entire northwest and the Great Tang itself were in question. No one could truly remain a bystander.
As the military officials stepped forward, all the civil officials were stunned, including Grand Scribe Yan Wenzhang. As far back as Taizong’s era, whenever a quarrel between the civil and military officials broke out, the military officials would usually yield.
No one had expected the generals to be so staunch in their positions this time. The Grand Scribe was present, and all of them knew that they might end up being noted as warmongers in the historical records and castigated by future generations, but none of them backed down.
“Your Majesty, this subject wishes to speak.”
A rich and mellow voice echoed through the hall. At these words, all the civil and military officials, even Grand Scribe Yan Wenzhang, instantly fell silent. All of them turned to the speaker as if that man’s body possessed some magical power.
Minister of War Zhangchou Jianqiong, the previous Annan Protector-General, was a supreme existence in the military. His words held an entirely different weight from those of the other military officials.
“In the twenty-sixth year of the Sage Emperor’s reign, this lowly subject was Annan’s Protector-General. It was this lowly subject’s idea at the time to employ soldiers in the southwest against Ü-Tsang, so this lowly subject has a right to speak on this incident.”
Dressed in a violet robe, Zhangchou Jianqiong stepped forward from the ranks. His head was lowered, his ceremonial tablet grasped tightly in his hand as he solemnly spoke.
“Before this battle, your lowly subject’s scouts reported that Dalun Ruozan and Huoshu Huicang had gathered a large army on the plateau, preparing to strike against the Great Tang. Ever since the reign of the late Emperor, Ü-Tsang had been constantly raiding the border. In the sixteenth year of the late Emperor’s reign, a war broke out in the southwest which resulted in the deaths of one hundred and thirty thousand civilians. In the twenty-first year of the Yuanwu Era, two hundred and ten thousand civilians were caught up in a war and suffered severe casualties. In the twenty-ninth year, the thirty-fifth year, all the way up to the few years before this lowly subject took command, the civilians were caught up in every war.
“It was precisely for this reason that when this lowly subject perceived that Dalun Ruozan and Huoshu Huicang were preparing to strike, this lowly subject decided to strike first, employing troops against Ü-Tsang and opposing enemies at the border so that the civilians would not be forced to abandon their homes in flight. Although the Annan Protectorate army suffered significant casualties in this war, the civilians were unharmed. More importantly, so many Tibetan soldiers were killed in this war that in the following ten-some years, Ü-Tsang’s Ngari Royal Lineage did not have the ability to engage in any large-scale invasions of the southwest.”
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1036 - Troublemakers at Court! (III)
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1036 - Troublemakers at Court! (III)
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Chapter 1036: Troublemakers at Court! (III)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Zhangchou Jianqiong slowly narrated the events of the war. There were many details here that the important officials of the time had known nothing about. Even Grand Scribe Yan Wenzhang was hearing many of them for the first time, and he hurriedly gestured into the distance. Beneath a colonnade, one of his deputies was seated on the floor, swiftly recording this account with his brush.
“War is truly a matter of last resort. It is not that we generals are militant, but that the situation forces our hand. The ultimate goal of war is still to protect the people. But there are many methods to protect the people. One can choose to defend against enemies from within, waiting for an attack before mobilizing the army. One can also choose to defend against enemies outside, initiating a preventive war. It is just that the officials present favor the former while we generals prefer the latter. There is no right or wrong, simply a difference of ideals. In addition, in both the latter and the former, as long as there is war, there will be losses. This is unavoidable.
“But in both war and peace, we generals wish to protect the Great Tang and its people, just the same as all the officials assembled here.”
Zhangchou Jianqiong spoke these final words with utmost sincerity. The conflict between civil and military officials was a battle over ideals. As the Minister of War, Zhangchou Jianqiong could not remain uninvolved.
“Your lowly subject is not in Talas, so he cannot give a determination of the situation, but your lowly subject believes in the Young Marquis and believes in Your Majesty’s insight. Since the Young Marquis and Protector-General Gao Xianzhi have submitted a memorial requesting reinforcements, the situation in Talas is undoubtedly extremely dire. It is better to believe and prepare than to not believe and have nothing, so this lowly subject requests that Your Majesty immediately sends reinforcements to the northwest to the aid of the Young Marquis.”
After saying his piece, Zhangchou Jianqiong gave a sigh as if relieved of a great burden.
Zhangchou Jianqiong owed Wang Chong an enormous favor for the war of the southwest. If not for Wang Chong, Zhangchou Jianqiong would have found it impossible to keep his post as Minister of War. Moreover, the soldiers of the Annan Protectorate army who had accompanied him for ten-some years would all have been buried by the Erhai. With this Battle of Talas, Zhangchou Jianqiong could consider this favor returned.
More importantly, Zhangchou Jianqiong had his own judgment on the Battle of Talas. As a renowned general of the military and one of the Great Tang’s supreme Great Generals, Zhangchou Jianqiong shared the same view as Wang Chong. If the northwest were not speedily reinforced and the trilateral alliance were allowed to come to pass, the entire Central Plains would quake.
“Hmph, ridiculous! You generals employ soldiers every year, wasting manpower and resources, and then you go and give bombastic sermons like this! Lord Zhangchou, you truly have quite the eloquent tongue! Lord Wang, do you think the same?”
This voice instantly caused everyone to turn their eyes to the frowning and silent figure of Wang Gen.
Thump!
Sensing everyone’s gaze, Wang Chong’s big uncle Wang Gen felt his heart thump and his complexion immediately turned green. There was no one in the Imperial Court with a more sensitive and awkward position than him. Wang Gen was a civil official, but Wang Yan, Wang Fu, and Wang Chong were all typical generals. The Wang Clan was a clan that straddled the line between civil and military.
In the end, the root of this problem lay with Duke Jiu. Duke Jiu was a civil official, but he was also an accomplished military strategist who had led armies in sweeping away the Eastern and Western Turks as well as Ü-Tsang, rendering great military service.
Of course, one could also say that this quarrel between civil and military had only reached such intensity that even the Grand Scribe had become involved because of the Wang Clan’s Wang Chong.
“This…”
Wang Gen felt an unprecedented awkwardness. In his long political career, Wang Gen had experienced many trials and tribulations, with some dangers even threatening to pull the entire Wang Clan out by its roots. Both the Regional Commanders Incident and the Consort Taizhen Incident had exceeded this Battle of Talas in terms of danger to the Wang Clan.
But Wang Gen would prefer to face those incidents than get involved with the thorny issue of the conflict between civil and military officials.
Civil officials hated war, a principle that had remained unchanged throughout the ages. Wang Gen only needed to say the word ‘war’ to be deluged by the objections of the other civil officials. In the future, he would be isolated from the other civil officials and deprived of their support, probably bringing an end to Wang Gen’s advancement on the civil path. And if Wang Gen supported the civil officials, he would bitterly disappoint all the generals of the Great Tang.
This quarrel between civil and military officials was only so intense, old generals like Jiang Yunrang so unyielding that they dared to risk the censure of the civil officials, because the generals were all supporting the Wang Clan and Wang Gen’s nephew Wang Chong. If Wang Gen chose this moment to oppose the generals, not only would he make the Wang Clan look ungrateful, he would also be dooming Wang Chong.
At this moment, Wang Gen’s mind was beset with difficulties, and he felt like he was struggling against the heavens themselves.
“There is no need for Lord Wang to be troubled. I will speak on your behalf!”
At this moment, an elderly and dignified voice came from the upper reaches of the hall. Wang Gen’s heart trembled at these words, and all the civil and military officials looked upward in shock.
The Grand Preceptor!
This same thought flitted through everyone’s mind as they stared at that robed figure seated upon his armchair. The motionless Grand Preceptor who had had his eyes closed in rest had at some point opened his eyes, which now shone with an intense light.
The Grand Preceptor, Grand Tutor, and Grand Protector were known as the Three Dukes of the Imperial Court, and the leader of these three was the Grand Preceptor.
The Grand Preceptor was a prestigious and highly respected individual who wielded enormous influence in the court. Even the Sage Emperor treated him with utmost respect.
As a sign of respect, at each morning court session, while all the other civil and military officials would have to take up ranks, only the Grand Preceptor was permitted to sit on a sandalwood armchair positioned close to the Sage Emperor. The Grand Preceptor was very old and rarely interfered in matters of court, spending most of the sessions listening from above.
Everyone had originally believed that the Grand Preceptor would sit on the sidelines in this Talas incident, not that he would intervene in this debate between civil and military officials.
The Grand Preceptor was the leader of the civil officials, and his sudden intervention could change the entire nature of this debate.
Damn it! What’s going on? Even the Grand Preceptor has come forth!
Even Zhangchou Jianqiong was stunned, an ill foreboding in his heart.
Although he was the Minister of War and wielded immense authority, he was still very far from the Grand Preceptor in terms of prestige and influence in the court.
“Your Majesty, this old subject has only one thing to say…”
The Grand Preceptor swept his wide sleeves and slowly stood up from his armchair. At this moment, an aura as vast as the seas exploded from his body. The entire hall became so quiet that one could hear a pin drop as all eyes focused on him.
“A country might be vast, but if it is fond of war, its end is certain!”
Rumble! The Grand Preceptor swept his gaze over the gathered officials as his dignified voice resounded through the hall. All the officials, even the old general Jiang Yunrang who had so vigorously opposed the civil officials, fell silent in trepidation.
The hall was quiet, the air oppressive.
Wang Gen’s heart sank like it was an enormous stone. Behind the colonnade, King Song also had an extremely nasty grimace.
The Grand Preceptor had only opened his eyes, stood, and said a few words, but his words carried more weight than the words of all the civil officials that had spoken before him, and they were also much harder to refute. No general here could bear the weight of those words.
“Grand Preceptor…”
King Song’s body trembled, his heart turning to ice as he stared at the determined face of the Grand Preceptor.
The Grand Preceptor was extraordinarily influential and prestigious. He did not lightly involve himself in court affairs, nor indeed frequently open his mouth at all. But once he spoke, his words were law. Not even an Imperial Prince like King Song could compare to him.
King Song had never predicted that this conflict between civil and military would eventually draw out the leader of the civil officials.
The court debate now leaned heavily against the generals. The progress that had been made in arguing for Gao Xianzhi and Wang Chong’s request for reinforcements had suffered a massive reversal, and the military officials had been forced into an extremely passive position.
As King Song was overcome by gloom and unease, the Grand Preceptor suddenly turned his gaze upon him.
“King Song, do you have something to say?”
His expression was cold and aloof while his eyes were frigid ice. King Song was a firm member of the pro-war faction. All of the court knew, so how could the Grand Preceptor not know?
It was clear that the leader of the Three Dukes was very displeased by the years of constant war that had plagued the Imperial Court, and this displeasure had been fully provoked by this ‘Talas Incident’.
“Grand Preceptor…”
King Song hesitated, but he had barely said a word when he was interrupted.
“Your Highness King Song, do you wish to see the old matter of Wu of Han repeat itself in this dynasty?” asked the Grand Preceptor, waving his sleeve with seeming indifference.
Stunned, King Song swallowed down the words he had planned to say. ‘The old matter of Wu of Han’ referred to that wise sovereign from one thousand years ago. Great Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had expanded the territory of the empire, rendering astounding achievements in both the political and military sphere, but his constant warmongering later on in life emptied out the treasury and left the fields without farmers to till them.
The Grand Preceptor had clearly mentioned the old matter of Wu of Han as a hint to the Sage Emperor. The Sage Emperor was the wise sovereign of his generation and had brought the Great Tang to an unprecedented golden age, but if he repeated the mistakes of Emperor Wu, this reputation for wisdom would vanish.
Not even King Song was willing to bear this responsibility.
“Your Majesty, in the end, Talas is a land beyond our borders. Victory will bring us no joy while defeat might lead to the end of all our previous efforts. This old subject believes… that Lord Gao and the Young Marquis can retreat!”
With these last words, the Grand Preceptor finally turned around to face the figure of the Sage Emperor seated behind the bead curtains.
The hall was silent. After some time…
“Mm.”
Finally, the Sage Emperor spoke. This simple grunt contained a boundless pressure that made the entire hall tremble.
“We understand.”
These two words were devoid of emotion, but all the generals and pro-war officials in the hall, including King Song, Wang Gen, and Zhangchou Jianqiong, felt their hearts sink. The Sage Emperor had always allowed matters of court to be decided by debate amongst his officials. He rarely intervened, and even more rarely offered his opinions.
If the officials could reach a decision on their own, the Sage Emperor would not speak a single word. Only when the court found it difficult to decide would he open his mouth and issue his divine decree.
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1037 - Troublemakers at Court! (IV)
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1037 - Troublemakers at Court! (IV)
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Chapter 1037: Troublemakers at Court! (IV)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The Grand Preceptor was the leader of the Three Dukes, the guiding light of the civil officials. It was clear that his words had influenced the Sage Emperor. Although the words ‘We understand’ did not indicate a particular stance, they were a symbol of a major shift in the debate, a massive sign of favor.
“Not good!”
The generals in the hall all felt their hearts sink. With the weight of the Grand Preceptor, the Sage Emperor was clearly beginning to lean toward the civil officials. Talas was in the middle of a crisis and had sent many letters urgently requesting reinforcements. If this proposal could not be passed, Wang Chong and Gao Xianzhi were almost certain to lose.
This was two Imperial Protector-Generals!
The Sage Emperor seemed on the verge of making his decision when suddenly, a gentle breeze heralded the entrance of someone into the hall. At the same time, everyone heard a voice in their ear.
“Your Majesty, this old subject has something to say!”
As this voice spoke, a gentle aura like that of warm sunlight shining over the earth appeared in everyone’s perception. At the entrance to the hall, a white-haired and straight-backed figure wearing a white cloth robe stepped over the threshold and slowly walked in.
Waaaa! The sight of this figure immediately caused an uproar.
“Duke… Duke Jiu!”
As someone blurted out this name, the generals began to chatter amongst themselves while the civil officials were left dumbfounded. Even the Grand Preceptor, who had just been preparing to sit back down, felt his heart sink and his body shiver.
The Great Tang’s Duke Jiu!
The wise minister of a golden age!
This was a most prestigious and most respected individual of the Great Tang. Even though he had retired decades ago to the Four Quarters Embassy, he still wielded enormous influence and reputation within society. Not even the Grand Preceptor could compare to him.
The name ‘Duke Jiu’ was enough to symbolize his prestige.
“Father!”
Wang Gen was also shocked to see his father appear. Just as he planned to go over, Duke Jiu shot him a glance that made him immediately stop.
“Grand Preceptor, it’s been a long time since we last met!”
Wang Jiuling slowly stepped forward, holding a cane and smiling gently.
“Duke Jiu!”
“Duke Jiu!”
“Duke Jiu!”
All the officials in the hall respectfully lowered their heads to this elderly figure and retreated to the sides. Even Grand Scribe Yan Wenzhang had a solemn and deferential look on his face as he bowed and yielded the path.
As one of the architects of the Great Tang’s golden age, Duke Jiu wielded an influence in court that was nigh unimaginable. Many of the important officials in court had even heard the legends of Duke Jiu while they were growing up.
Tap! Tap!
The white wooden cane in Duke Jiu’s hand crisply clacked against the floor as he slowly walked forward.
“Jiuling pays respects to His Majesty!”
After walking several zhang, Duke Jiu suddenly stopped and gave a slight bow to that figure seated behind the bead curtains.
“You also came.”
The voice resounded over the hall, still supreme and dignified, but there was also a tiny tinge of warmth.
The Sage Emperor and Duke Jiu were sovereign and subject, one complementing the other. Together, they had created a thirty-year golden age for the Great Tang, and their feats had captivated the entirety of the Great Tang. Although Duke Jiu had retired decades ago, it was clear that he still had a high place in the hearts of the people and the Sage Emperor.
The Grand Preceptor felt his heart sink. Although the Sage Emperor had only said a few simple words, the friendship expressed in them made the Grand Preceptor’s eyes go wide.
“Jiuling, have you come for the sake of your grandson?”
The Grand Preceptor cut straight to the point, his eyes sharp and fierce.
Duke Jiu chuckled as he frankly admitted, “Yes, but also no.”
“The Great Tang has a law that in a court debate, all those related, including by blood, should recuse themselves. Jiuling should know this.”
Amongst the officials, only the Grand Preceptor, the leader of the civil officials, could directly address Duke Jiu as ‘Jiuling’. Both were old officials who had served under two Emperors, and both were over seventy.
“When recommending talent, view even those you have grudges with and your own son with an objective eye,” Duke Jiu said with a faint smile.
“But Wang Chong is your grandson!” The Grand Preceptor harshly stared at Duke Jiu.
“Haha, Zhongmi hasn’t changed at all from how you were back then.”
Duke Jiu softly chuckled, casting aside the Grand Preceptor’s accusations like they were the spring breeze. The Grand Preceptor was of such stature that even Imperial Princes like King Song and King Qi had to treat him with great respect, let alone officials like Jiang Yunrang and Yan Wenzhang. No one except perhaps Duke Jiu could speak the Grand Preceptor’s name in front of the assembled court.
“Even though that naughty grandson of mine is the cause of this Talas incident, at its basis, it is still a matter of war and peace. Thus, Wang Chong might be my grandson, but that is no reason for me to recuse myself from this debate.”
Duke Jiu extended his cane and continued forward.
Everyone in the hall followed him. Duke Jiu walked very slowly but steadily. Every person felt an unusual harmony from his body, like the soft drizzle of the spring rain silently becoming one with the entire world.
In the upper reaches of the hall, the Grand Preceptor’s face was ashen. This was no ordinary court debate, but one that concerned the root of the quarrel between civil and military officials. At a time like this, the person he least wanted to see was Wang Jiuling.
“Jiuling also heard the Grand Preceptor’s words. Jiuling has broken the exception and left Four Quarters Embassy to step into court to speak of a single matter. To seek peace through war will allow one to live in peace, but to seek peace through peace will cause one to die in peace. It was on this basis that when this old subject was a minister, when the Eastern and Western Turks were raiding the border, this old subject chose to lead an army to subjugate the Turkic steppe and defeat the Turks, even though this subject knew that negotiation was an option. It is precisely this war that bought ten-some years of peace, as the Turks did not dare to recklessly raid our borders.
“The Arabs have never had any relationship with this empire. If we seek peace before the war, the other party will think lightly of us, underestimate the Great Tang, and in the future, the Great Tang will be plunged into endless conflict. Thus, for the peace of the Great Tang and the people of the world, this old subject believes that Talas being reinforced as quickly as possible is the superior policy.”
With these words, Duke Jiu straightened his body, tidied his sleeves, and gave a deep bow.
The hall was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop. Duke Jiu was a renowned and admired minister, the architect of the Great Tang’s golden age. With his status, his words held an abnormal amount of weight. This did not merely arise from his perspective on the situation at Talas, but also the fact that he was speaking from his decades of experience as Prime Minister, experience that no one could deny.
To deny Duke Jiu was to deny the Great Tang’s golden age and its current peace and prosperity.
For a moment, the hall was eerily quiet. Everyone had a thoughtful expression on their face. Even civil officials like Yan Wenzhang, Zheng Chengli, and Zhou Taiqin looked pensive.
“Wonderful.”
Beneath the colonnade, King Song breathed a long sigh of relief. Not even he had predicted that Duke Jiu would leave the Four Quarters Embassy and come to court. The Grand Preceptor was an old official who had served under two Emperors and possessed such status that not even he, an Imperial Prince, could say much in front of him. If not for Duke Jiu, the matter of Talas would have been settled and they really would have been forced to retreat.
The Great Tang’s rule over the Western Regions would have been brought to an end and the trilateral alliance of the Arabs, Tibetans, and Western Turks would have inflicted endless disasters.
“Damn old thing, ruining my plans!”
No one was more furious than King Qi, his teeth clenched and his face twisted in rage. He had believed that he could use the power of the civil officials to thoroughly quash King Song and the Wang Clan. Little had he expected Duke Jiu to immediately wreck his plans. As for Grand Preceptor Zhan Zhongmi, his grimace was extremely unsightly.
“Jiuling, don’t forget that you are also a civil official!!” Zhan Zhongmi couldn’t help but warn.
In this most serious conflict between civil and military officials in the history of the Great Tang, the final reversal had not come from the military, but from a civil official. Zhan Zhongmi had never imagined this.
“Haha, many years ago, Zhongmi was like this in front of our teacher. How have you still not understood? Why do you still cling so rigidly to the divide of civil and military? In Jiuling’s heart, there is no distinction between civil and military, only a single country. All this is for the sake of the Great Tang and its people. With regards to Talas, only through war can we obtain peace, while seeking peace will only cause us to suffer the chaos of war. This is why Jiuling supports reinforcing the northwest!”
As Duke Jiu vigorously proclaimed these words, his face slowly turned grim.
Viewing both enemies and relatives with an objective eye, making no distinction between civil and military, placing the country above all—this was Duke Jiu!
Saying this was simple, but just how many people could actually do it?
Buzz!
Duke Jiu’s words caused the entire court to buzz with chatter, the officials exchanging glances as they talked. All of them only knew that Duke Jiu and the Grand Preceptor both belonged to the civil path, but based on what Duke Jiu had said, the two were actually fellow pupils. This relationship left all of them flabbergasted.
“Your Majesty, this old subject objects! A country might be vast, but a love of war will be its doom! The Great Tang is involved in wars year in and year out, expending enormous resources. It is not the time to start another border conflict with Arabia!” the Grand Preceptor harshly said.
“Your Majesty, this subject agrees with the venerable Grand Preceptor!” a resounding voice immediately declared. The icy King Qi suddenly stepped forward as he proclaimed his agreement. Duke Jiu’s words had too much weight in court, and King Qi was worried that if he did not speak out, he would not have a chance to do so in the future.
“This subject agrees!”
“This subject agrees!”
“This subject agrees!”
Now that the Grand Preceptor and King Qi had spoken, those civil officials who were firmly anti-war once more voiced their agreement, but their numbers were greatly reduced. It was obvious that Duke Jiu’s prestige in the court had had an effect.
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1038 - The Final Verdict!
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1038 - The Final Verdict!
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Chapter 1038: The Final Verdict!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Your Majesty, this subject objects!”
With a resounding voice, King Song stepped out of his rank, his expression solemn.
“Your Majesty, this subject objects!”
“Your Majesty, this subject objects!”
“Your Majesty, this subject objects!”
The generals were invigorated and added their cries to those of Duke Jiu and King Song. The generals and civil officials were once more in a stand-off, and just when it seemed like the quarrel was about to be renewed…
“Enough! We understand how to proceed.”
A dignified voice resounded from above like a god speaking from the highest heavens. The Sage Emperor had finally spoken.
“King Song, Zhangchou Jianqiong, the two of you are given full authority in this matter. Immediately mobilize the army to reinforce Talas. The memorial submitted by Gao Xianzhi and temporary Qixi Protector-General Wang Chong is entirely passed. Zheng Chengli, Zhou Taiqin, your Bureau of Revenue will do everything in its power to assist, supplying all the money and grain necessary. No mistakes are permitted. The other bureaus should provide their support as well!”
These words were issued from behind the bead curtain like laws, the entire world falling into a hush as it listened.
The Grand Preceptor, King Qi, and all the civil officials were struck dumb. No one had expected that the Sage Emperor would end this quarrel between civil and military officials like this. On the other end, Duke Jiu faintly smiled while King Song, Jiang Yunrang, and the other generals all inwardly rejoiced.
The words of the sovereign were no joking matter! No matter how intense the conflict between civil and military was, everything was settled once the Sage Emperor spoke.
“This subject will carry out the decree!”
All the generals in the hall loudly proclaimed their agreement. As for the civil officials, no matter how unwilling they were, even they had to lower their heads. The Sage Emperor did not lightly express his opinions, but once he did, there was no room for alteration.
“This old subject will carry out the decree!”
The officials of the Bureau of Revenue who had been mentioned by name, as well as all the other civil officials, proclaimed their agreement.
“Go!”
That divine and thunderous voice echoed through the hall. With the Sage Emperor’s decree, the entire Great Tang came to life like a giant war machine. Soldiers from various areas were summoned and readied to reinforce Talas.
……
Whoosh!
Not long after the Sage Emperor ended the court debate, a carrier pigeon took off into the sky, traveling with remarkable speed toward Anxi. Several days later, this carrier pigeon descended into Talas, but the shocks that it sent through the city made it seem like a plummeting meteor.
“Wonderful!”
All the generals in the city had gathered in the reception hall, and their faces were red with excitement. After many days of stalemate, the Imperial Court had finally decided to reinforce Talas. This was undoubtedly the best news everyone had heard in some time. Even Gao Xianzhi had been alarmed and left his cultivation.
Vice Protector-General Cheng Qianli placed his hands on the table and happily proclaimed, “Lord Protector-General, with the backing of the Sage Emperor and the Imperial Court, we’ll have much more initiative at Talas. We might even be able to defeat the Arabs.”
The Imperial Court had remained in a stalemate for far too long, but every important decision often required a long period of consideration. Moreover, they had asked the Imperial Court for reinforcements after achieving a victory, which was out of step with custom and made the proposal even more difficult to pass. Cheng Qianli had already begun to consider what the Anxi Protectorate army should do while the Imperial Court continued to delay.
“True! It’s definitely unprecedented for this decision to pass so quickly. King Song, the Beacon General, and all the military officials in court stood on our side. Even Duke Jiu appeared. But this matter still isn’t something worth being too happy about.”
After his initial excitement, Gao Xianzhi began to calm down, his brows slowly furrowing.
“The Imperial Court needs to defend too many places. In many places, pulling soldiers would affect the entire defensive situation, so there really aren’t many soldiers available. I worry that even with the Sage Emperor’s decree, the Imperial Court still won’t be able to send many soldiers.”
“Haha, Lord Protector-General worries too much. I’ve already taken care of everything. We can get at least twenty thousand soldiers from the capital, and if we add that to the soldiers from the various protectorates and the prefectural armies, we can get fifty to sixty thousand elite soldiers from the Imperial Court. For soldiers, quality over quantity. Although we still have far fewer than the Arabs, we have enough to fight a battle with them.”
“Oh?!”
The eyes of the gathered generals brightened in surprise. None of them were surprised about being able to get soldiers from the border protectorates, as this was something that Wang Chong and Gao Xianzhi had already finished negotiating. But all of them couldn’t help but confess their shock that the capital could send twenty thousand soldiers of its own.
Gao Xianzhi suddenly thought of something and cautiously asked, “Wang Chong, you want to transfer soldiers from the Imperial Army?”
Wang Chong gave a firm nod.
Boom!
This simple movement immediately threw the minds of the generals into turmoil. Even Gao Xianzhi and Cheng Qianli were stunned by Wang Chong’s bold action. They glanced at each other, too shocked for words.
Transferring soldiers from the Imperial Army!
Such a thing had never happened in all of history. The Imperial Army was responsible for protecting the capital and guarding the Emperor, and was not allowed to leave for just any reason. The Great Tang had been founded two-hundred-some years ago, and there had never been a case where soldiers were transferred from the Imperial Army while the border armies remained untouched. Gao Xianzhi and Cheng Qianli might have been supreme individuals of the empire, but not even they dared to imagine such a thing.
“Wang Chong, are you sure? Will the Imperial Court agree?”
“Lord Protector-General, all things stem from authority, and though there’s no precedent for this matter, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. The Imperial Court has one hundred thousand soldiers in the Imperial Army, and the various borders are all properly garrisoned. The Imperial Court faces no threats at this moment, making the Imperial Army the best place to transfer soldiers from. Don’t forget that the Arabs have sent out the Mamelukes this time, and will also be sending the Behemoth Army and the Skyquaking Army. When three Arab governors gather, ordinary soldiers won’t be able to hold against them,” Wang Chong sternly said.
“But transferring soldiers from the Imperial Army is no minor matter. If we do this, we will be roundly criticized by all the officials. And no one in the Bureau of Military Personnel, not even King Song or Zhangchou Jianqiong, has the authority to transfer soldiers from the Imperial Army!” Gao Xianzhi said. It wasn’t that he didn’t agree with Wang Chong, but this idea was simply too crazy and audacious!
“Haha, General doesn’t even fear death, but you fear the scholar’s brush?”
Wang Chong grinned.
“The Sage Emperor rarely interferes in the politics of the court, but now that the Sage Emperor has spoken, we have a major advantage on our side. As long as you and I write another memorial, I am confident His Majesty will agree.”
These casually said words from Wang Chong left Gao Xianzhi, Cheng Qianli, and all the other generals fearful and anxious.
Gao Xianzhi and Cheng Qianli exchanged speechless glances.
Only Wang Chong remained unperturbed and composed. In truth, the generals had nothing to do with the Great Tang’s current situation. The true director of this all was the Sage Emperor. The civil officials criticized the generals as being fond of war, but it was really the Sage Emperor that was fond of war. It was precisely through his support that the Great Tang had reached its current size and situation.
Gao Xianzhi and Cheng Qianli were still a little hesitant, but Wang Chong knew that as long as they asked, the Sage Emperor would agree.
Seeing the mood in the room, Wang Chong added the final weight to tip the scales. “Milord, this chance only comes once. If we don’t do our utmost to transfer soldiers now, requesting soldiers from the Imperial Army won’t be of any help once we lose Talas.”
“This… Fine!” At these words, Gao Xianzhi clenched his teeth and made up his mind.
“Qianli, I’ll leave this matter to you and Protector-General Wang. But if we do this, there’s no going back!”
The first sentence was for Cheng Qianli, but for the second sentence, Gao Xianzhi turned his head to Wang Chong. By bringing in the Imperial Army, the entire matter would take on a completely different nature. If they were defeated, both Wang Chong and Gao Xianzhi could put aside any thought of further advancement.
“We could never go back in the first place.”
Wang Chong faintly smiled, not a hint of hesitation in his eyes. All that was lacking in his preparations was the final touch. There had been no going back for Wang Chong for a very long time.
A few moments later, an eagle soared into the skies of Talas, carrying to the capital a memorial drafted by Wang Chong and Cheng Qianli, and stamped with Gao Xianzhi’s seal. Just as Wang Chong had expected, this request set off a storm.
But before the civil officials of the court could even begin their criticisms, the Sage Emperor issued a decree that left all of them dumbfounded.
“Granted!”
This simple word quashed all debate, ending the crisis before it even erupted. The Imperial Army had a special status, but if the Sage Emperor had given the order, not even the civil officials could say anything. Moreover, Wang Chong had requested only ten thousand soldiers from the Imperial Army, exactly one-tenth. This number was neither too large nor too small. It was exactly the limit the important officials of court could accept, and would not affect the Imperial Army’s duty of guarding the capital too significantly.
……
In the northwest region of the capital, a muscular and stalwart figure was seated cross-legged within an elegant hall built in an ancient style. As he sat motionless, waves of energy flowed off his body. Behind him stood an upright Wootz Steel saber more than seven feet long, making the man appear even larger and mightier. But if one looked again, one would notice that both this man and the Wootz Steel saber were floating in the air. Those who could float in the air while cultivating were at least at the Brigadier General level.
Marshal of the Imperial Army, Zhao Fengchen!
This man was the number four individual of the capital’s Imperial Army and was also climbing the ranks the fastest. Other than the three Grand Marshals, Zhao Fengchen wielded the most authority in the Imperial Army.
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1039 - Move Out, Supreme Army!
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1039 - Move Out, Supreme Army!
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Chapter 1039: Move Out, Supreme Army!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Rumble! Vast amounts of Stellar Energy surged within Zhao Fengchen’s body, moving faster and faster, and Zhao Fengchen’s aura continued to swell.
When his Stellar Energy circulation reached its maximum speed, there was an enormous boom. In that moment, a vast blue energy exploded out from Zhao Fengchen’s head and into the sky.
From a distance, it was possible to see that this blue beam of energy had pierced through the roof of the hall and straight into the heavens. It seemed as sturdy and as heavy as steel, causing the ground in this northwest corner of the Imperial Palace to tremble.
After some time, that enormous pillar of energy slowly faded and everything returned to serenity. At this moment, Zhao Fengchen finally opened his eyes.
“Alas, just a little bit short…”
A bright light flashed through Zhao Fengchen’s eyes as he slowly retracted his energy and dropped down from the air.
Clang! Zhao Fengchen reached out his hand, and the Wootz Steel saber behind him immediately buzzed and flew into it as if it had a life of its own. The weight of that saber and that feeling like it was an extension of his body made Zhao Fengchen smile with pride.
Earth’s Scar!
This was the name of the Wootz Steel saber Wang Chong had forged for him.
An ancient and powerful technique had been passed on through the generations of the Zhao Clan that only the people of Zhao Clan could cultivate. But even so, cultivating this technique was still extremely difficult. Only those of the Zhao Clan with a special bloodline trait had the ability to cultivate this technique.
Zhao Fengchen was the only member of his clan in the last one hundred years with this trait. But this ancient technique was so overbearing that Zhao Fengchen had been unable to find any saber or sword in the capital that could suit it. The precious swords and sabers of the great clans would explode into pieces from the tyrannical Stellar Energy of the technique before Zhao Fengchen had even finished cultivating half of the technique.
There had been cases where the swords and sabers of the capital had broken, but none had exploded into pieces in any other circumstance. From this, one could easily imagine just how overbearing and tyrannical Zhao Fengchen’s technique was.
This was the reason Zhao Fengchen bought so many swords and sabers in the capital. All of them had let him down, until he met Wang Chong and Earth’s Scar.
This saber had finally allowed Zhao Fengchen to break through the bottleneck and display his powerful talent in martial arts. In this short year, his strength had risen by leaps and bounds to its current astonishing level, and he had even attained the rank of Marshal within the Imperial Army. Zhao Fengchen was bursting with gratitude toward Wang Chong!
It seems like I will need a very long time to finally break into the Great General level! Zhao Fengchen said to himself.
He had reached the Brigadier General level long ago, after which he had put all his strength into breaking into the Great General level. Alas, he had failed time and time again. The gap between Great General and Brigadier General didn’t seem very big, but Zhao Fengchen was well aware that it was not something as simple as distance. It was not something that could be overcome through enough effort or Stellar Energy.
Flapflap! His silent stupor was suddenly broken by the flapping of wings. With merely a thought from Zhao Fengchen, the door to the hall opened with a thump, upon which a black eagle flew in.
“It’s a letter from the Grand Marshal!”
Just a glance at the eagle was enough for Zhao Fengchen to come to this realization, and he swiftly opened the letter tied to its leg. He was at first dazed by the contents of this letter, but then he gave a knowing smile.
“Wang Chong, it seems like I’m going to meet you very soon.”
With this smile on his face, Zhao Fengchen quickly left the hall.
“Pass on my order! All members of the Xuanwu Army, prepare to move out!”
A few moments later, the most unique unit in the one hundred thousand soldiers of the Imperial Army began to move.
Rumble!
A few hours later, the western gates of the Imperial Palace, which had never been opened before, suddenly flew apart. The earth began to shake as if invisible giants were slamming their hands against the ground. In the blink of an eye, a massive black flood had poured out of the gates, thousands of black-armored imperial soldiers howling forth.
Unlike the other imperial soldiers, their armor gave off a mighty and serene aura, as well as a sensation of incredible weight. Each suit of armor seemed to be at least twice the weight of the armor that normal imperial soldiers wore. Just wearing this armor would probably consume a great deal of strength, much less fighting in it.
But these black-armored imperial soldiers appeared to feel nothing at all.
As dust churned and the earth rumbled, the eight thousand soldiers sallied forth from the gate. At that moment, the rest of the world was silent, bereft of birds and beasts. Even the insects down below seemed to have burrowed away out of fear.
“This… Why have I never seen this unit of the Imperial Army before?”
“What an impressive aura! These fellows are quite strong!”
“Shhh! Be quiet! Don’t you see the look in their eyes?”
The peddlers and civilians on the road backed up in fear at the approach of these soldiers. Those who had lived long in the capital knew the Imperial Army like the back of their hand, but they had never seen or heard of this unit of soldiers.
But despite the ruckus of the crowd, these eight thousand imperial soldiers retained an absolute calm. In their advance, the only sound was that of the warhorses.
In just a few moments, the eight thousand soldiers had vanished into the city like ghosts.
……
Meanwhile, at Imperial Heaven Pillar Mountain one hundred li from the capital, a secret stone gate at the back of the mountain opened. A few moments later, around four thousand soldiers marched out of the mountainside. These four thousand soldiers had pale complexions, and their bodies exploded with a sharp and fierce energy, like swords unsheathed.
If one looked carefully, one would realize that every step these people took left deep sword slashes on the ground. Moreover, the auras exuded by these four thousand soldiers were exactly alike. They had clearly undergone the same training and cultivated the same technique.
As these people walked, the expressions on their faces were identical. One had the intimidating sensation that all of them were a part of a single person.
It didn’t take long for the four thousand men to completely emerge and stand motionless in front of the mountain.
“Soldiers are trained for a thousand days to be used in a single moment. I presume that you all understand what today means.”
Wang Chong’s little uncle Wang Mi, dressed in full armor, stood in front of the stone gate, his eyes slowly surveying the soldiers.
“Eight months is already up. Now is the time for all of you to leave the mountain and test your skills, to let the world and our enemies experience your capabilities! Do you understand?”
His stentorian voice resounded over the mountain.
“Yes!!”
The four thousand soldiers all got down on one knee and lowered their heads. The air buzzed as they roared as one, four thousand men condensed into a single whole. Energy gathered above these soldiers, forming into an enormous saber ten-some zhang tall.
This saber was broad and enormous, and so sharp and fierce that it seemed capable of cleaving open the heavens.
Wang Mi gave a satisfied nod. Suddenly, he began to think back to Wang Chong’s words when he first began to train this group of soldiers.
‘Little Uncle, this unit of soldiers is extremely important to me! This scroll is the technique they should cultivate. Have them cultivate it day and night, and don’t have them train in anything else. I hope that an entirely new force of soldiers can be trained, and in the future, I will need them for an extremely important occasion. Little Uncle, I entrust this to you!’
At that time, Wang Chong had been standing in front of a bamboo forest with an extremely solemn expression on his face.
At that time, Wang Mi had seemed to be infected by this solemnity and had nodded his head. Wang Mi hadn’t understood what Wang Chong was talking about back then, but when he had trained the soldiers up to a certain level and had begun to train with them, he had finally understood.
Wang Chong had entrusted him with an exceptionally powerful unit of soldiers to be trained at Imperial Heaven Pillar Mountain. And now was the time to reap the harvest.
Hiss!
Wang Mi took in a deep breath as he came to his senses.
“Prepare armor for them. They need to be ready to move out in three days!” Wang Mi said without turning his head.
“As you command, Milord!” an instructor of Imperial Heaven Pillar Mountain replied.
Several hours later, all four thousand men were equipped, and set off like a storm sweeping out from Imperial Heaven Pillar Mountain.
“Chong-er, this is all your little uncle can help you with. I’ve helped you train this Divine Prison Army. Take it as a gift from your uncle. The rest is up to you!”
Wang Mi watched from midway up the mountain as the army marched away.
……
As the eight thousand soldiers of the Xuanwu Army trained by Zhao Fengchen and Li Lin as well as the four thousand soldiers of the Divine Prison Army departed from the capital toward the Western Regions, night fell. The entire capital was quiet, everyone sound asleep. Very few people knew that outside that most admired and most unique place in the capital, the Su Residence, around four thousand people dressed in simple clothes were silently waiting for orders, their heads lowered to the ground.
This estate was more than one hundred years old, and many areas were already showing signs of decay. But to the military and all soldiers, this place was a true holy land.
Because this place was home to the legendary War God, Su Zhengchen.
As the night deepened, a chill began to set in.
The four thousand people were dressed in thin clothes, but they remained motionless out of fear of disturbing the person within the residence. They even sought to suppress their breathing so that there was no sound except that of the cold wind.
After they had stood outside for some time, finally…
“Come in!”
An elderly voice came from within, flat and dry, like the voice of an ordinary old man on the street. Creeeak! As the old man spoke, the side gate of the Su Residence opened. Several figures amongst the four thousand could no longer hold themselves back and raised their reddened faces in excitement.
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1040 - The Geniuses of the Tibetan Great Clans!
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1040 - The Geniuses of the Tibetan Great Clans!
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Chapter 1040: The Geniuses of the Tibetan Great Clans!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The Great Tang War God!
No one had imagined that this mythical existence of the Great Tang would truly be willing to accept them and even personally train them.
Hiss!
After taking in a deep breath, these people who had raised their heads managed to suppress their agitation, their long training and self-discipline compelling them to lower their heads back down. In a cold gust of wind, the four thousand men filed into the Su Residence. Behind them, a child of seven or eight appeared. After smiling to the outside, he pushed the side gate closed with a creak.
With the closing of this side gate, the Su Residence seemed to become a separate dimension. The auras of these four thousand people vanished as if no one had ever entered.
“Senior Brother, I helped you a great deal. You’d better not forget to thank me once you get back from the Western Regions.”
This Little Jianjian, who had played a spectator to the chess matches between Wang Chong and Su Zhengchen under the ancient scholar tree, and was also Su Zhengchen’s true disciple, looked up to the sky and smiled. He spread apart his hands, allowing an eagle with wings fringed with gold to shoot up into the sky and fly off to the west.
This eagle that Wang Chong had requested Old Eagle give to him could finally perform its duty.
……
The Sage Emperor’s decrees were like an invisible catalyst, pushing the machinery of the Great Tang into motion. Within the palace, in Imperial Heaven Pillar Mountain, and in the Su Residence, Wang Chong was training up an army of unprecedented quality. Meanwhile, Zhangchou Jianqiong and King Song were rapidly pushing proposals through the Bureau of Military Personnel.
With the backing of the Sage Emperor, these proposals were carried out very quickly and messages were sent in every direction. Andong, Beiting, Longxi, Annan… these border protectorates that were military strongholds of the Great Tang also began to move. In this aspect, Zhangchou Jianqiong and King Song had applied the advice Wang Chong had given them in a private letter.
Quality was better than quantity when it came to soldiers. The protectorates should send their elite soldiers and best generals to reinforce Talas and stand against the Arabs!
To their surprise, these protectorates which would normally try every method to resist, provide less, or just pay lip service to the court were abnormally cooperative.
……
“It’s about enough! Sili, the Imperial Court has sent its decree, so we can be considered to be mobilizing according to imperial decree. Remember, the teeth will grow cold if the lips die. The two protectorate armies led by Gao Xianzhi and Wang Chong are the very front line against the Arabs, our greatest defense. If they are defeated, our Big Dipper Army will be next, so no matter what sort of grudges existed in the past between Wang Chong and the Big Dipper Army, I need you to put them aside for now and work with him!”
A solemn-faced Geshu Han stood upon a platform, dressed in full armor, his aloof and muscular figure appearing like that of a god.
“Great General, be at ease. This general understands!”
Wang Sili got down on one knee and bowed before Geshu Han. Behind him were three thousand soldiers of the Divine Martial Army with auras as vast as mountains and as sharp as unsheathed swords, together with four thousand hand-picked elites of the Big Dipper Army.
Longxi was an area of frequent warfare, and all of these elites were veterans of many battles, honed into the finest of Tang soldiers.
“Very good! In this operation, we step onto the plateau in a full-on offensive. Once the battle is over, you can lead your army to Talas without any need to report!”
As Geshu Han finished speaking, he pressed his right hand on the sword at his waist. Clang! He pulled out his sword and pointed it at the looming Tibetan Plateau to the west. As the winds blew around him, Geshu Han’s aura became as firm as steel and his eyes oozed disdain.
“Move out!”
The dark clouds churned and the winds howled against the walls of Big Dipper City as if in answer to this call. Warhorses neighed as the gates of Big Dipper City fully opened for the first time, allowing all twenty thousand soldiers of the Big Dipper Army to pour out in their first full mobilization.
Bwoooom!
Their blaring horns resounded over the plateau!
……
Long before the Big Dipper Army set out, six thousand cavalry had already galloped out of Youzhou in a flood of steel, riding from the northeast to the northwest. Amongst all the protectorates of the Great Tang, the most leisurely was the Andong Protectorate, and the Protector-General facing the least pressure was Andong Protector-General Zhang Shougui.
Even when transferring soldiers, Zhang Shougui was brazen and unconcerned.
Youzhou was a complicated land. It was adjacent to the Xi, the Khitans, the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, and also the powerful Yeon Gaesomun and his Goguryeo Empire. But the side that had the extreme advantage was not these factions with the numerical advantage, but Zhang Shougui’s Andong Protectorate army and the Youzhou cavalry.
Zhang Shougui!
This was the second most powerful person in the Sage Emperor’s generation. His name alone was enough to suppress the northeast and make everyone think twice. Even the ambitious and mighty Yeon Gaesomun could only stand upon the high walls of Bisa Fortress1 and lament!
Gallop!
As the six thousand Youzhou cavalry gradually drew farther away, two figures watched them go, one tall and one plump. One was Baizhen Tuoluo and the other… An Yaluoshan!
An Yaluoshan had a complicated look in his eyes as he watched these soldiers leave.
In his journey to the capital, An Yaluoshan’s lifelong brother, Ashina Sugan, had died at the hands of that man, and he himself had nearly been buried with him. Even now, An Yaluoshan did not understand why it had all happened. Why did that scion that he had never met loathe him so deeply, as if there existed a blood feud between them?
“Could we… is there a chance…”
An Yaluoshan’s eyes flashed as he hesitated, his hands clenching into fists several times.
“There’s no chance!”
Before An Yaluoshan even had time to finish, Baizhen Tuoluo cut him off.
“You know Lord Protector-General’s style. No one dares to play tricks in front of him. Hold on for a little longer… Once the time is right, we will have our chance.”
……
On the plateau, the grass shivered in the turbulent winds. As the Great Tang’s soldiers marched toward Qixi and Anxi from various directions, black floods of metal were converging on the Tibetan Plateau.
These soldiers all wore the plate armor unique to the Tibetans, but the form, color, and emblems on these armors were all different, clearly indicating that they belonged to different factions.
But no matter what great clan, noble house, or royal lineage these people came from, they all shared the same trait. Each of their bodies surged with formidable Stellar Energy.
“Has everyone arrived?” a Tibetan general wearing dark-red armor standing at the very front of the army suddenly said.
This Tibetan general had a thick mustache and a slim body bursting with strength. Most distinctive of all was the dazzling light bursting out of his right palm like a sharp blade.
If one looked carefully, one would find that he was rather similar to the Dayan Mangban that Wang Chong had killed.
“Dayan Ersongrong! I didn’t think that the Dayan Clan would also summon you to assist Dalun Ruozan.”
Across from the man, a Tibetan general of some thirty years, with two Tibetan scimitars slung across his back, rode toward Dayan Ersongrong upon a pitch-black steed with a smooth and glossy coat.
“Didn’t the Darlag Clan also call you out from the Great Snow Mountain Holy Temple?” Dayan Ersongrong indifferently replied to Darlag Nyetsai.
“Let’s not talk about all this. The black corrosion of the sun has alarmed even the Great Snow Mountain Holy Temple. Otherwise, the Holy Temple would have never have let so many of us return to our clans.”
The bright-eyed young genius of the Qili Clan, Qili Sulong, rode over from another direction.
In a flash, all the Tibetan generals fell silent and gave each other silent nods of understanding.
The Great Snow Mountain Holy Temple was the holy land for the entire Tibetan Plateau and possessed a transcendent status within the Ü-Tsang Empire. Although the Holy Temple did not participate in secular war, it had always been inextricably connected to the ancient houses like the Dusong, Dayan, Qili, and Darlag Clans.
Every year, the great clans would have a quota with which they could send the brightest youths of their clans to the Great Snow Mountain Holy Temple to participate in an assessment. Those who passed had the right to enter the Great Snow Mountain Holy Temple and study martial arts with the masters of its outer temple.
The Great Snow Mountain Holy Temple was divided into an inner and outer temple. The inner temple was the true sacred land where the high priest cultivated. It was at the summit of the Great Snow Mountain and was forbidden to all. Not even someone like Dayan Ersongrong, who had cultivated in the Great Snow Mountain Holy Temple for ten-some years, had ever entered that place or seen the high priest, much less anyone else.
And though the outer temple could not be compared to the inner temple, all of its techniques would be supreme techniques in the outside world. Huoshu Huicang’s Vairocana Buddha Golden Body Mantra and Dayan Mangban’s Great Snow Mountain Evil Dragon Art had both come from that place.
The rules of the Great Snow Mountain Holy Temple were incredibly strict. Other than one’s own cultivation area, it was forbidden to casually stroll around the mountain. Without permission, one could also not leave the mountain. That this many people had descended the mountain at the same time was definitely abnormal.
“The imperial oracle is no minor matter!” A loud and dignified voice suddenly shattered the silence. “‘The danger rises from the east.’ All of you should have heard this. And all of you probably already know why your clans have summoned you and are sending troops to Talas. If we can defeat them at Talas, Anxi and Qixi will fall into our hands. This will be the collapse of the Great Tang and the opening to a new era in this world. Only by defeating and toppling the Great Tang can we possibly avoid the disaster predicted by the oracle, can all the great clans survive.”
Startled, everyone turned to see a swarthy-faced general slowly riding a red horse out from the rear.
______________
1. Bisa Fortress was another one of the forts that Goguryeo built along its border with the Tang. This fortress was located in current-day Jinzhou County in Dalian.↩
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1041 - Great Distortion Art!
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1041 - Great Distortion Art!
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Chapter 1041: Great Distortion Art!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The swarthy-faced general had a vast aura that showed telltale signs of a Great General’s demeanor. This was clearly someone who had reached the peak of the Brigadier General level.
If one focused their senses, they would realize that this man’s vast aura contained a sliver of fierce and crazed murderous intent. It was like a cruel and savage beast had disguised itself in the fur of another beast, but it had left its sharp canines for all to see.
“Dama Trimo!”
A talented youth from one of the great clans couldn’t help but gasp in shock at the sight of this general, immediately recognizing him. Several others also appeared stunned as they retreated backward in fear.
Dama Trimo!
This was the number two individual of the Ü-Tsang Empire’s Yarlung Royal Lineage, a terrifying peak Brigadier General. But this was not why people feared him. Dama Trimo had also once studied martial arts at the Great Snow Mountain Holy Temple, but his murderous nature was too great, and the martial arts he cultivated were also extremely murderous. In addition, Dama Trimo was a capricious man who had once committed murder in the Great Snow Mountain Holy Temple. For this crime, the masters of the Holy Temple ran chains through his bones and hung him from the cliffs at the back of the Great Snow Mountain for seven years.
Only after his murderous intent had greatly decreased did they finally release him. He was later placed under the Yarlung Royal Lineage’s Great General Namri Songtian. Even with Namri Songtian’s formidable Great General cultivation, he just barely managed to suppress Dama Trimo’s killing intent and demonic energy. Even so, it was rumored that Dama Trimo would occasionally fall into madness and kill his own men.
For this reason, Namri Songtian would only send him out for extremely important wars.
No one had expected that this demonic killing god suppressed by Great General Namri Songtian would be released, and it appeared like there was no one around to control him. Someone of his murderous nature was highly likely to end up killing everyone here.
“Hmph!”
Dama Trimo coldly snorted as he swept his eyes over the crowd, already seeing the fear in their hearts.
“Relax. The Holy Temple gifted me a Buddha knife to suppress my martial arts and murderous nature, so I won’t be attacking any of you.”
Dama Trimo scornfully laughed and then patted his back. It was only then that everyone noticed that Dama Trimo was carrying a golden dagger on his back. A red ‘卍’ was carved onto the sheath, and from a distance, one could feel a pure Buddhist energy within the blade of this dagger.
Hiss!
This Buddhist dagger with the brand of the Great Snow Mountain Holy Temple and the calm expression on Dama Trimo’s face made everyone breathe a sigh of relief.
“Paying respects to General!”
Everyone lowered their heads.
Dama Trimo was a legendary figure of the outer temple, and he was far stronger than anyone else present. Only Great Generals were capable of suppressing him.
“Hmph, let’s go. Talas has people I can kill. I have no interest in any of you!”
With a cold laugh, Dama Trimo rode through the crowd.
Behind him, Dayan Ersongrong, Darlag Nyetsai, and the other experts of the plateau’s ancient clans exchanged thoughtful glances. Afterward, the forty thousand elites from the tribes and clans of the plateau gathered together into a single flood that began to make its way toward Dalun Ruozan.
……
Time slowly passed. To the north, past Ü-Tsang, in the distant city of Talas, Stellar Energy was raging through an elegant study, coiling around it like an enormous python and cramming into every nook and cranny. In the center of this frenzied stream of Stellar Energy were the dazzling images of the sun and moon.
If one looked carefully, one would discover that a youth was seated cross-legged beneath the sun and moon. This figure was the center of this room. All the Stellar Energy circled around the room before eventually flowing into Wang Chong’s body.
The Great Destruction Art!
This was the final and strongest move of the Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art. There was a saying that went ‘One produced Two, Two produced Three, and Three produced all things’. In the martial arts of the Central Plains, the Supreme and Infinite Origin Immortal Art was ‘One’ and it was also the strongest technique in the world.
Although the Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art was inferior to the Supreme and Infinite Origin Immortal Art, it was also extremely powerful. For this reason, the Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art represented ‘Two’. It could be seen through the Dao of Yin and Yang, the root of the heavens and earth, and the rising and falling of the sun and moon.
When the Yinyang Energy of the Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art reached its extreme, one could use the Yinyang Art to cultivate the Great Destruction Art.
This technique was the strongest technique of the evil path and was also the technique the Demonic Emperor Old Man used to dominate the world. Countless experts and old seniors of both the righteous and evil path had died to this technique. But this great power came with excruciating difficulty.
If Wang Chong hadn’t absorbed the enormous Stellar Energy reserves of the King of Giants Ghareeb Hassam, bringing him to the peak Brigadier General level, he wouldn’t have had the ability to cultivate the Great Destruction Art. Even so, cultivating this technique was still extremely challenging.
The Great Destruction Art had three minor levels. The first level was the Great Distortion Art, the third level was the Great Spacetime Art, and the third and complete level was the Great Destruction Art!
Each level was more difficult to cultivate than the previous two supreme techniques Wang Chong had learned.
Buzz!
After some time, the motionless images of the golden sun and red moon on Wang Chong’s shoulders began to slowly approach each other. Boom! Suddenly, the thick coils of Stellar Energy in the room shone golden and red, and began to fuse with each other. Space began to twist and blur as if some invisible hand was clenching and twisting it.
If one looked from one side, one wouldn’t be able to see what was happening on the other. All objects seemed to lose their original appearance while the rumbling Stellar Energy seemed to feel even more dangerous than before.
Kaclack!
The first to be affected were the wooden floorboards of the room. They began to bend upward, with fibers peeling off them as they did so. Rumble! As the Stellar Energy surged past, the floorboards transformed into tens of thousands of wooden fibers that were swept up to spin around the room with the rest of the Stellar Energy flood.
Crackcrackcrack! The porcelain cups in the room began to shatter, these fine and exquisite pieces exploding into white powder. This debris joined the wooden fibers in spinning furiously around the room.
Following the porcelain were the wooden tables and shelves. They vanished in the blink of an eye, transformed into countless tiny pieces that joined the Stellar Energy pythons coiling around the room. At the very end, even the two simple beast-shaped incense burners fell to the pressure. Tiny cracks began to spread along their metal surfaces, and then they completely collapsed.
The Lord of Talas was extremely rich, and his two incense burners had been exquisitely crafted by the best Arab smiths. Even those precious Arabian sabers and swords could only leave shallow marks on these incense burners, but Wang Chong’s Stellar Energy had caused these incense burners made of refined iron to explode into tiny metal grains.
And it was still far from over. The pressure in the room was only increasing, as was the energy bursting from Wang Chong’s body. The golden sun and red moon intensified in color and brightness. Swoosh! A black spatial crack appeared in the distorted air above Wang Chong, followed by a second, a third…
These thin black cracks were all mouths that opened into a dreadful abyss.
Bang!
Suddenly, a trace of inharmonious energy flitted through the room, like a lightning bolt in the middle of a storm. In that moment, all those expanding cracks vanished, and even that furious flood of Stellar Energy in the room dissipated into nothing.
Bzzz! Without the support of the Stellar Energy, the wooden fibers, grains of metal, and porcelain powder dropped to the ground. Peace and serenity were restored to the room.
“Haaa, what a pity. I was just a little off!”
With a soft sigh, Wang Chong opened his eyes. As he glanced at the devastation around him, he quickly stood up.
The Great Destruction Art was the strongest of the three techniques and also the most difficult to cultivate. Wang Chong had originally planned to cultivate the Great Distortion Art and then begin working on the Great Spacetime Art, but… he had failed. Yet Wang Chong had not come away empty-handed.
Although he had failed, Wang Chong had received a great boost to both his physical energy and Psychic Energy. His Stellar Energy had also increased and become much fiercer.
Wang Chong raised his head and said, “Someone, clean this room up.”
“Yes, Milord!” A respectful voice came from outside.
Wang Chong nodded and stepped over the debris to reach the door. Hwooo! Upon opening the door, he was immediately greeted by a cold blast of wind. Wang Chong narrowed his eyes as he felt a slight chill.
The weather’s getting colder and colder, Wang Chong silently noted.
Dark clouds had gathered above Talas and the air was frigid. According to the usual seasons of the Western Regions, there was still quite some time until snowfall, but Wang Chong could already feel the temperature dropping. There were many places in the city where stoves had been lit to drive away the cold.
Bang!
As Wang Chong was thinking, he was suddenly interrupted by the sounds of scuffle mixed with shouts in the Hu language.
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1042 - The Mo Saber Unit Takes Form!
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1042 - The Mo Saber Unit Takes Form!
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Chapter 1042: The Mo Saber Unit Takes Form!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“What’s going on?”
Wang Chong frowned as he glanced in the direction of the noise, at the same time calling over a soldier of the Anxi Protectorate army.
“Milord, it is the people of the Qiluo Tribe. Several lambs froze to death last night, and the Qiluo people say that lambs freezing to death before winter is an inauspicious sign and they want to leave,” the Anxi Protectorate army soldier reported.
The Anxi Protectorate army had spent many years in the Western Regions, and the majority knew a few Hu languages and understood the tribes of the Western Regions. When Wang Chong’s army arrived at Talas, he had entrusted the coordination of the Western Regions tribes to the Anxi Protectorate army.
“Lambs froze to death?”
Wang Chong’s brow creased.
“We also found it rather strange. Lambs freezing to death isn’t too big of a concern, but the Qiluo people regard lambs very highly. They say that with the care of the mother, lambs would never freeze to death under normal circumstances. In the past, the lambs have always been able to survive, with only two or three occasionally freezing to death. But this year, snow hasn’t even fallen, yet ten-some lambs have already died. The Qiluo say that this is an ill omen.”
The Anxi Protectorate army soldier lowered his head and bowed.
Wang Chong’s brow creased even more tightly. A thought came to him, and those ideas in his mind became clearer and clearer. But Wang Chong said nothing.
“How are you prepared to handle this matter?” Wang Chong said.
This was a crucial period in the war preparations, and these tribes of the Western Regions were responsible for the resupplying of the Qixi Protectorate army and Anxi Protectorate army. This tribe could not be allowed to leave at this time. If the Qiluo Tribe were allowed to leave, the other tribes would also begin to demand to leave, which would have a massive effect on the two protectorate armies.
“General Cheng has already brought Ferghanan Chief Banahan with him to resolve the matter. Banahan has a significant reputation in the Western Regions, so this matter should be settled soon,” the Anxi Protectorate army soldier said.
Wang Chong gave a slight nod at these words, and his creased brows unfurled. It seemed like Gao Xianzhi had also realized the severity of this problem and had dispatched Cheng Qianli and Banahan to handle it. With these two important figures stepping forward, the problem of the Qiluo people would be quickly resolved.
“Tell General Cheng that if this situation happens again, tell the tribes of the Western Regions that the Great Tang will pay compensation for any livestock that have frozen to death,” Wang Chong said.
“Yes, Milord!”
The Anxi soldier froze for a few moments, but he soon bowed and went off to deliver the message.
The Anxi Protectorate army and the Qixi Protectorate army were currently administering their own armies, but in order to improve communication and coordination, they had stationed soldiers in each other’s camp to accept any assignments from the other side. This soldier of the Anxi Protectorate army standing outside Wang Chong’s door had been dispatched by Gao Xianzhi to Wang Chong’s side.
After sending off the Anxi Protectorate army soldier, Wang Chong whistled over the White-hoofed Shadow and rode off toward the training ground in the western part of the city.
Talas had three training grounds, which could hold two hundred thousand people in total. The first training ground was occupied by the Wushang Cavalry while the second training ground had been taken by Wang Chong to train the most unique kind of soldiers in all of Talas.
Hwooooo! The cold winds howled around Wang Chong as he rode toward the second training ground, but before he had even arrived, he could sense an intense shaking. Unlike the rumbling of a cavalry charge, this was a shaking that came like the beating of waves, carrying a certain cadence. At the same time, it was also accompanied by shouting.
“Ho!”
“Ha!”
These shouts were bursting with vigor and energy, all of them imbued with a fearless resolve that would never retreat.
The Mo Saber Unit!
Wang Chong faintly smiled as he urged his horse forward, and he soon arrived at the second training ground.
This enormous training ground was paved with gray brick, its edges lined with wooden mannequins. On the training ground, nearly ten thousand elite soldiers had divided themselves into three human walls and were in the middle of bitter training. Each of them wielded a thick iron cudgel more than seven feet long, and each of them was repeating the same three simple actions: hack, slash, sweep.
Although these actions were simple, the sensation of these ten thousand soldiers performing the same action in unison was truly intimidating to behold.
“Hey!”
“Ha!”
All these soldiers’ faces were red, their backs caked with sweat. All their strength was put into repeating these simple actions.
“Milord!”
Upon seeing Wang Chong, the Gangke King, Xi Yuanqing, and Lou Shiyi went up to welcome him.
“The Mo Saber Unit has already begun to take form. Milord, please inspect!”
The three gazed at Wang Chong with eyes full of respect. The Mo Saber Unit had been Wang Chong’s idea and had received Gao Xianzhi’s firm support. Moreover, he had ordered the Anxi Protectorate army to fully cooperate with Wang Chong in this endeavor. Everyone had been influenced by these two Protector-Generals into putting all their focus and strength into this day-and-night training. However, only Wang Chong could evaluate their actual performance.
Wang Chong said nothing as he slowly swept his eyes over the training ground, but even he had to admit that the training carried out by Xi Yuanqing, Lou Shiyi, and the Gangke King had surpassed his expectations. Of course, Xi Yuanqing and Lou Shiyi were both veteran generals of the Anxi Protectorate army who had participated in numerous battles. With the cooperation of these two, his Mo Saber Unit would be able to develop much faster than expected.
But Wang Chong did not lightly open his mouth. Suddenly…
Bang!
Under the flabbergasted gazes of Xi Yuanqing, Lou Shiyi, and the Gangke King, Wang Chong turned around and unleashed an incredible pressure. The air rumbled as this almost tangible energy engulfed the training ground, impacting with the Mo Saber Unit.
Waaaa! This abrupt assault left the group of Mo Saber soldiers training closest to Wang Chong in a state of turmoil.
With Wang Chong’s current level of strength and his formidable Psychic Energy, he could produce a pressure that no ordinary soldier could endure. The entire Mo Saber Unit had their training disturbed, the turmoil traveling through their ranks like a chain of dominoes.
But just when the Mo Saber Unit was about to collapse, the situation suddenly changed. Those ten thousand Mo Saber soldiers had originally been training individually, but under Wang Chong’s stimulation, they seemed to awaken. All their auras merged into a single whole, one that was as tough as steel and even more terrifying than Wang Chong’s pressure.
A second later, this vast pressure collided with mountain-toppling momentum against Wang Chong’s pressure. The earth trembled for a moment while the air over the training ground exploded with a metallic clattering.
Neigh!
Wang Chong’s White-hoofed Shadow let out a cry as it suddenly took several steps back.
“Milord!”
Xi Yuanqing, Lou Shiyi, and the Gangke King all urged their horses forward in shock.
“I’m fine!”
Wang Chong waved his right hand and stopped them before they could arrive. As he gazed at that steely wall of energy formed by the ten thousand Mo Saber soldiers, his eyes shone with a sharp light and a joyful smile appeared on his face.
The strongest point of the Mo Saber soldiers was not their individual strength, but the fusion of their energies into a single defensive wall, both impregnable and fierce. They would be both a steel wall and a forest of sabers. The energies of ten thousand warriors fused into one could kill gods and demons. It was precisely this kind of invincible resolve that made them invincible when they charged on the battlefield.
Behind him, Xi Yuanqing, Lou Shiyi, and the Gangke King also understood, and they looked upon the massive training ground with contemplative gazes.
When Gao Xianzhi and Wang Chong had first issued this order, the three of them had not understood why they needed to create this unit, especially in a situation where they were lacking soldiers. But none of them had any doubts now. Even from Xi Yuanqing’s and Lou Shiyi’s perspectives, this aura was extremely shocking and symbolized a strength that could alter the tide of a battle.
“Do you see it? In the future, train them by emphasizing their spirit, energy, and mind, as well as their strength. This is the essence of the Mo Saber Unit!” Wang Chong sternly said.
“This general understands!” the three replied in unison.
Wang Chong said no more and urged his horse into the ranks of the Mo Saber Unit to inspect them one by one.
“Have your left hand grip one foot up the hilt while your right hand grips three feet up the hilt. This is the best way to display the power of the Mo Saber. In addition, when slashing, move your waist accordingly. Don’t just use your Stellar Energy. You also have to use your body’s physical strength.”
“Yes, your subordinate understands!”
“Your movements are wrong. When you raise the saber over your head, your arms can’t be too tense. Rather, you have to leave strength in reserve. You’re building up strength in this process, like a winding gear. If you pull too tight, you’ll place too much burden on your body and the attack will have mediocre power!”
“Yes!”
As Wang Chong slowly rode through the Mo Saber Unit, he corrected the movements of the soldiers.
This was a new kind of soldier with no precedent, so Wang Chong could only correct them one by one. Behind him, the Gangke King, Xi Yuanqing, and Lou Shiyi were slowly beginning to understand what was special about this unit and began to carefully listen and note down everything that Wang Chong said.
“General Xi, General Lou, time is limited, and the Mo Saber Unit doesn’t have much time left to train. I hope that all of you can remember the advice I gave just now. I leave this task to you. I trust that you will do well!”
“Milord, be at ease. We will do our utmost!” the three replied together.
Flap flap! An eagle suddenly descended from the skies toward Wang Chong.
“Mm?”
Wang Chong’s brows rose as he extended a hand for the eagle to perch upon. As Wang Chong glanced through the letter tied to the eagle’s leg, his face brightened in joy.
“They’ve finally moved out!”
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1043 - The Ultimate Martial Army!
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1043 - The Ultimate Martial Army!
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Chapter 1043: The Ultimate Martial Army!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Wang Chong suddenly felt greatly relieved. The letter had been sent from the Bureau of Military Personnel in the names of King Song and Zhangchou Jianqiong. Zhao Fengchen’s Xuanwu Army that Wang Chong had mobilized through his uncle-in-law Li Lin had already set off toward Qixi. The border Protector-Generals Geshu Han and Zhang Shougui had also dispatched their soldiers toward the northwest.
Everything was on the right track. Coupled with the Divine Prison Army dispatched by his little uncle Wang Mi, there were now nearly thirty thousand soldiers headed toward Qixi, all of them the most elite soldiers that could be mustered. Their weapons and armor were still lacking to the Wushang Cavalry’s Wootz Steel swords and Meteoric Metal armor, but in terms of fighting power, they were not one bit inferior.
This was where Wang Chong had placed his greatest hopes for this battle.
“Senior Su has also agreed to train four thousand soldiers for me. Only that place remains to borrow soldiers from.”
Wang Chong muttered to himself as his mind thought back to the legends of the Ultimate Martial Army.
Zhao Fengchen’s Xuanwu Army, his little uncle’s Divine Prison Army, Geshu Han’s Divine Martial Army, and even An Sishun’s Dragon Stallion Army were only a single loop in the chain of Wang Chong’s plan. The most crucial part was the Ultimate Martial Army.
The soldiers of the Ultimate Martial Army were incredible soldiers, far surpassing ordinary elites in every aspect, including power, defense, speed, and agility. More importantly, they could harness the strength of their comrades to employ a formation. This formation would link everyone in its range together, not only boosting their strength but also using the formation’s power to distribute the attacks received by any one soldier across the entire army. This made it so that each person’s injuries were minimized.
In this aspect, it was actually extremely similar to Dayan Mangban’s Great Bon Formation. The Ultimate Martial Army’s formation was different in that once the formation was activated, it could continuously absorb the worldly Origin Energy in a radius of one hundred li. This Origin Energy would flow into the array and increase the rate at which the soldiers within recovered their Stellar Energy.
Any army that had the assistance of the Ultimate Martial Army would receive an enormous boost in strength, and would also be able to fight for much longer periods.
Several hundred years ago in Taizong’s era, this Ultimate Martial Army had been one of the most dazzling elite forces under Taizong’s command. But as time passed, the harshness of the Ultimate Martial Army’s training caused this legendary army to fade from the Great Tang.
But Wang Chong knew that the legacy of the Ultimate Martial Army survived within the capital. There weren’t many of these soldiers—two to three thousand. They could be considered the last of the Ultimate Martial Army’s bloodline in this world.
If Wang Chong wanted to exhibit the maximum potential of the Xuanwu Army, Divine Prison Army, Divine Martial Army, and Dragon Stallion Army, he needed the help of the Ultimate Martial Army.
It seems I’ll have to trouble that venerable senior, Wang Chong inwardly muttered. As an image of that figure floated to the surface of his mind, a rare hint of respect appeared in his eyes.
The capital was home to many great clans, and one of them was the house of the Duke of E. Its ancestor was one of the founding ministers of the Great Tang, and the house had persisted for three generations. However, in the era of the Sage Emperor, the clan had gradually declined, losing the luster of its forefathers. The clan itself lacked any outstanding talents and was very low-key in its conduct, so almost no one in the capital paid it any attention.
But Wang Chong knew that this clan was far more powerful than most imagined. A true venerable senior lived within the estate of the Duke of E. This venerable senior had lived through four Emperors and was almost of the same generation as Su Zhengchen. However, just like Su Zhengchen, he had retired into seclusion long ago and the outside world believed him to be dead.
Under the guidance of that venerable senior, the Duke of E’s Estate had spent nearly one hundred years on a single task: searching the world for excellent children to be trained in the ways of the Ultimate Martial Army so that its lineage would continue to survive.
But the requirements for the Ultimate Martial Army were far too high and the training was extremely difficult. Thus, up until now, the Duke of E’s Estate had only managed to train two to three thousand such soldiers. Moreover, the Duke of E’s estate had never shown this army to anyone, nor did it ever lend it out. In normal circumstances, it would essentially be impossible to borrow the strength of this powerful army.
Yet Wang Chong also knew that this was not because the Duke of E was harsh or stingy, but because the estate was thinking of what was the best for the world. It hoped that this force would be used for the sake of the country and not for the sake of those with selfish intentions. To guard against the private goals and ambitions of others, the Duke of E’s estate preferred to keep this army hidden.
“Xue Qianjun, bring me a brush and paper,” Wang Chong said without turning his head.
“Yes, Lord Marquis!”
A few moments later, an eagle soared into the skies, carrying to the capital a map of Talas and Wang Chong’s handwritten letter.
……
In the southwestern part of the Imperial City of the Great Tang’s capital, an ancient estate loomed, shaded by a lush canopy of trees. Four golden words had been painted over the gate.
‘Duke of E Residence’!
The Duke of E Residence was far from the only noble clan to have had a brilliant ancestor but gradually declined with the generations. The gradual decline of the house had caused the current generation of the Duke of E Residence to move the estate to the most remote area in the southwestern part of the city, completely withdrawing from the area where the dukes and other great clans made their homes. In the capital, this seemed very unusual and abrupt.
Flap flap!
An eagle descended into the Duke of E Residence. Before it had even landed in that calm and relaxed estate, a figure that had been hiding in a corner suddenly shot out, snatching the eagle from the air and gently landing back on the ground.
“Patriarch, a letter!”
This hidden expert of the Duke of E Residence entered the reception hall and bowed as he offered the letter with both hands.
A man of about forty or fifty with a beard parted three ways and a ruddy expression raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“What’s this? Our Duke of E Residence has no relationship with the noble clans of the capital. Why would we receive a letter by bird? Are you sure that it was sent to the right place?” the middle-aged man sternly asked.
“Patriarch, it’s correct. It was truly addressed to our Duke of E Residence,” the hidden expert respectfully replied.
The middle-aged man hesitated a moment before finally taking the letter from this guard.
“This is… a letter from Talas! How?!”
When he saw the address on the letter, his body trembled and his pupils constricted into pinpricks.
“Impossible!”
The man reeled with shock as great waves raged in his mind. He had also heard about the matter of Talas, but the Duke of E Residence had always been very inconspicuous, rarely interacting with the other great clans of the capital. He could not understand how the Duke of E Residence had managed to get connected to this matter.
The man quickly opened the letter and began to read it. Once he finished, his breathing became heavy and his entire aura seemed in turmoil. As he gripped the letter and the map of Talas that had been included, the middle-aged man fell into deep thought.
“Father, how did the Young Marquis know of our Yuchi Clan’s Ultimate Martial Army!?”
A voice suddenly interrupted the middle-aged man’s contemplative stupor. Turning his head, he saw that a young man of twenty-one or twenty-two had come up behind him and had apparently read the contents of the letter in his hand.
“Fen-er, why are you here?”
The middle-aged man nervously crumpled the letter into a ball.
“What Ultimate Martial Army? Don’t speak nonsense! Our Yuchi Clan has never had any Ultimate Martial Army!”
The middle-aged man swept his sleeves as he got out of his chair and swiftly strode into the inner estate.
Yuchi Fen instantly became anxious, standing in front of his father and spreading his arms apart. “But Father, the matter of Talas has caused such a stir that even Duke Jiu and the Grand Preceptor stepped forward, and even the Sage Emperor opened his golden mouth. Isn’t this exactly the time for our Yuchi Clan to repay the Great Tang? And soldiers are trained for a thousand days to be used in a single moment. Our Yuchi Clan has trained the Ultimate Martial Army generation after generation. Was it not precisely for a day like this? Otherwise, what are we doing all this arduous training for?”
“Bastard thing! Do you think I don’t know what you’re thinking? The Yuchi Clan’s Ultimate Martial Army has never been used for private gain. If you want to stand above your own peers, rely on your own strength! The Ultimate Martial Army is not some tool to aid you in advancing your career. If we defy the laws of the ancestors, we might end up pushing my entire Yuchi Clan into extinction!”
The Yuchi Patriarch’s eyes widened in rage as he harshly rebuked his son.
“But Father, I only want to carry on the glorious deeds of our Yuchi Clan’s ancestors. Is this wrong as well? Do you also wish for our Yuchi Clan to remain obscure like this forever?!” To the patriarch’s surprise, Yuchi Fen gave no ground, his eyes widening in resolve.
Thump!
Yuchi Fen had barely finished speaking when a hefty slap sent his body spinning to the floor.
“Beast! Did you forget what happened thirty-some years ago? Your little uncle thought the same as you. In order to revitalize the Yuchi Clan, he secretly took some of the Ultimate Martial Army’s soldiers and swore allegiance to the First Prince to resist the Third Prince. But no one had expected that the apparently weakest and most incapable Third Prince would be the one to ascend to the throne and become the Sage Emperor. This nearly brought a great calamity down upon our Yuchi Clan. If not for that incident, our Yuchi Clan would have never moved the estate to this remote area and cut off all relations with the other noble clans!”
The Yuchi Patriarch’s expression was ashen as he gazed at Yuchi Fen, hating the fact that his son was still so immature.
Yuchi Fen instantly felt stifled, and he was momentarily unable to find any retort to his father’s words.
Yuchi Fen’s little uncle was Yuchi Yun, one of the rare geniuses in the last nearly one hundred years of the Yuchi Clan’s history. Back then, he had secretly deceived the patriarch and defied the laws set down by the ancestor. He entered the War of the Princes with the thought of assisting the new Emperor onto the throne, but in the end, he achieved the opposite result. Not only had the Yuchi Clan not regained its former glory, its decline had intensified.
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1044 - Arabia! The Army Gathers!
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1044 - Arabia! The Army Gathers!
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Chapter 1044: Arabia! The Army Gathers!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“But Father, Young Marquis Wang Chong is the Son of Heaven’s disciple, and his grandfather Duke Jiu is revered and admired throughout the world. Moreover, in the war of the southwest, the Young Marquis expended all his wealth to hire and equip several thousand mercenaries, and then put himself at great risk by going to the southwest. In the end, he managed to reverse the tides and rescue the civilians of the southwest from disaster. Is not a loyal and righteous subject like this worthy of our Yuchi Clan’s assistance?”
Yuchi Fen gripped his swollen cheek, but he still wanted to argue his case.
“Bastard! The winner is made king while the defeated is scorned. The Wang Clan is a loyal subject today, but how do you know that it won’t be a traitor in the future? Moreover, our Yuchi Clan’s Ultimate Martial Army only serves the country. It is not for the Wang Clan to use. If we let the outside world know that our Yuchi Clan worked with the Wang Clan and then another disaster arrives, do you think our Yuchi Clan will still have a future? Do you think that the Sage Emperor will pardon us again?”
The Yuchi Patriarch’s eyes were harsh and stern.
Yuchi Fen was stunned into speechlessness by these words.
“Vile spawn, why haven’t you moved yet!” the Yuchi Patriarch angrily said.
“Enough!”
At this moment, an elderly voice came from underground and echoed through the reception hall. Both the Yuchi Patriarch and Yuchi Fen paled in shock. In addition, a hint of respect appeared on the Yuchi Patriarch’s face while a hint of surprised delight appeared on Yuchi Fen’s face as if he had encountered his savior.
“Grandpa Zeng!”
“Fen-er’s words are correct!” the elderly voice said.
“Forefather!”
The Yuchi Patriarch slightly grimaced at these words.
“Fen-er, Grandpa Zeng asks you, the Wang Chong you spoke of is Duke Jiu’s grandson and is both loyal and righteous. Is that so?”
The elderly voice continued, ringing like thunderous peals in the ears of the father and son.
“Grandpa Zeng, I’m absolutely sure of it!” Yuchi Fen declared.
“Grandpa Zeng understands. Yuchi Feng, bring that letter over me and let me take a look.” The elderly voice spoke with absolute majesty.
“Yes, Forefather!”
The Yuchi Patriarch hesitated for a moment, but, unable to defy the will of his forefather, he brought the letter into the inner court.
……
Several days later, deep into the night, the ground in the rear courtyard of the Yuchi Residence suddenly split upon, revealing a massive tunnel. A second later, black-armored cavalry began to ride out from the tunnel. Each of these cavalrymen had a fierce and doughty aura, like a sword unsheathed and ready to slash. Their auras were also extremely heavy and stable, imbuing them with a formidable sense of strength. Most unique of all was the helmets these cavalry wore.
All of these black-armored cavalrymen had a cruel and callous mask on their faces.
“Hyah!”
The leader of the Ultimate Martial Army pressed on the flanks of his horse and led his more than two thousand soldiers of the Ultimate Martial Army into the darkness.
……
Time slowly passed. The Great Tang, Ü-Tsang, the Western Turkic Khaganate, and Arabia were all putting every possible moment into increasing their strength for the upcoming battle. The danger hanging over Talas grew by the day. Not one of these four empires showed any signs of wanting to retreat or leave the situation as it was.
Winds would precede the coming of a storm. Everyone knew that Talas was a bomb, but nobody knew when it would explode.
……
In the distant Arabian Empire, in the Pearl of the West that was Khorasan, flames and smoke filled the skies night and day to the chorus of hammering metal.
Every day, many suits of Meteoric Star armor would be forged for the elite Mameluke warriors. This supreme force of the Arabian Empire was advancing through its own methods every day, becoming more dauntless and terrifying.
Rumble!
Countless Arab smiths were working every day in the estate of the Lord of Khorasan. In the middle of their constant hammering and forging, the ground began to shake, intense tremors arising from the west. The trembling was accompanied by the neighing of countless warhorses and the harsh shouts of cavalrymen. It appeared that a great force of cavalry was approaching Khorasan.
This noise threw the smiths into chaos. Khorasan had experienced many rebellions, but the Mamelukes had still not managed to capture the remnants of the Sassanid Dynasty.
No one knew if these Sassanid remnants were coming for them. These people loathed the Arabs, and these smiths who forged the mighty weapons of the Arabian Empire would naturally be one of their targets.
Clang! Clang!
In a metallic clanging, the Mamelukes on the perimeter began to prepare countermeasures.
“Stand down!”
The lordly estate shook as a tall and erect figure emerged. Mameluke Commander Aybak stared at the approaching army and faintly smiled.
“This is Osman and his army!”
The smiths were all stunned, and then relieved to hear these words. The Mamelukes on the perimeter also dispersed according to Aybak’s order.
Osman was the Governor of Cairo and one of the strongest governors of the Arabian Empire!
He had clearly appeared at Khorasan to join with the Mamelukes holding this place down so that they could set off for Talas.
“Although he’s a little late, it’s not by too much.”
Aybak smiled as he muttered to himself.
Neigh!
At this moment, the resounding cry of a horse tore through the sky. As this neigh still echoed in the air, the western sky suddenly turned red as if set aflame. In the middle of this flaming light, a powerful storm of energy appeared.
“Hahaha! Aybak, you also wish to take a share of the Tang at Talas?”
This thunderous voice left all of Khorasan quaking in fear. From this distance, Aybak could clearly make out that steel tower of a figure and his thick brown beard. He was riding a black steed taller than a man, galloping toward him like a demon god rising from Hell.
He was followed by a powerful and well-equipped army that seemed for all the world like an apocalyptic flood.
“Hahaha, Osman, I’m acting on an imperial decree. You wouldn’t question the decrees of the Caliph and the High Priest, right?”
Aybak laughed as a tyrannical aura exploded from his body like an erupting volcano. The surrounding ground began to quake while space began to twist. His energy was not one bit inferior to Osman’s.
In the distance, Osman’s tiger-like eyes exuded an intimidating light as he galloped forward at astonishing speed. In just a few moments, Osman and his lofty black steed had appeared outside the Lord of Khorasan’s estate like a descending god.
The rushing wind blew out Osman’s enormous black cape, causing it to snap in the wind. This only made Osman’s muscular figure seem even larger and mightier!
“Hah, Aybak, it seems like we’re going to work together again!”
Osman looked down from his horse at Aybak and chuckled.
“Correct! But this time, our goal is no longer Khorasan, but the even greater objective to the east, an even vaster world! This time, we are conquering the entire east! Osman, I welcome you!”
Aybak grinned.
Osman laughed as he trotted his horse forward and dismounted, whereupon he gave Aybak a hug.
The three conquerors who had brought upon the destruction of the ancient Khorasan Dynasty had gathered once more.
……
The horns of war were already blowing. Now that Osman and his more than one hundred thousand soldiers had joined together with the ten thousand Mamelukes, this strategic city of the east had become a military fort.
With Osman’s arrival, the enormous war machine of the Arabian Empire began to turn.
In a place no one could see, another enormous army was progressing with astonishing speed, marching night and day from Tarsus in central Arabia’s north to Khorasan. The mobilization of this army’s commander caused a stir throughout the Arabian Empire.
Even the Caliph was keeping a watch on this army’s movements.
This army flew the banner of a blazing black hell flame, and beneath this flame was the crumbling continent aflame!
This banner was known throughout the Arabian Empire, because the person it represented was the Arabian Empire’s most illustrious governor: the Governor of War, Qutaybah!
In the Arabian Empire, this name was even more famous than those of the Governor of Iron and Blood, the Governor of Cairo, and the Mameluke Commander, the three conquerors of the Khorasan Dynasty. In Arabia, this was the governor who had fought the most wars, killed the most experts, and destroyed the most empires.
If not for the fact that the Caliph had sent Abu Muslim, Osman, and Aybak to conquer Khorasan while sending Qutaybah to the north so as to maintain the balance of power, Khorasan would have been conquered by one man, not three.
The title of the ‘Three Conquerors’ would also have ceased to exist.
The Three Conquerors were now joining with Governor Qutaybah to gather the most supreme force in the history of the Arabian Empire. This was a force that could fight a war on the same level as the one it had fought against the Sassanid Dynasty, an empire-level war.
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1045 - The Great Tang's Dragon Vein!
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1045 - The Great Tang's Dragon Vein!
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Chapter 1045: The Great Tang’s Dragon Vein!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The tension in Khorasan was increasing by the day. All of Arabia watched that infamous governor, and their gazes slowly gathered around this city.
Ten days later!
The final flood of steel, one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers burning with the flames of war, appeared at Khorasan.
Buzz!
As that golden and dazzling figure riding upon a white horse appeared, a god viewing the world with disdain, even Aybak and Osman felt somewhat stifled and fearful.
“Let’s go!”
A cold voice came from behind that mask the golden-armored man wore. He turned his horse, and without even a moment of delay, he had passed through Khorasan and set off for the Black Forest, onward to Talas.
A mighty torrent of cavalry followed him like most obedient slaves, not daring to fall behind!
……
As the Arab army finally departed Khorasan for the front lines, countless eagles and messenger birds scattered in all directions. Within the Arabian Empire, countless nobles, governors, generals, and even the Caliph in Baghdad were paying attention to this unprecedented mobilization eastward.
Flap flap! An Arabian hunting falcon descended into the Tibetan camp like a bolt of lightning and landed on Dalun Ruozan’s outstretched arm.
“Haha, so quickly! They’ve finally begun to move.”
Dalun Ruozan faintly smiled at the letter in his hand.
The letter had been sent from the Black Forest by Abu Muslim. An army of more than three hundred thousand Arab reinforcements, two governors, and the tens of thousands of militia they had recruited along the way were proceeding toward the Black Forest, an army of unprecedented size in Arabian history. The strength of this army was not only enough to influence this Battle of Talas, but the entire east as well, including the Great Tang.
“Perhaps I should adjust my goal. We might be able to finish it all in a single breath and conquer the entire Central Plains.”
A bright light flashed through Dalun Ruozan’s eyes as his fingers came together and pulverized Abu Muslim’s letter.
Four hundred thousand Arab cavalry together with the reinforcements from Ü-Tsang meant that their alliance now had more than five hundred thousand soldiers and seven experts of the Great General level. This power far surpassed that of the Mengshe–Ü-Tsang army that had gathered by the Erhai. Never in Dalun Ruozan’s life had he assembled such a powerful army before.
“Inform Duwu Sili to gather the army and prepare for battle!”
Dalun Ruozan turned his head and waved to a nearby messenger.
“Yes!”
The messenger immediately left. After watching him leave, Dalun Ruozan slowly turned to the two Great Generals next to him.
“Have you prepared yourselves for the final battle?”
Huoshu Huicang and Dusong Mangpoje said nothing, only heavily nodded their heads, their eyes shining with resolve.
The two both understand what Dalun Ruozan meant. This was the final battle, their last chance to alter the balance of power between the Great Tang and Ü-Tsang. They would either emerge victorious or die trying!
“Assemble the army!”
As Dalun Ruozan issued this order, a mighty storm erupted from the Tibetan camp, set to sweep over the entire world. This was foreordained to be a war that would shake the foundations of the entire eastern world.
Kacrack!
As the Tibetan army began to move, a thick lightning bolt flashed across the skies. A few moments later, dark clouds had gathered and the air over Talas began to grow tense.
……
Flap flap! It was only a few moments later that a hunting falcon delivered to Wang Chong the news from Khorasan.
It was the Arabs!
Wang Chong felt his heart sink as he read through the letter.
The day had finally come!
Governor Qutaybah of Tarsus, Governor Osman of Cairo, the elite Mamelukes of the Arabian Empire, and an army of three to four hundred thousand were making their way to Talas. This destined war was finally going to begin.
“Take this letter to Protector-General Gao Xianzhi. Pass on my order for the soldiers to be ready for battle at any time!”
After saying these words, Wang Chong left his room and headed for Talas’s western training ground.
Boom!
The air roared and boomed as fierce streams of air raged above this training ground. In the middle of this enormous aura, one could clearly see ten thousand dazzling saber slashes.
After one month, the Mo Saber Unit had finally taken shape!
……
Tension began to saturate the air of Talas, but Talas was far from the only place affected by this coming war.
In the Great Tang’s southeast was a land of lush and ancient forests that grew along an undulating landscape. Here was an enormous mountain range that spanned a hundred and sixty or so kilometers. The beasts were especially wild in this extremely remote region, and people did not come here under normal circumstances. But to a certain group of people, this long mountain range was a holy land.
“Grandpa, have you found the dragon’s head and the dragon’s lair yet?”
A crisp and young voice sounded through this lush forest. In the middle of these green shrubs, one could see a child of seven or eight riding on a black ox. The black ox had a glossy coat, and Stellar Energy was circulating through its body, indicating that it was clearly abnormal.
“Haha, soon, soon.”
A blue-clothed elder with a beard parted three ways was walking in front of the ox. One hand held a bronze compass while the other hand stroked his beard. His eyes were constantly inspecting his surroundings as if this world was his to command.
This was a practitioner of Fengshui and geomancy, a plain-clothed fortune teller!
In the Great Tang, there was a group skilled in geomancy, who observed the topography of the land and followed the direction of the earth’s Dragon Qi. They were also known as mystics.
They were reclusive people who would only emerge into the world at special times. They spent the rest of their time observing the environment and the Dragon Qi of the Central Plains.
A few moments later, the pointer on the bronze compass suddenly shifted to a certain direction. At almost the same time, this mystical elder chuckled and pointed a finger at a cliff in the distance, surrounded by clouds.
“Haha, found it!”
From this distance, the cliff appeared to be just like a dragon turning its head as it coiled on the earth in slumber.
“Grandpa, did you really find it? Are we going to set up a Daoist temple here?” the child asked.
“Hahaha, Little Yun, that’s right. Once your grandpa finds the dragon’s den, we’ll set up a wooden hut here and stand guard over the entire dragon vein. What do you think about that?”
(TN: In Chinese geomancy, dragon veins are mountain ranges which represent the flow of energy through the earth. The place where this energy gathers is called the dragon’s den.)
The elder turned around and pinched the child’s cheeks affectionately.
Buzz!
Just as this grandfather was talking to his grandson, the enormous cliff that was the dragon’s head suddenly began to tremble, rocks rolling from its side. The white clouds that had gathered around the mountain were seemingly pushed away and began to disperse.
“This… What’s going on here?”
The elder turned his head in shock and astonishment.
The dragon’s head was where a dragon vein’s spiritual energy was located. These dragon veins would rarely move for centuries, even over a thousand years, much less experience such intense changes like this.
“Grandpa!”
The child on the ox noticed something else and pointed at the bronze compass, his eyes wide open. The elder turned in astonishment to his compass and realized that it had begun to rapidly spin.
Boom!
There was another heaven-shaking boom as the cliff where the dragon’s head was located collapsed before the pair, dissolving into a mass of gravel.
“The dragon vein suddenly moved! What… what’s going on!”
The blue-clothed elder felt like he had been struck by lightning.
The land of the Nine Provinces was home to many ancient mountain ranges, with an extremely small number of them having come to be known as ‘dragon veins’. The dragon veins would remain unchanged for centuries, and such cases like this where the dragon returned to heaven were extremely rare. Each time, they indicated that the Central Plains was about to experience a massive transformation.
Roooar!
As the elder’s mind whirred, a thunderous dragon roar resounded through the sky. The gravel where the dragon head had collapsed had not continued to drop to the ground. Instead, some invisible energy caused it to seethe and soar into the air.
An even more astonishing transformation ensued. As the elder and child watched, a massive dragon extended out of the mountain, raising its head as it rose into the sky.
This dragon was formed from dust, gravel, and the world’s Origin Energy. It had horns, eyes, scales, a tail… All of it was there in breathtaking detail.
Before this enormous dragon, the elder and child were tiny ants. The winds howled as a storm seemed to descend. All the trees and rocks trembled and shuddered in fear of this berserk energy while the birds took flight. Many earthbound beasts also took fright and began to charge out of the forests.
At this moment, the entire world quivered before the majestic pressure of this dragon.
But the child sitting on the ox had forgotten his fear. He looked up together with the elder, almost forgetting to breathe.
In the air, that enormous dragon formed from Dragon Qi raised its head up to the air as it struggled and howled. It appeared to be in terrible pain.
“Grandpa, why is the dragon in pain?”
He looked up to the sky in a daze. This child had been taught a great deal about geomancy and had read many books on dragon veins, but nothing he had read or heard from his grandfather had described anything like this.
But the blue-clothed elder was so agitated that he couldn’t even hear what the child was saying. There was only one thought left in his mind.
A dragon turns its head every hundred years; the Divine Land1 experiences a shift every thousand years!
As the elder looked up at the sky, a deep fear appeared in his eyes.
______________
1. The Divine Land and the Nine Provinces are both names for China/Central Plains.↩
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1046 - The Mysterious War Banner!
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1046 - The Mysterious War Banner!
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Chapter 1046: The Mysterious War Banner!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The earth was home to nine enormous dragon veins that represented the Great Tang of the Central Plains. If the thousand-year fortune of the Divine Land suddenly shifted, a scene like the dragon vein taking the form of a dragon could occur. This dragon could sense the coming crisis, and its pained roars represented the same thing: a massive change was about to occur in the Divine Land, a tremendous calamity was about to descend!
“How could this be? The Divine Land faces disaster! The Divine Land faces disaster! I must tell the masters and inform the Great Tang imperial household as soon as possible!”
The elder’s heart chilled and his body swayed as he grabbed the child from the ox and vanished.
……
It was not only the dragon veins of the Nine Provinces that sensed the coming danger.
At night, in the Imperial Astrology Board of the Great Tang Imperial Palace, an elder in an opulent Daoist robe of deep blue sat motionless on the star observation platform, seemingly fused with it.
The elder’s hair was completely white, and he exuded a mystical aura. Tiny star-like pinpricks of light floated around him, making the elder’s figure seem even more enigmatic. If one looked carefully, one would notice that these points of light were resonating with the stars above according to some profound and supreme principle.
The old man was so motionless he appeared to have turned to stone. Hwoooo! There was a rush of wind, and the elder’s body swayed as if he had been struck by some invisible force. The starry lights around him dimmed and flickered, with some of them even dropping from the air and extinguishing.
“The heavens have shifted and the stars reflect chaos… How? How is this possible!”
The elder on the star observation platform turned his narrowed eyes up to the heavens in disbelief. If one followed the elder’s gaze, one could only see that the stars above appeared to be in slight disorder, but the elder saw far more.
“The Ziwei Star has moved, the Taiyuan Star has moved… All the stars in heaven have dimmed. This is a sign of chaos in the Divine Land, a calamity upon the Nine Provinces!”
The old man’s beard trembled.
“Let me see just where the chaos is originating from!”
The elder straightened his body and began to form a spell with his right hand. Meanwhile, the fingers of his left hand seemed to take on a life of their own, constantly moving and shifting as he calculated at astonishing speed.
Bzzz! In the middle of his calculations, a massive power welled up from within him. The star observation platform took on the appearance of an enormous astrolabe, which gave off a very real metallic clanging as it turned. At the same time, the many stars of the night sky appeared around the elder, traveling according to their orbits at one hundred times the normal speed.
The elder’s white brows twitched, his eyelids drooped, and his mouth muttered nonstop. He was completely lost in the world of astrological calculation.
A few moments later, all these illusions faded away and the elder’s eyes flew open. His bright eyes turned to the northwestern horizon.
The stars in the sky were as usual, but the elder’s gaze pierced through the heavens to fall upon a single massive star that stood apart from the rest.
“Talas!”
The elder’s fingers suddenly stopped, and only one thought was left in his mind.
How… That place is so far away from the capital!
The elder’s mind froze for a moment, but he quickly came to his senses and began to redo his calculations.
“Gao Xianzhi… Wang Chong… Arabia…”
Countless thoughts and images flitted through the elder’s mind. Just as the elder was engrossed in this task, his body went stiff and he vomited blood.
“Not good! There are difficulties at Talas! This war will influence the thousand-year fortune of the Great Tang! And all of this will be the origin of the calamity! I must inform His Majesty as quickly as possible! The Great Tang is in trouble!”
The elder’s beard was still speckled with blood, but he didn’t even have time to clean it off as he rushed from the star observation platform into the inner court of the Imperial Palace.
……
All sorts of strange phenomena were sighted across the Central Plains and reported to the Imperial Palace, but all this news was suppressed.
At night, a warhorse galloped through the gates of the Imperial Palace into its very depths. It was forbidden to ride a horse in the Imperial Palace, but the heroic figure of the Tongluo steed and the golden dragon token it bore opened all the gates of the palace to it. Only one person in the Imperial City possessed this token.
Tongluo Great General Abusi!
The Tongluo people had served the imperial lineage for more than two hundred years and were devotedly loyal. It was this loyalty and their astonishing record on the battlefield that allowed the Tongluo Chief Abusi to obtain this token which permitted him to freely ride through the Imperial Palace.
This was an honor that not even the children of the imperial household enjoyed.
In a few moments, Abusi had made his way through the palace and appeared before that looming and majestic hall that represented the center of authority in the Great Tang.
“Your lowly subject Abusi pays respects to the Sage Emperor! What decree does the Sage Emperor have? This lowly subject will walk through fire to complete it!”
Abusi dismounted, strode up the steps, and kneeled down in front of the hall.
Abusi’s expression was extremely solemn. Everyone knew that his golden dragon token endowed him with such supreme authority that he could even ride a horse through the palace in the middle of the night. But only the Tongluo people knew that it could only be used when something extremely important had occurred.
The token did not represent a glory, but a duty and mission. It symbolized the Tongluo people’s loyalty to the imperial household and the contract they had made many years ago.
The hall was quiet for some time. Finally, a voice came from within.
“Abusi, We have an important matter to task you with…”
“Your Divine Majesty, please order me!”
Abusi’s expression turned stern as he pressed his head even lower to the ground.
“The Tongluo should immediately dispatch six thousand cavalry to Talas!”
The indistinct voice of the Sage Emperor drifted through the hall.
“Yes!”
Abusi’s pupils constricted. For the hundreds of years the Tongluo had served the imperial household, they had rarely left the capital, and served mostly as its guards. But Abusi showed no hesitation at the Sage Emperor’s words.
“Your lowly subjects receives the decree! This lowly subject will ride with the Tongluo Cavalry to the northwest to assist Lord Gao in resisting the Arabs!”
Everyone knew about what was happening at Talas. Although Abusi had his conflicts with Wang Chong, with the Regional Commanders Incident being a particularly sore point, Abusi would never defy the decree of the Sage Emperor. Whether it was to help Wang Chong or anyone else, the Tongluo had sworn an oath to the imperial household to always do their utmost.
“That is not necessary. We only need you to send six thousand Tongluo Cavalry to escort an object for Us.”
The majestic voice of the Sage Emperor reverberated through the hall.
“Ah!”
Abusi raised his head in shock. He had never imagined that the Sage Emperor was only dispatching him to deliver an object.
“Go!”
The Sage Emperor’s voice rang through the hall.
Bzzzz! The entire Imperial Palace suddenly trembled. As Abusi watched, an enormous, armored foot suddenly appeared from the open doors of the hall. The guard it belonged to was covered in thick armor that made him appear like a monster, an image only accentuated by his size—thrice that of any other guard.
Even his face was covered in a monstrous metal mask.
In all his years of service in the palace, Abusi had never seen this guard before. His entire body was shrouded in a dark energy that prevented even someone of Abusi’s cultivation from seeing within. But what shocked and intimidated Abusi the most was the war banner gripped in the hands of this monstrous guard.
The pole was the height of two people and as thick as a wrist. It was made from some mix of Deep Sea Xuan Metal and another unknown metal, but even more striking was the banner itself. The banner was red on black, a red so vivid that it seemed like dripping blood. The banner was somewhat tattered and threadbare, clearly extremely ancient.
Most unbelievable of all was that Abusi could sense a pure and vigorous Stellar Energy flowing within this banner. The character of this Stellar Energy made even an Imperial Great General like Abusi appear inferior.
“This is…!”
A single thought suddenly occurred to Abusi, and his mouth dropped. But he said no more and quickly lowered his head.
I didn’t think that His Majesty would bring out this war banner!
At this moment, Abusi’s mind was in complete turmoil.
……
Rumble!
Several hours later, six thousand Tongluo Cavalry departed the capital for the first time, escorting this black-armored guard to the distant Talas.
……
While these six thousand Tongluo Cavalry were heading for Qixi, in the northern regions of the empire, on the distant Western Turkic steppe, a war was fermenting.
“Ready!”
A bright voice resounded over the steppe. On the ground, tens of thousands of soldiers of the Beiting Protectorate army had lined up in a long human wall. Behind this long wall of shieldmen were spearmen, infantry, axemen, archers, and also a vast sea of cavalry.
All the cavalry were in ordered battle formations, ready to attack at any time.
Across from them were the even more numerous Western Turkic cavalry. All of these cavalry had their sabers unsheathed as they stared at the Beiting Protectorate army with eyes seething with killing intent.
The air was tense as the time of battle approached. Finally…
Bwoooom!
With the resounding blare of a horn, the tens of thousands of Western Turkic cavalry charged out like water from flood gates.
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1047 - The Sanmi Great General!
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1047 - The Sanmi Great General!
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Chapter 1047: The Sanmi Great General!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Kill them all!”
“For all the herdsmen!”
“The steppe will always be the steppe of the Turks. Since you want battle, we’ll fulfill your wish!”
Bellows shook the heavens. The Western Turkic Khaganate and the Beiting Protectorate army had always countered each other. Although they fought every year, the wars had never been very intense.
This time, however, the Beiting Protectorate army had left its base and penetrated deep into the Turkic steppe. With just an army of one hundred thousand, they dared to sweep through the most fertile pastures and watering holes of the steppe.
Even Ishbara Khagan was infuriated by An Sishun’s brashness and ambition. He had ordered the Turkic army stationed in the southern region of the Western Turkic Khaganate to go down and eliminate An Sishun.
Awooo!
One part of the Western Turkic cavalry charged straight at the Beiting Protectorate army while the other part split into two and went around the flanks, attempting to strike at the Beiting Protectorate army’s rear.
This was a classic tactic of the Western Turkic Khaganate. If the Beiting Protectorate army penetrated deep into the steppe, the Western Turks would try to attack them from behind.
“Kill!”
In just a few short moments, the army of the Western Turkic Khaganate crashed against the defensive line of the Beiting Protectorate army like an enormous wave. The earth trembled and the heavens seemed to lose their color in the moment of that clash. Countless Tang infantry were sent flying at the impact.
But the warriors of the Beiting Protectorate army almost immediately reacted. The axemen, spearmen, archers, and cavalry… all of them pressed forward. The air clanged and clattered constantly with steel as the soldiers battled.
“An Sishun, you’re too conceited! How do you plan to have your one hundred thousand soldiers defeat my one hundred and eighty thousand cavalry?!”
An erect figure towered in the rear of the Turkic army like a looming mountain. His eyes exploded with sharp light and his every move was suffused with an awe-inspiring strength. His enormous aura was enough to make one feel suffocated.
The Sanmi Great General!
This was one of the three strongest Great Generals of the Western Turkic Khaganate. His eyes were sharp and fierce, and his status was no less than Duwu Sili’s. Duwu Sili had been sent to the northwest to fight at Talas, while the Sanmi Great General Jiudu Fuluo had been stationed in the southern part of the steppe by Ishbara Khagan to deal with the Tang army under An Sishun’s command.
This was not Jiudu Fuluo’s first clash with An Sishun, and the two were extremely familiar with each other’s methods. Although he didn’t understand why a Great General like An Sishun would suddenly leave his base and riskily venture into the steppe, he could not ignore this excellent chance to completely wipe out the Beiting Protectorate army.
Moreover, Jiudu Fuluo had sent scouts beforehand and had confirmed that An Sishun had no reinforcements.
This was nothing short of suicidal!
Bang!
In the distance, just when the Western Turkic cavalry were about to crush the Beiting Protectorate army with their sheer advantage in numbers, the air suddenly rang with booms and the grinding of gears. By the time Jiudu Fuluo had reacted, all he could hear were screams. A fuzzy black silhouette shot through the air, blasting through the chests of seven Turkic cavalry in a straight line, causing them to drop from their horses in fountains of blood.
“Great Tang ballistae!”
Jiudu Fuluo was stunned as he realized what had happened. He instantly felt a very ill foreboding.
He had carefully investigated and knew that An Sishun didn’t have many ballistae in his ranks, and his soldiers would have never been able to fire them so accurately. This was not the style of the Beiting Protectorate army.
But then Jiudu Fuluo was left even further stunned.
The ‘supply carriages’ in the center of the Beiting Protectorate army suddenly had their cloth coverings removed, revealing not bags of grain and food, but the famed war machines of the Great Tang, the ballistae!
“Fire!”
An aloof young general in the center of these ballistae swung his Wootz Steel sword down. The five thousand Tang ballistae fired simultaneously, sending five thousand ballista bolts howling through the air. Time seemed to stop as the one hundred and eighty thousand Western Turkic cavalry felt their hearts freeze.
Boomboomboom!
In this single volley, tens of thousands of Western Turkic cavalry were felled. These ballista soldiers could fire extremely accurately, and they fired at exactly where the Turkic cavalry were most concentrated. Each bolt struck at least three Turkic cavalry, and even the most seasoned amongst them were still felled like weeds.
Neeeigh! Nearly twenty thousand Western Turkic cavalry fell from their warhorses. The battlefield became eerily quiet as the Western Turkic cavalry stared in shock, even their breathing momentarily stopping.
“Release!”
While everyone was still stunned by the might of the ballistae, the aloof young general immediately ordered the second volley to be fired. With another chorus of booms, five thousand more bolts flew toward the Western Turkic cavalry like the scythe of the grim reaper.
“Kill them!”
A few Turkic cavalry tried to charge at the ballista army, but they were cut down by a rain of death before they could even get close. None of the Turkic cavalry were a match for this ballista army that had appeared out of nowhere.
“Retreat! Retreat!” Jiudu Fuluo anxiously called out, both shocked and furious.
He had recognized the uniforms of those ballista soldiers that had emerged from the supply carriages. In a letter Duwu Sili had sent to Ishbara Khagan, he had mentioned a new kind of ballista unit that had appeared in the Great Tang. This unit could fire ballistae very quickly and accurately, and possessed terrifying might.
“This must be that unit from Qixi!”
The Great Tang ballista army that Duwu Sili had said appeared at Talas could never appear here. Although he wasn’t sure how this new and even larger ballista army had appeared in this place, Jiudu Fuluo was sure that it was inextricably linked to that temporary Qixi Protector-General called Wang Chong.
“Everyone, retreat!”
Jiudu Fuluo’s thunderous roar echoed over the battlefield. As his voice resounded in the skies, Jiudu Fuluo was already charging forward, soaring like an eagle over the Tang army.
Buzz!
Stellar Energy seethed around him like tens of thousands of snakes. In a flash, this Stellar Energy suddenly exploded with a light more dazzling than the sun’s. From a distance, Jiudu Fuluo seemed to have transformed into an enormous comet, the light so completely shrouding him that it was no longer possible to see his figure. Moreover, the energy rising from Jiudu Fuluo’s body instantly became ten times more powerful, and everyone felt like a calamity was hanging over their heads.
Comet’s Descent!
This was one of Jiudu Fuluo’s most famous techniques. By harnessing his terrifying power and the special nature of his Stellar Energy, Jiudu Fuluo could crash down from the skies like a descending comet and unleash a terrifying explosion within the enemy ranks.
Because the Great Tang ballistae had been disguised as supply carriages, they were somewhat densely concentrated. An attack from a Great General of Jiudu Fuluo’s level was certain to deal this ballista army a heavy blow.
“Hahaha! Jiudu Fuluo, isn’t it a bit too late to realize that you’ve fallen into a trap?”
Laughter resounded through the air as An Sishun shot out from beneath the black banner of the Beiting Protectorate like an arrow.
In the blink of an eye, he had collided with the mid-air Jiudu Fuluo. Even though Jiudu Fuluo was one of the three strongest Great Generals of the Western Turkic Khaganate, even he was forced to discard the idea of dealing with the ballistae while fighting against An Sishun.
“An Sishun, you’re very crafty!”
Jiudu Fuluo slashed out with his saber, infusing his vast saber energy with his fury.
This was not the Sanmi Great General’s first clash with An Sishun, but it was the first time he had been caught so off guard. For An Sishun to make himself bait to trap Jiudu Fuluo was definitely not his style. With Jiudu Fuluo being so caught off guard, the result of this battle was easily imaginable.
“Hahaha, Jiudu Fuluo, thank you for your high praise!”
An Sishun gave a careless laugh. Without the slightest hesitation, he unleashed a dazzling and magnificent Sword Qi that collided with Jiudu Fuluo’s saber energy.
But this battle would not end how Jiudu Fuluo and An Sishun imagined it would.
“Fire!”
The aloof young general barked out another order and swung down his sword. More than seventy ballista bolts began to converge on Jiudu Fuluo’s position.
“Damn it!”
Jiudu Fuluo’s heart exploded with rage at the sight of these ballista bolts. Normally, Jiudu Fuluo wouldn’t mind even if hundreds of ballista bolts were fired at him, but with An Sishun attacking him, even Jiudu Fuluo would have to beat a temporary retreat.
“An Sishun, don’t get too proud. There will come a day when your Beiting Protectorate will pay the price!”
Jiudu Fuluo lunged away, taking advantage of the impact from his clash with An Sishun to flee.
Behind him, the Western Turkic cavalry fled for their lives.
“Fire!”
The cold voice ordered the five thousand Tang ballistae to fire yet another volley. Boomboomboom! The screams of man and horse, the thudding of bodies against the ground, and the cries of the pursuing Tang army created a discordant din over the battlefield.
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1048 - Divine Martial Army!
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1048 - Divine Martial Army!
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Chapter 1048: Divine Martial Army!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Part of the Tang army had remained intentionally concealed, only waiting until the two armies had clashed to abruptly strike. This minor detail immediately had tremendous effects. Even though Jiudu Fuluo had promptly called for a retreat, he had still left tens of thousands of Turkic bodies on the battlefield.
Even those Western Turkic cavalry who had fled very far away could hear the shouts of the soldiers behind them. The battle had only lasted for a short while, but Jiudu Fuluo and his army had paid nearly eighty thousand lives. Meanwhile, the Beiting Protectorate had not even lost five thousand. This sort of casualty ratio had never happened before.
“Enough! Everyone come back! This battle is enough to restrain Jiudu Fuluo from any reckless actions for at least a year!”
With An Sishun’s order, all the pursuing Beiting soldiers withdrew. The Beiting Protectorate had far too much infantry and supply wagons to match the agility of the purely cavalry forces of the Western Turkic army. Moreover, the ballista army also could not follow the army in the pursuit.
As An Sishun was awash with joy and all the soldiers of the Beiting Protectorate were celebrating, a cold and untimely voice spoke. “Lord Protector-General, our mission is complete and you have seen the power of the ballista army. It is now time to fulfill your end of the promise.”
The young and aloof commander of the ballista army had ridden up to An Sishun’s side atop a Turkic horse.
Buzz!
In a flash, all fell silent, and even the cheers died away. The surrounding Beiting Protectorate soldiers all began to look at this young general, and An Sishun’s expression turned gloomy as his brows creased.
“Young man, you’ve got quite some nerve. Do you know that as long as I wish it, I could kill you here?” An Sishun harshly said, his eyes slowly becoming as sharp as swords.
“If Lord Protector-General kills me, I naturally cannot resist, but that is an entirely different matter. I fulfilled my promise to Lord Protector-General. The Western Turkic army has been defeated and the Sanmi Great General Jiudu Fuluo has withdrawn. Now is the time for Lord Protector-General to fulfill his end of the promise. I presume that someone of Lord Protector-General’s status will not go back on their words?” the young commander firmly replied. Even in front of an elite Great General like An Sishun, his face showed not a flicker of emotion.
“Impudent! A puny subordinate general dares to act so rudely before Lord Protector-General! I don’t believe that our Beiting Protectorate army can’t handle a puny officer like you!” A swarthy-faced general next to An Sishun finally could not hold back his rage.
“If Lord Protector-General wishes, you may kill me, but the transaction must proceed. The Beiting Protectorate army must send the promised soldiers to reinforce Talas. I might as well add that even though I might be a puny subordinate general of insignificant status, my transaction with Lord Protector-General has the seal of the Qixi Protectorate. This seal represents our Qixi Protector-General. I hope that Lord Protector-General can carefully consider his options!”
The aloof commander coldly stared at An Sishun, clearly not willing to yield.
“Bastard! You dare to threaten Milord!”
“Kill him! I don’t believe that that Qixi Protector-General can do anything to Milord!”
The surrounding Beiting commanders all exploded with fury.
“You would dare!”
“Anyone who dares to touch our lord will have to contend with us!”
“At the worst, we’ll just bring you down with us. Brothers, prepare for battle!”
In the rear, the ‘Qixi Protectorate army soldiers’ were also enraged. One of them even threw off his helmet to reveal his savage and fierce face.
“You would dare!”
Clangclangclang! Sabers and swords were unsheathed by the furious Beiting soldiers. These warriors of the Qixi Protectorate were not regular soldiers at all. Their temper and demeanor were more appropriate for bandits and brigands.
“Enough! Everyone stop!”
An Sishun’s single order immediately had all the Beiting soldiers sheathing their weapons.
“Young man, tell me: what is your name?”
An Sishun turned his head to that aloof young commander. An Sishun had met countless commanders and had experienced many trials and storms, but he had to admit that this young commander’s daring and insight were truly admirable. They had left an extremely deep impression on An Sishun.
“Su Hanshan!”
The young commander announced his name, neither proud nor meek, and his eyes shone with a fearless resolve.
“Not bad! I’ll remember you! My words just now were just a joke. I will do everything that I have promised and will immediately give you the soldiers that I have promised. An Beiliu, select some elites for me and have them follow him back to Qixi.”
“Many thanks, Milord!”
Su Hanshan’s expression grew much gentler, and with a wave of his hand, the ballista soldiers behind him fell silent.
Although these soldiers had all been bandits and brigands of the Silk Road who were used to a lawless and unruly life style, they all displayed incredible respect toward Su Hanshan. Su Hanshan’s training had made it so that these people were no longer mere bandits. This was also a sign of Su Hanshan’s powerful charisma and talent for command.
To put it bluntly, these people were willing to die for Su Hanshan if anyone dared to touch him.
Su Hanshan quickly departed with his ballista army and ten thousand elites of the Beiting Protectorate, leaving behind three thousand ballistae.
“Milord, ten thousand elites is far more than we agreed to with the Young Marquis. Is Milord really going to let them all leave?” an extremely intelligent-looking general next to An Sishun asked.
“Haha, why wouldn’t I agree? I’m just loaning them, not really giving them to the Qixi Protectorate army. Moreover… did you really think I would agree so easily? Long before this, I submitted a memorial to the court proposing that I loan ten thousand elite soldiers. No matter how this battle turns out, our Beiting Protectorate army will stand to benefit.”
An Sishun faintly smiled.
“But, Milord, that fellow called Su Hanshan is quite daring,” another general said, his words tinged with praise. “While Wang Chong is far away in Talas, he actually came on his own volition to propose a deal with Lord Protector-General. And it appears like the soldiers that he’s trained would be completely willing to die for him. This sort of ability to train soldiers is one in ten thousand. It would be great if we could get him transferred to our Beiting Protectorate.”
This general was only casually giving his frank assessment, but his words immediately caused An Sishun’s smile to fade, and he turned in the direction Su Hanshan had left with a profound gaze.
“Qi, that Su Hanshan… keep an eye on him for me. If it’s possible, think of a way to bring him into our Beiting Protectorate.”
An Sishun’s sudden words caused all his generals to shiver and stare at An Sishun, including the general known as Qi who had just sung Su Hanshan’s praises. They all knew that someone who dared to speak so curtly before the Protector-General had some daring, but none of them knew that the Protector-General felt such admiration for him that he wanted to recruit him to the Beiting Protectorate.
“Yes, Milord!”
Qi’s lips twitched as if he wanted to say something, but he quickly lowered his head and respectfully affirmed his task.
The other generals docilely lowered their heads. Just like how those bandits trained into ballista soldiers felt about Su Hanshan, all the soldiers of the Beiting Protectorate bore absolute respect and submission toward An Sishun.
Daring, resourcefulness, initiative, command, fearlessness… this sort of person who can handle things completely on his own isn’t just some potential general… This is someone with the potential to be a Great General!
Countless thoughts flitted through An Sishun’s stern eyes.
A Great General would always get a feeling when they met another Great General. An Sishun had seen this quality in the young commander called Su Hanshan, because this was none other than a younger version of himself!
As he thought about how that Wang Clan scion in Talas had so many talented individuals under his command at such a young age, An Sishun couldn’t help but feel a little envious.
……
Storms thundered across the Nine Provinces, stirred to life by the imminent Battle of Talas.
The Qixi Protectorate was like the eye of the storm, where countless elite soldiers gathered. Moreover, Wushang’s City of Steel, as a place that had to be passed through on the way to Qixi, served as the greatest witness to this fact.
“Look at that!”
A child standing atop a high steel wall suddenly pointed into the distance.
These words instantly attracted everyone’s attention. The children and craftsmen on the walls, and the many scions, merchants, and pedestrians around the city gate, all turned to look.
A cloud of dust was rising from the direction the child had pointed at. Seven thousand armored horsemen were silently riding with focused expressions, passing close by the City of Steel as they rode onward to the Qixi Protectorate. A war banner rose from the center of this formation of black-armored cavalry, and the seven stars upon it were visible even from a great distance.
“It’s the Big Dipper Army! Great General Geshu Han’s Big Dipper Army!” someone shouted out from the middle of the crowd.
“Look over there! It’s the Divine Martial Army!”
A group of black-armored cavalry was riding at the very front of this army, standing out from the rest of the soldiers due to their composed and serene auras. They were at least three times stronger than the soldiers behind them, and even though there were only three thousand of them, their cohesion and discipline made them stronger than a force of thirty thousand.
Steam curled around their bodies, spreading as far as three feet, making them all indistinct and blurry.
“I didn’t think that the Big Dipper Army would send the Divine Martial Army!” a merchant from Longxi standing at the base of the city walls excitedly called out.
The name ‘Divine Martial Army’ immediately sent the crowd into an uproar.
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1049 - Setting Off for Talas!
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1049 - Setting Off for Talas!
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Chapter 1049: Setting Off for Talas!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The Divine Martial Army!
This was the Big Dipper Army’s most elite force. It was said that the Great Tang War God Wang Zhongsi and Geshu Han had trained this force over two generations, selecting its members from the elite of the elite. After so many years, it still only consisted of several thousand soldiers, and their ranks were rarely fully manned.
This was a force with supreme fighting power. In an extremely outnumbered situation, they had once defeated the Ü-Tsang King of Generals We Tadra Khonglo’s White Lion Cavalry. In another battle, where they had been outnumbered by a force five times their size, they had managed to pierce through the enemy formation and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, defeating a force of nearly sixty thousand soldiers.
This was the true core strength of the Big Dipper Army!
The title of ‘Divine Martial’ had been granted by the Sage Emperor himself.
The three thousand soldiers of the Divine Martial Army and four thousand elites of the Big Dipper Army silently and serenely swept past the City of Steel. Not long after the Divine Martial Army had passed by, on the night of the same day, another army began to approach. The earth began to rumble and clouds of churning dust rose from the horizon. Countless people surged out of the City of Steel to see what was going on.
“This, what’s going on? How did a mountain appear there?”
The crowd outside the City of Steel looked in shock to the southeast. In the distant darkness, what was once a flat and empty plain was now home to a lofty and towering mountain range. Most unbelievable of all was that this mountain range was trembling as it approached the City of Steel.
For a brief moment, the City of Steel was eerily still. Everyone stared at that moving mountain range in stunned silence. A few moments later, everyone began to hear the sound of crashing waves. It was so soft at first that only a small number of people could hear it, but it rapidly crescendoed until everyone within a thousand li could hear it.
“Look at that!” someone cried out in alarm.
That enormous mountain range in the distance had suddenly vanished, replaced with massive waves that reached for the heavens. Countless waves were sweeping through the world, and the wave at the very front was apparently dozens of times taller than the City of Steel.
Waaaa! A child of six or seven immediately began to cry, and the merchants and bystanders also became afraid. These massive waves approaching made them all begin to back up.
“Get back! Hurry!”
Many people fled back into the city, their faces pale and devoid of blood. But before they could all get in through the gates, the waves vanished. At the base of those vanished waves was an army of eight thousand black-armored soldiers, their auras serene and composed. Flying at the front of this army was the banner of a five-clawed golden dragon.
“Imp– Imperial Army!”
A peddler who had once lived in the capital was left slack-jawed by the sight of this banner in the darkness. Anyone who stayed for long enough in the capital would recognize the symbol of the Imperial Army, but he did not dare to confirm that he had ever seen this particular unit of the Imperial Army before.
Rumble! The shaking of the earth caused the City of Steel to buzz and drone. Under the eyes of the silent crowd, the eight thousand soldiers of the Imperial Army passed the City of Steel and continued their march to Qixi, not even shooting a glance at the city.
As the darkness settled in and the ruckus passed, everyone began to fall asleep, but soon the third wave of reinforcements from the Great Tang arrived.
Arf! Arf!
Kee! Kee!
The birds and beasts within the City of Steel began to uneasily cry out without warning. Birds anxiously hopped around in their cages while dogs barked incessantly at something to the southeast. It seemed like they had sensed something extremely dangerous approaching from that direction.
The various establishments set up by the great clans in the City of Steel were already home to many civilians and peddlers and were slowly beginning to flourish. However, a situation like today’s had never occurred before.
A peddler who had been stirred from his slumber opened his window and was prepared to curse when he saw the sky and instantly froze. The dark night sky and its dim stars were suddenly awash with blazing white light. If one looked carefully, one might even be able to tell that all this was dazzling Sword Qi rising from the southeast, piercing through the night sky like a silver river.
This magnificent Sword Qi made all the stars seem lightless. Even the night sky seemed to be exuding light.
The peddler stood with his hands still pressed on the window shutters as he stared in shock at the several hundred li of dazzling Sword Qi. At this moment, the peddler also began to hear a rumbling of the earth, almost inaudible at first but gradually intensifying until the entire world seemed to be quivering. A fierce and somber energy that had been faintly hanging in the air rapidly began to swell, becoming so powerful so quickly that it was hard to believe.
The silently slumbering City of Steel was suddenly awash with cries of fear and alarm as everyone was awakened by this sharp energy.
As a bone-chilling air began to come in through the window, the peddler realized that this somber energy had caused the temperature of the City of Steel to drop. Bang! The peddler drew the shutters closed and curled up in his house.
The people within the City of Steel also seemed to sense something, and all the noise and hubbub instantly fell into deathly silence.
Rumble!
The sound of marching footsteps drew closer and closer, but only the guards stationed on the city walls could see what was actually going on. An army of four thousand soldiers, their bodies wrapped in white Sword Qi, somberly swept past the city, not making a single noise. The noiseless pressure they exuded made all the guards on the walls tremble in fear.
Divine Prison!
The white light of the Sword Qi allowed the guards to clearly make out the words written on the white war banner.
Around thirty minutes later, the army had left the City of Steel’s vicinity and vanished in the direction of Qixi. But even then, the guards on the walls remained in a stunned stupor.
In a single day, three armies had passed by the City of Steel. Each of these armies had been incredibly powerful, leaving an unprecedented impression on the people of the City of Steel.
“Incredible! Where did Lord Marquis find such powerful soldiers!” a soldier on the wall who had originally served at the Qixi Protectorate muttered to himself.
Todayl was the first time many of the city’s inhabitants had seen so many powerful soldiers. It was also the first time they had realized that the Great Tang had this many hidden armies!
The events of the last few days were enough to talk about for the rest of their lives!
After a few days, the Qixi Protectorate became the largest fortress of the northwest excluding Talas. The Divine Martial Army, the Xuanwu Army, the Divine Prison Army, Zhang Shougui’s Heavenly Capital Army—all of these disciplined soldiers had neatly gathered in front of the Qixi Protectorate army, silent and heroic.
The most obvious force on this square was the six thousand Wushang Cavalry in the very center. Although there weren’t enough Wootz Steel swords, these Wushang Cavalry had weapons made of Meteoric Metal as well as Meteoric Metal suits of armor. This sort of equipment was still enough to shame the majority of armies.
“All we’re missing is Su Hanshan!” Cui Piaoqi softly said as he stood next to Wang Bei.
“It’s close enough. I’ve already received news from Su Hanshan. He’s succeeded at his mission and is on the way back,” Wang Bei said, turning to the east together with Cui Piaoqi.
As if in response to their words, around half an hour later, winds howled and a massive black flood of soldiers swept out from the east.
“It’s the Beiting Protectorate army!”
A Wushang horseman with good eyesight had immediately spotted the black dragon banner fluttering over the army. Qixi was adjacent to Beiting, so everyone was extremely familiar with the Beiting Protectorate’s war banner.
The appearance of the Beiting Protectorate army indicated that Su Hanshan had succeeded with his mission.
A few moments later, Su Hanshan rode out from the rear of the army to arrive before Wang Bei and Cui Piaoqi.
“Have all the soldiers arrived?”
“The Ultimate Martial Army is still on the way. They should arrive in two days,” Wang Bei said.
With Wang Chong gone, the three figureheads of Qixi were Wang Bei, Cui Piaoqi, and Su Hanshan. Moreover, Wang Bei, as Wang Chong’s second brother, was the unquestioned leader. The majority of communications were left to him. The Wang Clan was a clan of ministers and generals, and gave its members a very thorough education. With Wang Bei’s experience, he could easily handle such matters.
“Speed is paramount in war. The war could break out at any time. We’ve gathered around sixty thousand soldiers now, so we can set off for Talas to reinforce Lord Protector-General. As for the four thousand soldiers of the Ultimate Martial Army, have them follow and join the army at Talas!” Su Hanshan coldly and sternly said.
Cui Piaoqi and Wang Bei nodded, both of them agreeing with Su Hanshan.
“Since that’s the case, inform the two venerable seniors and prepare to move out,” Su Hanshan said.
An hour later, metallic drums began to bang and great clouds of dust began to rise from the Qixi Protectorate headquarters. An elite army of more than fifty thousand soldiers set out from Qixi, majestically marching to Talas.
In that moment, the winds roared and clouds gathered, and all the northwest seemed to tremble before the might of this army.
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NovelFantasyThe Human EmperorChapter 1050 - Three Sides Gather!
THE HUMAN EMPEROR
C1050 - Three Sides Gather!
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Chapter 1050: Three Sides Gather!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
To the west of Talas, in the distant Black Forest…
Flapflap! Countless birds took off into the air in fright as an enormous Arab army marched toward the Black Forest. The three massive banners of the army were visible from a great distance. They were a black crescent moon, a long and narrow river, and a burning black hell flame.
Thump thump thump!
The thundering of the war drums made all the Black Forest tremble before the might of this army.
“They’re here!”
In front of the Black Forest, Ziyad stood up and looked to the rear, his eyes glowing with joy. Behind Ziyad, Abu Muslim also stood up. His expression appeared calm but his eyes revealed all.
The Arabs required a victory in this war, and Abu Muslim and Ziyad had been waiting far too long for this day to come. To break Talas and conquer the eastern world had always been the greatest desire of Abu Muslim and all the other Arab governors.
As the Governor of Iron and Blood, Abu Muslim could not endure a loss to a puny army of infidels, nor could his deputy Ziyad.
“Hahaha, Abu Muslim, we meet again!”
A vigorous laugh came out of the army as Governor Osman of Cairo rode out to meet Abu Muslim and Ziyad.
“Lord Osman, we’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”
Ziyad laughed and rode his own horse forward to meet him, a warm and amiable look on his face. Ziyad had also participated in the war with the Sassanid Dynasty, and he had even worked with Osman to kill a Sassanid Great General. They could be considered old friends.
“Welcome!”
Abu Muslim also rode his horse forward, but he only calmly spoke a single word.
“Abu Muslim, you’re still your old self, still with that same foul expression. What’s wrong? Are the Tang at Talas really that formidable? Such that even you are no match for them?”
Osman gently smiled while his eyes shone with curiosity.
Abu Muslim was practically a symbol of invincibility in the Arabian Empire. In the last few decades, there had been no empire that he had not been able to conquer. But this time, not only had he failed to conquer, but he had been defeated as well. Osman had to admit that he had been rather stunned when he had first heard this news, even believing it to be some sort of joke.
“Osman, don’t get careless. This Tang army is different from any opponent we’ve ever faced. Their weapons, equipment, strategies, formations, and their commanders are all extremely formidable. In addition, eastern martial arts are completely different from ours. It was precisely because Masil was too careless that he died at their hands,” Abu Muslim grimly said.
“Is that so?”
An indifferent voice spoke, tinged with disdain and a tyrannical air.
“That makes me want to try even more. I’d like to see if there’s an army in this world that our Mamelukes can’t defeat!”
Aybak slowly rode out from the army upon a pure white steed.
“Milord!”
Ziyad’s expression became slightly apprehensive at the sight of Aybak and he immediately bowed.
The Mamelukes were an army with supreme fighting power. All of Arabia knew this. As the leader of the Mamelukes, Aybak wielded immense influence. Even Ziyad had to show him a great deal of respect.
“Aybak, if that’s what you want, you can try my army.”
An icy voice came out from the rear, accompanied by the clopping of hooves. A figure shining with a dazzling golden light appeared, riding on an abnormally large Arabian steed.
Qutaybah!
Abu Muslim, Osman, Ziyad, and Aybak all turned serious and immediately shut their mouths. The Governor of War Qutaybah almost certainly commanded the most unique army in all the Arabian Empire.
Qutaybah craved battle so much that he started wars even more frequently than Abu Muslim. He was an out-and-out battle maniac. This was one of the few people who surpassed Abu Muslim in status, and the formidable strength and authority he wielded made even the Caliph think about ways to restrain him.
This madman!
A hint of anger flashed through Aybak’s eyes, but he did not dare to voice his opinion. At its full strength, the Mamelukes only had ten thousand men, but Qutaybah’s elite soldiers were more than ten times this number. The Mamelukes were used to break defensive positions on the battlefield, not for large-scale combat. Even if the Mamelukes could break through Qutaybah’s formation, they would still end up in a bitter melee from which they would emerge with severe casualties.
Most importantly, Aybak was no match for Qutaybah.
Qutaybah was known as the War God of Arabia, a title that well reflected his level of strength. If it was not necessary, Aybak did not want to make enemies with this battle maniac.
The dazzling golden figure of Qutaybah ignored Aybak and turned to Abu Muslim. “Abu Muslim, you’ve truly disappointed me. I didn’t think that someone of your strength with the help of the Behemoth Army and Skyquaking Army would still lose to a small eastern army with just some tens of thousands of troops. I once thought that you could replace me in the future, but it now seems that I overestimated you.”
Abu Muslim’s brows moved as if he wanted to say something, but he managed to restrain himself. Hierarchy was strict in the Arabian Empire, and all of it was decided through strength. Abu Muslim had just suffered a defeat at Talas, so he naturally had nothing to say in front of the formidable Qutaybah.
“Qutaybah, you’ll quickly know yourself whether the Tang are weak or strong. Since the army is here, we should begin to break Talas and eliminate the Tang army. Ziyad, inform the Tibetans and Western Turks to get ready to move out,” Abu Muslim ordered, turning his head.
“Yes, Milord!”
Ziyad came to his senses and quickly rode away.
Flapflap! An Arabian hunting falcon soon soared into the sky, leaving the Black Forest, passing over Talas, and landing in the Tibetan camp.
At this moment, the Tibetan army was vigilant and disciplined, and now exuded an entirely different aura. The forty thousand Tibetan reinforcements sent by the great clans and Royal Lineages had finally arrived and joined with Dalun Ruozan’s army. Dalun Ruozan once more had nearly eighty thousand soldiers, and their average strength was even higher than before.
“Haha, everyone is finally here.”
Dalun Ruozan smiled as he gripped Ziyad’s letter.
He had been waiting for a very long time, and now the moment had finally arrived. Three governors, four hundred thousand soldiers, and the strength provided by the Tibetans and Western Turks… No matter what, Wang Chong and Gao Xianzhi had no way of surviving this battle.
“Pass on my order! Have the army get ready to move out!”
Dalun Ruozan lightly flicked the letter away.
“Reporting!”
At this moment, a Tibetan messenger bolted into the tent and got down on one knee.
“Great Minister, the scouts in the rear have discovered Tang reinforcements moving toward Talas. We estimate there to be at least sixty thousand, and all of them are elites. Great Minister, your instructions!”
Buzz!
The tent fell deathly still at these words, time seeming to stop and all movement freezing. Even Dalun Ruozan felt his expression freeze and the smile on his lips die away.
“How far are they?” Dalun Ruozan said, his brows deeply creasing. This news had clearly caught him by surprise.
“They’re moving very quickly. They’ll need at most a day to reach our position,” the messenger respectfully replied.
The tent remained still. Dalun Ruozan propped his chin on one hand and began to silently think.
“The Great Tang’s reinforcements came very quickly. It seems like that Sage Emperor has noticed the danger in the northwest and decided to send soldiers early,” Dusong Mangpoje sternly said.
This was truly most surprising news. The Great Tang reinforcements had arrived just as they had been preparing to set out.
“That’s not what I’m worried about.”
Huoshu Huicang also spoke, his brows deeply furrowed.
“The Great Tang is different from us. They have far too many enemies to be capable of mobilizing a lot of soldiers. Sixty thousand elites is truly a rather surprising figure. If we go according to the plan and advance together with the Arabs to attack Talas, I worry that it will be us and not the Tang at Talas who will be attacked in the rear.”
In warfare, the greatest blunder of all was to be attacked in the rear.
The Arabs had an astonishing ability to recover their fighting power. Even though they had lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers, they had managed to once more gather an army of four hundred thousand. Even if they were attacked in the rear, they would have nothing to fear. But the Tibetans only had eighty thousand soldiers. An attack in the rear might result in their being completely wiped out.
The tent was quiet. This variable had come abruptly and quickly, not even allowing the Tibetans time to rejoice at the news of the Arab reinforcements before they had to reconsider their own circumstances. A grim and solemn mood hung over the tent.
“Heh!”
Dalun Ruozan suddenly chuckled as he made his decision.
“It seems we’ll have to alter our plan. Earth is used to block a flood and soldiers are used to block an enemy army. Let’s go and see those Great Tang reinforcements. At the same time, we can also buy some time for Abu Muslim.
“In addition, inform Duwu Sili. After so long, it’s about time we met up.”
A few moments after Dalun Ruozan had given this order, an eagle soared into the air toward the Western Turkic camp. Not even two hours later, the Tibetan and Western Turkic armies merged and began to ride in the opposite direction from Talas.
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