The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  “Cutting Formation!”

  They turned around and scattered the Tibetans into disarray before continuing their retreat to the Tang camp.

  Boom!

  Moments after Li Siye had gone, a force of cavalry armored in gold and red rode out from the fire.

  “Damn it! A step too slow!”

  Huoba Sangye clenched his fists as he glared at the retreating Tang army. Following Dalun Ruozan’s orders, he had done his utmost to reach this area as quickly as possible, but these Tang seemed to have predicted this and already started to retreat. Huoba Sangye found this unbearable, like he had punched at empty air.

  “Milord, what do we do?!” one of the Mutri Great Cavalry beside him asked.

  Huoba Sangye said nothing, a thoughtful look in his eyes. According to Dalun Ruozan’s plans, they should have entered a fierce battle with the enemy forces, but it was clear that Dalun Ruozan’s calculations had been off. He needed to make his own decision now.

  Buzz!

  As he was thinking, he felt a strange sensation and turned his head. A powerful energy was rapidly approaching from the northwest. Phweeeet! A long whistle shrieked through the air.

  “This is… the Celestial Wolf Great General of the Western Turks!”

  Huoba Sangye’s pupils constricted as he recognized this man. But Duwu Sili clearly paid them no attention, keeping his body pressed against his horse as he galloped past the Mutri Great Cavalry and into the darkness.

  “Where are you running!”

  Everyone could hear Duwu Sili’s roar of anger!

  “Go! Follow him!”

  Huoba Sangye’s eyes flashed as he made his decision. The five-thousand-some Mutri Great Cavalry galloped off in pursuit.

  ……

  “General! What do we do? It’s the Celestial Wolf Great General!” A Wushang horseman suddenly spoke, his eyes brimming with anxiety.

  Duwu Sili’s roar had traveled very far, and more importantly, they could all sense Duwu Sili’s storm of energy approaching with the speed of a lightning bolt.

  At this speed, Duwu Sili would catch up in no time. Being caught by an elite Imperial Great General was certain to be a disaster of unimaginable proportions.

  “There’s no need to worry!”

  Li Siye smiled, his expression relaxed.

  “Lord Marquis predicted all of this. Everyone, continue with the plan!”

  With these words, Li Siye urged his horse to move even faster.

  ……

  “Hmph! Do you think you can escape?”

  In the deep darkness, Duwu Sili rode his divine Turkic steed in hot pursuit, his eyes shining with a scorching light. If one looked carefully, one could even see the anger surging within them.

  Duwu Sili had left right after Huoba Sangye, but unlike Huoba Sangye, he could have gone straight to the scene. With his Great General strength, he should have arrived before Huoba Sangye, but reality proved otherwise. This was because when Duwu Sili walked out of the Tibetan commander tent, he noticed fire rising from his own camp. At some point, Wang Chong’s catapults had begun to target the Turkic camp. Duwu Sili was beginning to receive more and more reports on the matter.

  He had even received news that the Tibetans had attacked his camp and the two sides were fighting against each other.

  Duwu Sili was anxious to deal with the Tang raiders, but he could not do so with all these pressing issues. However, by the time he arrived at his camp, the catapults had stopped firing and all the urgent reports had stopped. The only issue left was the Turks fighting with the Tibetans.

  Duwu Sili felt like he had been toyed with.

  As one of the best Great Generals of the Western Turkic Khaganate, Duwu Sili had never been so disgraced. This was the reason for his inextinguishable anger.

  “No matter where you run, the only thing awaiting you is death!”

  Duwu Sili’s body was seething with killing intent that rose to the heavens. To Duwu Sili, killing a force of four to five thousand Tang soldiers was as easy as flipping his palm. But in the middle of this pursuit, the Tang force suddenly scattered like panicked birds.

  “!!!”

  Duwu Sili immediately felt his heart drop. He did not think that the Tang raiding force would scatter. Even as a Great General, Duwu Sili could not chase down each of the fleeing Tang cavalry.

  “Damn it!”

  Duwu Sili clenched his fists, his body boiling with rage. For a moment, he did not know what to choose, but then his eyes turned cold as he locked onto that giant figure in front.

  “I’ll kill you first, and then the others!”

  Duwu Sili urged his horse to gallop toward Li Siye. Li Siye’s figure was far too tall and muscular, his more than two meters of height extremely obvious. During the day, Duwu Sili had taken note of this leader of the Wushang Cavalry. If he could kill this commander who wielded that giant sword, he would be dealing a severe blow to the Great Tang cavalry.

  “Die for me!”

  Shouting, Duwu Sili and his horse leapt into the air as he used the Celestial Wolf’s Divine Procession. From a distance, Duwu Sili seemed like a shooting star, approaching Li Siye at astonishing speeds. Li Siye might have been the commander of the Wushang Cavalry, but he was still a far cry from an elite Imperial Great General like Duwu Sili.

  Boom!

  Duwu Sili slashed with his sword, unleashing a radiant Sword Qi ten-some zhang long. Even Li Siye seemed insignificant before this thunderous strike.

  “Not good!”

  Li Siye felt an intense danger behind him, and his heart sank as he smelled the stench of death. He was pushing his Ferghana steed as fast as it could go, but he had not expected this move from Duwu Sili. The sharpness and speed of this move were unavoidable.

  But just when Li Siye was about to close his eyes and wait for death, a soft and jeering chuckle rang out in the darkness.

  “Celestial Wolf Great General, I was waiting a long time for you!”

  A massive stream of energy suddenly exploded out of the void. Before Li Siye could even react, dreadful Sword Qi of the peak Saint Martial realm swept past Li Siye and smashed into Duwu Sili.

  Rumble!

  The air was awash with light and Sword Qi, fierce winds sweeping in every direction. Two supreme Great Generals clashed on this open plain, and Li Siye couldn’t help but mentally gasp at the power in their collision.

  Gao Xianzhi!

  In all of the Great Tang’s northwest, the only person who could singlehandedly fend off Duwu Sili was probably Gao Xianzhi.

  “Damn it! It’s you!”

  Duwu Sili’s eyes narrowed, crackling with lightning as he stared at the figure standing across from him.

  Chapter 938 - Night Battle (III)

  Chapter 938: Night Battle (III)

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  Gao Xianzhi’s appearance had been too timely. From the start of this raid until now, Duwu Sili felt like he was being hemmed in from every direction. Although his opponent had been different every time, he felt like he could faintly make out the same face behind each of them.

  The mere thought of that youthful individual left Duwu Sili feeling vexed and irritable.

  This was a contest of two different kinds of power, intelligence and strength, and in this contest, Duwu Sili was unquestionably at the disadvantage.

  “Duwu Sili, you’re still an Irkin of the Western Turks, a Great General of Mount Sanmi. Isn’t it a little shameful to chase down a single general?”

  Gao Xianzhi stood in the darkness, a hand on his sword and a scornful smile on his lips.

  “Gao Xianzhi, I won’t mince words with you. Since you’ve appeared, I can’t bother chasing him down. Let’s meet again on the battlefield!”

  Duwu Sili suppressed his killing intent, gave one last glare, and turned his horse back around.

  Battles between Great Generals were often incredibly exhausting and time-consuming. Now that Gao Xianzhi had shown up, Duw
u Sili understood that there was no need to continue the fight. Without the slightest delay, he vanished into the darkness.

  Gao Xianzhi smiled as he watched Duwu Sili leave, making no attempt to stop him.

  Not long after Duwu Sili left, Cheng Qianli emerged from behind Gao Xianzhi, his hand pressed against the hilt of his sword.

  “Milord, it really was as Wang Chong predicted. The Great General Dalun Ruozan sent really was Duwu Sili!”

  “Huoshu Huicang and Dusong Mangpoje are both Great Generals of Ü-Tsang and have very close relationships to Dalun Ruozan. Their every move would be restricted by Dalun Ruozan, leaving Duwu Sili as the only Great General of the combined Turko-Tibetan army able to pursue our men,” Gao Xianzhi said with a smile.

  As a Great General with a mastery of strategy and tactics, Gao Xianzhi was very similar to Wang Chong, and it was precisely because of their similarities that he appreciated Wang Chong and only wished that they had met sooner.

  Gao Xianzhi found it difficult to imagine that the Great Tang had such an individual. If he had known beforehand, he would have used his status as Anxi Protector-General to recruit him to the Western Regions. If they had been able to work together, the Western Regions would have never ended up like this.

  “Let’s go! We’ve been gone from the camp long enough. The Arabs should have already started their attack.”

  Gao Xianzhi slowly turned around and began to walk toward Talas.

  To take, one first had to give. He had appeared here not merely to block Duwu Sili. If one wanted to catch a fish, one first had to bait the hook. This was a principle that would never change.

  In the darkness, Huoba Sangye and his golden-red Mutri Great Cavalry stared at Gao Xianzhi’s back. Though unwilling, they could only suppress their desires.

  “Withdraw!”

  With this order, they departed as quickly as they came.

  ……

  Swooshswooshswoosh!

  Gao Xianzhi’s judgment was on the mark. Reversing time to when Gao Xianzhi left to stop Duwu Sili, at the first defense line, arrows poured out of the darkness, each one aimed at a torch or furnace on the steel walls. Bangbangbang! With soft explosions, the Stellar Energy attached to the arrows exploded, and the fires were extinguished, casting the bright first defense line into darkness.

  “Careful! Enemy attack!” a Tang guard at the first defense line shouted as he realized what was going on.

  Thwish! An arrow shot out of the night like a poisonous snake and pierced through the neck of the vigilant soldier, causing him to fall to the ground with his eyes wide open.

  Clangclangclang!

  Cold light flashed as the Tang guards began to unsheathe their weapons, their muscles tensing as they looked beyond the walls.

  “Shieldmen, on the defense! Use the shields to block the gap!”

  A Tang general showed off the fruits of his discipline and training. Even though he had no idea of the number of enemies or the composition of their forces, he had swiftly made the correct decision. In a few moments, the Tang shieldmen began to rush to the gap and plant their tall and heavy shields in the ground, their bodies leaning forward in defensive postures.

  No matter how many enemies there were or how they attacked, as long as the Tang forces could block the gaps, they could thwart the enemies’ plans.

  But though the Great Tang had reacted quickly, the foe in the darkness reacted even more quickly…

  Neigh!

  The fierce cries of warhorses broke the calm of the dark night. The earth began to rumble as an unknown number of enemies charged at the first defense line. They had been hiding for some time, waiting for this moment to launch their strike.

  “Kill them!”

  “Everyone, follow me! Those who don’t will die!”

  “Kill all these Tang!”

  In the blink of an eye, thousands of Arab cavalry with bright eyes and savage expressions were assaulting the Tang defenses.

  Swooshswooshswoosh!

  Preceding them was volley after volley of arrows, falling thick amongst the defenses and felling countless Tang soldiers, which the Arab cavalry used to cover their attack. Boom! Two large hooves raised up in the darkness and fell with thunderous momentum on one of the large shields. This clash of horse hooves and infantry shield let out a metallic and deafening bongthat could be heard all along the first defense line.

  The shieldman behind the shield groaned, his facing turning white as blood trickled from his lips. He had managed to block the blow, but before he could even catch his breath, another pair of horse hooves was crashing down, and then a third, a fourth…

  Five muscular Arabian warhorses smashed against this single shield, and not even a veteran shieldman could hold out against this sheer force. Boom! The shieldman was thrown back along with his shield, allowing the Arab cavalry to surge in.

  “Kill!” the Arabs shouted in their language. They had prepared very long for this raid, and they now attacked with utmost ferocity. In a few moments, many of the Arab cavalry had succeeded in breaking through the line and entering the Tang camp.

  “Stop them!”

  “Light the fires!”

  The Tang generals also began to lose their nerve in this chaos.

  Fwoosh!

  Torches were thrown in from outside the area of battle as the nearby Tang soldiers swiftly worked to aid their comrades. Hundreds upon hundreds of torches were thrown into the area, their light outlining the fierce figures of the Arab cavalry.

  “Up!”

  The reinforcing Tang soldiers roared as they began to charge at the Arabs.

  But before they could reach the battlefield, another surprising development occurred…

  Swish!

  With a shrill whistle, a dazzling white arc of light, like the pure crescent moon, flew over the first defense line, slashing at the neck of one Tang infantry, and then another, and then it began to dance amongst the Tang soldiers. More whistles could be heard as a second arc of light appeared, and then a third… In a few short moments, countless arcs of light were dancing in the darkness, flashing past the Tang soldiers and leaving them drowning in their blood. These hundreds of arcs of light were both fast and accurate as they enacted a gory dance of death.

  Clang! A Tang soldier pulled out his sword and launched a dazzling white sword glow at one of those arcs of light. Ding!The arc of light turned, but not only did it not slow, it increased in speed as it shot toward another Tang soldier. Splush! Light flashed and blood plumed, and yet another Tang soldier dropped to the ground.

  “How could this be?”

  “What’s going on here?”

  “Everyone, be careful! It’s the Arabian scimitars! There’s something weird about them!”

  The orderly Tang soldiers behind the first defense line instantly fell into chaos. These brilliant white arcs of light were too fast and too abrupt. Moreover, their small size made them extremely hard to defend against. Grievous losses were quickly inflicted on the unprepared Tang soldiers.

  “Haha, die! In this continent, there is no one able to stop my Wings of Death!”

  Around thirty zhang from the first defense line, the fierce Arab general Nurman sat tall upon his horse, a savage smile on his lips. The screams of the dying Tang soldiers were the most beautiful music in the world to his ears.

  “Come, come! The more you send, the more will die!”

  Nurman squinted into the distance, his eyes exploding with a beast-like madness and excitement.

  The Wings of Death! This was the elite night raiding force under Nurman’s command. The darkness was their greatest aid, allowing them to display their full power. In countless battles, Nurman had led this supreme raiding force of the east to kill countless foes. Although they were not numerous, they were each extremely lethal. Through the use of baiting tactics, Nurman’s Wings of Death had killed forces ten times their number, even twenty times. Enemies of the Arabs paled at the mention of this name. The more reinforcements the enemy sent,
the more concentrated their numbers, the more powerful the Wings of Death were.

  Chapter 939 - Night Battle (IV)

  Chapter 939: Night Battle (IV)

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  The scimitars used by the Wings of Death were unlike those of any other Arab cavalry force. They were extremely thin, a third as thick as ordinary Arabian scimitars, but they were exceedingly sharp. Their most unique trait was that they had no hilts, and the Wings of Death used a special method to shoot them at their foes. These scimitars spun as they moved forward through the air, making them extremely lethal as well as difficult to deal with.

  Nurman’s Wings of Death were named for these scimitars. Wherever they were, one would find blood, death, and countless cowering enemies.

  But this powerful force was useless during a daytime battle, because the range of their special scimitars was very short, far inferior to that of bows, crossbows, and ballistae. The Wings of Death would be wiped out before they could even get close. For this reason, Nurman’s troops had remained in the rear.

  During the day, when countless Arab cavalry were falling to the Tang soldiers, Nurman could only watch and silently await the moment in which he could enact his vengeance. The sight of those Tang soldiers being cut down like weeds sent a quiver of indescribable joy through his body.

  Umar had died, Amur had been defeated, and even Khaled’s Iron Beast Army had suffered grievous casualties. In the end, all this proved that Nurman’s Wings of Death were the finest force under the command of the governor! The finest force in the eastern Abbasid Caliphate! Even the most formidable Tang soldiers would die to his scimitars, trembling as they cried out in fear!

  Moreover, the location he had chosen for his assault was the area of the first defense farthest from the gates of Talas, at the very end of the line. The Great Tang would need some time to gather reinforcements.

  “Retreat! Hurry and retreat!”

  A voice came from the distance. In the face of this terrifying assault, someone had finally chosen to make a wise decision. The Arab assault in itself was not anything to be afraid of, but those hiltless scimitars were horrifying. There were no weapons capable of blocking them.