“It’s not that simple. The Arabs won’t be able to escape!”
Wang Chong’s eyes focused and sharpened, his every movement exuding supreme confidence, as if nothing in the world could escape his grasp.
“Blizzards will ravage everything to the west of Khorasan, and with the land frozen, even if they want to run, they can’t get very far. An army of six to seven hundred thousand soldiers can’t move very quickly, and the more time passes, the more casualties they have, the weaker their ability to resistance will become, and their formation will fall into chaos. That will be the best moment to strike!”
Everyone was amazed by Wang Chong’s words.
“This general will go!”
The officers quickly bowed in agreement. The art of war was about mixing the false with the real, and in this aspect, all of them were still very inferior to Wang Chong.
Li Siye’s group quickly left, leaving Wang Chong alone to silently wait in the blizzard.
……
Time slowly passed. While Khorasan remained silent, in the darkness, the Arab camp was in a state of complete mayhem.
“Milord, this blizzard is too great, and the temperature has plunged too quickly and is too low. The soldiers can’t endure it!”
“All of the supplies we brought with us have been frozen. The warhorses have gone stiff and numb, and ice is starting to form on them!”
“Milord, we can’t hold on!”
The Arab generals roared and bellowed in panic and dismay, but the blizzard muffled and suppressed their voices. This storm had come too quickly and abruptly, catching all of them off guard.
At the very front of the army, the Three Titans of Black Radiance stood side by side. They emitted an invisible barrier of energy that repelled all the wind and cold. The three were silent, and though they attempted to appear as calm as possible, the gloom and dismay in the depths of their eyes revealed their true feelings.
How could it be like this?
As Fadi stared at the imposing city across from them, his eyes flashed and his heart was in turmoil.
All they had needed to do was wait until daybreak to breach this city with overwhelming force and take it back from those infidels. But this unprecedented blizzard had completely upset his plans.
The fierce winds and the plunging temperatures had thrown his army into chaos, and it had lost all its former grandeur. The neighing of horses and the panicked screams of the soldiers filled their ears and made the hearts of the trio bleed. Their expressions became even more unsightly.
“Milord, we request to retreat!!”
“Milord, we request to retreat!!”
The generals bellowed in panic. This was a state of emergency. If this continued, if they did not withdraw, the entire army would be wiped out.
Buzz!
The three stood motionless as they stared at that city, also engulfed by the blizzard but so quiet that it seemed to be dead. Countless thoughts were flitting through their minds.
“Hular, can we try to attack the city?” Fadi suddenly said, his voice tinged with hope.
“Milord, it’s impossible! I’ve already sent men to try, but Khorasan is encased in thick ice. Our ropes can’t pierce through it. Moreover, even the ropes have been frozen, and we can’t unwind them anymore. It’s impossible to attack the city. Our only option is to retreat to Shandar,” Hular said with great unwillingness.
How could Hular not understand what the Three Titans were thinking? The temperature was continuing to rapidly plunge. Tents were simply not enough to resist this sort of freezing weather. The Arabs had thought of every contingency in their strategy, all except for this kind of harsh winter.
Only by sheltering in the houses and buildings of a city could one barely resist this harsh cold. Otherwise, this army of more than six hundred thousand soldiers would be defeated without a battle, suffering an unprecedented wound. At this moment, the closest city was Khorasan. But the thick sheet of ice encasing Khorasan had become a natural barrier that was difficult to overcome, and this wasn’t even accounting for the coalition army of two hundred thousand inside. No one knew if the enemy had already predicted this and was lying in ambush.
It was far too quiet on the other side, far too abnormal!
Chapter 1181 - Pursuit in the Blizzard!
Chapter 1181: Pursuit in the Blizzard!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Anger!
Unwillingness!
Struggle!
It was so nearby, success so close at hand, and yet they really had to concede?
“Withdraw!”
As the blizzard intensified and the temperature continued to plunge, the order to retreat finally came from Fadi’s struggling face. Rumble! With the order from the Three Titans of Black Radiance, the army immediately began to withdraw to the west.
……
They’ve begun to withdraw!
As Wang Chong stood in the blizzard, his eyes closed, he sensed what was going on. He could hear through the howling winds that the Arabs had begun to make much more noise. After struggling for a while, the Arabs had finally put down their ambitions and yielded to this frigid winter that preceded the Little Ice Age.
The strength of Man was simply too weak and insignificant before the might of nature!
The sounds of neighing faded toward the west. Wang Chong silently calculated, but he still did not give the order to attack.
The temperature was still falling, and retreating amidst the darkness and raging snowstorm was far more difficult than the Arabs could imagine.
“It’s about ready!”
When the blizzard was at its fiercest and the temperature at its lowest, Wang Chong finally raised his head, looking up at the snow-filled sky.
“We can set out!”
Boom!
With Wang Chong’s order, a group of elite soldiers charged through the blizzard and shot out of the western gate of Khorasan. Splash! Scalding hot water was poured onto the thick layers of ice, and once the ice was thawed, there was a mighty boom as the frozen gates of Khorasan opened once more.
Neeeigh! The soldiers immediately rode out, their horses neighing.
Wang Chong himself rode out of Khorasan like a sharp arrow. Bzzz! As he emerged into the world outside Khorasan, he felt like he was entering a whole new world. Even though Wang Chong had mentally prepared himself, he still couldn’t help but shiver in shock.
It was already extremely cold in Khorasan, but only when Wang Chong had the gates opened did he understand just how frozen the world was.
That tributary of the Tigris River had vanished long ago, the surging waters transformed into a thick sheet of ice. Meanwhile, the several feet of snow piled on the ground transformed the world into a white and frigid place. And on the other side of the frozen Tigris River, he could see innumerable figures in the Arab camp, frozen into sculptures of ice.
“Enemy!”
Suddenly, a cry of alarm came from the Arab camp, shattering the calm. Wang Chong squinted as he quickly regained his composure, his eyes turning sharp. After waiting for so long, it was finally the Great Tang’s turn to attack.
Clang!
The clang of a sword was audible even amidst the howling winds. Riding on the White-hoofed Shadow, Wang Chong held aloft Bahram’s golden sword and gave the order.
“Attack!”
Rumble! Hooves thundered through the blizzard, sending ice and snow spluttering in every direction. Stellar Energy erupted from Wang Chong’s body, repulsing the blizzard, and he pressed himself against his horse and began to charge to the other shore.
The earth trembled behind him as nearly twenty thousand hand-picked Tang, Khorasani, and rebel elites charged forth like a storm, transforming into an unstoppable flood!
“Enemy!”
No one had expected the Tang to attack in the middle of a blizzard. The Arab camp was in chaos, but many soldiers still gathered together in an attempt to stop this army.
But it was all too late.
Bang!
Wang Chong quickly crossed the several hundred feet of the frozen Tigris River and plunged into the Arab camp.
“Kiiill!”
At almost the same moment, the Arabs began to respond, thousands of them swiftly gathering together and charging toward Wang Chong. At this moment, Wang Chong’s army of nearly twenty thousand arrived with a thunderous momentum.
Boom!
With a massive boom, two torrents of steel collided. A moment later, countless Arab cavalry were thrown screaming into the sky as if some mighty wave was passing through. This was no fierce battle, but a complete massacre. Bangbangbang! The elite coalition army mowed down the Arab cavalry.
These several thousand soldiers didn’t even succeed in slowing down the coalition force.
Rumble! Wherever the army passed, thousands of Arab cavalry were felled.
“Hurry! It’s the Tang!”
“Hurry and stop them!”
Shouts of despair could be heard through the blizzard. There were still many people rushing toward the Tigris River, but even more of them were unable to tell which direction was which. Bang! A snow-covered Arab soldier was just preparing to mount his horse when a sword suddenly swept out of the snowstorm and cut off his head.
At the moment of death, his eyes were round in disbelief that he had died in such a fashion.
Countless Arab cavalry were dying around him in a similar fashion, many of them not even aware of where the attacks were coming from before they were beheaded.
“These Arabs really are much weaker!”
Wang Chong could hear the howling of the wind and see the endless snow, but before any of these things could reach him, they were repelled by the Stellar Energy around him. In this battle, the Arabs were unable to put up any resistance. Wang Chong could clearly sense that the Arabs had been greatly weakened, not even showing thirty or forty percent of their original strength.
With this level of strength, there was no way they could fight against the well-prepared Tang force.
To survive in this harsh winter, one had to consume enormous amounts of energy. This was also why Wang Chong had chosen to wait one hour before attacking.
“Kill!”
As he was thinking, he heard a chorus of shouts as ten-some Arab horsemen charged out of the blizzard to attack Wang Chong. But Wang Chong merely turned his head and glanced, and these Arab horsemen fell to the ground before they could get within ten paces of Wang Chong.
Their blood and energy surged out of their bodies, merged into a misty pillar that not even the fierce winds could scatter, and vanished into Wang Chong’s body.
“All soldiers, hear my order! Pursue at full speed!”
Wang Chong came back to his senses, and with a metallic clang, he unleashed his Bane of the Battlefield, Bane of Generals, and Halo of Dusk Stallion. These halos quickly engulfed the western shore of the Tigris River, and the screams ringing through the air immediately became much more miserable.
The blizzard and extreme cold had already placed the Arabs in a terrible predicament. Wang Chong’s war halos were adding disaster upon disaster, completely plunging the Arabs into despair.
Bangbangbang! The Arabs were cut down in swaths, their blood flowing across the mantle of snow before quickly freezing.
Wang Chong quickly rode deeper into the blizzard.
As he rode through the blizzard, amongst the frozen white tents, he swiftly noticed something rising from the ground. Riding over, he saw that it was a fallen Arab soldier, his right hand pressed against the ground, his face stricken with fear.
His mouth was wide open and his body was covered in snow. Wang Chong could sense no life in him. The bandage on his leg clearly indicated his identity.
A wounded soldier!
Although many Arabs had managed to escape from yesterday’s battle, many of them had been wounded. These casualties were the first to fall in this blizzard, the extreme cold, their weak bodies, and serious injuries working in concert to snatch away their lives.
Even though the clanging of metal, the shouts of fighting, the snorting of warhorses, and the galloping of hooves had created a massive din around him, Wang Chong was completely focused on these ‘ice sculptures’ in the Arab camp. One, two, three… more of these frozen Arab casualties appeared in Wang Chong’s vision, far more than he had imagined.
The Arabs had retreated, with the only living soldiers being those who had been too late to retreat. Otherwise, this place was now a graveyard for the wounded!
What a terrifying winter! This is even colder than what I remember! Wang Chong quietly said to himself, his mind in turmoil. His intervention had caused a major shift in history, but that unprecedentedly harsh winter he recalled, rather than disappearing, appeared to have gotten even more terrifying.
This was only the prelude to the Little Ice Age, and yet it was already so dreadful. Wang Chong didn’t even dare to imagine how cold it would be when the Little Ice Age actually descended.
“Lord Marquis!”
A loud voice boomed in Wang Chong’s ear. He turned his head and saw two faint lights, like the light of fireflies, rapidly approaching him. These lights were not from fireflies, but from two large metal cages. These cages were full of charcoal, and the fierce winds blowing through the cages only caused the charcoal to blaze more fiercely. Not even the blizzard could extinguish these flames.
Chapter 1182 - Raid, Arabia's Nightmare!
Chapter 1182: Raid, Arabia’s Nightmare!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Storm Stoves!
These were wind-resistant stoves that Zhang Shouzhi had designed, based on the idea that Wang Chong had proposed, and he had only needed half a day to finish them. Almost all twenty thousand of the elites involved in this operation had two of these Storm Stoves. One purpose for them was to differentiate between friend and foe, and the second purpose was to derive warmth from them.
These Storm Stoves were more designed for the warhorses, because the warhorses were far weaker than the twenty thousand elites and had a greater necessity for these furnaces.
“…The eight thousand men the Arabs left to guard the camp have all been eliminated. Lord Marquis, we await further instructions.”
As the Storm Stoves gradually became more distinct, so did Li Siye’s muscular figure.
“Have you found the trail of the rest of the Arabs?”
Wang Chong’s brow creased as he focused his mind.
“Lord Marquis, our scouts have found their tracks on the western edge. Just as Lord Marquis predicted, the Arabs have begun to retreat, and their formations are in complete disarray. But the deep snow and frozen ground means that they can’t get very far,” Li Siye sternly replied.
“Very good!”
Wang Chong nodded, his eyes turning harsh.
“Pass on my order! Pursue with full speed!”
Bang! The White-hoofed Shadow raised its hooves high and stomped, taking off in a flurry of snow. Wang Chong flew forward, leading the army westward in pursuit.
The twenty thousand elites swiftly vanished into the blizzard. In the distance, it was impossible to see the figures of any people, only countless wisps of light blinking in the storm.
The ground was blanketed in snow, making it impossible to recognize anything. In the distance, one could see a group of horsemen tottering through the snow.
This was a group of Arab cavalry that had completely lost track of the main army. The cold temperatures and extreme weather had made them extremely weak, and the bodies of their horses were all covered in a thick layer of frost, making their movements extremely slow.
“Damn! How could such a thing happen! We didn’t die to those Tang, but will we end up being suffocated to death by this blizzard?” an Arab captain couldn’t help but lament. His face was pale and twisted into an unsightly grimace. Who would have expected an army of hundreds of thousands to be def
eated by a blizzard? This was an unprecedented disgrace.
“Ah!”
Suddenly, he heard a faint scream from behind him. This abrupt sound drew in everyone’s attention and caused them to look back.
“Mi-Milord… what’s that?” an ashen-faced Arab horseman stammered out, his eyes brimming with fear.
“Could it… could it be that those Tang have pursued us?”
An Arab horseman in the back swallowed, his eyes wide with panic.
“Silence! Don’t speak such nonsense here!”
The captain at the front immediately cut him off.
“In this sort of extremely cold weather, it’s not even possible to tell the direction. The Tang can’t have left the city! They can hardly take care of themselves, so how could they pursue us!”
“Hyah!”
At this moment, a shout came from the rear, followed by thundering hooves. A sword whizzed out from the blizzard, sweeping through the air and immediately beheading a horseman at the back of the group.
The head, its eyes wide open, spun in the air and flew seven or eight paces before smacking into the ground in a shower of snow.
Time seemed to stop for a moment, all becoming deathly still. All the Arabs stared in shock at that head, their eyes filled with fear, and also… panic!
“Run!” someone cried out, and time seemed to regain its normal flow, all the Arab horsemen instantly scattering in panic. Even the warhorses under them seemed to be greatly frightened, rearing up on their hind legs and charging off, their rigid and frozen bodies becoming much nimbler.
But no matter how nimble they were, they could not outrun the Tang cavalry.
Buzz!
The air buzzed as an invisible ripple of energy swept through the blizzard. Before the Arab cavalry could get very far, they were caught up in this halo, and then a second, a third… These halos were like shackles, instantly slowing down and weakening the Arab cavalry.
“Kill them!”
“Leave not one alive!”
A surge of energy rose up from the rear, followed by two ghostly lights, and then a mighty warhorse wrapped in armor, its hooves thudding against the ground.
The Human Emperor c1-2382 Page 745
