And this was only because Wang Chong had modified the formation.
Thwishthwishthwish!
Following Wang Chong’s order, the shrieking volley of arrows changed direction and began to head toward the Goguryeon Condor Snipers on the siege towers.
“Defend!”
Goguryeons cried out. Even the Condor Snipers needed to take countermeasures against this carpet of arrows.
But the Condor Snipers atop the siege towers were unruffled, and everyone soon discovered why.
Boom! Boom!
Gears clunked and rumbled, and soon, a metal plate sprang out from the top of the siege tower and blocked the arrows.
The front of the plate was covered in numerous inscriptions that were clearly meant to strengthen its defenses.
Clangclangclang! The sharp arrowheads pierced nearly one foot into the steel plate. A single steel plate was pincushioned by hundreds of arrows, but in the end, the steel plate held fast.
A team of Condor Snipers sniggered at this sight.
The Great Tang was underestimating them too much.
This was not some mob that had gathered impromptu to assault a city. They had already constructed the siege towers, so how could they not have taken precautions against this sort of attack?
The master archers in the fortress could not threaten them.
But as these thoughts passed through their minds, plushplushplush! Blood spurted out. Five Condor Snipers who had just been preparing to return fire were suddenly pierced through by sharp arrows. These arrows had been imbued with Stellar Energy and had shattered their spines and important meridians.
“How could this be?!”
They widened their eyes in disbelief as they toppled over.
They had never imagined that they would still be hit despite the steel plate protecting their front.
“Ah!”
Screams came from a nearby siege tower. It was clear that they were not the only Condor Snipers suffering from this fatal volley.
“Watch out! Sun Archers!” the captain of the Condor Sniper team called out in alarm, his voice twisted from fear.
‘Condor Snipers’ was merely what foreign countries called them. This title did not exist within Goguryeo. Rather, archers were divided into the categories of Sun, Moon, and Star. Ordinary archers didn’t have the right to be ranked. Meanwhile, those master archers who could hit a tree from one hundred li away were known as Star Archers.
Top-class master archers, the ones the other countries called Condor Snipers, were considered Moon Archers in Goguryeo.
As for Sun Archers, they were extremely rare in Goguryeo. Only the very best Condor Snipers could earn this title.
All the Condor Snipers were suddenly in grave danger, and the earth rumbled as some of the siege towers began to retreat in panic.
But things were far from over…
Boom!
With a heaven-shaking rumble, one of the siege towers suddenly collapsed, half of the roof crashing straight into the ground.
“Giant ballistae!”
“Careful!”
Cries of alarm came from all sides. The siege towers all felt greatly threatened and began to retreat.
Destroying a siege tower was no easy task. They were not made of simple wood, but had been further reinforced with many steel plates. This was why they did not fear ordinary ballistae.
The size of the siege towers made the pinprick attacks from the ballistae incapable of affecting the siege tower’s purpose.
But giant ballistae were different. They represented the sole threat to the siege towers on this battlefield.
Bang!
Another boom rang out as the second siege tower exploded.
The giant ballistae were capable of killing Behemoths, making them the perfect weapon against siege towers.
The attack of the giant ballista bolts forced the siege towers to pull back, and the siege towers that had yet to arrive at the front were also escorted away.
Thwishthwishthwish!
Without the threat of the siege towers, the master archers on the walls once more aimed their volleys down below, and the soldiers of the alliance screamed as they were cut down.
Chapter 2172 - Advance!
Chapter 2172: Advance!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“All soldiers, retreat!”
Under the cover of the arrows, the remaining less than thirty thousand infantry began an orderly retreat.
Though their formation was on the verge of collapsing, the heavy infantry maintained a high degree of discipline.
Bang!
With a metallic clatter, the large gate of the steel fortress was lifted. The formation broke apart as the heavy infantry split up into neat ranks and safely withdrew into the fortress.
Boom! The steel gate was allowed to drop back down, gears turning once more. No Tang soldiers remained outside the walls.
Once the rumbling had faded away, the battlefield suddenly fell silent.
“All soldiers, slow the assault!” Cui Qianyou immediately ordered, his eyes flashing.
Now that the Tang infantry had retreated, there was no meaning in chasing them. They still had many matters to handle, including consolidating the army and attacking the city.
Following Cui Qianyou’s order, the army’s speed slowed down significantly.
……
“Now comes the true defense!”
The Crown Prince’s Junior Guardian surveyed the field of corpses and debris and sighed.
War was always cruel. In this battle, the alliance had left more than two hundred thousand corpses on the field while the Great Tang had left almost ten thousand.
This was one of the cruelties of war.
Even though they had won an overwhelming victory, it had not come for free.
But Wang Zhongsi didn’t have time for these things. The battle just now was a ‘warm-up’, and the next battles would be even crueler. As one of the commanders of this army, he needed to ready himself.
Wang Zhongsi quickly turned around and left. Meanwhile, Wang Chong gave a slight nod and quickly turned his attention to the battlefield beyond the walls.
The alliance had no intent of retreating. It took only a few minutes for a new development to occur.
Rumble!
With the sound of rolling wheels, the vast army outside the walls parted, allowing small carts piled with large rocks to arrive at the front.
Bang!
The small carts dumped their loads into the long moat of spikes.
Thudthudthud!
Thousands of stones rolled into the moat.
“It’s the catapults from the rear! They’re bringing their stone piles up to the front!” the Tongluo Great General suddenly said, his expression grim.
Catapults did not travel alone. They also came with numerous small carts that would carry the stones that they threw.
The alliance had realized that the catapults were easily blocked by the master archers on the walls, which ruined the plan to use the catapults to fill the moat, or at least made it much less efficient.
Thus, they had just pushed up the stone carts to the front line to dump the rocks into the moat.
Neigh!
But this was only the beginning. The neighing of horses came from the alliance army, and a few moments later, several Eastern Turkic cavalry appeared, dragging along a giant chain between them that was weighed down by a rock in the center. With this chain, the warhorses were able to push a large number of corpses into the moat.
A great crashing and crunching could be heard, and in the blink of an eye, almost half of the moat was filled. Even Abusi was taken aback by this sight.
Using corpses to fill a moat truly was a highly efficient method, but it was a little callous. And more than half of the corpses on the battlefield were theirs.
“Should we stop it?”
Abusi turned to Wang Chong.
The enemy commander was muc
h more cold-hearted than anticipated, capable of resorting to any method to reach their goal. If this continued, the moat would soon cease to exist.
“There’s no need!”
Wang Chong shook his head, his voice cold and aloof.
“The moment the moat was exposed, it was bound to be filled in. Let them!”
The heavy infantry had brought back most of the bodies of their comrades as they retreated. The remaining bodies outside belonged to the alliance, and if they wanted to use this method to fill the moat, Wang Chong couldn’t stop it.
And this would be meaningless in any case.
“Pass on my order. The assault is about to begin. All soldiers, prepare for battle!” Wang Chong indifferently said.
As more and more corpses were pushed in, the long moat was filled in at an astonishing rate.
“Milord!”
On the other side of the battlefield, an Eastern Turkic officer was somewhat unable to bear this and instinctively turned to Great General Tiechi Bileli.
The Eastern Turkic Khaganate had brought the greatest number of soldiers, were skilled in archery and riding, were the ones doing this job, and more importantly, many of these bodies were Eastern Turkic soldiers.
“Let him be!”
Tiechi Bileli’s eyes flashed for a moment, but his face quickly turned hard and cold.
“I just received a report that the area five-hundred-some li to the south of Chita, the largest pasture of the khaganate, has been completely sealed in ice. We no longer have any place to pasture our herds, and we’ve already butchered too many cows and sheep. It won’t be long before we won’t have any left, and we will no longer be able to return to the steppe.
“Our most urgent priority is to destroy the Great Tang and occupy its lands! This is the only way we can survive. In comparison, these corpses don’t matter.”
As a nomadic civilization, the Eastern Turkic Khaganate had its own understandings and its own ceremonies. This sort of burial was a sort of humiliation, but that was then and this was now. There was no longer time to worry about such things.
A few moments later, a Turkic horseman rode out of the snow and appeared in front of Tiechi Bileli.
“Great General, we’ve finished filling in the moat!”
Tiechi Bileli blinked as he came back to his senses.
“Hear my order! Prepare to assault the city!”
Bwoooom!
A horn blared, and the war drums thundered. The alliance army picked up speed as it prepared to assault the city.
Even though the Underworld Cavalry had been lost in the earlier battle, the alliance army had yet to suffer a serious wound.
The only problem was that the forty thousand heavy infantry had worked their way around the defense line and had destroyed more than ten thousand shield carts.
This had been the greatest loss to the alliance army.
But the alliance had made ample preparations for this war, and the forty thousand Tang infantry had only destroyed the wheels and hubs of the shield carts. The frontal steel plates, reinforced by inscriptions and formations, were not so easy to destroy.
Rumble!
Three thousand feet away from the walls, an icy mist surged as the alliance army reconsolidated and formed its defense line. Tens of thousands of shield carts formed the front line, with soldiers carrying large shields and the siege towers behind them. The elite cavalry of the alliance, including the Golden Wolf Cavalry and the Hwando Army, remained in the rear, and behind them were Tian Qianzhen, Tiechi Bileli, and King Bojang. All of the army began to steadily advance.
“Kill!”
With mighty war cries, the alliance army quickly crossed the moat.
This time, even though there were no obstructions, the alliance army was much more cautious.
Gallop!
At the same time, around six hundred warhorses in thick armor that covered everything except their eyes dragged large stones in the direction of the steel fortress.
“Hmph, they’ve learned!”
On the high walls, Wang Chong coldly sneered before falling silent once more.
After suffering a loss, the alliance had learned.
They were using warhorses to scout the path and had covered the horses with armor to prevent them from being shot. As for the large stones they dragged, they could trigger any buried traps.
Thwishthwishthwish!
Arrows shrieked through the air in volley after volley. After several volleys, the warhorses were ultimately killed despite their armor. Only a few managed to reach the walls, but they were shot down all the same.
“It’s fine!”
Cui Qianyou had been observing this process, and his eyes flashed as he waved his hand and ordered the army to continue advancing.
Although the warhorses had been killed, he had obtained the information he wanted.
It appeared that there were no other traps besides the moat.
Bang!
Following Cui Qianyou’s order, the alliance army bellowed and advanced at full speed, casting aside their caution.
Two thousand, six hundred feet!
Twelve hundred feet!
Four hundred feet!
The distance had now shrunk enough to the point where there was no going back. The soldiers madly charged forward, the ones at the very front gripping the ropes on their waists that they would use to climb the walls.
The battle was imminent, and everyone’s hearts hung with suspense. The shield soldiers raised up their heavy shields to create a giant shield canopy that the alliance soldiers could pass under.
As for the siege towers, Cui Qianyou had left these valuable siege weapons for the very end.
The threat of the giant ballistae was just too great.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of siege ladders were carried by the soldiers to the steel walls.
At this time, the alliance army was set on assaulting the city.
The shield carts and shield soldiers served as the defense while the ropes and siege ladders would give them access to the walls. Once the battle began, the siege towers would come forward, bringing even more soldiers to the walls, increasing the pressure on the fortress. After this, they would think of some way to open the gate so that they could charge inside, and after that would be the battle that would decide the fate of the alliance and the Great Tang!
They had played out this scenario countless times, and the losses were definitely controllable.
Chapter 2173 - Kerosene Bombs!
Chapter 2173: Kerosene Bombs!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Something’s not right!”
Upon seeing that the army was about to reach the walls, Tian Chengsi, another one of Youzhou’s Great Generals, frowned in unease.
Quiet!
Too quiet!
In the previous battle, the Great Tang had used a hidden moat and forty thousand soldiers who had been so aggressive that they had only retreated after they had been almost exhausted. But now, the army was almost at the walls, yet there had been no response from the fortress. This was far too abnormal.
Military Advisor Gao Shang was also uneasy. Although he wasn’t a battlefield general, he could tell that this silence was abnormal.
But at this stage in the battle, Gao Shang was incapable of intervening.
“What is this bastard up to?”
An Lushan clenched his fists, his expression grim.
He was sure that Wang Chong had some sort of scheme, but he didn’t know what it was. This sort of feeling was extremely uncomfortable.
Two hundred feet! One hundred feet!
It was less than thirty meters to the wall now, and the alliance was on the verge of reaching its objective. But for some reason, whether it was Tian Qianzhen, Tiechi Bileli, Cui Qianyou, Yeon Gaesomun, or An Lushan, all of them felt an extreme unease that prevented them from smiling.
Wang Chong was the renowned War Saint, a true master of military stra
tegy!
The quieter it was, the more dangerous!
In a certain way, this tension and unease began to influence the soldiers at the very front.
Bang!
In the midst of this eerie silence, a great boom came from the depths of the steel fortress. With a piercing whistle, a giant silhouette streaked with faint wisps of flame crashed down from the heavens.
With a boom, the black object crashed into the dense ranks of the alliance army and exploded into a ball of raging flame.
“Ah!”
At the center of the explosion, several alliance soldiers were splashed by some black substance and then ignited into balls of flame.
“Keroseeeene!”
A plaintive scream tore through the air, shattering the silence.
A moment later—
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
One giant ‘kerosene bomb’ after another flew over the steel walls and crashed into the army.
Resounding explosions rang out, and in a few moments, the battle front had been turned into a sea of fire.
After Wang Chong had defeated the Arab army in the northwest, an important reason for his conquest of the rest of the Arabian Empire was the kerosene possessed by Arabia.
Gao Xianzhi and An Sishun were not garrisoned in Baghdad purely to pacify rebels. Another important purpose was to organize the people of the Arabian Empire into extracting kerosene.
The amount of kerosene and the speed at which it was extracted was far from what Wang Chong had desired, but that was because Wang Chong’s requirements had been very high. The Arabian Empire had produced significant amounts of kerosene, and all of it had been sent to the Great Tang.
Some of it had been sent to various areas for heating, but a significant portion had also been sent to the forward base, where they had been formed into these ‘kerosene bombs’.
Wang Chong had waited until now to use them in this battle, right when the dense ranks of the alliance army were right up to the walls.
Boomboomboom!
When Wang Chong made his move, he did so with maximum saturation. Thousands of kerosene bombs crashed down and exploded in the ranks of the alliance army.
The area for several thousand feet in front of the steel fortress was drenched in kerosene, even the shield carts and raised shields, and all of it was set aflame.
The Human Emperor c1-2382 Page 1309
