Chapter 2213: Another Fire Attack!
Seeing Bahram carve a bloody path across the battlefield and return to the Tang camp, Zhangchou Jianqiong breathed a sigh of relief.
“Come on! Let’s get back to the steel fortress and wait for orders from His Highness!”
“Mm!”
Bahram said no more, leading his Aswaran Cataphracts through the open gates.
Boom!
The giant gate had pulled up all the way, and soldiers constantly flooded in. While retreating, however, they did not forget to lay traps outside.
A few moments later, Zhang Shougui’s army returned, almost seventy percent of his men withdrawing into the fortress.
Seeing that the retreat was just about done, Zhangchou Jianqiong immediately said to Xue Qianjun, “Tell Li Siye and the others to immediately retreat. We can’t lose any more men!”
Xue Qianjun, Xu Keyi, Zhang Que, and Li Siye were all trusted subordinates of Wang Chong, so it was best if they were the ones to tell the Wushang Cavalry to retreat.
“But what about His Highness?” Xue Qianjun sternly said. Compared to this battle, he was more worried about Wang Chong, who was still battling Genesis Supreme in the depths of spacetime.
“There’s no time. Experts of that level aren’t something we can deal with. If not even Wang Chong can deal with that man, we certainly can’t. We just have to trust him!” Zhangchou Jianqiong sternly said.
The situation on the battlefield was constantly changing, and though the Great Tang had been about to crush the alliance army in the initial stage of the battle, Zhangchou Jianqiong could tell with a cursory glance that as the Tang army fell back, the alliance army was slowly regaining its vigor.
If they didn’t retreat now, the alliance army would have a chance to join with the Yeluohe, and then the Wushang Cavalry wouldn’t be able to leave even if they wanted to.
“Hold them! No matter how many we lose, we can’t let them get back to their fortress so easily!” A sharp cry came from the alliance army. Cui Qianyou’s eyes were blazing as brightly as the sun as he surveyed the battlefield.
Cui Qianyou could clearly see that the Tang were withdrawing their army into the fortress, but he did not do his utmost to stop all of them.
This was partially because the alliance army had not yet recovered from the earlier chaos, but it was also because he was waiting for the right opportunity.
The weakest Tang armies had already retreated, leaving only the elites to cover the retreat, only the best of the best. Now, if he advanced his army to hold the elites down and then exterminate them, they could win the war early.
Following Cui Qianyou’s orders, all of the Youzhou armies began to converge on the Wushang Cavalry from two sides.
“Good move!”
The Khitan King understood what was happening and ordered his Khitan braves to also charge.
“Go!”
Yeon Gaesomun and Ozmish Khagan didn’t mince words. The eyes of these two sovereigns glinted coldly as they ordered their men forward.
Both the Eastern Turkic Khaganate and the Goguryeo Empire had suffered large, almost unimaginable losses in this battle, and Yeon Gaesomun and Ozmish Khagan had been greatly weakened. But the two of them no longer cared about such things.
“This is a rare opportunity! No matter what, we must defeat the Great Tang!”
Seated atop an Eastern Turkic steed, Ozmish Khagan fearlessly charged forward.
There was no going back to the Eastern Turkic steppe. The ice and snow had only made that a path to demise.
The cold wave had pushed the Eastern Turks into a dead end.
Ozmish Khagan could even tell that the chill in the air had grown even colder.
The cold wave was continuing its advance to the south.
Defeating the Great Tang and occupying the Central Plains was the Eastern Turkic Khaganate’s only path of survival, at the very least buying them a chance to catch their breath.
As for the price that needed to be paid for this, Ozmish Khagan had already considered this factor.
Sacrifices were inevitable in war!
So long as they could avoid this calamity, then regardless of how great the sacrifice had to be, the survivors would flourish and reproduce, allowing the mighty Eastern Turkic Khaganate to emerge once more.
“Out!”
Just when all of the alliance was anxious to complete this task, a massive roar came from the heavens, and then a terrifying torrent of Stellar Energy slammed into the alliance ranks.
Screams erupted as the Stellar Energy blasted countless soldiers into the air, sowing chaos and mayhem in the alliance ranks.
That single strike had slain thousands of soldiers.
“Bastard! It’s him!”
Cui Qianyou had pulled on the reins of his horse and thus managed to avoid this attack.
On this battlefield, there were only two people who could unleash an attack like this. One was Genesis Supreme and the other was Wang Chong’s original body.
“Everyone, charge! Those who retreat will be killed!”
Ozmish Khagan’s bellow rang out over the battlefield.
His eyes were red in bloodlust, and he no longer cared about the consequences, but a moment later, two Stellar Energy spheres pulsing with spacetime energy descended from the heavens.
The power of these spheres was even greater, and as one of them crashed into the Eastern Turkic army, it instantly blasted several thousand cavalry into the air. The other sphere landed among the Yeluohe, flinging many of them skyward.
This sudden assault instantly threw the Yeluohe’s offensive into disarray.
Buzz!
Wang Chong descended from the sky in a stream of light and landed atop the distant steel fortress.
He was still wearing the Samsara Battle Armor, but his complexion was rather pale.
The three spheres of Stellar Energy infused with spacetime energy had been extremely powerful, but they had required a great deal of focus and energy to create.
And as this was his first time fighting a powerful foe like Genesis Supreme on his own, he had consumed an enormous amount of Stellar Energy.
“Withdraw!”
The disorder created by Wang Chong’s Stellar Energy spheres allowed Li Siye to immediately order the Wushang Cavalry to retreat.
“Want to leave?”
As An Lushan saw this, his eyes coldly glimmered, and the Yeluohe immediately began to pursue. But what welcomed them was the thunderous din of ballista fire.
Su Hanshan had ordered the ballista army to fire directly at the legs of the Yeluohe horses, causing the Yeluohe to fall from their mounts, and the Yeluohe behind them ran into the fallen Yeluohe, causing the pursuit to falter.
“Come on! Execute Plan Three! Destroy all the ballistae outside of the city!”
As Su Hanshan spoke, he sheathed his sword and mounted his horse. Behind him, the ballista soldiers worked with practiced efficiency, pulling at a certain part in the center of the ballistae. Crackcrack! Snapping sounds came from within, and then the sounds of metallic parts clinking together. While the exterior remained, the ballistae had already lost the ability to fire.
Plan Three!
This was a plan that Su Hanshan, Zhang Shouzhi, and the officials of the Bureau of Works in charge of building the ballistae had agreed on in order to prevent these important weapons of the Great Tang from falling into enemy hands.
After all, ballistae weren’t horses, and they lacked mobility. As the commander of the ballista army, Su Hanshan had to consider what needed to be done to the ballistae when his men were surrounded. And thus, Plan Three was born.
Su Hanshan did not intend to completely destroy the ballistae, only their core components. This meant that if the enemy got the ballistae, they wouldn’t be able to use them, and then once the battle was over, the Great Tang could repossess and repair the ballistae.
“Mount your horses and leave at once!”
A horse stood next to each member of the ballista army. Once they were done destroying the ballistae, all of the soldiers mounted their horses and began to ride back to the gate of the fortress.
“After them!”
Beneath the six banners of the alliance, An Lushan grit his teeth, his expression dark and savage.
Following An Lushan’s order, the Yeluohe divided into two groups that worked to encircle the retreating soldiers from two sides.
The Yeluohe’s maximum speed was far greater than that of any other cavalry force, including the Wushang Cavalry. So long as they remained dogged in their pursuit, they could catch up to any target.
All thirty thousand Yeluohe had been mobilized. With this solid advantage on his side, how could An Lushan give up so easily?!
But just as this thought passed through An Lushan’s mind…
Creee!
With a piercing whistle, giant kerosene bombs plummeted from the skies and crashed down in front of the Yeluohe. A fire arrow shot out from the distance, and a moment later, a raging sea of flames appeared on the battlefield, some of the flames rising more than one hundred feet into the air. Several dozen Yeluohe were even struck by kerosene bombs and instantly set ablaze.
Neigh!
The warhorses of the Yeluohe instantly backed away, and even their riders showed a rare tinge of fear.
“As expected, they really are afraid of fire!”
From the walls, Chen Burang slowly relaxed the grip on his bow, a look of pleasant surprise in his eyes.
Launching the kerosene bombs had been an idea he had thought up on the spur of the moment. The Yeluohe had an extremely cold nature, and when one fought with them, a pure cold energy would penetrate one’s body. Seizing this point, Chen Burang had called upon the catapults.
It had just been a random idea, but it seemed much more effective than he had anticipated.