荔枝影院

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 defeated 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.

This was followed by a second, a third, a fourth... Nearly twenty thousand cavalry charged out of the blizzard, sweeping through the Arabs. “Aaaah!” Blood spurted out as one Arab horseman after another was slain, their faces stricken with fear as they fell.

“After them!”

The coalition elites galloped across the earth to continue the pursuit, leaving only a ground covered with corpses behind them.

Wang Chong’s men were a whirlwind of death as they pursued the Arab soldiers westward. And only by pursuing the Arabs could they see for themselves just how much disarray their forces were in.

Countless Arabs who had lost track of the main group could be seen on this route of several dozen li. Many of them had frozen to death and even more were trapped in the snow, innumerable warhorses having frozen to death too.

When Wang Chong led his nearly twenty thousand men in pursuit from the rear, all these Arabs were stunned. Even in death, they did not dare believe that Wang Chong would dare to risk such frigid weather to pursue the Arabs through the snow and wind.

Boomboomboom!

In a short time, sixty to seventy thousand Arabs in the span of some twenty li had been slain by Wang Chong’s men, and this number was continuing to climb at an astonishing rate. These sixty to seventy thousand Arabs were scattered across these twenty-some li and simply had no ability to resist.

The twenty thousand men under Wang Chong’s command were simply unstoppable.

The Tang needed only a few seconds to dispatch the fleeing and scattered Arabs.

“Lord Marquis!”

In the middle of the pursuit, a voice came out of the blizzard and two dim lights rapidly began to approach Wang Chong. It was not Li Siye, however, but Anxi Vice Protector-General Cheng Qianli. The Stellar Energy around his body surged with heat and his eyes exuded powerful fighting intent.

Cheng Qianli stopped a few paces in front of Wang Chong and sternly said, “We’ve discovered the main force of Arabs, at least one hundred thousand Arabs. Milord has sent me to ask if we should pursue?”

The Arabs had an army of six to seven hundred thousand. In this pursuit, the coalition had mostly been killing scattered and lost soldiers, but now, they had finally found the main group.

“Haha, isn’t that exactly what we were looking for? Tell Lord Gao to immediately attack!”

With these words, Wang Chong immediately charged off, vanishing into the blizzard.

......

“Careful!”

“Everyone, assume formation!”

“The Great Tang are pursuing us! Everyone, get ready!”

Not far from Wang Chong’s forces, an army was creeping forward. Several dozen Arab generals had gathered together, a vast army of cavalry behind them. The Tang had already shown themselves, throwing all the Arabs into a panic. No one had expected that the Tang would disregard the wind and snow to chase after them.

But the long years of training had enabled the army to swiftly react. On this long road, a hundred-thousand-some Arab soldiers had taken formation and were silently awaiting their enemy in the blizzard.

Clang! There was a deafening metallic clattering as a vast and invisible ripple of energy swept out of the blizzard. At that moment, countless soldiers in the front ranks felt their energies plunge to exceedingly weak levels.

“Enemy!” the leading Arab commander immediately blurted out in alarm. He recognized this halo as belonging to the young Tang commander!

Boom!

In a stampede of hooves, countless horsemen flew out of the blizzard.

Each of these horsemen was like a moving fortress, rapidly charging into the ranks of the one hundred thousand Arab soldiers.

“Not good! It’s the Aswaran Cataphracts!”

The leading Arab commander paled in shock at the sight of these muscular cavalry equipped with extremely heavy armor.

“Kill them!”

The Sassanid Great General Bahram was leading the charge, plunging like a storm into the Arab ranks. Bangbangbang! Bahram was like a sharp blade, thrusting into the Arab soldiers and knocking hundreds of them flying into the air, leaving their bones and organs shattered while they were still in midair.

Neeeigh! Eight-thousand-some Aswaran Cataphracts followed behind him, dividing into eighty groups that stabbed into the tight ranks of the Arab army like so many swords. “Aaaah!” In a chorus of screams, the orderly and disciplined Arab ranks immediately fell into chaos.

“Kiiill!”

As the Aswaran Cataphracts swept through, the Arab army resounded with cries of alarm, the whinnying of horses, and the shattering of bone. Meanwhile, the Aswaran Cataphracts did not stop, continuing westward.

Behind them, more and more soldiers came charging out of the blizzard: the Wushang Cavalry, Tongluo Cavalry, Dragon Stallion Army, and the other rebel soldiers. In just a few rounds, all the Arabs had been toppled over. The two sides simply weren’t on the same level of strength, and even though these soldiers did their best, they were incapable of averting defeat.