Chapter 527: Taking Command of the Army! The Astonishing Retreat! (1/2)
Chapter 527: Taking Command of the Army! The Astonishing Retreat!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Fengjiayi, hmph, he should probably have reached the Profound Martial realm by now, perhaps even higher! Wang Chong quietly said to himself.
It had been many years since Fengjiayi had been a hostage in the capital. The current Fengjiayi had probably already reached the level of an Imperial Great General, or at least a level very close to it. However, wars were never decided by pure strength. Otherwise, Su Zhengchen would have singlehandedly united all the foreign kingdoms in his era.
Wang Chong waved his hand and decisively ordered, ”Disregard the matter of Fengjiayi for now. Listen to my orders and gather all of our cavalry!”
”But all of our cavalry have already entered the front lines. If we summon them all, the front lines will be in even greater peril!” Chen Shusun said in surprise.
”Don't worry about it. Just do as I say!” Wang Chong firmly declared.
”This… yes!” Chen Shusun lowered his head. He had never been this docile with the Eldest Young Master, but when he was with Wang Chong, he seemed to be influenced by that composed and confident tone. Unconsciously, Chen Shusun began to follow along with Wang Chong's line of thinking.
”In addition, transfer all the archers here, ready to receive my orders!” Wang Chong continued.
His blazing gaze seemed to see into the depths of space-time, unobstructed by even the shroud of rain. In the art of war, the tactics for one hundred men would differ from the tactics for one thousand, and one thousand would be different from ten thousand, ten thousand different from forty thousand or fifty thousand.
The Annan Protectorate army was an elite army of the empire, and those who had been able to survive this upheaval were the elite of the elite. Forty to fifty thousand men was already a large enough number for Wang Chong to display the tactics that he was skilled in.
70,000 Tibetan cavalry? Ha, it's still not settled who's the attacker and defender here! We'll soon see who's the one being chased!
As Wang Chong's gaze surveyed the mountains and the astonishing ranks of the Tibetan army, he mentally sneered.
The initial-level Halo of Fortress, middle-level Halo of Fortress, and the high-level Halo of Fortress formed by ten thousand soldiers or more, coupled with the Tibetan plate armor, would definitely have crushed Wang Chong's force of ten thousand. After all, it had always been a principle of battles that an army got stronger as its number of soldiers increased.
Yet as he stood on the peak of this mountain, Wang Chong did not feel that this Tibetan army held any sort of advantage.
Whether it was an initial-level, middle-level, or high-level Halo of Fortress, none of them were very useful in front of the Annan Protectorate army. Wherever Wang Chong looked, he could see the halos of various generals shining among the soldiers. These dazzling halos were constantly giving off ripples that shrouded the entire army.
The Tibetans had quite a few valiant generals, but the Annan Protectorate army had even more.
Through the decades of war in the southwest, the armies of the two sides had grown extremely familiar with the strategies, tactics, and war halos of the opposing side. When an elite imperial army exceeded ten thousand soldiers, it could form a high-level and large-scale war halo. The high-level Halo of Fortress used by the Tibetans was in this class.
And as the mortal foes of the Tibetans, the Annan Protectorate army had their own halo.
However, while the Tibetans had chosen the Halo of Fortress, the Annan Protectorate army had chosen the purely offensive high-level 'Crushing Halo'. From the initial-level offensive halo all the way to the high-level Crushing Halo, the Annan Protectorate army had embarked on a completely different path of battle from the Tibetans.
And unlike the Tibetan Halo of Fortress, the Crushing Halo had a higher manpower requirement. But for an army of tens of thousands, this requirement wasn't a problem.
The Halo of Fortress and the Crushing Halo were two war halos of exactly opposite natures. It was precisely by relying on the powerful Crushing Halo that the Annan Protectorate army was able to intimidate the Tibetans and stop them from doing as they pleased.
Ever since his rebirth, Wang Chong had dreamed about establishing and commanding a massive army like this. And now, his dream had come true.
A powerful commander had finally united with a powerful army!
Wang Chong had finally reached the place he had hoped to reach in his journey south.
This is my battle now…
Under Chen Shusun's confused gaze, Wang Chong closed his eyes, slowly opened his arms, and embraced the storm, embracing the battle as well. The desire for battle was awakening in his body, and he could feel its summons calling out from within…
Rumble!
The cavalry and master archers gathered faster than Wang Chong had imagined. It only took a few moments for Chen Shusun to mobilize the troops that Wang Chong had requested.
The difference between elite troops and reserve troops was blatantly obvious here.
”Young Master, what should be done next?” asked Chen Shusun, bowing.
Wang Chong said nothing as his eyes inspected these soldiers. Although the Annan Protectorate army was an infantry army, the military regulations of the Great Tang had decreed that any protectorate had to keep a certain number of cavalry. Although a good deal of the cavalry had been lost in the battle on the Erhai plains, there were still four or five thousand cavalry gathered on this summit.
And to Wang Chong's immense satisfaction, these cavalrymen all had sharp gazes and were bursting with energy. They all seemed extremely formidable, with not even the consecutive battles able to engender the slightest bit of exhaustion in them. Moreover, Wang Chong could see large Halos of Thorns, almost solid, bristling under their feet, each of them letting out a metallic rumble that sent the surrounding rain scattering.
Wang Chong counted and noted that these cavalrymen each had five or six halos around them, which meant that they were all at around True Martial Tier 5 or 6. This was already on the same level as the experts that Wang Chong had recruited from the great clans!
They truly are elites. This is enough! Wang Chong quietly said to himself.
It wasn't possible for regular cavalry to reach high levels of cultivation, but one couldn't judge this war using common sense. Those who could survive to this point were all elites, and those who had lacked the strength would have already died in that first battle. But Wang Chong found himself most satisfied with the thick killing intent rising from the bodies of the cavalry.
This gathering of four to five thousand cavalry caused even the air around them to slightly distort.
This was an elite group of cavalry that had truly been forged in fire and blood, and these cavalry were exactly what Wang Chong needed to fulfill his objective.
Furious soldiers are certain to win! And these cavalry are exactly what the strategy texts meant by 'furious soldiers'!”
Wang Chong mentally sighed.
Probably not even these cavalrymen themselves understood what sort of power they were capable of. 'Furious soldiers' could only be made on the battlefield, not deliberately trained, and it had only been the 100,000 deaths in the Annan Protectorate army that had created these furious soldiers.
As Wang Chong's mind pondered these thoughts, he quickly turned to the master archers.
…There are actually more than two thousand!
Wang Chong inwardly rejoiced.
Another advantage the border protectorates had over the interior reserve armies was that they all had a unit of master archers. These archers were all equipped with bows that had a draw force of several thousand jin, and the best sign of their identity was the dark thumb rings on their right hands.
”Heed my orders. All troops, wait for my signal!”
As Wang Chong's mind churned, he looked down the mountain, and with the shift in Wang Chong's gaze, the atmosphere grew slightly tenser.
Jiaosiluo was no ordinary general, and no one could look down on the commanders under his wing. The flaw that had emerged after Wang Chong's big brother had fallen unconscious had been immediately seized upon by Jiaosiluo's sharp perception, and a large number of Tibetan cavalry were surging toward the area. Even though Wang Chong had given orders a little while ago, the lines on the northeast were still beginning to falter under the enormous pressure.