Chapter 935: Predicting the Enemy V (1/2)
Chapter 935: Predicting the Enemy (V)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
”What's going on! What happened?”
The sounds of fighting caused Dalun Ruozan in the commander tent to bolt to his feet, his face suddenly paling
The group he had sent to raid the Tang ballistae had been dispatched, but before they had even returned, their own camp had come under attack. What made Dalun Ruozan most uneasy was that he had already taken so many precautions, yet despite all the sounds of fighting and all the fire, he had still not received any reports from the messengers.
Given the arrangements Dalun Ruozan had made, such a thing was absolutely impossible!
”Great Minister! It's an enemy attack! The Tang have attacked the camp!” A panicked Tibetan soldier rushed into the tent.
”The number? Direction? Cavalry or infantry? Why have there been no reports? What of the sentries? Why has there been no reaction from the sentries?” Dalun Ruozan sternly said, almost instinctively overcome by an ill foreboding.
”Great Minister! We have no estimate of their numbers, nor do we know which direction they are attacking from. The camp is currently in chaos. All we know is that the Tang have attacked, but we have no clue where they are!” the Tibetan soldier anxiously reported.
”What!”
Dalun Ruozan grimaced. He immediately strode past the iron table and charged out of the tent. Behind him, Dusong Mangpoje and Huoshu Huicang exchanged glances before pursuing him.
Whoosh!
A fierce gust of wind blew a trail of embers toward the emerging Dalun Ruozan and Huoshu Huicang, gleaming for a brief moment before extinguishing in the air. A howl in the air told Dalun Ruozan and Huoshu Huicang to look up, but all they saw was a large black silhouette flying over their heads before it smashed into the campgrounds behind them.
”Aaaah!” Screams filled the air as a blazing fire exploded from the impact of the boulder, sending embers everywhere.
Catapults!
As this thought flitted through Dalun Ruozan's mind, his face contorted.
”What's going on?” Dusong Mangpoje walked up on Dalun Ruozan's right side, his expression extremely grim. ”Didn't we already push the camp back so that it was beyond the range of catapults? Why can the Tang catapults fire so far that they can even hit the rear of the camp?”
All of them had witnessed the power of the Great Tang's steel catapults during the daytime. Almost all the catapults the Arabs and Tibetans had brought had been destroyed, so when setting up camp for the night, Dalun Ruozan had explicitly taken measures against this. Besides the sentries, eighty percent of the army had been moved beyond the firing range of the catapults.
Yet hundreds of boulders were now raining down across the entire Tibetan camp. This was definitely not normal.
”Because they moved the catapults forward!” Dalun Ruozan said. The unease in his heart had finally been realized. Only now had Wang Chong revealed his true hand.
The steel catapults could not reach the camp from the walls of Talas. He could guarantee that Wang Chong had moved those catapults out of Talas and to an area extremely far from his base. This was the only way those steel catapults could attack the Tibetan camp.
These catapults were so far away from their base that they were assuredly easy to destroy, but the complete darkness served as the best cover. Not even Dalun Ruozan had expected Wang Chong to employ such a move.
He now understood why he had yet to receive any reports from his soldiers.
”Sentries! Where are the sentries? The Tang have attacked, so why has there been no news?” Dalun Ruozan harshly asked.
Although the catapult rain made a large commotion, it was mostly sound and fury, while the actual damage was fairly limited. Even though many Tibetans might have died in the chaos, Dalun Ruozan knew that these catapults were not the true assault. They were just a cover, while the true assault force was a group of Tang infiltrators.
However, Dalun Ruozan had already planned for this. If the sentries were attacked, he would have already received word. As of this moment, he was still confused as to what had gone wrong.
”Reporting to Great Minister: there are no signs of enemies from this side!”
”Reporting to Great Minister: there are no signs of enemies from this side!”
”Reporting to Great Minister: there are no signs of enemies from this side!”
The reports from the sentries arrived one after the other. Even in the chaos, the communication system Dalun Ruozan had established remained effective. However, he was dumbfounded by the fact that despite all the screams and chaos, the sentries on the perimeter were reporting that they did not see any sign of Tang cavalry.
”How is this possible?”
Dusong Mangpoje and Huoshu Huicang looked at the fire around them and exchanged glances. Even though there was no firm evidence, their Great General intuition had arrived at the same conclusion as Dalun Ruozan: a group of Tang soldiers was attempting to infiltrate the camp.
But the news from the sentries was in complete contradiction to this news.
”Ah!”
The screams continued to rise and fall, and in the darkness and chaos, it was impossible to distinguish the clashing of weapons from the falling of boulders. From a strategic perspective, even the best Great Generals were useless in this situation.