Chapter 2161 - Shield Cart Link Formation! (1/2)
Chapter 2161: Shield Cart Link Formation!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Ballistae were the killing weapons of the Great Tang, and they were the product of the Bureau of Works, not Wang Chong.
Many of the armies of the Great Tang were equipped with ballistae. Even Abusi’s Tongluo Cavalry had a few. The ballistae were extremely powerful and piercing, not something a few planks of steel could stop.
Whether it was in the war of the southwest or the northwest, no matter how thick was the armor worn by the Tibetans and Arabs, the ballista bolts had punched through all the same, each one taking the lives of five to ten horsemen. Was a single steel plank really enough?
“It’s not that simple, but we’ll find out what the secret is soon,” Wang Chong indifferently said.
Wang Chong had never underestimated his opponents, not in this life or the last.
An Lushan seemed fat, honest, and easy to bully, but in reality, he was craftier than anyone, and he also had Gao Shang advising him.
Although Wang Chong didn’t know what was different about these shield carts, he knew that they weren’t as simple as they seemed.
For a moment, the world was silent as Ozmish Khagan, Yeon Gaesomun, the Khitan King, the Xi Queen, and all the alliance soldiers stared at these tens of thousands of shield carts.
The first wave would decide how the rest of this battle would proceed.
The Youzhou soldiers at the front hid behind the shield carts. They peeked their eyes over the shield carts, glancing at the steel ballistae atop the walls. The cold glint from the tips of the bolts made their hearts tremble in fear.
Almost all countries, whether in the east or the west, knew about the power of ballistae. If possible, no one wanted to expose themselves to these terrifying weapons.
Even though they had thick metal plates in front of them, they felt no sense of safety. However, military orders could not be disobeyed. No matter how unwilling they were, they simply had to push forward.
Five thousand feet, four thousand feet, three thousand feet…
They were now within range of the ballistae.
Creakcreak!
At this moment, the groaning of gears came from the steel fortress, metal rubbing against metal piercing through the wind and into the ears of the soldiers behind the shield carts. All of the hiding Youzhou soldiers couldn’t help but swallow nervously.
“Ready!” A cold voice came from the steel fortress.
Su Hanshan watched with cold eyes as the shield carts drew closer and closer. He had also noticed something strange about the shield carts.
But Su Hanshan was determined to unleash the ballistae and see what was going on.
When the shield carts were two thousand, eight hundred feet away, Su Hanshan raised his right hand and swung it down.
“Shoot!”
Bang!
A deafening roar filled the word as thousands of ballista bolts shot toward the shield carts like furious serpents.
As the world howled, time seemed to slow to a crawl.
Everyone, including Wang Chong, Wang Zhongsi, and Abusi, turned their attention to the battlefield.
The ballista bolts moved very quickly, and almost moments after they were fired, their destructive power impacted against the Youzhou shield carts more than two thousand feet away.
Boom!
A ballista bolt that was as thick as a thumb and ten feet long slammed into a steel plate of a shield cart, and in the blink of an eye, the steel plate caved in. If all continued as expected, the ballista bolts would perform just as they had in other battles, tearing through the steel like paper.
But a moment later—
At the moment of impact, a complicated defensive formation manifested on the shield cart’s frontal steel plate. If one looked carefully, one would find that the defensive formation carved into the shield cart was formed from more than one hundred inscriptions and formations of various sizes. Some were as large as leather balls while others were as small as fingernails. These inscriptions and formations shared some sort of connection that allowed them to fuse together.
This sort of defensive formation was far tougher than an ordinary defensive formation.
Bang!
A great boom came from the frontal steel plate, and the ballista bolt was only able to penetrate a few inches before encountering formidable resistance.
“No, this alone isn’t enough to stop a ballista bolt.”
Su Hanshan’s eyes flickered. Though he was surprised, he was not too shocked.
There was nothing new about reinforcing a steel plate with inscriptions and formations. The Great Tang’s opponents had thought of this method before.
The Arab shield soldiers had carried giant shields that had been reinforced with inscriptions and formations, but in the end, this defensive method had not been able to stop the ballista bolts.
If this was the extent of An Lushan’s tricks, then no matter how many soldiers he sent, they would just be sacrifices offered up to the Tang ballistae.