Chapter 2162 - Show of Force!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
For this war in the northeast, the men in black had mobilized more than five thousand elite experts from their main base. All of the formations and inscriptions had been created with extreme rigor and caution. Mortal inscription masters couldn’t even come close to them.
And the formations on the steel plates were ancient, lost formations that had been selected from the texts in the main base.
These formations had been made for war, though they had been lost in the present era. In this era where formations had waned in power, they should have been more than enough for use against the Tang army.
“Hahaha, how could I not trust in Sir’s strength?”
An Lushan opened his arms and laughed.
His heart, which had been in suspense, finally settled, and his last worry dissipated like a puff of smoke.
Without the power of the ballista army, Wang Chong’s army was a tiger without its claws, losing at least half its fighting strength.
Though the Great Tang still had one million soldiers, An Lushan had no fear of them.
“All soldiers, move out! Wang Chong, our battle has only just begun!”
With these last words, An Lushan turned to that young figure on the wall and smugly smiled.
Just like how Wang Chong had used only a thousand-some ballistae for his probing volley, An Lushan was also just testing the defenses. The shield carts had been there to test the power of the ballistae, and the alliance army had yet to exert its full power.
But now, the test was over, and there was no longer any need to keep hiding.
Boom!
As An Lushan gave the order, the rear of the alliance army once more became restless.
The Tang soldiers watched as the ranks of the alliance army opened up, allowing tens of thousands more shield carts to rumble out.
Compared to the first batch, this wave of shield carts was even more complete, the wheels larger and sturdier, the steel plates thicker, denser, and larger.
Not only that, on the horizon, mountainous silhouettes emerged with a deafening rumble.
“Siege towers!” Abusi blurted out in shock.
The siege towers behind the alliance army were each several dozen meters tall, as high as the walls. They appeared like miniature moving mountains.
The metal luster from these siege towers indicated that these massive constructions had been reinforced with steel.
The Youzhou army had clearly taken countermeasures against Wang Chong’s steel fortress, with the siege towers and shield carts being two of them.
The siege towers were very spacious, providing passage for ten-some soldiers to move up them and jump onto the walls while shielding them from attacks.
The tops of the siege towers also had compartments that already contained twenty to thirty soldiers. Once the siege towers got close to the walls, these elite soldiers could make the jump and sow chaos on the walls so that the rest of the army could assault the city.
Roooar!
And with furious roars, tens of thousands of siege ladders rose up from the alliance army, and the soldiers roared as they began to charge at the steel fortress.
Having prepared both siege towers and siege ladders, An Lushan had ensured that his Youzhou army could surmount the Tang walls and render Wang Chong’s steel fortress useless.
“Kiiill!”
As the shield carts and other siege equipment began to move, the dense ranks of the alliance army swept forward.
At the very front were the tens of thousands of shield carts, which rapidly accelerated.
Bongbongbong!
Bwoooom!
The pounding of war drums and blaring of horns resounded over the battlefield, stirring the spirits of the soldiers.
Now that he had finished testing his shield carts, An Lushan had ordered a full-scale offensive.
Casting aside skirmishes and probes, An Lushan had brought this unprecedented war of empires straight into the main event. With his many shield carts, siege towers, siege ladders, and millions of soldiers, he would crush this Great Tang army in the first wave.
As the saying went, morale was greatest at the first beat of the drum, but was spent by the third!
The army was currently in peak condition, and the alliance army had a complicated internal organization. Even though all the armies had assembled, if they were ordered to go out separately, then regardless of who went first or last, someone would object, believing that their strength was being intentionally expended.
Only by mobilizing everyone in a full-scale assault would any arguments be avoided and internal unity maintained.
Clang!
As the army mobilized, in the rear of the left flank, Goguryeo Emperor Yeon Gaesomun stomped forward, his eyes coldly flashing. With a metallic clatter, a resplendent war halo spread out from his feet and swept over the army.
Amongst the various countries, Yeon Gaesomun was the most aggressive sovereign. There had never been an Emperor like him, who enjoyed joining the soldiers on the front line.
As Yeon Gaesomun made his move, the Goguryeon generals unleashed their own war halos. Amidst metallic ringing, halos of various colors spread out to the nearly one million Goguryeon soldiers.
With the aid of these war halos, the Goguryeon soldiers grew stronger by several tiers.
The morale of the Goguryeon army reached its peak, and it appeared like a steel wall.
“It’s our turn!”
The Eastern Turks’ Ozmish Khagan also stepped forward, his eyes flashing with sharp light.
Bang!
Flecks of snow shot several dozen feet into the air, and the vast amount of strength in the foot made the ground fiercely quake like it was a plank on the ocean.
Boom! A few seconds later, a massive war halo suffused with law energy radiated outward.
Ozmish Khagan was one of the most inconspicuous sovereigns, but that did not mean he was the weakest!
Clangclangclang!
With a metallic clatter, the halo spread to the Eastern Turkic soldiers and instantly boosted their speed, strength, and agility. This effect was equal to Yeon Gaesomun’s halo, even surpassing it in some aspects.
Bang!
After Ozmish Khagan, the Khitan King and Xi Queen unleashed their own war halos.
The ringing of metal filled the air, and numerous dazzling halos appeared under the feet of the millions of soldiers of the alliance army, their bodies erupting with a frightening energy.
Such immense scale!
Such powerful energy!
So many experts!
The power and momentum unleashed by the alliance army was enough to alarm anyone. In certain aspects, it even surpassed the Arab army.
The first battle was the decisive battle!
An Lushan wanted to use this mountain-toppling momentum to crush Wang Chong’s steel fortress!
“Let me see how you stop my army!”
An Lushan squinted up at Wang Chong, his soldiers roaring and bellowing around him.
The moment he was waiting for had finally come. This time, he would annihilate Wang Chong.
“Kiiill!”
The alliance army seemed to have become a completely different army as it charged.
All of the Tang generals grimaced at this display.
Only Wang Chong maintained his composure.
“Sortie!”
When everyone believed that the Tang army would remain turtled up in the steel fortress, Wang Chong waved his hand, upon which a loud ‘clack’ could be heard.
A giant gear beneath the steel fortress began to turn, and giant steel plates, each weighing hundreds of thousands of jin, were pulled up to reveal tunnels, each one several hundred meters long and ten-some meters tall.
Within the tunnels, countless armored Tang soldiers in orderly ranks marched out, their steps slow but firm.
Five thousand!
Ten thousand!
In short order, at least forty thousand soldiers emerged from the steel fortress. Even though they were vastly outnumbered, they remained sharp and fearless.
“What’s happening here?”
Though An Lushan had made all sorts of preparations, he was still taken aback by this sight, instinctively turning to Gao Shang.
That bastard Wang Chong didn’t really think forty thousand soldiers could stop his army, did he?
“He’s making a show of force!” Gao Shang solemnly said.
“He’s telling us that he won’t wait to die, won’t just passively defend. He will engage in his own kind of offensive against us!”
Whether it was the war of the southwest or the Battle of Talas, Wang Chong had never just sat back and defended, and the Great Tang was even more powerful now. Through this method, Wang Chong was showing off his strength in the face of their provocations.
He had no intention of being purely the defender in this battle!
