Chapter 2171 - Sun Archers!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
It took only a short while for the alliance to mobilize its forces, and following Cui Qianyou’s orders and the pounding war drums, the alliance army began to converge.
“Kiiill!”
“Great General has come to the front line to oversee the battle! Those who retreat will be executed!”
“What? How could it be like this?”
“The Majesties are already angry, and they’re using the scarlet gold drums to push us on. We either kill them all or die ourselves!”
“It’s all or nothing! With so many of us, there’s no way we can’t win! Let’s go!”
The urgent pounding of the drums made everyone panic.
Before the war, the alliance members had convened and decided that war drums would be used as signals, in addition establishing the way they would be used.
The war drums were divided into many types, and the scarlet gold drums were one type. The pounding of these drums had a metallic timbre. Once these drums began to thunder, if the walls were not broken through in a certain amount of time, all the soldiers and generals would be executed.
With the cold wave coming, the only chance of survival lay in occupying the Great Tang. In order to reach this goal, the countries were willing to pay any price.
“Kill!”
With a furious roar, the countless red-eyed alliance soldiers charged at the Tang force from all sides.
Forward was death, and retreat was also death!
Compared to being cut down by one’s own people, it was better to fight to the death with the foe. Moreover, everyone could sense that the turning of the Hell Wheel had grown unstable. These heavy infantry were not as powerful as they once were.
It was now more possible to contend against them.
But though these soldiers charged out, they were not the first to attack.
Rumble!
The earth began to tremble as large silhouettes blotted out the sky.
One of the alliance soldiers at the very front looked up and saw an enormous structure overhead, and he shouted in excitement, “Siege towers! It’s the siege towers!”
As if in response to this soldier’s shout, atop the siege tower, soldiers with broad backs and wide shoulders nocked arrows to their bows, pulled the strings back, and took aim at the heavy infantry.
Swish!
One of the master archers released, and the arrow streaked through the air.
As a heavy infantry soldier began to move, an arrow pierced through a chink in his armor right beneath his neck, punching through his neck and out his back.
Not even the heavy infantryman’s thick Stellar Energy had been able to stop it.
“Armor-piercing arrows!”
“Condor Snipers!”
The soldiers gathered on the walls of the steel fortress grimaced.
Those archers atop the siege towers were not using ordinary arrows, but armor-piercing arrows. This was the only way for the arrows to have penetrated through the Stellar Energy barrier and through the helmet and the armor at the back.
Ordinary master archers did not have such strength and accuracy. These could only be the Condor Snipers of Goguryeo.
Goguryeon infantry couldn’t match the Great Tang, and its cavalry couldn’t match the Eastern Turks, let alone Arabia. But if there was one aspect in which Goguryeo surpassed all the other countries, it was in the Condor Snipers.
The most elite master archers were the Condor Snipers!
It was said that Condor Snipers could accurately shoot out the eyes of a gyrfalcon in the air, leaving the plumage untouched. They could accurately strike certain muscles of a gyrfalcon to make them lose balance and ‘fall’ from the sky, allowing the gyrfalcons to be captured.
In the Goguryeo, the saying went ‘three eagles with one arrow’, even ‘four eagles with one arrow’.
The best of the Condor Snipers didn’t just know how to find the right angles. They could lead the target, which led them to be able to take down several eagles with one arrow.
What seemed like fantastical archery truly existed in Goguryeo.
Moreover, Goguryeo had maintained a tradition of selecting astonishingly talented children and training them when they were only four or five years old.
These children had to loose arrows ten thousand times a day, and by the time they were adults, they had to do it one million times.
No ordinary master archers could reach this level.
Thwishthwishthwish!
This one arrow was a sort of signal, and with a piercing whistle, the ten-some Condor Snipers atop the siege tower loosed their arrows in unison, unleashing a volley of death.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Heavy infantry dropped to the ground without making a sound, their bodies nailed to the ground by the armor-piercing arrows.
With a great rumble, even more siege towers arrived on the battlefield.
Wang Chong blinked as he suddenly ordered, “Chen Burang, suppress the Condor Snipers!
“Su Hanshan, assist him!
“Tell the soldiers on the front line that they can retreat now!”
The forty thousand heavy infantry had killed more than two hundred thousand enemy soldiers, broken An Lushan’s Underworld Cavalry, and dealt a heavy blow to the enemy morale. There was no need to keep on fighting.
From Wang Chong’s position, he could see that the elite armies of the alliance were converging. While the Hell Wheel Formation was formidable, it was not enough for one to go against ten thousand, for forty thousand to directly challenge the entirety of the alliance army.
Moreover, war was not a game. Though the forty thousand soldiers had vanquished their foe, it had come at the heavy cost of ten thousand losses.
When only twenty-seven thousand soldiers were left, the Hell Wheel Formation could no longer be maintained.
And this was only because Wang Chong had modified the formation.
Thwishthwishthwish!
Following Wang Chong’s order, the shrieking volley of arrows changed direction and began to head toward the Goguryeon Condor Snipers on the siege towers.
“Defend!”
Goguryeons cried out. Even the Condor Snipers needed to take countermeasures against this carpet of arrows.
But the Condor Snipers atop the siege towers were unruffled, and everyone soon discovered why.
Boom! Boom!
Gears clunked and rumbled, and soon, a metal plate sprang out from the top of the siege tower and blocked the arrows.
The front of the plate was covered in numerous inscriptions that were clearly meant to strengthen its defenses.
Clangclangclang! The sharp arrowheads pierced nearly one foot into the steel plate. A single steel plate was pincushioned by hundreds of arrows, but in the end, the steel plate held fast.
A team of Condor Snipers sniggered at this sight.
The Great Tang was underestimating them too much.
This was not some mob that had gathered impromptu to assault a city. They had already constructed the siege towers, so how could they not have taken precautions against this sort of attack?
The master archers in the fortress could not threaten them.
But as these thoughts passed through their minds, plushplushplush! Blood spurted out. Five Condor Snipers who had just been preparing to return fire were suddenly pierced through by sharp arrows. These arrows had been imbued with Stellar Energy and had shattered their spines and important meridians.
“How could this be?!”
They widened their eyes in disbelief as they toppled over.
They had never imagined that they would still be hit despite the steel plate protecting their front.
“Ah!”
Screams came from a nearby siege tower. It was clear that they were not the only Condor Snipers suffering from this fatal volley.
“Watch out! Sun Archers!” the captain of the Condor Sniper team called out in alarm, his voice twisted from fear.
‘Condor Snipers’ was merely what foreign countries called them. This title did not exist within Goguryeo. Rather, archers were divided into the categories of Sun, Moon, and Star. Ordinary archers didn’t have the right to be ranked. Meanwhile, those master archers who could hit a tree from one hundred li away were known as Star Archers.
Top-class master archers, the ones the other countries called Condor Snipers, were considered Moon Archers in Goguryeo.
As for Sun Archers, they were extremely rare in Goguryeo. Only the very best Condor Snipers could earn this title.
All the Condor Snipers were suddenly in grave danger, and the earth rumbled as some of the siege towers began to retreat in panic.
But things were far from over…
Boom!
With a heaven-shaking rumble, one of the siege towers suddenly collapsed, half of the roof crashing straight into the ground.
“Giant ballistae!”
“Careful!”
Cries of alarm came from all sides. The siege towers all felt greatly threatened and began to retreat.
Destroying a siege tower was no easy task. They were not made of simple wood, but had been further reinforced with many steel plates. This was why they did not fear ordinary ballistae.
The size of the siege towers made the pinprick attacks from the ballistae incapable of affecting the siege tower’s purpose.
But giant ballistae were different. They represented the sole threat to the siege towers on this battlefield.
Bang!
Another boom rang out as the second siege tower exploded.
The giant ballistae were capable of killing Behemoths, making them the perfect weapon against siege towers.
The attack of the giant ballista bolts forced the siege towers to pull back, and the siege towers that had yet to arrive at the front were also escorted away.
Thwishthwishthwish!
Without the threat of the siege towers, the master archers on the walls once more aimed their volleys down below, and the soldiers of the alliance screamed as they were cut down.
