Chapter 763 - Activity on the Plateau!
Chapter 763: Activity on the Plateau!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Is it perhaps because it has to be an extremely large number of horses being bought? King Song’s ten million taels is enough for one hundred thousand warhorses, so that was enough to start the mission? Wang Chong quietly speculated, his mind abuzz.
But 510 points of Destiny Energy can help me recover my loss from triggering the laws when I wrote that letter to Gao Xianzhi.
Boomboomboom!
While he was thinking, a series of earth-shaking explosions suddenly came from outside, so loud that the shockwaves even reached Wang Chong’s rooms. The messenger bird by the window gurgled before suddenly taking off.
“Good!”
Shouts of praise could be heard in the distance, apparently the cheers of spectators. But even so, those explosions did not stop.
Twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven…
Wang Chong had tilted his ear to listen while silently keeping track of how long the explosions were continuing. He had heard these explosions many times, but today’s were a little different.
Forty-one, forty-two, forty-three… forty-nine!
When Wang Chong reached forty-nine seconds, his calm face finally showed a sign of surprise, a mixture of elation and astonishment. The explosions were still continuing, finally stopping at eighty-eight seconds, after which he heard the galloping of hooves outside his window.
Through the window, he could see a rider dismounting and striding toward his room.
“Report!”
“Lord Marquis, General Li has reported that the training for the ‘Ten Charge Ten Victories Formation’ has been completed. Lord Marquis is invited to come and inspect!”
The rider kneeled on the floor and respectfully lowered his head.
“Okay!”
With this single word, Wang Chong strode past the rider. Outside, he mounted the White-hoofed Shadow, while a figure dressed in light yellow—Huang Qian-er, with her large silver sword on her back—mounted another horse and followed close behind.
As Wang Chong and Huang Qian-er headed deeper into the City of Steel, they saw a ground covered in wooden dummies and the shattered remains of many more.
“What’s happening here?”
Huang Qian-er looked confusedly at the dummies on the ground.
“Cavalry training!”
Wang Chong indifferently added, “Because we can’t use real people, I had them use wooden dummies.”
Using wooden dummies in cavalry training was a method used in Middle Ages Europe, and there were many people in that other world who knew of this. But in this world, there was clearly no such method, with the majority of people not using targets, simply stabbing at imaginary opponents in the air.
The effects of that method were not comparable to actual training, and stabbing at air would make cavalry feel like they were playing games, making them forget that all their training was for the purpose of fighting on the battlefield. If all of them held this mindset, then when they arrived on the battlefield, they would suffer grievous casualties.
For this reason, Wang Chong had made them use wooden dummies.
“Oh.”
A strange look appeared in Huang Qian-er’s eyes, but she said nothing more, only nodded slightly.
The more time she spent with Wang Chong, the more Huang Qian-er realized that Wang Chong wasn’t just a formidable and talented martial artist. His actions and trains of thought were also completely different from normal people.
Whether it was the use of modular construction to build this city or the use of wooden dummies to train cavalry, they were completely different from the information Huang Qian-er had read about back in her clan.
No, it wasn’t just the Huang Clan. Wang Chong’s way of doing things was different from all of the great clans of the Tang.
“Begin.”
Wang Chong had no idea what Huang Qian-er was thinking. Extending a hand, he gestured at an officer in the distance. The officer quickly gave his own order, causing soldiers to rush out to raise back up the fallen dummies and replace the shattered ones with new ones.
Wang Chong only glanced at them before lightly urging his horse toward the distant main camp.
“Lord Marquis!”
Upon seeing Wang Chong, Li Siye hurried over on his horse and bowed.
“According to Lord Marquis’s order, the training has been completed for the Ten Charges Ten Victories Formation. Do wish to have them practice the Eight Desolation Army Shattering Formation?”
Wang Chong had given him the diagrams for two formations. The first was the Ten Charges Ten Victories Formation, while the Eight Desolation Army Shattering Formation was both more formidable and more challenging to learn.
“There’s no need.”
Wang Chong waved his hand, rejecting Li Siye’s suggestion.
“Practicing the Ten Charges Ten Victories Formation is enough. We have more important things to do.”
In order to pacify Qixi, he needed to deal with Ü-Tsang, and if he wanted to deal with Ü-Tsang, Dayan Mangban and his five thousand White Braves were a threshold that Wang Chong could not bypass.
In the Zhangzhung excursion, Wang Chong had killed Dayan Pugyal and twenty-seven thousand Tibetan cavalry, but those people had been almost all recruits, as different as night and day from the five thousand veteran White Braves under Dayan Mangban.
Dayan Mangban dared to lead a mere two thousand White Braves against one of the Qixi Protectorate army’s main camps, and he had managed to kill General Pulan He and five thousand Qixi soldiers. This deed alone was enough to show the problem.
On the flat terrain of the plateau, Dayan Mangban’s five thousand White Braves could charge through a formation of fifty thousand soldiers, perhaps more. If one was not fully prepared, if one dared to regard him with the slightest disdain, then they would be digging their own graves.
The Ten Charges Ten Victories Formation was what Wang Chong planned to use against Dayan Mangban and his five thousand White Braves.
“In addition, just train in the city for the next few days, and while training, use high walls of cloth to keep out any prying eyes and forbid anyone unrelated from getting close. Before the operation begins, I don’t want a single piece of news to get out,” Wang Chong grimly said from atop the White-hoofed Shadow.
“This general understands,” Li Siye sternly replied.
Wang Chong nodded. The Ten Charges Ten Victories Formation was extremely important, and most importantly, he needed to give Dayan Mangban a massive surprise. If any information about it were to leak out, its effectiveness would be greatly diminished.
Creee!
Suddenly, a harsh cry came out of the sky, attracting everyone’s attention. Wang Chong raised his head and saw a familiar rock eagle descending.
It’s one of the birds bred by Old Eagle.
A thought occurred to Wang Chong. Old Eagle had not followed him to Wushang, remaining in the capital to act as a liaison. He was training more and more disciples, and Zhang Que was only one of them.
Unless there was anything particularly needed, Old Eagle would not personally deliver information to him.
A few moments later, a horse galloped over in a cloud of dust, its rider holding a letter high up in the air. “Lord Marquis, a letter from the capital.”
Wang Chong took the letter and opened it, a familiar line of handwriting appearing before his eyes.
‘Do not worry! Arrival in five days!’
While the contents of the letter were simple and concise, the signature was of the name that Wang Chong had anxiously awaited.
“Wonderful!”
Wang Chong clenched his fists, his face excited. With this letter, everything was truly ready. The final flaw in his plan had been filled.
……
Time slowly passed, and as it flowed by, the various resources from all over the Great Tang continued to arrive at the City of Steel. The moment Wang Chong was waiting for was close at hand.
After ten days…
“Move out!”
Wang Chong unsheathed his sword and pointed it forward. The gates of the City of Steel rumbled upon, and Wang Chong led his five thousand Wushang Cavalry galloping out.
After more than half a month, the Wushang Cavalry had undergone a fundamental transformation. Their strength was even more formidable and their aura even more bursting with energy.
The condensed energy of these five thousand Wushang Cavalry was like a savage storm, causing the air itself to twist.
“Hyah!”
The earth quaked and dust churned as the five thousand Wushang Cavalry shot through the gate like lightning bolts, vanishing into the distance.
……
On the distant Tibetan Plateau, eagles were taking flight and the grass was growing long. All was thriving with life. Here, on this boundless steppe, two people stood side by side, their identities as Tibetan horsemen obvious from their well-trained posture and discipline.
“These Tang are getting bolder and bolder. Longxi, Qixi, the southwest… the Tang soldiers are everywhere. Last month, a Tang army even assaulted the plateau.”
A gentle breeze blew past, rattling the beast earring hanging from the left ear of one of the Tibetan horsemen.
“I also heard of that. These Tang are getting far too brash, but they won’t be for much longer. The royal capital will probably be sending troops soon. We’ll first attack Qixi, and then Anxi and Longxi. We’ll see what they have to resist us then,” the other Tibetan horseman said, a furious expression on his face.
“Mm, let them have their little victories. We will be patient and first complete the mission General gave us,” the first Tibetan horseman said.
The second Tibetan horseman nodded in agreement. “What you say is true. At the moment, only a few of us know that the Great General is about to make his move. The Great General dispatched us scouts to investigate the situation for precisely this goal. General does not want any of the Tang to sense anything before he actually begins to move.”
As scouts, they were the most elite and also the most well-informed, the first to notice any signs of activity.
“Though, where should we go first?”
With this question from the second horseman, both fell silent. The plateau was vast and seemingly boundless. Although they had been tasked with surveillance, they had no idea what was worth surveilling.
The plateau was not like other places. Even if anyone could invade, they would only be able to last for a little while before retreating. Even those people who attacked Zhangzhung Recruit Training Camp had swiftly withdrawn after the battle.
The pair truly did not understand what sort of results they could get from this scouting mission.
“This is a mission from General, so we should be a little cautious and not miss out any gaps. That’s right. Last time I was by the northeast corner, near that triangular gap, I noticed a few of those birds the Great Tang train. These Tang aren’t simple. Let’s go and check that out. It’s best to be safe.”
After discussing for a little while longer, the two turned their horses to the northeast corner of Ü-Tsang.
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