The Human Emperor

Chapter 2172: Advance!

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

“All soldiers, retreat!”

Under the cover of the arrows, the remaining less than thirty thousand infantry began an orderly retreat.

Though their formation was on the verge of collapsing, the heavy infantry maintained a high degree of discipline.

Bang!

With a metallic clatter, the large gate of the steel fortress was lifted. The formation broke apart as the heavy infantry split up into neat ranks and safely withdrew into the fortress.

Boom! The steel gate was allowed to drop back down, gears turning once more. No Tang soldiers remained outside the walls.

Once the rumbling had faded away, the battlefield suddenly fell silent.

“All soldiers, slow the assault!” Cui Qianyou immediately ordered, his eyes flashing.

Now that the Tang infantry had retreated, there was no meaning in chasing them. They still had many matters to handle, including consolidating the army and attacking the city.

Following Cui Qianyou’s order, the army’s speed slowed down significantly.

……

“Now comes the true defense!”

The Crown Prince’s Junior Guardian surveyed the field of corpses and debris and sighed.

War was always cruel. In this battle, the alliance had left more than two hundred thousand corpses on the field while the Great Tang had left almost ten thousand.

This was one of the cruelties of war.

Even though they had won an overwhelming victory, it had not come for free.

But Wang Zhongsi didn’t have time for these things. The battle just now was a ‘warm-up’, and the next battles would be even crueler. As one of the commanders of this army, he needed to ready himself.

Wang Zhongsi quickly turned around and left. Meanwhile, Wang Chong gave a slight nod and quickly turned his attention to the battlefield beyond the walls.

The alliance had no intent of retreating. It took only a few minutes for a new development to occur.

Rumble!

With the sound of rolling wheels, the vast army outside the walls parted, allowing small carts piled with large rocks to arrive at the front.

Bang!

The small carts dumped their loads into the long moat of spikes.

Thudthudthud!

Thousands of stones rolled into the moat.

“It’s the catapults from the rear! They’re bringing their stone piles up to the front!” the Tongluo Great General suddenly said, his expression grim.

Catapults did not travel alone. They also came with numerous small carts that would carry the stones that they threw.

The alliance had realized that the catapults were easily blocked by the master archers on the walls, which ruined the plan to use the catapults to fill the moat, or at least made it much less efficient.

Thus, they had just pushed up the stone carts to the front line to dump the rocks into the moat.

Neigh!

But this was only the beginning. The neighing of horses came from the alliance army, and a few moments later, several Eastern Turkic cavalry appeared, dragging along a giant chain between them that was weighed down by a rock in the center. With this chain, the warhorses were able to push a large number of corpses into the moat.

A great crashing and crunching could be heard, and in the blink of an eye, almost half of the moat was filled. Even Abusi was taken aback by this sight.

Using corpses to fill a moat truly was a highly efficient method, but it was a little callous. And more than half of the corpses on the battlefield were theirs.

“Should we stop it?”

Abusi turned to Wang Chong.

The enemy commander was much more cold-hearted than anticipated, capable of resorting to any method to reach their goal. If this continued, the moat would soon cease to exist.

“There’s no need!”

Wang Chong shook his head, his voice cold and aloof.

“The moment the moat was exposed, it was bound to be filled in. Let them!”

The heavy infantry had brought back most of the bodies of their comrades as they retreated. The remaining bodies outside belonged to the alliance, and if they wanted to use this method to fill the moat, Wang Chong couldn’t stop it.

And this would be meaningless in any case.

“Pass on my order. The assault is about to begin. All soldiers, prepare for battle!” Wang Chong indifferently said.

As more and more corpses were pushed in, the long moat was filled in at an astonishing rate.

“Milord!”

On the other side of the battlefield, an Eastern Turkic officer was somewhat unable to bear this and instinctively turned to Great General Tiechi Bileli.

The Eastern Turkic Khaganate had brought the greatest number of soldiers, were skilled in archery and riding, were the ones doing this job, and more importantly, many of these bodies were Eastern Turkic soldiers.

“Let him be!”

Tiechi Bileli’s eyes flashed for a moment, but his face quickly turned hard and cold.

“I just received a report that the area five-hundred-some li to the south of Chita, the largest pasture of the khaganate, has been completely sealed in ice. We no longer have any place to pasture our herds, and we’ve already butchered too many cows and sheep. It won’t be long before we won’t have any left, and we will no longer be able to return to the steppe.

“Our most urgent priority is to destroy the Great Tang and occupy its lands! This is the only way we can survive. In comparison, these corpses don’t matter.”

As a nomadic civilization, the Eastern Turkic Khaganate had its own understandings and its own ceremonies. This sort of burial was a sort of humiliation, but that was then and this was now. There was no longer time to worry about such things.

A few moments later, a Turkic horseman rode out of the snow and appeared in front of Tiechi Bileli.

“Great General, we’ve finished filling in the moat!”

Tiechi Bileli blinked as he came back to his senses.

“Hear my order! Prepare to assault the city!”

Bwoooom!

A horn blared, and the war drums thundered. The alliance army picked up speed as it prepared to assault the city.

Even though the Underworld Cavalry had been lost in the earlier battle, the alliance army had yet to suffer a serious wound.

The only problem was that the forty thousand heavy infantry had worked their way around the defense line and had destroyed more than ten thousand shield carts.

This had been the greatest loss to the alliance army.

But the alliance had made ample preparations for this war, and the forty thousand Tang infantry had only destroyed the wheels and hubs of the shield carts. The frontal steel plates, reinforced by inscriptions and formations, were not so easy to destroy.

Rumble!

Three thousand feet away from the walls, an icy mist surged as the alliance army reconsolidated and formed its defense line. Tens of thousands of shield carts formed the front line, with soldiers carrying large shields and the siege towers behind them. The elite cavalry of the alliance, including the Golden Wolf Cavalry and the Hwando Army, remained in the rear, and behind them were Tian Qianzhen, Tiechi Bileli, and King Bojang. All of the army began to steadily advance.

“Kill!”

With mighty war cries, the alliance army quickly crossed the moat.

This time, even though there were no obstructions, the alliance army was much more cautious.

Gallop!

At the same time, around six hundred warhorses in thick armor that covered everything except their eyes dragged large stones in the direction of the steel fortress.

“Hmph, they’ve learned!”

On the high walls, Wang Chong coldly sneered before falling silent once more.

After suffering a loss, the alliance had learned.

They were using warhorses to scout the path and had covered the horses with armor to prevent them from being shot. As for the large stones they dragged, they could trigger any buried traps.

Thwishthwishthwish!

Arrows shrieked through the air in volley after volley. After several volleys, the warhorses were ultimately killed despite their armor. Only a few managed to reach the walls, but they were shot down all the same.

“It’s fine!”

Cui Qianyou had been observing this process, and his eyes flashed as he waved his hand and ordered the army to continue advancing.

Although the warhorses had been killed, he had obtained the information he wanted.

It appeared that there were no other traps besides the moat.

Bang!

Following Cui Qianyou’s order, the alliance army bellowed and advanced at full speed, casting aside their caution.

Two thousand, six hundred feet!

Twelve hundred feet!

Four hundred feet!

The distance had now shrunk enough to the point where there was no going back. The soldiers madly charged forward, the ones at the very front gripping the ropes on their waists that they would use to climb the walls.

The battle was imminent, and everyone’s hearts hung with suspense. The shield soldiers raised up their heavy shields to create a giant shield canopy that the alliance soldiers could pass under.

As for the siege towers, Cui Qianyou had left these valuable siege weapons for the very end.

The threat of the giant ballistae was just too great.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of siege ladders were carried by the soldiers to the steel walls.

At this time, the alliance army was set on assaulting the city.

The shield carts and shield soldiers served as the defense while the ropes and siege ladders would give them access to the walls. Once the battle began, the siege towers would come forward, bringing even more soldiers to the walls, increasing the pressure on the fortress. After this, they would think of some way to open the gate so that they could charge inside, and after that would be the battle that would decide the fate of the alliance and the Great Tang!

They had played out this scenario countless times, and the losses were definitely controllable.