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.
But as these thoughts passed through Su Hanshan’s mind, a new development took place on the battlefield.
Around the shield cart that had been struck by the ballista bolt, the defensive formations on ten-some shield carts that had not been attacked suddenly lit up.
This assortment of ten-some scattered shield carts was like an unimaginably powerful chain, thin slivers of light shooting out from the cores of their formations and linking these shield carts together into a giant formation.
The formation’s power erupted, transforming into an invisible energy barrier.
The defensive power of the shield cart multiplied, with the power of ten-some carts focused on a single one.
Bang!
As everyone looked in disbelief, that seemingly unstoppable ballista bolt was stopped cold after penetrating several inches into the steel plate.
Buzz!
Wang Chong, Wang Zhongsi, Abusi, and Su Hanshan all grimaced, their eyes widening.
“A link formation!” Wang Zhongsi grimly said.
As the War God of the Great Tang, Wang Zhongsi had seen many things on the battlefield.
Though those ten-some shield carts appeared scattered and independent, they were actually a single unit. Each shield cart was a part of a giant formation.
And on second look, one would discover that the tens of thousands of shield carts were actually divided into teams of twelve, each one arranged in a circular formation, advancing and retreating together.
A single shield cart would never be able to withstand the penetrative power of a ballista, but when there were twelve of them, the result would be completely different.
This was a link formation!
The special aspect of link formations was that the parts of the formation could borrow power from each other and do what a single formation could not. They could jointly attack and defend, exhibiting immense power on the battlefield.
But the requirements to reach this state were extremely strict.
Firstly, one needed an inscription master and formation master, for all inscriptions and formations needed to be exactly alike, without even the smallest error. The second requirement was in the training of the soldiers. As the shield carts were moving, shifting terrain and other various factors could lead to a shift in the formation that would prevent the exertion of its full power.
The soldiers pushing the link formation needed to have a level of coordination and understanding that was far above what an ordinary soldier had. Not even elite soldiers could accomplish this.
Thus, it was far easier to talk about link formations than create them.
But one could not underestimate An Lushan’s ambitions, for he had secretly trained up exactly this kind of army.
Boomboomboom!
Metal clattered and boomed as the link formation shield carts blocked thousands of the powerful ballista bolts.
In the first volley, the Youzhou side had emerged completely unharmed.
Bang!
Upon seeing this, the hundreds of thousands of alliance army soldiers erupted in cheers.
In this war, the alliance soldiers did not fear a fierce battle with the Great Tang. What they truly feared was Su Hanshan’s ballista army.
Whether they were weak or strong, many or few, they were all insignificant and helpless before the might of the ballistae.
Moreover, the more concentrated their ranks were, the more terrifying the ballistae became.
Thus, even without any clash of weapons, they would suffer from a one-sided massacre.
Even the fiercest warrior was just a target to concentrated ballista bolts, and this sort of sensation would make anyone despair.
But now, those terrifying ballista bolts had been blocked!
There was nothing more worth celebrating to the alliance army than this.
“Wonderful!”
“Kill!”
“With these shield carts, there’s no need to fear the Great Tang!”
The alliance army’s morale soared.
“You see? Just the weapons of mortals, nothing to fear! Venerable Genesis Supreme sent me to assist you, so I will naturally help you sweep aside all obstacles. What is there to fear from these puny ballistae?”
The Divine Works Elder, garbed in a black robe, looked proudly at the battlefield.
These shield carts were all his handiwork.
Youzhou and the alliance countries did not have so many formation and inscription masters. The Celestial God Organization had provided all of them.