Chapter 2240: The Alliance Army Defeated!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The eyes of the nearby Crown Prince’s Junior Guardian Wang Zhongsi only flickered a little.
Zhangchou Jianqiong had arrived far too late to the battlefield, and the more people knew about this matter, the less of a secret it would be, and the lower the chances of success.
If a mighty Great General were composed while leading a retreat, not at all panicked even though the walls had fallen and the formation had been destroyed, would that not be too suspicious?
However, as the previous War God of the Great Tang, Wang Zhongsi had been the only Great General to know the details.
The two of them had discussed the major risks of this massive explosion and the likeliness of a mishap, but this was the method to obtain victory that came with the smallest amount of sacrifice.
But there was one other aspect. Wang Zhongsi had a very stern and cautious personality, completely different from Zhangchou Jianqiong. There was no chance that he would leak anything.
“We finally succeeded!”
Putting aside the battle between Wang Chong and Genesis Supreme, the alliance army had suffered such devastating losses that it had completely lost the ability to fight back against the Great Tang.
Most importantly, the strongest force, the Yeluohe, had suffered an unprecedented blow in this explosion. Not only had more than ten thousand Yeluohe been obliterated in the center of the explosion, the seven-thousand-some other Yeluohe had also been caught up in the explosion.
Though there were still several thousand Yeluohe alive, this small number of Yeluohe could not pose much of a threat to the hundreds of thousands of Tang soldiers.
“King of Foreign Lands!”
“King of Foreign Lands!”
“King of Foreign Lands!”
Heaven-shaking cheers rose from the army, all of the soldiers growing excited as their admiration for Wang Chong reached its peak.
Again!
Wang Chong had once more led them in turning defeat into victory, winning this war that would decide the fate of the Great Tang.
Just as they had always believed, so long as Wang Chong lived, the Great Tang would never be defeated!
“Kill!”
With frenzied roars, the Tang soldiers enthusiastically charged into the fortress they had just retreated from.
At this time, the steel fortress was like a giant ball of fire, waves of heat radiating from within. Still containing the energy from the aftermath of the explosion, it was the perfect place to avoid the cold.
Rumble!
The several hundred thousand Tang soldiers turned around and surged into the steel fortress.
“Everyone, follow me!”
At the very front of the army was Invincible Great General Li Siye, his veins bulging as he raised his giant Wootz Steel sword and led the Wushang Cavalry at the several thousand remaining Yeluohe.
Charging with them were the Nine Cauldron Division, the Behemoth Slayers, and the Mo Saber Unit. In a flash, they enveloped the several thousand Yeluohe.
The Yeluohe had been an invincible existence on the battlefield before this, able to slay any opposition in their path, but after the explosion, these Yeluohe were simply lambs to the slaughter.
“Impossible, absolutely impossible!”
At this time, Cui Qianyou, who was leading a force that had gone around the fortress to attack the Tang from the outside, was in a daze, like he had been struck by a heavy blow.
Hadn’t they won?
How had it turned out like this?!
What had that bastard, Wang Chong, done?!
“Beast, now that things have come to this, do you still have anything to say?!” A familiar voice that was chilling to the bone entered his ear, and Cui Qianyou was pulled back to reality. The Tang army in front of him suddenly parted, and a familiar figure mounted upon a Turkic steed slowly approached him.
Zhang Shougui!
Seeing those hate-filled eyes, Cui Qianyou trembled, his heart sinking.
Cui Qianyou was not alone in his situation. In the other directions, the Tang army was charging back at the Sunchaser Cavalry and Golden Wolf Army… All of them were swiftly encircled.
They had been the vanguard of the alliance army, which only needed to entangle the Tang army and then work with reinforcements to attack the Tang army from both sides to utterly destroy it.
But now, their reinforcements had been defeated, and with their twenty thousand soldiers, there was no way they could stand against the endless Tang army, and this wasn’t even considering that Wang Chong had brought nothing but elites to the northeast.
Bang!
As armor clattered, a large formation swiftly appeared around these armies. Moreover, they could see that Tongluo Great General Abusi was riding over with his bronze-armored Tongluo Cavalry.
All of their hearts turned heavy.
Whether it was Cui Qianyou, the Sunchaser Cavalry, or the Golden Wolf Army, they were just appetizers to the Great Tang. The primary goal was still the surviving several hundred thousand soldiers of the alliance army and An Lushan within the fortress.
Rumble!
The earth trembled with the pounding of hooves, and amidst furious war cries, the Tang soldiers assailed the steel fortress.
Amidst the shattered remnants of the fortress, several hundred thousand alliance soldiers still survived, but they had no formation to speak of. The cavalry were unable to find their horses, and even their weapons had been blown away by the blast.
Those fiendish Tang soldiers charging at them like madmen made the alliance soldiers panic and completely lose the will to fight.
The fact that six hundred thousand soldiers of the alliance’s main force had been wiped out was secondary. What was most crucial was that this explosion had been like a divine punishment, utterly obliterating the morale and conviction of the alliance.
The alliance army no longer had the courage to fight the Great Tang.
Many of them were still immersed in the fear of the explosion.
Gallop!
The sound of pounding hooves came from nearby.
The sight of the charging Tang soldiers made the tens of thousands of scattered surviving cavalry instantly flee to the northeast.
It was only when they had run several thousand feet that a panicked cry came from the distance, the voice distorted by panic.
“Run!”
The army had already been defeated, and so escaping with their life became more important. There was no hoping of winning this battle.
Countless soldiers ran against the cold wind, through the ruins and toward the north.
“We lost! We actually lost! We no longer have the ability to fight him!”
Within a ruin, Ozmish Khagan stood on the large corpse of a horse and looked toward the Tang army in the south, dejectedly muttering to himself.
There was no will to fight left on this sovereign of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate.
Ozmish Khagan had been in the central area of the explosion, yet with his profound cultivation, he had managed to survive. However, the steed that had accompanied him for several dozen years was not so lucky.
But at this time, Ozmish Khagan had no time to mourn his beloved horse. The alliance had lost, and in that massive explosion, he had lost at least two hundred and seventy thousand men.
His remaining men were all badly injured.
The alliance had already lost the ability to fight!
“Pass on my order! Full retreat!”
Though his heart was bitter, Ozmish Khagan still immediately bellowed his order. As he spoke, Ozmish Khagan mounted a nearby unowned horse and began to flee to the north before the Tang soldiers could arrive.
Though he was a member of the alliance, Ozmish Khagan no longer cared. The alliance had ended at the moment of the explosion. His most urgent priority was to leave as quickly as possible and save his life.
If he remained here any longer, they would probably all die.
On the other end, the valiant sovereign of Goguryeo, Yeon Gaesomun, holding several of his sabers, looked at the Tang army to the south, feeling an unprecedented shock.
Four of his six sabers had been destroyed and his army was in tatters. He no longer appeared like that supreme sovereign from before.
“Pass on my order! All soldiers, retreat to the Goguryeo peninsula!” Yeon Gaesomun ordered in Goguryeon.
He had noticed that Ozmish Khagan was fleeing and the alliance army was also in panic and disarray, and he could see Crown Prince’s Junior Guardian Wang Zhongsi and Zhangchou Jianqiong coming his way. At that moment, though he was most reluctant, Yeon Gaesomun knew that the time had passed.
As for why he was retreating to the Goguryeon peninsula, Yeon Gaesomun understood that that place was sealed in ice, but he could think of no other place. As for what would happen in the future, he would just have to think about it later.
Gallop!
Led by Yeon Gaesomun, the Goguryeon soldiers cast aside their armor, seized panicked horses, and withdrew to the north like stray dogs.
The Youzhou soldiers were also fleeing. They had displayed prodigious strength in this battle, and under An Lushan, they had been as fierce as wolves or tigers. Moreover, as they were all Hu, they shared a natural closeness with An Lushan and had been willing to support him. But that was because they believed that An Lushan could emerge victorious and lead them in eating and drinking merrily.
Now that the army was in a complete rout and more than ten thousand of the elite Yeluohe had been annihilated, even a fool could see that it was all over. The alliance had lost, and there was no suspense about the result.
When the tree fell, the monkeys scattered. Now that An Lushan had been defeated, sticking with him was idiocy.
“The Tang are coming! Run!”
Cries of alarm resounded through the fortress.
In the middle of the fleeing army, two powerful figures could also be seen, standing out starkly amidst the ordinary soldiers.
If one looked carefully, one could identify these two as Zhao Kan and Baizhen Tuoluo.