The Human Emperor
chapter-747

Chapter 747: Eagle Team! (I)

Wang Chong turned his head and said, “Li Siye, I leave this matter to you.”

Li Siye hurriedly bowed and said, “Yes, Lord Marquis.”

After taking care of a few miscellaneous matters, Wang Chong stood up and stretched while looking out the window.

“It’s about time to take care of that other matter.”

Wang Chong stretched a bit more before leaving the room.

The City of Steel’s outer wall was basically complete, and with the Wushang soldiers and the Turkic warhorses both having arrived, he could finally begin his plan.

Wang Chong had not chosen Wushang because it was a remote and peaceful place, but because he wanted to fend off the Western Turkic Khaganate to the east and Ü-Tsang from the west, completely altering the environment around Qixi. This was for the sake of the Anxi Protectorate army and to prepare for the Battle of Talas.

Now, everything was ready. Only one thing was missing.

Bang!

Sunlight poured in as the door opened, and Wang Chong, dressed in a blue gown, stepped over the threshold. After walking for a few moments, he began to hear deafening shouts.

After leaving the room and taking a left turn, he could see five thousand Wushang soldiers in the distance, mounted on stalwart Turkic steeds and performing harsh drills under the sunlight.

Thousands of wooden stakes had been placed on the ground in front of them. The distance between the wooden stakes varied, ranging from wide enough for a carriage to pass to so narrow that only a pair of horse legs could get by.

And there seemed to be no order to the arrangement of the wooden stakes.

‘Disordered Horse Stakes’ was a method that Wang Chong had developed in his last life to train top-notch cavalry as quickly as possible. In this life, however, he was using this method to teach the Wushang their first lesson: riding the horse.

Neigh!

With a cry, five or six Wushang leapt forward on their horses. In the midst of impassioned whinnies, these warhorses worked their way through the stakes, suddenly moving left or right as they navigated the dense forest.

The dexterity and swift reaction speed the Wushang had developed through their life in the mountains was proving incredibly useful here.

No matter how dense the stakes were or how narrow the paths between them, the Wushang would always be able to find a path through which they could easily maneuver their horses.

If one didn’t know beforehand, it would be very hard to believe that this was their first time on horseback.

Neigh!

A few moments later, the five or six Wushang had completed the ‘Disordered Horse Stakes’ and emerged. Other than a minor scrape on a horse leg at the very end, the Wushang Cavalry were completely unscathed.

“Good!”

A burst of cheers and cries of praise rose from around them. The spectating guards and clan experts clapped enthusiastically.

At the beginning, none of them had understood the reasons for these thousands of wooden stakes in the ground. A few of the elite horsemen had tried their hands at it, but of the ten that tried, eight stumbled at the very beginning while the other two only managed to make it a bit more than halfway before being unable to proceed.

It was only after these attempts that the crowd finally realized that this forest of wooden stakes was not as simple as it seemed.

But these Wushang seemed to be natural horsemen. No obstacle or wooden stake could stop them. Though the crowd had been watching for some time, they had not seen a single warhorse ridden by a Wushang hit a wooden stake.

Their reactions and speed were so formidable that they made one’s hairs stand on end!

As they gradually grew more familiar with the Wushang, the city guards and clan experts found themselves in complete admiration of these soldiers who had appeared out of thin air.

And their drills were far from restricted to just the Disordered Horse Stakes…

“Ready!

“Begin!”

Gallop! With the thundering of hooves and a cloud of dust, a Wushang cavalryman dressed in black armor and wielding a long spear shot forward, his body pressed against the back of his horse.

Boom!

Before the crowd could react to what seemed to be a blur passing them, there was a massive boom several dozen zhang away. A massive plate of steel more than half a foot thick had crumpled inward from the center, leaving two deep hoof impressions starkly visible.

Wang Chong’s gaze flitted by the Wushang Cavalry as they practiced charging, looking elsewhere as he continued to walk.

“Kill!

“Kiiill!”

Heaven-shattering shouts could be heard in the distance. Two Wushang Cavalry wielding wooden staffs were charging at each other. Buzz! As the pair clashed and passed each other, one of the Wushang Cavalry lithely passed under his horse and kicked at the other rider from an extremely crafty angle.

But there was a thump as this determined strike missed. Before the Wushang cavalryman could react, another kick came from beneath the other horse, striking him on the shoulder and propelling him into the air.

Such was the strength of this kick that the Wushang cavalryman rolled ten-some times before finally stabilizing, leaving a deep furrow in the ground.

The Wushang were natural warriors, natural horsemen!

Not even experienced and veteran cavalry could easily pull off such lithe movements, but they were an easy task for the Wushang Cavalry. Even though he learned this long ago and had seen it with his own eyes, Wang Chong still felt deeply moved now that he was witnessing it again.

Strength, dexterity, speed, reflexes… these Wushang Cavalry trained by a lifetime in the mountains had a natural advantage over the White Braves, the Mamelukes, and the Turkic Wolftooth Cavalry. None of these three could compare to the Wushang.

It seems like I can teach them that now!

With this thought, Wang Chong called over a Turkic warhorse and set off for the distant training ground.

The City of Steel was vast, five to six times the size of an ordinary city. The advantages of this size were showing themselves now. Even after all the restaurants, tea houses, and inns had been finished, there was still sufficient space within the city that a large region could be set aside for the five thousand Wushang to ride and train.

Roooar!

When the warhorse was still a hundred-some zhang from the training ground, a massive roar like that of a dragon or a tiger resounded through the sky.

“Received!”

With a loud acknowledgment, the Wushang Cavalry began to stop training and gather. In a few short moments, they had organized themselves into orderly ranks, standing with straight backs and high heads in front of Wang Chong. When they looked at this Young Marquis who was even younger than they were, all the Wushang revealed expressions of deep respect and admiration.

Ever since leaving Wushang Village, they had begun to understand more and more about Wang Chong, and the more they understood, the more they admired him. The Young Marquis, the Son of Heaven’s disciple, the Lord of the City of Steel, architect of the one-night construction, with an astonishing fortune and social network, and a dazzling status… had also pulled victory from the jaws of defeat, defeating the powerful Mengshe–Ü-Tsang army and forcing them to leave more than four hundred thousand corpses behind.

All this surpassed their imagination. Even those Wushang who had a pride that went down to their bones felt a deep admiration for Wang Chong’s feats and the abilities that exceeded his age.

After all, even the Li Siye that the Wushang deeply admired was a subordinate of Wang Chong, devotedly loyal and respectful to him. Under his influence, the Wushang Cavalry regarded Wang Chong as a god.

“Get ready! Begin to count off! Five men to a squad, ten men to a team, a hundred men to a group!” Wang Chong sternly said.

“Yes!”

Quickly, the air began to resound with people counting off. While they were doing so, Wang Chong turned to Li Siye.

“Let’s start! Take those things out and distribute them.”

“Yes, Lord Marquis!” Li Siye deferentially said.

Wang Chong nodded and turned away. The Wushang had already reached a sufficient level of training, so it was now time to teach them the renowned Wushang Halo that had been developed specifically for their constitutions.

The Wushang Halo had been developed through the efforts of thousands of the best experts of the land, Wang Chong included. It was a war halo created according to the special traits of the Wushang, and was an art that only they could learn.

It was impossible to separate the fame of the White Braves from their ‘Zhangzhung Halo’. This halo was as powerful and as sharp as the Jihad Halo of the Mamelukes. It would be very difficult for the Wushang to defeat them through pure strength. Only by training in the strongest cavalry halo, the Wushang Halo, and becoming the strongest ‘Wushang Cavalry’ could they suppress the White Braves.

This was a halo that not even the otherworldly invaders could stand against, much less the White Braves.

Creeee!

While Wang Chong was having Li Siye pass on the Wushang Halo, a sharp cry came out of the sky. Bang! A large bird crashed down, eliciting cries of alarm from the City of Steel as it made a bloody mess on the ground.

This sudden incident startled the nearby craftsmen, but the Wushang Cavalry were unmoved, not even creasing a brow.

Wang Chong raised his head and saw that far up in the sky, those birds who had been constantly circling over the City of Steel had divided into several factions that were currently engaged in pitched battle, their harsh cries ringing through the air.

“Ah!”

“Look over there! Another bird is falling!”

“How vicious! What’s going on?”

“They’re fighting!”

The turmoil in the sky had attracted the attention of all the craftsmen and guards on the wall. After spending so much time in the City of Steel, they had all gotten used to the birds dispatched by the various powers flying overhead: the gyrfalcons, rock eagles, and other such birds. But to their surprise, these savage birds seemed to be fighting each other.