The Human Emperor
chapter-902

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

"Fire!"

Boomboomboom!

The thick ballista bolts howled through the air, a furious downpour enveloping the earth. In a flash, the stench of death grew a hundred times stronger. Ballistae! The Great Tang's most powerful weapon and its most powerful tool for dealing with groups. In Wang Chong's hands, these weapons were essentially the scythes of death itself.

In the first clash with Umar on the eastern side of the battlefield, the more than seventy thousand Arab soldiers had been completely crushed by the might of the ballistae.

A volley from fifteen hundred ballistae could bury ten thousand Arab cavalry. This was their terrifying might!

Rooar! A savage shout came from the distant Khaled, a ferocity in his eyes. Boom! A pitch-black halo suddenly exploded from Khaled's body, rapidly expanding. When it hit the ground, it instantly transformed into two black-red war halos.

The moment these two halos appeared, an invisible energy began to spread over the tens of thousands of soldiers in the Iron Beast Army. In the blink of an eye, they all instantly swelled in strength as a metallic luster enveloped them. Not only that, miniature black-red war halos appeared under their feet, boosting their strength.

The Iron Beast Halo!

The Dark Blood Shield!

Khaled had immediately used the two powerful halos upon which he had made his reputation. Unlike other Arab generals, Khaled possessed two extremely high-class war halos. The first could greatly boost the strength and toughness of all metal pieces on his soldiers, including their armor, making them like iron beasts. This halo also served as the origin of the name of the army that Khaled commanded.

As for the second, the Dark Blood Shield, it allowed the Arab warriors under Khaled's command to meld their energy with their horses, transforming the blood energy within them into a shield that would fuse with their armor and further strengthen its defensive capabilities.

These two powerful halos allowed Khaled's Iron Beast Army to sweep unstoppably through the battlefield.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The long ballista bolts exploded forward, each one accurately aimed at a soldier of the Iron Beast Army. But then, a shocking scene occurred. Extremely sturdy blood-red shields floated up from the Iron Beast Army. The ballista bolts pierced through these shields, continuing onward to strike the Iron Beast Army.

But after piercing through only one soldier, these ballista bolts that could normally pierce through seven or eight, drawing a line of carnage through enemy forces, had their speed and power greatly reduced. It was like they had not shot through a body of flesh and blood, but human-shaped steel.

Boomboomboom! Once the first round of ballista bolts had been fired, the Iron Beast Army was not in the expected disarray. Of the tens of thousands of soldiers, only around one thousand had been felled, and some of them had even managed to avoid a fatal blow and survive the volley.

"How could this be?"

Chen Bin's expression contorted at this sight. Turning his head, he saw that all the ballista teams were in a similar state of shock.

The entire world knew of the power of the Great Tang ballistae. These were the harvesting tools used by the gods of death. In their first encounter with the Arabs, the three thousand ballistae had cut down tens of thousands of Arab cavalry. However, in that salvo just now, each ballista bolt had only been able to shoot through three people at most before their energy was spent. Such a situation had never occurred before.

For a moment, all the ballista team members were quiet, so shocked that they were powerless to speak.

"…I forgot to tell you, Khaled's Iron Beast Army has an extremely terrifying defense. While defending the city, our ballistae also fired on them, but the effects were extremely limited. A good portion of the Arab soldiers scaling the walls were Khaled's Iron Beast soldiers. Lord Protector-General consumed a great deal of Stellar Energy while battling with them at the gate, allowing Abu Muslim to heavily injure him."

Cheng Qianli walked out from the rear, his hair blowing in the fierce wind.

This was a force dispatched by Abu Muslim, and each soldier had astonishing strength and presented a formidable foe to the Anxi Protectorate army. This battle was far more difficult than could be imagined.

"Vice Protector-General, there is no need for such concern. These are just brutes, not worth fearing. And don't we still have General Xi?"

Wang Chong waved his hand, his expression calm and relaxed.

This Beast of Arabia was truly formidable. Wang Chong had never seen the power of ballistae being so severely reduced from the influence of just two halos. But even the strongest beast was still a beast, and Wang Chong had many methods to deal with him. However, the Qixi Protectorate army was much stronger now, so battles at this level did not require his personal intervention.

"Ready!"

At this moment, Chen Bin's eyes flashed, and he immediately issued his second order.

"All soldiers, hear my order! Adjust the angle! Target the horse legs! At the joints! Fire!"

Chen Bin quickly decided to alter his target. Instead of targeting the Iron Beast Army directly, he chose to target the legs of their horses.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The three rows of ballistae began to engage in volley fire, five hundred ballistae to a volley, filling the sky with a constant rain of ballista bolts. These ballista bolts were fired at a much lower target, and the earth began to shake and boom as this wave of ballista bolts swiftly proved effective. Neeeigh! Horses cried out as their legs were snapped, and many soldiers of the Iron Beast Army were thrown to the ground in clouds of dust.

Khaled's Iron Beast Halo and Dark Blood Shield could defend against the volley fire of the ballistae, but they could not defend the weak leg joints of the horses. To the dreadful power of the ballistae, these joints were so weak that they might as well have been made of paper. Bangbangbang! The thousands of ballista bolts filled the sky, each ballista bolt punching through twenty to thirty horse legs.

The vigorous charge of the Iron Beast Army instantly fell into chaos, warhorse crashing into warhorse, soldier colliding with soldiers, and the air was soon filled with the cries of horses and furious shouts. Moreover, once Khaled's Iron Beast Army fell into chaos, the Arab cavalry charging up from the rear also had their advance impeded. Some of the cavalry, unable to stop in time, even found themselves smashing headlong into the soldiers of the Iron Beast Army.

Thuds and bangs rang out of the churning dust as the entire battlefield fell into disarray.

While Chen Bin's ballista army had not been able to kill any soldiers of the Iron Beast Army in this wave, the small alteration had achieved a goal that multiple volleys could not achieve. In addition, the Iron Beast Army had essentially been crippled by this assault.

"How could this sort of thing happen!"

This unexpected development turned Khaled's pride to fury. A savage expression formed on his face as he stared at his soldiers on the ground. In the first volley, he had only suffered around a thousand losses, but the second round of exactly the same ballista bolts had wiped out his army, killing all his warhorses.

An Iron Beast Army without warhorses had its strength cut in half. They were nothing more than unusually formidable infantry, nothing like the unstoppable and invincible army they once were.

"Fire!"

Chen Bin's voice rang out, his expression cold as he once more gave an order. The target this time was no longer the warhorses, but the thousands upon thousands of now-unhorsed Iron Beast soldiers.

"Damn it! I'll tear you to pieces!" Khaled bellowed, his body bursting with savagery as he urged his horse forward. Together with his black-red halos, he shot like a meteor toward the Tang defense line.

……

While Khaled was thunderously charging to the defense line, Wang Chong had already turned his horse around and begun to ride toward the second defense line. No matter how ferocious Khaled was, he was just one man. In Wang Chong's view, when those tens of thousands of soldiers of the Iron Beast Army were brought to the ground, his aim had been achieved.

Now, no matter how formidable the Arabs were, they would need a significant amount of time to break through the firm Tang defenses.

Now it's time for the Turks and Tibetans.

With this thought, Wang Chong turned his eyes to the east. Awoooo! The mournful howls of wolves reached his ear as the situation on the eastern battlefield underwent an astonishing change. As the sun continued rise from the east, thousands upon thousands of gray wolves surged out from behind the Tibetan and Turkic cavalry.

These massive wolves had their teeth bared and were traveling with incredible speed. In a few moments, they had roared past the cavalry in a furious wave. Wang Chong could see wolves wherever he looked.

Turkic wolves!

Wang Chong's mind whirred as he swept his eyes past the plain and toward the hills on the other side. Beneath that massive banner of the golden wolf, Wang Chong saw that dazzling and sharp-eyed figure. Only the Celestial Wolf Great General Duwu Sili of the Western Turkic Khaganate was capable of bringing so many wolves with him.

Caw!

Before one wave had even settled, another wave rose. Right behind this massive wolf pack, strange cries like those of bawling infants came down from the skies. Wang Chong raised his head and saw a massive dark cloud of Tibetan vultures, a veritable army flying toward the second defense line.

And their goal… was surprisingly the ballista teams on the ground!