"Wait a moment! Milords, betraying the Tang Dynasty was Wanhe Peiluo's idea. He was blinded by greed, and it has nothing to do with anyone else. Milord, please give us a chance! Our Karluk Tribe is willing to fight to the death for the Tang Dynasty!! "
Guli, the Karluk Deputy Leader captured by Cheng Qianli, suddenly felt his knees go weak, his face pale as he loudly shouted.
As soon as these words came out, there was silence all around.
Gao Xianzhi stood with his hands behind his back, his eyes closed. No one could tell what he was thinking. Cheng Qianli and the other officers of the Anxi Protectorate army turned to Wang Chong. Wang Chong had been the one to discover the Karluk plot, and Gao Xianzhi had closed his eyes and said nothing. It was clear that he had given the initiative in this matter to Wang Chong.
Moreover, the relationship between the Anxi Protectorate army and the Karluks was too close, making it unsuitable for the Anxi Protectorate army to handle this matter. On the other hand, Wang Chong, who had no relationship with the Karluks, had no stake in this matter, so he could fairly handle this matter.
"Hmph, can I trust you?"
Wang Chong sneered as he stopped in front of Guli, his eyes filled with disdain as he looked down on this Karluk Deputy Leader.
"After doing such a thing, can the Karluks still be trusted?"
"Milord, please give us another chance. I know that it's very difficult for you to trust us, but I swear on the gods of the tribes above the Nine Heavens that our Karluk Tribe will never rebel again. Moreover, aren't our people still in Milord's hands? If our Karluk Tribe shows even the slightest hint of betrayal, Milord need not show any mercy. Kill them all! Our wives and children are all in Milord's hands. Milord can trust that we will not dare to act recklessly! "
Guli lowered his head and clenched his teeth.
Wanhe Peiluo was already dead, and the situation was hopeless. Guli was well aware that the lives of every member of his tribe, including the fifteen thousand Karluk warriors in the city, rested on his words, and in the hands of this young Protector-General of only seventeen or eighteen years of age.
With a single word from him, the famous Karluk tribe of the Western Regions, which had existed for over a thousand years, would vanish into thin air and be erased from the face of the Western Regions.
Wang Chong did not speak. It was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.
Guli, Guldo, and the other Karluk leaders knelt on the ground, not saying a word. Their faces were all pale, and an indescribable nervousness enveloped them. Before they knew it, large beads of sweat had appeared on their foreheads. Life and death could be decided in an instant. As long as this Qixi Protector-General of the Tang Dynasty shook his head, someone's head would roll to the ground.
The Karluks had always been fierce, or else they would not have become allies of the Anxi Protectorate army. However, these people, who had experienced so many battles without so much as a frown, were now so nervous that their bodies were trembling uneasily.
"Hmph!"
Wang Chong saw their reactions and sneered. He raised his head and glanced at Anxi Vice Protector-General Cheng Qianli. Cheng Qianli hesitated for a moment before finally nodding. Wang Chong turned his head to the nearby Gao Xianzhi. Gao Xianzhi did not shake his head, nor did he nod, but his eyes had already given his answer.
"Consider yourselves lucky!"
Wang Chong coldly chuckled as he finally spoke. Phew. Upon hearing these words, the Karluk chieftains immediately let out a long sigh. Their faces were pale and they slumped to the ground as if on the verge of collapse. In the blink of an eye, tens of thousands of Karluks had escaped death. After all the battles they had experienced, nothing had been more shocking than this moment.
There had been no glint of swords, no bloodbath, but it had been even more dangerous!
"Guli, don't celebrate too early! No one can tolerate betrayal. Sparing them doesn't mean forgiving them. Karluks … I never imagined that you would betray us. "
Cheng Qianli sternly said as he released Guli's hands.
Guli said nothing, his heart brimming with shame.
"General, be at ease. There will not be a next time. On the battlefield, we will prove to Milord whether or not the Karluks are still trustworthy. "
"I hope so."
… …
Cheng Qianli, Guli, and the other Karluk leaders quickly left. Wanhe Peiluo's death and the fifteen thousand Karluk warriors in the city had to be dealt with. The only thing Wang Chong could do was dispatch more than eight thousand elite Qixi Protectorate soldiers into the city to intimidate the crowd.
In addition, Chen Bin's three thousand ballista teams were on standby to enter Talas. With the strength of this fully-equipped ballista team, the fifteen thousand Karluks would need only a few seconds to clear the city. If Guli dared to have any other thoughts, he would truly be seeking his own death.
"Lord Protector-General, how are your injuries?"
After watching Cheng Qianli leave, Wang Chong turned to Gao Xianzhi and worriedly asked. Gao Xianzhi was in an extremely poor state. After two months of fierce fighting, Gao Xianzhi's armor was in tatters and his body was covered in wounds. His strength had dropped drastically. When he had attacked Wanhe Peiluo just now, Wang Chong had sensed that although Gao Xianzhi was still powerful, he was probably only sixty percent of his peak strength.
This Battle of Talas was extremely important. Of the more than one hundred thousand people in the Tang Dynasty, only Gao Xianzhi had reached the peak Great General level of the Saint Martial realm. Not even Wang Chong could be considered one of them. Gao Xianzhi's condition was directly related to the outcome of this battle.
"Fortunately, I can hold on. Abu Muslim probably isn't doing much better than me! "
Gao Xianzhi seemed to know what Wang Chong was worried about.
An Imperial Great General like Gao Xianzhi was one of the strongest existences in the world. The only person who could beat him into such a state and shatter his armor was the Abbasid Caliphate's Governor of the East, Abu Muslim.
Wang Chong smiled as he took out a brocade box and handed it over.
"What is this?"
Gao Xianzhi frowned in confusion.
"These are some pills that I obtained from the capital. They can help Lord Protector-General recover from his injuries and recover his energy. Milord should take them in a little while. "
Wang Chong faintly smiled.
Gao Xianzhi glanced at Wang Chong in shock. Wang Chong had made far more preparations for this battle than he had imagined, and they were far more thorough. He had even taken care of such minor details.
"Many thanks."
After a moment's hesitation, Gao Xianzhi quickly took the box from Wang Chong's hands, opened it, and took out the largest silver-white pill, which he swallowed.
At this sight, Wang Chong inwardly nodded. With a battle imminent, Gao Xianzhi's recovery was of the utmost importance. Gao Xianzhi clearly understood this, which was why he was so forthright.
"Milord fought with Abu Muslim for two months. What is Milord's impression of this Arab commander?"
Wang Chong asked.
"Cunning, cautious, decisive, and persistent!"
Gao Xianzhi didn't even think about it and said four words in a row.
"Buzz!"
Wang Chong instantly frowned at Gao Xianzhi's words. He knew that Gao Xianzhi had a very high evaluation of Abu Muslim, but Wang Chong had never imagined that someone of Gao Xianzhi's status would have such a high evaluation. Cunning, cautious, decisive, and persevering. These four words blurted out from Gao Xianzhi's mouth without even thinking.
It was obvious that the Arab commander had left a deep impression on Gao Xianzhi in the last two months, which was why he was able to say these four words so quickly and without hesitation. These words might be derogatory when used by ordinary people, but when used by the commander of the enemy army, it was an extremely high evaluation.
There was no doubt that Abu Muslim was an extremely troublesome and powerful opponent.
"Wang Chong, when fighting with Abu Muslim, you can't be the slightest bit careless. Otherwise, one wrong step will lead to the next, and you and I both know the final result!"
Gao Xianzhi solemnly said to Wang Chong.
This was the first time Wang Chong had seen such a serious expression on Gao Xianzhi's face.
"Understood."
Wang Chong solemnly nodded, but he quickly broke into a smile.
"But no matter how cunning and crafty he is, he won't stand a chance against me. The Arabs truly are very powerful, but alas, they shouldn't have made an enemy of the Tang Dynasty! "
Wang Chong's expression was carefree as he spoke, exuding a persuasive and infectious aura.
Wang Chong was not Gao Xianzhi, much less Fomonlința. He was the strongest War Saint in the history of the Central Plains. No matter how powerful Abu Muslim was, he should never have provoked the Tang Dynasty, and certainly not Wang Chong. No matter how cunning and crafty he was, he was just displaying his slight skill before an expert and had no chance of victory.
Gao Xianzhi was at first stunned by Wang Chong's words, but then he smiled.
"You're right. He truly shouldn't have made an enemy of the Tang Dynasty!"
One Gao Xianzhi had kept the hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Arabian Empire at Talas for two months, and now that Wang Chong had arrived, the number of soldiers defending the city had increased by more than one hundred thousand. Abu Muslim's chances of victory were even lower.
Gao Xianzhi quickly left. The City of Talas still had several thousand wounded soldiers of the Anxi Protectorate army. Whether it was the Karluk incident or the Anxi Protectorate army, he was needed to oversee the situation. As for Wang Chong's side, although his army had not yet entered the city, a large number of cattle, sheep, provisions, and armaments had all been transported into the city.
Only the Karluks had been left outside the city by Wang Chong, guarded by the army.
"Marquis …"
When Gao Xianzhi entered the city, all the Tranquil West Generals had left. No one paid any attention to him, and Xue Qianjun finally moved closer to him.
"How did you know that Wanhe Peiluo would attack the Arab emissary the moment he saw him? If Wanhe Peiluo and Lord Gao Xianzhi had discovered that the Arab emissary was fake, wouldn't everything have been exposed? "
Xue Qianjun's voice was very soft, but the information he revealed was astonishing. That hooded Arab emissary that had thrown Wanhe Peiluo into such disarray and caused him to launch a sudden attack was actually a fake! If Wanhe Peiluo knew the truth, he would probably be so angry that he would come back to life.
When Xue Qianjun had brought the Arab emissary over, he had appeared calm on the surface, but he was actually sweating on the inside. Others might not know the face of the 'Arab emissary', but he did. If Wanhe Peiluo had acted a little later or taken off his hood, in front of Anxi Protector-General Gao Xianzhi and his other generals, the situation would have been extremely awkward.
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