Li Siye, Sun Zhiming, Gao Feng, Nie Yan … countless Qixi reinforcements were madly charging in front of the second defense line. But these forty-thousand-some cavalry were far from enough to stop the charge of the more than one hundred thousand Ouzan and Western Turkic elites. 'Soldiers are valued for quality, not quantity.' This battle was taking place at Talas, to the west of the Cong Mountains, several thousand li away. If news of this arduous expedition didn't leak out, it was impossible to bring too many soldiers.
Thus, even though they didn't seem to have brought many soldiers, Dalun Ruozan only seventy thousand and Duwusili forty-thousand-some, they were all elites among elites.
The more than one hundred thousand Western Turkic and Ouzan elites continued to charge forward like an unending tide against the forty thousand Tang Dynasty soldiers. Even the charge of the Wushang cavalry under Li Siye's command was far from enough to stop them.
Some of the Western Turkic and Ouzan cavalry even circled around Li Siye and Sun Zhiming to join Duwusili's wolf pack in charging at the second defense line. And the ballista army led by Xu Keyi was their primary target.
"Neigh!"
A warhorse neighed as a Western Turkic horseman galloped over the piles of wolf corpses in front of the second defense line, leaping over the heavy shields of the infantry to land in the rear of the defense line. Swishswishswish! Countless sabers, spears, swords, and halberds stabbed at the horseman.
The moment the Western Turkic horseman landed, his body was riddled with holes, blood gushing out of his wounds. He was a corpse that couldn't be more dead. But this also served as a symbolic signal. Once the first person charged through the defense line and into the army, the Turks and Tibetans would begin to whinnied and leap into the air, joining the ranks of the Tibetans and Turkic cavalry. Translated by: Hypersheep325 Edited by: Michyrr
"Kiiiill!" — "
At the same time, a crazed roar resounded over the battlefield, but it was not in the language of the Tang dynasty, but in the bloodthirsty and brutal Arabic. Although Khaled's Iron Beast Army had been completely crippled by Xu Bin's ballista army, Khaled's Iron Beast Army had been completely crippled.
Even so, the Iron Beast Corps was still very useful. They carried the corpses they found on the battlefield and even wounded warhorses, using their own bodies to block the ballistae's attacks. Although the Iron Beast Corps had lost their warhorses, the Iron Beast Halo and Dark Blood Shield were still in effect and could still reduce the ballistae's damage.
Roooar! A horseless Iron Beast Army soldier, his veins bulging, picked up a large horse corpse and charged at a ballista. The huge crossbow bolt pierced through the horse's corpse and pierced through the armor on his body. However, it was deflected by his charge and shot towards the sky.
Only the Arabian Empire, which 'lived and died in battle', could be so ferocious and fearless, using its own body to block the ballista bolts even though it clearly knew the power of the ballista bolts.
The fearless bravery of the Iron Beast Army had given the Arabian army an extremely valuable opportunity to fight. Tens of thousands of soldiers had fallen to the attacks of the beehives and ballistae, but tens of thousands of warhorses had also used this chance to charge up the steel walls.
People were constantly pushing through the dense forest of spears, stepping over the corpses and climbing over the walls. Even when they landed on the ground and were turned into porcupines by the barrage of ballistae, they still rushed forward. Fear was nowhere to be seen on the faces of these Arabs.
The more they died, the more bloody and cruel they were, the more they seemed to stimulate their will to fight. Behind the steel defense line, the mercenaries of Greater and Lesser Balur couldn't help but widen their eyes in fear at the sight of the Arabs roaring like wild beasts, let alone the other mercenaries.
In the legends of war to the west of the Western Regions, the Arabs were synonymous with death. Countless powers and empires had felt the terrifying and fearless will of the Arabs, and their fighting spirit had crumbled, scattering like birds and beasts on the battlefield. Their cities and countries had been destroyed by the Arabs, creating the legend of the Arabs' invincible and undefeatable existence!
One wave, two waves, three waves … one wave of Arab soldiers after another surged toward the first defense line, toward the steel defense line.
"Hold!"
"Axemen, get ready!"
"Archers, get ready!"
… …
In the entire battlefield, the ones who were the most solemn and calm were undoubtedly the Infantry Corps led by Wang Yan and Wang Fu. Row by row, they stood behind the first line of defense without moving an inch, like a rock in the middle of a river. No matter how fierce the Arabs' attacks were, no matter how fearless they were, and no matter how many times they charged, they were never able to penetrate the infantry formations led by Wang Yan and Wang Fu.
In this section of the defense line, Wang Yan and Wang Fu had the highest casualty rate of any Arab. No matter how many Arabs broke through the steel walls, the heavy shields of the infantry, the hornets, and the ballistae, when they finally reached Wang Yan's infantry formations, they were all doomed to die.
In the rear section of the army, the nearly ten thousand infantry had solemn expressions, and they had never even been mobilized.
In this era where cavalry was king, even though the terrain of the Tang Dynasty was naturally not suited to raising high-quality warhorses, nor was it dominated by cavalry, when it came to infantry, no faction in the world could compare to the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty had used its massive infantry armies to crush the Ouzan, the Eastern and Western Turks, Goguryeo, and Mengshe Zhao, all the way to the Western Regions.
That was the era of infantry!
The Tang Dynasty had allowed everyone to witness the power of the infantry armies of the Central Plains, thus establishing the Tang Dynasty as its current hegemon. Across the four seas, only the Great Tang could use its infantry to resist all the cavalry formations and resist the attacks of all the cavalry.
Although the infantry under Wang Yan's command could not compare to cavalry in terms of charging power or mobility, in a positional battle, they were like an impenetrable fortress. When used with Wang Chong's steel defense line, they were able to display their formidable defensive capabilities to the extreme.
"Wind!"
The wind howled. Behind the first line of defense, surrounded by four black-armored guards, Wang Yan's expression was solemn as he suddenly waved his right hand. Whoosh! The thousands of shieldmen guarding the gap in the steel walls suddenly retreated, revealing a massive path behind them.
In the blink of an eye, thousands of such huge tunnels appeared behind the first defense line that had not been breached for a long time.
"Buzz!"
For a moment, the Arab soldiers behind the defense line had their minds go blank in shock at the sudden appearance of these gaps. But a moment later, thousands of Arabs roared and swung their scimitars as they charged through the gaps. The Arab cavalry behind them paid no attention to what was happening in front of them, roaring as they followed.
"Fire!"
Wang Yan's expression was resolute. He waved his right hand again, and in the next moment, there was the sound of metal clanging. The shieldbearers cooperated with the axemen behind them, and with a rumble, they once again cut off these tunnels. The gap in the first defense line was sealed up, and the Arab soldiers who had tried to charge in were like turtles in a jar.
"Kill! — "
A series of battle cries shook the heavens and the earth. The moment the gap was closed, countless sabers, spears, swords, and halberds stabbed over from all directions. No matter how powerful, fierce, and valiant the Arab cavalry were, no matter how fearless they were, in the face of the vastly outnumbering Tang dynasty infantry, all of them were instantly felled into pools of blood, not even stirring up a ripple.
"Wind!"
"Fire!"
…
In Wang Yan's hands, this tactic was repeated over and over again, allowing batch after batch of Arab soldiers to enter and killing them. By the time the shieldbearers closed the gap, not a single Arab horseman would be able to survive for more than a few seconds against Wang Yan's infantry formations.
In Wang Yan's hands, infantry were not only used for defense, but also for offense. They could attack while defending, and defend while attacking. The twenty-thousand-some infantry were like the most precise machine, using extreme efficiency to slaughter the charging Arab cavalry. One wave at a time, one wave at a time, one wave at a time, one wave at a time … Even the Arab cavalry were intimidated by this extreme calmness and composure.
The mercenaries of the Western Regions who were adjacent to Wang Yan's infantry formations were also unwittingly affected and began to work with Wang Yan's infantry formations to fend off the Arab charge.
This was also the toughest area of the defense line.
… …
"It's about time!"
Between the two defense lines, amidst thousands of warhorses, Wang Chong rode the White-hoofed Shadow, motionless beneath the flapping banner of the Tang Dynasty. As he listened to the fierce fighting on both sides, a sharp light flashed through his eyes. This battle was already reaching its most intense phase. The Arabs, Western Turks, and Ouzan soldiers had all put in their full strength, and the two defense lines to the east and west were both under enormous pressure.
And now, it was time for the most important part of Wang Chong's plan.
"Buzz!"
A white light brighter than the sun exploded out of Wang Chong's eyes amid the fierce winds. Rumble! The entire eastern and western battlefields began to quake. With Wang Chong at the center, a milky-white halo descended from Wang Chong's body and began to expand, sweeping across the battlefield like a hurricane.
The Bane of the Battlefield Halo!
As the four sides clashed and the battle intensified, Wang Chong immediately unleashed the Bane of the Battlefield Halo. Bzzz! The dazzling halos beneath the feet of the tens of thousands of Ouzan, Western Turkic, and Arab cavalry began to flicker like candles in the wind. Before anyone could react, clangclangclang! The tens of thousands of war halos on the battlefield began to dim.
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