Chapter 900: The Battle Begins! (2/2)
Roooar!
Looking to the east, Khaled gave a heaven-shaking roar. In a clattering of armor, a force of savage-faced Arabian cavalry, clearly much larger and stronger than their peers, emerged from the Arab army, their bodies seething with killing intent.
Gallop! A massive black horse more than nine feet tall, double the size of an ordinary Arabian horse, galloped to Khaled's side.
Boom!
Without another word, Khaled mounted the black steed and rode off.
Abu Muslim stood in the rear of the army and watched Khaled leave, after which he turned his gaze elsewhere and waved a hand.
”Give the Tibetans and Western Turks the signal and have the army move out!”
Bong!
As soon as Abu Muslim gave the order, war drums began to thunder from the Arab army. This was a heavy drumming and followed a special tempo, three long beats and two short. This special signal traveled over Talas to reach the hills to the east.
A Tibetan general turned and reported to Dalun Ruozan, ”Great Minister, the Arabs have received our signal!”
Dalun Ruozan merely gave a grunt and a nod.
”I can see that.”
Rumble! To the west, on the other side of the Tang army, the slowly advancing Arab army suddenly picked up the pace. If one compared their original speed to that of a crawling snail, their speed now was that of a charging beast. The region around Talas became like a sailboat in a storm, tossing and turning in unease.
”Lord Marquis, the Arabs are attacking!”
In the area enclosed by the two steel defense lines, Xue Qianjun looked to Wang Chong with nervous eyes.
The calm that had persisted from yesterday until now had finally been shattered, and Talas was once more shrouded in the clouds of war. Amidst the howling winds, everyone could hear the heavy beating of the war drums, and when more than two hundred thousand cavalry increased their speed all at once, they created such an enormous momentum that everyone instantly felt a formidable pressure.
The scent of war had increased by ten times—no, one hundred times!
”I see,” Wang Chong indifferently said.
This simple statement alone was enough for Xue Qianjun to calm down. Wang Chong's long hair was blowing in the wind, and in the shifting light, his face was resolute and composed, devoid of any emotion. This sight seemed to imbue Xue Qianjun with an invisible strength, and he turned back around and silently stood guard at Wang Chong's side.
The battle was imminent!
Dalun Ruozan, it's your turn now!
Wang Chong looked to the east, a bright light in his eyes.
……
”Move out!”
Meanwhile, on the hill, Dalun Ruozan's eyes shone with cold light as he gave the order to attack.
Rumble! An enormous shaking came from the east as the Tibetan and Turkic cavalry poured over the hills like floodwaters through a sluice gate!
At this moment, the whole world had fallen silent, leaving only the thundering of hooves to ring through the air!
The Arabs, Tibetans, and Turks had all begun to attack. The three parties together had an army of more than four hundred thousand elite soldiers, and they were facing a force of only a hundred-thousand-some Tang. In the face of their outnumbered opponent, they had chosen the simplest, crudest, and most straightforward method: attack!
Gallop!
The hooves formed an unending peal of thunder that rose from both the east and the west, jolting and shaking the heart of every Tang soldier. These four hundred thousand cavalry were furious waves approaching from every direction.
As the warhorses got closer and closer, the tension around Talas began to rapidly multiply!
At the two steel defensive lines arrayed before Talas, all was quiet. The thousands of Qixi soldiers tightly gripped their weapons, the veins bulging out of their hands as they stared ahead.
This army of more than one hundred thousand soldiers was absolutely silent, the atmosphere suffocatingly oppressive!
”Ready!”
At the point of maximum tension, a cold and emotionless voice rang out over the army. Wang Chong, seated upon the White-hoofed Shadow, had finally issued his first order.
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1.A form of the first saying can be found in Sunzi's 'Art of War', while the second saying originates from advice given to Zhuge Liang by his aide Ma Su during his expedition to pacify the Nanman in the Three Kingdoms Period. Even if we consider the possibility that Zhuge Liang didn't exist in this alternate reality, Sunzi's Art of War or some form of it certainly did, as it is oft-quoted by other characters besides Wang Chong, so Wang Fu must be a rather poor student or the Wang Clan's library is not as impressive as claimed.