Chapter 1092 - After-Battle Conference! (1/2)

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

The greatest taboo in military strategy was to fight a battle at night. It was okay to engage in local ambushes or small-scale raids, but the conditions at night were not favorable to large-scale battles. If one carefully examined history, one would discover that decisive battles at night were extremely rare. The reason was that at night, vision, perception, and even the ability for a commander to order around their soldiers were all greatly reduced.

There were even cases where fear and disorder led soldiers to attack members of their own side, or do the exact opposite of what they had been ordered to do. In the night, they would end up pursuing the enemy for several hundred li and ultimately become lost in the heart of enemy territory.

”This is all we can do. The Iron Wall Army has sustained severe casualties and is exhausted in every way. I'm afraid that it wouldn't even be able to pursue the Arabs,” Gao Xianzhi said with a sigh.

This was an extremely rare opportunity, but the time was not right. The army had suffered severe losses, and even though he was unwilling, Gao Xianzhi had to give up on this opportunity.

”No matter the time, Qutaybah will always be an obstacle!”

Cheng Qianli responded with a sigh of his own. Until they resolved the massive threat that was Qutaybah, the Great Tang would never be able to talk about victory. When experts of his level fought, the shockwaves alone would be enough to inflict grievous casualties on the exhausted Tang forces.

Bwoooom!

A horn soon blew and all the Great Tang soldiers retreated like the receding tide. In the distance, the Wushang Cavalry also broke away from the Mamelukes, Mutri Great Cavalry, and Celestial Wolf Cavalry, returning to behind the defense line.

Fighting outnumbered had also been extremely taxing on their strength.

As the Great Tang withdrew, so did the Arabs. The Blood Beast Army, the Ironblood Army, the Fearless Army, the Death Army, and the Tiber Army completely withdrew from the battlefield under the cover of darkness.

Wang Chong, Gao Xianzhi, Cheng Qianli, Wang Yan, and the Demonic Emperor Old Man stood side by side, motionlessly watching the Arabs. After a long while, Wang Chong finally looked away, pulling on his reins and riding back to Talas.

”Tell Xu Keyi to begin taking stock of the losses!” Wang Chong said.

……

Night fell very quickly, and Xu Keyi also very quickly finished counting up the casualties.

”Lord Marquis, we suffered heavy losses in this battle. In total, more than forty thousand of our men were killed. We also have twenty thousand other casualties. We have sixty-thousand-some men able to fight, including the Tongluo Cavalry.”

The night was settling in, but Talas was brightly lit. Xu Keyi had gotten down on one knee as he reported, his expression extremely grave.

Talas originally had a hundred and ten thousand soldiers guarding it, and with the Tongluo Cavalry and the soldiers Su Zhengchen had trained, this number was brought up to one hundred and twenty thousand. But in this battle, more than forty thousand had been killed while twenty thousand had been wounded. More than half of the army had been lost in this battle. This was undoubtedly a massive blow.

This was the price the Great Tang had paid to stand up against the charge of hundreds of thousands of Arabs.

”What of the Arabs?”

In the flickering light of the torches, Wang Chong stood with his hands held behind his back. Gao Xianzhi, Cheng Qianli, and the Demonic Emperor Old Man looked over upon hearing this question, focus in their eyes.

”We haven't obtained a definite number, but based on our estimates, they should have suffered casualties of more than two hundred thousand. Of these, more than eighty thousand were brought down by our ballista army!” Xu Keyi sternly said.

From the moment the Great Tang had been established, the ballistae had always been a lethal and intimidating weapon on any battlefield. Under the command of Wang Chong and Su Hanshan, the method in which ballistae were used had taken a leap forward, undergoing extreme modification to create a ballista army that could inspire fear and dread in any army.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at Xu Keyi's words.

”This means that the combined manpower of the Arabs, Tibetans, and Western Turks is only around two hundred and sixty thousand!” Gao Xianzhi said.

The Great Tang had lost much in this battle, but their attacker, Arabia, had lost even more. The casualty ratio of this battle was nearly one to three. For the death of each Tang soldier, three Arab elites had come with him. This made the losses somewhat acceptable.

”Yes!”

The kneeling Xu Keyi respectfully added, ”The greatest casualties on our side came from the Xuanwu Army, with the majority inflicted by Qutaybah's Revelation Army. Of the more than twenty thousand soldiers that were killed by that army, nearly five thousand were soldiers of the Xuanwu Army.”

Xu Keyi's words cast a dour mood over the hall. The Xuanwu Army only had eight thousand men in total, and it was one of the top-class elite armies of the Great Tang. In that one clash, the Revelation Army had killed five thousand of them. This was a most grievous loss.