Chapter 545: Plot! Luring the Tiger From the Mountain!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Aaaaah!”
Warhorses neighed as countless figures were thrown into the air by a tyrannical Stellar Energy, screaming as they were torn into countless pieces while the horses were smashed into pulp. Fierce red flames filled the sky as a flood of energy, almost like the sun itself, expanded to fill every inch of space with scorching fire.
Huoshu Huicang’s Stellar Energy was so fierce and domineering that it felt like a blazing sun rose in any place that he covered with his Stellar Energy. These flames were so thick that even the sky seemed to blaze. Before the rain pouring down from the skies could hit the ground, it evaporated into white trails of steam.
As flecks of flesh and ash drifted down from the skies, they spread an aura of fear.
Huoshu Huicang’s power had already surpassed everyone’s expectations. Before him, everyone felt like insignificant ants.
Huoshu Huicang’s vast energy inspired endless fear in all who felt it.
“Run!”
“It’s Huoshu Huicang! Only he has a Stellar Energy that can unleash this sort of fiery light!”
“We’re no match for him! Run!”
“Only General and the others can deal with him!”
………
The warhorses galloped off as an intense fear gripped everyone’s hearts, a Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads that spurred them to flee. Their faces were all ghastly pale without a single trace of blood. The Great Tang and Ü-Tsang were mortal enemies in the southwest, so all of these soldiers knew of Huoshu Huicang’s reputation. And in this southwest war, the Annan Protectorate army had battled the Tibetans for more than a month now.
All of them were extremely familiar with Huoshu Huicang’s energy.
Those blazing red lotuses and that sea of flame that burned everything to cinders were nightmares that haunted the sleep of everyone in Lion City.
And even more shocking was that Wang Chong had spent a great deal of time refining this plan. Three hundred zhang should have been a safe distance.
But no one had expected Huoshu Huicang’s powers to be at this stage.
A distance that would have limited other experts didn’t even exist to someone like him. In just a few moments, their forces had been dealt a heavy blow. Their horses, halos, armor, weapons, and cultivation were all meaningless before Huoshu Huicang.
With a single move, Huoshu Huicang had shattered the vigorous fighting force of the Tang army.
“Hmph, don’t you think it’s a little too late to run away now?”
Huoshu Huicang looked at the Annan Protectorate soldiers fleeing like startled birds and inwardly sneered, a powerful killing aura exploding from his body. As the commander-in-chief, he could not lightly make a move, but since he had already decided to act, he would not let a single person escape.
And it was about time for this farce that had stirred up so much trouble to end!
In these circumstances, if he let these raiding Tang soldiers escape, he would truly be letting down his title of Ü-Tsang Great General.
“All soldiers, hear my order! Kill all of these Tang! Don’t leave a single one alive!”
As he charged forward, Huoshu Huicang ordered his soldiers to attack.
Awoooo!
“Kill them!”
Excited roars filled the skies, sounding like the rumbling of an avalanche. The momentum was so astonishing that even Huoshu Huicang couldn’t help but arch a brow.
“Kill them!”
“Damn it, we’ve finally caught them!”
“It really was them, and they still dared to come when the Great General was here! They were truly seeking their own deaths!”
“Bastards! These Tang men… are dead for sure!”
The collective rage and discontent of the Tibetans were instantly unleashed.
They had fought for so long but had not managed to catch a single Tang soldier. On the contrary, they had been playing in the palm of the Great Tang’s hand, been thrown into disarray and even ended up killing their own soldiers.
This was an absolute disgrace!
Finally, they had a chance to vent these vile emotions.
Rumble!
Like a river breaking through a dam, the Tibetan cavalry crazily howled, charging with unprecedented speed as they followed Huoshu Huicang.
Five hundred zhang!
Four hundred zhang!
Three hundred zhang!
………
The Tibetans in their frenzied chase were swiftly closing the distance.
And the Tang soldiers in front of them, perhaps because they had never expected Huoshu Huicang to show up here, seemed to be in a great panic, their entire formation in chaos.
An excellent chance!
Chaos for the Tang was a superb opportunity for the Tibetans!
Rumble! Like a lightning bolt searing through the void, the dense ranks of the Tibetan cavalry thrust into the Tang army. Bangbangbang! As scimitars sliced, figures were cut down off their horses like stalks of wheat.
Yet right when they were most excited and most expectant, all their cries suddenly came to a halt.
It was like some invisible hand had clasped around their necks and seized their throats! All their faces were stupefied, and even Huoshu Huicang was dumbfounded.
“How, how can this be?”
The army quickly began to slow, and a young general dismounted and looked in complete stupefaction at the ‘Tang soldiers’ that they had killed.
The ‘Tang soldiers’ were certainly dead, but they looked completely different from what the Tibetans had imagined.
The dead ‘Tang soldiers’ were completely different from the Tang soldiers these soldiers remembered. Their faces were all flushed with the sort of plateau red that one would only see if one spent long periods at high altitudes, battered by the winds. In fact, this was actually the red flush characteristic of the plateau!
“Damn it! They aren’t even Tang! They’re Tibetans! These Tang used our Tibetan dead to disguise themselves!” a Tibetan officer roared in anger.
Those ‘Tang soldiers’ pressed against the backs of the horses weren’t Tang at all, but Tibetans who had been killed when chasing Wang Chong’s initial force, or been killed in battle. This sneak attack seemed to be quite the large one, but other than a few Tang soldiers at the start, it was completely made up of slain Tibetans.
“We’ve been tricked…”
At the head of the army, Huoshu Huicang sat on his massive horse, his eyebrow raised.
He had only predicted the opening, but he had failed to predict the end.
His opponent was far craftier than he had imagined. This sneak attack plan had so thoroughly jumbled the true and false, the real and illusion, that even he had been fooled by this assault. At this moment, Huoshu Huicang suddenly had a very bad feeling.
Boom!
At this moment, a burst of heaven-shaking shouts came from the northeast, resounding through the curtains of rain. The originally quiet northeast suddenly turned into a din of fighting, roaring, and clanging of weapons. Countless people were charging out of the rain and into the Tibetan defensive line.
“Not good!”
Huoshu Huicang’s eyes widened as he realized what had happened.
I’ve fallen for the Tang’s scheme to lure the tiger from the mountain!
“Hyah!”
Huoshu Huicang immediately turned his horse around and took off for the battlefield.
At this stage, the situation was already completely out of his control. Even Huoshu Huicang at his slowest would have figured out by now that this sneak attack strategy had been a feint, with the true target now obvious. All the previous sneak attacks had been for the sake of this single moment.
The geography of the southwest was very flat, dotted by a few hills. In these circumstances, it was extremely difficult to hide an army.
Yet Huoshu Huicang had been completely unaware that an army had been so close. Someone who could conceal an army so well had an almost perfect grasp of the proper time and distance. This was not something any ordinary renowned general could have.
For the southwest to still have this sort of character, Huoshu Huicang had to admit that he had truly underestimated them.
“Retreat, hurry! Do everything you can to stop them!”
In a great hurry, Huoshu Huicang loudly ordered his troops to pull back. However, even this Ü-Tsang Great General whose name was known throughout the southwest had still miscalculated.
From the very start of this plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain, Wang Chong had never planned to give him a chance to come back!
“Hurry! Twelfth Unit, loose spears!”
High up on the mountain, Wang Chong had mixed into the army, where he was issuing order after order.