荔枝影院

Edited by: Michyrr

“We will be striking, but now is not the right time...”

As if sensing the gazes of the three Great Generals, Dalun Ruozan spoke, but his reply left them dazed and confused.

“But will it not be a great pity if we miss this opportunity?” Duwu Sili said.

The winds caused Dalun Ruozan’s wide sleeves to dance as he shook his head.

“Have none of you noticed? Such an excellent chance, but the Arabs have still done nothing!”

These words immediately caused the mood on the hills to shift. The three Imperial Great Generals frowned, turning to the Arabs as one. Looking past the two defense lines, they saw the vast Arab army to the west, a black sea that stretched to the horizon.

But it was precisely as Dalun Ruozan had said. Even though the Behemoth’s attack had provided such an excellent chance, the Arabs remained like an unmoving fortress, showing no intention to attack.

The three Great Generals fell silent, their brows furrowing even tighter.

“The Arabs have remained silent. If they are not attacking, that can only mean one thing: Abu Muslim does not believe that this is the ideal chance to strike... They still have more moves waiting in reserve!” Dalun Ruozan said, his eyes glowing with wisdom.

The trio were silent, but the shock was plain on their faces. This was an impressive beginning, but if the Arabs still had more methods up their sleeves, then the Tang army at Talas was truly facing an unavoidable calamity.

Most shocking of all was that the Arabs apparently had even more dreadful moves. With such power at their command, who could possibly stand against them?

“This is still a war between Arabia and the Great Tang. We already did all we could earlier, so it’s not right for us to once more supersede the host. Moreover, even though the Tang army is in chaos, they still have the strength to counterattack. Don’t forget, with their formations, they have at least four Imperial Great Generals on their side. If we force the issue right now, we might ourselves fall into chaos, and if we take heavy casualties, the Arabs might view us with contempt,” Dalun Ruozan said.

These last words sent a tremor through the three men. As generals, they only thought about how to defeat their opponent on the battlefield. In political matters, their insights were much less clear and penetrating than Dalun Ruozan’s.

It was true. While the Tibetans and Turks had agreed to ally with the Arabs, it was not a very deep alliance. If their impulsiveness caused a large drop in strength, drawing the disdain of the Arabs and the end of the alliance, the losses would far outweigh the gains.

And neither Duwu Sili nor Huoshu Huicang wished to confront those enormous Behemoths!

“Heh!”

Dalun Ruozan softly chuckled, knowing that the generals had understood.

“Intimidation is far more useful than actually attacking. Just by standing here, we block the retreat path of the Tang. This is the true threat we pose. Right now, they don’t dare to retreat, but if we do actually begin to attack, at least half of the Tang will use this chance to escape... That truly wouldn’t be worth the gain.”

......

While Dalun Ruozan was counseling the three generals, the four Great Tang commanders behind the steel defense lines were in the final stretch of their battle with the Behemoth. Wang Chong’s Godking Yama was seated on the enormous rhino-shaped beast, pummeling its body with the vajra pestle, his other three arms also raining punches down on the monster.

But in the midst of this fierce assault, Wang Chong suddenly had a strange feeling. It was like there was a flame within him that was exactly the same as the one burning within the Behemoth.

The Strength of Lu Wu!

This flash of insight seemed to break Wang Chong out of a trance.

“What’s going on here?”

Wang Chong froze for a moment. He could sense that the Strength of Lu Wu that had been quiet all this time had suddenly awakened, even developing a powerful attraction toward the Behemoth. Wang Chong could sense that this desire to devour, this hunger, was only getting stronger and stronger.

Bang!

There was no more time to think. Wang Chong bellowed and punched, and the moment his fist shot forth, a violet flame immediately engulfed it and slammed into the Behemoth.

Awoooo!

The Behemoth which had still been struggling in madness just moments ago now gave a howl of unprecedented pain. Its thick vitality was instantly given a hefty blow, this attack dealing more damage in one go than any previous attack.

Not only that, Wang Chong could sense that the moment the punch connected, a mighty stream of vitality had flowed from the Behemoth to himself.

“Wonderful!”

Invigorated, Wang Chong immediately poured out more of the Strength of Lu Wu, wrapping all four arms of the Godking Yama in violet flame. Bangbangbang! The four arms began to rain down punches on the head of the rhino-shaped Behemoth.

Crack! The final blazing punch crashed into the golden horn, and with a crack, the horn broke off the base and went flying. Without its horn, the Behemoth gave one last miserable cry before crashing forward into the ground.

Rumble! The collapse of the Behemoth caused the earth to quake and large portions of the steel defense line to be sent flying.

After suffering the attacks of tens of thousands of arrows, the concentrated fire of three thousand ballistae, and the flurry of blows from four Great Generals, the life of the Behemoth had finally run out.

“We finally succeeded!”

The voice of Gao Xianzhi came from behind Wang Chong. As Gao Xianzhi jumped down from the enormous body of the Behemoth, he appeared slightly pale. The Behemoth had not posed much of a threat to him, but its formidable vitality had forced Gao Xianzhi to consume a significant amount of energy.

“This situation is extremely bad for us. I sense that the Arabs are using this method to grind away at our strength.”

On the other end, Cheng Qianli’s Supreme Desolation God flicked its wrist and called back the chains of Stellar Energy around the Behemoth. His complexion was also not very good. In this battle, he had exerted all his strength so as to lessen the casualties in the army.

“Let’s leave that matter for later. The urgent task right now is to consolidate the army.”

Wang Yan appeared at this moment. As a commander, he was far more concerned about the state of the army. The Behemoth had actually spent very little time behind the defense line, but this brief period of time had been destructive to the army. The one hundred thousand soldiers from Qixi were in utter disarray, with no formation to speak of.

“Chong-er, how are you doing?”

Wang Yan turned in concern toward his son.

Everyone instantly turned in concern toward Wang Chong. The Godking Yama was currently seated atop the Behemoth, motionless, apparently in deep thought, an extremely strange expression on its face.

“I’m fine.”

Wang Chong shook his head as he woke from his stupor. In a dazzling flash of light, Wang Chong dispersed the Godking Yama and returned to his original appearance, and he soon jumped off the Behemoth’s corpse.

“All soldiers, hear my order! Resume your positions!

“Ballista teams, listen up! Prepare for an attack at any moment!

“Li Siye, Sun Zhiming, consolidate the army and get a count of the casualties!

“Banahan, Guli, Gangke King, I need all of you to calm down your people as quickly as possible!”

As he landed on the ground, Wang Chong quickly calmed down and began to issue clear and precise orders. The chaotic army quickly began to stabilize. With these orders issued, Wang Chong finally had some time to examine the Behemoth. Only by standing next to it could one understand its enormity and the dreadful power surging through it.

Although the Behemoth was dead, in the moment before its death, it had left an indelible impression on the Tang.

“Lord Marquis, we’ve finished the count,” Li Siye said as he walked out from the rear. “In this assault, we lost around ten thousand men. Most of them were trampled to death by the beast. In addition, around two thousand warhorses were frightened by the beast and fled. More importantly, the morale of army is extremely low. Our men are doing well, but those mercenaries from the Western Regions have been greatly affected. They’re all showing signs of refusing battle. If we don’t address this problem, a good portion of our soldiers might break and flee once the battle begins.”

“Not only that, a long portion of the defense line was destroyed by that enormous beast.” Xue Qianjun also walked up, cupping his fist and bowing. “They have to be repaired as quickly as possible. Besides that, the corpse of this monster is a large problem on its own. With its corpse just lying there, an area of more than fifty-some zhang can’t be repaired. If we can’t fix this gap, it will have a massive effect on our defenses.”

“Don’t worry about this Behemoth. Not even the Arabs will be able to climb over its corpse. As for the destroyed parts of the defense line, hurry and call people over to repair it. In addition, Zhang Shouzhi!”

Wang Chong paused.

“Your subordinate is here!”

Zhang Shouzhi quickly strode forward.

“What is the progress on that weapon?” Wang Chong asked.

His question sent a jolt through Cheng Qianli, Gao Xianzhi, and Wang Yan, causing them to all turn to look. Wang Chong was the main commander of the army, and no one challenged him in this position, so these generals rarely interfered with his decisions. However, even someone as calm and composed as Gao Xianzhi was left astonished by Wang Chong’s words just now.

This Arabian Behemoth had appeared very suddenly and without any warning, such that not even Gao Xianzhi knew anything about it. But based on Wang Chong’s reaction, had he already been preparing for such a scenario?