Chapter 1586: - King Qi Appears!
Chapter 1586: King Qi Appears!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Impudent! Wang Chong, are you inciting conflict between the Great Tang and the surrounding countries?” Li Junxian sternly said, staring at Wang Chong.
“If the Son of Heaven commits a crime, he is punished like a commoner! Li Junxian, do you not even understand this principle?” Wang Chong sternly said.
“Hahaha, what a nice saying! King of Foreign Lands, that’s a nice tone you have there!”
Suddenly, brash laughter began to ring out, accompanied by the rumbling of hooves.
Everyone immediately turned to look, as did Wang Chong.
Su Shixuan’s heart trembled as he blurted out in shock, “Your Highness, it’s King Qi!”
“Ah!”
“It’s King Qi!”
The spectating commoners fell into turmoil and began to scatter like they were avoiding a plague bearer. King Qi, leading a large force of men, rammed his way through the crowd and right up to the palace gates.
Some of the commoners were unable to dodge in time and were knocked into the air.
All the officials acted with some level of restraint so close to the Son of Heaven, not daring to act too arrogantly. Other than the foreigners who did not understand the laws of the Great Tang, only King Qi dared to act with such flagrant disregard.
A goateed elder with the look of an advisor rode his horse up to King Qi and whispered, “Your Highness, Li Junxian is also here!”
“Hah, given all that’s happened, it would be stranger if he wasn’t here!”
King Qi strangely laughed.
After looking at Li Junxian for a moment, he turned to Wang Chong and his White-hoofed Shadow.
“I’ve waited for so long. Finally, you lost your patience!”
King Qi’s eyes flashed with a sinister and smug light. The mantis stalked the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. He had been informed of today’s court session some time ago, but just like King Song, he had not appeared in court.
But unlike King Song, King Qi had been summoned. He simply didn’t want to go. The assembled officials, Li Junxian, and the First Prince were more than enough to deal with Zhangchou Jianqiong. His presence was unnecessary.
King Qi was only interested in Wang Chong!
Zhangchou Jianqiong was just a shield standing in front of Wang Chong. What he really wanted to do was seize the shield bearer, not the shield.
Thus, when the Hu began to gather, King Qi became interested. He had been waiting with his men from the Penal Court, knowing that Wang Chong would appear.
As expected, Wang Chong really had intervened.
King Qi squinted and then waved his hand as he loudly ordered, “Come! Seize all these treasonous scoundrels!”
“Yes, Milord!” the officials of the Penal Court called out, and then lunged like vicious tigers at the Public Order Squad members on the perimeter of the crowd. Upon receiving the news, King Qi had prepared five to six thousand men.
He had practically emptied out the Penal Court and had even brought his personal soldiers. As an Imperial Prince, King Qi was allowed to have two thousand personal soldiers, and all of them were elites.
All of this was permitted by the Imperial Court.
On the surface, King Qi and his five to six thousand men were outnumbered by the nearly ten thousand men of the Public Order Squad, but King Qi’s men were fully equipped and could fight on the same level as an army of more than ten thousand. Meanwhile, the Public Order Squad had not been rushing to the battlefield, so they were mostly armed with ropes and chains. Besides that, they were also weaker than King Qi’s personal soldiers.
The gap in strength was obvious.
The several thousand well-trained men of the Penal Court and King Qi’s powerful personal soldiers charged forward, and the eastern flank of the Public Order Squad was the first to be thrown back in disarray.
“King of Foreign Lands, the gates of the palace are at the feet of the Son of Heaven. To bring so many men here, are you thinking of rebellion?! Come; arrest these rebels!” cried the goateed advisor behind King Qi, raising his arm.
As expected!
Seeing the Penal Court forces behind King Qi, Wang Chong couldn’t help but shake his head, apparently caring little about King Qi’s actions.
The nine-thousand-some men of the Public Order Squad could not possibly deal with King Qi’s men. But Wang Chong was not at all panicked.
“Since that’s the case, Shixuan, have them get ready!”
Kaclack!
As soon as Wang Chong finished speaking, the creaking of gears filled the air. Whoosh! Several hundred Public Order Squad members quickly tore the cloth off the ‘chests’ in front of them, revealing the objects hidden underneath.
Cold and unfeeling arrow tips pointed at the charging soldiers behind King Qi.
“Hurry and retreat!”
Upon making out what those large objects were, the savage-faced Penal Court members and King Qi’s personal soldiers instantly paled and began to retreat in disarray.
“Ah!”
The surrounding crowd cried out in alarm.
“Ballistae!”
King Qi’s pupils constricted and his face grimaced. Even Li Junxian paled. The objects hidden behind Wang Chong were none other than the lethal heavy weapons, the ballistae of the Great Tang!
“Wang Chong, you dare!”
King Qi couldn’t help but roar upon seeing the ballistae.
“Ballistae are heavy weapons under the control of the army! For you to dare to use such lethal weapons at the feet of the Son of Heaven, how can this be anything but rebellion?!”
King Qi was about to explode from anger. He had been completely confident in the ability of his five-thousand-some men to deal with the nine-thousand-some men of the Public Order Squad.
But he had never expected Wang Chong to be so ‘shameless’, ready with ballistae in the rear precisely for the moment that he would appear.
Wang Chong had only brought ten-some ballistae with him, but King Qi still did not dare to be careless. In the Battle of Talas, Wang Chong had demonstrated to the entire continent the terrifying power of these ballistae.
Wang Chong had five men to each ballista and could fire ten-some bolts in a volley. These ballista bolts possessed formidable piercing power that not even Profound Martial experts were guaranteed to block. A single volley would be enough to kill five to six hundred men.
And given their firing speed, by the time his men got to the front, he would have lost more than one thousand men.
Not even King Qi could hold against such lethal firepower.
“King Qi, someone as ignorant as you might not know this, so I can tell you. After I used ballistae to defeat nearly one million Arab cavalry in the Western Regions, the Sage Emperor granted me these ten-some ballistae as a special reward when I was given the title of King of Foreign Lands. Just where did this talk of rebellion come from?” Wang Chong confidently proclaimed.
Wang Chong’s opening of the armory had eventually caused him many difficulties, but it was precisely because he had fully displayed the powers of the ballistae at Talas that the Sage Emperor had made an exception and granted him ten-some ballistae.
Few people had known about this gift, and Wang Chong had never used them before, so these ballistae had remained unknown within the capital.
This was also the first time King Qi had heard of it, and he was filled with envy and hatred.
Not even he had ever been treated this way! The Sage Emperor was showing far too much favor to Wang Chong. However, how could King Qi just give up after preparing for so long?
King Qi glared at Wang Chong and bellowed, “Wang Chong, you dare! This is the capital, and there are many commoners around! This king doesn’t believe that you would actually dare to use them! Come! Seize all the members of the Public Order Squad!”
Rumble! The Penal Court soldiers and King Qi’s personal soldiers rallied and surged forward in a great flood.
Thudthudthud!
In response came the flying ballista bolts. These bolts accurately shot through the gaps in the crowd and landed right in front of the Penal Court soldiers. With a slight adjustment of aim, these bolts would have shot straight through their bodies.
Neigh!
Horses cried out in panic, and all of King Qi’s men paled and backed away in fright. Some of them were even thrown off their horses.
“Wang Chong!”
King Qi couldn’t help but bellow in rage. He truly had not imagined that Wang Chong would dare to use ballistae in this situation.
“King Qi, don’t go recklessly starting fights in the capital. The Public Order Squad is in the middle of official business. If you try to disturb them, don’t blame me for taking action.”
Wang Chong’s tone was indifferent, but his words made King Qi shrink back. For some reason, he felt a completely different aura from Wang Chong. Where Wang Chong would have once been a bit more restrained, he now acted without any fear of the consequences.
“Bastard!”
King Qi gnashed his teeth, but as he looked at those ten-some ballistae, he truly did not dare to order his men back into the fray.
In the end, King Qi was still very afraid of the Great Tang’s new War God. When it came to commanding an army, not even ten of him would be enough to beat him.
“Li Junxian, hey, what do you have to say about this? The Great Tang’s relationship with the foreign countries is your domain. Are you just going to let this brat take away Pusan Tuoye and the others?”
Unable to vent his rage, King Qi turned to the nearby Li Junxian.