Chapter 774 - The Cunning Dayan Mangban!
Chapter 774: The Cunning Dayan Mangban!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Dayan Mangban was far calmer than imagined, but this was in no way good news. However, the more outstanding Dayan Mangban was, the more Wang Chong wanted to kill him. A person who could act crazily but still maintain a cool head was definitely a powerful foe of the Great Tang.
For Qixi and the Central Plains, Wang Chong had to think of a way to kill him.
Mooo!
As he was thinking, a strange cry suddenly came from the other side. On this somber battlefield, these cries were abnormally loud.
“Mm?”
Wang Chong turned his head to look and saw that the vast Tibetan army had fallen into turmoil. Meanwhile, at the front of the Tibetan army, Dayan Mangban gave Wang Chong a glance, a strange light flashing in his eyes, and then he pulled on his reins and swiftly vanished into the army.
“Lord Marquis, there’s something wrong. This isn’t the sound of warhorses!” Xu Keyi suddenly said. In a battle, both sides would usually ride horses, so it was very strange for the sounds of beasts other than warhorses to be heard, and yet those cries from before definitely did not belong to warhorses.
“They truly aren’t warhorses!” Wang Chong sternly said, his expression grave. Xu Keyi had only heard that something was wrong, but Wang Chong could already tell what had made the sound.
“Those are the Tibetan… yaks!”
Rumble!
As if responding to Wang Chong’s voice, the ground suddenly began to quake and a rumble came from the opposing side. Two thousand zhang away, the vast Tibetan army parted, revealing thousands upon thousands of black yaks, roaring and stomping, their sharp horns aimed at the distant steel walls as they charged.
Mooooo!
The thousands of black yaks were bulging with muscle, their moos rising and falling in waves. Behind them, a massive cloud of dust plumed into the air. At this moment, everyone paled.
“Lord Marquis!”
In their shock, everyone turned to Wang Chong.
In this standard battle of cavalry, no one had expected the Tibetans to use this tactic. These yaks that were native to the plateau had massive bodies, sharp horns, and muscular physiques. At full charging speed, each of them could strike with the weight of nearly one thousand jin.
If these thousands of yaks charged through the openings in the steel walls, just the first wave alone would be sufficient to throw the Tang formation into chaos.
“Lord Marquis, these yaks have their ears blocked!” Cheng Sanyuan said, his expression fraught with concern.
He had participated with Wang Chong in the war of the southwest, and when Geluofeng had used the elephants that lived in Mengshe Zhao’s forest to charge, Wang Chong had used ‘lion’s roars’ to frighten and alarm them. In the end, these elephants had turned around and wreaked havoc on the Mengshe–Ü-Tsang army.
But this tactic would have no effect this time. Yaks already had long and thick fur that somewhat blocked their ears, reducing the effectiveness of any sonic attacks. And these yaks also had their ears blocked by something.
It was obvious that Dayan Mangban and the others had already received their lessons from the southwest and prepared themselves for this move.
The air was tense as everyone felt the sound of the charging yaks thundering against their hearts, and they all subconsciously turned to Wang Chong.
……
“That brat from the Wang Clan is probably doomed!”
In the distance, Fumeng Lingcha was observing the battlefield. Although Fumeng Lingcha also hated Dayan Mangban down to his bones, wanting nothing more than to personally behead him, he had to admit that this madman of Ü-Tsang was truly quite formidable.
The other commanders of Ü-Tsang would heedlessly charge as long as they had the advantage in numbers, with the deceased Buluhu serving as a representative case.
But Dayan Mangban was different.
He seemed crazy and irritable, his actions completely out of line with common sense, but he was also terrifying in all other aspects as well. Even though he had the White Braves and forty to fifty thousand additional soldiers, in a situation of seemingly overwhelming victory, he could still endure. He had even mobilized thousands of yaks to serve as his vanguard.
If Fumeng Lingcha were in Wang Chong’s place, even he would have little luck in surviving such meticulous planning.
Wang Chong’s only option was to retreat from the triangular gap and return to Wushang, but if he did that, those eight to nine thousand craftsmen would become ghosts under Tibetan hooves. If that boy truly dared to do such a thing, Fumeng Lingcha would be able to submit memorials criticizing him to death.
“Ha, they say that if the heavens sin, then one can still survive, but if you bring disaster on yourself, your death is certain!”
Fumeng Lingcha sneered as he looked to Wang Chong and his five thousand Wushang Cavalry as if they were already corpses. He felt no sympathy for Wang Chong. With no understanding of his own strength, he had dared to step onto the plateau, so this result was far too predictable. And besides… this brat dared to be his enemy!
“Milord, look over there!”
A cry of alarm came from his side. His eyes widening, Fumeng Lingcha raised his head and saw that the situation had changed yet again. Behind the first wave of yaks, several thousand special cavalry had galloped to the front of Dayan Mangban’s army.
These cavalry had large white bags hanging off the left and right sides of their horses. As they rode forward, they thrust their hands into the bags and heaved. Whoosh! In a flash, clouds of white powder were thrown into the air, to be carried along by the wind and shroud the plateau in a white ‘fog’.
In the blink of an eye, the wind had caught up to the galloping yak herd and continued to expand. In a few seconds, this white fog had shrouded the area, somewhat obstructing Fumeng Lingcha’s vision.
Bwoooom!
The vigorous and mournful yak horns began to blow, the cries of thousands of horses began to ring out from within the white fog, and the earth rumbled as Dayan Mangban’s army began to move. What was a tiny tremble at first swiftly transformed into fierce shuddering as the Tibetan cavalry charged.
Buzz!
Even Fumeng Lingcha couldn’t help but widen his eyes, his face paling at the sight.
Yaks in the vanguard, the white fog as a shroud, and the army following close behind—Dayan Mangban’s attacks came in wave after wave. These attacks were like a furious storm, and it seemed like only one wave would be sufficient to crush Wang Chong, his five thousand Wushang Cavalry, and the eight-thousand-some craftsmen behind him into the dust.
Fumeng Lingcha turned his head and fiercely ordered, “Inform Heba Ye to quicken the pace of the army! We need to be ready to enter the battlefield at any time.”
“Yes, Milord!”
A horseman took off. Dayan Mangban had invested his entire army in this one assault to eliminate Wang Chong, and once his formation fell into chaos, the Qixi Protectorate army would have a superb chance to enter the battle.
……
“Lord Marquis!”
In the distance, unease pervaded the air while everyone waited for Wang Chong’s decision.
The thundering of the yak charge was deafening, and they were so close now that it was difficult to carry out any sort of conversation. In addition, the white powder had spread so rapidly that even their steel fortress had been affected. This fog was so thick that even cultivators at Xu Keyi and Cheng Sanyuan’s level could only see around ten meters in front of them.
The yaks, white powder, and the tens of thousands of Tibetan cavalry in the rear… The Wushang Cavalry were in an extremely dangerous situation.
Wang Chong said nothing. Dayan Mangban was far more troublesome and frightening than he had imagined. Dayan Mangban seemed insane, but his thought process was very meticulous. He had decided to use a yak stampede to deal with Wang Chong’s beehives.
Not only that, he had even used the direction of the wind and the white powder to create a fog that shrouded the battlefield. This white fog made it difficult for Wang Chong’s formations to show any power. Without a target, the cavalry were like headless chickens, their power greatly reduced.
More importantly, the Tibetan army was behind the yak herd, its speed crazily rising. If Wang Chong wanted to counter them, he would need to charge out from the steel walls, but that would bring him into a collision with the thousands of yaks.
In this situation, Wang Chong’s cavalry would be halved before he had even fought with Dayan Mangban.
Dayan Mangban had given him a very difficult problem.
Wang Chong continued to say nothing. He could hear all their voices and sense the unease of the army, but Wang Chong remained calm and emotionless. The more critical the situation, the calmer he was.
No matter what tactic Dayan Mangban used or what trick he played, Wang Chong would never yield, never lose!
Rumble!
The quaking intensified, and the thundering hooves seemed to be stomping on his heart. One hundred zhang, eighty zhang, sixty zhang… the thousands of yaks that Dayan Mangban had made into his vanguard were charging closer and closer. Wang Chong could even smell the unique odor of the yaks through the white fog.
The atmosphere was growing tenser and tenser.
Sniff!
Suddenly, Wang Chong’s nostrils flared and he raised his head to the white fog in the air, a strange feeling in his mind.
“This smell… it’s barley flour!”
In that last moment, Wang Chong’s eyes brightened and he began to smile.
This was called being too smart for one’s own good. To deal with him, Dayan Mangban had prepared both the yaks and the white powder, but to deal with him, the best method would have been to use lime.
Unfortunately, the plateau didn’t have much lime, so Dayan Mangban had used barley flour as a substitute. The Tibetans raised livestock and planted barley for a living, and barley was their sole crop. Thus, it was the object that could most easily replace lime.
There was nothing wrong with the idea, but alas, Dayan Mangban had run into Wang Chong.
“Li Siye, have the entire army dismount. When they hear the signal, all men and horses should immediately get down!” Wang Chong suddenly said, his eyes glowing with vim and vigor.