The Human Emperor

Chapter 2164: Trap! Barrage from All Sides!

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

Bang!

With what sounded like a crack of thunder, a giant ballista bolt that was more than one hundred feet long howled out from one of the passages that had opened up in the steel fortress.

With a mighty boom, a heavy shield cart more than one thousand feet away was blasted into pieces, as if the thick steel plate was made of paper. The link formation formed by the twelve shield carts had barely seemed to exist to this ballista bolt.

But this was only the beginning. Without the protection of the shield cart, the soldiers behind it miserably screamed. The bolt’s monstrous strength obliterated them into clouds of fine mist, and the remaining force in the ballista bolt struck a second, third, and fourth shield cart… and all the soldiers behind those shield carts were instantly annihilated without question.

The ballista bolt’s immense strength carried it more than ten thousand feet, tearing through shield carts, shield cart soldiers, other kinds of soldiers, and even generals and their formidable halos.

The ballista bolt had left behind a crimson path of blood through the battlefield.

Everyone’s faces were stricken with fear by this sight.

“Watch out! Giant ballistae!” someone shouted, their voice shrill.

Giant ballistae!

These were giant weapons that Wang Chong had developed during the war of the northwest to deal with the Arabian Behemoth Army. Their lethality was several hundred times greater than ordinary ballistae.

And the ballista bolts used by the giant ballistae were also massive, possessing astonishing strength.

The soldiers of the northeast had never before clashed with Wang Chong, but they were all familiar with Wang Chong’s superweapons.

From the day they understood that Wang Chong would be their opponent, all the alliance soldiers knew that they would eventually face these terrifying weapons.

But to hear of something was different from seeing it with one’s own eyes, experiencing it with one’s own body.

The faces of countless alliance soldiers twisted in fear, their complexions paling as they stared at that bloody line carved out of the center of the army.

Tiny!

Weak!

This was what all of them felt.

The things Wang Chong had created were enough to make many martial artists express sorrow. This was because it didn’t matter whether one was strong or weak. No one could resist this giant ballista bolt.

Boomboomboom!

Boomboomboom!

Boomboomboom!

One boom after another came from the steel fortress, like the skies over the battlefield had erupted with thunder.

Forty-some giant ballista bolts erupted out of the fortress, tearing forty-some bloody paths through the alliance army. There were no survivors, only mists of blood and scattered gore.

For a moment, the battlefield fell silent.

Everyone had been shocked into silence by that overwhelming power, that lethality leaving their hearts thumping in fear.

“Such frightening strength!”

In the alliance army, the powerful and stalwart Khitan King muttered, his eyes wide open.

Wang Chong had yet to take action, but simply two weapons under his command had left an indelible shadow over his heart.

Wang Chong was like a nightmare that had branded itself into his mind.

Meanwhile, the arrogant and sneering Divine Works Elder had lost his cockiness and gone silent.

“Pass on my order! Press the advance!” An Lushan suddenly ordered from ahead, clenching his teeth and glaring savagely.

The giant ballista had far too much power, even shaking the morale of the army. But his greatest advantage at the moment was that the alliance army had almost reached the walls. Once they got onto the walls, it wouldn’t matter how powerful the giant ballistae were.

Bwoooom!

A plaintive horn blared across the battlefield, tinged with urgency.

The soldiers on the front line received the order, suppressed their fear, and bellowed as they charged forward once more. Welcoming them were the giant ballista bolts, and the stench of death washed over the battlefield.

Abusi, who appeared like a god in his heavy bronze armor, suddenly turned to Wang Chong.

“Wang Chong, I truly have to hand it to you. I thought that it was too much to bring these giant ballistae to the front line, but it now seems that you expected something like this, right?”

As a peak Great General, he could clearly sense that the mood on the battlefield had subtly shifted once the giant ballistae began to fire. The morale of the alliance army had been dealt a blow, and though the alliance army was still charging at the steel fortress, they had clearly slowed.

Forty-some giant ballistae had achieved such a result. From this alone, it was apparent that Wang Chong’s decision had been absolutely correct!

Affecting the morale of the army was not something that could be done by just killing a few people.

Wang Chong smiled at these words.

He had naturally expected this sight. Though he hadn’t guessed at the exact details, there was no doubt that the giant ballistae that had once slain Behemoths would be useful on this battlefield.

“Forty-some giant ballistae won’t be enough to stop them. It’s time for us to take action!” Wang Zhongsi said in his deep and mellow voice, his brow creased.

While Wang Chong’s giant ballistae possessed extremely frightening strength, they were barely doing anything to the millions of alliance army soldiers. Moreover, they were few in number and fired very slowly. These giant ballistae were far from enough to stop the alliance army.

Wang Chong merely nodded in reply.

Meanwhile, the enemy was getting closer and closer!

One thousand feet!

Eight hundred feet!!

The Youzhou soldiers at the front were less than sixty meters from the soldiers arrayed in front of the steel fortress, but the forty thousand Tang soldiers continued to stand tall like stone pillars, fiercely glaring at their foe.

…Even though the alliance army was like a great wave that could obliterate them at any moment!

Fifty meters!

Forty-five meters!

The army still did not move!

Even the alliance army generals were taken aback by this sight.

This was not a normal response.

At this distance, cavalry could no longer charge. This wasn’t the Great Tang’s style, as it handed the initiative to the enemy.

Rumble! The shield carts continued to advance, and the alliance army bellowed as it charged right behind them!

But a moment later, the alliance army finally understood why the forty thousand soldiers had not moved.

Rumble!

Screams of alarm came from the front as a giant moat, twenty meters across, suddenly appeared about thirty meters in front of the Tang soldiers, encircling the entire steel fortress.

The alliance army had been intent on attacking the fortress, hoping to annihilate the forty thousand Tang soldiers with their thunderous momentum. But they had paid no attention to the ground, and in a flash, shield carts, cavalry, and infantry all fell into the moat.

The steel fortress encompassed a vast area, stretching between the Cang Province and Ying Province. This had led the alliance army to attack across an extremely broad front, and in the blink of an eye, tens of thousands of soldiers plunged into the moat.

The bottom of the moat was not dirt, but a metal pathway that had been cast from steel. Sharp metal spikes, each more than ten feet long, protruded from the bottom, a dense forest of spears aimed at the sky.

“Aaaah!”

The alliance army soldiers shrilly screamed as they were pierced through by the spikes.

Before the two armies had even begun fighting, the alliance army had already suffered significant losses.

The front line fell into chaos, and even worse was that the soldiers in the rear couldn’t see. Their continuing advance pushed even more people into the moat of spikes.

Bang!

At this moment, the forty thousand Tang soldiers suddenly roared, took hold of their giant swords, and began to strike.

But even before that, the tens of thousands of master archers on the walls began to strike.

Thwishthwishthwish!

The whistling of tens of thousands of arrows through the air collected together into a deafening howl. The master archers unleashed their specially crafted, armor-piercing arrows in a great deluge, and they left deadly arcs in the air before descending into the moat on the ground.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The sounds of arrows piercing through flesh were constant. Within the moat, there had been some alliance soldiers who were still alive, with most of them being heavily injured.

But with this assault, the giant steel pit was instantly silenced. Under this all-encompassing attack, there were no survivors.

At this distance, it was basically impossible for a master archer to miss!

Moreover, the massive spiked moat had become a barrier that halted the alliance army in its tracks and made it so that anyone who tried to cross became a target.

Such a close distance!

Such a high concentration!

The master archers couldn’t miss even if they wanted to!

More importantly, the master archers, unlike the ballistae, had almost complete control over their arrow trajectory. While the shield carts could block ballistae, they could not stop the arrows of the master archers coming from above!