Nightfall

The battle was firstly triggered by the Left King’s Palace and the Desolate, when they fought over a piece of land. Then the war spread, finally involving all other countries in the world.

It was hard to imagine that the Left King’s Palace was the first one to exit the war. It had the least amount of losses during the war and with the support of the West-Hill Divine Palace, it had retained most of its strength.

With the dust behind them, thousands of cavalries marched into Yan territory. They claimed that they were going to overthrow the Tang Empire in the name of Heaven, which in most people’s eyes was quite a poor excuse.

Most people believed it was because Long Qing had taken full control of the Left King’s Palace, and he was back in Yan Kingdom to seize what was supposed to be his, including the throne.

But knowing that wouldn’t make any difference. The Yan Kingdom was too weak and poor under the pressure of the Tang Empire to fight against the cavalries invading in like tigers and wolves. Moreover, Prince Long Qing had enough supporters in Yan Kingdom, and most of the counties barely resisted because they wanted to protect their own military power. The cavalries kept marching south, barely running into any real battles before they reached Chengjing City.

The army of Yan was no match for the grassland cavalries. The Yan Army failed and failed. And with the connections Long Qing had with his clan and his old subordinates, more than ten cities surrendered without any resistance. And after the whole north of the capital city surrendered, nobody was able to stop Long Qing from returning to the capital city which he had missed for long.

In the dark night, thousands of torches glowed with flames on the gate tower. The tower was lit up, making the wall shine as if it were daytime. The city was in its tightest security, but no one had noticed that the gate of Southern City, which was supposed to be closed, was quietly opened.

Dozens of soldiers guarding the city waved at the dark lands.

There was the sound of horse clopping, and the moon shone amid the clouds. Then the grassland was occupied by grassland cavalries. What a shocking scene!

Chengjing City had fallen.

The cavalries covered the hooves with cotton, but when they entered the city and marched on the narrow streets, the clopping sound was still too dense to fool the residents’ ears.

The doors on both sides of the street were tightly closed. Some of the braver Yan residents watched the foreign cavalries on the streets secretly through the door crack. The whole marching line was too long for the residents to see its end.

The citizens of Yan were shocked and frightened. That was when they finally realized that the rumor was true. Their Prince, Long Qing, did become the ruler of the Left King’s Palace. “How many barbarians have entered the city today? Will they restrain their sanguinary nature? Will they obey the Prince and refrain from killing or robbing?”

The reflection of the flaming torch made the silver mask shine like gold.

Long Qing was looking far into the Imperial Palace. There was no expression on the part of his face not covered by the mask. Then he took out a map and looked at the marks and plans on the map in silence.

The grassland cavalry swept all before it like nothing when heading to the north, and in the end, it captured the capital city with true ease. The success should be attributed to Long Qing’s supportive clan in Yan Kingdom as well as his old subordinates who had persuaded almost the whole imperial court of Yan’s. However, the map he was looking at right now was not the strategic map of Capital Cheng his old subordinates smuggled for him.

This one was drawn by himself. He had made it and had it sent to Capital Cheng before he led the cavalry of the Left King’s Palace to lurk and attack the black horse carriage in spring. This one was a copy of that one he made later.

Long Qing frowned as he thought of the day when they tried to ambush the black horse carriage but were attacked by the Desolate instead. He could’ve made tonight even easier if he hadn’t lost that many cavalries in the ambush.

Now victory was assured if he led his army after Tang when Yan had been conquered. He would definitely be happy seeing Ning Que’s kingdom burning in the fire he set.

Long Qing watched Capital Cheng in the dark night. The streets under the moonlight reminded him of their equivalent marks he had made on the map. His lips curled to make a complicated smile as if he was waiting for someone to show up, or something to happen.

In the northwest of Capital Cheng, there was a normal restaurant. However, around the restaurant, hundreds of Tang soldiers were lurking with podaos on their backs. There were dozens of messengers of Tang and Yan waiting there.

Upstairs in the building, Xian Zhilang rubbed his sore eyes. He checked his strategy again to make sure it was perfect. Then he said to one of the generals of Yan’s, “I hope we can work it out together.”

The general of Yan said reverently, “His Highness is so grateful that Her Highness can help us. His Highness wants you to take good care because Long Qing’s betrayal was nearly overwhelming.”

“Long Qing has the ambition and the guts. And he is quite capable of taking advantage of the current political situation. He had found a new way to rise up after he was listed as a wanted man by the West-Hill Divine Palace.” Said Xian Zhilang.

“Now that he’s back in the West-Hill Divine Palace, and is supported by Haotian Taoism, he’s getting more arrogant than ever. But there’s one thing he doesn’t understand— one could never be invincible even if he had the Divine Hall behind him, or our Tang Empire wouldn’t have survived and lasted this long.”

The general of Yan then said, “His Highness would be more joyful if he could be here to share your confidence.”

Xian Zhilang was the General of the North of Tang Empire, and he was supposed to be in Tuyang City now, ordering the Northeast Border Military which was famous for its devastating power. No one had expected that he would now be in the capital of Yan Kingdom.

And since he was here, so was his army.

After the battle on the Wilderness, the Tang Army split into two and withdrew. The Northeast Border Military pretended to have gone back to Tuyang City, and nobody knew that they had actually lurked into the Yan territory, setting up an ambush around Chengjing City.

The reason why Yan’s Army surrendered so easily, and why they let the grassland cavalry go into Capital Cheng was that they were preparing for the killing tonight!

The killing was a welcoming gift Crown Prince Chong Ming had prepared for his younger brother. And this was why Li Yu was confident even when she knew the situation in the Eastern Wilderness had changed.

Xian Zhilang leaned against the handrail on the restaurant’s balcony. He looked far into the south, where the sky was shimmering, and he could even hear the clopping of horse hooves.

Long Qing led the army south and was determined to take the throne of the Yan Kingdom. While Chang’an City preferred Crown Prince Chong Ming to succeed the throne of Yan Kingdom. Even if the old friendship between the Princess and Crown Prince Chong Ming was disregarded, the interests of the Tang Empire itself meant that it was impossible for them to allow Long Qing to change the situation of their Yan Kingdom so easily.

Xian Zhilang turned gloomy when he heard the news from Chang’an and Gushan Commandery.

He had not deployed all his army to Capital Cheng, so he had got only 4,000 armored cavalries tonight. However, the 4,000 was powerful enough to be the dominating and decisive power of Tuyang City tonight.

Those grassland cavalries, who knew no more than archery or horse riding, were no match for the unrivaled armored cavalry of Tang in Xian Zhilang’s eyes, but still, he felt a little anxious.

It had nothing to do with Yan Kingdom, it was all about Chang’an.

Chang’an had been growing unstable since the new Emperor succeeded the throne. The Empire was endangered in every way. The war tonight had to happen for the stability of both the imperial court and the Empire.

The war had to happen, for the settlement of the new era of Tang.

He had to win, perfectly and completely.

In the northeast of Chengjing City was a prince residence. It used to be Prince Long Qing’s. It had been abandoned for years, but through its ruin people could still see how beautiful and luxurious it was in those years.

Everyone knew what Prince Long Qing was heading for. The Imperial Palace, which was once the safest, now became the most dangerous place that Crown Prince Chong Ming had to leave.

He left for the prince residence with several of his most trusted servants and subordinates. Then he locked himself in the study, spending days and nights in there.

He looked at the dusty books on the bookshelves, which reminded him of the scene when he carried young Long Qing in his arms and taught him how to read. A nostalgic smile emerged on his face.

At last, he calmed down and walked out of the study.

“The Intelligence Agency is still calculating the number of invaders. They cannot be sure but the number differs a lot from the one they estimated when the invaders first crossed the border.”

An official reported.

Crown Prince Chong Ming then asked, “How is it going at the restaurant?”

One of his subordinates answered, “The Tang Army is staying still, waiting for the firework signal.”

“Then it has to be started with sacrifice.”

Crown Prince Chong Ming then ordered, “Now, release the firework signal to inform all the people in the city.”

Soon after his words, a beautiful firework display rushed out of the government office and into the Night Dome. It reached so high that it seemed to have touched the moon. Most people in town had seen the signal.

Prince Chongming watched the firework fading in the moonlight. After a long silence, he asked, “The armored cavalry of Tang called themselves ‘the unrivaled one’, so have they ever been defeated?”

The armored cavalries were the most devastating forces on all battlefields. Even powerful cultivators were no match for them. However, just as nothing in the world is flawless, the heavy armour cavalry surely had its weakness.

For the heavy armored cavalries, their armors were too heavy. Thus they were not as flexible as the light armored cavalries when it came to wars in narrow places. That was the most obvious disadvantage.

What was worse, the maintainance of the heavy armored cavalries really cost a fortune. An armored cavalry required lots of assistants which usually cost much. That was the reason why Tang and the West-Hill Divine Palace were the only two powers that had heavy armored cavalries.

There was a reason why the heavy armored cavalry was called the “game changer” on battle fields. It was born to charge. And it was the nightmare of all other countries.

The streets of the capital of Yan Kingdom were long, straight and complicated. It was not the best place for the heavy armor cavalry to line up or to charge accordingly. Given that all Long Qing had with him were light armored cavalries, the heavy armor cavalries of Tang should make full use of its impact power with the assistance of the local army of Yan Kingdom.

Xian Zhiliang had totally honored his name as the “Wise General”. If everything happened according to his strategy and deployment, Prince Long Qing, who was coming to overthrow Tang in name of the heaven, and his light armored cavalries, would be no more than a laughingstock in history later after tonight.

Fireworks were lighting up the sky.

Soldiers of Tang around the restaurant all looked up to the sky, proudly and calmly, with podao swords on their backs.

Xian Zhilang saw the firework signal and then gave his order, “Attack.”

Long Qing saw the fireworks, too.

The corners of his mouth raised even more, showing that he was more than pleased.

“Among the Four Greatest Generals of Tang, Xian Zhilang is the one distinguished for his intelligence. He calculates people based on their conflicts of interests. What he doesn’t know is that there are plenty of interests in the world, and the one that matters most is called ‘righteousness’.”

Long Qing looked down to his subordinates of the palace and said, “Now the show is on. This is the world’s first fight with Tang and Haotian is watching us. Let’s kill all the arrogant Tangs in the nation.”

After that, he jerked his reins and rode the horse into a quiet alley with ten more generals behind him. He was going to do the most crucial task— he was going to obstruct the Tangs’ escape route.

The Imperial Palace of Yan Kingdom looked extremely grand in the dark night. Under its cornices were endless autumn leaves. The leaves were reflecting the cold moonlight, making the place look like a fairyland.

The grassland cavalries’ eyes turned red when they imagined themselves in the Imperial Palace taking advantage of the palace maids. When they heard the command, they couldn’t wait to rush into the palace with noisy whistles.

They pulled out their cutlasses and rushed forward on their horses.

Hundreds of cavalries rushed across the streets and then they fell on the ground in succession. Ten more chevaux de frise had torn the horses’ legs. At the same time, the Yan Army lurking around started to shoot arrows like a shower. Those cavalries screamed in pain and died swiftly.

The war would never stop until it had to. The whole Chengjing City was screaming and howling. The dark night turned bloody, with broken limbs flying all around in the moonlight.

“There shouldn’t be a problem.”

On the straight and broad path beside the Imperial Palace of Yan, there was no torch flaming, and there was no sound. Through the tree leaves, moonlight fell on the heavy armor of the cavalries of Tang. The armors on men and on horses shone in the cold light.

This was the armored cavalry’s Forward Camp of the Tang’s Northeast Border Military.

The general of the Forward Camp pulled down his iron mask. Then he pulled out his long sword, pointing to the night sky before them. In time, the whole street began roaring and screaming, “Run over them!”

The hooves were clipping. Armored cavalries stepped heavily on the hard floor. They began to charge like they had been doing in years, shaking the whole city and even the ground it was built on.

The whole city started to shake.

This deadly ambush against Long Qing and his cavalries had been designed and arranged with no efforts spared. The army of Yan and Tang had practiced the maneuvers several times until they were totally familiar with every detail.

When the Tang Empire’s armored cavalry rushed out of the straight path, the side of the Imperial Palace seemed like flooded with iron. The Yan’s army that had been struggling earlier stepped out of the way as fast as possible.

The grassland cavalry waved their cutlasses, trying to find Yan survivors. Suddenly they felt the earth shaking and the horses under them getting restless. They looked to the north subconsciously, only to see Tang cavalries and their horses in black armors.

“The Tangs!”

“It’s the Tangs!”

“Retreat!”

The alarming cry of the grassland cavalries carried little weight on the heavy armored cavalries of Tang. The Tangs were rushing at an unbelievable speed and charged with a devastating impact, leaving dead bodies of men and horses behind.

However, it was at this moment that something unexpected had happened.