Looking at the half-ruined palace, Crown Prince Chong Ming failed to say anything, pale and trembling.
The ambush was in full accordance with their plan. They had prepared for the desperate counterattack of the Tang Army. However, they didn’t expect that it would be so horrible, costing them a heavy price.
Their father had been gone and the palace had been ruined. They almost lost all their main force to eliminate Tang’s Northeast Border Military, which was one-sixth of their enemy. Was it really worth it?
“I didn’t lie to Xian Zhilang that half of the cavalry of the Left King’s Palace was hunting the remnants of Tang in the east, and the Papal Cavalrymen of the West-Hill Divine Palace was over ten thousand.”
Long Qing said after a long silence, “I admit that I have underestimated the Tang Army. If Xia Hou was the commander, we would be the prisoners. But I still believe that Tang will be eliminated and what we have done is worth it.”
Crown Prince Chong Ming looked at him and said, “Why are you so confident?”
Long Qing said, “Because this is not a matter that only concerns Yan. It is a matter of the world. The whole world is suppressing Tang. Who can stop it if Haotian wants to subjugate it.”
Xian Zhilang left most of the army, on the road to the east, except for the armored cavalry.
Correspondingly, Prince Long Qing moved most of the troops in this area as well. Besides his grassland cavalry, there were the united armies of Song and Qi and the Garrison Troops of Yan. More importantly, more than a thousand Papal Cavalrymen of the West-Hill Divine Palace had joined the war.
The Papal Cavalrymen of the West-Hill Divine Palace and the grassland cavalry jointly broke up the Northeast Border Military. Without the protection of the armored cavalry, the Tang Army decided to break up into parts and return to their country through the blockade.
It would be a wise decision if it was an ordinary battle, but it wasn’t as they were in the land of the Yan Kingdom.
They had a deep old grudge since the three counties in the northeast of Tang were forcibly taken from Yan and there were many small wars between them.
Over the past few years, as the chief commander of the Northeast Border Military, General Xia Hou had carried out bloody suppressions in Tuyang City. In the Yans’ eyes, the Tangs were all evil invaders and should be driven into the underworld.
As a result, the chasing turned into a bloody civil war.
All the people in Yan were mobilized. Even though they knew they could die if they met with the Tang Army, there were still many young and strong men going to the mountains, looking for traces of the Tangs and reporting to the government as soon as they could. Then the message would be sent to the West-Hill Divine Palace.
Tens of thousands from the Tang Army were surrounded and divided into countless small groups, making their way through the mountains to Tang’s territory.
Some soldiers fell into the traps set by the hunters and were remorselessly left behind. Some were beaten to death by hundreds of people with sticks when they were looking for food.
Somewhere on a peak in Kun Mountain County.
Looking at the approaching Yan people toward the peak, several Tang soldiers became quiet instead of being angry and confused. Then they began to pack up.
A Yan man shouted at them from a not so long distance, “Did you ever think the day of being hunted like miserable dogs when you killed our people in the past years?”
An arrow accurately shot him on the throat.
A soldier of Tang wryly put down his bow and said, “If I didn’t kill people, I would be killed. I have killed 17 people of Yan and what can you do?”
Hearing this, the people of Yan became angrier and more rancorous. An old man rapped out, “People, don’t be afraid. They only have a few arrows left. The Song Village has killed three Tang soldiers. Can’t we take down these men who have lost their horses?”
The soldier who shot the arrow was the leader of this group. Besides those four, the rest of the group were all killed on the way home.
Looking at the excited crowd with weapons, he slightly frowned. They began to shoot and drew out their podaos after they had used all their arrows.
Until he was exhausted, he looked at the people surrounding him and said, “Idiots.”
Then he rushed off the cliff with his subordinates.
…
…
The best-armored cavalry of Tang’s Northeast Border Military was eliminated in the battle of Capital Cheng.
It was the first time that the Tang Empire had suffered a major setback, and it was also the first time the invincible armored cavalry was completely annihilated.
The whole world was shocked.
The news of the dead emperor and the ruined palace which should be more shocking was completely forgotten. In people’s minds, it was worthwhile to pay a big price to destroy the armored cavalry of Tang.
The news was delivered to the West-Hill Divine Palace as soon as possible.
The priests in red and the deacons in black from the Judicial Department knelt on the ground and did not dare to breathe in the dark Divine Hall where it was eerie and depressing.
It should be good news for the West-Hill Divine Palace. Prince Long Qing who returned to Haotian Taoism made such a huge contribution and cheered up most people in the Judicial Department.
However, the owner of the verdict of the Divine Hall was Ye Hongyu.
The people in the temple didn’t know how she felt about this, especially about the magnificent exploits of Prince Long Qing.
Sitting on the black jade throne, Ye Hongyu was like a pearl on the ink stone. Her crimson robe was as a red cloth wrapping around the pearl.
She did not expect Long Qing to be able to accomplish such a big thing.
More unexpectedly, she had received no news from the war from the beginning to the end. That meant there were still loopholes in the Judicial Department and the Hierarch Lord still didn’t trust her.
At this point, she recalled that, two years ago, she was asked by Ning Que to hunt down Long Qing heading north. At that time, Crown Prince Chong Ming was controlling Yan’s Army and didn’t respond in time, which annoyed her very much. Now she could tell that it was a show that the two brothers played in front of the world.
Looking at the priests in red and deacons in black, Ye Hongyu smiled. She knew what they were thinking. They were afraid of her being angry.
However, why did she become angry?
Standing up from the black jade throne, Ye Hongyu looked at them and said, “Go and prepare. The cavalry of the Divine Hall will enter Tang soon.”