Chapter 1913 - Army at the Doorstep of the Arabian Capital!

“Reporting!” A panicked horseman rode toward the walls, leaving a trail of dust behind him. “Milord, it’s terrible! The three western gates are all under attack! Khorasani and people from neighboring countries disguised themselves as militia to sneak in! More than one hundred thousand men are involved in the assault!”

“What?!” Abu Muslim shuddered as if struck by a lightning bolt. Khorasani? People from neighboring countries? Could it be that when the empire was gathering its militia, the Khorasani, the rebels, and the armies of the vassal kingdoms had already joined forces and made a plan, waiting for the Tang army to arrive to launch their assault?!

“These bastards! Do they really think that a hundred thousand people can shake us? What about our three hundred thousand elite cavalry and several hundred thousand militia? Since they dare to betray the empire, we’ll kill them first!”

Next to Abu Muslim, the eyes of the Arab noble governing Khorasan went red with killing intent as he roared. Even if Arabia had been defeated, was it now the turn of these clowns to play tricks?!

“Milord, let me take some men to wipe them out!” The generals around Abu Muslim were all enraged.

But as Abu Muslim was pondering what to do...

Bang! The earth shuddered, and a thunderous clang came from the gate. Abu Muslim’s heart tightened, and everyone turned to see that a massive metal bolt had slammed into Khorasan’s massive gate.

Khorasan’s gates were forged from the finest Deep Sea Xuan Metal and had been reinforced with countless formations and inscriptions of various sizes. These were gates made to create a formidable fortress. Moreover, after retaking Khorasan, in order to prevent the Tang from taking the city, the Arabs had further reinforced the gate. Under normal circumstances, it should have been impossible to breach Khorasan’s eastern gate. But everyone could see that the terrifying strength of the bolt had caused the massive metal gate to cave inward, and the thick bolt had even penetrated through the metal to protrude from the other side.

An Arab general glanced at the wavy patterns on the ballista bolt and immediately understood what was going on.

“It’s a giant ballista bolt forged from Wootz Steel!”

In the war of the northwest, they had all witnessed the power of the giant ballista bolts against the Behemoths, but as terrifying as they were, they had not had those wavy patterns—patterns that were naturally created by Wootz Steel. While Deep Sea Xuan Metal was tough, it could not stand against a giant ballista bolt made of Wootz Steel, no matter how many formations and inscriptions it was reinforced with.

Buzz! Abu Muslim and the other generals immediately looked in the direction the bolt had come from. They saw a giant ballista, escorted by countless Tang soldiers, pointed straight at the city gate. Nearby, numerous soldiers and craftsmen were busy putting together an assortment of parts into a second giant ballista.

Abu Muslim and his men felt their hearts sink to rock bottom. The Tang had taken apart those terrifying giant ballistae and transported them here!

“He had these special ballista bolts ready for some time! From the moment this war started, he had predicted this day and was amply prepared for it!”

As he stared at the youth on that divine steed with white hooves, Abu Muslim suddenly realized something, but enlightenment only made his heart heavier. For what reason did they have to be born in the same era? Abu Muslim’s heart was filled with an indescribable mix of complicated emotions.

“Release!” Wang Chong called out, and another Wootz Steel giant ballista bolt thundered into the gate of Khorasan. Kaboom! The gate caved further inward as yet another hole was punched through it.

Every Wootz Steel weapon cost as much as a city, and forging these giant ballista bolts took great quantities of Wootz Steel. Each one cost as much as forty million taels of gold, and Wang Chong had only forged four. These Wootz Steel bolts were not very useful against Behemoths. After all, there were only four, so they could only kill four Behemoths, while the Behemoth Army had many more than that. But they were perfect for attacking the mighty city gates of the Arabian Empire. And more importantly, Wang Chong had prepared more than just Wootz Steel giant ballista bolts.

Roooar! With a mighty roar, a mountainous being crashed down from the sky. The King Ape raised its two hairy arms and pounded its chest. All of Khorasan was shocked by the King Ape’s roar, and all the Arab generals on the walls paled.

These Behemoths had originally been used by the Arabian Empire against the Great Tang, and once the Tang army was defeated, they could be used to attack enemy cities. But to their surprise, now that Arabia was defeated, the Tang were using the Behemoths to attack Arabian cities.

Roooar! A few moments later, the King Ape punched at Khorasan’s gate. Having already taken four Wootz Steel bolts, the gate was blown off its hinges by the King Ape’s destructive punch, the earth rumbling as those gates, which had protected Khorasan for nearly one hundred years, thudded to the ground.

Khorasan became deathly still, all the Arabs almost forgetting to breathe.

“Kiiill!” With a thunderous roar, the tens of thousands of Tang cavalry charged through the fallen gates, flooding into Khorasan. In short order, the three mighty gates of Khorasan all fell, and countless soldiers charged in.

“For Arabia!”

“Arabia will never surrender!”

“Exterminate the infidels! Kill!”

The gates had fallen, and there were enemies on both sides, but unlike Abu Muslim and his three hundred thousand soldiers, the Arab militia had not experienced the terrifying power of the Tang and were only driven into a fighting frenzy, howling as they waved their scimitars and charged at the Tang coalition army. This was a militaristic country in which every person was a soldier.

But no matter how fearless they were, and no matter how unwilling Abu Muslim and the other Arabs were, they were nothing in front of the overwhelming power of the Tang forces—just an egg trying to strike a stone. Their fate had been decided from the very start.

“Release!” Su Hanshan waved his arm, and his ballista army advanced while releasing wave after wave of ballista bolts. Before the Arab militia could even get close, vast swaths of them were cut down.

“Kill!” The Tang army advanced and soon met with the Arabs, shield soldiers in front and spearmen behind, the Wushang Cavalry and Tongluo Cavalry charging out from the flanks and crashing through the Arab ranks.

One hour later, the Arab army had been completely crushed, their bodies piled up across the city. Abu Muslim had managed to escape with a small group of Arab cavalry through the western gate, fleeing across the Euphrates. The rest of the Arab cavalry and militia had either surrendered or been killed. The city had once more fallen into Wang Chong’s hands. As the Nine Dragon Blood War Banner was raised over Khorasan, Wang Chong’s name once more shook the western world and the entire continent. The Arabian Empire became frantic and fearful.

Meanwhile, all the Khorasani were crying with joy. After countless days and nights of suffering, they had defeated the Arabs and once more taken possession of Khorasan. Arabia had lost several hundred thousand soldiers in the Battle of Khorasan, the bodies of tens of thousands of militia piled up around the city. It had lost any ability to contend against the Great Tang.

Wang Chong struck while the iron was hot, leading his army across the Euphrates and advancing toward Baghdad. On the road, they encountered numerous militia crying out to avenge the Hierophant and High Priest, but all of them were crushed under the hooves of the Great Tang Empire. With Bahram acting as an intermediary, the Tang army swelled in size, building up like a rolling snowball as more and more rebel armies joined. It marched forward with unstoppable momentum, taking every city in its path.

Seven days later, after taking numerous cities, the army finally reached the Arabian capital.

“This is Baghdad?” The clouds hung low over the sky. Wang Chong, wearing golden armor and at the head of a coalition army of more than one million soldiers, stared at the lofty city of Baghdad. He had heard of this ‘sleepless city’ in his last life, the capital of the strongest empire in the west, but this was the first time he had seen it with his own eyes. Baghdad was a gorgeous and resplendent city built in a style completely different from those of the Central Plains. Circular towers soared into the clouds, serving as a truly stunning sight.

Chang’an was renowned throughout the realm for its prosperity, its walls holding nearly one million inhabitants. This was a feat that none of the surrounding countries could reach. If there was one city in the world that could compare with the capital of the Tang Empire, it could only be the sleepless city of Baghdad.

From a certain perspective, Baghdad could even be considered more prosperous and thriving than the capital of the Tang Empire.