Chapter 583: The Decisive Battle! Tumi Sangzha!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Lion City, the strange military strategies, the metal walls on the mountain… Geluofeng had no idea how many more secrets this Great Tang youth was hiding, how many more mysterious objects he had on his person.
I’ve heard that Wang Jiuling was a pillar of the Great Tang, that as long as Jiuling did not fall, neither would the Great Tang. I didn’t want to believe it before, but it now seems that if I want to deal with the Great Tang, I first have to exterminate the Wang line!
Geluofeng closed his eyes for a moment as an irrepressible killing intent surged through his mind.
Once, on a visit to the capital, he had had the chance to meet Duke Jiu. He had been a man of mediocre appearance, nothing more. And he had been far too kind, his style of doing things completely different from his own.
Afterward, he no longer paid this Duke Jiu much mind!
Geluofeng had never expected that so many years later, his son and grandson would become the stumbling blocks in his conquest of the Great Tang’s southwest, one of those stumbling blocks that he could not ignore!
“Father, let me lead some soldiers up. Right now is the best chance to deal with the Tang!”
A voice at his ear roused Geluofeng from his thoughts.
Fengjiayi was seated on a white steed, his eyes filled with loathing as he stared at the summit.
As the Crown Prince of Mengshe Zhao, Fengjiayi had always had a very far-reaching gaze. Only figures like Huoshu Huicang, Zhangchou Jianqiong, Gao Xianzhi, Geshu Han, Zhang Shougui, and Wang Zhongsi were worth his gaze.
Fengjiayi had never imagined that he would have to regard a mere teenager, someone younger than him, with the same level of respect, and this fellow was still a complete nobody.
But Wang Chong had succeeded in this feat.
“You want to avenge Jiaosiluo?”
Geluofeng’s eyes widened. Although he showed no emotion on this surface, there was a deep displeasure in his heart. Jiaosiluo was a Tibetan. No matter how close Fengjiayi felt to him, this fact could not be altered.
If someone should avenge Jiaosiluo, it should be a Tibetan, not the Crown Prince of Mengshe Zhao.
This was the complete opposite order!
If Fengjiayi was willing to risk the lives of the people of Mengshe Zhao for the sake of some foreign general, then Geluofeng would truly have to ponder the candidate to inherit the throne of Mengshe Zhao!
Fengjiayi froze a moment before sternly replying, “Yes, Royal Father! But it is not the entire reason!”
“Oh?”
Geluofeng’s brow visibly relaxed.
“Royal Father, my friendship with Jiaosiluo was a private one, and I can still tell the difference between the public and private. If Jiaosiluo had died elsewhere or for other reasons, even if your child wanted to help, he would go alone.
“But our Mengshe Zhao is fighting with the Great Tang, and Jiaosiluo died on the mountain when he was helping us attack the Great Tang. His death was not a private affair, but for the public good!
“Since Jiaosiluo died for the public good, it is my duty as Fengjiayi to avenge him!”
The moment Fengjiayi finished speaking, both Geluofeng and Duan Gequan instantly began to view their crown prince in a different way.
“Correct. That you can think on this level means that you have not let down your father’s regard. However, it is not our turn yet. The first clash had just been a probe, but we almost ended up paying with the entire Whitestone Corps. Right now, it’s the turn of Huoshu Huicang and his Tibetan army!
“It’s not that I don’t want to let you avenge Jiaosiluo, but it’s not your turn yet! We’ll have many chances to work with the Tibetans in the future. You need to learn the gaze of the superior man, one that can see much farther and much higher,” Geluofeng said.
“Your Highness Crown Prince, even if you want to help, your appearing now would only be overreaching and make the Tibetans believe that we’re looking down on them. This will only be a detriment to our partnership,” Duan Gequan added from behind.
He acted like a nonexistent person, always standing in Geluofeng’s shadow.
“Just look at the Tibetans and you will understand.”
Fengjiayi turned his head and saw in the blustering wind that a valiant Tibetan general, a single-handed saber at his waist, had just finished bowing to Huoshu Huicang and was now walking away.
Although this person was even shorter than the people of Mengshe Zhao, the energy he exuded was as fierce as wind and fire, as vast as the mountains and seas, forming a stark contrast with his height.
It’s him!
A thought suddenly occurred to Fengjiayi.
In this war, Huoshu Huicang’s subordinate generals had either been killed or injured. Of the Five Tiger Generals, only the strongest, Longqinba, was left. But this did not mean that he was lacking soldiers who could carry out his orders.
The people of the Tibetan Plateau were completely different from those of Mengshe Zhao or the Central Plains. That their empire was divided into four large regions controlled by the four Royal Lineages was already strange enough, but even stranger was the foundation of their society.
When not in war, Ü-Tsang was actually divided into various tribes. Each tribe worked separately from the others, and each one had a chief. In normal times, they did not accept the administration of the government.
But during large-scale wars in which the Ü-Tsang Empire battled with other empires, they would receive the summons and come from all over to form a massive army.
If the Great Tang or Mengshe Zhao attempted to employ this method, then the morale of their army would be so terrible that they wouldn’t be able to harbor any hopes of the army putting up a fight.
But Ü-Tsang was different. The Tibetans were a plucky people who found honor in fierce battles, surpassing even the Turks in this aspect.
The Turks had fierce personalities, but the Tibetans worshiped the fierce and yearned for war. The two were on completely different levels.
But they were both powerful fighting forces.
Thus, when the Tibetans used this method, the fighting power of their armies was not in the least bit affected, and they could fight on the same level as other armies.
Moreover, although the Tibetan tribes were normally scattered across the empire, their lifestyles were not too different from the lifestyles of soldiers. From birth, every one of them would begin military training, cultivating the military martial arts system passed down by the Great Snow Mountain Holy Temple.
Thus, even though they had this strange tribal system, the Tibetans were by no means a weak fighting force.
But it was solely this problem of tribes that prevented Huoshu Huicang, the Great General of the Ngari Royal Lineage, from controlling all the generals of the Ngari Royal Lineage. The subordinates available to him to carry out missions were usually just the Five Tiger Generals.
But Ü-Tsang actually had many fierce generals.
That general called Tumi Sangzha was one of them.