Loser System and Berserker Me - Chapter 196: A Huge Advantage

Over at Merv… (T/N: Merv is a city in Khorasan.)

“What’s going on?!”

Tahir was alarmed when the flow of news from Bukhara stopped. This was abnormal.

Without any hesitation, he ordered an invasion of the Tangs.

Bukhara was an important frontline city to the Abbasid Caliphate, serving as a military and supply route checkpoint. There was no way they would abruptly cut off communication in the wake of an important military operation.

Even if something had cropped up, Bukhara should have sent someone over to inform him.

Tahir had sent a few waves of scouts to investigate the situation at Bukhara, but none of them returned.

Could the Tangs have encircled Bukhara? But even if that’s the case, surely at least one of our scouts would have made it back alive, right?

Tahir was bewildered, but it didn’t take him long to receive the answer to his question.

“True God above, what are those things?!”

Tahir was horrified to see the terracotta warriors and ghost horsemen flying in the sky. Not even in his wildest imagination did he expect the enemy to have almost a thousand flying troops.

From the intelligence collected, he could imagine how the Tangs managed to conquer Transoxania at such an unbelievable pace. He had also confirmed through several channels that the Anxi Protectorate-General was a necromancer who controlled the undead.

He knew that the Tangs were not to be underestimated. He wasn’t confident of victory against the Tangs even if he threw everything he had at them.

Tahir had envisioned several possibilities.

Perhaps the Tangs might not be as strong as he had expected, allowing him to swiftly crush them. The Transoxanian nations would dispatch envoys to congratulate him. He would proudly return to the Abbasid Caliphate, and the people would hail him as a war hero.

With a raise of his hand, the defeated Tang prisoners would be dragged onto the execution ground. At his command, their heads would plop onto the floor and roll off…

Otherwise, it could also be a tight battle with the Tangs. Cities would go up in flames as the soldiers of both sides clashed intensely with each other. Viscous blood would flow through the streets like little streams.

The desert, the grasslands, and the mountainous areas would be plagued with the cold gleams of arrows and swords for many years to come.

In the worst-case scenario, he might suffer a tragic defeat to the Tangs.

Cawing vultures and crows would dance in the sky, enjoying this rare feast. His allies’ corpses would be strewn all over, and his aides would have their heads impaled by the Tangs’ spears. He would wear an ordinary soldier’s bloodied clothes and flee from the horrific battlefield on a camel’s back, leaving his remaining soldiers to the lurch.

He had already mentally prepared himself for those scenarios.

Little did Tahir expect to witness such an unbelievable sight from the Tangs.

The imposing Tang soldiers soared through the sky on the backs of lions, with halos glowing behind them and clouds shrouding their bodies. It looked as if deities were descending to the mortal world, welcomed by the vultures and the crows.

Does this even make sense? Those lions don’t even have wings! How the fuck are they flying?!

No, that isn’t the main point.

The most important question is if the Tangs are even humans! I have never seen a mage appearing with such airs!

“It’s a deity!” someone in Merv shouted. “The rumors are true! The Anxi Protectorate-General is a deity from heaven!”

Merv’s civilians swiftly fell to their knees.

While the Abbasid Caliphate had conquered Merv for some time now, it hadn’t managed to convert its local populace into Muslims yet. There were still many believers of other religions around.

Given Shu Yichao and the terracotta warriors’ appearances, it was doubtful whether these people would believe Shu Yichao even if he told them he wasn’t a deity.

Tahir didn’t kneel.

This had nothing to do with his faith but the opposite rather. The more powerful a person was, the more he understood the true construct of religion.

“N-no! The Tangs just have many mages among them!” Tahir clenched his jaws.

“Listen up, the people of Merv!”

Li Siguo, who had tagged along with Shu Yichao, stepped forward to address the people.

Shu Yichao’s previous attack on Bukhara progressed so fast that most of the city had been taken down by the time Li Siguo gathered his people. Li Siguo realized that, at this rate, the people might only acknowledge the Tangs but not him, the Persian Military Commander.

This won’t do. I’m still looking to be the Persian king…

Even if it’s just a conferred title from Great Tang and I’d have to pay them an annual tribute, I still want to take on the role.

So, Li Siguo traveled to Merv to build his reputation. He raised a horn enchanted with Voice Amplification and shouted toward the city walls, “Great Tang’s heavenly soldiers have arrived! Come out to surrender and welcome the imperial troops, or else there’ll be bloodshed. Choose wisely…”

Before he could finish his piece, Tahir had already shouted back from the city walls, “You traitorous piece of trash! How dare you turn your back on the true God’s teaching and bend over to the Tang army? Your soul will be plunged into hell!

“Warriors of the true God, do not be deceived by the Tang army’s deception! They are nothing more than a bunch of demon cultists who have learned a couple of charlatan tricks! Stand your ground and guard the city!”

Tahir knew that he couldn’t surrender.

The Abbasid Caliphate had resorted to many cruel means to unravel the Persian culture, but this was an impossible feat from the start.

The harsh desert might have tempered the Arabs into tenacious warriors, but it couldn’t turn their people into scholars and enrich their culture. When the Arabs took over the prosperous Mesopotamia region, they were instead influenced by the Persians’ rich culture and gradually shed their claws.

That created room for the Persians to rise through the ranks.

While Great Tang was being cleaved up by its Protectorate-Generals, the Abbasid Caliphate was also languishing from its warlords’ infighting. Amidst the chaos, the Persian commanders rose through the ranks and began having a say in Abbasid’s politics.

Tahir was one of the high-flying Persian commanders. With his merit of supporting the new caliph to the throne, he became the de facto second-in-command in the Abbasid Caliphate.

Surrender? What can the Tangs offer in exchange for my surrender?

Not to mention that Li Siguo has surrendered before me. Do I have to kneel alongside this lowly fellow from this day onward?

And who says that Merv will lose just because the Tangs have flying units?

Putting all things aside, we have the numerical advantage over the Tangs! The Tangs have less than a thousand soldiers, whereas there are 70,000 to 80,000 soldiers gathered here!

The more Tahir thought about it, the more he believed he had the advantage.

The Tangs have gotten conceited.

Flying units might be undefeatable in the wild, but how can a thousand men conquer a city protected by tens of thousands of troops?

“Do not fear! Our army is a hundred thousand men strong!” Tahir tried to revitalize his troops. “Muster your courage and vanquish these demons! Never forget that the true God is looking at us!”

By then, Shu Yichao was done organizing his troops.

Li Siguo demanding the enemy’s surrender had been just for fun; Shu Yichao had no such intention in mind. He had only stayed still because he was busy organizing his army’s formation to swiftly crush Merv’s defense.

Raising his metal whip, Shu Yichao roared, “Brothers, attack!”

The heavenly soldiers descended from the sky.

Mountain-like terracotta warriors fell from the sky, crashing into Merv like a meteor storm, much to the soldiers’ horror.

“Erk… Erk erk…”

A soldier standing on the city walls produced weird sounds reminiscent of a choked rooster. Pointing at the gigantified terracotta warriors, his eyes rolled over, and his saliva flowed freely from his mouth. He had been shocked out of his wits.

It was no surprise.

Big things tended to evoke fear. It highlighted the stark power difference between both sides, making the soldiers realize how insignificant they were.

That was why many civilizations, despite knowing they were gimmicks, were fond of building massive, awe-inspiring structures. As useless as they were, they did look imposing. Barbarians might not fear their army, but they were shaken by those massive structures.

At least at this moment, no one understood the terror of the gigantified terracotta warriors more than Merv’s soldiers.

Merv’s city walls were only eight meters tall, whereas the gigantified terracotta warriors were over ten meters in height. This meant that the soldiers on the city wall were at eye level with the terracotta warriors.

When those huge eyes reminiscent of car lights fell on them, Merv’s soldiers found themselves petrified as if met with Medusa’s gaze. Fear flooded their minds, robbing them of their ability to think and move.

The soldiers stared in horror as the terracotta warriors raised their massive weapons and swung them down on the city walls.

Pah!

A dull thud echoed.

Ballistae were crushed. Soldiers were smashed into bits. Rubble was sent flying in all directions. The overwhelming might of the gigantified terracotta warriors was despair-inducing!

The gigantified terracotta warriors cleaned the city walls like a veteran housewife waving her feather duster. Each light swipe sent countless soldiers flying across the air.

These soldiers screamed as they twisted and twirled in mid-air… then they exploded with splats upon striking the ground.

Eerie snickers echoed as white specters emerged from their corpses.

That was why Shu Yichao didn’t bring his specter army here.

He figured he could ‘catapult’ soldiers into Merv through his gigantified terracotta warriors and ‘recruit’ undead troops on the spot.