Chapter 201: Aerial Raid

Chapter 201: Aerial Raid

“This feels much better.”

Shu Yichao finally nodded his head in satisfaction after conquering Sistan’s last city.

With this, all the cities in Sistan, Kandahar, and Kabul were flying the Tang flag, uniting Great Tang’s territories in Central Asia and West Asia. The minimap was finally not that irritating to look at anymore.

The Tang army was mainly stationed in the Western Regions and Transoxania. Those places had been previously governed by Great Tang, and the local populace had co-existed peacefully with the Tangs, so it wasn’t too difficult for them to be assimilated.

Similarly, the Tang army also guarded Important checkpoints such as the Pamir Mountains.

As long as they held onto these checkpoints, they would have their West Asia’s vassal states in a chokehold. If a vassal refused to obey, the Tang army could be immediately mobilized to quell them.

Venturing even further would be vassal states such as the Persian Military Commandery and the Ndiochia Military Commandery. Not only were those places far from Great Tang, but Persia had its own rich culture too.

It would be difficult to assimilate those places into Great Tang, so Shu Yichao returned those lands to the locals and allowed them to self-govern. These places could become Great Tang’s buffer states, serving as meat shields against invasions.

If enemies attacked, the buffer states would buy time for the Anxi Protectorate to gather its forces and retaliate.

Shu Yichao didn’t put much thought into allocating the lands; it was done purely through his stream of consciousness. He had played similar games so many times before that he knew what to do even with his eyes closed.

His next step was to capture lions.

He had no idea how many lions there were in this region, but so far, he had already recruited almost 500 terracotta warriors. If he tried a bit harder, he might be able to increase their strength to 1000.

That, together with his pegasi-mounted ghost horsemen, meant that he would have a terrifying force of over 2000 flying troops!

Imagine having an air force in the Middle Ages!

Things appeared to be smooth sailing, but Shu Yichao had his fair share of troubles too.

First, he had advanced his troops from Suyab to Sistan and re-established the Persian Military Commandery, but after checking the map, he realized that he was still reclaiming Great Tang’s lost land.

Some of the mountainous cities had brought out the conferment edict they had received from Emperor Gaozong of Tang when paying respects to Shu Yichao.

This was utterly ridiculous!

Second...

“What’s wrong with these folks?”

Shu Yichao was rendered speechless when he saw northern Sindhu turning red.

Chaos gripped the barracks.

The Sindhi soldiers below were either stunned, screaming their heads off, or fleeing in a panic. Several people were rammed to the ground. Livestock fled upon noticing the commotion. Some even kneeled and began kowtowing upon seeing the brilliant halos glowing behind the warriors.

“Something is off!” Some of the generals quickly snapped out of it. “They aren’t heavenly soldiers; they are the Tangs! Where are our archers and war monks?! Shoot them down!”

Upon hearing their commanders’ orders, some of the soldiers attempted to shoot down the flying troops with their bows, but their firepower was far from enough to deal any damage to the Tang army.

What awaited them was a violent counterattack.

“Attack!”

Shu Yichao took the lead and charged into the Sindhi camp with his white lion.

“My calamitous lightning shall vanquish your army and decimate your cities!”

With a roar, he unleashed his Lightning Arrows together with his metal whip on enemy troops. Black metal bits mixed with lightning rained on the panicking Sindhi soldiers, sending them into death’s embrace.

The massive recoil from brandishing the metal whip caused Shu Yichao to momentarily stop in mid-air.

Boom!

A few Sindhi soldiers riding on the armored war elephants became Shu Yichao’s first victims. Not only were they higher up, but their metal armor served as perfect lightning conduit.

Devastating silver lightning turned their armor into searing metal cages, reducing the soldiers and their war elephants into ashes.

But that was not the end of it.

With a loud ‘bam’, their scorching hot armor suddenly blasted apart like a bomb, their armor bits ricocheting into the surroundings. The soldiers directly struck by the armor pieces were torn into shreds.

The survivors stood in a daze as their comrades’ blood and flesh splattered on their faces.

“Everyone, attack!”

The crackling of Shu Yichao’s lightning was the Tangs’ war horn to attack.

The terracotta warriors swiftly charged into the battlefield and unleashed wave after wave of attacks on the Sindhi soldiers, playing a symphony of death and despair for Gopala’s army.

Blood and flames engulfed the Sindhi barracks as if hell had materialized in the world.