Chapter 1214: The Crown Prince Screwing Things Up!

Translator: Lordbluefire

The Five Empires War Discussion was known as the most popular event in the Nine Provinces. Being able to participate in it was like a type of glory. It was unknown how many countries would be willing to do anything to join.

But after so many years, only Great Xia and the four other empires could participate. This was because these five countries were ranked at the top in terms of comprehensive strength such as level of culture, finance, military, etc.

Bluntly speaking, those who wanted to join the Five Empires War Discussion had to be top-tier countries in the Nine Provinces. It was just like the Permanent Five of the UN Security Council. If you didn’t have a nuclear bomb and your ancestors hadn’t ruled the world before, you had no qualifications to enter.

Currently, Great Xia was the most ferocious country out of the five. Their economy was thriving, and their military was powerful as their soldiers didn’t fear death. As for the Great Chu, they enjoyed love and freedom, they didn’t like being bound by rules. But when their country was on the verge of death, they were also the ones who would resist the most frenziedly.

The people of the Nine Provinces knew that people from the Great Chu would rather be killed than surrender!

Great Qi was an old strong country without flaws. They were as stable as a ten-thousand-year-old turtle. No matter how the world changed, they would always be able to be ranked first.

Before Great Qi rose, Great Wei was the boss. This entire country was too capable in fighting. Even three-year-olds around the world knew the name of the Wei Troops.

Naturally, the Wei Empire declined because they kept engaging in wars of aggression at will.

Lastly, was Great Tang. Their territory had once been the greatest, and they had had an emperor with the most far-sightedness and vision, along with the weakest foolish emperor. In any case, their range of ancestors was the widest. However, things were different now.

Hence, given the current states of each empire, Great Chu was ranked fifth, Great Wei and Great Xia were the toughest to deal with, followed by Great Qi and finally Great Tang.

Naturally, there were no absolutes. Because the soldiers brought by the crown princes for the war discussions were all elite troops that used the best weapons and armors, it would be hard to determine who the victor might be.

“Two rounds of army unit warfare will be conducted daily. The first battle today will be Xiang Zhao of Great Chu against Li Xuan of Great Tang!”

The ceremonial officer announced in a loud voice.

“Li Xuan of Great Tang. This sounds truly imposing, I feel like a famed general!”

Li Xuan felt extremely happy in his heart. “Aunt, teacher, I’m going to prepare for the battle!”

“Mn, please be more careful!”

Han Cangshui wasn’t familiar with military strategy and couldn’t help much. Hence, only Li Xiu went to the army camp together with Li Xuan.

“Beloved Subject Sun, how about coming over for a chat?”

At the host platform, the Qi Emperor smiled as he greeted Sun Mo.

Sun Mo jumped in fright when he looked at the Qi Emperor. (What the hell are the two huge eyebags? Could it be that you didn’t sleep for three days?)

“Yawn!”

The Qi Emperor yawned and praised. “Beloved Subject Sun, your Jinling Wind and Moon Painting is too interesting. I love the part where the rich young master sneaks out during the evening to meet with a married woman the most. Could you speak of that in detail?”

During these three days, the Qi Emperor only slept a little every day. The rest of his time was used to admire the painting. In fact, he even tried to copy it and researched the details.

“…”

Sun Mo mentally mused that his guess was correct. The Qi Emperor was into older females.

“Your Majesty!”

The queen cast a look of resentment over. As for Grand Tutor Su, he also showed a hint of helplessness on his face. But the other major subjects no longer felt strange looking at the Qi Emperor’s behavior.

“Cough! Cough!”

The Qi Emperor smiled awkwardly before continuing to urge. “Beloved Subject Sun, quickly come over!”

Sun Mo found this very troublesome. Was this a brainless fan?

15 minutes later, the two army units of 500 pax each were fully prepared. They entered the drill grounds from the East and West respectively.

In the east was the prince group from the Great Chu. They were clad in white armor, but the pictures on their armors were all different.

In fact, even pictures of naked court ladies could be seen.

“Isn’t that a little too repulsive?”

The audience was stunned. The appearance of this army unit was so bad.

These Chu soldiers weren’t uniform in height. When they gathered together, they also weren’t in a formation at all and all of them looked very lazy.

On the other hand, the soldiers from the Great Tang all had uniform height. They were burly males that were at least 1.8 meters tall and they were clad in black armor. A crossbow hung at the left side of their waist, and a long blade was attached to the right side of their waist. They also had a long spear with them. It could be said that they were fully armed.

“What’s going on with Great Chu?”

Sun Mo was clueless, he couldn’t understand. Could it be that Xiang Zhao had given up?

“This is the battle style of Great Chu. They depend on an individual’s martial strength to win!”

The Qi Queen introduced.

Logically speaking, it didn’t conform to the rules for a queen to speak to a man who wasn’t even a subject after the event had begun. However, the Qi Emperor didn’t mind it. Since that was the case, none of the officials bothered to speak up as they didn’t want additional trouble.

“Oh!”

Sun Mo felt that the victory for this round should be most assuredly confirmed.

When armies fought, discipline was the most important, and an individual’s courage and strength were secondary. This was a lesson comprehended from many wars that had been fought in history.

Li Xuan felt the same way too. Hence, when he saw the Chu soldiers’ appearance, he was filled with confidence and felt even more complacent.

Bang! Bang!

Two signals were fired into the sky. After that, they exploded.

The martial battle had begun!

“The Great Tang is invincible!”

Li Xuan shouted loudly. After that, he pulled out his longsword and rapped his chest with the hilt.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The soldiers stepped forward, advancing slowly while roaring to intimidate their enemies.

“Invincible! Invincible! Invincible!”

One couldn’t help but say that this army unit was chosen from the elites of the Tang Army. Their auras were truly extraordinary.

The spectators held their breaths!”

“Xiang Ge`er, it depends on you now!”

Xiang Zhao spoke and passed over the command authority.

Right now, he was like a mascot. He was the captain in name, but if he was to be the one directing the battle, they would lose for sure.

In truth, other than Jiang Yuzhen and Xia Taikang who were truly capable in warfare, it was really very rare for princes and princesses to be good at it. At most, they would have only read a few military books and engaged in theoretical discussions.

After all, they were born with a golden spoon in their mouths. Who among these princes and princesses would really go to the military drill grounds and train with a group of people shouting that they wanted to kill?

Xiang Ge`er whistled and the soldiers of Great Chu immediately advanced. However, they were chatting leisurely and joking around, completely not being serious at all.

When both parties were 50 meters apart, the soldiers of Great Chu suddenly sped up. They were like crazy wild beasts that galloped forward.

“Halt, load the crossbows!”

Li Xuan immediately ordered.

His soldiers quickly halted and unloaded the hand crossbows hanging on their waists. They started to tighten the string and load the arrows. Because they were clad in heavy armor, their movements were very cumbersome. This was why their action of loading the crossbows was slower in comparison.

“Too slow, it feels like the speed of loading a harquebus!”

Sun Mo shook his head.

Actually, a weapon like a hand crossbow wasn’t suitable for heavily armed soldiers to use. However, Li Xuan chose to do so because he wanted to fire some arrows before the clash. Even if he couldn’t kill many enemies, he could boost his soldiers’ morale.

The idea was good, but reality was like a crazy wild dog!

Right after the Great Tang soldiers finished loading their hand crossbows, the soldiers of Great Chu were already ten meters away from them. After that, they sped up once more.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

They either leaped forth to slash down or they were like bulldozers rushing in head-on. For a time, the soldiers of Great Tang were in complete chaos.

“Oh no!”

Li Xiu became badly anxious. If the soldiers directly chose to defend, they wouldn’t end up in such a dire state.

“Shoot! Shoot!”

Li Xuan roared loudly.

“Yuzhen, what do you think?”

The Qi Emperor asked his daughter.

“At this moment, they should throw the crossbows away and change their formation to stabilize their defense, not allowing those hundreds of enemies to disrupt them. If a chaotic battle unfolded, the Great Tang would lose for sure.”

Jiang Yuzhen analyzed.

“Li Xuan wants to use his archers too much. Sadly, since there’s no chance, he should just decisively give up on his plan!”

Grand Tutor Su evaluated.

The arrows shot by the Great Tang soldiers in chaos had a 50% hit rate. However, the armors worn by their enemies weren’t inferior either. Only a few actually died from being shot.

After that, the Tang soldiers tossed away their crossbows and prepared to use long spears to face their enemies. However, at such a close distance, they couldn’t control the spear well at all. The soldiers of Great Chu were already before them.

Long spears were truly not practical in close combat. Hence, some soldiers tossed aside their spears and pulled out their blades but sadly, things were already too late. As the Chu soldiers rushed forward, many of the Tang soldiers died and their formation collapsed, leading to their morale plummeting.

“Stabilize the situation!”

Li Xuan roared until his throat became dry.

Jiang Yuzhen shook her head. Such an order was the most useless. Li Xuan might as well lead by example and lead his men to counter-rush his enemy.

“Collapsing just like that?”

Li Xuan’s eyes turned red. (Why? I have not displayed my intelligence yet. No. I can’t give up now.) “Eat the alchemy pills!”

Li Xuan roared in a low voice. This was his trump card.

Sadly, there was no more chance.

Xiang Ge`er led a bunch of crack troops and slaughtered the enemies freely.

The purpose of the Five Empires War Discussion was to display the strength of each country instead of killing people. So, the martial battle had a rule that once 200 pax died from each side, the round would end.

So, by the time the soldiers of Great Tang ate the pills and their combat strength got enhanced, the battle was already over.

“Brother Li, I won by a fluke!”

Xiang Zhao smiled and greeted Li Xuan.

“You…”

Li Xuan’s face was flushed and his expression was a mixture of embarrassment and anger.

“We won!”

The diplomatic group of Great Chu returned to the audience stand amidst cheers, while the people of Great Tang fell completely silent.

“Isn’t this crown prince a little too trash?”

Helian Beifang was shocked. Li Xuan couldn’t even struggle. He was simply trampled onto the ground and crushed.

(Ai, what a pity for those dead soldiers.)

Han Cangshui turned his head and glanced at Li Xiu. He discovered that her expression was gloomy and this caused him to frown.

“Beloved Subject Sun, what do you think?”

The Qi Emperor asked.

“The attack of Chu seemed chaotic like a pile of loose sand. However, that was just a distraction.”

Sun Mo could be considered a military-movie maniac after all. He had seen plenty of war movies. “They looked like they were charging forward recklessly. But in truth, those in front were ‘sharp knives’ made up of extremely powerful experts. The opponent cannot see through it, hence, they don’t know the point they should focus their defense on. When the sharp knives pierce through a weak spot, the others of Chu will rush over to reinforce them.

“At that time, if the opposing soldiers still don’t adjust their formation, their defense will be completely broken. If they adjust, the sharp knives in other positions will exert force and create more chaos.”

When Jiang Yuzhen heard this, she involuntarily cast a glance at Sun Mo. She didn’t expect him to know this as well.

This was the battle style of Great Chu. They placed a heavier emphasis on individuals’ combat strength and talent. If you were a hundred-man general, not only must you know how to fight, but you also had to see through your enemy’s formation and know where their weak points were.

So the famous generals from the Great Chu could always perform war examples that allowed one to broaden their horizons.

“Although His Highness from Chu is mediocre, he understands his limits and knows how to use the correct people instead of recklessly taking command of the army himself. This is a plus point!”

Grand Tutor Su evaluated. Comparatively, Li Xuan had no talent but wanted to display his strength. In the end, he ended up screwing up.. If the Tang army was led by a general with practical experience, their instant reactions would surely not be so lousy.