The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 420 War Elephant
In the dark night, the fire in this border town grew bigger and bigger, and thick smoke was faintly visible in the moonlight.

Wang Xuance led his men to kill people all the way under the cover of night. Just as he cut down a man, he saw that the knife in the man's hand looked familiar, so he picked it up and said, "Handle the knife."

Li Yibiao also picked up a big knife from the corpse of an Indian guard and said with a hearty smile: "My knife is back!"

I saw some brothers squatting in the corner and lighting up other people’s houses.

Li Yibiao shouted, "Don't order anymore, hurry up and get the knife."

This team should be the elite of the Indians, and the swords in their hands are exactly from the Tang army.

We were suddenly attacked by this enemy and all our weapons were lost. Now we have finally found them.

Li Yibiao stabbed the corpse on the ground again.

Wang Xuance asked, "What for?"

"When I think of them showing off their power here with my family's sword..." Halfway through his words, he raised the sword again and stabbed it into the heart of the Indian guard.

Seeing that the other party was already dead, Wang Xuance said, "Don't stab them anymore. It will be more satisfying if we kill a few more."

Looking back to confirm that the brothers were all there, they were walking towards the city wall with knives in hand. Torches could be vaguely seen flickering, as if the Indians were still mobilizing people to put out the fire.

The Tang army, armed with weapons, rushed towards the city wall.

When the Tang army got the Tang sword, they regained their fierce side, rushed into the enemy's troops and started fighting.

Li Yibiao was a doctor in the Ministry of Rites. Although he was a civil servant, he was also very good at archery with bows and crossbows.

Wang Xuance led his men up the steps of the city wall. Behind them were corpses lying everywhere, and there were Indians who were still putting out the fire in the city.

Li Yibiao stepped forward and asked, "Don't the Indians have a curfew at night?"

Several people walked along the wall and came to the eaves of a roof on the city wall, where they heard voices coming from inside the house.

Wang Xuance leaned his back against the wall and looked inside through the window-like hole in the wall. He saw a woman arguing with an old Indian man in the room. There were also several Indian soldiers standing inside. Among them was a soldier who was nearly nine feet tall and very strong.

The group of Indian soldiers were about to surround the woman. This Indian woman was the one who came to the dungeon to give everyone the key.

"General! Save us?"

"Rescue!" Wang Xuance gave the order.

More than twenty Tang soldiers scattered and surrounded the house.

Inside the house, the confrontation continued. The Indian princess retreated step by step. She said in Indian: "I will not go back with you."

The old man whispered, "Princess, Alonashun will take care of you."

The princess was still wearing a veil, and her eyes were filled with determination as she added, "He is a usurper! He killed my father."

The old man continued, "The Tang people will not come to help you, and the Tibetans will not come to help you. Xuanzang is not respected by the Tang emperor in the East."

Seeing the other party approaching step by step, the princess picked up the dagger and put it against her neck.

Suddenly, there was a whistling sound of an arrow, and an arrow pierced the back of an Indian soldier.

The nine-foot-tall burly man roared angrily. While they were still looking around, a group of Tang soldiers broke in through the window.

In a moment, blood splattered every five steps. Every Tang soldier found the target to be killed the moment he broke into the room through the window.

Before the princess could come to her senses, she saw the nine-foot-tall man reaching out his hands towards her face, his huge black hands almost covering her entire eyes.

At this moment, it seemed as if time had slowed down. The shadow of the big hands covered her face, and the princess trembled as she took half a step back.

Suddenly, a silver light fell, and Wang Xuance held the sword in both hands and chopped it down, cutting off the palm of his hand.

The princess slowly turned her head to look at the person who came. The Tang general had a fierce look on his face. He raised his hand and stabbed the Indian man in the throat with a knife.

However, he did not expect that the opponent could still stand after being stabbed in the throat. Instead, his other hand was holding the blade, with a ferocious look on his face like a ferocious beast.

Wang Xuance immediately let go of the knife in his hand, dodged to the side, and avoided the opponent's kick.

Another whistling sound of arrows was heard, and one arrow pierced the eye of the Indian man.

Seeing that the other party let go of the knife and covered his eyes in pain, Wang Xuance picked up the knife that fell on the ground and stabbed it into the other party's heart again.

The strong man fell to the ground with a bang and couldn't get up again.

When the princess came to her senses, the scene before her left her with lingering fears. The Tang army suddenly arrived and chopped down all these people.

Wang Xuance pointed his sword at the old man and asked, "Is he the king of the Indians?"

The princess calmed down again, took the knife, cut the old man's throat, and said, "He is Alona Shun's lobbyist."

"Who is Alonashun?"

The princess said, "A usurper."

"Do you Indians always speak like this?"

"My Guanzhong dialect is a little rusty."

Li Yibiao, who was guarding outside, said, "The Indians are even more stupid than we thought. They are still putting out the fire."

At the beginning, everyone came together to kill about three to five hundred people. The city was in such chaos that they could not organize manpower, and some people even fled outside the city.

Li Yibiao arranged the personnel. This was a city tower, which could guard the important entrance from a high vantage point and could hold out for a while. He also asked people to prepare ropes for getting down the city in case of retreat.

Wang Xuance walked out of the house, looked at the fire in the city, and said to her: "Thank you for saving us. In fact, we can escape without you. It is not too difficult for us. Your cell is too old."

The princess whispered, "Thank you also, General, for saving me."

The princess bowed respectfully. She also looked at the out-of-control fire in the city and recounted what had happened in India recently.

When Xuanzang left India, King Rongri was still the king of India. However, two years after Xuanzang left India, civil strife broke out in India.

Alonashun usurped the throne and killed many people from the Indian royal family.

This princess escaped.

Wang Xuance wiped his sword and listened to her story, his eyes fixed on the fire in the city.

I don’t know how much time had passed, but it seemed as if the fire in the city had burned everything that could be burned. The fire gradually weakened, but thick smoke was still billowing.

A bright light appeared on the horizon and the sound of horse hooves was heard in the distance. The coming people were the war horses of the Tang army and Tubo.

Li Yibiao stood on the city wall and shouted, "Brothers!"

Jiang Shiren led the Tang army straight into this small border town. After the Tang army entered the city, the surrounding Indian soldiers fled in all directions.

Along with them came the Tibetan troops, led by a Tibetan minister.

After the city was cleared, Wang Xuance walked down from the tower, opened his arms and said loudly: "My Tibetan brothers!"

The Tibetan minister stepped forward and was also very happy. He saluted and said with a smile: "I am the Tibetan minister Rulaijie, with 3,000 soldiers and horses, coming to help General Wang." Wang Xuance said: "I want to destroy Tianzhu!"

First, he let the Tibetan soldiers behind him enter the city. Rulaijie asked in confusion, "Isn't General Wang an envoy?"

Li Yibiao explained: "We are envoys, but how can we as envoys keep silent when we encounter such behavior of Indians?"

Rulaijie said, "But I only have 5,000 soldiers."

Deputy General Jiang Shiren adjusted his helmet and said, "Including the Tang army, seven thousand soldiers and horses... are enough."

"Wait a minute." Rulaijie added in a somewhat unfamiliar voice: "Do you know how many soldiers and horses the Indians have?"

Wang Xuance looked at Li Yibiao, who shook his head. He then looked at Jiang Shiren, who also shook his head.

The princess, who had been standing in the back, bowed and said, "Alonashun has an army of 400,000 men, and even 10,000 war elephants."

Li Yibiao took a deep breath and asked, "War elephant?"

The princess nodded and said, "Since Alona Shun usurped the throne, he has allowed his men to plunder everywhere. Today, all parts of India are suffering. General Wang..."

Wang Xuance was thinking about it and asked again, "What's wrong?"

The princess whispered, "Can the Tang army help me restore my country?"

"Restore the country?" Wang Xuance snorted coldly and said, "I want to destroy Tianzhu, what country to restore?"

Rulaijie took off his tall hat, brushed off the dust on it, and said to the warriors behind him in Tibetan with a smile: "It would be great if the children of Tibet could also have the demeanor of General Wang."

The Tibetan soldiers behind him lowered their heads one after another, and their momentum was not as good as that of the Tang army next to them.

After everyone gathered, the princess brought out the map of India, which seemed to have been prepared long ago, and asked the Tang Dynasty in the East to help her restore her country.

Wang Xuance looked at the map and frowned, saying, "This city is not a place to defend. The Indians will counterattack sooner or later."

After some discussion, everyone decided to leave the city after looting it clean and find a place to rest.

The princess said, "I can gather some loyal Indians and join forces with the king's general to attack Alona Shun."

She keeps saying she is loyal and wants to fight together. Does she really think she can restore the country?

Wang Xuance ignored them and did not make any promises. Instead, he led everyone out of the royal city and headed south.

When everyone followed the princess's lead and arrived at an Indian village, the Indian villagers came out to greet the princess.

Looking at the princess surrounded by villagers, Wang Xuance said, "It seems that Alona Shun is not popular in Tianzhu."

Rulaijie said, "In the past, when the Indian king Rongri ruled, this place was relatively peaceful. In fact, India is very complicated. If the general wants to conquer Alona Shun, he must go to the heartland of India, which is Central India. But Alona Shun has an ally, Eastern India."

Wang Xuance dismounted, holding his legs and feet which were a little sore from riding the horse, and said, "We can't just go back like this."

Ru Laijie smiled knowingly and said, "Will it damage the prestige of the Tang army?"

Wang Xuance shook his head and said, "No, we are from the Central Plains. Sooner or later, we will take back everything we lost, and take it back twice as much."

Rulaijie added: "I don't have many Tibetan soldiers and horses with me, but I can have someone send more people to Tibet for help."

Wang Xuance still held his legs, clasped his fists and said, "Thank you for your help."

As soon as the Tibetan minister Rulaijie sent someone to Tibet to deliver a letter, he heard a cry of surprise from afar.

It was a huge shadow, and then a fan-shaped big ear appeared from the bushes, and then an elephant as big as a mountain appeared in front of everyone.

When the war elephant saw the war horse, it raised its nose as if showing hostility.

The princess walked forward, calm and composed, showing no fear of the war elephant.

The Tibetan troops and the Tang people retreated one after another.

It was not until the princess stroked its chin that the huge beast became docile, and the Indian villagers around it knelt down to worship the princess.

She explained in Tang dialect: "This war elephant grew up with me. No matter how many years have passed, it knows me."

This basically verifies the identity of the Indian princess.

Wang Xuance looked at the war elephant suspiciously. Could it be that the bloodline of the Indian people was distinguished by war elephants?
She added: "Actually, it's very docile."

Now I understand why the Tibetans were afraid when they heard that Alona Shun had 10,000 elephant soldiers. Once these huge beasts rushed over in groups, any military formation would be dispersed.

In the woods, the princess was walking freely, and the war elephant was walking beside her.

Wang Xuance followed behind and said, "We cannot defeat such a monster with human power alone. How many war elephants do you have?"

The princess stopped by a stream and replied, "There were five of them before, and they were a family, but the other four died outside Qunu City, leaving only it and I to escape."

The Tang army, the Tibetans, and the Indians sat together and talked. The Indian villagers could not understand what the Tang people were saying, so they had to ask Ru Laijie to translate.

Rulaij was a learned old man who could speak Indian and even Persian.

Wang Xuance sat down beside him and asked, "Have you been to many places?"

Rulaijie wore an open Tibetan garment made of leather and animal skins, his shoes were made of cowhide, and his hair was gray.

"I have been to many places when I was young." Rulaijie said while looking at the burning bonfire, "When I was young, I went to Gaochang, crossed the Tianshan Mountains, and went to Persia. After traveling for more than 20 years, I returned to Tubo and fell seriously ill."

"My family thought I was going to die, so they carried me into the snowy mountains. Later..." Rulaijie paused and continued, "General Wang, have you been to our snowy mountains?"

“I haven’t been there yet.”

Rulaijie smiled and said, "You and your troops are the rare Tang army that can enter the heartland of Tubo. You should go to the snow-capped mountains in the future."

Wang Xuance nodded and said, "After we finish fighting in Tianzhu, I will go to the snowy mountains with you."

Rulaijie asked, "Sure?"

"We Tang people always keep our word!"

"Okay." Rulaijie seemed to be reminiscing. He continued, "It was very cold in Tibet. When I was sick, I was almost buried in the snow. But I woke up in the cold snowy mountains and my illness was cured. After that, I lived in the snowy mountains for several years. The Tibetans said that I was chosen by the Snow Mountain God, so I survived. After that, I kept praying for Tibet."

"If Songtsen Gampo had not gone to Chang'an, I would not have left the snow-capped mountains. Now that the king has left, I am one of Tubo's wise ministers and need to govern Tubo. This time I brought a large army. Sambhota said that only when the Tang army returns safely from India can Tubo have peace."

Wang Xuance asked, "What else?"

"If he can't go back, the Tang army will flatten India, and he is very afraid." Rulaijie said, "I don't know why, but people want to support a new king before Songtsen Gampo dies. I came to help General Wang in person because I hope that General Wang can help me support a new king in the future."

After that, Rulaijie added: "After Songtsen Gampo dies."

"I thought you Tibetans would be very united, but I didn't expect that at your age, you would still want to support a new Zamp."

Rulaijie smiled and said, "My Tibetan children are willing to die for General Wang."

(End of this chapter)