Abu ***'s heart was very depressed, a good siege battle, was beaten into this bear-like, not only failed to complete the task of breaking the city, the tunnel was also flooded, a large number of soldiers died, he himself was hit by a cannonball, and his thigh hurt terribly.

"General, now is not the time to be angry, the water leak is an accident, maybe it's providence!"

Ziyad explained.

It was Abu***'s idea to dig a tunnel, and now that something has happened, he completely blames himself, which is very unreasonable, and it does look like an accident.

However, there is a big problem at the moment, in front of Qi Yade and their eyes, what is happening to the soldiers and horses who entered the city from the tunnel, they don't know at all, if the army retreats, a small number of elites who enter the city will become lone soldiers, and if they continue to attack, they must also have the soldiers and horses in the city to respond, the city gate has not been opened, which makes them very worried about the soldiers and horses in the city, and they don't know what happened, so that these elites can not complete the task for a long time.

"Providence, I think we were discovered by the enemy when we were digging the tunnel, if this is the case, the soldiers and horses who entered the city are afraid that they will be more than lucky."

Abu *** spoke.

"It's been discovered, how is it possible, we are so hidden, everything is careful, it shouldn't be discovered."

Ziyad's subordinates spoke.

"Did you forget so quickly? A few days ago, a few enemy cavalry broke through the interception of our army and ran into the city, will they find anything, and besides, is there really no movement when you dig the tunnel? Is it too loud for the defenders in the city to hear? ”

Abu *** spoke.

"If it is really as the general said, the tunnel has already been discovered, then our army will really be more auspicious when it enters the city, but since the enemy has already discovered it, why do they still let our soldiers and horses enter the city, is it that they deliberately set up a trap and want to annihilate the elite of our army? It's so hateful. ”

Ziyad spoke.

"The city gate has not been opened for a long time, this is enough to explain the problem, our tunnel must have been discovered a long time ago, withdraw the army! Don't fight anymore, there's no point. ”

Abu *** ordered a retreat and, with a wave of his hand, asked the guards to take him back to the camp.

Qi Yad was very helpless, so he had to order the whole army to retreat and give up attacking the city, which made him very heartbroken, because his elite soldiers and horses were completely finished, and only a few dozen of the three thousand elite soldiers and horses survived, which was a big loss.

The army was retreating according to the steps, and all the equipment involved in the siege returned to the camp safely, and the losses were very small, and only a very small number of siege equipment were destroyed by the defenders.

After returning to the camp, Ziyad went to visit Abu *** as soon as possible.

After careful treatment by the medical officer, Qi Yade's wound was bandaged very well, and after the anesthetic, his leg did not hurt anymore, but the person was still very weak, after all, he had just experienced a process of escaping death, and it was normal for a person to be weak.

"General, are you feeling better?"

Ziyad asked with concern.

Abu *** replied very unhappily: "I can't die for the time being, has the army withdrawn?" ”

"It has been withdrawn, the casualties are not large, and the biggest loss in this battle is the three thousand elite soldiers and horses who entered the city from the tunnel."

Ziyad replied.

"Yes! The losses are all the elite of our army, and this loss is really too big, too big. ”

Abu *** has a very painful feeling, after all, elite soldiers and horses will always be a scarce resource, and if you lose so much at once, you will feel pain on anyone's body.

"For such a tragic loss, even if the city of Maia can be captured in the future, the caliph will blame me."

Abu *** said.

"General, it is inevitable that there will be losses in the war, it is not your fault, we will bear it together, if the caliph wants to be punished, we will all bear it together."

Ziyad said very righteously.

"Okay, let's not talk about this problem, we are so far outside the city to inspect the siege of the army, it will be attacked, what kind of powerful weapons did the defenders use, and they can fight so far?"

Abu *** said suspiciously.

"General, this guy Artik won't have such a powerful weapon, all his powerful weapons are all supported by Datang, this must be Datang's powerful weapon, however, the number should not be very large, otherwise, our siege soldiers and horses will definitely suffer heavy losses."

One of the subordinates said.

Qi Yade thought for a while, and said: "General, we have encountered this kind of weapon before, it is Datang's artillery, at that time, the Datang artillery bombarded, and our soldiers and horses suffered extremely serious losses, however, there were a lot of artillery pieces that appeared that time, and this time it was very few, which shows that Datang did not dare to give too many of this weapon to Artik, and only gave him a small part, so he specially used it to attack us." ”

Abu nodded approvingly, and said: "It makes sense, this must be the artillery unit of the Tang Dynasty, there should be only a few guns listening to the sound of artillery, but even if there are only a few, it is terrible, the range of this thing is too long, and the power is also very huge, which will cause great losses to our siege soldiers and horses." ”

"This is a big trouble, if Datang has always supported Artik, how can we win, we should talk to Datang."

Ziyad spoke.

"Let's talk, what do you think we can talk about with Datang, and what does the caliph want?"

Abu *** said helplessly.

Qi Yad nodded and said: "What the general said is that in order to get the support of the Tang Dynasty, Artik gave the city of Aden and the small peninsula in the northwest to the Tang Dynasty, and what can we give to the Tang Dynasty?" The caliph won't agree either! ”

Abu *** said: "What's more, the Tang Empire will not want to see a powerful Arabia, which can divide Arabia into multiple parts, which is the best interest of the Tang Dynasty, so they support Artik so hard, in order to want Artik to divide the peninsula and let Arabia be completely divided into multiple parts." ”

"Yes, it's terrible, and there's nothing we can do but obey orders."

Ziad said helplessly.

At this moment, the mood is even worse is the two elite Khorasan soldiers and horses surrounded in the city, their mission is to cooperate with the main army to capture the city of Maia, but the bad thing is that they have just entered the city of Maia, and before they can start the operation according to the plan, they are surrounded by soldiers and horses several times their size, no matter how hard they try, they cannot break through the enemy's encirclement.

And the worse situation is that there is gradually no movement outside the city, and the siege battle that was still in full swing has become extremely silent at this moment, and there is no sound outside the city.

This made these soldiers and horses who were still holding on very desperate, they didn't know what was going on, why the soldiers and horses who were attacking the city did not move, had they retreated? Why retreat, once the main army retreats, won't they be alone?

"General, the tunnel mouth is flooded, and we can't go back."

"General, there are more and more enemy troops, ten times more than us, and we have no way out."

"General, we didn't carry food, I'm afraid we won't be able to support it for a long time, what should we do?"

Many soldiers looked at their commander in despair, looking very confused.

The commander was also confused and didn't know what to do, just commanding the troops mechanically to resist the attack of the defenders.

Because the forces were very unequal, and the soldiers and horses defending the city also transferred powerful bed crossbows and catapults to strike at the Khorasan elites who held on, causing great damage to these Khorasan elites who held on.

And these Khorasan soldiers and horses, although they were relatively elite, came in a hurry, and did not prepare too many military supplies, except for melee weapons and armor, only bows and arrows.

The soldiers and horses defending the city were different, they had a variety of weapons, and, because they occupied the initiative, they could bring in all the weapons in the city to carry out continuous strikes against the Khorasan elite who held on.

The bed crossbow can penetrate the shield, and the boulders thrown by the catapult can kill the soldiers, and later they launched a fire attack, ready to burn these soldiers and horses, and finally, they actually threw the remains of those Khorasan soldiers who died in the battle in the urn city into the courtyard where the Khorasan elite held out, and told them that the soldiers who attacked the city gate had already been completely annihilated, so that they could surrender earlier.

A series of attacks have caused great damage to the soldiers and horses who are holding on, causing them to lose more than half of them, and at the same time, the throwing of these corpses has made the small number of soldiers and horses who are holding on to collapse in their mood, and they have no determination to fight.

"General, there aren't many of us left, and most of them are wounded, less than fifty people can fight, and the situation of the team surrounded in the east is not estimated to be much better, and we can't hold on."

"What do you mean, do you want us to surrender? Do you want us to surrender? ”

"General, the courtyard is full of corpses, we can't deal a blow to the enemy army, we can only send them to death in vain, it's better to do it."

"It's better to let you die, don't surrender, and hold on until the last moment."

The leading commander insisted on refusing to surrender, and it seemed that he was determined to die on the battlefield.

The battle to attack and defend the city has ended, and most of the soldiers and horses on the city wall, except for the necessary defensive and alert troops, have withdrawn from the city wall, some are treating their wounds, some are resting, and some are reinforcing near the tunnel entrance, ready to carry out the final blow to the remaining Khorasan elite.

Artik had personally watched the battle in the city, and he was standing on the second floor near the entrance to the tunnel, where he could see part of the battlefield.

"City Lord, this group of enemies is really tough enough, they have all fought like this, and they still refuse to surrender."

"These are Khorasan's elite soldiers and horses, naturally they are not comparable to ordinary soldiers and horses, their combat ability is relatively strong."

"City Lord, since these soldiers and horses refuse to surrender, then continue to strengthen the attack and annihilate them all."

Several of his subordinates spoke.

Altic looked at the battlefield in the distance and asked, "What about the casualties of the enemy and us?" ”

"City Lord, the enemy army is besieged by less than a thousand soldiers and horses casualties at least eighty or ninety, our army has five or six hundred casualties, most of them are wounded, less than one hundred killed, the enemy army has soldiers left who can fight, the two together are less than a hundred, it seems that it will not last long."

"City Lord, our army's elite soldiers and horses can annihilate them all with a single charge."

The subordinates said.

Artik was not very anxious, and said: "There is not much left of the enemy, it is already a turtle in the urn, what else do we have to worry about, leave two thousand soldiers and horses to surround here, and the rest of the soldiers and horses have withdrawn, those who should rest and sleep, and those who should sleep, we should also sleep." ”

"City Lord, if you don't annihilate all these guys, you can sleep."

The subordinates thought it was a little incredible.

"There are twenty times as many soldiers and horses surrounding here, and the tunnel has been flooded, what do I have to worry about, let's go and sleep!"

Artik was tired all night, it was almost early in the morning, and it was time to go to bed.

After the attack stopped, the encircled Khorasan elite not only did not gain the slightest relaxation, but became more nervous and uneasy, because during the battle, they did not have time to think about anything else, and at this moment, the defenders outside did not attack, so they would have to face a large number of corpses of their companions in the courtyard, as well as so many wounded and wailing companions.

Because they did not have time to carry medical supplies and food, they were now very hungry, and the wounded soldiers could not be treated, so they had to wait for death upright.

As a result, an atmosphere of terror permeated the entire ranks, making all the soldiers nervous, they didn't know what to do, and there were many desperate soldiers who no longer planned to obey the commander's command.

Some sneaked away and surrendered, some committed suicide because they couldn't bear the pain of flesh and skin, some quarreled with their commanders, and some used the corpses of their comrades as food, roasted them directly on the fire and ate them, and when they were thirsty, they went to drink the muddy water coming out of the tunnel.

This is the instinct of human survival, and at the same time, it is very terrifying.

The soldiers who secretly ran out and surrendered were all accepted, and the soldiers defending the city did not embarrass them, but gave them food and drink, but finally put them in cells, after all, they are all enemies, and it is dangerous to put them outside, and it is reassuring to lock them up.

The soldiers in charge of the siege were also tired all night and wanted to go back to rest, so they launched a new round of persuasion to surrender in response to the fact that some people had already surrendered voluntarily.

And in order to dispel the doubts of the Khorasan soldiers, they brought the soldiers who had already surrendered and put them in charge of persuading them to surrender.

The soldiers who had surrendered were given plenty of food and water, bathed, and put on new clothes, and looked very decent.

Dominated by desperation, the commander also collapsed, and he chose to commit suicide, while all the soldiers under his command chose to surrender and lay down all their weapons, and those who could walk came out, and the wounded had to stay where they were.