Fighting a war is sometimes a gamble, because no one can figure out the other party's intentions, and if you guess the opponent's intentions correctly, you have a good chance of winning a big victory, and if you guess the opponent's intentions wrongly, you may be wiped out.

Zhuge Liang expected Xiahoudun to advance lightly, so he dared to fight with one in Bowangpo, and he guessed correctly and won a very brilliant victory.

Of course, speculation is also well-founded, and it can be based on the strength of the opponent's generals and soldiers, the characteristics of the troops, and whether the logistics are sufficient, and the possible strategies and tactics of the other side can be derived, so as to launch a military struggle in a targeted manner.

Artik and Abu *** are old acquaintances, and they still know each other well, Artik understands that Abu ***'s cavalry is very strong, so if he wants to confront Abu ***'s army in the wild, there is no chance of winning, so he can only choose to stick to the city This method to offset Abu ***'s advantage, which is a very helpless choice.

And he also knows very well in his heart, and his opponent Abu *** must also understand this, but his opponent will deal with it like this, and he can't judge accurately.

In Artik's mind, Abu *** has at least several tactics, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

First, we can adopt the tactics of all-out attack, take advantage of the advantages of cavalry, and surround all the five northern cities, of course, not an average siege, but a targeted deployment of heavy troops in the direction of a city to carry out the main attack, and the rest of the directions to contain, as long as the reinforcements in the city dare to come out to the rescue, the reinforcements will be defeated in the field.

Second, you can adopt the strategy of besieging a city, slowly gnawing the bones one by one, and finally occupy all five cities in the north and annihilate Artik's main army and horses.

Third, you can surround but not fight, and slowly confront each other in the vicinity to see who has more grain and grass, and in the end, the side that does not have enough food and grass will definitely not be able to support it, and will inevitably fail in the end.

Of course, there are more details that Altic cannot analyze little by little.

These possibilities, Artik and his subordinates have discussed, and they all feel that at least the third scenario is unlikely, after all, the other side has 100,000 soldiers and horses, and the logistical pressure will be very great, and it is not the style of Abu ***.

As for the first two points, Artik and his subordinates felt that the second option was more likely, after all, concentrating superior forces to attack a city was the best strategy.

"Caliph, I think the main direction of Abu ***'s attack is mostly the city of Ar on the back, because Arcity is the only place for them to attack the city of Maia."

"That's right, Abu *** is the most likely to attack Ar City, but it is not ruled out that he will attack Ravha City, these two cities are at the greatest risk of being attacked, and they should be equipped with more soldiers and horses, so that they can hold the city."

Several subordinates said.

Artik said: "Artic City has deployed more than 20,000 horses, the city is also relatively strong, even the moat has been built, as long as the food, grass and weapons are sufficient, the defense for half a year is not a problem, as for Ravha City, it is a problem worth paying attention to, there are only 10,000 troops there, the moat cannot be completed in the short term, it is estimated that the pressure on defense is relatively large." ”

"Now that Abu *** has been killed, the walls and moat of Ravha must be completed as soon as possible, and more labor can be requisitioned so that they can do a good job of defending Ravha as soon as possible, at least, before the enemy arrives, the moat of Ravha must be completed."

One of the subordinates said.

Artik nodded and said: "That's right, Ravha City must be taken seriously, five thousand people and some soldiers and horses can be transferred from Jubai City in the south to support Ravha City, as long as the manpower is enough, Lafha's moat can be completed in a few days, anyway, the defensive pressure of Jubai City is the smallest, and Abu *** will not risk transferring the main force to the south, so that his grain route will not be safe." ”

"City Lord, I'll go and prepare."

One of his subordinates went to prepare.

"City Lord, the latest batch of Fuyuan crossbows and repeaters in the Tang Dynasty, as well as a million crossbow arrows, have already entered the city, do they need to be assigned to the army immediately?"

A subordinate came in and asked.

Artik directly ordered: "There are enough weapons in the city, strengthening the defense of Ar and Ravha is the key, divide this batch of weapons into two parts, divide the troops to Al and Ravha, and tell the defenders of the two cities that no matter how much pressure they encounter, they must defend the city and must not lose the city, otherwise, he will not have to come back, just go directly to Allah." ”

"Yes, city lord, I'll go and distribute it."

"City Lord, if Abu *** attacks Ar City, do we need to send troops to support?"

One of the subordinates asked.

Artik smiled and said, "Support? Why support, if you encounter tens of thousands of Khorasan cavalry on the way, the supporting men and horses will definitely be wiped out. ”

"City Lord, the soldiers and horses in each city are mainly recruits, I'm worried that they won't be able to withstand the pressure and hold the city!"

The subordinate said.

Artik frowned and said: "I also know this problem, but our cavalry is too small to have the ability to fight against the Khorasan cavalry, mutual support will only put us in danger, only by relying on the city to hold on, it is possible to achieve the final victory." ”

"It seems that we can only fight on our own, and the five cities cannot support each other, and they have become five isolated points, which is really sad."

The subordinate said.

"What can be done, even if Maia City is attacked, we can't expect reinforcements, we can only rely on ourselves, therefore, the soldiers and people in the city can't be idle, we must keep strengthening the city walls, prepare as many defensive weapons as possible, the more perfect our defense is, the more we can inflict huge losses on the attacking enemy army."

Artik said helplessly.

Because there is a distance of at least dozens of miles between the five cities, if it is reinforcements, it is easy to be raided by the opponent's cavalry, and the infantry is not capable of confronting the cavalry in the field, so there is no better way to deploy the troops in advance and defend each dead point.

This is a very stupid tactic, if it is in the later generations when weapons are developed, it can be destroyed in minutes, but this is an era of cold weapons, as long as you rely on the defense of the city, it is still very advantageous.

For example, the invincible Mongol Empire attacked other empires very smoothly, especially during the Western Expedition, it can be said that it destroyed countless countries, and fought from eastern Asia to Eastern Europe in one go, which frightened the whole of Europe, which shows the strength of its strength.

However, it took a long time to attack the Great Song Empire, which relied on the defense of the city in the south, and even the great Khan Meng Ge of the Mongol Empire was killed when attacking the fortified city of the Great Song Dynasty.

Artik knows very well in his heart that Abu *** is very good at commanding cavalry and conducting confrontation operations with large corps in the field, and is not very good at attacking strong cities, so it has become the best way to hold on to the city, and Abu *** has no effective offensive weapons, nothing more than primitive cold weapons such as ladders and catapults.

The army of Abu *** and Ziyad marched very quickly, and it took only a few days to reach the northeast of Ar City, and set up camp to rest.

"General, there is Ar City not far ahead, shall we go to reconnoitre."

Ziyad felt that since they were going to attack the city, they always had to reconnoiter the situation, although this work had already been done by the scouts, but they themselves had to go to reconnoiter themselves, so that they could understand the characteristics of Ar City more intuitively.

Abu *** had this intention, nodded and said, "Let the army camp immediately, Ziyad, let's go to Arcity and have a look." ”

After leading more than 300 elite cavalry, Abu *** and Ziyad rode towards the vicinity of Ar. Prepare to scout the terrain yourself.

Because the distance was not very far, they soon arrived at a place not far from the city, and if they wanted to observe the city, of course, they chose a higher place, so they went up to a nearby hill and condescendingly observed the city of Ar.

The hill was bare, not even a decent tree, only some shrubs much shorter than people, and some flowers and plants, which looked quite desolate, but at least there were no trees to shield their eyes, which allowed Abu *** and Ziyad to see Ar City in the distance.

But at the same time, the soldiers on the walls of Ar City were also able to see Abu *** and Ziyad and others outside the city, and they could find each other.

"General, it looks like this city is not easy to fight! Not only is the city wall tall, there are many soldiers and horses defending it, there is a newly built moat outside the city, and an urn city is built at the city gate, which is a strong city! ”

Qi Yade looked at the city in front of him and said very worriedly.

Abu *** also frowned, and sighed: "Sure enough, it is a city that is not easy to attack, but we don't need to be in a hurry, just fight slowly, let the sappers build engineering equipment as soon as possible, the more built, the better, as long as there are enough siege equipment, we will be able to break through the city, Qiyad, don't forget, although there are many soldiers and horses defending the city, most of them are newly recruited recruits, how high the combat effectiveness can be." ”

"What the general said is that the city is full of new soldiers, which is their biggest disadvantage, but we still have to be careful to deal with it, in addition, in order to prevent the enemy from reinforcing us, it is necessary for us to divide several troops and horses to block the direction where the enemy may reinforce, just in case."

Ziyad said seriously.

Abu *** nodded in approval and said: "Ziyad, what you said is very right, although we feel that the enemy does not have the courage to reinforce, but we should be cautious, and immediately divide an army of 20,000 to be responsible for guarding all directions to prevent the enemy from reinforcing the enemy, and at the same time cut off all contact between Ar City and the outside world, and the main army is ready to capture Ar City at any time." ”

"Yes, General."

Ziyad replied.

The soldiers on the city wall found Abu *** and others not far away, they can be sure that they have met a big man from their outfits, if they can capture or kill a high-ranking enemy officer alive, what a great credit it will be!

Therefore, the generals defending the city immediately asked the cavalry and horses stationed in the city to go out of the city to fight, and the target was Abu *** and Ziyad's group.

There are only 1,000 cavalry archers stationed in Arcity, but the group of Abu *** and his group not far outside the city are only 300 elites, and the strength is more than three times worse, so the generals defending the city are still very confident, and at the same time, the commander of the cavalry and archery unit is also very willing to carry out such a task.

In order to be able to raid quickly, to capture Abu *** and Ziyad, a thousand cavalry were divided out from the two city gates, and each way was five hundred cavalry, rushing straight over.

Abu *** and Ziyad were observing the situation in Ar City from the hills, so it was naturally easy to find out about the cavalry pouring out of the city.

"General, the enemy cavalry is out of the city, it seems that they are coming at us, let's retreat quickly!"

Ziyad said with concern.

Because he saw that the other party had more troops, out of a cautious heart, Ziyad naturally thought of temporarily withdrawing to avoid the impending danger.

Abu *** looked at the cavalry that was rushing over, and said: "It seems that there are a thousand people on the other side, which is a little more than our cavalry, but the cavalry around us are the most elite warriors, not comparable to these recruits, and a thousand recruits dare to be divided into two teams, which is really a good opportunity." ”

"General, although the enemy army is a new recruit, but after all, the number of people is superior, we still evacuate more safely, at least the general can't risk his life."

Ziyad demanded.

Abu *** said disapprovingly: "Don't be afraid, Ziyad, my elite escort will definitely be able to defeat them, leaving ten soldiers, and the rest will immediately attack the five hundred enemy cavalry on the right, and then turn to defeat the enemy cavalry on the left." ”

The guards faithfully carried out the order, and under the command of a strong general, pounced on the five hundred enemy cavalry that had been killed from the right side, preparing to crush the enemy cavalry in one fell swoop with their elite equipment.

The two cavalry teams soon approached, both elite warriors, both possessing the ability to shoot arrows while riding horses, and when the distance reached about a stone's throw away, both sides immediately fired arrows, ready to destroy some of the enemy forces first, and expand their advantage.

One side is equipped with a heavy crossbow provided by the Tang Dynasty, while the other side's bow and arrow quality is relatively inferior, so it is clear who has the advantage.

The arrows of the Datang heavy crossbow can easily pierce the enemy's body at a long distance, while ordinary bows and arrows do not have such great penetrating power.