Annoyed Mansur was still very angry after giving the order, and the slave who was waiting beside him was unlucky, and became his target of venting, the male slave was punched and kicked by him, and the maid was even more brutally ravaged.

When the order was delivered to northern Khorasan, it was already a day later, and at this time, the commander of the army, Abu ***, was looking at the improvised combat sand table in the tent with an optimistic expression.

He is very satisfied with the current situation, although he can't break through the city in a short time, but the other party has been besieged inside, as long as the city is firmly defended, the other party will be trapped and killed in it sooner or later.

"The enemy's food and grass are only enough for half a year, as long as our army surrounds it for half a year, the enemy will all starve to death, this siege strategy is the best, but the caliph is too eager for quick success, and always asks us to break the enemy as soon as possible and pacify Abdullah as soon as possible, is this simply a blind command?"

"That's right, the caliph doesn't know the situation here at all, the enemy's city is tall and strong, if you force an attack, our army's losses are too great, if you exchange the lives of fifty or sixty thousand soldiers for a city, I will definitely not agree."

"General, you should persuade the caliph to think more about the lives of his soldiers, the Khorasan cavalry is our main force, and we can't let this main force lose most of it in order to attack a city, which is very uneconomical."

"Yes, what cavalry is best at is field warfare, not attacking strong cities, let's attack cities, there is no advantage in attacking cities, and it is normal not to be able to capture cities."

Several subordinates complained.

Abu *** was also a little distressed, he had already told Mansur about the situation in the north, but Mansur still insisted on finding a way to break the city as soon as possible, and the sooner the city was broken, the better.

As a generation of famous generals of the Apos Dynasty, Abu *** naturally wants to find a way to break the city, but his ability is also limited, he has taken many ways to attack the city, but he can't make the slightest breakthrough, which makes him a little helpless.

"General, is it possible to dig tunnels to attack? Let the soldiers dig tunnels into the city from different directions at the same time, and attack the city from underground. ”

Ziyad spoke.

Abu *** shook his head and said: "The water of the moat is very deep, how deep do you have to dig a tunnel to pass through the bottom of the water, what if it leaks, the soldiers who dig the tunnel will be drowned inside, no, it won't work, the risk is too great." ”

Qi Yade shook his head helplessly, and said softly: "Okay then! In this way, there may really be no good way, and it can only be consumed slowly. ”

"Consume it, consume it! If the caliph has any doubts, I will explain, you each take care of your own soldiers and horses, and do not be attacked by the rebels in the city, the rebels have lost half of their troops, and the remaining half of the soldiers and horses are also very strong. ”

Abu *** said.

The subordinates nodded and went to prepare.

"General, the caliph has ordered you to immediately withdraw to Khorasan with all your troops and horses, and withdraw immediately."

It was at this time that a new order was delivered.

Abu *** couldn't believe his ears, looked at this person suspiciously, and asked, "What happened, how could the caliph give such an order?" ”

"General, there is an accident in the southwest, Artik and Ottoman joint action, first annihilating our army's 10,000 Khorasan cavalry, and then driving straight into capture a large number of cities in our southwest, the caliph does not have too many soldiers and horses in his hands, so he can only let the general withdraw his troops and return to help."

Abu *** and Ziyad glanced at each other, and their hearts were extremely frightened, especially Ziyad was so frightened that he couldn't speak.

These 10,000 elite soldiers and horses were brought to Aden City by Qiyad, but they were all wiped out, which is simply cutting the flesh of Qiade's body.

"Ottoman and Artik have joined forces, how is this possible, their relationship is on the same page, how can they be united?"

Abu *** muttered to himself in confusion.

Ziyad clenched his fists angrily, and swore in his heart that he must give Osman and Artik a little color to relieve the hatred in his heart.

"What to do, do you really want to withdraw the troops?"

Abu *** looked at Ziyad, looking a little hesitant.

Ziyad nodded and said, "The order given by the caliph himself, what else can I do but obey it, let the soldiers prepare to withdraw the army earlier!" ”

Abu *** nodded, and asked the henchman beside him to convey the military order.

"Qiyad, you don't have to be too sad, we will definitely avenge the annihilation of the army, but what we are thinking about now should not be this issue, but the issue of withdrawing the army, do you think after we withdraw the army, will Abdullah send a large army to pursue."

Abu *** spoke.

Qi Yad said disdainfully: "The general can rest assured, Abdullah has already understood the strength of our army, and he will not dare to pursue rashly, besides, we have just received news from the southwest, Abdullah is besieged in the city, and he will definitely not know this news, since he does not understand why we withdrew our troops, he will not dare to pursue." ”

Abu *** said: "I agree with you, Ziyad, let's go back to the royal city first and see how the caliph arranges, but, no matter what, the situation is not optimistic!" At least we need to divide our forces against forces from both directions, Abdullah's strength is still there, and Ottoman and Artik may not be easy to deal with. ”

"Yes! The combined forces of the Ottoman and Artik, with a maximum of 20,000 or 30,000 people, can actually annihilate my 10,000 elites in one go, how can they be so powerful, how can they be like this? ”

Ziyad seemed a little puzzled.

"By the way, General, I heard that Datang supported Ottoman and Artik behind his back, and sold them a lot of weapons."

The young general who came from Wangcheng spoke.

"What, there is such a thing, Datang is behind them?"

Abu *** and Ziyad looked at the youngster at the same time, and their hearts were even more surprised.

"General, if Datang is behind it, then we are really not easy to deal with!"

Ziyad said worriedly.

"I know this, before, we had a fight with Datang soldiers and horses, with our ability, there is no way to confront Datang, but I don't know how much assistance Datang can give to Artik, if the aid is limited, our chances of winning are still very great."

Abu *** spoke.

Qi Yad nodded and said, "What the general said is that we should return to the royal city earlier!" See what the caliph has to say, and at the same time, just in case, I am willing to lead ten thousand cavalry to break the rear, and once Abdullah pursues, I will repel it. ”

"Alright! Ziyad, it's up to you to come to the palace. ”

Abu *** agreed to Ziyad's request.

After some preparations, Abu *** first let the baggage troops set off, and after that, the main army began to retreat, and Ziyad led 10,000 cavalry to prevent the enemy troops in the city from taking the opportunity to pursue.

After the defeat in the first battle, Abdullah's soldiers and horses were greatly injured, and he had no choice but to retreat in the fortified city, under the premise of being besieged on all sides, he could only choose to consume with the enemy, but in this case, the pressure in his heart must be great.

Abdullah and his henchmen are very anxious, but most of them have offended Mansour and are all Abdullah's sworn friends, so no matter how much pressure there is, they will not choose to surrender, they will hold on to the end.

The besieged soldiers, under the strict care of the generals, will not choose to surrender for a while, but if the siege is very long, and when the supply of various materials in the city is not available, it is estimated that there will be deserted soldiers, so it will be their nightmare.

Abdullah seemed to have aged ten years overnight, looking very haggard, with a lot more gray hair, and he no longer looked heroic.

The subordinates are also struggling to maintain their image, but they are not in good spirits, and they all seem to be a little anxious.

"Caliphate, caliphate, the enemy retreats on all fronts, retreats on all fronts."

A henchman ran over panting to report the situation.

Abdu moved his old eyes, and asked excitedly and suspiciously, "The enemy army has retreated, and they are really all gone." ”

"Caliph, the enemy forces are really all gone, and there is not a single one left."

The henchman said happily.

"Caliph, it is estimated that something happened in the royal city, could it be that al-Mansur died, if so, then it would be great for us."

"Caliph, this is a golden opportunity, it is better to let the army launch a pursuit, in this way, it will definitely be able to inflict heavy damage on the enemy army."

"Caliph, I am willing to lead my troops into battle."

Several henchmen said confidently.

Abdullah frowned and wondered: "It would be great if Mansour is really dead, but no one knows why Abu *** withdrew his troops, maybe it is some conspiracy, let's go to the city gate tower to have a look." ”

Abdullah did not doubt the words of his subordinates, he believed that the enemy army had really retreated, but he could not figure out the willingness of the enemy army to retreat, so he had to go to the city gate tower to take a look in person, and maybe he could see any clues.

They reached the gate tower as fast as they could, and climbed up quickly.

"Caliph, you see, the enemy army has gone far away, and the last force of men and horses is only 10,000 men, and it will soon disappear from sight."

A henchman pointed to the soldiers and horses in the distance and spoke.

Abdullah frowned, and said: "The enemy army withdrew, and walked calmly, without the slightest panic in formation, and it can be seen that there is a planned withdrawal, so if our army pursues rashly, how can it win, and in case of an ambush, the consequences will be unimaginable." ”

Nasser spoke: "What the caliph said is that this may be the strategy of Abu ***, he has been attacking the city for many days, and he has thought of all the methods he can think of, but he still can't shake the defense of our army, so maybe he changed his strategy and wants to use the method of withdrawing the army to lure our army out of the city, our army's strength is far inferior to Abu ***'s cavalry, once the main force of our army is completely wiped out outside the city, we will be completely finished." ”

Abdullah nodded and said: "Although what Nasser said is only a possibility, we also have to be cautious, our strength has been damaged, and we don't have enough strength to confront Abu *** head-on, so it is absolutely impossible to send troops, send an order, send a few more scouts, and be sure to find out the reason for Abu ***'s withdrawal, and also, contact the eastern cities and let them recruit more troops to supplement our army's losses in this battle." ”

"Yes, caliph, my subordinates will do it."

The subordinate answered.

Abdullah leaned on the stones of the city wall, looked at the Qiyad army that was moving away, and breathed a big sigh in his heart.

At this moment, Abdullah has already planned, if Abu *** is deliberately playing a conspiracy and wants to lure himself into being fooled, it is very likely that he will come back and surround the city again, so he must mobilize more soldiers and horses, food and grass and other materials before Abu *** besieges again, so as to enrich the defense force of the city, and if the enemy army really leaves, then he must also figure out the reason for the enemy's departure and make a reasonable response.

In the direction of the peninsula, the two of Artik and Ottoman, which were really in high spirits, they attacked the city and captured too many cities, in order to be able to take care of each other, their marching routes were not too far apart, no more than three hundred miles at most, and the cavalry could arrive in a few days.

In addition to fighting, the two were also very keen to expand the army and raise food, some of the common people along the way were voluntary, some were coerced, in short, many of them joined the army to fight, and the wealthy merchants and landlords, for their own safety, also had to take out their surplus food and money, so that the strength of the Ottoman and Artik was greatly strengthened, and their forces were rapidly expanding.

The Ottomans paid more attention to the quality of their soldiers, expanding their army to 30,000 men, while Artik expanded their army even more, bringing the total number of troops to 50,000.

The expansion of the army is inseparable from the support of various resources, and food and salary can be raised on the spot, but weapons are very scarce, and the quality and quantity of local funds raised cannot meet the requirements.

Fortunately, Ang Lee's military industrial ships have been producing all kinds of cold weapons, and they have been continuously supplied to Ottoman and Artik, so that these two people have enough weapons to equip the expanded army and improve the combat effectiveness of the army.

In the Altic camp, Artik admired the original weapons from Aden City, these weapons were sold to them by Datang at a very good price, absolutely good quality and low price, whoever did not buy it was a fool.

"City Lord, arrows, Fuyuan crossbows, repeating crossbows, spearheads, these are all things we urgently need, and they are really too timely to come, so that we can equip the newly formed legion."

The subordinate said excitedly.

Artik waved his hand and said, "Take all of this, equip the troops immediately, and let the soldiers learn to use these weapons immediately." ”