The attackers and defenders are like playing a game, constantly throwing their own stones and arrows at each other, and the opponent can easily use the stones and arrows they have picked up to fight back fiercely.

However, the environment of the battlefield is more complicated, not all stones and arrows can be used, some stones fall into the moat, some fall at the foot of the city wall, and some are broken because of the stones that hit the ground, and can no longer be used.

The same is true of arrows, some of which are cut off by the swords wielded by the soldiers, some of which are broken by angry soldiers because they are shot into the soldiers' bodies, and some of which fall into positions that are difficult to recover.

The attack is extremely fierce and the number of soldiers killed is not too many, so that the war can continue, if both sides of the war have more than half of the casualties, then the war will not be able to continue, because the people are all gone, naturally it will not be able to fight.

The continuous and fierce fighting consumes the physical strength of the soldiers, and after the physical strength decreases, the reaction speed of the soldiers will decrease, so after the two sides have fought for a while, they begin to withdraw their men and horses, so that the new troops can come up and continue to fight, so that the previous soldiers can recover their physical strength, so that they can continue to fight.

There is a saying that small things add up, although the casualty rate of fierce battles is not large, but with the passage of time, the casualties still accumulate to a relatively large number, and the wear and tear of various siege equipment has also come up, in short, people feel the cruelty of war.

Artik personally inspected the soldiers in the direction of the North Gate and brought them a delicious meal.

Because there are 2,000 soldiers and horses reinforcements, the soldiers and horses defending the north gate are 5,000 people, but now there are not so many people, as the casualties continue, in the morning, there have been more than 500 casualties, of which, only more than 100 people were killed.

Although this is not a big loss, after all, it is only one morning, and if it takes ten days and a half months, the entire defense of the city gate will be exhausted.

This is a real problem, but they have to go untapped, if they don't, the enemy forces outside the city will attack the city, and then they will be finished, and they must continue to fight back to destroy the living forces outside the city.

"There were more than 500 casualties in one morning, and this casualty is really too big, and we should find ways to reduce the casualties."

Artik was very dissatisfied with the casualty figures, and felt that the sacrifice was too great, and if he continued to fight like this, he would be able to lose all 5,000 men and horses in a few days.

"City Lord, the casualties of the enemy army are greater, at least one or two thousand people, and our army has a great advantage."

The subordinate spoke.

Another subordinate spoke: "City Lord, many of the enemy troops who are leading the battle are civilians captured nearby, and these casualties include the casualties of the common people, in addition, all the people outside the city add up to nearly 40,000, even if the enemy's casualties are two or three times that of ours, we can't afford to consume them, the casualties are too great." ”

Artik shook his head and said: "This kind of battle is really not interesting, it only increases casualties, I really hope that this war of attrition will end sooner." ”

"City lord, we are afraid that there is no choice, Qi Yade has received a death order, and he actually launched a strong attack regardless of casualties, and they also have new siege equipment to join the siege, from the direction of the enemy's camp, there are constantly new siege equipment being transported, our army's defense pressure is very great, the first trench is about to be filled by the enemy, the efficiency of the enemy army is very high, it is estimated that it only takes two days, they can fill in several trenches and horses, and then there will be a moat and an urn city."

The subordinate spoke.

Artik spoke, "You should think of ways to reduce casualties and inflict more casualties on the enemy, while at the same time slowing down the enemy's siege. ”

Several of his subordinates were embarrassed, it was clear that this was not an easy task, they applied all the methods they could think of, but they still could not avoid casualties, and because the siege soldiers had a large number of arrow guards and huge shields, it was difficult for their attacks to cause too many casualties to the soldiers and horses outside the city.

"City Lord, the Datang artillery is extremely powerful, if it can be put into use, it will definitely be able to cause greater casualties to the enemy, it is better to let the Datang artillery participate in the battle!"

One of the subordinates spoke.

Artik thought for a moment, shook his head and said, "Forget it, let's let the soldiers take it first!" The Tang artillery only has five artillery, and the ammunition is not very sufficient, it is too wasteful to use in this case, once the ammunition is exhausted, we will not have enough weapons to deter Qi Yade, or use this weapon when it is critical! ”

Obviously, Artik is reluctant to use the most powerful force, the number of Datang artillery is too small, he is worried that after the ammunition of Datang artillery is used up, there will be no more powerful weapons that can threaten Qiade, when the time comes, Qiyad can attack more frantically, in addition, he is also very regretful, if he asked Datang for more artillery and ammunition, if there can be fifty artillery, there is no need to worry so much, of course, Li An will not agree to give Altik fifty artillery, If Artik's power is too strong, wouldn't it be against the interests of the Tang Dynasty, and it is not in line with the fundamental interests of the Tang Empire for any one party to dominate.

"City Lord, even if you don't let the Datang artillery participate in the battle, you can ask them for experience in defense, maybe they Datang have a better way to defend the city, which can reduce casualties."

One of the subordinates spoke.

Qi Yade nodded with satisfaction and said, "This is a good idea, you can communicate with the Tang Dynasty soldiers at any time and ask them about the good way to defend the city." ”

"Yes, my subordinates will prepare."

The subordinate answered.

In fact, everything that the Tang Dynasty can help them has already helped, and the methods that can be thought of are almost the same, if it weren't for the help of the Tang Empire, how could they have such a huge fortification, all of which is the credit of the Tang Empire.

Of course, there is no problem in proposing a solution according to the actual situation, and the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty can completely put forward a targeted solution to the problem according to the actual casualties.

A few miles outside the city, Ziad was still watching the battle hard, this battle was his last attack on the city of Maia, whether it was successful or not, he would not fight a second time, because the pressure on logistics supply was too great, and this battle was bound to be a heavy casualty, after this battle, even if he disobeyed the order, he would not continue to carry out the siege order, it was a big deal.

"General, our army has been attacking all morning, and three groups of people have been replaced, and the casualties are almost 2,000, this casualty is too great, and the first trench has not been able to break through, and the progress is too slow, do you really want to gnaw like this step by step?"

The subordinate said.

Qi Yad said: "The casualties are only two thousand, half of them are the people nearby, the real casualties are at most one thousand, and this will require a step by step advance, in order to fight steadily and steadily, reduce the casualties of our soldiers, if the trenches on the offensive road cannot be bulldozed, this will cause great difficulties for the attack of the army, these trenches must be bulldozed first, before you can further attack, you must know that the enemy army is well defended, if you venture directly over the trenches, even if you rush under the city wall, you will soon be annihilated, When Arle attacked, we suffered heavy casualties, so this time, even if we wasted some more time, we had to fight steadily, use the most equipment and the least casualties to push down all obstacles in the offensive path step by step, and finally break the city in one fell swoop. ”

Obviously, this strategy is already the best way that Qi Yad can think of, he is not a general who is good at siege, the Khorasan cavalry is good at field combat, siege is always the last option, but unfortunately their enemy Artik is hiding in the city and does not come out, and they are subject to the problem of grain and grass, they can't consume the other party at all, since they can't consume food and grass, and the city must be attacked, then use the force to consume it, anyway, he now occupies the initiative, and can capture ordinary people from the surrounding area at any time, Forcing these civilians to participate in siege operations, thus further reducing the losses of their own soldiers and horses, and minimizing the losses.

Not far from the city there was a mountain of stones, from which a huge amount of stone could be mined, and as long as the supply of stones continued, the fierce siege could continue, and there was no pressure at all.

And in order to inflict greater losses on the defending soldiers and horses, some crossbowmen held shields and ventured over the first trench into the second trench, and took these trenches as envy, and directly put arrows on the city, because the distance was closer, so the effect of the attack would be better, of course, because they were closer and easier to attack, so the pros and cons were the same.

However, the thing that made the defenders more depressed was that the trench they had worked so hard to dig had actually become a natural barrier for the enemy's crossbowmen, which they did not want to see.

There were more than 100 crossbowmen who ventured into the second trench, while there were only more than 20 crossbowmen who entered the third trench, and they entered different positions, which greatly increased the pressure on the defense of the soldiers and horses.

The female wall and trench can protect the soldier's body, but the soldier's arms and head cannot be protected, because when shooting the enemy, the head must be exposed, and the neck and arms are also outside, and these parts are easy to attack, most of the casualties are shot in these parts, and the head and neck are particularly fragile, once shot, it is seriously injured, and even death.

The most vulnerable part of the soldier's body must be exposed during the battle, which is really helpless, and there is no good solution, you can't let the soldier shoot blindly! If you shoot blindly, the probability of hitting the enemy is too small, and it will be a waste of arrows.

If all the crossbowmen hide and do not shoot at the besieging soldiers, they will fall into a situation where they will be passively beaten, and the soldiers on the walls will only be able to withstand the occasional stone attack.

In a more serious situation, if the defender stops attacking, the soldiers and horses outside the city will be able to attack very calmly, and the speed of the attack will be much faster, and the crossbowmen outside the city will not attack indiscriminately without discovering the enemy, they will set up a ladder to cross the moat and attack the city wall, once the enemy attacks the city, it will be too late to counterattack.

Therefore, even with heavy casualties, the defenders of the city must risk launching a counterattack, sacrificing their own lives and inflicting great damage on the attacking enemy army.

At the head of the city at the north gate, the Tang soldiers soon appeared, they did not come to fight, but to observe the situation, they are all elites with rich combat experience, they know the battlefield very well, and have a strong strength in defending the city, just because they are Tang Dynasty soldiers, so Altic will not rest assured that his troops will be handed over to outsiders to command, he must firmly control his own troops, this is his capital to settle down, and what the Tang soldiers can do is only to give them advice, If they think it's possible, they'll comply, and if they don't, they'll have to disobey.

Anyway, it's not their own city, and there is no need for the Tang soldiers to argue with them, even if the city really falls, Qi Yade who invades the city will not dare to kill the Tang soldiers casually, this is something that Qi Yade does not dare to do.

"You count the casualties and see why they are mainly injured, especially the seriously injured and killed soldiers, where they were injured, only when we rule these well, can we come up with targeted countermeasures."

The Datang junior general made a request.

Soon, a rough statistical data came out, the casualties of the soldiers were different, some were stoned to death, and some were killed and wounded by the enemy's bow and arrow, among them, those who were hit in the head were almost all seriously injured and killed, and those who were hit in the arms and arms were slightly injured, most of the people who were shot in the face and neck by arrows were seriously injured and killed, and those who were shot in the arms were basically slightly injured.

With this data, we can give targeted suggestions for improvement, since the seriously injured and killed soldiers are all problems of the head and neck, then, only need to protect the head and neck, as well as the face, the casualty rate can be reduced a lot, especially the death rate can be greatly reduced.

"These soldiers only have hats on their heads, how can this thing protect their heads, why not equip them with helmets, if they had helmets, many soldiers would not have died."

The young general of Datang said.

"We have a limited number of helmets, only the most elite soldiers and horses in the city have helmets, and the rest of the troops are unequipped."

Said one of the generals.