The soldiers and horses under the command of Qi Yad are still continuing to attack the city, in this case, he must not fall, if the commander of the command falls, his soldiers and horses will fall into chaos, and the result of the siege is likely to be a complete defeat.

So, after returning to a safe enough position in the rear, Ziyad immediately pushed away the guards beside him, found a horse and rode up, he wanted to tell his subordinates that he was now fine and unharmed, so as to reassure the army.

After a short period of commotion, order was restored to the Qiyad camp, and thousands of soldiers saw that the main general was fine, and the morale of the army suddenly stabilized a lot.

Abu *** in the rear was also much relieved to see this scene, if Ziyad was injured, he could only announce the retreat of the army and temporarily stop the siege.

The soldiers on the city wall couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the fact that they couldn't kill the enemy commander after an attack, but they couldn't let the enemy commander retreat in embarrassment, which could be regarded as a success, at least, they were excited for a while.

After tasting the sweetness of the catapult and the giant crossbow attack, the defending general did not think too much about it, and immediately ordered the catapult and the giant crossbow to carry out a fierce attack on the siege soldiers and horses outside the city, so as to prevent the siege soldiers and horses from filling the river little by little and protect the safety of the city.

Catapults are made of relatively large boulders, and the power of the bed crossbow is enough to penetrate the shield, after such a heavy weapon is put into use, it immediately caused great losses to the soldiers and horses of the besieging side, the original bow and crossbow shooting, the casualties are only a few hundred people, and after the bed crossbow and catapult are all put into use, the loss of the besieging side is relatively large, the casualties have increased several times, and the casualties have begun to increase.

The main problem is that the formation of the besieging side has been completely broken, and the siege without the formation is not very efficient, which is a very serious problem, which means that the besieging side suffers a lot, if it continues to be consumed like this, the loss of the besieging side will be relatively large.

Seeing that the attack effect was very bad, Qi Yade reluctantly ordered the troops to retreat, first retreat and refine, and attack again after studying better tactics.

After the order to retreat was issued, the siege soldiers and horses led by Qi Yad retreated in turn, and gradually disconnected from the soldiers and horses defending the city, and the soldiers and horses defending the city were afraid of the Khorasan cavalry outside the city, and did not dare to open the city to pursue, so they could only watch these siege soldiers and horses retreat.

However, after all, the defense was successful, and the soldiers on the defense were all very excited, shouting and celebrating that they had repelled the enemy.

After this battle, both sides suffered some losses, however, in terms of total strength, the losses of both sides were not very large, the casualties of the attacking side were more than 1,000 people, and the casualties of the defending side were even smaller, only three or five hundred, and most of them were injured by the catapults of the besieging side, and not many were injured by crossbow shots.

After the defender's victory, small celebrations were held to raise the morale of the army and prepare for the more brutal battles that followed.

The attacking side returned to the camp to recuperate, and the morale was somewhat depressed.

Ziyad went to meet with Abu *** to discuss with him how to reformulate the plan for the siege.

Since ancient times, many weapons have been explored in practice and learned through the constant contest between the offensive and defensive sides, so if there is no war, there will be no development of weapons, and after the existence of war, weapons can be developed accordingly.

After some feints, Ziyad successfully tried out the defensive weapon of the defending side, and at the same time, it was enough to prove that the tactics just now were very undesirable, and the offensive plan had to be reformulated.

"General, our army suffered a lot of casualties in this battle, and the main casualties were caused by the enemy's heavy crossbow arrows and catapults, the giant crossbow has a very long range, it can penetrate the shield, even my mount was shot to death, this is a crossbow arrow, the size is too big."

Ziyad complained as soon as he entered the door, and handed the crossbow arrow he had picked up on the road into the hands of Abu ***.

Abu *** held a thick and long crossbow arrow, and sighed: "This kind of crossbow is definitely not Artik's, for example, it was supported by the Tang Dynasty, which caused great trouble to our siege, but the task given to us by the Caliph is to destroy Artik, so even if there is a big difficulty, we must break through the city." ”

Since the superiors have expressed their attitude, Qi Yad will not object, thought for a while, and said softly: "General, Ar City is not as easy to fight as we thought before, if we want to break through this city, we have to come up with a better siege strategy." ”

"This is natural, I won't gamble with the lives of the soldiers, the current siege method will definitely not work, you have to come up with a better way, do you have any good ideas."

Abu *** asked.

Qi Yad thought for a long time, and then said: "General, the enemy army can inflict huge casualties on our army, and the most relied on is catapults and giant crossbows, our shields can't resist such sharp weapons at all, can we build equipment that can resist giant crossbows and catapults?" ”

When he made this suggestion, Qi Yade already had a spectrum in his heart, but he didn't know if it was really useful, so he didn't dare to say it easily.

Abu *** thought for a moment and said, "Ziyad, since you have already made this suggestion, is there a more reliable way, let's talk about it." ”

Qi Yad spoke: "General, in today's battle, the enemy relies on nothing more than catapults and giant crossbows, as long as they can resist these two weapons, our soldiers will not have great casualties, my idea is to transform the rushing car, remove the battering ram of the rushing car, and strengthen the top and front part to make it able to resist the attack of boulders and giant crossbows, in addition, dozens of sandbags can be stacked inside the rushing car, and when pushed to the moat, the sandbags will be pushed into the moat from the small mouth in the front, so as to fill the moat step by step, so, Our reclamation plan can be completely completed with minimal casualties. ”

"If you want to resist the force of the boulder falling from a high altitude, the planks on the top must be thick enough, and also, you have to build a bigger punch, the existing punch is too small, it will definitely not work, and it needs to be remanufactured, Ziyad, you are responsible!"

Abu *** understood Ziyad's words, this kind of defensive fortress is completely able to withstand the attacks of catapults and giant crossbows, as long as it is built strong enough, it can play a huge role, but it takes time to build.

Immediately after receiving the order, Ziyad called several carpenters, told them what he thought, and asked them to make the necessary improvements based on the existing carts to meet the needs of the river reclamation.

In fact, the improved punch car that Qi Yade wants to make can be regarded as a primitive tank, because it is strong enough that it is difficult to destroy it with cold weapons, so it is still very powerful.

Because all kinds of wood were readily available and there were enough craftsmen, it only took a day or two to make the first vehicles.

In order to resist a huge blow, the roof is a ridge-shaped design, and the front part is concave inward, that is, the design of the concave, which is also very convenient to put the sandbag into the moat, and can increase the defense after being hit.

The top and front planks are not only thicker, but at the same time, in order to further enhance the strength of the structure, many parts of the inside are made of stiffeners, so that they can better resist the attacks of boulders and heavy crossbows.

In the center of the thick plank at the front, there is a small opening that can be lifted, and the width of the small mouth is enough to pass through the sandbag, and only the baffle can be thrown into the sandbag, and because the baffle is inclined inward, it is more convenient to throw the sandbag into the moat.

Throughout the day, Ziyad spent the day instructing the craftsmen to complete each part in order to assemble the transporter.

Because of the personal supervision of Qiyad, thousands of craftsmen are all very hard working, and none of the craftsmen dare to be lazy, so as to ensure that the super-heavy transport truck can be completed on time.

When the six super-heavy transporters were built, Ziyad nodded with great satisfaction, and immediately went in to have a look, and then let twenty soldiers push forward, although the speed of movement is relatively slow, but as long as it can be pushed, it is enough, anyway, he has troops under his hands, and it is enough to transport a group of people at a time.

Twenty soldiers were to enter from the rear, and then ten on one side were responsible for pushing the heavy transporter forward, and in the middle was a shelf for sandbags, which could hold fifty sandbags at a time.

Because of the protection of thick wooden planks, the twenty soldiers in the car did not have to worry about being attacked at all, and it was relatively efficient to transport fifty sandbags at a time.

"General, the first batch of six vehicles has been built, and the soldiers are experimenting, twenty soldiers, and it is quite easy to push."

Ziyad saw Abu *** coming over and hurriedly greeted him.

Abu *** hit the heavy transport truck with the scabbard in his hand, felt the strength, and then said with satisfaction: "Yes, it looks very strong, but whether this thing is strong or not, it still needs to be tested on the battlefield, it's already afternoon, let's go to battle immediately!" Just fill the river in the north, let 10,000 cavalry press the formation behind, and prepare ten times the force of carts. ”

"Yes, General."

Ziyad replied.

One cart needs twenty men, six chariots need one hundred and twenty men, and ten times the strength is 1,200 men, in addition to the transport of soldiers and horses, it also needs someone to prepare sandbags, and another 300 people, a total of 1,500 men, and 10,000 cavalry are in the rear to prevent the soldiers and horses in the city from suddenly rushing out to attack the heavy transports.

Because each transporter is relatively large, there are more wheels below, and a car has twenty wheels, divided into five groups of front and rear, which is as many as the number of operators.

There are so many wheels that it is a good way to ensure the passage of vehicles and keep such a large vehicle from getting stuck in the mud.

However, the vehicles of this era have not yet realized the steering function, that is, the vehicles are deadlifted when turning, so the general vehicle has two wheels, and if there are many wheels in the front and rear, the steering will become a big problem.

After Li An appeared, Datang solved the problem of vehicle steering very well, but there is no such advanced technology here in Dashiguo, so the steering of the vehicle has become a big problem.

However, Ziyad has a large number of soldiers and horses, and when it is necessary to turn, it is only necessary to let a large number of soldiers push it, especially before attacking, first figure out the forward position of the vehicle, and then follow a straight line.

In the case of empty vehicles, the speed of implementation is still relatively fast, and, because it is still far away from the city wall, therefore, the outside and the back can be on the people, originally twenty people cart, in this way, a car is on fifty people, and it is naturally very fast to push.

And the place where Ziyad asked the craftsmen to work was not far from Ar City, only a few miles away, so that the soldiers quickly pushed the six taels of heavy transport carts not far outside the city walls.

Ziyad already knew the range of the catapult and the bed crossbow, so he had the cavalry line up twice the range of the bed crossbow, and he himself stayed there.

The six transports and 1,500 soldiers continued to move forward, stopping at range close to the crossbow, but they needed to make sure that the crossbow could not shoot itself.

The soldiers then began to prepare sandbags in batches and dig up the soil from local materials. Then bag by bag is loaded into the transport truck.

The soldiers in charge of defense on the city wall naturally saw these heavy transport vehicles, they didn't know what these vehicles were for, after all, they had never seen such a thing, so naturally they didn't understand.

After the six carts were filled with fifty bags of dirt, twenty soldiers from each entered the carts and pushed them closer to the moat.

"The enemy is going to fill the river, and the catapults will attack immediately."

The soldiers defending the city immediately gave the order and prepared to take out the advancing transports.

The accuracy of the catapult is not very good, most of the stones fell on the open ground, at least a small number of stones fell on the roof of the car, but after the thickened vehicle was not afraid of the attack of the stones, there was no trace of damage, the vehicle was still moving forward, only one car wheels were blocked by stones, temporarily stopped, but the soldiers inside easily pushed the stones away with wooden sticks, and even moved a few stones to the car and put them on top of the sandbags, so that these stones could be used to fill the river.

Seeing that the transport vehicle he invented completely resisted the stone attack of the soldiers defending the city, Qi Yad felt sweet in his heart, as long as the soldiers defending the city could not do anything with this kind of transport vehicle, the moat could be quickly filled.