Artik's men and horses had lost 2,000 men, and the siege of Ziyad's army outside the city was still going on, so he had to replenish all the lost soldiers and horses in order not to affect his combat effectiveness.

It was most convenient to draw some of the troops from the best of the men and horses to supplement the gates, but Artik was not willing to do so, and he asked the scattered soldiers and horses stationed in the city to be gathered, which numbered about 2,000 men, and at the same time, there were also 2,000 men and horses who joined the construction equipment, and they each drew 1,000 men and horses to disperse and support the various damaged troops, and in addition, 5,000 men and horses from the young men in the city were drawn for simple training, ready to reinforce the city at any time.

The soldiers and horses at each gate were defended in three waves, each for two hours, and then replaced, i.e., every four hours, to maintain physical strength as much as possible.

From morning to dark, a total of six hours have passed, so all the soldiers and horses have been rotated, even the soldiers and horses of the night vigil have participated in the battle, and in the following night battle, these soldiers and horses will continue to rotate to defend the city, and each battle must be held for four hours, after that, you can rest for eight hours.

The besieging side also rotates roughly every two hours, however, the besieging side has more horses and horses, and they can have many waves instead of just three waves.

Artik stayed on the gate tower almost all day, he was very concerned about the situation of the city, and even his meals were carried out on the gate tower, but the noise here was too great, and if he wanted to have a good rest, he had to return to the center of the city, where there were better conditions, distance, and sound insulation of the buildings, which could minimize the noise of attacking and defending the city, so as to facilitate sleep.

The soldiers have to guard the city at night, he doesn't have to ask in person, if he doesn't rest well, he won't be able to command well the next day, of course, he doesn't command anything, the ideas are all from his subordinates, he just needs to be responsible for coordination.

"Are the reinforcements in place?"

Before leaving, Artik asked with concern.

"City Lord, two thousand soldiers and horses have been replenished in place, you can go back and rest with confidence, Qi Yade just has a few brushes, he can't help us at all, he can't break the city."

The subordinate said confidently.

Artik nodded and said: "Very good, by the way, the five thousand reserve soldiers and horses must also be prepared as soon as possible, and a night battle will definitely damage a lot of soldiers and horses, and it needs to be replenished." ”

"Don't worry, city lord, we are preparing for all this work, and we won't delay things."

The subordinate hurriedly said.

"By the way, I want to tell all the soldiers defending the city that they must rest immediately after going down the city, their current task is to rest in addition to fighting and eating, and only when they are resting can they have more strength to work, and they are not allowed to do anything else."

Altic said.

This is to restrict the freedom of the soldiers, not to let the soldiers leave the military area at will, and the purpose of this is to allow the soldiers to have a better rest, and the other is to avoid some soldiers taking the opportunity to hide and become deserters.

"Yes, city lord, my subordinates know what to do."

The subordinates hurriedly answered.

Altic finally gave a verbosous explanation, and then left the city with a group of guards and returned to his residence.

The attack outside the city never stopped, and Ziyad gave a death order, telling his subordinates to storm the city of Maia day and night, and as long as the city was not breached, the battle could not stop.

It doesn't matter if the army has attrition, anyway, there are many of them, more people are captured, and the battalion still has 20,000 reserve forces, which is enough to support their operations, and the personnel losses can be replenished at any time.

"General, the soldiers have been attacking for a day, and it is almost dark, do you still want to continue the attack?"

The subordinate asked.

Qi Yad nodded and said, "Of course you have to continue the attack, didn't I say it before?" If you don't capture the city of Maia, you won't retreat, and you will continue to attack. ”

"Yes, General, you're tired of the day, go back to the camp to rest first! Here we are. ”

The subordinate said with concern.

Qi Yad shook his head and said: "I won't go back to the camp, just rest here, listening to the shouts and killing of the soldiers, I will sleep better." ”

Qi Yade, who has been fighting for many years, has become accustomed to sleeping in the noise, as long as he is willing to sleep, even if there are thousands of troops and horses fighting outside, he will not sleep properly, without this ability, how to command thousands of troops and horses.

Especially when he encountered the enemy's tired tactics, he slept peacefully, and only when he rested well, could he have more energy to devote to the subsequent battles.

"The siege at night must not be weakened in the slightest, the siege soldiers and horses and the plundering troops and horses must be in place, and the enemy must not be given a chance to breathe, and Artik must be completely consumed."

Qi Yad finally explained, then dismounted and went to the tent next to him to rest, which was still some distance from the city wall, and after some camouflage, the soldiers and horses in the city could not find it at all, and naturally they could not attack him.

The supreme commanders of both sides rested, but the battle for the siege and defense of the city continued, for it was dark, the sun had already set, and it was a cloudy day tonight, so it was dark everywhere, and it was impossible to see the situation in the distance.

The best concealment was the Khorasan archers who hid in the trenches, and under the cover of night, they occasionally attacked the soldiers on the head of the city, but it was difficult for them to be counterattacked, because the soldiers on the head of the city could not see the situation in the trenches, not at all, and they had to risk their bodies to probe in order to probe, but they could not detect anything, and their own situation was easily seen by the other party.

This is because the walls they are on are relatively high, and in order to be able to see the defensive equipment, the city is full of bonfires, which naturally further increases the transparency of the defenders, and although the attacking side also lit a large number of torches, these torches are located in the position of the catapults and arrow blockers, and the archers closest to the city wall who are hiding in the trenches are not lit at all, and the trenches themselves are convenient for hiding soldiers, so they are the only ones who can not be detected by the enemy.

These trenches were all dug by the soldiers in the city, if they knew that this would be the result, they would not do such a thing, but since the matter has already appeared, they must work hard to deal with it, and they must find a way to fight it, otherwise, the casualties of the defenders of the city will be too great.

"General, the enemy archers are hiding in the trenches, we can't see them at all, they have been firing cold arrows at us, shooting and wounding many of our soldiers, this will definitely not work, our casualties will be much more than during the day."

One of the soldiers said urgently.

The general was furious, walked up to a catapult, and said loudly: "Fireball, immediately throw the fireball, aim at the first trench outside the city, and be sure to find out the soldiers hiding inside." ”

"General, these fireballs are specially used to deal with the enemy's siege equipment, to light the trenches, it's really a waste, and besides, it doesn't necessarily have an effect, do you really want to do this?"

The petty officer who operated the catapult spoke.

"You don't care if it works, just try it first."

The general ordered.

Soon, all the catapults adjusted their angles, aimed at the position of the trench, and threw the ignited fireballs down.

A large number of fireballs were thrown down, most of them missed, only a few fireballs fell into the trench and illuminated part of the trench, but the lighting effect was still very poor, after all, the trench was dug relatively deep, and the fireball fell into the bottom of the trench, and the illuminated range was also the bottom of the trench, and the entire trench was not illuminated, and the Khorasan archers hiding inside were still invisible.

"General, you see, how effective it is at all."

Said the soldier operating the catapult.

"Smack......

At this moment, a stone smashed over, smashing a key part of the catapult defending the city, that is, the catapult could no longer be used, which made the general very angry.

In the fierce confrontation between the two sides, this situation is very common, the equipment of both sides has the possibility of damage, and the soldiers also have the possibility of being attacked and injured, otherwise, it is not a war, but a game.

The key problem is that the soldiers defending the city must not stick their heads out, otherwise, how to attack the enemy outside the city, let alone check the effect of the bed crossbow and catapult attacks, and even the battle report cannot be written.

Just when the general was very annoyed, the young general of the Tang Dynasty came over with a batch of wooden masks and armor.

These masks were all done under his personal guidance, and although they looked a little rough, they definitely had the strength to resist bows and arrows, and they did not affect the flexibility of vision and body.

Armor made of bamboo protects the neck and upper chest from the neck down, so that soldiers will not be killed by arrows.

"These are defensive masks, as well as simple armor, there are only a hundred sets in total, let the soldiers take them and try them out and see how they work."

The general glanced at it and said, "It looks pretty good, okay, I'll let the soldiers give it a try." ”

Many, some soldiers who need to look down, wear masks and armor, so as to greatly increase their defensive strength.

Of course, because of the limited number of equipment, it is not possible to guarantee that all soldiers will be equipped with this artifact, and this kind of equipment can only reduce the proportion of casualties, but cannot completely avoid casualties, and the role of helmets is the same, all to reduce the casualties of soldiers.

Because there is no lining, the wooden mask is not very comfortable to wear on the face, and there is a rather uncomfortable feeling, but it must be worn in order to protect one's life, and no soldier has a problem with this.

The effect of the mask was quickly revealed, and in less than half an hour, more than a dozen soldiers were shot into the mask by arrows, and more than a dozen soldiers were shot in armor, and these soldiers who were shot, without exception, were not injured, and they were slightly injured alive, but a few were still seriously injured, but overall, it still had a good effect, at least, dozens of casualties were alleviated for the defending soldiers and horses.

All the masks and armor that were shot were quickly concentrated, and the Datang junior general had to personally inspect them to see what kind of reaction these masks and armor would have after being shot.

"Look at these masks, none of them have been shot through, the arrows are all embedded in the wood, and the soldiers don't have the slightest scar on their faces, it seems to be something to use."

The general nodded with great satisfaction, thinking that the mask was a good thing, and it could really protect the lives of the soldiers.

"These bamboo pieces can also defend against arrows, but it's a pity that they are one by one, the gaps between the bamboo pieces, these injured soldiers, are all shot into the gaps, but it's a pity that this gap is not easy to do! If there is no gap, it will be difficult to move the neck with a complete bamboo pipe, and the best thing to use is the ring armor, which can protect the neck well, but there are too few iron rings in the city, even if you start manufacturing it now, you can't finish much. ”

The Datang junior said with some regret.

These bamboo pieces of armor were designed by him himself, similar to the mahjong mats of later generations, each small piece of bamboo can block the attack of arrows, but the gap between the pieces is indeed unable to block the arrows, if the bow and arrow just hit the gap, then it will hurt the soldiers.

In addition, when the arrow hits the bamboo, it will slide from the edge of the bamboo to the gap and cause damage to the soldier.

Of course, because sliding will also reduce the force, the gap between the bamboo pieces is narrower than the arrow of the arrow, and there are two layers of cloth to block, so in general, even if you are shot in the gap, the strength of the arrow will be reduced because of the blocking, so as to reduce the injuries of the soldiers, so that the injuries will not be too serious.

The general nodded with satisfaction: "It's not bad!" As long as it can reduce the casualties of the soldiers, it is a good thing! More should be made, especially these masks, which are very good and should be equipped first. ”

The Tang junior general opened his mouth and said, "I asked the craftsmen just now, and now they say that they can only make so much, and they must have the order of your city lord before they can continue to make more masks and armor." ”

The general said angrily: "The soldiers in front of the front are bloody, and they dare to do this, it's really infuriating." ”

"Otherwise, you will send someone to your city lord and ask the city lord to give orders to the craftsmen, so that the craftsmen will have no reason not to make them."

The Datang junior said with a smile.

"The city lord should have rested, isn't it a little inappropriate to disturb him for such a trivial matter."

The general was a little hesitant.

"It's a matter of life and death for the soldiers, this can also be called a trivial matter, it's important for your city lord to sleep, isn't the life of the soldiers important?"

The Datang junior said not very happily.