Mansour and Abu ***, as well as Ziyad, studied the Tang Fuyuan crossbow and repeater together, and were quite surprised by the manufacturing level of the Datang weapons, although the structure of these weapons is relatively simple and there is nothing special, but the weapons imitated by their craftsmen are only similar to the Datang weapons in appearance, but they are greatly discounted in performance, which makes them very helpless.

In fact, this is a problem of craftsmanship, the power of the bow and crossbow mainly comes from the bow arms on both sides, and the bow arms made by Datang are of higher quality and belong to advanced composite bows, while the craftsmen under Mansur can only make a look, they can't make compound bows, and they don't understand the principle of compound bows, so the bows and crossbows made are much inferior in power.

The problem of process is the result of long-term accumulation, not overnight, if you want to improve the level of technology in a short period of time, it is obviously impossible, and technological progress cannot be made without long-term accumulation.

The Chinese Empire in later generations had the largest population, and the people's enthusiasm for work was also very high, but in terms of key core technology, it was always not good, because technology needed to be accumulated step by step, and the gap was too big to catch up, and it needed to come step by step.

Now, the problem is already in front of us, there are very few captured Tang bows and crossbows, and the imitation bows and crossbows are completely substandard and cannot equip the troops, so their soldiers and horses can only use their own backward weapons, and in the process of confronting Artik, it is inevitable that they will suffer.

"Caliph, can we let the craftsmen think of more ways to make them make bows and crossbows that can compete with the Tang Dynasty's crossbows, so that our soldiers and horses will have a great increase in combat effectiveness."

Ziyad opened his mouth to suggest.

Abu *** also nodded, thinking that this was a good idea and the only way to solve the problem at the root.

Mansour shook his head helplessly: "How can it be so easy, I have strictly ordered the craftsmen to go all out to improve, but they don't seem to find any good way, they have improved many times, the result is still the same, and the big war is imminent, even if it can be imitated, it is too late to equip the army." ”

Abu sighed and said: "Caliph, the weapons produced by the Tang Dynasty are much better than ours, if our soldiers can't have such weapons, when the time comes, we will definitely suffer a lot, and the soldiers will definitely suffer heavy losses." ”

Mansur said: "Of course I know about this situation, but our weapons are indeed inferior to Artik in many aspects, especially in terms of bows and crossbows, the bows and crossbows they are equipped with are all provided by the Tang Dynasty, which poses a huge threat to our army, but this battle still has to be fought, such a vast land on the peninsula cannot be easily given up, and we must not give up, otherwise, we will be the sinners of the Apos Dynasty." ”

"Harry's heart, as long as Datang doesn't intervene directly, we can still win, although Artik's soldiers and horses have expanded to 100,000, most of them are recruits who have not fought a tough battle, even if the weapons are better, they may not be able to win the battle, I am confident that they can defeat them."

Abu *** spoke.

"Alright! This time, I hurriedly transferred you back in order to open up the situation in the south, but Abdullah was not destroyed, so it was not possible to throw all the troops and horses into the southwest, and leave 50,000 horses in Khorasan to prevent Abdullah from taking the opportunity to attack the royal city. ”

Mansour spoke.

Ziyad felt that if there were fewer soldiers and horses in the south, it would not be easy to open up the situation, so he opened his mouth and suggested: "Caliph, the threat of foreign enemies is very great, in this case, we should not fight in the nest, we should get in touch with Abdullah as soon as possible, and make a temporary truce with him, so that we can fight against the threat of Artik wholeheartedly." ”

Mansur frowned, pondered for a long time and did not answer, although he also understood this truth, but he understood even more that Mansur was his enemy, and he was an enemy who had completely torn his face, so how could he pull down his face and negotiate peace with Abdullah, even if the peace talks were over, how could he trust Abdullah, in case Abdullah promised a truce, but finally stabbed himself in the back at a critical time, wouldn't it be a big trouble.

"Caliph, fighting on two fronts will be very unfavorable to us, and we must try our best to avoid this happening, so we still have to negotiate peace with Abdullah, we will coexist peacefully for the time being, and divide the eastern and northern regions to their rule, and deal with this old fellow after we have cleaned up Artik."

Abu *** is also worried about Abdullah stabbing him in the back, after all, they are mortal enemies.

Mansur frowned and said, "How can I not know the disadvantages of fighting on two fronts, but Abdullah must have known about Artik now, so how can he just talk to us like this." ”

"Harry's heart, in the first battle in the north, Abdullah's main force has been seriously damaged, and the combat strength has been reduced by more than half, it is estimated that they are not capable of attacking us for the time being, as long as we give sincerity, they will be obedient, in this way, it is better than not talking."

Abu *** spoke.

Mansour nodded, "Alright! I will find someone to do the peace talks, and you will organize 100,000 troops and horses, and in three days you will go to conquer Artik and recover our lost territory. ”

Both Abu *** and Ziyad promised to complete the mission.

Khorasan's main army is all cavalry, cavalry has strong battlefield flexibility compared with infantry, is a very good field combat force, but in the face of strong cities, this class of troops has little advantage.

That is to say, if it is a decisive battle in the field, Artik's 100,000 recruits will definitely not be the opponent of Abu ***'s 100,000 Khorasan cavalry, but if these soldiers and horses divide their troops to defend important cities, the advantage of the Khorasan cavalry will be largely neutralized, and in this way, their victory will become extremely difficult.

In addition, although the cavalry's mobility ability is very strong, but the food of war horses far exceeds that of humans, 100,000 war horses have very high requirements for logistics, if the battle cannot be ended in a short period of time, it will cause huge pressure on logistics and will drag down the finances of the Mansour group.

What Abu *** is most afraid of now is that his opponent is strong and clear, and all the grain and grass are concentrated in the city, so his army of 100,000 will be very painful, if he can easily break through the city, it is fine, but if it is difficult to break through the city, or it cannot be broken in the short term, then they must rely on the rear transportation, and the pressure is quite great.

And when he thought that the city wall was full of soldiers armed with Tang Fuyuan crossbows and repeating crossbows, Abu *** shuddered, the power of these bows and crossbows was too powerful, in order to reduce casualties, he must equip his army with a sufficient number of shields, even small shields, which can block a little is a little.

Abu *** and Ziyad had three days to prepare, in order to be able to suffer fewer casualties in the future battles, they gave orders to the craftsmen of the royal city, asking them to build more shields, at least a small shield for each cavalryman, and the large shield of the project needs to be built at the time of the project, otherwise, it will not be easy to carry.

The soldiers and horses of the Mansour Group are preparing, and the recruits under Artik's command will naturally not be idle, under the guidance of a small number of Datang officers, these recruits have grown very fast, and all of them have reached the level that recruits should have.

In particular, the cavalry and archery unit formed according to the suggestions of the Tang Dynasty officers is a very important mobile force, which can well contain and consume the Khorasan cavalry, and will surely shine in defensive operations.

The cavalry corps had a relatively small number of troops, only 10,000 horses, which could not prove confrontation with the Khorasan cavalry, but the cavalry troops were more flexible and fast, and could harass and consume the Khorasan cavalry very well.

Because of the inconvenience of large forces, the cavalry force was divided into ten groups, and each group of 1,000 cavalry could be divided into multiple groups as needed, thus further increasing flexibility.

Ten groups of cavalry archery troops are assigned to different cities, a city is up to two groups, and each group has a camp, in peacetime training, according to a group of 100 people, because if there are too many people, the training ground will be very chaotic.

In each team of 1,000 people, two or three Datang soldiers are responsible for guiding them to ensure their training level.

Arabs are very good in physique, learning to ride a horse is stress-free, and they can quickly handle a horse well, but learning to ride a horse is much more difficult than simply riding a horse.

Horseback riding requires good control of the horse, and archery is not very difficult, but if you are riding a horse and archery at the same time, the difficulty is relatively much more difficult.

This requires hard training, but also needs to master a lot of skills, in order to save yourself, when archery, the horse can not stop, otherwise, it is easy to be caught up by the enemy cavalry, so it is very troublesome.

After a short period of training, the cavalry and archery units are already qualified, but their combat effectiveness is indeed not strong, and there is no pressure to expect them to harass the enemy, but if they are expected to destroy the enemy or play a great role, it will be very difficult.

Artik has a lot of government affairs to deal with, such as the governance of the various cities occupied, the development of the cities abandoned by the Ottomans, and various problems within the 100,000 army, especially the mess left by the Ottomans, which is very tricky, because the various riches of the city have been plundered by the Ottomans, and the city will inevitably be chaotic, and there are many things to deal with.

But no matter how much government affairs there are, Artik still has to find time to inspect the troops, because the troops are his core strength, and the cavalry and archery units are naturally among the inspections.

"City Lord, this hundred-man team is the best of all the cavalry archery troops, it is an elite soldier personally selected by the Tang Dynasty generals, and its combat effectiveness is quite strong, if all the cavalry archery soldiers can be so powerful, we can all fight against the Khorasan cavalry in the wild."

One of his subordinates said happily.

Artik spoke, "Really? That's great, so what are you waiting for? Let's get started! ”

A hundred mounted archery soldiers quickly stepped on their horses, and in a neat battle formation, pounced on the exercise ground not far away, shooting arrows at the target area while maneuvering quickly.

"Well, it's very good, it's really not easy to hit the target at such a fast speed!"

Artik gave a pertinent assessment.

"City Lord, the Tang Dynasty soldiers and horses once used cavalry and archery tactics, and the effect was very rough, almost without losing a single soldier, annihilating hundreds of enemy troops, and the enemy army was defeated!"

One of the subordinates spoke.

Altic was even more pleased, and hurriedly said, "Oh, is it? Cavalry archery can still be so powerful, then you must practice well, according to reliable information, the main army of Abu *** has returned to Khorasan, it is estimated that it will soon be killed by us, our army must be fully prepared, and will definitely let Abu *** return defeated. ”

"Don't worry, the city lord, with Datang behind us, we will definitely hit Abu ***."

The subordinate said excitedly.

"Don't be careless, you have to strengthen the city, every city in the north must be reinforced, you can pile up as many city defense equipment as you can on the city, and you must step up training for cavalry archers and horses."

Artik spoke.

"Yes, city lord, we know what to do."

The subordinate answered.

It can be said that Artik's soldiers and horses are in urgent mobilization, and they are preparing for war with all their might, trying to defeat the Khorasan cavalry that is about to kill.

The five cities in the north are an important support against the Khorasan cavalry, each city has deployed an army of more than 10,000 horses, the middle city of Maya has deployed an army of 30,000 troops, and it is the most elite main force, the city of Ar on the north side is facing greater pressure, deploying 20,000 horses, as for Jubai in the south, Al Jawf in the west, and Lafha in the east, they can only look like 10,000 soldiers and horses, and the rest of the small number of soldiers and horses are scattered in the west and south of the peninsula, almost every city has only one or two hundred people, and the most are only four or five hundred people, andMost of them are soldiers recruited temporarily in the local city, and their combat effectiveness is very low.

10,000 cavalry and horses were scattered and deployed in the five northern cities, and even two teams of 1,000 men were deployed in the hidden northern countryside, and moreover, they were deployed in a dispersed form.

After all, the strength of 1,000 men is very large, and the logistical requirements are very high, and no village can afford this pressure, so it is necessary to continue to disperse the deployment in order to provide sufficient supplies for the centaurs.

The distance between the five northern cities is within a hundred miles, which can play a good role as a horn, so that the enemy army does not dare to attack a city with confidence, and even, when necessary, they can support each other, of course, with a small number of cavalry.

Artik is not worried about the destruction of Maia City, after all, his main force is deployed in Maia City, and all the high-level officials are also in Maia, if the Mansour Group goes all out to attack Maia City, he will be very happy, but he is worried that Abu *** will attack the rest of the cities with relatively weak defenses, if these peripheral cities are lost, it will also have a shock effect on Maia City.