Indeed, these Punjabi infantrymen were not afraid of death, ignoring their comrades who had fallen at their feet, and pressed forward desperately.

The mortars of the Central Army began to attack the ballistas, the ballistae were not as perverted as the siege towers, their artillery shields were mainly against the crossbow arrows fired from the opposite side, and they could only stare at the mortar shells falling overhead.

In particular, a ballista requires a large number of personnel to operate, and these people cannot withstand mortar attacks.

After the mortars destroyed more than a dozen ballistas in a row, Sauter had no choice but to order them to withdraw from the battle.

The trebuchet that had already secretly moved forward dozens of zhang was used to deal with the mortars of the Han army, and the range of the two sides was almost the same, and they could barely bombard each other for a while.

However, relatively speaking, the progress of the mortar is more accurate, and the Kushan people do not know the indirect aiming method.

They didn't even know if they had hit, so they could only bombard the smoke, and after ten trebuchets were destroyed one after another by the Han mortars, Sauter ordered the remaining trebuchets to withdraw from the battle.

Without the cover of long-range attacks, the defenders at the head of the city could unscrupulously summon the Kushan Empire infantry under the walls with grenades and repeaters.

In the face of the dense onslaught overhead, the Sogdian and Punjabi infantry continued their assault for a while, and soon suffered more than half of the casualties, their protection still weak compared to grenades and crossbow arrows.

Sot finally couldn't resist anymore and ordered the troops to retreat, and when retreating, the Kushan infantry tried to take away their wounded companions as much as possible, and the Han army at the head of the city did not stop them, and the humanitarian spirit was still there.

The first day of siege ended in the defeat of the Kushan Imperial Army, but this was also expected by the commanders of both sides, and Sauter did not expect a single siege to conquer a large city like Xinwan City.

He was just testing and familiarizing himself with the tactics and methods of the Han army to defend the city, and to understand the power of these firearms of the Han army.

After a day's fighting, coupled with the offensive and defensive battles of more than a dozen towns along the way, he thought that he had basically mastered the means of the Han army.

Mortars, grenades, repeating crossbows plus traditional rolling wood stones, oh, and beaded ballistas, the means are still very rich, and they are all covered in the far, medium and near, and it is really not easy to attack.

Today's one-day attack resulted in about 10,000 casualties, damage to three siege towers, and more than a dozen ballistae, and ten trebuchets, but the Han army should have suffered a lot of casualties.

Sauter also firmly believes that even if he fights for attrition, he can fight the Han army, after all, he is fighting at his doorstep, and his supply is convenient.

He had already sent a battle report to the prince who was following him, and the army's journey should not be far from him.

Gao Shun and Tai Shici were also inspecting their troops, and after a day of high-intensity defense of the city, the two regiments defending the city in the morning had been replaced in the afternoon, and the reduction was not small.

However, after all, the Second Garrison Division was a regular army with high-intensity training, and it experienced a bloody battle for the first time and performed well, and Gao Shun was very satisfied.

In today's battle, the Central Army successively invested four regiments, and finally suffered about 2,000 casualties, and the Western Regions Coalition Army suffered 3,000 casualties.

Fortunately, the medical rescue system of the Central Army was the most efficient among all armies in the world at that time, and the proportion of medical personnel was high, and many seriously wounded could be saved, and more lightly wounded did not even affect combat effectiveness.

However, a quarter of his troops were lost in just one day, and Gao Shun also felt a lot of pressure.

The Kushan Empire's determination to fight the war was so great that it would lose 10,000 men a day.

But whatever, no matter how many people die, they are not Han people, according to this way of death, they will feel sorry for them when they fight Guishan City.

Gao Shun received Fa Zheng's military order and did not stick to Xinwan City, and half of the staff was reduced or dragged for three days to complete the task.

Fortunately, Xinwan Castle is built at the mouth of the valley, and there are high mountains on both sides, so you only need to worry about the frontal defense of the southern wall.

However, he still reported the latest battle situation to Fa Zheng, as for whether to increase the army or not, let Fa Zheng decide!

The Central Army's flying pigeon transmission was extremely efficient, and when the sun rose the next morning, another brigade of the Ninth Division and 5,000 Western Regions Coalition troops rushed to Xinwan City.

They brought the latest military orders from Fazheng and held them desperately for three days, and there were still some links in the defense of Guishan City that needed to be perfected and would take time.

With the addition of these reinforcements, Gao Shun was full of confidence in defending for three days.

The defenders at the head of the city reported that last night, while it was dark, the Kushans had dragged back the three damaged siege towers.

Gao Shun looked down condescendingly, and sure enough, there was no trace, and it was not until noon that the camp of the Guishan people moved.

This time, the Kushan army's attack was much larger, and five siege towers were dispatched at once, three of which were scarred and many places were burned black.

They actually repaired the three siege towers that were damaged yesterday and put them into use.

This is mainly due to the modular design of the siege towers, which can be restarted by replacing badly damaged floors.

The main reason for the delay in starting the attack was that the new siege towers were being repaired and assembled, and the other reason was that Saute was waiting for the military order of the Prince of Botiao.

The means of communication of the Kushan army were not as advanced as those of the Central Army, and it took time to send letters back and forth by horse.

The prince of Bo Tiao wrote back to Sauter, telling him to let go and attack the city with all his might, and there was no need to keep it, because the army would arrive tomorrow.

Receiving the military order from Bo Tuo, he also made up his mind, he assembled and repaired all five siege towers, and dispatched forty ballistae and thirty trebuchets, which were all his siege weapons.

He dispatched all the infantry in his hands, even the Kabul infantry and the Herat infantry were bombarded into the battlefield, except for the cavalry, the whole army was dispatched to attack Xinwan City.

Seeing this formation of the Guishan army, Gao Shun hurriedly put three regiments into the first wave of defense, and also increased the defensive strength, with the assistance of 5,000 Western Regions Alliance troops.

He drew more shields from the other regiments to strengthen the protection of the city.

Today's artillery battalion began to shell the siege tower at a distance of 250 zhang, and even if it missed, it could kill and wound many Kushan infantry around the siege tower.

In order to suppress the mortars of the Han army, the trebuchets on the Kushan side could only advance to a distance of 250 zhang and bombard the mortars with 50 catties of stone shells.

Gao Shun had already discovered that the trebuchet under the city could not see the exact location of the mortar at all because of the angle problem, and could only rely on the smoke during the shelling in the city and the starting position of the shells to roughly infer it.

He ordered his men to create false smoke in various locations in the city to confuse the enemy.

This trick worked, and it became more difficult for the trebuchet to accurately hit the mortar position.

Sauter could only order the siege troops to increase the speed of their advance and reduce the threat time of the mortars.

After all, the problem of angle also bothers mortars, and when they rush to the nearest distance, the mortars will be difficult to attack.

(End of chapter)