Two hundred mortars were fired together, and the "bang" and "bang" sound became so loud that it was almost inaudible, only a dense thunder was heard.

This time, the falling shells were not raindrops, but like a storm.

It turned out that the artillery defending the city had already marked the coordinates of the area under the city of Guishan City in advance, and only needed to adjust the parameters according to the coordinates.

The Kushan army's siege towers were very well protected and could withstand the bombardment of cannonballs, but the infantry inside was quite stunned.

And those Kushan infantry who charged with ladders and those who advanced to two hundred zhang suffered heavy losses, and neither the large shield nor the cannon shield were used, especially when the shells fell from the top of their heads.

The area of the big shield is limited, and if you protect the heavy infantry yourself, you can't protect others, and if the cannonball falls on the big shield, the big shield will be in vain.

Seeing such a dense and so many mortar bombardment, Sot was also dumbfounded, he never dreamed that the Han army had so many mortars.

If he knew that this was only half of the artillery of the Han army, he would probably turn around and run away.

There was no other way but to bite the bullet and order the trebuchet to press forward and attack the mortar positions in the city, trying to suppress the mortars of the Han army.

Withdrawing the ballista back from the range of the mortar, it is not interesting to just be beaten.

Fa Zheng saw that the Guishan people finally couldn't help but press the trebuchet up, and immediately adjusted their tactics.

Now that the ballistas had retreated, one hundred and fifty mortars were responsible for attacking the trebuchets, and fifty mortars continued to bombard the Kushan infantry and siege towers.

Without the ballistae suppressing the defenders at the head of the city, the Han army's crossbows and bead ballistae could freely attack the Kushan infantry that had rushed into the range of the city.

The Kushan infantry could only counterattack with the help of crossbowmen and ballistas on the siege towers, as well as armored crossbowmen who rushed to the city.

However, the Kshatriya warriors and the heavy infantry of Bactriya were quite nimble, they both climbed the ladder with a shield in one hand and the other, and the ladders were all on the top of the city, especially the Kshatriya warriors climbed the ladder at an astonishing speed.

These Kshatriya warriors were the most powerful of the traditional Indian infantry.

They were all from hereditary samurai families in the city-states of mainland India, and they were not engaged in production, but learned various fighting techniques, exercised their physique, and received various military training from an early age.

At the age of sixteen, when he reaches adulthood, he will take a special test, and if he passes the test, he can become a Kshatriya warrior.

Kshatriyas were both occupations and ethnic classes, and had a high social status in mainland India.

Therefore, when these Kshatriya warriors rushed to the head of the city and fought with the Han army and the Western Regions coalition army in the city, they had a faint advantage.

However, many more Kushan infantry were scarred by grenades as they climbed.

When the siege towers finally reached the top of the city, the Kushan offensive immediately increased, and only three of the ten siege towers were destroyed by mortars, and many Kushan infantry rushed to the head of the city from the remaining seven siege towers.

In the confrontation between Guishan's trebuchets and the mortars of the Han army, it was also the Han army that had the upper hand, with one hundred and fifty mortars against eighty trebuchets, and mortars had a clear advantage in both accuracy and attack speed.

The speed at which the mortar destroyed the trebuchet was far beyond Sauter's imagination, and the coordinates calibrated in advance played a decisive role.

Sauter also saw that he could only urge the infantry to speed up the charge, and while the mortars were still bombarding the trebuchets, they could rush to the city as much as possible, and then the mortars would not be effective.

He also sent the remaining five siege towers into battle, and after the Bactrian heavy infantry climbed the walls, they skillfully formed small battle formations with each other, relying on each other to cover each other and confront the Han army.

Fa Zheng ordered the soldiers of the Western Regions Alliance to pour barrels of black oil under the city, and then ignited them, forming a raging fire, which brought many casualties to the Kushan people.

However, Sauter quickly thought of a way to cover it with sand and extinguish the source of the fire, but the fire attack was unsuccessful.

When the trebuchet mortar was almost blown up, Fazheng also sent the second wave of defenders to the head of the city, and the Kushan infantry who had already climbed to the head of the city were squeezed down by these new forces little by little.

The Han army immediately threw a large number of grenades into the pile of people under the city, killing and wounding many Kushan infantry again.

Seeing that he could not take the city wall, Sot had no choice but to order the horn to be sounded for the withdrawal of troops, and the siege towers and ladders could be brought back as much as possible.

The long-awaited mortar group immediately fired at the block, and the Han troops in the city also kicked them in the ass with their crossbows in the back.

The hapless Kushan infantry was ravaged again and returned defeated.

Sauter gathered the remnants of the defeated army that had returned, counted the losses, and came to report the battle situation of the day to the prince of Botiao.

In a few hours of siege warfare, the four infantry divisions of the Kushan Empire had suffered about one-third casualties, more than 30 ballistae were destroyed, and only 20 trebuchets remained.

The Han army had too many mortars, and they didn't worry about the supply of shells, so they easily mastered the control of long-range attacks on the battlefield.

On the Kushan Empire's side, only trebuchets could compete with the mortars of the Han army, but the number was far from enough, and the speed and accuracy of the attack were far from enough.

If you want to continue the siege, you must build a large number of trebuchets in order to form a confrontation with mortars.

In the face of the strong defense of Guishan City, especially the huge number of mortars, the generals of the Kushan Empire were also helpless.

Prince Bo had no choice but to follow Sauter's suggestion and order the craftsmen in the army to build more siege towers and trebuchets, which would take time.

For the time being, the Kushan army could only stay outside Guishan City, waiting for the completion of these siege equipment.

After a few days of stalemate, Prince Bo couldn't bear the loneliness.

On a whim, he trapped the main force of the Han army with a large army, so why couldn't he take the opportunity to attack the only ally of the Han in Central Asia?

This Kangju was originally a vassal of the Kushan Empire, but it was only in recent decades that the Kushan Empire itself declined, and the rise of the Kangju allowed them to regain their independent status.

Since Guishan City can't be fought here for the time being, it is better to attack Kangju by yourself, and it can be regarded as removing one arm of the Han army.

And the Han army can't die without help, right? In this way, it is just right to fulfill their wishes, and the two great empires will have a field battle in a dignified manner!

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that he was really wise and powerful, and he told the generals who gathered his decision, and some people opposed his division of troops, but the prince of Bo Tuo had already made up his mind.

He left Sauter and Osidmos to oversee the construction of more siege towers and trebuchets in preparation for another siege, and he left ten divisions to guard the large battalion.

(End of chapter)