Fa Zheng then said to everyone: "I have already discussed with Zhong Da, let's fight the defensive battle of Guishan City first, all the infantry units cheer up, there are examples of the Ninth Division and the Second Garrison Division here, you can't embarrass our Central Army!" ”

"First use defensive warfare to exhaust their spirit, consume their troops and materials, and then they will definitely be in a hurry to fight with us in the field, and want to settle the battle in one battle."

"So all your cavalry units should not be idle, practice hard, and you will fight in the decisive battle!"

"Yes!" The generals agreed in unison.

Next, Fa Zheng left all the generals of the infantry units and assigned them defensive tasks.

In the days waiting for the arrival of the Guishan army, the Han army continued to send a large number of materials from the Central Plains here, and many freshly baked equipment and ammunition continued to arrive in Guishan City.

Song Xian, the quartermaster of the Central Army, simply moved his office to Dunhuang so that he could personally supervise it.

Dunhuang was the starting point of the Silk Road, the last big city before leaving the customs, where all the materials from the inland areas were transferred and allocated.

Fa Zheng gathered the artillery battalions of all the participating divisions to participate in the defense of the city, and the artillery battalions of the cavalry divisions also contributed, including the artillery battalion of the Ninth Division.

The participation of so many artillery battalions in the battle made the firepower density of the Central Army unprecedentedly strong.

Guishan Castle is surrounded by mountains, with mountains to the east, and walls built on the north, west, and south sides to form a semicircle.

In the mountains to the east, there is a mainland leading to the Western Regions, and there are naturally other checkpoints along the way.

This arc-shaped city wall of Guishan City is as long as eight miles, the scale is not small, the wall is six zhang high, it is very dangerous.

When the central army attacked the city, it used explosives to blow open the city gates, and the city had already been repaired and reinforced, quietly waiting for the arrival of the Kushan army.

At the end of September, just a few days after the third batch of reinforcements from the Central Army, the 5th Cavalry Division, the 6th Cavalry Division, and the 10th Cavalry Division, which came from the Western Regions to replace the 9th Division, arrived in Guishan City, the army of the Guishan Empire finally reached the south gate.

When the Sixth Cavalry Division set out from Chang'an, Lu Bu also strengthened the Broken Wolf Cavalry Heavy Cavalry Brigade to the Sixth Cavalry Division.

The Heavy Cavalry Brigade now has three heavy cavalry regiments, totaling 6,000 heavy cavalry, which is double the number of heavy cavalry.

Lü Bu left it in Chang'an, and spent a lot of money to maintain equipment and training, just for the needs of operations in the direction of the Western Regions.

The infantry units that were able to participate in the defense of the city included seven infantry brigades of the Central Army, as well as 30,000 Western Regions Coalition troops and 20,000 Kangju infantry. In addition, Fazheng retained the musket brigade of the special operations division as a reserve.

Together with the three new cavalry divisions, a total of ten artillery battalions took part in the defense of the city, and the artillery battalions of the 9th Division and the 2nd Garrison Division were already replenished with new mortars from combat readiness warehouses.

Ten artillery battalions, 400 mortars, this number is a bit shocking.

Fa Zheng divided them into two clusters and took turns to play, and the walls were so wide that two hundred mortars at a time were already dense.

Fa Zheng divided all the defending forces into three waves equally, each of which consisted of seven infantry regiments plus 15,000 Western Regions or Kangju infantry.

Cannonballs, grenades, crossbow and arrow magazines, all piled up, but this time they were well stocked.

Outside the south gate, the Kushan army is still building dozens of miles of company camps, trenches, walled walls, arrow towers, and all the means of building camps, which shows that the army of the Kushan Empire is also experienced in a hundred battles and is very experienced.

The Sun Palace of the Prince of Wave is parked in the center of the camp, which is very eye-catching.

Although Sot and Osidmos suffered heavy casualties in the process of attacking Xinwan, the three divisions of Bactrian light infantry, Minagara's infantry, and Peshawar armored crossbowmen were basically wiped out or suffered most casualties.

However, after all, they conquered the city defended by the Han army, which was tightly defended and put life and death on the line, and many experiences and methods were very effective.

Therefore, Prince Bo Tiao decided to continue to have the two of them partner and attack Guishan City.

Although Sauter didn't want to take on this thankless chore, Prince Bo Tiao emphasized that he was the only one.

There was no choice but to bite the bullet and go on, but fortunately, Prince Bo Tiao promised to fully support him and give him the privilege of conscripting at will.

This time the troops transferred to them were numerous, including two other infantry divisions of the Bactrian Provincial Legion, one was a light infantry division and the other was a phalanx heavy infantry division.

There was the 2nd Heavy Infantry Division of the Minaggara Provincial Legion, and there was no Kshatriya Warrior Division of Gandhara that was hit.

There were new Panshawar armored crossbow divisions, new Mordra archery divisions, new Sogdian infantry divisions, and new Punjabi infantry divisions.

With a full eight infantry divisions, Prince Bo Tiao gave Sauter enough face.

In addition, the craftsmen of the army assembled all the siege equipment, a total of fifteen siege towers, one hundred and twenty ballistas, and eighty human trebuchets.

This was already all the belongings of the Kushan army, and six or seven of the fifteen siege towers were reassembled from the parts of the battering towers that had been blown up.

Whether it is a siege tower or a manpower trebuchet, they are all relatively complex siege equipment and cannot be used on the spot.

The ones that have been used before, plus the new ones assembled this time, are already all there.

After the new equipment and personnel were replenished, Sot ordered the siege of the city to begin, the eight-mile-long city wall, and at the same time threw four infantry divisions into the attack.

The four infantry divisions were the Bactrian hoplites, the Kshatriya warriors, the Peshawar armoured crossbowmen, and the Sogdian infantry, as well as ten siege towers, all the ballistas, and all the trebuchets.

From the moment the Kushan army marched from the main camp, the sound of the battle was echoed above the head of Guishan City.

In the first wave, seven regiments of Han infantry and 20,000 Western Regions coalition troops quickly entered the pre-planned defensive position.

On the artillery position, 200 mortars lined up, which was spectacular.

Fa Zheng also learned from Gao Shun's experience and built a firing position for the artillery that was higher than the city wall.

Fa Zheng asked the artillery battalion to wait until the trebuchets were in range before starting the attack.

Knock out their trebuchets and ballistas first, and don't believe it, two hundred mortars can't deal with Kushan's army?

Still based on his previous experience, the trebuchet advanced to a distance of three hundred feet, then stopped, and began to bombard the defenders at the head of the city.

The siege towers were pushed closer to the head of the city by the infantry, and the ballistae followed the ranks of the infantry, advancing to a distance of two hundred zhang and firing crossbow arrows at the head of the city.

Seeing that the trebuchets were again out of range of the mortars, Fa Zheng ordered the mortars to attack the ballistas half and half the siege towers and the accompanying infantry.

(End of chapter)