The news that the retreat of Baishui City was cut off by the Tang army made Said have no master for a while, and the news soon leaked out, and the big food army in the city began to panic and have no sense of war, and the morale dropped seriously. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The generals and officers who came to participate in the discussion crowded the lobby of the city lord's mansion, and Said walked to the main seat and sat down to look at the room full of generals and officers and sighed: "It was the governor who underestimated the Tang army generals, and wanted to go out of the city to meet the Tang army and give them heavy losses, but the Tang army generals were experienced, commanded calmly, and had long been prepared, so that our army was defeated, 6,000 men and horses went out, and less than 1,000 people came back." It's all my Saeed's fault! ”

A bearded general excused Said: "Your Excellency the Governor, we lost this battle, but the losses of the Tang army will not be smaller than ours, I estimate that they have at least 5,000 casualties, especially our 3,000 heavy cavalry, which is almost unstoppable in their military formation, rushing them on their backs, and finally killing them at the foot of the mountain where their main general is located."

"That being said, we have been defeated and have lost so many troops that our already insufficient forces have made our already insufficient forces even weaker! Now the enemy army is besieging the city, and the retreat of Baishui City has been cut off by a partial division sent by the Tang army, and the 3,000 men and horses of our army stationed in Baishui City have been defeated, with countless casualties! I have already sent people to Sogdia before leaving the city yesterday to meet the battle, and ordered our garrisons stationed in Sogdia and Tocharian to rush to reinforcements, and we now have two choices: first, to defend the city of Constant Logos, and wait for reinforcements to break through the blockade of the Tang army in Whitewater City and rush to rescue us, but we must face the risk that the city may be broken and the reinforcements still have not arrived, because it is possible that the messenger will be killed by the Tang army before reaching the territory of the Sogdians, and it is also possible that the reinforcements will not be able to break through the blockade of the Tang army in Whitewater; Second, break through! Choose a city gate from the south gate, north gate and west gate to break through, break through the encirclement of the Tang army and then go west, enter the desert to get rid of the pursuit of the Tang army, but we have to face a lot of dangers in the desert, if we are lucky, most of us can reach the bank of the Yaozhishui River, if we are unlucky, we may be wiped out in the desert. Now let's discuss, how do we choose? ”

As the governor and leading general, Said could have made a decision in a word, but this time he went out of the city and returned from the defeat of the Tang army in the field, which made his prestige drop a lot, and the back road of Baishui City was cut off, which made many soldiers, officers and generals in the field panic, and many soldiers and officers in private blamed him for the blame, and now these generals and officers are gathered together to discuss, and it is also a last resort, everyone will discuss a plan that is agreed upon, and everyone will have no objections, otherwise he will forcibly order, Many people are resistant, and it is very detrimental to the next smuggling or staying.

After Said's words, someone immediately got up and suggested to find an opportunity to break through, staying here is tantamount to handing over his life to others, now that the retreat of Whitewater City has been cut off, whether the messenger who went to Sogdia for help or not has the life to arrive is still two words, even if the messenger arrives in Sogdia, it is uncertain whether the garrison there can come in time, all in all, there are too many uncertain factors! It is better to break through and retreat to the desert to the west, although there are many crises in the desert, it is better to decide your own life and death after all, than to pin your hope on others!

However, some of the generals and officers believed that the city should be defended to the death, and for good reason. There were many people who had this idea, and one of them said: "Your Excellency, it is not easy for us to fight here from Khorasan Province, and now we have more than 10,000 dead and wounded. And are we bound to fail? I don't think so! In the first place, the city of Constant Logos is strong and tall, and is not inferior to our royal city; Secondly, the Tang army was almost all cavalry this time, we all know that the cavalry is not good at attacking cities, and the Tang army came so quickly, it must not have prepared enough siege equipment, and we must have been able to support it for a long time with a strong city wall; Again, none of our warriors is afraid of death, and we are confident that Allah will bless us for final victory! Finally, we have to believe that our brothers, the Governor, are trapped here, and they will do everything they can to come to the rescue! ”

There are many supporters of both options, and each side has its own reasons, and neither side can ignore it, which makes Saeed a headache and does not know which side to support.

In the end, someone proposed a compromise solution, that is, to hold for a period of time, see the situation before making a decision, if the Tang army is attacking fiercely, the city wall defense is in danger, and there is no news of reinforcements, then find an opportunity to break through; If the Tang army's siege is not strong, the casualties of the defending army are not large, and there is news that reinforcements are coming, then continue to hold on, and once it cannot be supported, it will decisively give up the dead defense, and then break through.

This idea was supported by the majority, so Said took this compromise advice, and when the generals and officers returned to their posts, the soldiers were pacified, and the morale of the Great Food Army in the city of Henglos quickly stabilized and did not go in a worse direction.

The white-clothed big food country is a ******** country, and the military implementation is a tribal military system where all the people are soldiers, and all the soldiers have faith, so they are all not afraid of death, and the soldiers of each combat unit are people from the same village or the same tribe, and they are very familiar with each other, so they take care of each other in life or in the marching battle, and they have deep feelings and tacit understanding, which is also the reason why the army of the big food country is strong.

Zhao Ziliang did not pay attention to the armies of all countries in this era, except for the army of the Great Food Country, he never dared to underestimate the Great Food Army, because he knew that the soldiers who were controlled by religious beliefs were all madmen who did not want to die when they started a war, although the equipment and training of the Great Food Army were not the top in this era, but this did not prevent them from becoming one of the most powerful armies in this era, because in the era of cold weapons, the gap in equipment was never the main factor determining combat effectiveness, Not being afraid of death is the guarantee of combat effectiveness, and in the era of hot weapons in later generations, no matter how strong the courage and firm belief are, they can't stop a small bullet, and the supremacy of equipment is the king.

The shortcomings of the Tang army have long been seen by Zhao Ziliang, which is why he had to rest twenty miles outside the city for three days after the arrival of the army, which was on the one hand for the army to rest and recover its combat strength, and on the other hand, it was the reason for the craftsmen to build siege equipment.

In this era, if there is any country that is at the world's leading level in armament and equipment manufacturing, Zhao Ziliang can say without hesitation that the Tang Dynasty is in charge and has enough qualifications to win this honor!

The Eastern Roman Empire, that is, the Byzantine Empire, has been declining for more than a hundred years, and has been pressed and beaten by the Great Food Country for more than 100 years, and the capital Constantinople has been surrounded by the Great Food Country several times, relying on the "Greek Fire" This naval weapon has repeatedly defeated the Navy of the Great Food Country, and finally kept the rule to continue, but the war has been happening on its territory all the year round, and the passive beating has scarred it, and the economy and technology have regressed a lot.

The Umayyad Dynasty, which rose more than a hundred years ago, defeated the Persian Empire, annexed all the territory of the Persian Empire, and its territory spanned Asia, Africa and Europe, and then took the step of expanding to the East and the West at the same time, but its weapons and equipment manufacturing technology did not improve in the slightest except for the achievements of the original Persian Empire.

The Tang Dynasty was completely different, after the Central Plains entered the Sui and Tang dynasties, the smelting technology was rapidly improved, not only the sharpness of the weapons was greatly improved, but even the defensive ability of the armor and armor was greatly improved! At the same time, the production level and fineness of various engineering instruments are far beyond the previous dynasties.

On the morning of August 19, the day after the Tang army besieged the city of Henglus, the Tang army prepared to attack the city.

Outside the east city gate, the war drums outside the city roared, the desolate horn sound continued, the siege troops lined up in a phalanx to advance in the direction of the city wall, behind were large siege equipment, and the two wings were cavalry pressing the formation.

The siege troops were all soldiers of the ten tribes, and these soldiers were originally cavalry, but now the Tang army can only use cavalry to attack the city.

Tang Jun Shuaitai, Zhao Ziliang and Cheng Qianli sat on the Shuaitai, Shuaitai was pulled by more than a dozen horses and moved forward slowly, Zhao Ziliang took a telescope to observe the city defense situation on the opposite city wall, it can be seen that the big cannibals are not very good at defending the city, and the equipment for defending the city is seriously insufficient.

Cheng Qianli, who was standing next to him, saw Zhao Ziliang holding two bucket-like things in front of his eyes, he was very curious, and asked, "General Zhao, what is this?" Can you show me? ”

Zhao Ziliang didn't move, didn't give any face, and refused mercilessly: "Can't!" ”

Cheng Qianli turned his head angrily: "Hmph, stingy!" ”

Zhao Ziliang also ignored him, and ordered loudly: "Order all catapults to push to the throwing distance and stop and prepare for the siege!" ”

"Obey!"

Sixteen catapults were driven to the site by the soldiers, and the soldiers began to assemble the parts, and soon the trebuchets were assembled and fixed to the ground, and if they wanted to retreat, they could soon be disassembled and loaded and pulled away.

All the trebuchets are ready for fire, and the general in charge of the trebuchets sent someone to report to Zhao Ziliang: "General, the trebuchets are all ready, ready to be launched!" ”

While observing the defense of the city wall with a telescope, Zhao Ziliang ordered: "Order, all trebuchets are aimed at the city head and the city wall to fire, every other trebuchet fires oil bombs, and others fire stone bullets!" ”

"Obey!" (To be continued.) )