In fact, the Arabs were not good at sieges. [ads:This site has a new URL,Shorthand method:,.]

Coming out of the barren Arabian desert, in addition to the Quran, these desert warriors did not have much knowledge and skill precipitation, and they were still in the seventy-eight years of Islamic expansion, and the fruits of the Persian Empire, the Byzantine Empire and even other peoples had not yet had time to digest them.

In the past, the Arabs defeated the two empires, but the main combat idea was to defeat the enemy army in the field, but most of the cities were mainly sieges.

Damascus, Khalid besieged for three months, the Persian capital Ctesiphon fought a four-month siege, Egypt's capital Alexandria finally surrendered after a six-month siege, and Antioch also went through a painful siege for five months before opening its gates.

As for a series of famous cities such as Ankara in Asia Minor, the Byzantines were defeated in the field or completely frightened by the Arabs to take it so easily, Rao is so, fighting Ankara still made Muawiya pay thousands of elites.

However, the invasion was too smooth sailing, and Muawiyah's mind was a little unclear, and he was very contemptuous in the face of Constantinople, which made him pay a heavy price of more than 3,000 elite casualties on the first day.

Although the morale and equipment are top-notch, but the most elite warriors in the desert are also a little unbearable when they climb the twelve-meter city wall with full armor and fight against the enemy army several times their size, especially the Arabs lack the support of heavy siege equipment, and they have to roar with ballistas overhead, so that the ghost can stand.

The next day, Mu'awiyah, who could not bear it, was forced to change his tactics, on the one hand, to recruit Byzantine ballistas from occupied Asia Minor, and on the other hand, to attack and harass, hundreds of Arab light cavalry or camel cavalry scattered under the city walls, dismounted and sniped the defenders on the walls with bows.

At this moment, the battle situation was stalemate, and unlike the previous siege wars, the Arab army and navy were able to encircle Constantinople from the southwest, and the Golden Horn in the northeast was always under the protection of the Byzantine navy.

However, in general form, the Arabs are still dominant, don't look at Muawiyah is a lone army deep into the Balkans, at this time Byzantium has broken the courage, the emperor blindly fled to the southwest of Rome, Greece, the main forces in Macedonia are also fully defending the emperor, there are no large reinforcements to support Constantinople, and the Arab army occupies all the nearby agricultural production areas, relying only on the agricultural output in Thrace, it can not support for long, especially the Byzantine Empire has many enemies, and the Thracian generation is not peaceful.

Therefore, after taking Constantinople, Muawiyah was still confident, he believed that after besieging this place for several months or even a year, he would still gnaw this majestic city and walk out of the dry and desolate desert, and the patience of the Arab hunters was first-class.

Pinching a few strands of beard on his chin, the eagle was dressed in neat gold-colored gorgeous armor and wearing a crown, and every morning Mu'awiyah would lead the Janissaries to stand at the forefront of the army, watching the scene of this unyielding city struggling under the siege of his own army, and it just so happened that under the attack of the desert light cavalry, suddenly the Byzantine city gate was wide open, and hundreds of infantry held large square shields in the ancient Roman style, arranged in a tortoiseshell array, and trotted out of the city to drive away the Arab light cavalry that constantly attacked the city walls.

Let's die!

With a sneer full of murderous intent on the corner of his mouth, Mu'aviya waved his hand again, and immediately from behind him, more than a hundred elite cavalry rushed out, and they raised their compound bows against this small phalanx.

Whoosh~ Peeking timidly outside in the gap of the big shield, the head of the Roman militia on the edge was pierced fiercely, and he lay on the ground with convulsions......

Compared with the arbitrary attacks of the Arabs outside the city, the walls of Theodosius were a state of panic and busyness, with citizens in cloth clothes and Latin helmets constantly being mobilized to and fro in the city defenses under the kicking and scolding of the Holy Cavalry instructors from the Visigothic Guard or the Byzantine Praetorian Guard.

The archers selected by the Arabs are all elite, first-class hunters in the desert, shooting sand foxes and hares, shooting people is naturally not bad, even if the twelve meters of the city wall, there is still that unlucky guy from time to time to get an arrow, although according to this killing rate of a hundred years may not be able to kill the Byzantine defenders, but it is a fatal blow to morale.

Such a messy Arab archers, the hit rate of the ballista is also extremely low, the next day in the face of harassment warfare, the ballista men did not kill a dozen Arab soldiers in a day, and wasted a large amount of ammunition, don't look at the most common throwing is only round and large stones, this thing also needs to be polished, but also choose the most suitable weight of the stone, Byzantine reserves are also limited.

As a last resort, the Byzantines picked up the large Roman shields left by their ancestors, and even dismantled many noble carriages in order to make shields.

Fortunately, under Anna's speech, the Byzantine senators and nobles were finally mobilized, although it did not reach the level of selfless dedication of all the nobles after the Battle of Cannae, and each noble senator could only leave a few grams of rings for his wife or daughter, but it was also to give people and things, hundreds of carriages were dismantled, and more than 10,000 square shields that could be put together were created, and at the same time, the warehouses of the nobles were opened, and the grain and cloth in stock were all supported on the front line.

On the first day of the siege and bloody battle, the Arab side paid the price of 3,000 people, but the Byzantine side was 8,000 heavy casualties, since Augustus changed the republic into an empire, in order to please the people, the law of bread and entertainment has been pursued, the Romans with Roman citizenship can watch gladiatorial fights and other competitions for free, each person is provided with enough bread every day, even if they don't do anything, they will not starve to death, Byzantium also continued this law in the capital, The people of Constantinople, who grew up eating free bread, were no match for the Arabs who had starved in the desert for many years.

The day after the end of the war, the remaining 20,000 or so city militias were all called up on the outer platform behind the outer walls of Theosidos, with the landlords and nobles serving as officers, and the remaining Slavic Guards officers and soldiers becoming instructors, leading the citizen soldiers divided into four legions to train on the spot.

Facing the scorching sun of the Mediterranean, the long phalanx of 10,000 people sweated like rain and chopped the air.

"Kill! Kill! Kill! ”

"Remember, the sword should be pierced as much as possible, the heavy armor of the Arab barbarians, you can't kill him with a sword, he will hack you to death when you turn around, and he will die in vain if he dies, and the stab should be pierced to the head and chest as much as possible, and you can't pierce him to death if you pierce the thigh, and he will have to hack you to death if he turns around!"

Spit stars splashed, and the Visigothic or Slavic instructors were extremely proud, usually none of these Byzantines looked down on them, but this time they were trained like grandsons, which greatly increased the face of these barbarians.

In addition, these militias themselves trained quite hard, the bloody battle on the city wall a few days ago is still vivid, the stumps and broken arms that day were lifted from the city wall, and many of the bloody corpses were their family neighbors, with ready-made supervision, they didn't even need to urge these people to train frantically, but no one wanted to be hacked to death next time.

There are only a few more than 7,000 professional soldiers, which are too precious, so every day they go out of the city with big shields to drive out the Arab light cavalry are also selected from the young brave men in these city militias.

Mu'awiyah's tactical changes, coupled with the increase in the combat effectiveness of the city's soldiers and horses, Anna and many elders initially decided to defend the city, waiting for the Min Yankuai team to attack the rear of the Arab Empire, forcing the caliph Muawiyah to withdraw his troops is now basically achieved, but a new quarrel resounded in the senate.

"Absolutely not! Your Majesty, this is too risky! ”

Excited almost flew out of the seat, after Anna ascended the throne, Amulie, who climbed to the position of the patriarch by nepotism, had a fat face that was about to become a bitter gourd, and the first one waved his hand excitedly and refused.

"Yes, Your Majesty, now that Constantinople is stable, we only need to wait for reinforcements from the Fujian people, why bother to deal with those barbarians?" Immediately after Leonti also persuaded him, followed by the other senators who also stood up one after another, and shook their heads in the same way, most of the seats in the entire Senate were vetoed.

No way, Anna's idea is crazy.

Since the Huns promoted the migration of the Germanic peoples, one barbarian tribe after another from the cold and dry ice of North Asia to the warm and rich Roman Empire, ransacked and drove away the former Roman masters, and established one new country after another, even until now.

During the bloody war between Byzantium and Persia and the Arab Empire, a new barbarian tribe came to the northern frontier to replace the Goths in the Balkans and invade the Balkans, breaking through the Byzantine defense zone on the Rhine.

Anna wants to make peace with this barbarian tribe and wants to hire them as mercenaries to attack the Arabs.

It's like if you have a thief in your house and you have to talk to the thief to fight the robber.

Seeing the opposition of the Senate, Anna shook the tassel in her crown but still smiled, waved the sleeve of her purple robe and pressed down the golden scepter, the young co-emperor had been supported by the senators in the past two days, and suddenly became silent.

"Ladies and gentlemen, have you ever thought that we had to guard for three months, and now all the food that supports the Byzantine population of almost fifty comes from Thrace, and if the Bulgarians are allowed to continue to plunder Thrace, can we hold out for three months? Even if it is supported, what if Fujian needs us to hold on for another three months? ”

"And as an ally and a civilized state, the alliance between Min and us is to fancy the strength of Byzantium, if we don't even defeat the strength of the Arab army in the war, will the Min people still fancy the contract with us?"

Anna's rhetorical question said that a large group of patriarchs were silent, indeed, even if they were nominally vassals of the Min State, the psychology of these elders still thought that they were civilized and superior, at least not inferior to the Min people, if they did not perform at all in the war, I am afraid that they would defeat the Arabs in the future, and Byzantium would still be in a position to be slaughtered.

"But can't you make peace with the Bulgarians? They are barbarians from the steppe, they have just plundered us, they are extremely cruel, and the envoys who went there must not be killed by them? Amuriel stood up questioningly, but this time, Anna's pretty face had a smile of conspiracy success.

"So, Ben Caesar is going to go in person."

"What?"

This time it was not only Amu who jumped up, half of the senate elders bounced up like a hot buttocks, Anna hurriedly waved the golden scepter again and pressed it, and explained with a smile: "Don't worry, this princess has just sat on Caesar, so she won't be sent to death, and if you don't think about it, you won't make this decision, there will be warriors to protect Caesar and the Bulgarians to make safe contact and persuade them to surrender." ”

Following Anna's gaze, everyone's eyes fell on Hou Jie, who had the honor of entering the Senate to listen to politics, but sleeping against the pillar, it seemed that so many eyes were not suitable, and Hou Jie woke up faintly after turning over, rubbing his eyes and looking left and right in astonishment and asked.

"Guys, what's wrong?"