Thanks to the two great rivers of the Euphrates and Tigrus, the arid Arminian Plain was transformed into an oasis, a granary in Central and Western Asia, the richest region of the Seljuk Empire, and of course countless lords. For these Seljuk lords who surrounded him like flies, Song Jun felt that he had launched a counterattack.

The lords' possessions were often towns centered around a tall castle, and the nobles fought for land, food, livestock, and population, and the intensive wars led to the construction of castles to defend their domains. Its function was to serve as a base for professional soldiers, especially knights, and to control the surrounding countryside. When the central power of the Seljuk Empire, controlled by the Sultan, declined for various reasons, it also had the purpose of expanding territory and controlling places politically, in addition to military defensive uses.

For those small lords who ruled within a radius of only a few tens of miles and had a population of several thousand, the Great Song Expeditionary Force disdained to waste military strength to attack, although these people were the most happy. Because Ma Wei knows the truth of beating snakes and heads, those small lords are just vassals of the big nobles, a group of cannon fodder who can't be the masters, beating them not only can't achieve a deterrent effect, and they get very little, it is better to pick up a big one and do it once, that is the military and material harvest.

On a bright moonlit night, the Great Song Expeditionary Army, which was marching along the main road, suddenly turned east, and suddenly appeared in the territory of the Grand Duke of Fechia at a rapid march speed of twenty miles, and quickly occupied the town outside the castle, under the city of Chen's soldiers. The defenders in the city heard the movement but did not come out, and by daybreak the Song army had completed the encirclement. Looking at the black crowd, they didn't dare to come out again.

Chosen by Ma Wei was a hereditary Grand Duke known as Fechia, whose ancestors were said to have been the princes of a certain sultan. When he became an adult, he was enclosed here, and at first the territory was not large. It's just a hundred miles away. However, with the weakening of the central power of the empire, the princes rose one after another, and the descendants of the Grand Duke of Fechia, relying on the financial resources accumulated by the family for a hundred years, recruited and raised the cavalry of 'Ghulam', which had more than 2,000 knights at this time, and eliminated and subdued many small lords around them through war, controlled the area of hundreds of miles east of the Tigrus River, and reached the outskirts of Baghdad.

Ma Wei found a few sensible captives and questioned them carefully for a long time, and led several generals around the castle. Now I held the binoculars and looked at it for a long time, but I smacked my teeth and looked embarrassed. He regretted a little in his heart, he brought too many people today, and he scared the enemy back back, and he knew that it would be good to lure the people in the castle out and destroy them. It also avoids the embarrassment that some dogs bite hedgehogs and have nowhere to put their mouths in the face of heavily guarded castles......

Ma Wei understood that no matter how cities and castles were built, there was a principle that should be observed, that is, to be able to defend them effectively for a long time with a small number of troops. Having a strong defense allows the defender to hold on to the advantage of being well supplied until the besieger is driven back by the army that came to relieve the siege, or the attacker is forced to evacuate if they are depleted of ammunition and disease. And the castle in front of you seems to fit this principle perfectly.

The castle was built on a small high hill. It covers an area of about five or six hectares, and a wall is built around it, but it is not a square common in the Central Plains, but a circle. The wall is about four feet high. There are pheasant moats and battlements, and you can vaguely see soldiers in iron armor behind them. At the four corners of the city wall, there are also arrow towers three or four zhang higher than the city wall, and there are corridors connecting them. There are shooting holes on the exterior walls of the corridors. There was a trench dug outside the wall that horses could not cross, and there was water inside.

And the high walls could not hide the majesty of the main building in the city. This fifteen-foot tall cylinder is the strongest place in the entire fort. According to the captives Ma Wei's 'visit', the walls of the main fort were made of stone blocks up to a foot thick. There is an observation room and a shooting room, as well as an arsenal, a food store, a well, and a secret room, like a labyrinth in which the lord's family lived, and of course it also houses treasures and gold coins collected by his family for generations.

"Deputy marshal, how do you fight? It's getting hotter and hotter in a while! Li Quan wiped the sweat on his face and asked.

"It's not easy to fight, the people who built the fort don't know how to figure it out, a city will build a city gate, not even a back door, and you can't use a fence to avoid one, and it's clear that it's a posture of defending to the end!" Ma Wei said with a wry smile.

"Well, this city looks like only the city gate is the only weak point, but it's not easy to take it down!" Li Quan said thoughtfully.

The city gate is arranged between two arrow towers, and if you rush to the bottom of the city to enter its shooting corner, the city gate is just a wooden gate wrapped in the upper layer of iron sheets, and it is not difficult to blow it up if you use the method of blasting. However, the structure of the gate was also different from that of the Central Plains, which was a gatehouse with an internal space to defend the fortified stronghold of the castle. When the enemy breaks through to the gate, the defenders can reach the gatehouse through a tunnel from the gate. In the middle or at both ends of the tunnel, there are also multi-level gates. The rolling mechanical action can be used to lift or lower the gate above the gatehouse for solid protection. The gates themselves were heavily fenced with wooden or iron bars, and defenders hid on either side of the gates to shoot or stab intruders, making it difficult for enemy brigades to break into the city.

"That's obviously a pit, leading people to jump down!" Wang Gang scoffed at this and said, "Look at the terrain, it is inconvenient for us to charge with a back-attack shot, and the enemy is hiding in the arrow tower and the city wall from a high position, and firing arrows downwards can allow the defenders to defend the city gate from all sides." And as long as we get to the bottom of the bridge, they can pour down golden soup and hot water to kill and injure our soldiers. Moreover, the front of the city is open, and we will be completely exposed to the open area when we attack, and we will pay huge casualties! ”

"Deputy marshal, we should still think in the long run, prepare siege equipment, or dig a trench to force the front of the city to attack again, we can't attack, we can't afford to lose!" Li Quan echoed.

"There are only 2,000 troops in the city, what if we attack from all sides to attract and disperse the enemy's army, and then take the opportunity to break the city? If you have them, they are also human beings, and if you are shot, you will die, and if you have a large number of casualties, you will not be able to replenish them, and you will not be able to hold out for long! Sun Bin, the commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade of the Expeditionary Force, interjected.

"You are a fool to be that bullshit Grand Duke, he has long been prepared to take all the young and strong people of his subjects into the castle, don't you see that there are only old and young women and children in the town we occupy, he is afraid that these people will waste the food in the fort so that they will be turned away from the fort and left them to fend for themselves, and he is ready to hold on for a long time. If you want to consume them, can you afford it! Li Quan was very angry that his subordinates came up with such an 'out of tune' idea, and reprimanded him loudly.

"What's the matter, I'm all scared when I just encountered some difficulties, the city of Baghdad in front is stronger than this, look at you like this, let's not go forward, just get on the boat and go home!" Ma Wei looked at a few subordinates and put on a bunch of difficulties, and said with a straight face.

"Deputy marshal, we didn't mean that......" Wang Gang saw that he was annoyed and wanted to explain a few sentences.

"Second Qiao, put the gun mount on the gun mount and give me those noisy things in the city!" At this time, Ma Wei turned his face and saw several enemy soldiers in the city pointing and laughing at them, although he didn't understand what he said, it was definitely not a good word, and he shouted to Qiao Shijun, the commander of the artillery brigade of the expeditionary force who was standing not far away.

"Why, can't I command you horse infantry army as a commander?" But after waiting for a while, the Qiao Shijun didn't seem to hear it, and he didn't move in place, and Ma Wei said angrily to the group.

"Second Qiao, come over quickly, can't you hear the deputy marshal call you again!" As soon as Li Quan heard that things were going to be bad, he hurriedly shouted loudly.

"Deputy marshal, what you say is serious, our naval army and infantry cavalry are all from the same family, how can there be a distinction between inside and outside. On the public, you are the deputy marshal of the expeditionary force, how dare we disobey the order. Twenty years ago, we were your subordinates, and we didn't dare to disobey it! It must be that Qiao Lao Er is distracted again, I didn't hear it, don't be angry, I'll teach him a lesson. Wang Gang hurriedly explained.

"Lieutenant Marshal, what do you command?" Qiao Shijun hurriedly ran over after hearing Li Quan's shout, and asked as if he was fine.

"The big war is coming, if you don't hurry up and prepare for the war, what will you do there?" Ma Wei was angry enough here, but this kid was cute, which made him feel very funny, and asked in a low voice. In fact, this Qiao Lao Er is not an outsider, and you are quite related to him, his father is Qiao Kun, the head of the household, and everyone met when he was in Xiangyi, and when he went to the northwest, he went with the determination to repay the gentleman's kindness with death, otherwise he would not have given his son such a name, according to the generation, he should call you uncles, and send his anger on a 'child' Ma Wei how to make it.

"Oh, lieutenant marshal, I'm thinking about how to use artillery to cover the infantry into the city!" Qiao Shijun replied. He was assigned to the artillery after he was put into the Capture Army in the northwest, this kid has a good brain, is willing to endure hardships, and is good at artillery fighting, and with his own efforts, he has been promoted step by step to the position of commander of the artillery team directly under the Leopard Wing Army. Considering that the expeditionary force had naval artillery to provide firepower, no additional artillery was dispatched, but the artillery teams under each brigade and the artillery teams directly under the army were combined to temporarily form an artillery brigade, which was commanded by Qiao Shijun.

"Got an idea?" Finally met someone who was doing 'business', Ma Wei hurriedly asked.

"Deputy Marshal, I have some ideas, but they still need to be perfected!" Qiao Shijun said with a smile.

"Okay, tell us about it, and I can help you with a detailed ......," Ma Wei said after hearing Daxi, but before Qiao Lao Er could speak, he heard the alarm sound. When they looked up at the city, they saw that the gates of the castle were wide open, the drawbridge was lowered, and a troop of cavalry rushed out of the castle...... (To be continued......)