"The enemy is coming, prepare to meet it!" eat

On 11 December, the Khiva army again launched a fierce siege on the Xia camp.

Khiva Sultan Anusa Arshah himself went out to supervise the battle, and he sat on a chair raised by several men, and lazily watched as the Uzbek infantry formed a formation and advanced towards the camp from four directions.

After killing the Xia generals, Anusa Sultan immediately reported the incident to the Persian army through the channel of the Persian envoy, and ordered the Khivan army, which was engaged with the Persian army on the front, to stop fighting and restore the alliance with the Persian army.

He is bound to take this Xia army, because the Khiva army gathered here now has nearly 20,000 troops, and the Xia army has only 10,000 people, and it is surrounded by a heavy siege, and the dragons are leaderless.

In order to take down the Xia army, he personally arrived at the front line to supervise the battle, and promised the soldiers of the army a rich reward, telling them that as long as they could destroy the Xia army, each of them would be rewarded with at least five sheep.

Encouraged by the reward of five sheep, the Khiva army was in high spirits, and the Uzbek infantry, whose weapons and equipment were still in the Middle Ages, roared and pushed the siege equipment into the wooden walls like a tidal wave.

And in the camp, Guan Qixun was also awakened by the noisy war drums outside, he forced his body that was still uncomfortable to sit up from the bed, and the guards guarding outside heard the movement, and hurriedly broke in, he looked at the right lieutenant who sat up, and said eagerly: "General, the medical officer said that you need to have a good rest, or continue to lie down." eat

Kwan Qixun waved his hand, he looked outside and asked, "Is it that the Khivas are attacking again?"

"Yes General." The guard replied, "Deputy General Li, they have already led the team to the wall to defend, you don't have to worry."

"Now that I am the highest-ranking person in this camp, and the soldiers are fighting on the front line, how can I lie here?"

Although Kwan Qixun knew that the guards were thinking about himself, he was not willing to lie down, he stood up from the bed as he spoke, and then said, "For my armor, I will personally go to the front line to patrol."

"General......" The guards still wanted to dissuade him, but Guan Qixun glared at him, and then he swallowed the words that came to his lips and said, "My subordinates understand."

Immediately, the guards stepped forward to put on armor for Guan Qixun, there are no special regulations on the armor and dress of the generals in the Xia army, so the types of armor of the generals are selected by themselves, Guan Qixun is used to wearing a cloth armor, in order to distinguish his identity, the cloth armor helmet has a red hat tassel.

After putting on the armor, Guan Qixun tied the saber around his waist, and then strode out of the military tent, he saw that the camp was already busy, the soldiers hurriedly climbed the wooden wall to reload the rifles in their hands, and the artillerymen also lifted the gun jackets and moved the boxes containing the shells to the side. eat

Guan Qixun's appearance quickly attracted the attention of many soldiers in the camp, and they were relieved to see the top commander in the camp wake up, and they were full of confidence for the next battle.

Soon, Guan Qixun came to the wooden wall of the south gate where the Khiva army was attacking, Li Qingshan had already learned the news that he had woken up, he leaned up with concern, and was just about to open his mouth to ask for warmth, but was interrupted by Guan Qixun, who said straight to the point:

"Deputy General Li, how many enemies have attacked outside the camp, and whether there are any heavy weapons, have you found out all of this?"

"I don't know how many people there are." Li Qingshan shook his head and said, "However, we have roughly estimated that the enemy surrounding us is about 20,000 people, and as for the heavy weapons, we have not found them so far, the enemy army uses ladders and battering rams when attacking, and the equipment is rudimentary."

Hearing that there were no heavy weapons, Guan Qixun breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, what he was worried about was that the Khiva army had brought heavy weapons such as catapults and ballistae when he was unconscious, although this primitive siege equipment was not as powerful as artillery, but it was more than enough to attack the camp surrounded by wooden walls.

After getting the information he wanted from Li Qingshan, Guan Qixun looked outside again, and the Uzbek infantry protected the square shields in front of them, forming a phalanx to guard the ladders and battering rams to advance towards the wooden wall, and in those infantry

Behind the phalanx, there were many archers with war bows.

Looking at the enemy's dense phalanx, some soldier on the wooden wall sighed: "If only our artillery could be erected on the wall, let these Khiva barbarians see the power of the Celestial Empire's firearms, instead of watching like they are now." eat

Guan Qixun also regretted that the enemy's phalanx was simply a bright target, and if the artillery could be erected on the wall, dozens of barbarians would be killed with one shot, but unfortunately the wooden wall could not withstand the recoil generated by the artillery shelling.

Under the strict preparation of the Xia soldiers, the Uzbek infantry finally approached the range of the Type 2 rifle, and when the ammunition reserve could not be replenished, the Xia army could only put the enemy under the wooden wall and shoot, so as to try to shoot as many enemies as possible with the least ammunition possible.

The Xia army was plagued by ammunition reserves, but the Khiva army did not have this concern, and after entering the range of the recurve bow, the Uzbek archers stood firmly, drew several arrows from the quiver bag, inserted them into the soft soil under their feet, and then under the loud command of the general, they set up their bows and lead the arrows, and aimed at the Xia army camp from afar.

"Shoot the arrows!"

Woooo

With the whistling sound of the arrows off the strings, a round of black arrow rain rose from the Uzbek army formation, and the deadly arrows cut a graceful arc in mid-air and fell into the summer army camp like raindrops!

"Enemy arrows are coming, pay attention to concealment!" eat

The officers of all levels in the Xia army shouted loudly, and the soldiers, having the experience of being suppressed by the Turkmen cavalry yesterday's rain of arrows, resolutely hid behind the battlements, and the arrows fell from the sky, crackling on the wooden battlements, or shooting into the camp and shooting through the orderly camp tents.

Three rounds of arrows rained down, and only a small number of soldiers in the Xia army were killed or wounded by arrows, and under the cover of three rounds of arrow rain, the Uzbek infantry also smoothly advanced under the wooden wall.

Amid the shouts of the officers, the Uzbek soldiers shouted for a series of ladders to be erected against the wooden walls, and they raised their shields above their heads, hoping to resist the damage of the projectiles fired by the enemy.

But then, Xia Jun's counterattack proved that their ideas were naïve and ridiculous.

"Fight back!"

After the rain of arrows stopped, the Xia army leaned out from behind the bunker and raised their guns to shoot at the Uzbek infantry below, in the dense gunfire, the Uzbek infantry outside the wooden wall fell in pieces like rice after autumn, the shields they raised above their heads could not block the penetration of the projectiles, and the screams of people after being shot and the wails before death converged under the wooden wall.

In addition to the rifle shots, the grenadiers, who were also deployed on the wooden wall, took off the grenades hanging from their waists, lit the fuse, and after a few breaths, threw them into the crowded area outside. eat

The fist-sized grenade smashed on the shield held above the head of the Uzbek soldiers, and then it was bounced off and fell at the feet of the soldiers, no one noticed this thing, and after a few breaths, the fuse burned out, only a few loud bangs were heard, and the Uzbek soldiers one or two meters around the grenade were blown up, and they were killed and wounded.

"What kind of weapon is this?"

Abu Saeed al-Batutai, the Khiva general who was overseeing the front, noticed the weapon that had blown his men upside down, and he looked at the round object that had been thrown from the wooden wall, and watched the whole process of the round object exploding in the crowd, his face full of horror at the unknown.

The weapons of the Central Asian countries did not have individual explosives such as thunderbolts and grenades, and they generally used the fierce fire oil canisters that have been used in warfare since BC, which are filled with black oil, and after being thrown and ignited by rockets, the flames produced can burn for a long time and are difficult to extinguish.

In the territory of the Khiva Khanate, later Uzbekistan, there were many oil fields, and although the people of this era did not know how to extract oil and did not know its true value, they were able to skillfully use it in warfare.

Although Batutai didn't know what the explosives used by Xia Jun were, he quickly thought of the fierce fire oil canister, and the idea of obtaining this explosive and using it for himself gradually arose.

A dense salvo of the Xia army

and the explosion of the grenade caused a large number of casualties to the Uzbek infantry in a short time, as a result of which the offensive of the Uzbek infantry was interrupted, and those who saw their comrades die tragically under the explosion of the grenade were shaken in their hearts and began to retreat. eat

Seeing this, Batutai waved his hand and ordered the shooters not to care about the friendly troops under the wooden wall, and continued to shoot at the Xia army to suppress the Xia army's firepower.

At his command, the archers drew their bows again and fired a rain of arrows at the wall, which rose into the air and galloped towards the wall.

"Hidden!"

The officers shouted sharply, pulled their subordinates to hide behind the battlements, and the rest of the soldiers also looked for cover on the spot, but many soldiers were unable to dodge and were killed on the spot by several arrows.

After shouting the words of the police, a sentry commander hurriedly pressed a subordinate next to him who was still trying to raise a gun to shoot, but the next second, an arrow hit his torso, causing him to slam to the ground with a grunt.

Seeing this, the surrounding soldiers hurriedly dragged him from the ground to the back of the bunker, and just after the sentry commander's body was dragged away, several arrows fell on the place where he had just fallen, making the other soldiers break out in a cold sweat when they saw it.

"Fuck, you don't want to die? You don't want to die, don't implicate Sentry Li, he almost died trying to save his life!" eat

The soldier who dragged the sentry back came to his senses, looked at the man who had nearly killed the sentry commander and yelled at him.

"Alright...... Don't blame him." Commander Li interrupted him with a loud voice, he looked at his subordinates who bowed their heads because of guilt, and said, "Don't pay attention to me, wait until the rain of arrows has passed and continue to fight, this is just a minor injury, and it will be healed soon."

With that, he gritted his teeth and pulled the arrow out of his body, thanks to the cloth armor he was wearing, the power of the arrow was weakened a lot, and it only barely penetrated a few points, and the arrow cluster was only stained with a little blood.

Seeing this, the surrounding soldiers also breathed a sigh of relief.

"Get up, the barbarians are here again, fight back!"

At this moment, the shouts of the officers sounded again at the top of the wall, and the soldiers hiding behind the battlements immediately stood up and raised their guns to shoot at the enemy below.

The returning Uzbek infantry, encouraged by the generals' reward, shouted and raised their shields to get under the wooden wall again, perhaps realizing that the shields could not protect them from the fire of firearms, the soldiers simply discarded their heavy shields and climbed up the ladder. eat

While the Uzbek infantry attacked the wooden wall with the most primitive ant attachments, outside the two gates in the north and south, the Khiva soldiers shouted a unified slogan and pushed the battering ram to hit the gate.

The gate shook under the battering ram, and if it had any life, the sound it would have made under the battering ram would have been its moaning.

The artillerymen facing the gate watched vigilantly at the constantly vibrating gate, and they had already filled the chamber with countless dense iron balls - this kind of iron beads is also known as grapeshot, as soon as the gate is breached, they will not hesitate to pull the cannon rope to give the enemy who rushed in a head-on blow.

Bang bang bang –

At the head of the wall, the Xia army fired downward with a steady stream of fire, blocking the Uzbek infantry's intention to climb the wooden wall, and in the continuous gunfire, the Uzbek infantry fell from mid-air one after another like dumplings in a pot and fell into a trench around the wooden wall.

The trench was covered with sharp stakes, which had been designed to prevent the enemy from being able to climb directly, but was now almost filled with fallen corpses.

The battle lasted for several hours, and the besieging Khiva army finally failed to reach the top of the wall, and after paying heavy casualties, the Uzbek infantry left behind hundreds of corpses and siege equipment on the battlefield, screaming for the queen to retreat. eat

The firepower of the Xia army was so fierce that the Khiva army could not even climb the wall, and those who were about to climb up were directly killed and wounded by the bayonets that stabbed them head-on.

The grenadiers ventured out and threw grenades into the doorway, killing and wounding a large number of Khiva soldiers using battering rams.

Stopped their attempt to break open the gate.

"The barbarian has retreated! The barbarian has retreated!"

Seeing the rout of Khiva retreating like a tide, the Xia soldiers on the wall all let out bursts of cheers, Guan Qixun also walked out of the tower full of arrows on the surface at this time, he looked at the back of the enemy's defeat, his face did not have the joy of victory, on the contrary, his face still retained a little grim.

He thought about the issue of ammunition supply.

The camp had only enough ammunition to fight two more battles of similar magnitude, and if the Khiva army launched an onslaught of the same intensity for several days in a row, it would not be long before they ran out of ammunition.

If they ran out of ammunition, the Type II rifle in their hands could only be used as a spear, and even if this spear was not as strong as a real spear, it was only a matter of time before the camp was captured if it really fell into such a field. eat