This subordinate of Qiyad was obviously too happy, he thought that he had wiped out more than one-third of the defending soldiers and horses in one day, but he didn't know that they didn't have such a big result at all, the real casualties of the defending soldiers and horses were far less than he thought, and with the use of various defensive means, the next losses would become lower, and the more terrible fact was that they were facing ordinary soldiers and horses, and the most elite 12,000 soldiers and horses in the city had not yet been used, if these elite soldiers and horses were dispatched, The casualty ratio will be further reduced by several notches.

Although what his subordinates said was not the real number of enemy losses, there was no flaw in his words, and Ziyad was still willing to believe it, he felt that it was very likely to be true, and as long as the soldiers and horses in the city were polished, the army under his command would be able to smoothly attack the city in front of him.

"What about our casualties?"

In addition to being more concerned about the casualties of the enemy, Ziyad is also very concerned about the casualties of his own army, if the casualties are too large, some of the gains outweigh the losses.

"General, the casualties of our army are less than 5,000, half of them are captured civilians, and the actual casualties of our army are only more than 2,000, most of them are arrow wounds, which are wounded when soldiers shoot at the enemy on the city wall, and the smashing and burns are relatively few."

The subordinate reported.

Qi Yade's cheeks twitched slightly, this casualty was still a bit big, the soldiers and horses under his command were all elite troops, even if it was only a small casualty, it would make him feel distressed, and besides, there were obviously more casualties at night than during the day, which was something that made him difficult to accept.

"You just said that the enemy's casualties were more in the first half of the night, so what about the casualties of our army? Also in the middle of the night? ”

Ziyad asked.

"No, general, our soldiers all suffered more casualties in the second half of the night, and they were all the most advanced crossbowmen, in the first half of the night, because the enemy could not see the situation in the trenches, so the crossbowmen deployed in the trenches won a great victory, so more crossbowmen were sent to fight in the trenches, but after the enemy illuminated the trenches, they lost the cover of the night, and suffered a lot of casualties at once, and it became quite difficult to attack the enemy troops."

The subordinate spoke.

"It's a shame that this is the case, there are capable people in the enemy army! I could have thought of such an ingenious way to reflect the light into the ditch. ”

Ziyad was amazed.

"General, the trench won't play any role anyway, we can fill it all in the afternoon today, and then fill in the moat, as long as the moat is filled, our army can fully attack the city wall, the enemy army is not many, and it will definitely not be able to resist."

The subordinate said affirmatively.

In order to be able to capture the city, Qiyad made very adequate preparations, and all kinds of equipment were extremely sufficient, and when attacking the equally well-defended Ar City, he had summed up a lot of experience and knew how to avoid being countered by the soldiers and horses in the city, so the siege army had been advancing, but the defenders in the city did not have a good way to completely repel the enemy army, so they could only choose to continue to carry out a war of attrition, blocking the speed of the enemy's attack, and causing large casualties to the enemy.

"That's right, as long as the last moat is filled, Artik will no longer be able to stop us, pass the order, let the soldiers speed up the progress, fill the last trench as soon as possible, fill the moat, and attack the city of Maia, after entering the city, all the soldiers will grab whatever they want, and remember to hand over Artik and Ibrahim to me."

Ziyad ordered loudly.

In order to boost the morale of the army, Qi Yade was also ruthless, and even used the trick of conniving at the soldiers' looting.

In ancient times, arson robbery was a very common phenomenon, and it was also a necessary quality for many soldiers, the reason why such a cruel method was chosen was because many times, the resources that the army could provide to soldiers were extremely limited, and there was a risk of losing one's life in war, if you want to let soldiers lose their lives for you, you have to give soldiers enough benefits!

The so-called heavy reward must have brave men, and the generals gave enough rewards to make the soldiers feel the need to take risks for this, so that the soldiers will fight without regard for their lives.

However, in the case of a shortage of resources, the generals may not have wealth, and how to reward the soldiers under their command who have worked for their lives, the only feasible way is to promise to let the soldiers rob the city after they take it, and only in this way is the feasible way.

In particular, many of the peasant armies who were forced to rebel made their fortune by robbery in many cases, because the rebellious peasant leaders had no money and could not supply a huge number of followers, so there was no other way than to rob, of course, if they could capture the city where the official grain was stored, it would be much easier to do, so that not only could their own food problem be solved, but also the surplus grain could be distributed to more poor people, and use this opportunity to recruit more men and horses, so that they could become stronger and stronger.

It is of course the best way to seize the food, gold and silver of the imperial court, and it is also an important guarantee for the development of a rebel army, but if it is impossible to seize the money and food of the imperial court, and the ranks of the rebel army are short of money and food, then the only way is to forcibly expropriate, which can also be called robbery, and after capturing a city, rob all the people in the city, so as to get the most basic supply.

Especially in the case of heavy losses in the process of siege, robbing the people in the city has become an inevitability, and even slaughtering the city is possible, otherwise, where will the resentment of the stomach be vented.

The reason why the ancient Yuejia army was able to do it, freezing to death without demolishing houses, starving to death without plundering, was because the entire Southern Song Dynasty provided sufficient logistics for the army, if there was no logistical support from the imperial court, the Yuejia army would freeze to death and starve to death, where would there be energy to fight the Jin army.

At this moment, the army of Ziyad has been besieging the city for many days, and the army has suffered heavy losses, in this case, as long as the city is breached, it will definitely take revenge, and robbery is only a minimum of revenge, and more serious is the slaughter and burning of the city to vent the hatred in the heart.

The army of Ziyad was already tired from attacking the city continuously, but in the face of huge interests and military orders, they once again burst out with powerful attack power and went all out to attack the defenders in the city.

Because more siege equipment has been being manufactured, and most of the siege equipment is relatively strong, and the distance from the city is relatively far, so the number of destroyed is very small, and it is not as fast as the speed of newly created equipment, so the siege equipment owned by the Qiyad army has not only not decreased because of the siege, but has greatly increased, and the destroyed siege equipment is also easy to repair, so that the siege force has been increasing.

This is also the source of Ziyad's self-confidence, the reason why he is so confident is that the strength under his command is growing step by step, he has great self-confidence in breaking through the city's defenses, he believes that he will be able to lead a large army to break through the city, and fully meet the task given to him by Mansour.

Ziyad's attack has been intensifying, and the distance between the besieging army and the city wall is also gradually shortening, which creates a lot of pressure on the defenders.

Although the city was very well defended, and more defensive equipment was used to defend the city, the pressure was still very high, and the soldiers and horses of the defense were constantly suffering casualties.

Because there is too much light during the day, all the scarecrows have been removed, and the enemy troops outside the city are not stupid, and it is easy to find these scarecrows, so in order to better confuse the enemy at night, these scarecrows must be put away during the day.

There is no need to put away the mask and armor, and the use of these armor can reduce casualties very well, and it is okay if it is discovered by the enemy.

"City Lord, the last trench is about to be filled, and the enemy army will start filling the moat at night."

One of the subordinates reported.

The so-called filling of the trench, in fact, is not to fill the entire trench, but to fill in a certain width, enough to support a large number of siege equipment and troops to pass smoothly, and some places are not filled, so that it can be used as a cover for crossbowmen to hide, and can also speed up the progress of filling the ditch.

Artik was a little anxious when he heard this, if even the last moat was filled, the defensive pressure of the soldiers and horses in the city would be too great, because it meant that a large number of soldiers and horses outside the city could push large siege equipment under the city wall, and a large number of soldiers and horses could quickly climb the city wall through the siege equipment, so as to break through the city.

Destroying the besieging equipment, of course, is the best way, but Ziyad built the siege equipment of all kinds of siege equipment very strongly, and the number is very large, even if a few are smashed, new equipment will be added immediately, and the smashed equipment can be easily repaired, anyway, the equipment is just a few parts, and it is good to repair where it is smashed, and there is no difficulty.

According to the current defensive methods, it is inevitable to sacrifice a lot of soldiers to defend the city, and it is necessary to let his most elite soldiers and horses fight in order to have an effect, which is why Artik has always refused to let the most elite soldiers and horses fight, when shooting with bows and crossbows, ordinary soldiers and horses can also be maintained, but if it is time for the enemy to build a ladder to attack the city, the situation may be different, once the confidence of the defending soldiers and horses collapses, they may give up the defense, and thus break up and flee, so it is too bad, only the most elite soldiers and horses, In order to fight with the besieging soldiers and horses, and stick to the last line of defense.

But Artik didn't want the most elite soldiers and horses to suffer heavy losses, if the core elite soldiers and horses suffered heavy losses, then, even if he finally held the city, his strength would suffer huge losses.

It is impossible to destroy all kinds of siege equipment outside the city on a large scale, which is the most helpless thing for the defenders, as long as a large number of siege equipment outside the city are not destroyed, then, the huge pressure on the defense can not be eliminated.

In particular, the pressure in the direction of the north gate is the greatest, where half of the strength of the siege soldiers and horses is concentrated, the speed of advance is the fastest, and the casualties caused to the defenders are also the largest, and the progress of the siege soldiers and horses in the rest of the directions is much slower before advancing to the second trench.

"It is necessary to get rid of Ziyad's siege equipment, these weapons are too threatening to us, and it is difficult for our army to attack with all its strength to inflict great losses on the enemy."

Artik spoke.

"City Lord, this doesn't seem to be easy, Qi Yad's elite cavalry is pressing the formation behind, even at night, these cavalry have been maintained at a scale of more than three thousand, if our army sends soldiers and horses out of the city to assault, it is easy to be raided by these cavalry, and then, they can take the opportunity to break into the city and break through the city."

The subordinate shook his head and said.

Artik naturally understood this truth, but he really couldn't think of a better way, if he didn't destroy the large number of siege engines outside the city, the pressure on the defense was too great.

"City Lord, or let the Tang artillery attack! The artillery is more powerful and prepared, and it will definitely destroy more siege engines, which can thwart Ziyad's spirit. ”

The subordinate asked.

Artik hesitated for a moment, thinking that it would be more feasible, but if it really didn't work, he could only count on Datang's five artillery, if even these five cannons were not capable of turning the tide, then there was really no better way.

"You go and invite General Tang, I want to ask about the situation."

Artik spoke.

"Yes, City Lord."

The subordinate answered.

Soon, the young general of Datang came to Artik.

"What is the city lord looking for me? Is it to put our artillery into battle? We can't wait, we just want to put on a good show? ”

The young general of Datang said.

Altic squeezed a smile from the corner of his mouth and said, "Let me just ask, how many shells can your artillery fire, how many siege engines can destroy the enemy, can you kill them all?" ”

The young general of the Tang Dynasty thought for a moment and said: "City Lord, my five artillery pieces only have a hundred ammunition left, and the total is only five hundred, and there is only about two percent of the hope of hitting and destroying from a long distance, and at most one hundred siege equipment can be destroyed, and the killing and wounding of enemy soldiers and horses can exceed one thousand, maybe more." ”

"That's not enough! The enemy army has too many siege engines, and it is certainly not enough to destroy a hundred, and there are more than this number of catapults alone. ”

Artik was a little depressed, there were too many weapons in the siege army, there were hundreds of catapults at the north gate, and they were scattered, so it was impossible to kill a few of them with one shot.

If artillery is immediately used to participate in the battle and destroy some of the equipment of the siege soldiers and horses, it can indeed have the effect of easing the offensive of the siege soldiers and horses, but the effect is not very obvious, and there is no more after it is used up.

"Can the shells be made in the city, what equipment do you need, and by the way, what materials do you need?"

Artik asked unrelentingly.

The young general of the Tang Dynasty opened his eyes wide and said: "Cannonballs can only be made in Chang'an City of the Tang Dynasty, and the formula is only known to Li Shilang, and it is absolutely impossible to make them in the city." ”