Ziyad loves his subordinates very much, and he feels very bad at the thought of his subordinates suffering large-scale casualties, but as a general, he has no choice, as long as there is an order from above to let him go all out to capture the city of Maia, then, he must complete the task, otherwise, he will not be able to explain to Mansour.

Mansour's goal is to take out Artik and his support Ibrahim, and regain control of the Arabian Peninsula, for this ultimate goal, Mansour is willing to sacrifice everything, the lives of soldiers are simply trivial, he does not care too much about the lives of ordinary soldiers.

Any ambitious emperor will not care too much about the lives of his soldiers, what they want is the final victory, for this victory, it is worth sacrificing the lives of some soldiers, in their eyes, ordinary soldiers are tools, and the loss of some will not have much impact on the entire empire, and as long as the strategic goal can be achieved, everything is worth it.

Ziad had no choice, even if his soldiers and horses lost tens of thousands, he had to take the city of Maia, which was a task he had to complete.

But looking at the well-defended city in front of him, Qi Yad really had a headache, he couldn't think of a siege strategy that could greatly reduce casualties, maybe only by filling it with human lives could he finally take this city.

In order to minimize casualties, it is essential to build siege engines on a large scale, and at the same time, he will learn from the experience of the previous time and send heavy troops to protect these siege equipment, and will definitely not let the soldiers and horses defending the city have a chance.

"General, the city in front of you is much higher than the defense of Ar City, and it will take many people to die before it can be captured."

A pro-soldier said.

Ziyad nodded and said: "Even if half of the whole army is lost, we must capture the city of Maya, this task must be completed, this is the task assigned by the caliph, if it cannot be completed, we cannot explain it to the caliph." ”

"Aren't the lives of the soldiers worthless? The caliph also has to take into account the actual situation here. ”

The pro-soldier was dissatisfied.

"Shut up, how can you question the caliphate, well, we should go back."

Ziyad had already seen all the defenses of the entire city of Maia, and he was going back to consult with Abu *** to find out the best plan for the siege.

On the city wall not far away, Artik and Ibrahim had already climbed the city wall and looked at Ziyad and his group not too far away.

"This enemy general must be a not low official, could it be Abu ***, or Ziyad?"

"Didn't Datang give us some telescopes, if you look at that thing, you will definitely be able to see it."

Everyone said babblingly.

Although the telescope is an important equipment of Datang, it is not much of a problem to send a few high-ranking officials of the level of Altic, and Li Ang sent three telescopes to Altic, moreover, there are three telescopes of different models, the largest one is fifty times, the smallest one is eight times, and one is twenty times.

Since he obtained the telescope, Artic has regarded it as a treasure and cherishes it very much, and is usually reluctant to take it out, but when he encounters an enemy situation, he has to take it out, otherwise, he will lose the meaning of having a telescope.

"Bring it quickly."

The eight-magnification telescope, which was on Artik's personal guard, was the item he carried with him, and the other two were kept strictly at his residence, so that no one could look at them.

The guard hurriedly took out the binoculars, and before he could unpack them, he heard Artik scold: "Be careful, don't break it, give it to me." ”

Artik himself opened the package, carefully held it in his hand, and looked at Ziyad outside the city.

As the former lord of Aden City, Artik had seen Ziad himself, so when he saw Ziyad's face clearly, he quickly recognized Qiad and was greatly surprised.

"It's Ziyard, that's right, it's this guy, I recognize it when he turns to ashes."

Artik spoke.

"City Lord, since it is Qi Yad, then what are we waiting for, immediately send cavalry to pursue, kill this guy, at least severely damage his guards and horses, and give him a dismount."

The subordinate beside him said.

Artik felt that it made sense, and immediately ordered: "Open the gates of the city, send the cavalry out of the city, and pursue Ziyad." ”

After the order was given, the city gate was immediately opened, however, the cavalry could not rush over at all, because a large number of defensive facilities were deployed at the city gate, in order to block the attack of the enemy's soldiers and horses, so the road was very difficult to walk, but in order to allow their soldiers and horses to go out of the city at the right time, so, the road still exists, but the cavalry needs to go back and forth, take multiple curved lines, instead of a straight line to the end, so that when the enemy attacks, it will not be able to go in a straight line, and if it is a curve, The suddenness of the attack is lost, which is extremely beneficial to the defenders.

But the situation in front of them was the opposite, the cavalry needed to attack from the city, and the defense facilities at the city gate greatly restricted the movement of the cavalry, so that the cavalry could not attack the enemy faster.

"General, the enemy cavalry has come out, and it seems that they are planning to do your detriment!"

The soldier smiled slightly.

Ziyad looked back at the cavalry who were rushing out of the detour, and said, "See! The enemy army can only take a detour out of the city, and walk like a snake, which is very unfavorable to our attack, so we must build a large number of siege equipment, the more the better. ”

Ziyad was not at all nervous about the enemy's cavalry rushing out of the city, because he had already formed an almost identical cavalry and archery unit according to the characteristics of the enemy's cavalry and archery troops.

Although because of the lack of excellent weapons of the Tang Dynasty, the attack distance of this soldier and horse is not as good as that of Artik's cavalry and archery troops, but equipped with larger bows and crossbows, so that their range gap is narrowed within a dozen steps, and the cavalry can break through with one impact, and his soldiers and horses are also light cavalry, the best war horses selected from the whole army, with the best speed and endurance, and the cavalry and archery soldiers under his command are also equipped with two small shields on the front chest and back, which can greatly reduce the resistance to bows and arrows.

"Soldiers, everyone lined up and prepared to meet the enemy."

Ziyad gave the military order.

"General, we only have two hundred cavalry, let's retreat! At least the general should retreat. ”

The pro-soldier said.

Qi Yade shook his head and said: "No need, how can this general be a person who is afraid of death, besides, the enemy army detours out of the city, and can only come in batches, this is the fat meat sent to the mouth, how can you let it go, and aim well." ”

Ziyad was very confident in the cavalry and archery soldiers he had personally trained, and he believed that with this army, he could completely fight against Artik's cavalry and archery regiment and achieve a brilliant victory.

The soldiers and horses in the city could only rush out of the city through narrow passages, and the soldiers and horses outside the city had already been assembled, and the gap between the two sides was obvious.

However, the cavalry and archers in the city were not afraid, they had already fought with the enemy, and knew that their bows and crossbows had a longer range and more follow-up soldiers and horses, so they did not hesitate to pounce, wanting to use the bow and arrow rain to severely damage the enemy on the opposite side and capture the enemy general Qi Yad alive.

After approaching the firing range, the cavalry and horses that rushed to the front immediately bent their bows and arrows and launched an attack on Ziyad's soldiers and horses, and Ziyad also immediately commanded his soldiers and horses to attack with bows and arrows by charging forward slightly, and a small number of enemy troops that fanned out in a fan-shaped way launched bow and arrow attacks.

Because the range of bows and arrows on both sides is relatively long, and at such a long distance, the hit rate of bows and arrows will be greatly reduced, so the probability of both sides being hit is relatively small, but the two hundred cavalry archers and horses on the side of Qiyad have already set up a formation, while the cavalry archers and horses rushing out of the city can only enter the attack distance a little bit, so, in terms of numbers, Qiyad can occupy a certain advantage, so as to achieve better results.

After a period of confrontation, the soldiers and horses in the city lost dozens of soldiers, while the soldiers on the Ziyad side only lost a dozen men, and it was clear that the Ziyad side had the advantage.

After the soldiers and horses in front were shot dead, the corpses blocked the way, so that the cavalry behind could not pass, in desperation, these cavalry could only give up their horses, jump into the next ditch, launch a bow and arrow attack from the trench, and change the cavalry shooting to foot shooting, thus gradually recovering the decline.

"General, the enemy troops are all hiding in the trenches, we can't shoot the enemy at all, at most we can only shoot the horses, our soldiers are constantly losing, let's retreat quickly!"

The pro-soldier spoke.

Qi Yad nodded, and said, "Retreat, the whole army retreats immediately, drive." ”

After throwing away more than twenty corpses, Ziad evacuated the vicinity of the city of Maia and ran back to his camp.

He did not suffer a loss in this battle, and his losses were much smaller than those of the cavalry and archers in the city, which is enough to show that the soldiers and horses under his command are all elites, and only a slight change in strategy is enough to defeat the rabble of Artik.

Artik and the others who watched the battle at the head of the city were all stunned, their cavalry and archery horses had achieved one victory after another under the training of the Tang generals, but they did not expect to suffer a big loss under their noses.

"Let the cavalry withdraw! Statistical losses. ”

Artik spoke.

"City Lord, what a wretch this battle has been! Our troops lost thirty-six men, twenty-five wounded, and more than 100 wounded horses, half of whom were no longer alive. ”

The subordinates quickly reported the situation.

"Cook all the dead horses, and the wounded and useless horses, and don't waste them."

Artik spoke.

After his subordinates left, Artik looked at everyone and said, "Ziyad is worthy of being a famous general, and it is really amazing to find a way to deal with our army's cavalry and archery horses so quickly!" ”

"We have all seen that Ziade's cavalry and archery horses, the bows and crossbows used, the range is similar to that used by our army, it is really not weak at all! In this way, it will be difficult for our cavalry to confront them head-on, and they can only participate in the defense of the city. ”

One of the subordinates said.

Artik looked at Ziyad and his group, who had already gone away, and said: "The enemy army may attack the city at any time, we must be prepared to let the soldiers be vigilant, and the defense of each city gate at night must reach at least five hundred soldiers to ensure absolute safety." ”

"Yes, City Lord."

"I hope Al-City is not lost, if it is lost, it will be a big trouble."

Altic said.

Ibrahim walked over and said, "Artik, should we prepare for the worst, where are we going to retreat once the city of Maia is breached?" ”

"Caliph, we have no way to retreat, Abu ***'s army is all cavalry, once the city of Maia is breached, he will definitely block the whole city, not let anyone leave, how can we escape, and, even if we really escape, but our main force and elite are in the city of Maia, if the city is breached, it means that our main force is gone, in this way, we have no place on the peninsula at all, the Ottomans in Egypt will definitely not accept us, and we will not be able to go anywhere else, Even if he can't sneak up on Mansur, he will definitely kill us. ”

Artik spoke.

"Oh, that's terrible, if the city is breached, we won't have a way to escape, it looks like we'll have to defend it."

Ibrahim was convinced that he had escaped from Khorasan and had fought against al-Mansur, so that if he was released, he would not be forgiven by al-Mansur, and that his execution was a sure thing.

Artik thought for a moment and said: "The caliph doesn't have to worry too much, we have 30,000 soldiers and horses in the city, the fortifications are also extremely strong, the food in the city is enough for half a year, and the number of wells is also enough. ”

"Well, I believe you, when necessary, you can recruit troops in the city, and only by having more soldiers and horses can you resist the soldiers and horses under the command of Abu ***."

Ibrahim spoke.

Artik thought for a moment and proposed, "It is better to gather all the men over the age of fifteen and under sixty in the city, train them, and let them serve as the reserve force of the army, and let them join the defense of the city as long as the soldiers in front suffer heavy losses." ”

"That's a great idea! After the expansion of Maia City, there are tens of thousands of people in the city, and if all the remaining men over the age of fifteen are requisitioned, it is estimated that 10,000 reserve forces can be added, so let's do it! It's really not possible, women can defend the city. ”

Ibrahim opened his mouth and said that in order to be able to hold off the enemy's attack, he hoped to levy everyone in the city to defend the city on the walls, so that the chances of victory would be greater.

Soon, the city of Maia was mobilized, and all the men over the age of fifteen were conscripted as reserve troops, and they had to do the most basic training every day, but they did not officially join the army, and after the training, they would still return home, or return to their respective jobs, and continue to do what they were supposed to do.