When Tang Zhangwei and Tang Zhaozong were trying to find it, they only found some stone lions, and the carvings of these lions were lifelike, but these things alone were still worthless.

However, Tang Zhangwei was very happy to see Tang Zhaozong, he was so happy that he couldn't close his mouth, Tang Zhangwei didn't understand, he asked Tang Zhaozong: "What are you happy about, these things are not valuable." ”

Tang Zhaozong said: "You don't understand, as long as you find the Assyrian lion, the real Assyrian ancient city, and the Assyrian palace will not be far away." ”

Tang Zhangwei said to Tang Zhaozong: "Is it as divine as you say?" ”

Tang Zhaozong said: "You believe me, that's right. ”

They rarely carried swords, but they wore quivers, and were "real" archers. The spearmen of the Sennacherib era were divided into two types: heavy spearmen and lightly armed spearmen. The heavily armed spearmen wore peaked helmets, armor that reached to the waist and covered the upper parts of their arms, and was dressed in tights with an opening on one side; He wears leggings, a short skirt, and shin guards. They carry large convex shields made of metal, which can cover almost their entire bodies. The spear is slightly shorter than the body, and a short sword is also worn on the right side of the body. The hoplites were smaller in number and usually acted as the king's guards. The armament of the lightly armed spearmen was almost identical to that of the spearmen of the time of Sargon II. He wears a bird-crested helmet, a plain tightsuit, a wide belt around his waist, and a round wicker shield. However, the lightly armed spearmen of the Sennacherib era usually wore trousers and shin guards and carried a semicircular convex wicker shield instead of a round shield, thus distinguishing themselves from the spearmen of Sargon II's time. The Sennacherib also made progress in the construction of engineering and slinger units. The engineering units really and completely independent appeared in reliefs of war scenes. Sappers generally work in pairs and work together. They wear the same garb as a heavy spearman, except that instead of a spear, they are armed with a double-headed axe or hand axe. The slinger troops mainly used catapults for siege work, and they were quite powerful when attacking cities.

After Sennacherib ascended to the throne in 704 BCE, Merodak Baladan, who was trying to return to Babylon at the opportune time, returned to Babylon with the support of his ally Elam and declared Babylon's independence. Sennacherib would not tolerate the Chaldeans and Elam's control of Babylon, so he personally led a large army against Babylon. Elamite divided his troops to garrison the eastern barrier of Babylon in the city of Kuta, and placed the main army and the combined forces of Chaldean, Alamea, and Arabia in the ancient city of Kish in the southeast, thus forming a pincer formation of the Assyrian army attacking Babylon in a pincer formation from the north and south. Sennacherib saw through this intention, sent a group of elite troops to Kish, blocked the enemy's main force from the north, and led his army to abandon Babylon and attack Kuta, completely annihilating the defenders. Then he hurried south to Kish to reinforce the disintegrating blocking forces that were fighting the plains, several times his size. In a battle, the coalition was defeated and the Assyrian army entered the city of Babylon. Babylon belonged to Assyria three times.

Then, in 701 B.C.E., Sennacherib moved westward to suppress the rebellion in Palestine and Phoenicia. When Sennacherib led his army to the west in 700 B.C.E., the kings of Syria and Palestine surrendered, and only the Jewish king Hezekiah, with his great strength and Egyptian support, was determined to fight Assyria to the end.

Sennacherib again resorted to a roundabout tactic, first capturing the Jewish flank of Ashclon, crushing distant Egyptian reinforcements, then capturing Ekron, and then besieging Jerusalem by separate routes. At this time, a plague broke out in the Assyrian army, so an armistice was made with Judea and Jerusalem was saved.

While Sennacherib was fighting in the west, the Chaldeans rebelled again. In order to completely destroy the Chaldean power, Sennacherib resolved in 694 BC to make an expedition against the remnants of Merodak Baradan in Elam. The Assyrian warriors, with the cooperation of the navy, captured a number of Chaldean colonies and Elamite towns. However, Harusus, king of Elam, led an army into Babylon. Soon after, civil strife broke out in Elam, and Sennacherib took the opportunity to send troops to invade Elam. However, the stubborn Elamites united the three provinces of Aramea, Chaldeans, and Assyria to form an anti-Assyrian coalition and slaughtered Assyria in 691 BC. Sennacherib led his army to meet him at the city of Haru.

The inscription describes Sennacherib's actions at the Battle of Haru in the form of a self-description of the enemy's "swarms of locusts that cover the sky and the earth" and that "the dust they step on is like a thick cloud before a storm." "I am clothed in a battle robe, and I wear a king's helmet—the sign of the victory of my army; In a fit of rage, I rode my chariot and knocked down the enemy. I held the bow given to me by the god Ashur in one hand and a sharp spear in the other, and shouted with a loud voice like spring thunder. I roared and roared like Thor, fending off the enemy's onslaught and successfully surrounding them. The 'Turtan' of the Elamite army (the title of the commander of the army - the author) and the other nobles wore golden swords and glittering gold bracelets, and I slew them with haste, slashing their throats and arms like a rope. The inscription claims that Assyria killed and wounded 150,000 enemy troops. But Assyria also suffered heavy casualties. The Assyrians failed to capture Babylon and retreated to Nineveh to recuperate. In 689 B.C.E., when civil strife broke out in Elam, Sennacherib took the opportunity to attack Babylon, and Assyria conquered Babylon for the fourth time.

In 681 B.C., Sennacherib was killed, and his son Asarhadon succeeded to the throne, implementing a policy of Huairou rule at home, and conquering the Median and Egyptian countries abroad, expanding the empire's territory.

The Rise and Fall of the Empire

In 669 BCE, Asarhadon died of illness during an expedition to Egypt, and his son Ashurbanipal (668-631 BC) ascended to the throne. By the time of Ashurbanipal there was a new change in the infantry. Both archers and spearmen are classified separately, i.e., lightly armed and heavily armed. Light archers resemble those of the Cinnachryb period, with headbands, modest straitjackets, wide belts, and short skirts. The only difference is that they don't have drapes and loafers to cover their bodies. Heavy archers are also similar to heavy archers from the Sennacherib period. The only new piece of equipment for the spearmen is the shield. Older convex oval shields were less commonly used, and most often used a type of shield with a straight bottom and a round top. Light spearmen used shields of the same style, only instead of metal, they were wicker. In addition to spearmen and archers, the infantry by this time also appeared as throwers, hammer spearmen and tomahawks. The costumes of hammer spearmen and battle axe men are identical to those of heavy spearmen, indicating that they are already the main class of infantry.

Ashurbanipal succeeded his father and led an expedition to Egypt, where he stormed the city of Thebes, plundering and destroying it. By 655 BC, however, Egypt had gained independence from Assyrian control. At this time, Assyria did all its best to fight the last and most stubborn enemy, Elam.

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