March 18, evening. Outside Jerusalem, the camp of the Western Qin army and the tent of the Chinese army.

Zhao Ziliang ordered a banquet for the generals and officials of all departments in the big tent of the Chinese army, including the generals of the servant army and some ordinary soldiers who were particularly brave in battle, and the guards and men were busy for this banquet for a whole afternoon.

As night fell, the Chinese army tent began to be lively, the generals and officials of various departments came one after another, Zhao Ziliang was not in the Chinese army tent at this time, these generals and officials were much more presumptuous, they met each other and saluted, greeted each other loudly, joked, said some meat jokes, and foul language.

Each general or official sat in a separate position, and the floor of the whole tent of the Chinese army was covered with a Persian carpet, and their work was to spread a thick blanket on the Persian carpet, and in front of it was a small table, on which were placed food, wine, utensils, chopsticks, and boning knives. The food includes white flour meat buns, roast lamb, dates, figs, etc.

Although the wine, food, melons and fruits had all been served on the table, and the aroma of the food also made the generals and officials salivate, no one dared to take it and eat it without authorization, because Zhao Ziliang had not yet come, so the generals and officials could only chat and fart.

Soon, Zhao Ziliang walked in with the hilt of the war knife, wearing the battle armor and the golden cloak, and some of the dragon guard armor soldiers accompanying the escort rushed in and stood around the tent.

Seeing this, the generals and officials all got up one after another, and when Zhao Ziliang walked from the middle passage to the imperial case and sat down, everyone stood up and lined up to face him with fists and bowed: "The ministers see the king!" ”

Zhao Ziliang pressed down and said: "No need to be polite, the city will be attacked soon, today the king will set up a banquet here for all the generals, you must be full of wine and food, sit down!" ”

"King Xie!" The crowd sat down.

Zhao Ziliang said with a smile: "Before the banquet, this king also said a few nonsense, there are more than 13,000 defenders in Jerusalem, this is the number of regular troops, don't think that the defenders are only so few people, when it is really necessary, the leaders of the three major forces in the city are very likely to call or order the whole city to be soldiers, that is more than 100,000 people, even if they are just ordinary people, as long as they pick up weapons, they cannot be ignored, not to mention that they are people, even if it is hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep for us to kill, We're tired enough, not to mention that they're not animals to be slaughtered! So, the generals of the Lone King, this battle is not so easy to fight! For Lone, it is not difficult to conquer Jerusalem, even if it is to destroy this city, it is easy to conquer it completely! To conquer this city and its people, it is not enough to convince them to lose, not enough to make this holy city willingly accept our rule, only to defeat them and conquer this city with dignity can they submit! ”

The generals stood up one after another, clasped their fists and said, "The ministers are willing to die for the king!" ”

Zhao Ziliang smiled and pressed his hand to let the generals sit down, and said, "Let's not talk about the siege today, come, try these dishes!" ”

The generals and officials raised their wine glasses to toast Zhao Ziliang, and all the generals began to drink in large bowls, and ate *** The officials wanted to be gentle, and they used small wine cups to drink, and the generals grabbed the whole roast leg of lamb and gnawed it, while the civil officials used boning knives to cut the meat into small slices and then eat.

Zhao Ziliang picked up a red date palm and said to everyone: "Look at this thing, this is a date, it is cultivated in Persia, Syria, Canaan and the Great Food Peninsula, there are many kinds of it, but there are only nine kinds that can really be eaten, this kind of date is called the imperial date, it is big and sweet, it can be used as a staple food, and it can also be made into sugar!" Big food peninsula does not grow wheat, dates are one of their staple food, you don't look at such a small thing, it is not just food, it is also a good medicine, can treat many hidden diseases in the body, often eat it is good for the body, try it! ”

Since the Western Qin forces entered Persia, the generals in the army have not seen this kind of date, but this thing is just a snack for children to them, where will adults eat this kind of thing? Therefore, the dates did not attract the attention of these Western Qin bigwigs, and now Zhao Ziliang admired the dates so much at this banquet, and everyone suddenly became curious and attached importance to the dates.

This was just a small episode at the banquet, after he was full of wine and food, Zhao Ziliang put down the boning knife and looked at Chen Qing and asked, "How many slaves are willing to attack the city until now?" ”

Chen Qing stood up and hugged his fists and said: "King, so far, only more than 19,000 people have volunteered to participate in the siege, and the remaining more than 10,000 people are unwilling, they would rather be hungry!" ”

Zhao Ziliang said: "In this way, these stubborn people are die-hard members of Christ, Judaism and the Great Food Sect, since they are not willing to attack the city, what is the Lone King keeping them for?" Is food a waste of food? Or give them a chance to fight back? Tomorrow morning, before the siege of the city, all these diehards will be taken to the city of Jerusalem and executed! ”

Everyone stopped eating and drinking when they heard this, and many officials and generals were shocked into a cold sweat, you must know that killing 10,000 people in the battle is nothing, after all, it is understandable for the two armies to fight for their lives, but the slaughter of more than 10,000 slaves makes many officials feel a little resistant, but they also know that this is only afraid that there is no way to do it, Zhao Ziliang has already said that it is impossible to change, and keeping those people may indeed cause unpredictable consequences.

On the morning of March 19, the black and oppressive Western Qin army surrounded Jerusalem, countless flags were displayed outside the city, and a large area of guns emitted thousands of reflected rays of light under the sunlight, and the sound of tens of thousands of neat footsteps from far and near, causing the earth to shake constantly, and the tableware and other utensils on the tables in many houses in the city kept shaking, and people ran out of the houses in panic, thinking that there had been an earthquake.

A few miles outside the city, there was an undulating bare hill surrounding, and as the sound of vibration continued to be heard, a dense and neat banner finally appeared on the hills and mountains, followed by a denser figure of people, black and oppressive, and everywhere the line of sight passed.

"The enemy is coming, the enemy is coming······" The soldiers on the watchtowers on the city wall shouted, the alarm bell began to ring rapidly, the defenders rushed up the city wall with weapons, the inhabitants of the city were also frightened, and the streets were in chaos.

In a short time, the walls were filled with soldiers defending the city, and the current governor, the Christian Perici, appeared on the walls, along with Guy of Judaism and Murisardin of the Great Food.

Everyone on the city wall watched nervously as the black and oppressive Western Qin army outside the city stepped on a neat pace and slowly advanced in the direction of the city wall, and it was this slow advance coupled with the huge momentum brought by the neat pace to the defenders, from the top to the bottom, brought a strong and incomparably strong psychological pressure.

As the Western Qin army got closer and closer to the city wall, the momentum created became stronger and stronger, some timid people on the city wall were so frightened that they fainted directly, and the others were not much better, all of them were as white as earth, their bodies were like shaking chaff, and some people were so frightened that they were incontinent.

Governor Perridge's face was pale, his body was shaky, and he barely managed to stand firm by holding on to the battlements of the wall, so as not to make a fool of himself, but his trembling heart could not be quiet, and he could not help crying out: "Oh, my God, how many troops are these, and they are afraid that every one of them will drown us all if he spits on Jerusalem?" ”

Hearing this, Judaism's Guy frowned, turned his head and said very unhappily: "Your Excellency, aren't you, as the governor of the whole city, worried about affecting the morale of the soldiers and civilians when you say such things?" ”

Perridge hurriedly said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I just felt it, I didn't mean it!" Elder Guy, do you think we have any hope of winning? ”

Guy frowned again: "I don't know if we will win or not, but I know that if we don't hold on, we will lose the Holy City forever, and this is the first time in hundreds of years that we can really decide the future of ourselves and the Holy City!" ”

Although Perici was afraid, he also had to admit that Guy had a point, although the Holy See had a Papal State, who would think that he had too much power? Too big a site? If you can completely control the Holy City, this is undoubtedly a great event for the Holy See, if you can completely control the Holy City in your own hands, Perici will have the capital to argue with the Pope, and it is not impossible to succeed the next Pope, if the Holy See is not satisfied with it, he can jump out and leave the Pope alone and set up another door! Perici knew that as long as he could become the lord of Jerusalem, he would have enough confidence.

"That's right, you're right, we're going to keep it up! Jerusalem is a place for all parties to fight, now the Mahdi and Constantinople sides are contained, but they can't be pinned down forever, once these two sides are stabilized, Western Qin will have to face the pressure of these two sides, they can't besiege the city forever, as long as we hold on until that time, it will be victory! ”

Speaking of this, Perridge said with some worry: "Elder Guy, Elder Murisadinia, it's not that I'm cowardly and afraid, I'm worried that our defense force is not enough to block the siege of the Western Qin army, do you have any way to hold on for a long time?" ”

"Jerusalem is a big city, and the grain stored here can feed us for three years, unless the Western Qin army can besiege the city for three years, we will all be safe!" ”

Guy said: "I have already arranged a complete defense plan, although the Western Qin army is outnumbered, it is not easy for them to break through our city, unless they dare to risk heavy casualties, but as far as I know, their headquarters is not too many, only less than 30,000 people, the rest are servant troops and slaves, these people have little combat effectiveness, it would be good not to hold back, and they also need a lot of food to feed them, if the king of Western Qin does not carry these burdens, only use his own troops and horses to attack the city, I am still a little worried, But if he fights with an army of slaves and servants, he will definitely be disappointed and regret it! ”

Both Perridge and Murisardin looked at Guy suspiciously, not understanding what he meant.