On the shores of Lake Asad, the small town of Thebes, the camp of the Western Qin army. ○ ◇Tomato □ talk net '--.-f'q-x's--.'com

It has been two days since Zhao Ziliang led his army to arrive here, these days he marched along the right bank of the Eula River, capturing more than a dozen towns, castles and fortresses along the way, and the Byzantines finally reacted, they could not tolerate the Western Qin to fight like this, the speed of the Western Qin's attack on the city was too fast, and the strong castles and fortresses that the Byzantines relied on to defend did not play a big role, they had to send troops to prepare for the battle with the Western Qin army, and the commander of the army was the Syrian governor Nisserus, who led the army from Beloea.

Nisserus was originally based in Damascus, but he had been patrolling the defenses of Syria for the past two months, and just as he arrived in Beloea, he received news of a large-scale invasion by the Western Qin army, and it was an attack along the Euphra River, which forced him to stay in Beloya for the time being and ordered to mobilize troops and horses in major towns in northern Syria to prepare for the uneventuality.

In order to prevent the defenders of towns, castles and fortresses from being eaten by the Western Qin army one by one, he immediately decided to meet the Western Qin army, so he led an army of 30,000 to the east to meet the Western Qin army.

"My lord, the Eastern Roman army has arrived, and they are in the town of Meskenay, thirty miles northwest of here!" Zhang Ben, the general of the scout battalion, strode into the big tent and reported to Zhao Ziliang.

Zhao Ziliang was extremely calm, put down the red pen in his hand, raised his head and asked, "How many people?" Who is the commander-in-chief?"

Zhang Ben said: "There are 30,000 horses, and the commander of the army is Nisserus, the governor of Syria in the Eastern Roman Empire!" ”

Zhao Ziliang was a little surprised: "The Syrian Governor's Office seems to be located in Damascus, right?" Niserus should be Damascus, how could he lead his army so quickly? ”

Zhang Ben said: "According to the information we have received, Nisserus has been inspecting defense and government affairs in various parts of Syria for the past two months, and when he arrived in Beroea, he learned the news of our army's attack on Deir ezor Citadel, so he stayed in Beloea and did not leave, and he continued to transfer troops from Antioch and major towns in northern Syria. Our spies found that only 10,000 of his 30,000 were Eastern Roman regular troops, and the other 20,000 were slaves collected from northern Syria and Antioch, and the slaves had all kinds of weapons, basically no armor, and none of their clothes were intact, and the 10,000 Eastern Roman regular army had 1,000 heavy cavalry, 1,000 light cavalry, and the remaining 8,000 were all infantry, of which 5,000 were light infantry, and the remaining 3,000 were heavy infantry! ”

Zhao Ziliang thought for a moment and ordered: "Continue to monitor them, and if there is any movement, report it at any time!" ”

"Yes!"

Since the battle was about to begin, Zhao Ziliang decided to let the army rest for a few more days to recuperate, during this time a long journey, and from time to time to attack the city, there were losses in mental and physical strength, and the Eastern Roman army had just arrived from Beloea, two hundred miles away, they also needed to rest, so it was necessary to take advantage of the opportunity of the other party to rest and recuperate for a few days.

On the nineteenth day of the first month of 777 AD, the Western Qin army, under the command of Zhao Ziliang, set out from the small town of Thebes to the small town of Meskenay, where the eastern Roman army was located.

By mid-morning, the army reached the shores of Lake Asad, ten miles southeast of Meskenay, and the Eastern Roman army, led by Nisserus, came to meet them.

The two armies set up a position on the lakeside, a tall handsome platform on the side of the Western Qin army was dragged by twenty-four mules and horses to the middle of the military formation, Zhao Ziliang and the generals and officials stood on the handsome platform to observe the deployment of the Eastern Roman army in front.

Zhao Ziliang used a telescope to observe that Nisserus deployed 10,000 Eastern Roman troops in the Chinese army, and the other 20,000 slaves on the two wings, this battlefield is Lake Asad on one side, and a messy stone lawn on the other side, overgrown with weeds, the width of the battlefield is only about two miles, and after the army array is opened, there is no extra space at all.

Niserus apparently also noticed the terrain, and therefore placed the heavy cavalry and heavy infantry in front of the central army, with a thousand heavy cavalry at the front, followed by the heavy infantry, and the heavy infantry followed by the light infantry, and finally the light cavalry.

If Zhao Ziliang hadn't stood on a high platform nearly ten zhang high, he really couldn't see the heavy cavalry of the other party behind the heavy infantry, Niserus's plan was obviously to use the heavy cavalry to surprise first, break up the Chinese army formation of the Western Qin army, and then crush the heavy infantry that followed, and the light infantry would reinforce and pick up the cheap behind, and finally the light cavalry would chase and kill the rout.

Zhao Ziliang smiled in his heart, this Nisserus had a good plan, but he would not let the Western Qin army stand and let the other party rush to kill.

Wei Gao stood aside and obviously looked at the other party's heavy cavalry, and said: "King, the enemy army puts the slaves on both wings and the regular army in the middle army, and the front of the Chinese army is the heavy cavalry, we are afraid that we will not suffer losses if we also use heavy cavalry to hedge!" ”

Zhao Ziliang thought for a while and asked Chen Qing: "How many siege vehicles do we have?" ”

Chen Qing said: "About sixteen!" ”

Zhao Ziliang pointed to the ground in front of him and said: "You see, the terrain here is flat, the ground is hard, and the width on both sides is limited, which is the best place to use siege vehicles to charge into battle, pass the order, let the siege convoy prepare for the attack, let them move to the front of the Chinese army and line up, cover it with green turf, branches and leaves, and deploy three thousand light infantry on the left and right sides and rear in the gap between the siege vehicles. Prevent them from being destroyed by enemy forces! ”

Chen Qing promised: "Obey!" ”

The order was quickly conveyed, the chariot soldiers quickly rode the siege vehicle forward, the soldiers in front heard the shouts and all got out of the way for the siege vehicle to pass, this thing was originally used to siege the city, not only to transport soldiers, but also to chisel through the city walls and gates, generally not used on the frontal battlefield, but in this special terrain, it can play a major role, it can run over like a tank, because of the width of the battlefield, the enemy has limited space to avoid, if you can't think of a way to restrain it, you can only be crushed by it in front of your eyes.

Zhao Ziliang observed for a while and ordered: "Order, transfer the heavy cavalry to the right flank!" ”

Soon, Zhao Ziliang's deployment was completed, because of the width of the battlefield, Zhao Ziliang could only lengthen the depth of the military formation, the width of the military formation was almost the same as that of the Eastern Roman army on the opposite side, which was determined by the terrain, it was not easy to climb on the rocky mountain on the left side, and it was not easy to launch a dive attack when it went up, both sides had sent people to explore in advance, and Niserus didn't care about the mountain at all, but Zhao Ziliang found that the terrain of the mountain could affect the battle situation after looking at the terrain, and he sent a large number of archers to climb the mountain with a lot of effort.

"King, our army has been fully deployed!"

Zhao Ziliang looked at the sun in the sky, it was almost noon, and he immediately ordered: "The hour is not early, the order is beaten, the front army advances, and the Chinese army follows!" ”

Chen Qing immediately issued an order to the herald: "The king has an order, the front army advances, the Chinese army follows up, and the drum attacks!" ”

"Long" "Long" "Long" "Long"

After the first drum sounded, the generals of the front army and the Chinese army who saw the flag from the flag bearer immediately ordered to advance, and the infantry at the front, whether it was the left and right flanks or the army in the middle, all marched forward slowly at a neat pace! Zhao Ziliang believes that in this level of field warfare, the first battle must not use the servant army, which is not strong enough to fight, since the first battle needs brave and fearless people, it must use the standing army, if even the standing army can not withstand it, even if it is useless to send more servant army, it will make the army collapse faster.

On the side of the Eastern Roman army, a general said to Niserus: "Your Excellency, the Western Qin army has moved!" Are we going to give the order to attack too? ”

Nisserus noticed that there were many things covered with branches at the front of the central army of the Western Qin army, and these things moved forward with the army, and they could keep up with the pace of the infantry even if they were not fast, which made him very puzzled and asked, "What are those things covered with branches on the other side?" ”

The surrounding Eastern Roman generals and officials couldn't see it clearly, and they shook their heads one after another.

Nisserus frowned, he didn't know what Zhao Ziliang was doing, but at this time, if he didn't give the order to attack and fight, he would lose the lead, he didn't hesitate any longer, and ordered: "The opponent is advancing in three ways, left, center, and right, and they are all elite infantry, our left and right wings are slaves, I'm afraid that it's not an opponent, if we want to win, I'm afraid that we still have to break through the middle road, pass the order, order the heavy cavalry in the middle to charge, the heavy infantry will then advance, and the front of the left and right wings will attack with 5,000 people each, The remaining five thousand men each are ready to reinforce at any time as reserves! ”

The army of the Eastern Roman Empire also moved quickly, compared to the overall consistent advance of the Western Qin army, the army of the Eastern Roman Empire was much more violent, not only the heavy cavalry in the middle began to accelerate, and emitted an extremely strong momentum, the rumbling of horses' hooves shook the earth, and even the slaves on the left and right wings also carried a variety of blades and spread their legs to kill the Western Qin army in a mess.

The speed of the heavy cavalry is fast, and although the slaves on both wings are also rushing, after all, there are only two legs, and they can't outrun the heavy cavalry with war horses, and the heavy cavalry phalanx quickly protrudes forward a lot, and at this time, the soldiers in the middle of the Western Qin army collectively slowed down and increased their pace, so that those big things covered with turf and branches protruded forward, and their speed began to increase, there were more than a dozen soldiers sitting inside these siege vehicles, they stepped on the pedals with their feet, and the pedals drove the chain to drive the wheels to push the siege vehicles forward, even if there was no one behind to push, These siege engines can also run fast on flat ground, and they can go even faster when pushed by someone from behind.

"Shoot your crossbows!"