On March 20, the Western Qin army came to the city again, this time Zhao Ziliang did not kill the slaves again, but directly ordered the siege of the city, the remaining 6,000 stubborn slaves had been ordered by him to be executed yesterday night, and the remaining 19,000 slaves were all people who volunteered to participate in the siege of the city in order to survive.

In order to prevent the occurrence of slaves holding sharp blades against each other during the siege, and in order to extinguish them in time after the incident, Zhao Ziliang ordered that the slaves participating in the siege should be 1,000 people each time, and the slaves who did not have a combat mission should stay in the rear, not be issued weapons, and weapons would not be issued until they participated in the battle, and weapons should be collected at the end of the combat mission.

Zhao Ziliang rode to the Shuai Tai, dismounted and boarded the Shuai Tai, Chen Qing and other staff officers had already waited for him to sit down, Chen Qing stepped forward and hugged his fists and said: "King, the first echelon of the siege of a thousand slaves has been prepared, they have received weapons and siege ladders, well railings and other siege equipment, in view of the high precision and technology of siege equipment such as siege vehicles, catapults and bed crossbows, it is not suitable to be handed over to them for operation, and the soldiers of our siege battalion are responsible for operation support, but there is no general who specifically commands them to fight, Please designate a general to command the battle on the spot! ”

Zhao Ziliang used a telescope to observe the defensive deployment of the city wall, he looked at it, and was about to put down the telescope, but found that there were some stone mounds drenched with white lime water in the open space in front of the military array, and he was stunned, and then looked at the city wall again with a telescope, and found that there were some tall things covered by tree branches at every distance on the city wall.

"Chen Qing!"

Chen Qing immediately stood up and hugged his fists and said, "The minister is here!" ”

"See those white stone barricades in the open space in front of the formation? If the king guesses correctly, it should be a mark used by the defenders to measure the distance, and the nearest pile of stones to the city wall should be 100 feet, and the distance is 200 feet, 300 feet, 400 feet, 500 feet, 600 feet, 700 feet, 800 feet, 900 feet, and 1,000 feet, and there must be trebuchets or ballistae on their walls. ”

Chen Qing promised: "Obey!" ”

Zhao Ziliang's gaze swept over the surrounding generals, pointed at Ma Sui and said, "Ma Qing, you will command the slaves to fight!" ”

"Yes!" Although Sui was reluctant to command this group of slaves to fight, this was also an opportunity, if he could use the slaves to take Jerusalem, it would be a special honor for him, and not every prize that accompanied the army had the opportunity to lead troops to participate in the battle, and some battles also needed to be actively and automatically invited, otherwise the opportunity would be won by other generals.

Ma Sui led the military order and quickly walked down the platform, rode to the front to prepare for the battle, his first batch of 1,000 slaves was divided into several parts, the first part was responsible for carrying the siege ladder, the second part was responsible for the well railing, so that the well fence followed the overall siege team and approached the city wall from the well fence to rush up the city wall, the third part was specifically responsible for climbing the siege ladder to attack the slaves, in addition to the overseer team was also under his command, the overseer team should be pressed to the front, urging the slaves to desperately attack the city, once anyone retreated, immediately killed.

"King, General Ma Sui is ready, just wait for the king's order to launch an attack!" A communications corpsman came to report.

Zhao Ziliang raised his hand and waved forward: "Give Ma Sui an order and order him to attack!" ”

"No!"

Ma Sui got the will, pulled out his war knife and pointed forward: "Attack!" ”

The slaves in the untidy team began to move towards the city wall with swords in hand, because it was still far away from the city wall at this time, in order to conserve their strength, Ma Sui let them slowly march in unison, and the slaves who were in charge of the siege ladder and the well fence also carried the ladder and the well fence respectively at this time with the other slaves, more than a dozen well railings stood tall, and were pushed slowly forward by the slaves, and the wooden wheels made a creaking sound. Ma Sui led the Overseer to oversee the battle behind the thousand slaves, and as the slaves moved forward as a whole, he also moved forward with the Overseer.

In the process of advancing the slave army, the tall things on the city wall that were covered by tree branches were finally unveiled by the defenders, as Zhao Ziliang guessed, those were trebuchets and ballistas, and they were ready to fire stone projectiles and crossbow arrows at the advancing slave army, but they did not know that the trebuchets and bed crossbows of the siege camp had also been aimed at them at this time.

When the army of slaves advanced to the vicinity of a thousand feet of white stone, the trebuchets and bed crossbows on the city wall finally began to exert their might, one by one stone projectiles were thrown into the air, and then fell in a parabola in the slave army, after the huge cobblestone landed, some directly hit a slave, and then continued to roll forward, turning over several slaves one after another, rolling out of a considerable distance before stopping, although hitting several slaves along the way, but there were also many slaves dodging over, and the bed crossbow also began to shoot range crossbow arrows, one by one crossbow arrows whizzed out, Some of them pierced the bodies of several slaves, some hit the ground, and some hit the well, and the force of the impact caused the wells to collapse, knocking over some of the slower slaves.

And when the trebuchets and ballistas of the defenders were fired, the trebuchets and bed crossbows on the side of the siege camp of the Western Qin army also began to exert their might, and a large number of rolling stones were thrown in the direction of the city wall, and a large number of crossbow arrows were shot out, which was different from the stone bullets and crossbow arrows fired by the defenders, this was a purposeful launch, which was specifically fired against the trebuchets and ballistae of the defenders, coupled with the skilled and efficient operation of the siege camp of the Western Qin army, the hit rate was much higher than that of the defenders.

Siege camp trebuchets and bed crossbows were extremely effective at long-range suppression of defenders' trebuchets and ballistae, resulting in a significant reduction in casualties among the army of slaves approaching the walls.

It was not until the ranks of slaves slowly advanced to a stone's throw from the city walls that Ma Sui immediately ordered: "Command to charge!" ”

The heralds immediately raised the flag, and the captains of the Western Qin military who led the siege immediately gave the order to charge the slaves.

"Charge!"

"Charge!"

For a good meal, for freedom, for wealth, for survival, the slaves rushed towards the city wall with their blades and arrows in the sky.

"Kill-kill-kill······" The slaves ran forward with a shout in order to dispel the fear in their hearts, and those who carried the siege ladder ran at the front, and they needed to put the siege ladder on the wall for the slaves to climb later.

At this time, more than a dozen well railings were also pushed by the slaves to advance quickly towards the city wall, and there were also a large number of archers of the Western Qin army on the city wall, whose task was to provide cover for the slaves and suppress the defender archers on the city wall.

Before the slaves were within the range of the bow and arrow, the defenders on the city wall fired arrows at the slaves because of their lack of combat experience and nervousness, and there was no doubt that the arrows shot fell on the open ground, wasting a lot of arrows, and the generals defending the city were also temporarily appointed, and they had no experience in leading the army to fight, nor did they have the experience of commanding the army, if it were not for the Christian bishop Perridge using the influence of the church to deal with Niserus, the governor of Syria in the Eastern Roman Empire, Jerusalem would have no defense at all, It had long been broken by the Eastern Roman legions.

Zhao Ziliang, who was on the platform, saw through the telescope that the defenders on the city wall were panicked, chaotic, and disorganized, and suddenly laughed, "It seems that this king overestimated these residents of Jerusalem, they are just ordinary people after all, even if they barely put together an army, they are only in vain, and their combat effectiveness is really not flattering, and using slaves to attack can be regarded as letting them meet their opponents!" ”

The generals felt the same way, the defenders of Jerusalem were strong-willed, and if it was a trained regular army, it would take a lot of effort and casualties to take the city, but now it seems that these people defending the city are obviously untrained, and the generals and officers who lead the troops have no experience in leading troops and fighting. Military this kind of thing is also contained in civilization, it also needs to be inherited and constantly carried forward, people who have never studied military are considered to be born in the wild, whether it is to lead troops or combat is to need a long time of experience accumulation and honing, in the process must pay a certain price, and through the system to learn the military soldiers are completely different, they can avoid some unnecessary losses after learning, this is the benefit of the professional background, but the professional background also has disadvantages, that is, too institutionalized, There will be a lack of flexibility in command, especially in tactics, it is easy to be affected by the tactics that have been learned, that is, people often say, too much craftsmanship is a little unbeautiful, and the military generals who were born in the wild road have not gone through systematic study, and even do not understand a lot of military common sense, but this does not prevent them from leading troops to command operations, but they have to pay more tuition, and the advantage of these people is that they will not be limited by fixed thinking and tactics in commanding operations.

The slaves have no way to retreat, if they don't advance, they will die, in order to live, for freedom, for wealth and fields, they have to sacrifice their lives to rush forward and kill, this is what Zhao Ziliang promised, as long as they break through Jerusalem, they will be free, and share some fields, get some money and rewards, they can use the money of these rewards to marry a woman and go home, with the land can support their wives and children, and live a happy life, and the wall of Jerusalem is an obstacle blocking their road to happiness, they must destroy it, Although they used to regard it as a holy place, but this thing is not as good as getting benefits, and their lives are gone, what kind of faith do they talk about, and they want the holy land to have a fart? Those who insisted on not attacking the Holy City and would rather die were definitely burned out of their brains.

As soon as the siege ladder was erected on the city wall, slaves rushed up, with their blades in their mouths, and kept climbing up with their hands and feet, hoping to climb the wall as fast as possible to kill those who defended the city.

But it is clear that the defenders of the city are not scarecrows, they immediately shot with bows and arrows, smashed with stones, stabbed with spears, burned with fire oil, and poured boiling water, the slaves on the ladder and under the city wall were beaten and screamed, but this did not stop them from continuing to climb the ladder without their lives, and at this time the well fence had advanced to the vicinity of the city wall, and the soldiers of the Western Qin army were constantly providing strong support for the slaves with bows and arrows, and the defenders on the city wall were constantly falling down after being shot.