With Nisserus retreating from Constantinople by land and sea with most of his remaining garrison, southern Syria and Canaan had become almost a blank zone of power, and although many Eastern Roman troops were still too late to evacuate and were stranded, their defenses were no longer able to stop the rapid advance of the Western Qin army.

After Zhao Ziliang and his army arrived in Damascus, the Western Qin army quickly dispersed and captured the towns, some of them crossing the Hermon Mountains and crossing the Litani River into Phoenicia. Soon, the Galilee Mountains, the Jacques Plains, the Estron Basin, the Sharon Plains, the Philistine Plains, the Samaritan Mountains, the Sfilah Lowlands, the Judia Mountains and Deserts, the Negev Desert and other areas in the Canaan Land were all taken over by the Western Qin army, and the small number of remaining Eastern Roman troops surrendered one after another; The other army marched south through the eastern foothills of Hermon Mountain, through the Aram region (i.e., the Aramidi) to the small town of Shemona in the Hura Valley, then along the east bank of the Jordan River to Lake Tiberias (known to the Jews as Lake Kennerit), and continued south along the east bank of the Jordan River to cross the Yarmouk and Zaqqa rivers into the Amman region.

On the second day of the first month of March, Li Muchen reported to Zhao Ziliang: "Your Majesty, General Li Siye has sent people to report that they have captured Amman and all areas east and south of Amman, and that the Jordan River and the area east of the Arabah Sea are all under the control of our army!" ”

Zhao Ziliang was puzzled: "The Arabad Sea? ”

Li Muchen hurriedly explained: "Oh, the Arabad Sea is the name in the Western Christian Bible, but it is actually the Dead Sea!" ”

Zhao Ziliang suddenly realized and said with a smile: "I see, it seems that this king still has too little reading!" By the way, Li Siye's health is okay? ”

Li Muchen arched his hand and said: "Weichen has already asked the soldiers who sent the letter, Li Siye's condition is only afraid that it will be more serious, after all, the battlefield battle is a matter of great energy and painstaking effort, and the killing qi is too heavy, which is extremely unfavorable to the recovery and cultivation of the body." Taoism has a saying that if you want to live forever, you must follow the way of nature! ”

Zhao Ziliang heard this: "This king joined the army at the age of fifteen, and he has made countless expeditions over the years, and he has killed people without counting. ”

Li Muchen was so frightened that he hurriedly knelt down and said, "The king is angry, and the minister is arrogant!" Long live the king, long live it! ”

"Hooray?" Zhao Ziliang sneered, "Forget it, don't say long live, if a person can live for a hundred years, he will already have to sleep until he wakes up laughing!" What do you mean by hearing this, do you want to persuade this king to do less killing in order to live longer? ”

"Weichen has no such intention, King Mingjian!"

Zhao Ziliang waved his hand and said: "You send someone to tell Li Siye, let him rest assured in the hot springs in Amman, the army is temporarily handed over to Ma Sui to command, and order Ma Sui to lead the army across the Jordan River and meet with this king under the city of Jerusalem on March 16!" ”

"Yes!" After Li Muchen agreed, he trembled and withdrew from the governor's palace.

As the Western Qin army entered all parts of Canaan, some major cities in Canaan, such as Haifa, Tel Aviv, Bethlehem Gaza, Hebron, Beersheba, etc., were also taken over and occupied by the Western Qin army, but one area of Jerusalem was not in the sphere of influence of the Western Qin army.

On March 16, Zhao Ziliang led a large army to meet with Ma Sui's partial division under the city of Jerusalem, with 20,000 regular troops, 40,000 servants, and 30,000 strong slaves, a total of 90,000 people, gathered under the city of Jerusalem.

Since the Mahdi led the army to withdraw from Syria and Canaan, Jerusalem has been in a state of self-government, and the Arabs, Jews, and Christians in the city have spontaneously organized themselves to protect the city from the destruction of the temples, churches and mosques of various religions in the city, and have formed an army of more than 10,000 people.

Outside the city of Jerusalem, the camp of the Western Qin army and the tent of the Chinese army.

After the two armies met, some principal officials and generals gathered, and the number of them increased significantly.

Zhao Ziliang asked Ma Sui: "How is Li Siye's situation?" ”

Ma Sui said: "Li Shuai said that he felt much better after recuperating in Ma Yin Hot Spring, but the military doctor said that the specific effect will take a while to see!" ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded, and instructed Li Muchen to prepare some supplements collected in the recent period to send them to Li Siye, and then said: "Wang Can, let's talk about the situation in Jerusalem, how did this king hear that Jerusalem is now self-governing, and Mahdi led the army to withdraw. ”

Wang Can said: "Yes, the king! Mainly because of the obstruction of the Christian forces in the city, as we all know, the influence of Christianity in the Western world is even greater than that of any country, Niserus did not dare to persecute them too much, nor did he dare to order the siege of the city, so he could only temporarily let it govern itself, this delay is a few years, plus with our country in the east, Niserus has no energy to care about the affairs of Jerusalem."

"Now Jerusalem is mainly governed by the Autonomous Council, which is responsible for day-to-day government, law and order, and defense, and the highest ruling level of the Autonomous Council is the Standing Committee, which is composed of three people, namely the Christian Bishop Perridge, the Jewish Elder Guy and the Great Cannibal Elder Murisardin, who take turns as the governor of Jerusalem to govern, and the other two are responsible for assisting, which is also the result of the mutual struggle and compromise between the three forces in order to protect Jerusalem, and now it is the Christian Peritsch who is in power!"

"According to the investigation of our spies, there are now more than 10,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, and 120 knights in Jerusalem! The infantry equipment is very ordinary, and the equipment of the cavalry is not much worse than that of the Eastern Roman Empire, especially the weapons, because Jerusalem has gathered many blacksmiths with top forging skills, the lethality of their cavalry equipment exceeds that of the Eastern Roman Empire! ”

Zhao Ziliang touched his chin after listening to Wang Can's report, he looked at the marching Sima Chen Qing and asked, "When can our siege begin?" ”

Chen Qing stood up and replied: "Now the number of craftsmen in our siege camp has expanded to more than 1,500 people, including 200 blacksmiths, 600 carpenters, 200 stonemasons, 200 tailors, 100 masons, more than 200 craftsmen who make fire oil bombs, and 60 math masters. The carpenters and tailors are making the wooden parts and cloth bag parts needed for the siege equipment, and at the current pace, the siege can be launched in three days! ”

Zhao Ziliang immediately said: "Then launch a siege in three days, first send the slaves to consume the strength of the defenders, and when the defenders are about to be unable to survive, we will dispatch the servant army and the main force!" ”

Chen Qing clasped his fists and said: "Great King, there is a situation that needs to be reported to the Great King, Jerusalem is a holy city of Christians, Jews and cannibals, and a considerable number of slaves are unwilling to attack Jerusalem because they think it will cause damage to Jerusalem, so once the war starts, Weichen thinks that these people may either defect or fail to work!" ”

Zhao Ziliang frowned after hearing this, looked at the generals and asked, "What can you do about this?" ”

Xuan 13 stood up and hugged his fists and said: "King, if you want me to say that I will form a law enforcement team to supervise the war, and if you are afraid of the enemy, you will be killed, I don't believe that after killing a group of people, there are still people who dare to passively slack off or rebel!" ”

Xuan 15 said: "I agree with the formation of war supervision and law enforcement, but if there is no other way, it is still not safe, you must know that the slaves who are besieging the city have weapons in their hands, if they want to fight back, we are afraid that it will take a lot of effort to control the situation, and there will definitely be a lot of casualties, and if the defenders in the city suddenly come out at that time, we are afraid that we will be caught off guard!" ”

Li Muchen interjected: "Previously, we could use the promise of freedom to divide the land and property after the city was broken to let the slaves fight for us, but now we can't use such a trick to attack Jerusalem, I'm afraid that many slaves would rather continue to be slaves than attack the holy city in their hearts, so we can only think of other ways to make the slaves fight for us willingly without worrying about them rebelling?" ”

Zhao Ziliang asked, "Is there any way for the slaves to willingly attack the city?" ”

The generals and officials all used their brains to think of a way, and one by one frowned and thought, but after a long time, no one could come up with a good solution.

Zhao Ziliang thought for a while and ordered: "Pass the order, on the grounds of insufficient food, the meals given to the slaves from today will be reduced from two meals to one, and the amount of food will also be halved!" Three days later, the tribes sent people to the slaves to convey the king's edict, recruiting warriors among the slaves to attack Jerusalem, adopting the principle of voluntariness, the slaves who besieged the city had three meals a day, and the promise we made to the slaves during the siege of the city can still promise them this time, when Jerusalem is breached, give each of them a house in the city, a field outside the city, and give them back their freedom, from then on they are the subjects under the rule of my Western Qin State, as long as they pay taxes, what they believe, the government does not care! In addition, there must be a Warlord, and in order to prevent the slaves from defecting, the Warlords must advance to the front after the siege begins, as close to the walls as possible! ”

Sometimes, death is not the most terrible, hunger can make people lose their dignity and reason, and you will know how much temptation a full meal is for you after being hungry for a few days, and you are not a person with a strong will, and you can't bear the physiological instinct reaction at all.