In the process of retreating to the west gate, Ziad and his accompanying soldiers heard the screams and fighting from the streets, and even the sound of bowstrings and arrows could be heard in close proximity, constantly shooting arrows from the cracks in the doors and windows of the houses on both sides of the street, almost every arrow could take a human life. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Beads of sweat were dripping down Ziad's forehead, and he knew that he had stepped into this damn trap with his army, not a border city, but a huge trap laid out with a city, and now he and his men were caught in this huge trap.

In the process of retreating, when Ziad and his generals encountered the first bow and arrow attack, he ordered the generals to rush into the houses on both sides to kill the Western Qin troops who put hidden arrows, and clean up the houses on both sides of the street one by one, but he found that he was wrong, the doors and windows of these houses were made of thick wood, and they were held up by the people inside with heavy objects, and they could not be broken easily. By the time his men broke through the door of a house, his men had been killed by arrows from behind, and the number of Western Qin troops and residents killed was far less than the number of dead people under his men, as a Persian who was good at business, of course Ziyad would calculate this account, it was not cost-effective, he immediately gave up the plan to clean up the houses on both sides of the street along the way, and immediately asked the soldiers to block the left and right sides with shields, and the army lined up in several columns to quickly retreat in the direction of the west city gate, but it was easy to come in, but it was not so easy to retreat, He led the army to retreat from the North City Gate to the West City Gate, walking and hiding along the way, and did not return to the West City until dawn, the reason is that at the intersection of each street, the West Qin Army occupies a high place and uses a high-power long-range bow and arrow to block, for these big food armies with only small wooden shields, the penetration of the armor-piercing arrows of the Western Qin Army is too fierce, and a small wooden shield cannot prevent the armor-piercing arrows of the Western Qin Army at all, and it takes two small wooden shields to be able to withstand it, that is, at several intersections, A large number of the Great Food Army were blocked and could not move in place.

At dawn, Ziad finally withdrew to the west gate with his soldiers in great embarrassment, Daoud saw that Ziad had finally withdrawn, and he breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately went up to ask: "General, I knew that after the accident, I immediately brought people to answer, but I didn't expect that we were blocked at the first street entrance, and lost many soldiers, I could only withdraw first, but I didn't expect you to return all night, did you encounter a lot of resistance on the way?" ”

Ziade's face was miserable, he was shot with two arrows, two powerful cloud-piercing arrows pierced the light armor on his body, one made his right hand incapacitated, and one could shoot through his thigh, if it wasn't for the personal guards carrying him away, he was afraid that he would not be able to come back.

"You can see how dangerous the city is when you look at my miserable appearance, these Western Qin people are really too changeable? I've never seen anyone build a house so sturdy for ordinary living! ”

Speaking of this, Ziad walked to the side and sat on a stone pier with the support of a pro-soldier, took a water bag from the hand of a pro-soldier and poured it into his mouth a few times, his dry lips and his already smoking throat finally became moist, he threw the water bag back to the pro-soldier, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and then said to Daoud: "General Daoud, we miscalculated this time, we don't know enough about the towns on the border line in Western Qin, I didn't expect them to build the whole city like a castle, And let the whole city follow them to stop us, they are really a bunch of crazy people, complete crazy people! ”

Ziad's mood became a little irritated as he spoke.

Daoud understood this very well, and when anyone encountered this kind of thing, he hesitated and asked, "Does the general know about the situation in the city?" ”

Ziad shook his head and said: "I understand some, but it is far from enough, I think if we want to really occupy this city, I am afraid that it will not be a day or two, this city is full of killing machines, and people will die every step of the way, in this case, I think we need to spend a few days to find out all the defenses in the city in order to find a way to clear the Western Qin army and all the resistance forces in this city!" ”

Daoud thought for a moment and said to Ziad: "General, can we ignore this city and send only a small number of troops to monitor it, while our main force marches to the southwest of Shulgaz City, and together with the caliphate army of Behedashir Citadel, we can flank the army of the King of Western Qin?" ”

Ziad was stunned for a moment, and after thinking about it, he shook his head and said: "I'm afraid not, this Zaheidan has not many troops, but there is still a whole standing army in Jiling City, I believe that Jiling City will get the news soon, their cavalry will pursue behind us at a very fast speed, and when the time comes, I am afraid that it will not be us to flank the army of the King of Western Qin, but the Western Qin army will flank us, you should know that there is also a castle in the Oasis of Bam, and the Western Qin army can send heavy troops there to block the caliph's army for a while, And during this time they have enough time to send us to Paradise to meet Allah! But if we can occupy this Zhaedan City, we only need a small number of troops to block the Western Qin army coming from the direction of Jiling City, and then we will have enough time to capture Bam Castle and flank the army of the Western Qin King! ”

Daoud rubbed his old face and said, "Judging from the situation last night, I am afraid it will not take a short time for us to take this Zaheidan City, because we still don't fully understand the defense system in this city, and their resistance is too stubborn!" But the general rest assured, last night I have ordered to block the surrounding roads, the two teams of Western Qin cavalry broke through to the north and south, but were intercepted and killed by our army, the news of our army's arrival should not have been spread, but the combat ability of the cavalry of the Western Qin Army is so strong that our soldiers are frightened, their two teams of cavalry have a total of twenty-two cavalry, but they killed more than 100 of our cavalry, it feels terrible to think about! ”

The Sichuan character on Ziad's forehead wrinkled even deeper, he thought for a while, and said to Daoud: "Since the news hasn't spread yet, we still have a chance, let's find a way to do this, you first count last night's losses!" ”

"Okay!"

After the morning prayer, Daoud came to report to Ziad with a solemn face: "General, the results of last night's losses have come out, we lost 1,200 men in the process of attacking the city wall at night, while the Western Qin army guarding the western city wall is only 500 people; In addition, we lost more than 4,000 people in the city, and a total of more than 5,500 people! As for the Western Qin army, we don't know how much they lost."

"Shhh Are you sure you don't have a statistical error? ”

Daoud shook his head and said: "I thought the statistics were wrong at first, but I counted them three times in a row, which is true, we have more than 5,500 people missing!" ”

Lost so many people before he figured out the situation in the city, Ziad really found it difficult to accept this casualty figure, he felt that this city was a huge mud pond, if he fell here, he was afraid that it would be difficult to get out, and the loss reached this extent, he wanted to withdraw the army and was unwilling, after all, it was too risky to go all the way, but he continued to gnaw on this hard bone, and he didn't know how many teeth he would break!

Ziade's face turned a little pale, and he sighed: "Daoud, I have to say that we are still too tender for the tactic of sneaking up on the city, the Tang people are proficient in this tactic, but we can't learn the essence no matter how we learn it!" We have just lost a quarter of our troops in the battle with the Western Qin, do you know how this city feels to me? A bottomless abyss! What do you think we should do now? ”

Daoud thought for a moment and hesitated for a moment before he spoke: "General, I think I should confess my inner thoughts to you, I think the best way is to evacuate quickly and return to the castle of Behedashir by the same route, if the caliph wants to be held accountable, I will bear the responsibility for the defeat of the battle with you." If we continue to stay here, I'm afraid that we haven't completely taken this city, we have been surrounded by the Western Qin army coming from all directions, we can block the news for a day, two days, three days, but we will never be able to blockade for more than three days, if the speed is fast enough, it is only a day's journey from here to Shulgaz City, unless the King of Western Qin and his generals and officials are pig-heads, they will soon find out that something is wrong, once they sense that there is a problem with Zahedan, And if we haven't completely taken down Zaheidan, then we will be in big trouble, and I'm afraid we won't be able to withdraw if we want to! ”

"There is another thing I need to remind the general, if we suffer too many casualties in the process of capturing this city, even if we can capture this city, what will we use to attack the back of the army of the King of Western Qin at that time? You have also seen the combat effectiveness of the Western Qin army, even if it is a sneak attack, the price we pay is a ratio of two to one, what if we resist head-on? I can't imagine it! If we withdraw now, we can at least save the existing 15,000 people, but if we continue to stay here and gnaw this hard bone, there is a high chance that we will not be able to return to any of them! ”

The invisible pressure overwhelmed Ziade, he did not expect that there had been no war with the Western Qin army for nearly twenty years, and the difference in combat effectiveness between the two armies was so shocking.

He felt that all the strength in his body had been drained by Daoud's words, in fact, he had been holding on with an uncomfortable strength since last night, and Daoud's words just now shattered the illusion in his heart.

He turned his head to look at the other generals with difficulty and asked, "What do you guys think?" ”

The generals were silent, but the expressions on their faces betrayed their true thoughts, Ziyad saw this and understood, this battle could not be fought any longer, the generals had been frightened by the horror and horror of this city, how could an army that had already been frightened win the battle?

He sighed, "Alright, pass my order, after lunch, send five thousand cavalry out to plunder enough food and all valuable goods within sixty miles of the circumference, and we will leave early tomorrow morning to withdraw our troops and return to the Citadel of Behedashir, and if the caliph wants to be held accountable, I will bear it alone!" ”

"Yes, General!"