The burning of the flames on the city wall raised the temperature in a very short time, and many of the defenders of the city wall could not stay, they constantly had to resist the continuous attacks of the slaves, and they also had to endure the high temperature, many of them were swallowed in the fire, and they were burned and screamed before dying.

"No, it's too hot, the fire is too big, I can't stay on the city wall, if we continue to stay, we will all be burned to death, everyone obey my orders and withdraw to the city!" Guy slashed two slaves in quick succession and shouted to the defenders on the left and right.

Under the leadership of Guy, the defenders retreated to the city walls, although they withdrew, but the large area of fire also brought great trouble to the siege slaves, they tried to follow the direction of the defenders' evacuation to chase the past, but because the fire was too big for them to endure the heat, many slaves were burned in the process of pursuit, and they would be roasted alive for a long time, and the slaves had to retreat.

Ma Sui also did not expect that attacking the city wall with fire oil bombs would cause such a situation, which not only made the defenders unable to stay on the city wall, but also blocked the attack of the slaves.

Looking at the slaves who had retreated from the city wall in embarrassment, Ma Sui sighed and ordered the herald: "Wait until the fire is extinguished before attacking, and order the slaves to retreat two hundred feet and wait for rest!" ”

"Yes!" The herald replied with his fists clenched, and immediately struck his horse to convey the order.

Ma Sui left the two deputy generals and the supervising army to sit in place, and rode to Shuaitai to plead guilty to Zhao Ziliang.

"Wechen's attack is unfavorable, I wanted to burn the opponent's trebuchet and bed crossbow with fire oil bombs, bring casualties to the defenders, and hit their morale, but I didn't expect this move to lift a stone to shoot myself in the foot, Wechen has a responsibility for the king, please surrender the king!" Ma Sui ascended the platform and came to Zhao Ziliang to bow down and plead guilty.

Zhao Ziliang got up and helped Ma Sui up, and said with a smile: "It's only been less than an hour, how can Ma Qing say that he has lost easily?" This is a fortified city, even if you can't break the city after a month or two, it's common sense, you must not be presumptuous! Besides, this time the use of fire oil bombs was not without gains, didn't it burn the defenders' trebuchets, bed crossbows, and all the equipment and materials on the city walls? ”

"Ma Qing, this time the opportunity to lead the slaves to attack the city is rare, if you want to break the city, this king will personally command, use my Western Qin headquarters, and you can capture this city in less than two days, but this king doesn't want to do this, the generals need to get more training opportunities, this king believes that if you let you command my Western Qin soldiers and horses to attack the city, you can quickly capture this city, but if you can command slaves who have not undergone any training and have no combat experience to break through this city, it will be helpful for you to improve your command ability!"

Ma Sui hurriedly hugged his fists and said: "Thank you, the king, Weichen will never give up!" ”

Zhao Ziliang waved his hand and said: "There are so many generals present who also need to get the opportunity to lead the team to attack the city, so this king does not give you much time, including today, there are only three days, if you can't break the city within three days, then another person will take over your command and continue to command, so that in another three days, if the city is still not broken, there will be someone else to take over the command, until the city is broken!" However, this king doesn't want you to break the city regardless of the death and injury of the slaves, and keep your sanity at all times, blindly brute force is not enough, you have to use more brains, you are also a wise general, this does not need to be reminded by this king, right? ”

Ma Sui immediately had a sense of urgency, and hugged his fists again and said, "Weichen understands!" ”

Zhao Ziliang asked the generals again: "Did you all hear what King Gu said just now?" Take turns commanding one by one until the city is breached! ”

All the generals clasped their fists together and said in unison: "The ministers understand! ”

The fire burned for a whole hour, burning all the bricks on the wall, and the temperature was too high for both sides to get too close, and the fire also made the wall stronger and stronger.

It was already noon when the fire was extinguished, but at this time, the bricks on the city wall were burned red, and the temperature was still very high, and people could not set foot at all.

After several rounds of stone projectiles from the trebuchet, Ma Sui soon found that in the morning, the stone projectiles could also smash pits of different sizes on the city wall, and the gravel and earth chips flew around, and at this time, the stone projectiles could only drop some broken stones on the city wall.

"Trouble, I didn't expect this fire to burn this city wall stronger, and the stone projectiles fired by trebuchets have an extremely limited destructive effect on the city wall!" Ma Sui said with a deep frown.

An adjutant general next to him said, "General, why don't you let the siege convoy be dispatched?" ”

Ma Sui shook his head and said: "I'm afraid it won't work, this city wall is made of stone, and the siege vehicle can't chisel it!" The gates were burned out, and many stones were exposed, and they blocked them with stones! Not only did the siege vehicles have nothing to do with the city walls, but they also had nothing to do with the city gates! , if we want to break the city, we can only climb the city wall, occupy the city wall, and then put troops into the city through the city wall! Now there are almost no garrison materials on the city wall, that is to say, the lethality of the defenders to our side is reduced to the lowest point, this is the best time for us to attack, pass the order, strengthen the intensity and intensity of the attack, double the number of people in each wave of attack, and each echelon adopts continuous attack, wave after wave, wave after wave, without giving the defenders a chance to breathe! ”

"Yes!"

Ma Sui's command brought great trouble to the defenders, the pressure on the city was no longer a simple one plus one, and now the defenders did not have time to transport the city's defense equipment and materials to the city wall, the Western Qin army had already ordered the slaves to be killed, and without the colleagues of the city defense equipment, Guy could only take the defenders and the slaves to start hand-to-hand combat on the city wall, every inch of the city wall became a bloody field for the two sides to fight, and the city wall that had just been calcined was infected with blood again, and even some places were very hot, Blood spilled on it and made a snorting sound.

Although the defenders had little combat experience, they were finally some informally trained soldiers, and there were a large number of mercenaries and fanatics among them, these people were quite strong in combat, and the slaves were no match at all if they were not outnumbered, and even so, the slaves were driven down soon after each time they climbed the wall, and under the pressure of the Ma Sui and the warlords, they had to return to fight the defenders again, and so on.

Ma Sui was also a great general, but in front of the city of Jerusalem, he was not able to command a group of slave farmers with no combat experience and no training to conquer the city in three days.

Three days later, Ma Sui gloomily handed over the command, and he was replaced by Wei Gao, Wei Gao was good at cavalry operations, in terms of siege operations, he had not yet commanded such a large-scale siege operation, after taking over the command, he was very excited, and used the siege tactics he was familiar with and knew one by one.

The siege strength and intensity of Wei Gao's command were not lost to Ma Sui at all, and the defenders were extremely difficult to resist under the command of Guy, Murisardin and others, but they still carried it down, and after using up the equipment and materials on the city wall during the day, they mobilized the residents of the city to help transport the equipment and materials from the city so that they could be used during the day the next day, so that the defenders could rest well for the night and nourish their mental and physical strength to meet the next day's battle.

After half a month, the city of Jerusalem has still not been breached, the generals of the rotating command of the Western Qin army have changed five, and every surviving soldier of the defenders has become a soldier with rich combat experience through the battle of this half a month, the casualties of the slaves are very large, 19,000 people have lost more than 10,000 people in this half a month, and the corpses have filled several large pits, because the weather began to get hot, in order to prevent the outbreak of the plague, Zhao Ziliang ordered all these corpses to be burned, and then buried the bones.

The sixth day of the fourth month, the night.

The Chinese army's tent was full of people, and the generals and officials of a slight level were here, Zhao Ziliang looked at everyone and said: "It has been more than half a month since the siege began, and this Jerusalem is not so easy to fight, right?" Although the Lone King really wants you to rotate the command to fight, but time waits for no one, we can't keep spending here, just now the heavy logistics Lord Zheng told the Lone King, we have not much grain and grass left, although we can forcibly loot and apportionment from the occupied areas to solve the problem of insufficient grain and grass, but the problem of declining morale can not be solved! This battle has been fought so far, the slaves have lost more than half, and the rest have no fighting spirit, this king will give another six days, if it can't be broken after six days, this king can only use my Western Qin warriors! Who will command the siege next, and which general will take over? ”

Xuan 13 stood up and hugged his fists and said, "King, come on!" ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded in agreement: "Okay, let Thirteen take over the command!" Is there anything else you can do? If not, let it go! ”

At this time, Wang Can stood up and hugged his fists and said: "King, there is the latest news from Constantinople that the Bolgars have withdrawn!" It was already April, when the water and grass in the northern steppes were abundant, and the Bulgars had to migrate and graze with the water and grass, and could no longer continue to attack Constantinople, and the withdrawal of the troops of Niserus and other governors to Constantinople greatly increased the strength of the defenders there, and Trilig knew that there was no hope of breaking the city again, so he had to retreat. So now Constantinople has lifted the threat, but Constantinople has been besieged by the Bulgars for so long, the losses are very large, and the Thracian region has been devastated and the people's livelihood has withered, and it will be difficult to recover for at least five years! ”

Zhao Ziliang was not surprised by this, the Bolgars were barbarians, at most they were just a barbarian country with good strength, and it was impossible for them to give up the characteristics of nomads, so Tririg would have to retreat sooner or later, with the characteristics of the barbarians who were not good at attacking cities, it was really not easy for them to break through Constantinople.

"Oh? Withdrawn? So Constantinople can spare its hands against us? Zhao Ziliang looked at the surrounding generals and officials and asked.

Chen Qing hugged his fists and said: "King, the Eastern Roman Empire is now in a state of withering people's livelihood, political chaos, great losses in the army, the capital has been besieged for nearly half a year, and the Thracian region has almost become a scorched earth, where do they still have the strength to attack us?" Wechen thinks that Leo IV should be worried about whether we will go north to attack Asia Minor after we take Jerusalem! ”

Zhao Ziliang smiled and said to Li Muchen: "At this time, I can't let the Eastern Roman Empire recuperate with peace of mind, although Leo IV is young, his governing ability is not lost to his father, weakening the strength of the Eastern Roman Empire and restricting their development is my Western Qin's consistent national policy!" Convey the will of the Lone King to the Ninth Legion and the Khazar Protectorate, ordering them to attack and increase their forces in the border areas! ”

Li Muchen agreed: "Yes, king! Wechen still has a matter to report to the king, the prince sent someone to send a song, saying that the Silla war has ended, the Tang army under the command of Li Baozhen and Wei Boyu troops divided into two ways to attack Silla, the main force of Silla has been annihilated, Jincheng has been breached, the king of Silla, the queen mother of Silla Kim and other noble ministers have all been captured, and they are currently on the way to Chang'an, the two armies are still stationed in Silla a few days ago, the prince asked the king what he meant, how to deal with the aftermath of Silla, and whether Japan and Balhae should send troops to punish those who did not listen to the dispatch? ”

After listening to this, Zhao Ziliang thought for a moment and then ordered: "If you want to fight, you must also fight the Bohai Kingdom first!" Just find a reason, but you can't ask for the guilt on the grounds that they don't listen to the dispatch, otherwise the Japanese country will have trouble sleeping, and they will not sit still, so we must first clean up the Bohai country, and then clean up the Japanese country! Tell the prince that if the treasury of the Chang'an court is full, it can be beaten, if the treasury is not full, the matter will be put on hold for the time being, and the treasury will be full in the coming year before sending troops! ”

Li Muchen promised: "Obey!" ”