Damascus, the center of the province of Syria.

The history of this city is almost as old as the civilization of this land, more than 4,000 years ago, there were ancestors of the Semitic people settled here, these ancestors of the Arabian Peninsula also used their wisdom to dig complex underground waterways, to solve the most difficult water supply problem in the desert, I have to admit that this water conservancy project that was used until Li Jie crossed before the passage of China is hundreds of years earlier than China, much more advanced.

Sharp Damascus scimitars, fine Persian carpets, and all sorts of goods from the Mediterranean, except for Antiochus, which was the capital of the Seleucid Empire, was the center of the Syrian province for the rest of the year.

But this shining pearl of the Eastern Mediterranean was also at its lowest depression, with Jewish shops and fertile farmsteads outside the city gates deserted, Greek courtyards covered with cobwebs, and the autumn breeze whining like ghosts crying in the open eaves.

It was as desolate as the end of the world, the only thing that sounded was the shrill roar of the mosque chanting tower in the city, and the sacred voice of the day was also a wisp of weeping at this time, and in the night, the huge city of Damascus was like a dead giant, decaying and decaying.

However, the only thing that interested Li Jie was that the clues of the Arab cavalry were finally caught here.

The three-way Fujian army arrived in the afternoon, the left road was a mixed army of Li Rangbu's Arab indigenous army and the Hezhong Iron Army that attacked from the eastern border of Syria, and Li Jie personally raised 440,000 troops in the middle, including the 140,000 Eastern Roman army of Toucheng, 30,000 vanguard Guanning Iron Cavalry, and many elite troops of Damin such as the left and right Xiaowei, the left and right leading guards, and the right and left Weiwei were also outflanked from the direction of the seaside mountains.

Among the soldiers surrendered by Rome, there were about 50,000 Bolgars, the remnants of the Slavs did not bring, firstly, these people surrendered relatively late, and they were still rectifying, secondly, these people were really barbaric and unruly, and there were actually a few stupid Slavic chieftains and Bolgar chieftains who asked Li Jie for payment to fight for Damin, Li Jie, who was already dissatisfied with these barbarians, directly imitated Li Shimin's actions in history, three hundred Slavs, the Bolgar chieftain plus his own soldiers were killed outside the city of Antioch, The remaining more than 5,000 tribal warriors were sold to Tianzhu as slaves in their prime.

This seems to have dealt a big blow to the morale of the two barbarians, and Li Jie didn't have time to wait for their morale to recover, so he simply disarmed them and threw them outside Antioch City, anyway, a group of people with bare hands against the most elite left and right guards in Damin, there are about 30,000 government soldiers, and they are completely rabbits in the wolf's mouth.

Li Rangbu, who arrived first, had already engaged in a small scout battle with the Arab light cavalry under the city, and it was not a matter of who won or lost, and after dozens of casualties on both sides, about 800 to 1,000 Arab light cavalry directly abandoned the city and actually fled south.

However, the Min army was not busy attacking, after all, the city wall of Damascus up to more than ten meters is not vegetarian, here once resisted the expansion of the Arab army for three years, and then during the Hou Jie regime, with more than 5,000 troops disheartened, Hou Jie also resisted Hussein for a few months, the city was obviously strengthened by Hussein, there were a lot of ballistas at the head of the city, even if it was dark, you could see a lot of people wearing fine Persian armor patrolling back and forth at the head of the city.

Looking at the city wall, Anna couldn't help but sigh with emotion, under the somewhat playful leather helmet, a pretty little face flushed with excitement, full of excitement and shouted: "Damascus, the heavenly city that my grandfather dreamed of for a lifetime, my Anna is back today!"

Accompanying this girl to the front line to inspect, Li Jie lost the nostalgic sigh on weekdays, and slowly rode a horse to look at the heavily defended Damascus City, but a strange feeling arose in his heart, where is strange, Li Jie can't say.

Accompanied by the inspection, Aziz, who has been upgraded to the intelligence chief of the Syrian theater of Greater Min, and Zheng Maichen, a pair of murder leaders, who worked for the military of Greater Min, and their crimes were pardoned, and they have been working diligently recently.

"Is there any news coming out of those insides lately?" Staring at the towering Damascus city wall, Li Jie suddenly turned his head and asked.

Now that there are hundreds of more miles in his waist, Aziz has also changed from an ignorant Arab native to a civilized person, and he knows better what it means to be a companion like a tiger, and he shuddered, and Aziz carefully replied hurriedly in the Tang dialect mixed with the native dialect that he had just learned.

"Back to the king of Damin, the latest news is also a month ago, most of the fine works have been seen through by Hussein, but just now the small ones found some small ones outside the city who surrendered to my Damin, according to the number, there are about twenty-seven Arab tribes who moved out of Mesopotamia in the city, plus the native clans of Syria, the defenders should be about fifty thousand."

"Fifty thousand?"

Nan Nan repeated, Li Jie was not satisfied with this number, and looked at the southwest direction that was getting darker and darker in the night.

The horizon was pitch black, and the vaguely exposed silhouette of the building was as desolate as the mutilation in the ghost, looking at the darkness, Li Jie's eyes revealed coldness.

Damascus is now the capital of the Arab Empire, the largest city, and the strongest fortress leading to Mecca, the Arabs could not give up easily, but only 50,000 defenders were left, it was better not to stay, because under the fierce siege ability of Damin, 50,000 people could only die in vain, and the field forces were wasted, and the gains outweighed the losses.

This afternoon's scout battle was unusual, with more than 800 Arab light cavalry abandoning the city with ease, which was very different from their usual style of tough fighting, and the Arabs could not suddenly be turned into a mess under Islamic rule.

When any large army is attacking the city with all its might, the back is vulnerable, and if the 150,000 Arab light cavalry overwhelmingly attack from the rear, the attack situation is really likely to be repeated.

Looking back at the big black iron pipe that the infantry under his command was still pushing forward with a shout, Li Jie's eyes showed a cold coldness.

"Let's go back."

Holding Anna's arm, Li Jie asked softly. Meekly nodded, and the little bird leaned on Li Jie's shoulder, and the Min Wang couple also melted into the dark night sky of Syria with brisk steps, and disappeared.

Early the next morning, the loud battle horns quickly sounded throughout the city of Damascus, and the horns of the towers became pale and dumb after shouting all night, and the footsteps of the Arab patrol at the head of the city seemed to be in a hurry, and through the female wall, helmets could be seen passing through endlessly, and under the city, the dense footsteps quickly unfolded.

More than 200 heavy Fujian general cannons were pushed forward by the Fujian army shouting the trumpet, pressing out a deep trace on the ground, and now the Fujian army has eliminated almost all the wooden trebuchet artillery except for the crossbow invented by the king of Fujian.

No matter how much the mechanical force is grabbed, it is not stronger than the cannon!

The 140,000 Eastern Roman troops were also deployed under the city gates, looking at the towering walls of Damascus, these elite soldiers from Thrace, Athens and Macedonia all showed a look of fear in their eyes, they knew the lethality of this wall.

But now that they are under the fence, what can they be picky about? Suppressing their fears and habitually taking neat steps, the neat Roman infantry could only pray in their hearts that the bonuses and pensions promised by the King of Min would count.

Holding a Mo knife, as a siege general, Fang Yiai stood at the forefront of the whole army like an iron tower.

In the entire Fujian army, Fang Yiai can be regarded as the most desperate one, but a group of his old friends and generals who watched it secretly shook their heads behind them, and Princess Gaoyang, the sister of King Fujian, can be regarded as lucky or unlucky.

In the center of the whole army, in the eyes of the worshipping gods of the Great Min soldiers, Li Jie, who was also fully armored, slowly walked out of the array, and glanced at the figures in the weedy ruins in the southwest, which was the ambush of the Guanning Iron Cavalry and the left and right leading guards and more than 800 tiger squatting cannons, once the Arab cavalry attacked from this direction, they would see the most terrifying firepower of this era.

Seeing that the ambush army was also in place, Li Jie finally nodded with satisfaction, and then tilted his head to the flag officer Zanpo beside him.

"Send them to hell."

Da Xuan fell forward violently, carrying the red-hot iron rod and almost waiting until he was suffocated, the Min artillerymen almost passionately shouted and stuffed the iron rod into the cannon air, and the next moment, a deafening roar sounded under the city of Damascus.

Boom ~ Boom ~ Two hundred thousand pounds of heavy guns spewed out more than half a meter of flames, and in less than half a second, the Eastern Roman infantry at the front felt the shaking of the ground and the mountains, and large pieces of city stones jumped from the city, blocking the chaotic collapse of the female wall in front of them, and even the Arabs who were patrolling were bombarded into the sky with the naked eye.

Being bombarded is a feeling, and the cannon pouring down on the enemy in their own position is another feeling, which shocked for a moment, and the 140,000 Roman troops were excited to the extreme, and the cheers in the sky were equally earth-shattering, and in an instant, the morale of these Romans was also raised to the extreme.

It's just that holding the binoculars, Li Jie's brows are getting deeper and deeper, and following Li Ji who is watching the battle, Wang Fangyi pats his thighs in disbelief.

"How is this possible?"

After all, the roaring artillery fire annihilated all sounds, and when the artillery fire was over, the boiling Eastern Roman troops broke out into earth-shattering cheers, shouting and rushing towards the city wall.

Some even shouted that God was coming down and fighting for God!

But seeing that countless ladders to the city were carried and rushed to the top of the city, they suddenly outflanked everyone from the two wings of the charging infantry, and the two rows of Fujian cavalry.

"The King of Min has an order! The army stops! ”

In the anxious shouts, the Roman infantry who were fighting excitedly stopped in shock, and then turned around in great surprise and looked at the Min King Daxu in the center of the array.

Full of anger and frustration, driving the horse, Li Jie was under the command of the Praetorian Guard, but he personally rushed to the front.