Dark clouds were hanging low, the cold wind was biting, and the fierce offensive and defensive battle was still going on under Balashagon City. Although they were both large cities in the Anxi-Hezhong area, the city defense of Balashagon could not be compared with Shule.
Shule City is based on a strip of stone, and the area below two meters of the city wall is entirely made of Sanhe soil. In addition, there are complete defense fortifications such as urns, moats, and horse faces.
This was built during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. It took three years to recruit 60,000 people from the Four Kingdoms of Anxi and was expanded on the basis of Shule City in the Han Dynasty.
But Balashagon was a city built as a last resort after the Suiye Town built by the Tang Dynasty was destroyed in many wars. Its predecessor was just a satellite city of Suiye Town.
Neither the Sogdians who presided over the construction of this city nor Pang Teqin, the first khan of Karakhan, had the manpower and material resources of the Anxi Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty.
So compared to small towns like Talos and Julan City, Balasagon is not bad, but compared to Shule, it is far behind.
What is even more worrisome is that the Persians are not Karakhanids. The Karakhanids cannot even make trebuchets. Their army is basically cavalry and they are extremely lacking in means of attacking fortresses.
Historically, they could not even attack the Khotanese infantry phalanx, let alone attack the city.
That's why Balasagun was able to hold on for four months, but the Karakhanids couldn't attack the city, the Saman Persians could!
Compared with the almost purely nomadic countries like the Karakhanate, the basic base of Saman Persia is actually settled.
Although there are many nomadic peoples in the country, the core areas headed by Bukhara and Samarkand belong to the agricultural civilization.
To a large extent, this country is actually an enlarged version of Khotan.
The cold sweat on Guo Xuanli's head fell drop by drop. He was glad that he listened to Mr. Zhang Erlang's advice.
Zhang Zhao told him that the Persians knew how to build trebuchets, rams and other siege weapons, and asked him to find people to cut down all the tall trees within ten miles around Balasagon, and to set them on fire if they couldn't cut them down.
Boom, boom, collision sound came, it was three Persian trebuchets bombarding the east city of Balashagon.
At this time, Balashagon had a natural moat, the Chu River, but the Chu River only flowed through the west and south sides, and the foundation on the north side was very high.
Therefore, the east side has become a low-lying area for the entire city defense. Attacks on Balashagon have always focused on the east side.
At this time, the trebuchets on the east side had been bombarding non-stop for more than an hour since this morning.
Even standing on the south side of the city, Guo Xuanli could feel the weak swaying of the east wall, and he didn't know when it would be blown down.
"Guo Guangsheng!" Guo Xuanli shouted the name of his eldest son.
"The last general is here!" Guo Guangsheng was wearing a leather armor. He was now the tenth general in charge of the mobile forces in the city.
"A certain person asked you to demolish the house and collect stones and wood. How are you preparing?"
"We are completely ready. Madu Yuhou has personally led the Khotan palace guards to the east city!" Guo Guangsheng's mouth twitched. He had never seen it before, but his father was quite cruel!
He directly demolished 30% of the residential buildings in the city, whether they belonged to ordinary residents or to Yehu and Burke, whoever had the most materials would be demolished. However, the reputation of the Guo family also became bad.
Seeing the corners of his eldest son's mouth twitching, Guo Xuanli patted him on the shoulder.
"There is no room for mercy in the battle formation. You will take two hundred Guo family disciples to Dongcheng to support you. If you can't defend Balashagon, everything will stop. You don't care about reputation."
Outside the city, Ali Duraf also rode his horse to the east city to take command. The news from the Zoroastrians in the river was basically accurate.
For this battle, Ali Durav recruited about 11,000 divine warriors from Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent, and 5,000 Mustafa troops.
The core force is twelve thousand Ersalia from his own Tashkent province.
Mustafa is roughly equivalent to the imperial army of the Tang Dynasty. They are an extraordinary army composed of small feudal lords and large and medium-sized landowners.
They organize themselves to maintain order in the countryside during peacetime, and respond to conscription during wartime. They do not receive military pay, but after the war they will be given some compensation in the form of tax offsets.
Ersalia was the standing armed force of the Persian Samans, which was equivalent to the Ming Dynasty's recruitment, and was a regular local army with military pay.
These two troops, together with the Ghulam Guards located in important cities such as Bukhara and Samarkand, and the Iqta cavalry who were subordinate to the nomadic tribes of the kingdom, formed the military foundation of the Persian Samanid Kingdom.
However, since Ali Durav's expedition to Balasagun and even his support for the Talas cultists were all his own actions, there was no elite Gulam Guards and Iqta cavalry to cooperate.
However, this also reflects the situation in Saman Persia, which is almost the same as that of Tianbao in the last years of the Tang Dynasty!
The royal family in Bukhara can no longer control the generals on the border.
"Your Excellency Wazir, half of the pagan east city has collapsed. The archers organized by the God Warriors have just blocked the city. They cannot send civilians to repair the gap. Soon the warriors will be able to rush in!"
General Masudi, who commanded the left-wing army, rode his horse to Durav's side and loudly reported.
Wazir is the name given to the prime minister in the Persian Samanid Kingdom. It usually consists of three people, one chief, two deputies, but in the late reign of Nasr II, Wazir was often awarded as a frontier minister.
But it's just a name, not an actual job. It's a bit similar to the Tang Dynasty inspecting a certain province and a certain minister.
Durav nodded solemnly, and the big stone in his heart finally fell to the ground.
These damn pagans cut down and burned all the nearby trees that could be used to make tall instruments. As for the houses with a lot of wood, they had already been destroyed.
This forced Durav's army to transport wood from more than ten miles away to build the trebuchet. This trip was delayed for at least ten days.
When attacking a city, the trebuchet hits a certain place, especially a city wall made of loess. It is easy to collapse, but after it collapses, the defenders will repair it.
However, earth and rocks need to be poured down from the walls on both sides of the collapse so that it can be repaired as quickly as possible.
Now, the archers of the God Warriors have blocked the city wall, preventing the pagan civilians from repairing the city wall, so they should be able to attack it soon.
Ma Jirong drank a sip of water and ate a small piece of sesame cake. It wasn't that they couldn't shoot at the God Warrior archers outside, but there was no need to focus on shooting against them. His side was not elite enough.
If there is too much, it should be placed on the edge of the knife.
The East City that was about to collapse was the edge of the sword, because the first ones to rush in must be the most elite part of the Saman Persian army.
Defeating them will deal a huge blow to the enemy's morale and confidence. As for those divine warriors who don't even have much leather armor, after the main force collapses, they can just cover up and kill them.
"Reporting to the Marquis of Yu, there are approximately 700 enemy troops, all of whom are wearing armor. The first 100 are equipped with one-piece doudon items and Persian chain armor, and they have already lined up outside the city!"
The scout on the city wall who was responsible for spying on the outside situation ran over in a hurry. Ma Jirong immediately threw the flax cake under his hand into the rattan basket next to him.
"Wear armor! Wear armor! The spearmen are in front, the archers are holding the low wall, and the swingers are holding round shields and daggers!"
The so-called low wall was a section of earth wall half a meter high and half a meter thick that Ma Jirong had people build behind this section of the city wall that was about to be demolished.
The purpose is to allow the archers behind to climb up, so that they can pass over our own melee soldiers and shoot at the enemy rear troops pouring in through the gap.
‘Boom!’ Just when the two sides were almost ready, the East City wall collapsed with a loud bang as everyone expected it. After the dust filled the sky, there was a gap almost two meters wide.
'Hey yo! Hey yo!'
'Hey yo! Hey yo!'
Both sides shouted similar slogans and began to approach. Every time they walked a short distance, they had to pay attention to the distance between the left and right under the scolding of the officer.
They can't be spread too far apart, and they can't be in front or behind, so generally officers are on both sides of the formation, which makes it easier to control the formation.
This kind of battle formation of the regular army is not like the one in the TV series where they rush over together with howls and screams. The method of rushing over is no different from giving away people's heads?
Haha! What if you run over to a four- to five-meter long spear with a single sword and shield? Think of it as a skewer or something?
After the dust passed, the Persians seemed to suddenly appear. They wore a one-piece helmet with a single collar that could protect the entire neck. This helmet and the combined helmet with a single collar were the ancestors of the Chichak helmets of later generations.
The armor on the body is also a typical Dashi-Persian style, which is obviously different from the Chinese chain mail-ring mail.
The Khotan palace guards were equipped with a large number of Tang Dynasty armors. However, although the craftsmanship was inherited from the Tang craftsmen, the style was more similar to that of Tubo.
This is because when Khotan regained its kingdom, the most armor it received was the Tubo armor, which profoundly affected Khotan's equipment.
There was a crackling sound, and the spear phalanxes of both sides began to come into contact, but instead of stabbing directly, they struck.
Both sides raised their three- to four-meter-long spears and kept hitting the opponent's spearman on the head, shoulders and even the hand holding the gun. If anyone was in pain and couldn't hold it, and dropped the spear, then he was doomed.
While the spears were banging against each other, the trance soldiers from both sides wearing light armor got past the spearmen with daggers and bucklers.
At this time, the spearmen were busy beating each other, and no one dared to lower their guns to stab the jumping soldiers below.
However, due to the dense mass of gun barrels above their heads, the fighting of the jumping soldiers under the spear formation was even more cruel.
In order to bend down and walk, they could only wear light armor and hold daggers. This resulted in very close fighting distances and very poor protection.
The shrill howls were mixed with the screams. There were no casualties among the spearmen yet, but more than a dozen of the jumping soldiers below had already fallen down in an instant.
In this kind of fighting, it is almost a one-for-one situation. You have just killed the previous opponent, and the next enemy comes up. If you can kill another enemy, the third enemy will also come towards you in the crowded situation.
.
There is no time to stop, no time to evade, until one party can no longer bear the retreat.
