The advantage of cavalry over infantry has never been a face-to-face attack, even if the cavalry is as powerful as Mongolia.
Of course, Shen Bing would not make this mistake and defend the city without using the mobility of the cavalry to gain the initiative.
If Shen Bing goes to defend Lan's clan at this time, then the situation will return to the previous situation... The Qin army is sealed in Lan's city and cannot move.
The strength of the cavalry lies in maneuvering, and the result of maneuvering is a time difference.
It took two days for Akevus to lead Seleucid's main force to Lan's City, and it only took two days for Shen Bing to lead his cavalry.
At this time, even if Akefus discovered the problem and knew that Shen Bing had rushed back to Homusan, it would still take ten days.
This leaves Akaeves with a big problem:
Should we continue to attack the Lan clan or rush back to Homusang for reinforcements?
If we continue to attack Lan's clan, we might be able to capture it.
Because the troops attacking Lan's army totaled 20,000 Seleucid troops, 50,000 Anxi troops, and 50,000 Dawan troops.
Among them, the main force is still the Seleucid army. Their trebuchets are more advanced than those of Parthia and Dawan. They are torsion trebuchets, which are trebuchets made of the elasticity of tendons and the principle of leverage.
It should be said that this kind of trebuchet and the original trebuchet of the Central Plains have their own advantages.
The torque trebuchet is small in size and light in weight because it does not require a counterweight. It requires fewer people, but its lifespan is not long. The stone projectiles it throws are only 23 to 79 kilograms, and its range does not exceed 150 meters.
Compared with the torque trebuchet, the original trebuchet from the Central Plains had the disadvantages of being large, heavy and requiring a large number of people, but it could throw a 120kg stone projectile up to a range of 170 meters.
Once Shen Bing changed it into a counterweight trebuchet, it was much better than a torque trebuchet.
Under this situation, the Lan clan guarded by Gui Lu only had 30,000 Lan clan soldiers and less than 10,000 Yue clan cavalry. It was very difficult to defend the Lan clan.
The question is...if Huo Musang is captured by the Qin army, what is the point of Akefs capturing the Lan clan?
The reason why Akevs wanted to attack the Lan clan was to push the cavalry like Shen Bing into a desperate situation or drive them out of Central Asia.
If Huo Musang is occupied by the Qin army... then the large amount of materials and armaments stored in it for the Eastern Expedition may be enough for the Qin army to last a year.
What's more important is that Seleucid is the empire that dominates this area. It has never been the only one to fight against others, and no one else has to fight against it.
Now if a city is captured by the Qin army, this will have a great influence on Seleucid.
Taking a step back, if Akefs captures the Lan clan and the Qin army captures Homsang, then the Lan clan that Akefs defends is actually an isolated city separated from the Seleucid territory, surrounded by Parthian and large areas. These are countries that are vassal states in name but actually have crooked intentions.
If it goes wrong, Akefs will be wiped out by these "subordinate countries".
Therefore, it is definitely not cost-effective to exchange one city for another.
As for rushing back to Homusang for reinforcements, it doesn't seem like a good idea.
Because Shen Bing had already won ten days, the Qin army only needed to capture Homusan within these ten days... Akevus would never be able to recover.
Shen Bing believed that he could capture Homusang within ten days.
This is not only because the Qin army has artillery that can blast through the city walls, not only because Shen Bing has transferred the main Seleucid force away from Homusan, but also because he learned about the Seleucid king Antiochus III from the Seleucid prisoners. In Homsang.
The king's stay in Homsang could have boosted the morale of the soldiers, but as soon as the king escaped... it would immediately have the opposite effect.
Shen Bing believed that Antiochus III would escape.
This is because the king is afraid of death, not to mention that Seleucid has such a large group of leaders, and there is no need for them to live and die with them in the same place in Homusan.
The other reason is because the Qin army has artillery.
Antiochus III had never seen the power of artillery, and he would definitely feel panic when he saw it now.
The last point is that Shen Bing adopted the tactic of "surrounding three and defeating one".
That is to say, surrounding three sides and deliberately letting go of one side.
This meant that Antiochus III had a chance to escape.
Could Antiochus III not escape under such circumstances?
Shen Bing expressed doubts.
The facts were indeed as Shen Bing suspected.
At first, Antiochus III was very confident in holding Homusan.
Because although Antiochus III was surprised that the Silk Kingdom army could attack Homussan, he always thought that the Silk Kingdom was a barbaric country...
At that time, Alexander the Great thought that except for the Greek civilization, all others were barbarians. It was not until he destroyed Persia and captured the Persian nobles that he had to admit the existence of Persian civilization.
Today's Antiochus III also has this mentality. Because he doesn't know, he naturally puts himself on the height of civilization and looks down on the world.
In fact, it might be good if Antiochus III really maintained this mentality, because only by looking down on him would he not feel afraid, and only then would he believe that he could defend Homulosang, so he would not choose to escape.
Therefore, after Antiochus III learned that Homussan was surrounded, he confidently stood on the high platform and joked to the soldiers and civilians below:
"I heard that the barbarian cavalry surrounded Khomusan!"
"This is great! We have been looking for them for a long time, but we didn't expect them to be right in front of us!"
The soldiers and civilians burst into laughter.
Antiochus III continued:
"Our general, Akevus, must have taken away the barbarians' lairs and left them homeless."
"So, the barbarians are coming to take revenge on us!"
"We will see the bodies of these savages, impaled on spears, lying in pools of blood!"
"We use their blood to let them understand that this is the land of Seleucid, this is Homusan...this is the City of the Rising Sun!"
Antiochus III was worthy of being the leader of the country. He was very inflammatory, and the soldiers and civilians below cheered like chicken blood under his encouragement.
At this moment, several "boom boom" explosions were heard outside the city, and the cheers were instantly suppressed.
The soldiers and civilians looked towards the direction of the sound in panic. Some people thought it was thunder.
But soon, there was another burst of "boom".
Only then did the soldiers and civilians realize that the people from the Silk Kingdom were attacking the city, but no one knew what the explosion was.
Antiochus III didn't know either.
Then a guard came forward and whispered something in his ear.
Antiochus III was startled and looked at the guards with disbelief. Then without saying anything, he retreated from the high platform and walked along the steps toward the city wall under the protection of the guards.
When I came to the city wall and looked down, I happened to see a few solid cannonballs roaring towards me with the sound of wind, and then hit the city wall with several "boom boom" sounds.
Large pieces of stone in the city wall were broken and peeled off, and a small crater had been created.
"Why don't we fight back?" Antiochus III asked, "Where are our trebuchets?"
"Your Majesty!" the guard replied: "They are three hundred meters away. We have nothing to hit them!"
At this time, Antiochus III realized that what the cavalry captain said before was right. The Silk people did have firearms that could shoot iron balls.