In the early morning of September 23rd, after breakfast, the Western Qin army set up their military formations and approached the city of Shulgazi.
After receiving the news, the large food defenders in the city did not dare to neglect.
Even the chief general Zierz personally boarded the The city wall is preparing to command the city defense.
A large number of city defense weapons and supplies have been moved onto the city wall, ready to welcome the siege of the Western Qin army at any time.
There was a hint of majestic wind blowing in the morning in Shulgaz City, and the flag of the Great Food Country at the top of the city was fluttering gently, but the air was already filled with the smell of tension.
No one could feel the coolness of the breeze.
Many people I was already so nervous that I was sweating profusely.
When the war came, Childs, the defender of Shulgaz City, led his generals and officials on the city wall to inspect the city defense situation.
Childs was rigorous by nature.
When he led his troops to Shulgazi City, After that, they began to rectify the armament and strengthen the city defense.
Although it was interrupted due to the sudden arrival of the Western Qin army, the order in the city was in order.
Although the people were nervous because of the coming war, they did not panic.
All of this was Zierzi's fault. credit.
Childs has an older brother named Ziad, who was the general of the Dashi Army who defeated Gao Xianzhi in the Battle of Hengluosi.
Childs heard his brother talk about the situation of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Army and the Western Qin Army, and he was quite fond of Zhao Ziliang.
He understood, so although his military strength was not weaker than that of the Western Qin Army, he still decided to stick to the city and go out to fight with the Western Qin Army.
He was really not sure, and he was even more afraid of Zhao Ziliang's ability to command and fight.
While inspecting, Childs encouraged and comforted the soldiers of the Great Food Army defending the city: "Brothers, don't be afraid.
Now we are the defenders and they are the siegeers.
They want to capture Shulgaz that we are defending."
The city must pay a price several times more than ours, and they have very few infantry, and most of them are cavalry.
The cavalry has no role in siege warfare.
It is impossible to capture the city of Shulgaz with a small amount of infantry. " Many soldiers whispered to each other, "When the general said this, I felt a little more at ease."
"Yes, we can definitely kill a large number of Western Qin soldiers with the strong city wall."
As he walked, Childs asked the grain officer next to him in a low voice: "How long can our grain last?"
The grain officer replied: "If we collect all the food in the city and distribute it, we can eat it for half a month, but if we don't ration it, we can only eat it for ten days at most.
General, the Western Qin army is coming too fast, we haven't got it yet We had time to collect enough food, grass, defense weapons and supplies.
We brought this food from Kerman.
As far as I know, the food outside the city was almost completely taken away by the Western Qin army.
Even if they had no successors, With frequent supply support, they can definitely survive longer than us.
The people we sent to break out should have arrived in Kerman long ago.
If the Caliphate sent reinforcements after receiving the letter asking for help, they should have arrived long ago, but until Now we still haven't waited for reinforcements.
There are two possibilities.
One is that the reinforcements were blocked by the Western Qin army, and the other is that the Caliphate never thought of sending reinforcements.
No matter which case it is, we can only rely on ourselves."
Childs did not say anything for a long time after listening to the forage officer's words.
After returning to the city gate tower, he said to his generals: "We have 30,000 people and have enough troops to defend the city, but we have two flaws. : The first is insufficient food and grass, and the second is the lack of supplies to defend the city.
Insufficient resources.
These two shortcomings are likely to become our fatal flaws.
In order to solve the problem of insufficient food and insufficient materials to defend the city, I have been thinking for a few days.
Once the Western Qin army launches an attack on the city, we will hold on for a few days and wait until the Western Qin army launches an attack.
The Qin army relaxed their vigilance , we send troops out of the city to attack the Western Qin Army to see if we can defeat the Western Qin Army and seize grain, grass and other supplies.
If we can win, it is of course the best.
If we cannot win, we can not only weaken the Western Qin Army, but also pass Sacrifice some people to relieve our food pressure.
When the Western Qin Army attacks the city, we must pay attention to collecting arrows, stone bullets, crossbows, etc. shot by the Western Qin Army to minimize the consumption of materials for defending the city.
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Through this method To alleviate the shortage of materials for defending the city."
The generals all agreed: "Yes, General" There is a saying in the art of war: "If you are ten, you are to surround an enemy; if you are five, you are to attack it; if you are twice as many, you are fighting; if you have enemies, you can divide them; if they are few, you can escape them; if they are few, you can avoid them."
But in fact, many of Zhao Ziliang's actions when he led troops to fight were contrary to the principles of the Art of War.
He believed that the Art of War is dead and people are alive.
When marching and fighting, one should indeed abide by the principles of the Art of War, but more importantly, one should act according to the actual situation.
For example, this time, Zhao Ziliang can now mobilize less than 70,000 troops including the full complement of servants.
Moreover, the combat effectiveness of the servants is not on the same level as that of the Western Qin Army.
Even if the number of troops is twice that of the large army in the city, according to the Art of War In principle, we can only conduct field battles, not siege battles.
To carry out an siege, at least five times the number of troops would be needed.
The reason why he dared to besiege and attack the city was because he relied on the powerful combat effectiveness and high-speed maneuverability of the Western Qin Army's cavalry.
He was not afraid of the big food army in the city breaking through, and he was eager for the enemy to break through.
He wasn't worried about the other party going out of the city for a sneak attack.
He was also eager for the other party to go out of the city and fight with him in the wild.
Zhao Ziliang assigned his servants to serve as the main siege mission and did not expect them to be able to break through the city.
His trump card was siege equipment with powerful attack and destructive power.
The walls of Shulgaz City were only two feet high and were also made of soil.
Although such a city wall is a solid wall, it is much weaker than a rammed earth wall made of stones and masonry.
Although the servant army lacked training, under the command of Zhao Ziliang, they still lined up in square formations and approached the city wall in a decent manner.
In order to prevent the cannibals from suddenly opening the city gate and sending cavalry out to charge the formation, Zhao Ziliang was still in front of the servant army.
Three cavalry battalions were arranged to form a phalanx for the servants.
Each cavalry battalion had a thousand cavalry.
When Childs saw this from the city tower, he couldn't help but exclaimed: "How come there is our big food army among the Western Qin army?"
The deputy general said next to him: "General, someone may have surrendered to the Western Qin Army with his army."
"Look, that's General Schneider's flag.
Isn't he in Kerman?"
As expected, Childs saw Schneider's flag erected in the middle of the infantry square of the Western Qin Army.
He immediately understood, "The Caliphate sent reinforcements.
Schneider should be the main general or deputy general in the reinforcements.
He should have been killed by the Western Qin Army halfway."
He was defeated and captured by the Western Qin army before surrendering."
The deputy general said at this time: "General, it seems that we are in trouble.
The Western Qin Army must want to use Schneider's people to attack the city.
You see, their arms are tied with red cloth strips.
This is used to distinguish between ourselves and the enemy. " When Zierzi saw the large food servants in the Western Qin army, he had an angry look on his face and said angrily: "This Western Qin King Zhao Zixiang is so cruel and vicious.
He actually let our own people beat our own people without spending a single soldier."
Just capture the city of Shulgaz.
I feel that we will never let his conspiracy succeed."
The generals all agreed: "Yes, we must not let their conspiracy succeed."
Someone asked: "General, I don't know what to do."
When asked what to do specifically, Zierzi looked a little sad and sighed: "To be honest, I don't have any good ideas.
My brother Ziad has fought against the King of Western Qin Zhao Ziliang many times.
Although he was defeated repeatedly, But I believe that if he is here, he will definitely have a way to deal with the West Qin Army.
Now, we can only take one step at a time.
The West Qin Army is afraid that it will start to attack.
Send the order and prepare to defend the city."
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"Yes, General"
The front line of the Western Qin army slowly advanced to a stone's throw away from the city wall and stopped under Zhao Ziliang's order.
It is still unknown whether there are long-range siege weapons such as catapults in the city.
If there is such a weapon in the city, Zhao Ziliang will give the order.
The military formation retreated to a safe area, but it was not discovered now, so he confidently and boldly allowed the military formation to advance to a stone's throw away.
This was also to give The infantrymen who are attacking the city save their physical energy.
Once the siege begins, if the military formation is too far away from the city wall, just running under the city wall will waste a lot of energy.
When there is no danger, Zhao Ziliang must of course consider saving the physical energy of the infantry.
There were three cavalry battalions in front of the formation.
Even if the food army in the city sent cavalry out to kill them, these three cavalry battalions would be enough to stop them.
Zhao Ziliang, who was riding on horseback, held his riding whip and observed the defense situation on the city wall.
The city wall was piled with a large number of arrows, wood, rolling stones, boiling oil and boiling water that raised thick smoke.
After a cup of tea, Zhao Ziliang shouted: "Chen Qing" "I'm here," Chen Qing said, clasping his fists as he hit the horse.
Zhao Ziliang pointed at the Shulgazi City opposite with his horsewhip and said: "This Zierz deployed the city defense in a decent manner, but he piled a lot of defensive materials on the city wall from the beginning, so he still lacks some experience.
Pull out all our siege equipment, first use trebuchets to blast the city wall for half an hour, use kerosene bombs, let the soldiers of the siege battalion shoot more accurately, and burn the defensive materials on the city wall."
Childs had fought with the Eastern Roman Empire, but at that time the Great Food Kingdom was on the offensive, while the Eastern Roman Empire was on the defensive.
Childs' combat experience was basically siege experience, and he lacked experience in defending the city, and The fighting methods of the East and the West are different.
Most of the defenses in the West are fortresses, castles and fortresses, while the defenses in the East are mostly cities and passes.
Due to the different structural shapes of fortifications, the methods of defense and offense are also very different.
Except for rolling stones and boiling water that cannot be burned, the defensive materials piled up on the city wall of Shulgazi are all flammable materials for fear of being burned by fire, but Childz piled all these things on the city wall.
For Zhao Ziliang, who has rich combat experience, this is simply the behavior of a nouveau riche.
How could he pile a large number of defensive equipment on the city wall from the beginning?
Isn't this going to be used as a target by the attackers?
While the Western Qin army was busy rolling out a large number of catapults and setting up projection positions, Zhao Ziliang smiled at the generals around him and said: "This town in the big food country does not have a moat, which saves us a lot of time and trouble. , if there is a moat, we will waste a lot of manpower, material resources and time to fill it."
The generals agreed: "Yes, having a moat is a bit more troublesome."
Wahid, the chief of the First Servant Army, said to Zhao Ziliang: "Your Majesty, not all towns in the Great Food Country have moats.
Most places in the Great Food Country are short of water and drought.
Even if you dig deep into the ground, you can't dig out water. , only by digging down to a depth of more than ten feet can we There is groundwater, and the karez here is dug to a depth of more than ten feet.
Since water cannot be dug out even if it is dug deep, moats are of no use.
Therefore, many towns do not dig moats.
Only towns with sufficient water sources near rivers have them. moat":