The Roman Empire had been at par with the Persian Empire for hundreds of years.
In order to prevent the attacks of Persian cavalry and elephant soldiers, hundreds of large and small castles were built in Syria and the east of Canaan.
Over the past few hundred years, many castles were built.
All of them have been abandoned and collapsed, and not many of them are still in use, but almost all of these castles that are still in use are extremely solid.
There is such a castle on the left bank of the Bura River.
Because the local place is called Deir ez-Zor, the name of this castle is also Deir ez-Zor.
It is located on the main transportation road and has a relatively developed economy.
There are a large number of fertile fields around the Lahe River.
Most of the local people are engaged in farming, mainly growing wheat, barley, olives and sugar beets.
After Zhao Ziliang led the main force of the Western Expedition, 70,000 people, to leave the town of Hit, he marched for ten days and traveled more than a thousand miles to reach the vicinity of Deir ez-Zor Castle.
On the watchtower of the castle, an Eastern Roman soldier leaned on a spear and took a nap against a corner pillar.
There was peace and tranquility inside and outside the castle.
Food slaves and Persian slaves were working in the fields outside the city under the supervision of Byzantine soldiers.
Although the weather was very cold, it could not stop the Byzantines from driving the food slaves and Persian slaves from the houses to work in the fields.
Since Western Qin and Byzantium had many frictions on the border, the relationship between the two countries has become sharply tense, and business exchanges seem to have been greatly affected.
The businessmen are extremely shrewd, and they also feel that the situation is unpredictable.
Not daring to travel between Eastern Rome and Western Qin at will, this has also made Deir ez-Zor, a transportation hub, become depressed.
The lively and prosperous commercial atmosphere in the past has disappeared, and only people are still working non-stop in the farmland.
The Byzantines, the food slaves and the Persian slaves here had no idea that an army of 70,000 people was approaching.
The scouts of the Western Qin Army reported the situation to Zhao Ziliang, "Oh, the Byzantines here are not aware of it.
Could it be that they have not received the information about our arrival?"
Zhang Bi said: "The people here have no trace of evacuating.
If they had already received the news and set a trap, they would never have left all the food and livestock outside the castle.
Besides, except for some very old people, they would not have left all the food and livestock outside the castle.
Apart from people taking care of babies at home, everyone else, including children of several years old, are working in the fields.
There are a large number of Byzantine soldiers holding whips and weapons to supervise.
I have personally seen it, and there is absolutely no mistake."
Zhao Ziliang thought for a while and immediately ordered: "Thirteen, you take two thousand cavalry and leave all the people outside Deir ez-Zor Castle.
If you can rush in, it's best.
If you can't, then surround the castle.
In short, The Byzantines cannot be allowed to move food, livestock and defense supplies from outside the city into the castle."
"Yes, Your Majesty," Xuan Shisan agreed and rode away.
Soon, a plateau cavalry numbering two thousand, led by Xuan Shisan, roared towards Deir ez-Zor.
This was a cavalry team composed entirely of Tibetan people.
Each of them had superb riding skills.
The technical movements of their horse riding are very casual.
Everyone's riding posture on the horse is different, and there are no traces of ax chiseling.
This is probably the riding characteristic of nomadic people.
Obviously, this Western Qin light cavalry composed entirely of Tubo people is more flexible in high-speed movements, which is incomparable to the Han cavalry.
Other standing army cavalry in the Western Qin Dynasty emphasize discipline and unity, while in the plateau legion and slave legions focus on randomness and brutality nature, the cavalry trained by these nomadic soldiers are more suitable for sneak attacks.
Their lightness and flexibility are unmatched by the Han cavalry, while the Han cavalry is more suitable for large-scale head-on duels, strong discipline and overall coordinated operations.
It cannot be compared with any other army.
After Xuan Shisan took the two thousand people away from the main force, under his command, the two thousand people were divided into twenty small groups in the blink of an eye.
Each group had about a hundred people.
They were not arranged in a row. into a neat formation, some dense, some loose, some in front, some behind, the speed of their running Very quickly, but the movement they caused while running was not large, which brought a good concealment effect to their actions.
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These twenty small groups of people quickly dispersed, forming a general formation.
The fan-shaped surface surrounds Deir ez-Zor Castle, and the fastest runners are the protrusions on both sides of this fan-shaped surface.
When the Byzantines inside and outside Deir ez-Zor Castle discovered it, the Xuan Thirteenth Battalion was close at hand with its men and horses.
The sudden arrival of a powerful enemy shocked everyone inside and outside the castle and soon began to panic.
The number of garrison troops in this castle There are less than 600 people, only more than 200 cavalry, and the remaining 300 or so are infantry.
"The enemy is coming, the enemy is coming, run, run."
The Byzantine soldiers who oversaw the work were not in chaos yet, but the food slaves and Persian slaves working in the fields began to be in chaos.
They ignored the whips in the hands of the Byzantine soldiers, and a A disheveled man ran towards the castle.
The Byzantine overseers kept beating the slaves passing by with whips, but they did not It had no effect at all, and these slaves ran towards the castle regardless.
Later, when the Byzantine supervisors saw the approaching Western Qin cavalry, they became frightened and ran towards the castle one after another.
All the working tools and equipment outside the city Dongxu didn't want all the food, fodder and other things in the house.
This was the time to run for his life.
Who would care about this?
The guard of Deir ez-Zor looked at the Western Qin cavalry approaching rapidly in the distance with an extremely solemn expression.
There were quite a few of them.
Although he didn't know the exact number, they were definitely much more than the more than 500 people he had in hand.
"Send my order, all cavalry must gather in the castle, we must fight the enemy quickly" The lieutenant general was shocked: "General, are you crazy if you want to lead cavalry to fight against us?
We only have two hundred cavalry.
If you look at the large area of the opponent, there are far more people than us.
If you go out, you will die."
"I'm not crazy."
The guard shook his head and said, "Of course I know the danger, but if we are all surrounded in the city, it will be a dead end, because we are not prepared at all, and there are insufficient food reserves and defensive equipment.
We can't hold on for long.
We can't survive."
I don’t know if they have follow-up troops.
If we can defeat this cavalry, it will at least buy us some time to prepare.
After I go out to fight, you immediately send people to report to the direction of Beroea and Damascus that we have been attacked by a large-scale enemy force. , let them be mentally prepared.”
The deputy general nodded solemnly, "Okay, I'll send someone to deliver the message right away."
Two legs could not outrun four legs anyway.
The slaves and Byzantine overseers who were desperately running towards the castle were soon overtaken by the roaring Western Qin cavalry.
The Tubo men on horseback waved their sabers and caught up.
One of them was struck with one knife, and he was hit.
A cloud of blood was sprayed on the man and he fell to the ground.
The Tubo soldiers from the Western Qin Dynasty had the same combat characteristics as all nomadic peoples.
They were not bound by the form when killing people.
Some chopped, some kicked, and some stabbed.
Do whatever feels comfortable when making moves.
The fleeing slaves and Byzantines were hacked to death one after another after being overtaken.
However, those lying in front did not dare to stop.
Some people wanted to surrender, but in this situation, they were hit by horses and trampled to death while standing still.
The probability of being killed would not be lower than being hacked to death.
They could only run forward desperately, but they could not escape the pursuit of the Tubo people.
The guard general had already assembled with two hundred cavalry outside the castle.
A centurion rode up and said: "General, go to war.
If you don't go to war, all those people will be killed.
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It's a small matter for them to be killed.
From now on we will No more free labor.”
The guard shook his head: "Don't worry about that now.
Let's pass this level first and then decide whether these people will survive.
Let them help us consume some of the enemy's physical strength.
As for the overseers, they are criminals in the first place.
Let them They are lucky to be overseers.
None of these people are kind people.
They will not wait to die and let everyone inspect the weapons, armor and horses and obey my orders."
The centurion nodded solemnly: "Yes, General"
As expected, those Byzantine overseers were not people to sit still and wait to be killed.
After some of them were hacked to death, the remaining ones began to stop running, turned around and took out their weapons to prepare to confront the Tubo soldiers who were rushing over.
"Hmph, you're looking for death."
When a Tubo soldier saw the enemy running in front, he stopped, turned around and took out his weapon.
After a sneer, he clamped his legs under the horse's belly.
The horse suddenly accelerated and rushed over.
The one who stopped and held the weapon was ready to resist.
The Byzantines were knocked to the ground before they could take action.
Seeing that they could not escape, the slaves fled to both sides one after another.
They were not stupid.
These Western Qin troops came towards the castle.
Of course they would be cut down if they kept running towards the castle.
Only when they fled to both sides did they realize that As expected, the Western Qin cavalry stopped chasing them, which caused more slaves to follow suit.
"Law" Xuan Shisan reined in his horse and stopped when he saw the Eastern Roman cavalry under the castle in front.
At the same time, he raised his right hand.
The other soldiers stopped behind him and began to assemble.
"General, some people are riding west from the castle.
They should be reporting to other places."
A team was riding over to report to Xuan Shisan.
Xuan Shisan looked at the two hundred Eastern Roman cavalry in front and said: "Let them go.
It is impossible to block the news.
Your Majesty hopes that they can concentrate their forces for a decisive battle with us after getting the news.
This will save trouble."
More orders, prepare to attack."
"Yes, General" The Tubo soldiers quickly gathered under the organization of the chief, team officers and centurions.
They did not dare to flee the slaves.
Two thousand people quickly gathered behind Xuan Shisan and began to prepare for the attack.
Xuan Shisan observed the opposite side and ordered the three captains around him: "When the fight starts later, let's do free riding shooting.
Shoot as many arrows as you can.
When you are at a safe distance, you must change weapons in time for close combat.
They Relying on the city wall, even if they are against us, we do not have enough room to maneuver and can only fight with them in close combat.
Fortunately, our soldiers are not bad at close combat, so prepare to fight."
"yes" The soldiers took out their bows and arrows and rushed forward on their horses.
The Eastern Roman cavalry on the opposite side also rushed towards this side.
"kill":