March 18th, evening.
The military tent in the Western Qin army's camp outside Jerusalem.
Zhao Ziliang ordered a banquet in the Chinese army's main tent for the generals and officials of various ministries, including the generals of the servant army and some ordinary soldiers who were particularly brave in combat.
The guards and cooks were busy all afternoon for this banquet.
As night fell, the Chinese army's tent began to become lively.
Generals and officials from various ministries arrived one after another.
Zhao Ziliang was not in the Chinese army's tent at this time.
These generals and officials became more unrestrained and clasped fists with each other when they met.
Salute, say hello loudly, joke, tell dirty jokes, and use foul language.
Each general or official sat alone in a seat.
The floor of the entire central army tent was covered with a Persian carpet.
What they did was to lay a thick small rug on the Persian carpet, and in front of it was a small table.
On the low table were food and wine, wine vessels, chopsticks and boning knives.
Food includes white-flour meat buns, roasted lamb, dates, figs, etc.
Although all the wine, vegetables, melons and fruits were on the table, and the aroma of the food made the generals and officials salivate, no one dared to take it to eat without permission because Zhao Ziliang had not come yet, so the generals and officials could only chat and chat. fart.
Soon, Zhao Ziliang walked in holding a sword hilt, wearing a battle armor and a golden cloak.
Some of the accompanying Dragon Guard soldiers filed in and stood around the tent.
When the generals and officials saw this, they all stood up one after another.
When Zhao Ziliang walked from the middle passage to the imperial cabinet and sat down, everyone stood up and lined up to face him, clasping their fists and cupping their hands, bowing and saluting: "I will see you, Your Majesty."
Zhao Ziliang pressed his hand down and said: "No need to be polite, the city will be attacked soon.
Today, the king is hosting a banquet for all the generals.
Please have your fill of wine and food.
Please sit down."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Everyone sat down one after another.
Zhao Ziliang smiled and said: "Before the banquet started, I also said some nonsense.
There are more than 13,000 defenders in Jerusalem.
This is the number of regular troops.
Sirs, please don't think that the defenders only have this few people.
Really?
When necessary, the three people in the city It is very likely that the leader of a big force will call or order the entire city to mobilize troops.
That is hundreds of thousands of people.
Even if they are just civilians, they cannot be ignored as long as they take up weapons.
Don't say they are human beings, even if they are more than a dozen Thousands of cattle and sheep are slaughtered for us, and we also They will be very tired, not to mention they are not beasts to be slaughtered.
Therefore, King Gu's generals, this battle is not so easy to fight.
For Gu, it is not difficult to conquer Jerusalem, even if the city is destroyed.
It's easy, but the hard part is how to completely conquer this place.
If we want to conquer this city and the people here, tactics and other means are not enough to convince them of defeat and make this holy city willing to accept our rule.
Only by defeating them openly and conquering this city can we Make them surrender" The generals stood up and clasped their fists and said, "I am willing to die for your Majesty."
Zhao Ziliang smiled, pressed his hands, asked the generals to sit down, and said: "We are not going to talk about the siege today.
Come and try these dishes."
The generals and officials raised their glasses to toast Zhao Ziliang one after another.
All the generals began to drink from large bowls.
The officials were more polite and used small wine cups when drinking.
The generals grabbed the whole roasted leg of lamb and ate it, while the civil servants Then use a boning knife to remove the meat and cut it into small pieces before eating.
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Zhao Ziliang picked up a red date palm and said to everyone: "Look at this thing.
This is a date palm.
It is grown in Persia, Syria, Canaan and the Dashi Peninsula.
There are many kinds of it, but it is really edible.
There are only nine kinds of dates.
This kind of date is called the imperial date.
It is big and sweet.
It can As a staple food, it can also be made into sugar.
There is no wheat grown in the Dashi Peninsula.
Dates are one of their staple foods.
Don’t look at such a small thing.
It is not only food, it is also a good medicine that can heal the body’s internal organs.
There are many hidden diseases, regular eating is good for the body, try them all and see.”
Since the Western Qin forces entered Persia, military generals have not seen this kind of date palm, but to them, this thing is just a snack for children.
How can adults eat this kind of thing?
Therefore, dates have not caused these problems.
The great figures of the Western Qin Dynasty paid attention to it.
Now that Zhao Ziliang praised the date palm so much at this banquet, everyone suddenly became curious and valued the date palm.
This was just a small episode at the banquet.
After he had finished drinking and eating, Zhao Ziliang put down his boning knife and looked at Chen Qing and asked: "How many slaves are willing to attack the city so far?"
Chen Qing stood up and clasped his fists and said: "Your Majesty, so far, only more than 19,000 people have voluntarily signed up to join the siege.
The remaining 10,000 people are not willing.
They would rather go hungry."
Zhao Ziliang said: "So, these stubborn people are die-hard members of Christianity, Judaism and the Food Cult.
Since they are unwilling to attack the city, does the lonely king still keep them to do something to waste food?
Or let them Do you have a chance to fight back?
Starting tomorrow morning, before the army attacks the city, all these die-hards will be taken to the gates of Jerusalem and executed."
Everyone stopped eating and drinking when they heard this, and many officials and generals broke into cold sweats.
You must know that killing ten thousand people in a battle is nothing.
After all, it is understandable that the two armies are fighting to survive, but killing more than ten thousand people is understandable. slaves, which made many officials feel somewhat conflicted, but they also knew that there was nothing they could do about it.
Zhao Ziliang had already spoken out his words, which could no longer be changed, and leaving those people behind might indeed cause unpredictable consequences. as a result of.
At midnight on March 19, the dark army of the Western Qin Dynasty surrounded Jerusalem.
Countless flags were fluttering outside the city, and the large forest of guns emitted thousands of reflected rays under the sunlight.
The orderly footsteps of tens of thousands of people reached from far away.
Recently, the ground continued to shake, and tableware and other utensils on the tabletops in many houses in the city kept shaking.
People ran out of the house in fear, thinking that an earthquake had occurred.
A few miles outside the city, there was an undulating barren of hills surrounding it.
As the vibrations continued, densely packed and neat banners finally appeared on the hills and mountains, followed by more densely packed figures, so dark that all the sight could see.
It's all over the place.
"The enemy is coming, the enemy is coming!"
the soldiers on guard on the watchtower on the city wall shouted, and the warning bells began to ring rapidly.
The defenders rushed up to the city wall with weapons, and the residents in the city also started to panic.
On the streets All hell broke loose.
Not long after, the city walls were crowded with soldiers guarding the city.
The current governor, Christian Perici, also appeared on the city walls.
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Along with him were Guy from Judaism and Murisardin from the Great Food Cult. .
Everyone on the city wall watched nervously as the dark West Qin army outside the city slowly advanced towards the city wall with neat steps.
It was this slow advance coupled with the huge momentum brought by the neat steps that gave the defenders a huge boost from the top to the bottom.
Everyone brought tremendous psychological pressure.
As the Western Qin army got closer and closer to the city wall, the momentum created became stronger and stronger.
Some timid people on the city wall were so frightened that they fainted.
Others were not much better, with their faces turning pale and their bodies shaking.
Sifting the chaff, some people were so frightened that they became incontinent.
Governor Perici's face turned pale and his body was crumbling.
He held on to the city wall and managed to keep himself steady to avoid making a fool of himself.
However, his fearful heart could not calm down and he couldn't help but cry out: "Oh, I Oh my God, what an army this is.
They are afraid that if every one of them spits on Jerusalem, they will drown us all."
Judaic Guy heard this and Zhou Qi frowned, turned around and said unhappily: "Master Governor, as the commander of all the people in the city, aren't you worried about affecting the morale of the soldiers and civilians when you say this?"
Peric said quickly: "Oh, I'm sorry, I just said it out of emotion, not intentionally.
Elder Guy, do you think there is any hope of winning if we stick to it?"
Guy frowned again: "I don't know if we will win, but I know that if we don't hold on, we will lose the Holy City forever.
This is the first time in hundreds of years that we can really decide the future of ourselves and the Holy City."
Although Peric was afraid, he had to admit that Guy was right.
Although the Holy See had a Papal State, who would think that he had too much power and too much territory?
If he could completely control the Holy City, this would undoubtedly be a problem for the Holy See.
It is a great event.
If you can completely control it in your own hands, By controlling the Holy City, Peric has the capital to challenge the Pope, and it is not impossible to succeed the next Pope.
If the Holy See dissatisfies him, he can completely jump out and leave the Pope alone, and establish a new branch.
Peric knows that he only needs to He has enough confidence to become the Lord of Jerusalem.
"Yes, you are right.
We must hold on.
Jerusalem is a battleground for all parties.
Now the Mahdi and Constantinople are being restrained, but they cannot be restrained forever.
Once these two parties After stabilizing, Western Qin will face the pressure from these two parties.
They cannot besiege the city forever.
As long as we persist until then, we will win."
Having said this, Peric said with some concern: "Elder Guy and Elder Murisardin, it's not that I'm timid and scared, I'm worried that our defense strength is not enough to stop the siege of the Western Qin army.
Do you have any Is there any way to persevere for a long time?”
Murissadin said: "Jerusalem is a big city.
The food stored here can last us three years.
Unless the Western Qin army can besiege the city for three years, we are all safe."
Guy said: "I have arranged a complete defense plan.
Although the Western Qin army has a large number of people, it will not be easy for them to break through our city unless they dare to risk heavy casualties.
But as far as I know As you know, their headquarters strength is not too large, less than 30,000 people, and the others are Servant army and slaves, these people have little fighting power, it is good if they do not hinder them, and they also need a lot of food to feed them.
If the King of Western Qin does not carry these burdens and only uses his own troops to attack the city, I will be a little worried, but if he uses slaves If he comes to fight with the servant army, he will definitely be disappointed and regretful."
Peric and Murissadin both looked at Guy suspiciously, not understanding what he meant
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