There were a few torches on the walls of Al-Cheng, and there were even braziers on the ground outside the gates to illuminate key areas and prevent enemy soldiers from launching sneak attacks in the dark.
Only one thousand soldiers were responsible for the night defense, an extremely weak force, but most of them were stationed near the walls. The moment a battle broke out, these soldiers could quickly get out of bed and enter the fray.
The dark environment was not conducive to defense, but at the same time, it was also very disadvantageous for offense. This was because whether it was the attacking side or the defending side, it was very difficult to accurately and effectively attack the enemy in an overly dark environment. It would only be a waste of combat resources.
Ziyad had also considered the uncertainties of attacking the city at night, so he had not considered attacking at night. Instead, he had chosen to openly attack the city during the day.
The six soldiers in charge of scouting didn't dare to walk on the main roads after they left Al City. They didn't even dare to walk on the small roads. They traveled in places where there were no roads. Relying on their familiarity with the terrain, they quietly groped their way to the north.
These soldiers didn't know where the enemy's camp was, but at night, the enemy's camp would light up a bonfire. The purpose was to illuminate the area and prevent the enemy's sneak attack. Therefore, as long as they found a place with light, they could determine the location of the enemy's camp.
Because Abu Muslim had gathered an army of eighty thousand in the vicinity of Ercheng, the camp was not only enormous, but there were also enemy camps scattered all over Archeng. Moreover, there was more than one camp, and they were spread out in different directions.
However, the main enemy camp was in the northeast, a fact that the defenders were well aware of. The other camps in the other directions were just branches with no more than ten thousand soldiers. The main camp had more than fifty thousand soldiers, making it the absolute main force of the enemy.
Thus, the six scouts were primarily focused on the north, but they also needed to scout the other directions. As secondary scouts, they would scout the main camp once they were done.
One could easily imagine the number of bonfires needed to light a camp of fifty to sixty thousand soldiers, and the intensity of these fires was naturally extremely high. One could see the intense light of these fires from several li away.
The six soldiers split into two groups and saw the fire in the valley from afar. From there, they confirmed that the enemy's main camp was there. As for the terrain of the main camp, they were very clear about it, so there was no need for them to draw a map.
After a few days, they found the location of the enemy's main camp. Next, they had to quietly prepare a suitable observation position. Relying on their familiarity with the terrain, they quickly found a very good observation position. Moreover, this position was not very eye-catching. People who were not familiar with the terrain would not notice it at all.
After the first group of three soldiers arrived at the observation position, they found a tall tree. One person was responsible for guarding, one person cooperated under the tree, and the last person climbed up the tree with binoculars. Only by standing high could they see further and better observe the situation of the enemy camp.
Because the distance was quite far, about 800 steps, it was hard to see with the naked eye, but the general situation could still be seen clearly.
The soldier who climbed up the tree found that there were a large number of torches in the large open space about 200 steps outside the enemy camp. There were also many people busy, and all kinds of materials were piled up everywhere. It looked very busy.
However, because the light of the torches was limited and the distance was too far, the soldiers could not see what this large group of people was busy with outside the camp. However, it was different with binoculars. The binoculars in the soldiers' hands could reduce the distance by eight times. 800 steps was really too far, but the situation was completely different when the distance was reduced to 100 steps.
Although 100 steps was still a little far, they could see the basic situation clearly, and the significance of reconnaissance was different.
The soldiers quickly used binoculars to carefully observe the situation outside the enemy camp.
Sure enough, after closing the distance by eight times, the soldiers could clearly see the situation outside the enemy's camp. The enemy's messy things were actually siege weapons, as well as various raw materials used to make siege weapons. Most of the people who were busy were also craftsmen. They were working overtime to build transport vehicles and combat vehicles. There were also many siege weapons that were not used, such as self-propelled scaling ladders, well ramps, battering rams, and so on. They were all in the midst of construction.
Perhaps it was because of their own strength that the enemy general was overconfident. He actually placed the construction of the siege weapons outside the camp. Moreover, he did not put up an effective defense. If they were attacked by the enemy, they would definitely suffer heavy losses.
Of course, Ziyad and Abu Muslim felt that the soldiers of Archeng would not dare to ambush them, so they were very confident in not putting up too many defenses. They only sent a certain number of cavalry to patrol the perimeter of the camp. They were confident that these patrolling soldiers would be enough to protect the camp.
"It's too frightening. The enemy has built several hundred siege weapons outside the camp. If they were all used to attack the city, our soldiers would find it very difficult to stop them."
The soldier came down from the tree and fearfully said.
"What did you see? Let me take a look."
Another soldier climbed up to take a look. In the end, the soldier in charge of keeping watch also climbed up to take a look at the situation in front of the enemy camp.
They could not see clearly enough at night, so they needed to spend the entire day scouting. Besides scouting the siege weapons, they also needed to scout many other places.
Another group was observing from a different position. They had also discovered the location of the enemy's siege weapons. Of course, they were more interested in the location of the enemy's granary. If they could discover the enemy's granary, they could burn it down. That would be too satisfying.
Abu Muslim had always attached great importance to the granaries, and there were many granaries scattered throughout the army, but each granary was heavily guarded. Attacking these granaries was not an easy task.
However, with the help of their binoculars, they had managed to find the location of the enemy granaries and marked it on a piece of paper they had brought with them.
Regardless of whether the commander would ultimately choose to leave the city and fight, their mission was to scout. This was a mission that they had to complete. They did not need to worry about anything else other than scouting.
After an entire day of scouting, the six soldiers had obtained a lot of valuable information. They needed to use the cover of darkness to return to Archeng. If they returned during the day, they would be discovered on the way, and there was a high chance that they would not be able to return.
Relying on their familiarity with the terrain, the six soldiers who had left the city to scout all returned to Archeng with extremely important information.
Because they had all been waiting for this information, the city guard commander and the others had not rested. At this crucial moment in the siege, there was no such thing as resting on time. It was normal for them to not sleep for several days. At this crucial moment of life and death, no one had the time to worry about their health.
"They actually have so many siege weapons. It seems like Abu Muslim and Ziyad are determined to take Archeng."
The city guard commander said.
The Tang general hurriedly said, "General, it seems that we have to take the initiative to attack. Send the only cavalry in the city to attack the siege equipment in front of the enemy camp. Use a torch to burn all the siege equipment. This will greatly reduce the progress of the enemy's siege and give us more time to prepare. In addition, after the cavalry attack, it will not be easy for them to calmly return to the city. We can let them find the surrounding cavalry and gather with them. After that, we can continue to harass the enemy's soldiers and horses. It would be best if we can raid the enemy's granary or cut off the enemy's supplies and let the enemy's frontline run out of food. In this way, the 100,000 enemy soldiers will not be able to gain a foothold in the city."
The city guard commander nodded and said, "That's a good idea. Let's do it. Immediately order the cavalry to get ready. We will set out in two hours. We must destroy the enemy's siege weapons. Right, those craftsmen who made the siege weapons must not be left alive. They must all be killed."
War was extremely cruel. During war, the most worthless thing was human life. A living person would die just like that. In an ordinary war, tens of thousands of people would die or be affected by it. It could be seen how worthless life was in war. A general could kill all the craftsmen with a single sentence, and there were many of these craftsmen. It was very likely that they were the nearby civilians.
It only took an hour for the one thousand cavalry to assemble. At the same time, the logistics troops had prepared torches and cotton bales for them. Every mounted archer had prepared a cotton bale. The cotton bale was filled with kerosene, which was very flammable. As long as a torch was thrown over, the cotton bale would quickly burst into flames.
In addition to the cotton bale and torches, these mounted archers had also prepared enough arrows, a crossbow, a saber for self-defense, and a small amount of food.
"The enemy's siege weapons are a great threat to our army. You must use all your strength to burn all of the enemy's siege weapons, as well as a lot of the wood. If you have time, kill the craftsmen as well. We can't let them continue making siege weapons."
The city guard commander said.
"General, be at ease! We will charge over in one go. We will definitely burn all of the enemy's siege weapons. Just wait for the good news! "
The young cavalry general said confidently.
After some preparations and mobilization, the one thousand mounted archers raised their torches and departed from the gates of Archeng. They quickly galloped toward the enemy camp in the northeast. Because they were galloping, it didn't matter even if they were discovered by the enemy scouts. This was because they were not slower than the enemy scouts. They had the ability to reach the battlefield in the shortest time possible and achieve a great victory.
Outside the enemy camp, Ziyad personally watched the craftsmen work so that they could work faster. Because he was too tired, Ziyad appeared rather sleepy.
"General, you haven't slept for two days and two nights. Go back to the camp and rest! Leave this place to this subordinate. With this subordinate here, the craftsmen won't be able to slack off. "
"General, we still need you to personally command the battle tomorrow. You need to conserve your energy. Go back to the camp and rest!"
Two of his subordinates advised.
Ziyad truly couldn't hold on any longer. For the past two days, he had been supervising the craftsmen and hadn't really slept. At most, he would take a nap and rest for a while before continuing to supervise the craftsmen.
"Very well! You have to keep an eye on them. There can't be any accidents. In tomorrow's battle, we must fill up the moat and take Archeng. "
Ziyad was so tired that he was talking in his sleep. Yawning, he rode back to the camp under the protection of his personal guards.
After Seiyad returned to the camp, he suddenly heard a sound. It was a very familiar sound — the sound of horse hooves hitting the ground.
"Did you hear that? There's the sound of galloping cavalry."
Seiyad frowned and looked at the personal guard beside him.
"I heard it. There are many warhorses coming. They should be our patrol cavalry."
The personal guard said.
Ziyad shook his head and said, "That's not right. From the sound of it, there should be one thousand cavalry. We don't have that many patrols. At most, we only have fifty. There's a situation. There's definitely a situation."
After realizing that something was wrong, Ziyad hurriedly turned in the direction of the sound.
A thousand sparks were not far away, and they were rushing towards the camp at an extremely fast speed. This alarmed Seiyad and his personal guards.
"Are the enemy soldiers crazy? One thousand light cavalry actually dares to assault our camp? "
A personal guard said in astonishment.
Seiyad suddenly came to a realization and shouted, "The enemy's light cavalry is targeting our siege weapons. Quick, send the troops out immediately. We have to stop the enemy's scheme and wipe them out in one fell swoop. Guards, follow me and charge forward to block the enemy's light cavalry."
"General, we only have fifty people. We definitely won't be able to stop them. General's safety is of the utmost importance. Let us go and meet them. General, you should go to the camp to mobilize the troops and the guards to meet them."
A guard stopped Ziyad and led the cavalry to meet the enemy.
The location where the siege weapons were manufactured only had five hundred soldiers, but it was currently night time and most of the soldiers were resting in their tents. There were only one or two hundred soldiers patrolling nearby. Their duty was to prevent the captured craftsmen from escaping.
These two hundred soldiers were equipped with spears and crossbows. Their fighting strength was not weak, but they were scattered and not gathered together. Even if they were gathered together, they would not be able to stop the one thousand prepared archers.
The one thousand archers saw the enemy's patrol when they got close to the battle location. They placed their torches on their backs and nocked their arrows to launch a fierce attack.
A volley of arrows wiped out more than half of the enemy's patrol soldiers. Then, they charged forward.
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