Ziyad was very protective of his subordinates, and the thought of them suffering large-scale casualties left him in a terrible mood. But as a general, he had no choice. As long as he was ordered by his superiors to do all he could to capture Maia City, he had to complete his mission. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to answer to Mansur.
Mansur's goal was to kill Altik and his backer, Ibrahim, and then take back control of the Arabian Peninsula. For this ultimate goal, Mansur was willing to sacrifice everything. The lives of his soldiers were a trifling matter, and he didn't care too much about the lives of ordinary soldiers.
No ambitious sovereign would care too much about the lives of his soldiers. What they wanted was the final victory, and for this victory, sacrificing a few soldiers was worth it. In their eyes, ordinary soldiers were just tools, and losing a few would have little effect on the empire. As long as they could achieve their strategic goals, everything was worth it.
Ziyad had no choice. Even if he had to lose tens of thousands of soldiers, he had to take Maia City. This was a mission that he had to complete.
However, looking at the heavily defended city in front of him, Seiyad felt a headache coming on. He couldn't think of a siege strategy that could greatly reduce the casualties. Perhaps only by using lives could he finally take down this city.
In order to minimize casualties, he had to build siege weapons on a large scale. At the same time, he had learned from his experience last time and had sent a large number of soldiers to protect these siege weapons so that the defenders wouldn't be able to take advantage of them.
"General, this city is even more heavily fortified than Archeng. Many people will have to die to take it," one of his personal guards said.
Wang Chong nodded.
Seiyad nodded and said, "Even if we lose half of our army, we have to take down Maia City. This mission has to be completed. This is a mission given by the Caliph. If we can't complete it, we won't be able to answer to the Caliph."
"Are the lives of the soldiers worthless? The Caliph also has to consider the actual situation here. "
The guard unhappily said.
"Shut your mouth! How could you question the Caliph? Okay, we should go back."
Ziyad had already inspected the defenses of Maia City. He wanted to go back and discuss with Abu Muslim to find the best plan for attacking the city.
On the city wall not far away, Atik, Ibrahim, and the others had already climbed up the city wall and were looking at Seiyad's group not far away.
"This enemy commander must be a high-ranking official. Could it be Abu Muslim or Ziyad?"
"Didn't the Tang dynasty give us some binoculars? If we use those things, we'll definitely be able to see them."
Wang Chong and Abu Muslim.
Even though binoculars were important equipment of the Tang dynasty, giving them to a high-ranking official of Altik's level was not much of a problem. And Ang Lee had given three binoculars to Altik, and they were of different models. The largest had a magnification of fifty, the smallest had a magnification of eight, and the last had a magnification of twenty.
Ever since he had obtained the binoculars, Altik had treated them as treasures and treasured them dearly. Normally, he would be reluctant to take them out, but when he encountered an enemy, he had no choice but to take them out. Otherwise, the binoculars would lose their purpose.
"Hurry and give them to me."
The magnification of eight was with one of Altik's bodyguards. It was something he carried with him at all times. As for the other two, they were kept in his residence and were strictly guarded. No one was allowed to look at them.
The bodyguard hurriedly took out the binoculars, but before he could even open the packaging, Altik barked, "Be careful. Don't break them. Give them to me."
Altik personally opened the packaging and held the binoculars carefully in his hand. He then looked at Ziyad outside the city.
As the former City Lord of Aden, Altik had seen Ziyad in person. Therefore, when he saw Ziyad's face clearly, he quickly recognized Ziyad and was greatly surprised.
"It's Ziyad. Yes, it's him. I would recognize him even if he turned into ashes."
Altik said.
"City Lord, since it's Ziyad, what are we waiting for? Immediately send the cavalry to pursue and kill this guy. At the very least, we have to severely injure his guards and horses. Let's show him who's boss."
A subordinate beside him said.
Altik felt that this made a lot of sense, and he immediately ordered, "Open the city gates and send the cavalry out to pursue Ziyad."
After the order was given, the city gates were immediately opened. However, the cavalry couldn't charge through in one go because there were many defensive mechanisms set up at the city gates to stop the enemy's troops. As such, the path was very difficult to traverse. However, in order to allow his troops to leave the city at the right time, there were still paths. The cavalry just had to take a few detours instead of charging in a straight line. This way, when the enemy attacked, they wouldn't be able to attack in a straight line. If they took a detour, the surprise of the attack would be lost, which was very advantageous to the defenders.
However, the current situation was the exact opposite. The cavalry had to attack from within the city, and the defensive mechanisms at the city gates greatly restricted the movement of the cavalry, making it impossible for them to attack the enemy quickly.
"General, the enemy's cavalry is coming out. It looks like they're planning to attack you!"
The bodyguard said with a smile.
Ziyad looked back at the cavalry that was taking a detour and said, "See? The enemy can only take a detour to get out of the city. They're zigzagging like a snake, which is very disadvantageous to our attack. Therefore, we must build a large number of siege weapons, the more the better. "
Ziyad wasn't nervous at all about the enemy's cavalry rushing out of the city because he had already formed an almost identical cavalry unit according to the characteristics of the enemy's cavalry.
Although the attack range of this unit was not as good as that of Altik's cavalry unit due to the lack of good weapons of the Tang dynasty, they were equipped with larger bows and crossbows, so the gap between their shooting range was reduced to less than a dozen steps. The cavalry could break through with a single charge. Moreover, his troops were also light cavalry, the best warhorses selected from the whole army. Their speed and endurance were the best. Moreover, the cavalry soldiers under his command were equipped with two small shields on their chests and backs, which could greatly reduce their resistance to arrows.
"Soldiers, line up and prepare to meet the enemy."
Ziyad gave the military order.
"General, we only have two hundred cavalry. We'd better retreat! At least you should retreat. "
The bodyguard said.
Ziyad shook his head and said, "No need. I'm not afraid of death. Besides, the enemy is taking a detour to get out of the city, so they can only come in batches. This is a piece of meat delivered to my mouth. How can I let it go? Aim well."
Ziyad was very confident in the cavalry soldiers that he had personally trained. He believed that with this unit, they could completely fight against Altik's cavalry and achieve a brilliant victory.
The troops in the city could only rush out of the city in batches through narrow passages, while the troops outside the city had been assembled long ago. The gap between the two sides was obvious.
However, the mounted archers in the city weren't afraid. They had already fought with the enemy and knew that their crossbows had a longer range and that there were more troops behind them. Therefore, they didn't hesitate to pounce forward, hoping to use the rain of arrows to heavily injure the enemy and capture the enemy general, Seiyad, alive.
After getting close to the shooting range, the cavalry soldiers at the front immediately drew their bows and fired at Ziyad's troops. Ziyad immediately ordered his troops to charge forward slightly and fire arrows at the small number of enemy troops that came out of the city in a fan-shaped formation.
As the range of both sides' bows and arrows was relatively long, and at such a long distance, the accuracy of the arrows was greatly reduced. Therefore, the probability of both sides being hit was relatively small. However, the two hundred mounted archers on Seiyad's side had already set up their formation, and the mounted archers who rushed out of the city could only enter attack range bit by bit. Therefore, in terms of numbers, Seiyad had a certain advantage and obtained a better result.
After a period of resistance, the soldiers in the city lost several dozen soldiers while Ziyad's side only lost ten-odd men. It was clear that Ziyad's side had the advantage.
After the soldiers at the front were shot dead, their corpses blocked the path, making it impossible for the cavalry at the back to pass. Helpless, the cavalry could only abandon their horses and jump into the trenches to launch an arrow attack from the trenches, changing from cavalry archery to infantry archery. Thus, they gradually turned the situation around.
"General, the enemy troops are all hiding in the trenches. We can't hit them at all. At most, we can only kill their horses. Our soldiers are constantly losing men. Let's quickly retreat!"
A guard said.
Ziyad nodded and said, "Retreat. All troops retreat at once. Hyah!"
After throwing away more than twenty corpses, Ziyad withdrew from the vicinity of Maia City and ran back to his camp.
He did not suffer any losses in this battle. His losses were much smaller than the losses of the cavalry and archers in the city. This was enough to show that the soldiers under his command were all elites. He only needed to slightly change his strategy, and it would be enough to defeat Artik's motley crew.
Altik and the others who were watching the battle from the top of the city wall were all stunned. Under the training of the generals of the Tang dynasty, their cavalry soldiers had achieved great results one after another, but they didn't expect that they would suffer such a great loss under their own eyes.
"Tell the cavalry to withdraw! Count the losses. "
Altik said.
"Governor, this battle has been a cowardly one! Our army lost thirty-six men, twenty-five were injured, and more than a hundred horses were injured. Half of them are dead. "
His subordinate quickly reported the situation to him.
"Cook the dead horses and the injured and useless horses. Don't waste them."
Altik said.
After the subordinate left, Altik looked at the crowd and said, "Ziyad is indeed a famous general. He found a way to deal with our cavalry soldiers so quickly. That's really amazing!"
"We all saw that Ziyad's cavalry soldiers used crossbows. The range of their crossbows is similar to that of our army. They are really not weak at all! In this way, it will be difficult for our cavalry to confront them head-on. We can only participate in the defense of the city. "
A subordinate said.
Altik looked at Ziyad and his men who had gone far away and said, "The enemy may attack the city at any time. We must be prepared. Tell the soldiers to be vigilant. At night, there must be at least five hundred soldiers guarding the city gates to ensure absolute safety."
"Yes, Governor."
"I hope Archeng is not lost. If it is, we will be in big trouble."
Altik said.
Ibrahim walked over and said, "Altik, shouldn't we prepare for the worst? Once Maia City is breached, where should we retreat to?"
Abu Muslim's army is completely composed of cavalry. Once Maia City is breached, he will definitely lock down the city and not allow anyone to leave. How can we escape? Moreover, even if we do manage to escape, our main force and elites are still in Maia City. If the city is breached, our main force will be gone, and we will have no place to stand on the peninsula. Egypt's Osman will definitely not accept us, and we can't go anywhere else. Even if we sneak attack Mansur, he will definitely kill us. "
Altik said.
"Oh, this is truly terrible. If the city is breached, we will have no place to run. It seems like we have to hold the city."
Ibrahim was firm in his conviction. He had escaped from Khorasan and had even gone out of his way to oppose Mansur. Thus, if he was released, Mansur would not forgive him and his execution would be certain.
Altik thought for a few moments before saying, "Caliph, there is no need to worry too much. We have thirty thousand soldiers in the city, and the fortifications are extremely sturdy. The food in the city is enough to last us half a year, and we have enough wells. As long as the soldiers are united, there is no reason why we can't hold the city."
"Mm, I trust you. When necessary, you can recruit soldiers from the city. Only with more soldiers can we resist Abu Muslim's soldiers."
Ibrahim said.
After a few moments of thought, Altik suggested, "Why don't we gather up all the men in the city between fifteen and sixty and train them so that they can serve as reserves for the army? As long as the soldiers on the front line suffer grievous losses, we can have them join the defense of the city."
"That's a good idea! After the expansion of Maia City, there are tens of thousands of people living in the city. If we recruit all the men over the age of fifteen, we can probably gain another ten thousand reserves. Let's do that! If it really doesn't work, the women can also defend the city, "Ibrahim said.
In order to stop the enemy attack, he hoped that all the people in the city would be sent to the walls to defend the city. This would increase the chances of victory.
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