Ang Lee naturally wouldn't allow the Tang Empire to do something that future generations would regret. What he wanted to do was to make the other major powers feel regret. For example, he wanted to make sure that the Arabian Empire would never be unified, that the larger countries would become smaller and weaker, that the smaller countries would become smaller, and that the disobedient countries would become more and more obedient. In short, the interests of the Tang Dynasty came first, and the interests of the other countries had to be in line with the interests of the Tang Empire.
This time, Ang Lee had sold a large number of weapons to Altik not only to obtain Aden and the Canal Peninsula, but also to have Altik and Mansur keep each other in check, thus dividing the Arabian Empire and making it impossible for the Arabian Empire to be unified.
And while Altik and Mansur were fighting, Ang Lee could act as a mediator and ask for benefits from both sides. In the end, the two factions would recognize each other and officially split the Arabian Empire.
In Ang Lee's view, Altik and Mansur's group would quickly be exhausted. After all, in the process of replacing the Umayyad Dynasty, the Arabian Empire had been riddled with holes, and its agricultural and industrial production had suffered enormous losses. There wasn't much food left, especially in the core Khorasan region, which was the most important part of the Umayyad Dynasty's defense. For this reason, there had been even more intense fighting, causing massive damage to the agricultural and industrial production of this region, greatly reducing the agricultural output of this region. Many professional soldiers consumed food, but they didn't know how to produce food. As a result, the food crisis in the Khorasan region was extremely severe, and this was why Ang Lee was so confident.
As long as there wasn't enough food, the pressure on Abu Muslim's massive army would increase. And if they couldn't quickly obtain victory, the logistical pressure would crush this massive army. As long as such a situation occurred, the war wouldn't be able to continue.
The Battle of Changping between Qin and Zhao had lasted for one or two years, practically emptying their national strength. Qin's national strength was slightly stronger, while Zhao's national strength was much weaker. There wasn't enough food in the national treasury, so they could only choose to take the risk and attack. In the end, they fell into a trap and suffered heavy losses.
If Zhao had enough food and didn't have to worry about not being able to finish it, there would naturally be no need to take the risk and attack the powerful Qin army, thus slowly dragging down the Qin army.
But there were no ifs in history. Zhao ran out of food before Qin, and in this situation, they had no choice but to take the risk and attack..
Khorasan's current situation was probably similar to Zhao's. They had to maintain a massive army year in and year out, and their production capacity had been severely damaged. The pressure on their food supply was enormous.
At the same time, Ang Lee had long ago helped Altik train up a small force of mounted archers. These small forces could harass and disrupt the enemy's supply lines. While the enemy might not be able to take down a large supply line in one go, they could still manage a small supply line. In this way, they could accumulate small victories and increase the pressure on Khorasan's logistical forces so that they wouldn't be able to continue fighting.
All of this was on the premise that Altik could defend Maia City and not be defeated by Abu Muslim. If he was easily defeated, all of this would be pointless.
In order for Altik to withstand the attacks of the Khorasan elite army, Ang Lee had not only provided them with the cold weapons of the Tang dynasty, he had also sent a small force of elites to support them. He had even sent an advisory group to personally teach them how to modify the defenses of the city and how to effectively defend it.
As long as they strictly followed the methods Ang Lee had taught them, they would definitely be able to stop the attacks of Abu Muslim's elite army and drag out the battle into a prolonged stalemate.
Tall walls, powerful catapults and ballistae, moats, and barbicans, as well as drawbridges, barricades, and trenches.
Such a comprehensive defense system could greatly offset the advantage of the Khorasan elite army and make the Khorasan cavalry sigh in disappointment.
The Mongol Empire of the future had been incredibly domineering in its westward conquest, but in its southward conquest of the Song Dynasty, it had suffered repeated setbacks. In fact, their powerful Khagan had even lost his life to the counterattacks of the Song Dynasty's cities. This was enough to show that strong city defenses were extremely important to resisting the enemy. As long as the Khorasan cavalry did not have artillery technology, they would not be able to take down a well-defended city unless they had ten times the number of soldiers and sacrificed the lives of their soldiers.
"Big Brother, since the time isn't right, let's wait a little longer. However, Osman shouldn't have any problems. I hear that he's already taken over all of Egypt and has an army of eighty thousand, ruling over more than one million people. We can have Osman send some people to help us."
Li Feiyu said.
Ang Lee nodded in agreement. "Fei Yu, you're right. It's time for Osman to repay us. Immediately send someone to contact Osman and tell him about the construction of the canal. Have him send some people over, the more the better."
"Yes, Big Brother. I'll send someone to contact Osman later."
Li Feiyu said.
Ang Lee nodded and took out a blueprint. "Look at this bridge. It's quite grand, isn't it?"
After saying this, he handed the blueprint to Li Feiyu to admire.
This blueprint was the blueprint of the canal bridge that Ang Lee had designed. Before digging the canal, they had to build a few bridges. After all, once the canal was dug through, the land connection between the two sides would be cut off. This was not beneficial for land transportation and would severely affect economic development. Thus, before digging the canal, they had to build a bridge.
Although the width of the canal couldn't be too small, it couldn't be too wide either. At least, it was far worse than the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. Digging the canal was to allow merchant ships to pass through. Who would be bored enough to dig a canal as wide as the Yangtze River? Wasn't that just looking for trouble?
According to the normal width of ships, the width of the Tang dynasty canal designed by Ang Lee was about 100 meters. This width was enough. It didn't make much sense to make it wider. Anyway, it was enough as long as it could accommodate two merchant ships.
A normal merchant ship with a width of 20 meters was very good. Merchant ships with a width of more than 10 meters and a few meters could be found everywhere. A ship with a width of more than 30 meters was already very large. Therefore, a width of 100 meters was definitely enough. Of course, in some places with ports, the width needed to be increased. It was also feasible to make a width of 200 to 300 meters. The location of the bridge had to be the narrowest 100 meters. After all, the wider the river, the more difficult it was to build a bridge.
Because the width of the canal had been calculated to be 100 meters, the width of the bridge designed by Ang Lee was 300 meters. In addition to the 100 meters above the canal, the distance between the approach bridges at the two ends was 100 meters.
This distance was not long at all. If a railway bridge was to be built, the distance would have to be doubled or tripled.
In addition, the terrain chosen by Ang Lee was relatively high. It was more than 30 meters higher than the sea level. Therefore, 100 meters was enough for each approach bridge. If the height of the two sides was very low, about the same as the sea level, the approach bridge would have to be very long when digging. Otherwise, either the ships couldn't pass through the bridge hole, or the vehicles on both sides would have to climb the steep slope.
"Big Brother, this is the smallest bridge, right? You must have a bigger bridge design. "
Li Feiyu glanced at it and said.
"Oh, how did you know?"
Ang Lee asked.
"Big Brother, this is just an ordinary road bridge. There are no railway tracks. If there are railway tracks, the bridge will be even more magnificent."
Li Feiyu said.
Ang Lee nodded with satisfaction and said, "You are right. This is the smallest bridge over the canal of the Tang dynasty. A bigger bridge is still under design. However, the canal bridge is only so wide. The scale can't be compared with the Yangtze River Bridge of the Tang dynasty."
"Big Brother, the canal hasn't been dug yet. Why do we have to build a bridge first? Shouldn't we build a river first and then build a bridge? "
Li Feiyu asked in confusion.
Li An smiled and said, "You're right, that's true. However, the canal will have to be built sooner or later. Once the canal is dug and the bridge is built, the difficulty of the construction will increase greatly. Moreover, it will delay the connection between the two sides. You should know that to build a bridge, we need to build a pillar under the water, which is very difficult. If we directly dig a hole in the soil, it will be much easier. Therefore, in order to reduce the difficulty of the construction and to build the bridge more cost-effectively, we should build the bridge first, then dig the canal."
"Big Brother, how many bridges do you plan to build on the canal?"
Li Feiyu asked.
"We don't need many for the time being. Five or six bridges will be enough. There are three cities at the beginning, the end, and the middle. Naturally, we need to build one bridge each. In this way, the distance between two bridges will be forty to fifty miles, which is not too far."
Ang Lee said.
"Alang, the wild chicken with coconut juice is ready. It's time to eat."
Yun 'er came over and called.
"It's time to eat. Let's eat together!"
"Okay! Let's eat. "
Li Feiyu didn't stand on ceremony at all. He didn't understand what it meant to be polite.
The news that the assault on Maia City had failed quickly reached the Khorasan, and Mansur was the first to learn of it.
Mansur was extremely infuriated by the repeated failures in attacking the cities. In his eyes, Altik was just a money-grubbing merchant with very few soldiers under his command. Even if he was able to develop them in a short period of time, they would be nothing more than a mob that had just put down their hoes. This sort of army should have been very weak and would collapse at the first strike. He had originally believed that he only needed to send the elite Khorasan army to crush this mob, but to his surprise, the attack was not as easy as he had imagined. Abu Muslim and Ziyad, these two Great Generals that he had greatly valued, had failed to capture even a single city. Moreover, they had lost many soldiers for nothing. Even Abu Muslim, the commander, had been injured and could only choose to recuperate, leaving the command of the army to his subordinate, Ziyad.
Even worse was that the pressure on the logistics department was getting worse and worse. As the army continued to consume food, the pressure on the Khorasan's food supply was getting worse and worse. Not only did the soldiers on the front lines need to be given less food, the officials and garrisoned soldiers in the rear also needed to be given less food. However, this would lower the morale of the army, and if they didn't have enough to eat, they would have no energy to work and would be in a very bad mood.
Thus, Mansur urgently demanded that Ziyad quickly achieve victory and end the war. If the war dragged on, he wouldn't be able to guarantee the army's supplies.
"This is truly infuriating. Abu Muslim and Ziyad have been attacking for so long, but they still haven't been able to take a single city. They've lost quite a few soldiers, and if this continues, the army won't be able to keep up with the provisions."
Mansur angrily said.
One of his subordinates said, "Caliph, this isn't the fault of the generals. Altik has the support of the Tang dynasty, and the weapons they use are somewhat better than ours. Moreover, our elite soldiers are most skilled in field battles, not attacking cities. Thus, it will naturally be very difficult for us to achieve a quick victory. But this subordinate is confident that as long as the soldiers do their utmost, they will definitely be able to capture the enemy's city."
Mansur angrily ordered, "So what if they have the support of the Tang dynasty? Immediately give the order to Ziyad to capture Maia City as quickly as possible and capture Altik and Ibrahim alive. The sooner, the better."
"Yes, Caliph. This subordinate will pass on the order."
The subordinate had no choice but to deliver the order.
After the failure of the tunnel attack, Abu Muslim had been peacefully recovering from his wounds, while Ziyad had focused his energy on building siege weapons. He had ordered his soldiers to build as many siege weapons as possible, the more the better.
This was because through the previous attack on Archeng and the feint attack this time, Seiyad had a deep understanding that only by building a large number of siege weapons could he reduce his casualties to the greatest extent. At the same time, he could deal more damage to the enemy. Without heavy siege weapons, it would be impossible to successfully capture a city.
Besides building ordinary siege weapons, Ziyad had also been constantly thinking, inventing and improving many more weapons.
For example, in order to defend against fire, he had made many of the siege weapons fire-resistant. Even if they were attacked by fire, they would not be damaged. A large number of scaling ladders had been modified to be extremely sturdy and could even be folded. He had also built many chariots that could defend against arrow showers. Moreover, these chariots could also be fireproof.
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