Seiyad placed all his hopes of conquering Maia City on the massive siege weapons. He wanted to constantly produce a large number of siege weapons and arm his army with them. This way, he could reduce the casualties of his army as much as possible.
In order to build these siege weapons and prepare the resources needed for them, Ziyad had mobilized twenty thousand soldiers and turned them into craftsmen. At the same time, he had also captured many laborers from various regions and had them help him. Those with skill were responsible for the construction of the siege weapons, while those without skill and only strength were responsible for the preparation of raw materials, such as cutting wood, mining stones, and even making fireballs.
Wood could be used to build siege weapons. All siege weapons were inseparable from wood. Stones could be used as weapons for catapults. Catapults needed stones. Without a large amount of stones, building catapults would be meaningless. In addition, a lot of flammable fireballs needed to be prepared. These fireballs could be made from cotton or cheap grass. As long as kerosene was added to it, it would be fine as long as it could burn.
All of this required manpower, and storing up a vast amount of these materials required a vast amount of manpower.
From the fact that he had mobilized twenty thousand soldiers to prepare the siege weapons, one could see just how important these siege weapons were to Ziyad. Moreover, he had also captured many laborers from the surrounding areas, numbering around ten to twenty thousand.
The soldiers ate rations, while the captured civilians ate the food they had prepared themselves. If there wasn't enough food, their families would have to send some food over. Otherwise, the civilians would have to starve.
In fact, due to the enormous pressure on the supply of rations, Ziyad's army would often raid the surrounding areas to supply the army.
In order to prevent the siege weapons from being ambushed by the cavalry in Ahl City, Seiyad placed great importance on the safety of the siege weapons this time. He had deployed 10,000 guards, and their strength could be said to be quite powerful. They could completely prevent the siege weapons from being ambushed.
After Abu Muslim's injury, Ziyad had become the de facto commander of the army. Besides handling various military affairs, he also had to personally inspect the construction of the siege weapons. No matter how busy he was, he would still make time every day to inspect the construction of the siege weapons so as to demonstrate the importance he attached to them.
"Can these arrow-blocking carts be fireproof? Can they stop ballistae? "
Seiyad personally inspected the equipment that had been completed and asked, "What do you think?"
"General, this arrow-blocking chariot is as thick as an arm. It will definitely be able to block a ballista's attack from a hundred paces away. The front is wrapped in cowhide and the inside is wrapped in fresh grass. During battle, you can even water it. For example, it can defend against fire attacks."
His subordinate explained.
Ziyad nodded in satisfaction and said, "The ballistae of the enemy defending the city are very powerful and pose a great threat to our troops. Therefore, we must place a barricade in front of each catapult."
"Yes, General. This subordinate understands."
The subordinate replied.
Ziyad continued asking, "How far can the catapults be thrown? Have they been tested?"
"General, the small ones can throw two hundred paces, and the big ones can throw five hundred paces. Compared to the catapults and ballistae used to defend the city, they are not at a disadvantage!"
The subordinate replied.
"Great, that's great. We must build more of them. The more of them there are, the greater the losses we can inflict on the enemy, and the greater our chances of capturing Maia City."
Ziyad said.
"General, we have so many siege weapons. We can definitely break through the defense of Maia City. Do we still need to build more?"
The subordinate felt that it was already a lot.
Ziyad shook his head and said, "No, no, no, it's far from enough. These siege weapons are not enough to break through Maia City. You should know that there are still a few cannons in the city. Those things are very powerful. We don't have the numbers, so how can we resist them? Moreover, our plan is to attack from all sides. Naturally, we need more siege weapons. "
The troops outside the city were building siege weapons in large batches. All of this was happening right under the noses of the soldiers inside the city. They had also wanted to attack these siege weapons, but unfortunately, the defense was too tight. There was no chance at all. The soldiers who went to attack were all killed.
Looking at the large number of siege weapons outside the city, Altik was not in a good mood. With so many siege weapons, it would put a lot of pressure on his defense.
He even wanted to transfer the garrison troops from the nearby cities to help. Unfortunately, he knew that this would not work. Regardless of whether he could send the message or not, even if the surrounding cities sent reinforcements, they would be defeated by the Khorasan cavalry halfway or even wiped out. Therefore, this plan had to be abandoned.
However, the troops outside the city were building siege weapons day and night. The soldiers inside the city could not just sit around and wait for death. They had to take measures to deal with the crisis at hand.
"Governor, Ziyad must be crazy. How can he mobilize such a large number of troops to build siege weapons? There are tens of thousands of them. Moreover, they don't seem to have any intention of stopping. This is too scary. "
The subordinates carefully observed with their binoculars. They were immediately stunned by the scale of the construction site outside the city. At the same time, they were even more shocked by the large number of siege weapons that had already been built, especially the huge catapults, the arrow-blocking carts, and the ramparts that were even taller than the city walls. Once these siege weapons were launched, they would create a lot of pressure on the defending troops.
The monitoring troops in the city were still working because they couldn't be sure that the troops outside the city wouldn't continue to dig tunnels. If the troops outside the city continued to dig tunnels, they would be able to receive the news immediately and make preparations to deal with it.
Altik touched his forehead. He suddenly felt a lot of pressure. These people outside the city were clearly going to fight to the death with him. Wasn't it good for everyone to get along peacefully? Why did they have to fight back and forth? Wasn't it better to use the peninsula as the boundary and have both sides establish their own independent countries? How could Mansur be so ambitious? Why did he have to occupy the peninsula? Now, many parts of the peninsula were still in the hands of the Tang dynasty. If he had the ability, he should have attacked Aden City and the Canal Peninsula that were occupied by the Tang dynasty!
"The enemy is building siege weapons on a large scale. We can't just sit around. We should immediately build a large number of siege weapons. The more, the better. Let's see who can last until the end."
Altik said.
The subordinate said, "Governor, our most powerful siege weapons were all provided by the Tang dynasty. We don't have such good technology ourselves. Even if we can build them, the technology is not as good as the weapons provided by the Tang dynasty."
"Aren't there soldiers of the Tang dynasty in the city? You can ask them. If they don't know how to build siege weapons, then we can build low-quality siege weapons. What's wrong with that?"
Altik said.
Soon, the subordinate came back and reported, "Governor, the soldiers of the Tang dynasty told me that they built these siege weapons with machinery, not by hand. We don't have machinery in the city, so we can never build weapons as good as the ones provided by the Tang dynasty. We can only build weapons with slightly inferior performance."
Altik nodded and said, "In that case, let's start building them! It doesn't matter if their performance is inferior. It's enough as long as they can be used for defense. Also, ask the soldiers of the Tang dynasty. Maybe they know more effective defensive weapons. "
"Yes, Governor. I understand."
The subordinate responded and immediately went to prepare.
Because he didn't have as much manpower as Ziyad, Altik couldn't organize tens of thousands of people to build siege weapons. He selected a total of 5,000 people from the army and the common people to build siege weapons, including 1,000 people who were skilled in crafting.
Although the scale of construction personnel couldn't be compared with Ziyad's side, the defending side had a great advantage because the tall city walls were their biggest advantage. There were auxiliary defense facilities such as moats and trenches outside the city, and even barbicans, which were important for defense. Therefore, overall, the defending side didn't fall behind. The strength of the two sides was more or less equal because of the role of the city walls.
The war hadn't broken out yet. Both sides were desperately making various preparations, hoping to have a great advantage through sufficient preparation.
The attacking side had the initiative in the war. When the war would break out completely depended on when Ziyad launched his attack. After all, Altik's side was passively defending. They could only resist when the enemy attacked. There was no way they could initiate the war. After all, their infantry was very weak. Once they stepped out of the city, they would be wiped out.
Ziyad wanted to wait until he was fully prepared before launching a fierce assault so that he could capture Maia City in one fell swoop, but Mansur wouldn't give him too much time to prepare, and the situation didn't permit it. In the past few days, Altik's cavalry had become more and more active. These nimble and agile cavalry were constantly harassing and destroying the supply lines, causing significant losses. Some of the supplies that should have been transported to the main camp had been stolen, and some of the supplies had even been burned. This greatly infuriated Ziyad, and the supplies they had plundered were particularly easy for Altik's cavalry to take.
The logistical pressure, as well as Mansur's urgent orders, forced him to bring forward the siege. At the very least, after the siege, many soldiers would die in battle, and the dead soldiers would not need to eat, so it would alleviate the pressure on food.
Before the attack, Ziyad went to see Abu Muslim. After all, Abu Muslim was the leader of this army, and Ziyad was only acting as the acting commander.
"General, are your wounds better?"
Ziyad concernedly asked.
"I'm very well, and there's no major problem. It's just that my body is very tired. Right, Ziyad, this battle concerns the fate of the empire. You must fight well. You must not lose face for me."
Abu Muslim said.
Ziyad hurriedly nodded. "General, be at ease! We've prepared so many siege weapons that the defenders will have a hard time. Just wait for the good news! "
Seeing Ziyad's confident face, Abu Muslim nodded in satisfaction and said, "Ziyad, I wish you success. You must succeed."
"Yes, General. With your auspicious words, I will definitely capture Maia City. Just wait for my good news!"
Ziyad gave a military salute and then left Abu Muslim's tent to command the troops.
Because this was a forceful assault, Ziyad had gathered the majority of his soldiers, including the commoners he had brought with him, to participate in the siege.
The weakest twenty thousand soldiers were left in the main camp to guard it. The remaining sixty thousand soldiers would attack the gates from all four sides. Of course, there were also the ten thousand commoners they had forced to participate in the siege. Seventy to eighty thousand people were actually taking part in the siege, and they were all extremely powerful.
Ziyad personally commanded more than thirty thousand soldiers, and this was the main force of the attack. The other three forces each had a little more than ten thousand soldiers, but this was still a significant number.
In addition, even if it was a support attack, it would be a strong attack, not a feint attack.
The commanders of the various forces were all subordinates that Ziyad trusted greatly, and they were all capable fighters. After taking command of the army, they went to pick up a large number of siege weapons and then set out for the predetermined positions.
The four armies set out with a large number of siege weapons, heading straight for Maia City. The attack was scheduled to begin in the morning, and it was still early in the morning. There wasn't much time left for the various armies to prepare. They needed to get to their positions as quickly as possible and launch a fierce assault at the same time.
The mobilization of the army in the city quickly attracted the attention of the defenders. Although the mobilization had begun in the wee hours of the morning, it was still possible to see them in the moonlight. After all, the enemy was very large, and they had brought with them massive siege weapons. They were far too obvious a target.
"The enemy is about to attack the city. Hurry and inform the City Lord."
The young general guarding the city hurriedly gave the order and gathered his subordinates who were still sleeping under the city walls to defend against the enemy's sudden attack.
Soon, the number of soldiers gathered in the city exceeded ten thousand. They were guarding the four gates and closely monitoring every movement outside the city.
Altik deployed the main force in the center of the city. There were only three thousand soldiers guarding each gate, including five hundred soldiers who were on night duty. The rest of the soldiers were inside the city.
Among them, the main force was in the main camp in the center of the city. There were more than ten thousand soldiers, and some soldiers were scattered around to maintain the security of the entire city. They were also ready to support all directions at any time. There were only two thousand soldiers in total. One thousand were in charge of monitoring the tunnels and building siege weapons. There were five thousand soldiers who were ready to go into battle at any time. Of course, the ten thousand reserves in the city could also be called up at any time to join the battle.
"What? The enemy is about to attack the city?"
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