The young general of the Tang Dynasty found that these Arabians were not only stupid but also backward in technology. Moreover, they were also very dogmatic. He had just told the official in charge of making weapons to make more, but this guy just refused to make more. Moreover, he refused him on the grounds that he did not have the City Lord's order.
Because he was very confident in the mask he had designed, the young general of the Tang Dynasty requested to make more before the experiment. However, this guy not only refused to agree but also refused to consult the City Lord. Instead, he directly asked the young general of the Tang Dynasty to go to the City Lord. If the City Lord agreed, he would increase the production.
Of course, this person could not be blamed for being dogmatic. His current task was also very heavy. Not only did he have to build a large number of weapons, but he also had to repair many siege weapons sent from the city wall. He was very busy. If the construction of the siege weapons was delayed because of the mask, he could not bear such a responsibility. Moreover, he personally felt that the mask was not very useful, so he was very reluctant in his heart.
The young general of the Tang Dynasty did not want to be the villain. Anyway, the fall of the city and the loss of a large number of soldiers were not his business. He just came to help. Even if the city was lost, he would not be in any danger.
Just out of friendship, he told this matter to the general in charge of defending the city. As long as it could really reduce the loss of the defending soldiers, the general in charge of defending the city would definitely support the construction of more. After all, it was his soldiers who would lose, and he had no reason not to do his best to reduce the casualties.
However, when he heard that the City Lord had to agree, he was a little hesitant. After all, the City Lord was resting. If he disturbed the City Lord at this time, the City Lord would be very unhappy. If he annoyed the City Lord, it would not do him any good.
"Deputy General, take ten soldiers with you …"
The general sent his deputy and several soldiers to coordinate. If the official in charge of the siege weapons still refused to make more, he would ask his deputy to go to the City Lord and tell him the matter, as well as the situation of the defense on the city wall.
Although it was late at night, the siege strength of the soldiers outside the city showed no sign of weakening. Instead, it seemed to be increasing. Perhaps it was because the night had better cover for the soldiers outside the city, they became more active, especially the Khorasan crossbowmen, who were very active. From time to time, some soldiers guarding the city were killed by their arrows.
Fearing the sniping of the archers outside the city, the counterattack of the defending soldiers on the city walls became weaker and weaker. They didn't even dare to stick their heads out. Moreover, they couldn't see the enemy soldiers in the trenches outside the city even if they stuck their heads out. Thus, they didn't shoot arrows. Sometimes, they would shoot arrows once in a while. They used the method of shooting blindly to show their existence. This made the soldiers outside the city not dare to take the risk of getting too close to the city. It also prevented the enemy from taking the risk of using scaling ladders to attack the city.
The Tang general had not taken part in the battle. He only had a few dozen soldiers under his command, and even if he did, he wouldn't be of much use. He had only come to assist and give some advice.
Looking at the passive state of the defenders on the city wall, he felt that he should do something. At least, he should change the current situation and boost the morale of the defenders.
"Our soldiers are attacked by the crossbowmen as soon as they stick their heads out, but our soldiers can't see the enemy soldiers in the trenches. It's so annoying."
The general sighed angrily and looked very helpless. If the enemy took the risk to attack the city with the scaling ladders, how could his soldiers resist?
"Since the Khorasan crossbowmen like to shoot arrows, let them shoot as many arrows as they want. We can prepare more scarecrows to collect the arrows shot by the enemy. In this way, we can have more arrows. Killing many birds with one stone!"
Said the general of the Tang Dynasty.
"Scarecrows? What are they used for?"
The general naturally did not know the function of scarecrows, so he was curious.
The general of the Tang Dynasty said, "Scarecrows are people made of straw. In our Tang Dynasty, there is a story about using straw boats to borrow arrows. Are you interested in hearing it?"
"The enemy is attacking the city fiercely. Now is not the time to listen to stories!"
The general was responsible for commanding the defense of the city, so he had to pay attention to the situation of the city from time to time.
"It's fine if the soldiers are responsible for the defense. This story is very short and won't take up too much of your time."
Said the general of the Tang Dynasty.
"All right! Using straw boats to borrow arrows, right? I'm listening. Hurry up and tell me! "
Said the general anxiously.
The general of the Tang Dynasty told the general of the defense of the city the story of Zhuge Liang using straw boats to borrow arrows. He also pointed out that in the defense of the city, they could imitate this method and use the scarecrows to obtain arrows from the attacking side, which would be beneficial to their next battle.
"Using the scarecrows to waste the enemy's arrows is a good idea! If the enemy runs out of arrows, they won't be able to attack our soldiers, and our soldiers will have more arrows to use to attack the enemy. "
The general appreciated the scarecrow tactic very much and approved of it.
"Where should we go to make the scarecrows?"
The general of the Tang Dynasty picked up a broken spear and wrapped a bloodstained cloth around it. Then, he put a rattan helmet on it, stood beside the parapet, and stretched the helmet and cloth to the watchhole of the parapet to test the effect.
"Whoosh …"
The effect was really very good. As soon as the test began, an arrow hit the helmet, and the remaining force pushed the helmet back a little.
"Look, the effect is not bad! It's so easy to get an arrow, and it's still intact and can be used. "
The general of the Tang Dynasty pulled out the arrow embedded in the cloth and handed it to the general.
"This method is really good. It can be popularized. In this way, not only can it attract attacks from outside the city, but it can also better cover our soldiers to fight back."
The general was very satisfied.
The gap between the watchholes of the parapet was very small, but because of the number of soldiers, it was impossible to deploy a soldier at all the watchholes. That would be too crowded, and the casualties would increase correspondingly. In order to reduce the casualties, they could only deploy a small number of soldiers. For example, they could deploy a soldier at five or six watchholes, or deploy three to five soldiers at twenty watchholes, and let them take turns to shoot the enemy outside the city from different watchholes to better avoid the enemy's attacks.
In this way, because the number of soldiers exposed at the watchholes was not very large, the target was very conspicuous and easy to be attacked. However, if a head was exposed at all the watchholes, it would be very difficult to attack.
For example, if there were ten watchholes in a row, nine of them would be dummies, and one of them would be a real soldier. However, in the absence of sufficient light, who could tell the real person from the dummy? When the Khorasan archers attacked the dummy, they might be attacked by the real soldiers.
However, the simple dummies made by the general of the Tang Dynasty were certainly not suitable. It would be better to make dummies that were harder to distinguish.
Different from making masks and armors, the difficulty of making dummies was very low. It did not need the help of the equipment officials at all. It could be done by gathering a group of people.
In order to make the dummies as soon as possible, the general sent several soldiers who lived in the city to immediately go back home and mobilize the people nearby to make the dummies without any delay. Anyway, they were just ordinary people. The general was not afraid of offending them, and he did not need to worry that they would be tired out by working.
The people worked very hard. They soon made a large number of scarecrows and sent them to the city wall.
These scarecrows soon played a role. Some scarecrows were fixed at the watchholes. Even if they were shot by arrows, they would not be taken down. It would make the soldiers outside the city think that the scarecrows were dead and no one was moving the bodies.
There were also some dummies that were taken care of by soldiers. As long as they were shot by arrows, they would quickly be taken down to make the soldiers outside the city think that they were alive.
After the arrows were taken down, these scarecrows would change their positions and continue to poke their heads out to attract the soldiers outside the city to attack. In this way, they could obtain a large number of arrows step by step. The soldiers outside the city would think that they had killed another enemy soldier.
There were a lot of scarecrows. There were 500 of them at the North Gate alone. Among them, half of the soldiers guarding the city were responsible for serving these scarecrows. Each person was responsible for two scarecrows. One of them was fixed at the watchholes to attract fire, while the other was constantly moving to create an atmosphere that there were many people on the city wall.
There were less than 500 soldiers left. Some of them were responsible for operating the catapults and heavy crossbows, while others were responsible for transporting supplies. Only a small number of soldiers were responsible for shooting at targets outside the city. As long as they found a target, they would shoot. If they couldn't find a target, they would also shoot at a corresponding large target to create an atmosphere of counterattack. They wanted to let the soldiers outside the city know that they were fighting back and that they would defend the city with their lives.
The deputy general went to find the official in charge of manufacturing the weapons, but he still couldn't convince him. Helpless, he could only look for Altik. He would definitely have to bear the bad reputation of disturbing the city lord's rest.
"The city lord is already resting. Come back when the sun rises!"
The deputy general was actually blocked outside the door.
"This matter concerns the lives of the soldiers. I must see the city lord."
The deputy general made up his mind and shouted loudly. If he went back like this, he wouldn't be able to answer to the chief general. He could only stay here and not leave.
Because he was in a bad mood, Altik slept very lightly. Thus, he woke up at the sound of a relatively loud noise. After waking up, he was no longer sleepy.
However, as one grew older, the need for sleep began to decline. It was enough to sleep for a short while at night. There was no need to sleep for too long. Moreover, this was a critical moment in the war. How could they use their precious time to sleep?
"Who is shouting so loudly?"
Altik saw that the sky was still dark and knew that it was still early in the morning. He was slightly unhappy.
"City lord, this subordinate has an important matter."
The deputy general said.
"Speak! What is it? "
The deputy general explained the matter and asked Altik to order the construction of more masks and neck guards to reduce the casualties of the soldiers defending the city.
Altik naturally agreed to this method and immediately ordered the official in charge of manufacturing the siege weapons to immediately expand the production of masks and armor.
However, what made Artek nervous was that the soldiers outside the city were well hidden in the trenches, making it difficult for the soldiers guarding the city to launch an effective attack. This was a very serious matter, and he had to find a way to solve it.
Since he couldn't sleep, he might as well go to the top of the city wall to take a look. Altik personally set out, leading a group of guards to the north gate. That was the main direction of Ziyad's attack and also the most important direction.
"City lord, why have you come? It's dangerous here."
The chief general was slightly surprised to see Altik.
"I heard that the casualties of the soldiers are even more serious than during the day. How can I not come? How is the situation now? "
Altik asked.
"City lord, the situation is still okay. General Tang invented the scarecrow and greatly reduced the casualties of our soldiers. We also obtained a lot of arrows."
The chief general said.
"The scarecrow is so effective?"
Altik said.
"The effect is pretty good. Right now, the greatest threat to our soldiers is the Khorasani archers in the trenches outside the city. They're closest to us, but we can't see them. The enemy archers with the best archery are probably hiding in the trenches, and they've already killed many of our soldiers."
The chief general said.
Altik frowned and said, "They are hiding in the dark trenches and we can't see them at all?"
"City lord, we really can't see them at all. They probably painted their faces black. Otherwise, we should at least be able to see a bright spot."
The chief general said.
"Is there any way to see them? Can we throw fireballs? "
Altik asked.
"City Lord, we have tried, but there is almost no effect. The trenches are very deep, and there are not many things that can be thrown into the trenches. Moreover, the soldiers inside can also use arrows to throw the fireballs out. There is really no way at all, and our soldiers are easily seen by them."
The chief general said in annoyance.
"We should find a way to make them show their true forms and not see how they attack."
Altik frowned and said, looking at the young general of the Tang Dynasty next to him.
"General Tang, do you have any good ideas?"
The young general of the Tang Dynasty said, "We have searchlights in the Tang Dynasty that can illuminate the outside of the city as if it were daytime, but there is no such thing in the city. So, it's really not easy, but …"
"But what? Tell me quickly!"
Altik asked eagerly.
The young general of the Tang Dynasty said, "Assistant Minister Li once taught us the principle of reflection. Using the reflection of a mirror, we can cast the light to the desired area. We can light torches on the city wall and put reflectors above the torches to shine the light down the city wall. In this way, we may be able to see the situation in the trenches."
"The principle of reflection? Is this feasible?"
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