The reflection of light was a very simple and common physical phenomenon. It was a phenomenon that changed the direction of light transmission by using some kind of medium. It was very common in daily life. Among them, the reflection of light from mirrors was the strongest. The reflection of light from light-colored objects was stronger, while the reflection of light from dark-colored objects was very weak.
Therefore, if one wanted to reflect light, one had to choose materials that could reflect light, especially good materials. White walls, mirrors, and light-colored wooden boards were all very good reflection tools.
In fact, human beings had begun to learn to use the reflection of light a long time ago. For example, the famous story about Sun Kang, a student of the West Jin Dynasty, could not read at night because his family was poor and had no money to buy lamp oil. But one day, he found that the light from the window was very bright. When he got up, he found that it was snowing outside. So, Sun Kang picked up the book and ran to the snow to read. The light reflected by the snow was enough to illuminate the book, so Sun Kang could read the content of the book smoothly. This was a very good practical example of using the reflection of light.
Of course, there were many such examples. For example, Xiang Ji Xuan Zhi, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty, had a saying, "The reflection of the sun's shadow makes the room bright." It said that the sunlight was reflected by the northern wall, making the whole room bright. It was also an example of using reflection to increase light.
The reflection of light from mirrors was the best effect, but there were not many mirrors in Maia City. At most, there were some small vanity mirrors, which were bought by the rich people from merchants, who also bought them from the Tang Dynasty. Only the Tang Dynasty had such mirrors.
In other words, it was unrealistic to collect mirrors from the city. Such small mirrors were not very effective, so they had to use other materials.
Light-colored wooden boards were a good choice. If they were smeared with white lime, the effect would be better.
The young general of the Tang Dynasty first explained. Then, he found a wooden shield for defense and placed it on the side of a brazier. Soon, the space under the brazier became much brighter.
"This is just a small shield. If we use a bigger wooden board and shoot a bigger brazier, it won't be a problem to light up the city."
The young general of the Tang Dynasty said.
Seeing the ground become brighter, Altik immediately felt that it was feasible. So, according to the young general of the Tang Dynasty's design, he immediately asked people to make reflective panels.
These reflective wooden boards were very simple. They were very ordinary boards that were smeared with white lime. There was a big hole in the center of the board, which was used to disperse smoke and prevent fire. Because the reflection source was a brazier and not a light, if a big hole was not designed, the black smoke from the brazier would blacken or even burn the board. Therefore, a big hole had to be left in the middle. Anyway, without a big hole, the reflection light would not be affected too much.
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The planks made in advance were transported to the city wall of the north gate. In addition to the big hole, these planks were supported by two wooden sticks, which were much higher than the parapet. After all, the planks were very big. If they were too small, they would not be able to shoot much light.
These planks were propped on the main city wall. A brazier was placed at the circular hole, and inside the brazier was burning charcoal.
When all this was set up, the city wall under the brazier was first lit up. Looking outside, a large area of the barbican was illuminated. After the planks were removed, the barbican became dark again. After so many comparisons, everyone could see that such equipment was indeed very effective and could play the role it was supposed to play.
The barbican was a protruding structure, so one side of the gate tower and two sides of the barbican were the focus of the enemy's attack. The planks made in advance were placed on the barbican walls to illuminate the surrounding trenches, making it impossible for the Khorasan archers to hide.
When the planks were placed in place, the trenches outside the barbican walls were immediately lit up. The Khorasan archers who were hiding were immediately exposed, especially when the iron weapons they were wearing, such as daggers, reflected light, which easily exposed their positions.
When the Khorasan archers outside the barbican walls exposed their positions, the archers inside the barbican walls naturally would not be polite. They began to use their bows to attack and kill the Khorasan archers.
At this moment, the defending troops on the walls had a greater advantage. In terms of hiding, they were about the same. One side had the trenches, while the other side had the parapet walls. However, the defending troops had a large number of scarecrows, which could distract the Khorasan archers and mislead them to shoot the scarecrows, thus protecting the defending archers. In addition, the barbican walls were high up, which greatly increased the range and power of the crossbows. The Khorasan archers needed to attack targets high up, which in itself was very disadvantageous.
In short, the defending side had a greater advantage, while the attacking side's greatest advantage was that they were well-trained. After all, the defending side was mainly made up of new recruits. In terms of combat ability, they were far inferior to the attacking troops outside the barbican walls. In addition, their numbers were also inferior to the attacking troops. This was the advantage of the attacking troops outside the barbican walls.
Under the situation where the planks reflected light, the Khorasan archers in the trenches outside the barbican walls could no longer be arrogant. They were suppressed to the point where they could not even raise their heads. They were very puzzled. They had clearly killed so many of the defending troops, so how could the defending troops still have such a strong counterattack? How many defending troops were there in the barbican? These planks were too annoying, and the light made them panic.
What made the soldiers outside the barbican even more depressed was that these planks were very difficult to destroy. Whenever the rocks outside the barbican walls hit these planks, at most, the planks would be smashed down. They only needed to be rebuilt. In any case, they were just wooden chopsticks. Even if they were broken, they could be easily repaired. There was no difficulty in doing so.
When he heard that the defending troops on the barbican walls had heavily injured the Khorasan archers in the trenches outside the barbican walls, Altik was very happy. As long as his troops could win the battle, he would be very happy. The barbican's defense was very strong. As long as all the soldiers wholeheartedly defended the barbican walls, they would be able to defend the barbican walls and block the attacking troops outside.
The fierce battle lasted from the night until the early hours of the morning, and there was no sign of it stopping. Both sides continued to suffer losses. Not only were there casualties, but there was also a large amount of destruction and consumption of resources.
War was a battle of resources. Without the support of resources, the war would not be able to continue. The barbican had long been prepared and stored a large amount of resources. There were even more resources outside the barbican to support the war of attrition.
After dawn, Altik asked his subordinates to count the number of casualties. The result made him quite dissatisfied. The number of casualties at night was even higher than during the day. The number of casualties in the barbican had actually reached three thousand. Adding that to yesterday's two thousand, there were five thousand casualties.
After a day and night of defending the barbican walls, they had actually lost five thousand soldiers. This loss was really too great. Even though seventy to eighty percent of them were injured, these injured soldiers would need at least three to five days to be able to fight again. The more serious ones would need half a month or even several months to recover.
There were only a little more than thirty thousand soldiers in the barbican. Including the reserves, there were only forty thousand soldiers. If they continued to fight like this, they would be exhausted in eight days at most.
Of course, these were all ordinary troops. If they were the most elite troops, the losses might be less. However, Altik was not willing to do so.
In any war, the first attack of the enemy was bound to be very fierce. The attack would also cause the most damage to the defenders. Under these circumstances, it was undoubtedly the best choice to let the recruits be cannon fodder. It was much better than letting the elites be cannon fodder.
The reason for the higher number of casualties at night was also found. That was because they were not prepared and were suppressed by the enemy outside the barbican. After the masks, armor, and reflective panels were ready, the situation improved a lot. However, the losses from before were indeed very great. Especially the recruits who had just entered the barbican, they only mechanically carried out the orders of their commanders to attack the enemy outside the barbican. They did not know how to protect themselves. There were even many soldiers who felt that wearing the helmets and masks was too uncomfortable and threw them aside, causing a lot of casualties.
This lesson was very worth learning. Only by learning from experience could the number of casualties be reduced. For this reason, on one hand, Altik replenished the various troops with recruits. On the other hand, he asked his subordinates to train and educate these recruits so that they would understand how to attack the enemy and how to protect themselves.
Three thousand soldiers from the reserves were quickly sent to the various barbican gates to join the defending army. At the same time, Altik sent his personal guards to the various barbican gates to guide and educate the inexperienced soldiers. They taught them how to effectively attack the enemy, how to better protect themselves, and so on.
Of course, while the defending side had learned their lesson, the attacking side had also learned a lot from the fierce siege battle.
Although they were all veterans and had not fought hard battles, they were more used to decisive battles in the wilderness. They rarely participated in siege battles. Moreover, they had never encountered a city with such tight defenses. The advanced weapons of the defending army were also something they had never seen before. This was the reason why they were unable to capture the city for a long time. Thinking back to the time when they were fighting against the Umayyad dynasty, the Khorasan cavalry was invincible. Whether it was in the wilderness or in siege battles, they were very powerful. They were almost invincible. They were a very good example of what an elite army was, what an invincible army was.
But now, facing a heavily defended city, they were completely dumbfounded. Their previous experience was very difficult to use.
The first reason was that the city's defenses were tighter. The second reason was that the more advanced weapons were more advanced. The most important reason was that the Apus dynasty had lost the support of the people. After replacing the Umayyad dynasty, Apos's perverse actions had chilled the hearts of the Shi 'ites and other factions. As such, except for Apos's faction, almost all the other factions did not support the Apus dynasty. As such, whenever the Khorasan cavalry attacked a city, there would be people in the city who would support them from within.
Of course, the main reason was the lack of support. Most of the people in the city were Shi 'ites. Of course, they would support Ibrahim and the actual leader of the army, Altik. They would not support the Apus dynasty's Ziyad.
Ziyad woke up early in the morning. The first thing he should do after waking up should be to eat, but Ziyad obviously would not put eating first. He was very concerned about the battle last night, including the number of casualties on his side and the number of casualties on the defending side. This was very important.
"How was the battle last night?"
Ziyad waved his hand and asked the subordinate who was carrying the food to leave. He did not want to eat now.
"General, our army achieved a great victory last night. We killed at least ten thousand enemies."
The subordinate reported happily.
Of course, his subordinates did not lie. According to the reports of the archers, there was indeed such a high number. However, among the archers' results, many of them were scarecrows. The ones they shot were scarecrows and not the real soldiers guarding the city.
Ziyad was slightly surprised. "Killing ten thousand enemies in one night? When did our soldiers become so brave? Is it true?"
"General, this is the data reported by the various troops. There should not be too much difference. However, the results in the second half of the night were not good. Most of these results are from the first half of the night."
The subordinate said.
Ziyad was still puzzled. He asked, "What is going on? Why are the results in the first half of the night so good, but not in the second half of the night? What is the reason?"
The subordinate narrated the situation in detail, pointing out that the defenders used reflective wooden planks to project the light from the city walls to their positions. This made it easier for their soldiers to be exposed, and they lost the advantage of hiding and annihilating the enemy.
After all, if they were not discovered by the enemy, the archers could calmly aim and shoot, and thus have a higher hit rate. However, if they were exposed, the archers would not have enough time to aim. They would have to shoot quickly and then hide to protect their own lives.
Ziyad was very excited when he heard that the archers under his command had achieved a great victory during the night. However, when he heard that the defenders used reflective planks to project light in the second half of the night, which exposed all the Khorasan archers, he was very angry and gnashed his teeth in anger.
"General, the enemy only had thirty thousand defenders. We killed a third of them in one day. After three days, the enemy will have no more defenders. Maia City will be ours sooner or later."
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