Ziyad's subordinate was happy too early. He thought that he had eliminated more than a third of the defenders in one day, but he did not know that they did not have such great results. The number of casualties of the defenders was not as high as he thought. Moreover, with the use of various defensive measures, the following losses would be lower. What was even more terrifying was that they were facing ordinary soldiers. The twelve thousand elite soldiers in the city had not been mobilized yet. If these elite soldiers were mobilized, the casualty ratio would be even lower.
Although his subordinate did not say the true number of enemy casualties, there was no flaw in his words. Ziyad was very willing to believe it. He felt that it was very likely to be true. As long as the soldiers in the city were wiped out, his army would be able to smoothly attack the city in front of them.
"How are our casualties?"
In addition to being more concerned about the casualties of the enemy, Ziyad was also very concerned about the casualties of his own army. If the casualties were too high, it would not be worth it.
"General, our casualties are less than five thousand. Half of them are captured civilians. Our actual casualties are only about two thousand. Most of them are arrow wounds. They were injured when the soldiers and the enemy on the city walls shot at each other. There are fewer smashed and burned wounds."
His subordinate reported.
Ziyad's face twitched slightly. The casualties were still too high. The soldiers under his command were all elite troops. Even if there were only a few casualties, it would still make his heart ache. Moreover, the casualties at night were obviously more than during the day. This was something that he could not accept.
"You just said that the enemy's casualties were more in the first half of the night. What about our casualties? Also in the first half of the night? "
Ziyad asked.
"No, General. Our casualties were more in the second half of the night. Moreover, they were the most frontline archers. In the first half of the night, because the enemy could not see the situation in the trenches, our archers in the trenches gained a great victory. As a result, more archers were sent to fight in the trenches. However, after the enemy lit up the trenches, they lost the cover of the night and suffered a lot of casualties. It became quite difficult to attack the enemy."
His subordinate said.
"So that's the case. What a pity. There are capable people in the enemy! To think that they could think of such a clever way to reflect light into the trenches. "
Ziyad was very surprised.
"General, the trenches are not of much use anyway. We can fill them up by this afternoon. Then we can fill up the moat. As long as the moat is filled, our army can attack the city walls. The enemy troops are not many and will not be able to stop us."
His subordinate said with certainty.
In order to take the city, Ziyad had made ample preparations. He had prepared all kinds of weapons. When he attacked the similarly well-defended city of Maia, he had summed up a lot of experience and knew how to avoid being countered by the troops in the city. Therefore, the attacking army kept pushing forward, while the defending troops in the city did not have a good way to completely repel the enemy. They could only choose to fight a war of attrition to slow down the enemy's advance and cause more casualties to the enemy.
"Well said. As long as the last moat is filled, Altik will not be able to stop us. Pass down the order. Tell the soldiers to speed up and fill up the last trench and moat as soon as possible. After we enter the city, all soldiers can rob whatever they want. Just remember to leave Altik and Ibrahim to me."
Ziyad loudly ordered.
In order to boost the morale of the army, Ziyad was also very hardworking. He even used the tactic of allowing the soldiers to rob.
In ancient times, it was very common for soldiers to rob and rob. It was also a necessary quality for many soldiers to rise up. The reason why such a cruel method was chosen was because the resources that the army could provide to the soldiers were very limited. Moreover, there was a risk of losing one's life in war. If you want the soldiers to lose their lives for you, you have to give the soldiers enough benefits!
As the saying goes, when there is a great reward, there will be brave men. If the general gave enough rewards, the soldiers would feel that it was necessary to take risks for them. This way, the soldiers would fight without regard for their lives.
However, in a situation where there was a shortage of resources, the general might not even have wealth. How could he reward the soldiers who had risked their lives for him? The only feasible way was to promise to let the soldiers rob the city themselves after they had taken it. This was the only feasible way.
In particular, many peasant soldiers who were forced to rebel often relied on robbing to make a fortune. Because the peasant leaders had no money, they could not provide for their large number of followers. Other than robbing, there was no other way. Of course, if they could take over the city that stored the official grain, it would be much easier. In this way, not only would they solve their own grain problem, but they could also distribute the surplus grain to more poor people. They could also take advantage of this opportunity to recruit more men and horses and make themselves stronger.
To be able to seize the grain and gold of the imperial court was, of course, the best way. It was also an important guarantee for the development of a rebel army. However, if they could not seize the imperial court's money and grain, and the rebel army was short of money and grain, then the only way was to use force. It could also be called robbery. After taking over a city, they would rob all the people in the city. This way, they would be able to get the most basic supplies.
Especially in the case of heavy losses in the process of attacking the city, robbing the people in the city would become a necessity. It was even possible that they would massacre the entire city. Otherwise, where would they vent their anger?
The reason why the ancient Yue army could freeze to death and starve to death without robbing was that the entire Southern Song Dynasty provided sufficient logistics for the army. Without the logistical support of the imperial court, the Yue army would have frozen to death and starved to death. How would they have the energy to attack the Jin army?
At this moment, Ziyad's army had been besieging the city for many days and suffered heavy losses. Under such circumstances, as long as they broke through the city, they would definitely take revenge. Robbing was only the lowest level of revenge. The more serious ones would be massacring and burning the city to vent their anger.
Ziyad's army had been besieging the city for a long time and was already tired. However, in the face of huge benefits and military orders, they once again erupted with a strong offensive power. They went all out to attack the defenders in the city.
Because more siege weapons were being manufactured, and most of them were relatively sturdy and far away from the city. Therefore, the number of siege weapons destroyed was not as fast as the speed of new weapons. Therefore, the number of siege weapons owned by Ziyad's army did not decrease because of the siege. On the contrary, it greatly increased. Moreover, the siege weapons that were destroyed were easy to repair. As a result, the siege power was constantly increasing.
This was also the source of Ziyad's confidence. The reason why he was so confident was because the strength of his subordinates was increasing step by step. He had great confidence in breaking through the city's defense. He believed that he would be able to lead the army to break through the city's defense. This was the mission that Mansur had entrusted to him.
Ziyad's attack was constantly increasing. The distance between the siege army and the city wall was also decreasing step by step. This created a lot of pressure for the defenders.
Although the city's defense was very tight, and even more defensive equipment was used to defend the city, the pressure was still very great. The defenders were constantly suffering casualties.
Because there was too much light during the day, all the scarecrows were removed. The enemy outside the city were not fools and could easily discover these scarecrows. Therefore, in order to better confuse the enemy at night, these scarecrows had to be removed during the day.
There was no need to remove the masks and armors. Using these defensive equipment could reduce the casualties. It would be fine even if the enemy discovered them.
"City Lord, the last moat is about to be filled up. The enemy will start filling up the moat at night."
A subordinate reported.
The so-called filling up of the moat did not mean filling up the entire moat, but filling up a certain width. It was enough to allow a large number of siege weapons and soldiers to smoothly pass through. Some places were not filled up. This could be used as cover for the archers and could also speed up the filling of the moat.
Altik was a little anxious when he heard this. If the last moat was filled up, the pressure on the defenders inside the city would be too great. This meant that a large number of soldiers outside the city could push the siege weapons to the bottom of the city wall. A large number of soldiers and horses could quickly climb up the city wall through the siege weapons and break through the city wall.
Destroying the siege equipment was, of course, the best way. However, Seiyad had built all kinds of siege equipment very sturdy. Moreover, there were a lot of them. Even if a few of them were smashed, new equipment would immediately replace them. Moreover, the smashed equipment could be easily repaired. After all, there were only a few parts of the equipment. The parts that were smashed could be repaired. It wasn't difficult at all.
According to the current defense plan, it was inevitable that a lot of soldiers would have to be sacrificed to defend the city. Moreover, he had to send his most elite troops to fight in order to be effective. This was also the reason why Artek had been unwilling to send his most elite troops to fight. When the crossbows were fired, the ordinary troops could still maintain their position. However, if the enemy used ladders to attack the city, the situation might be different. Once the defending troops lost their confidence, they might give up on defending the city and flee. If that happened, it would be terrible. Only the most elite troops could fight against the attacking troops on the city wall and defend the last line of defense.
However, Altik did not want his most elite soldiers to suffer heavy losses. If the core elite soldiers were to suffer heavy losses, then his strength would be greatly reduced even if he could defend the city in the end.
Being unable to destroy the siege weapons outside the city on a large scale was the most frustrating thing for the defending soldiers. As long as the siege weapons outside the city were not destroyed, then the huge pressure on the defending soldiers would not be eliminated.
This was especially true for the north gate, where the pressure was the greatest. Half of the besiegers were concentrated there, so they advanced the fastest and caused the greatest number of casualties to the defenders. The rest of the besiegers were much slower and had only reached the second trench.
"We must destroy Ziyad's siege weapons. These weapons are too big a threat to us. Even if we attack with all our strength, it will be difficult to cause heavy losses to the enemy."
Altik said.
"City Lord, this doesn't seem to be easy. Seiyad's elite cavalry is holding the fort at the back. Even at night, these cavalry units are maintained at a scale of more than 3,000. If our army sends troops out of the city to attack, it's very easy for these cavalry units to launch a surprise attack. Then, they can take the opportunity to break into the city and break through it.
The subordinate shook his head and said.
Altik naturally understood this, but he really could not think of a better way. If they did not destroy a large number of siege weapons outside the city, the pressure on the defending soldiers would be too great.
"Castellan, why don't we let the Tang dynasty's artillery attack? The artillery is more powerful and more prepared. It can definitely destroy more siege weapons and frustrate Ziyad's spirit. "
The subordinate suggested.
Altik hesitated for a moment and felt that it was feasible. If it did not work, he could only count on the five artillery pieces of the Tang dynasty. If even these five artillery pieces could not turn the tide, then there was really no better way.
"Go and invite General Tang here. I want to ask him about the situation."
Altik said.
"Yes, Castellan."
The subordinate replied.
Soon, the Tang dynasty general came to Altik.
"Castellan, what can I do for you? Do you want our artillery to go out? We can't wait. We want to perform well. "
The Tang dynasty general said.
Altik squeezed a smile from the corner of his mouth and said, "I just want to ask, how many shells can your artillery fire? How many siege weapons can you destroy? Can you kill them all?"
The Tang dynasty general thought for a moment and said, "Castellan, there are only 100 shells left in my five artillery pieces. There are only 500 shells in total. There is only a 20% chance of hitting and destroying them from a long distance. At most, I can destroy 100 siege weapons. I can kill more than 1,000 enemy soldiers, maybe more."
"That's far from enough! The enemy has too many siege weapons. Destroying 100 of them is definitely not enough. There are more than that number of catapults. "
Altik was a little depressed. There were too many siege weapons. There were hundreds of catapults at the North Gate. Moreover, they were deployed separately. It was impossible to kill a lot of them with one shot.
If he immediately used the artillery to join the battle and destroy some of the siege weapons, it could indeed relieve the siege, but the effect was not very obvious. Moreover, there would be no more shells after they were used up.
"Can the shells be made in the city? What equipment do I need? By the way, what materials do I need?"
Altik asked, unwilling to give up.
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