Ziyad's army quickly launched an even more ferocious attack. In addition to the normal stone throwing and crossbow attacks, some soldiers also carried scaling ladders across the moat and laid down wooden planks on top of the ladders. After that, a large number of soldiers carried the scaling ladders across the moat and placed them on top of the city walls, launching close-range attacks on the city walls.
Such a ferocious attack occurred from four different directions at the same time. Ziyad's soldiers didn't seem to care about their lives as they continuously launched fierce attacks on the city walls. It was obvious that they had received a stricter order, so they had to attack with all their might.
This greatly exceeded Altik's expectations. He originally thought that Ziyad had suffered a great defeat and would temporarily stop the attack and send people to collect the corpses below the city walls. However, he didn't expect Ziyad to launch an even more ferocious attack.
In particular, the attack from the north gate was extremely fierce. A large number of Khorasan soldiers disregarded the danger and used scaling ladders and wooden planks to build simple passageways. Moreover, there were at least twenty of them. Each passageway was made up of two scaling ladders and a dozen wooden planks. Although they weren't very sturdy, they could easily pass through fully armed soldiers.
However, some of the large siege weapons, such as heavy siege vehicles and folding scaling ladders, definitely couldn't pass through these simple passageways. Thus, a large number of infantrymen could only carry scaling ladders across the simple bridges and attack the city walls.
During the attack, many of the simple passageways were destroyed by the rocks on the city walls, and many soldiers were smashed to death or shot to death. However, these losses didn't deter the brave Khorasan elite soldiers. They continued to attack, using their lives to pave a path for attack.
Soon, more than a dozen scaling ladders were set up on the city walls. A large number of Khorasan elite soldiers raised their shields and climbed up the ladders, preparing to launch a fierce attack on the city walls.
At the same time, a few Khorasan soldiers carried thick wooden poles and began to ram the city gates. Of course, before the city walls were breached, they didn't dare to enter the barbican. Otherwise, they would be fiercely attacked by the crossbowmen around the barbican. The consequences would be unimaginable.
When a large number of attacking troops rushed to the bottom of the city walls and began to attack, the defending troops were somewhat flustered. In close combat, the pressure on their hearts would be greater. After all, the closer the distance, the greater the pressure on their hearts. Most of the defending troops were new recruits, so it was very difficult for them to withstand this pressure.
In addition, once the enemy reached the bottom of the city walls, the soldiers on the city walls would have a hard time seeing them. They would have to stick their bodies out of the watchtowers to see the soldiers below the city walls. Then, they would launch a targeted attack. However, this process was very dangerous. It was very easy to be shot to death by the crossbowmen on the other side of the moat, which would cause more casualties. But if they blindly threw rocks at the bottom of the city walls, what if the rocks weren't thrown at the enemy's location? Wouldn't that be a waste of resources?
In short, as the attacking soldiers reached the bottom of the city walls, the pressure on the defenders increased. Fortunately, the 3,000 elite soldiers at the north gate hadn't left yet. Altik saw that the situation was critical and quickly sent 3,000 soldiers to the north gate to participate in the defense of the city. As a result, the number of defenders at the north gate reached 8,000. They were divided into three shifts, and each shift had close to 3,000 soldiers. The defensive strength was still very strong.
However, compared to the number of soldiers on the attacking side, these advantages were insignificant. The attacking side had gathered 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers at the north gate, which was five times more than the defending side. Moreover, they were elite soldiers who had been fighting for a long time. Their strength was quite strong, and they created a lot of pressure on the defending side.
The situation at the other city gates was slightly better. Although there were fewer defenders there, the attacking side was also weaker. The strength of the attacking side was far less than that of the north gate, especially the catapults. The attacks from the north gate were too fierce. Hundreds of catapults were throwing rocks at the same time, which caused a lot of damage to the defending side. Only when there was a large number of catapults would it have the desired effect.
There were definitely enemy soldiers climbing up the ladders. Therefore, the defending side didn't need to take the risk to look out. They only needed to put the rocks on top of the ladders and directly throw them down. This kind of attack would definitely kill many enemy soldiers.
Of course, there were more effective means of attack. For example, they could use long wooden sticks to block the scaling ladders on the city wall. Then, a group of people would push the scaling ladders away. When the scaling ladders toppled over, the soldiers on them would fall into the moat together with the siege soldiers on top of them.
Using scaling ladders to attack a city was the standard method for all siege troops. Therefore, the city guards had long prepared wooden poles of sufficient length to deal with these simple scaling ladders. Of course, if they encountered a heavy-duty scaling ladder, this method would not work. This was because the bottom of a heavy-duty scaling ladder was very heavy and could not be pushed at all. Even if twenty to thirty soldiers pushed together, it would still be difficult to push the scaling ladder away. Therefore, they could only use other methods.
Fortunately, there were many ways to defend the city. Pushing ladders wasn't the only way. There were enough rolling logs and stones on the city walls as well as a large amount of kerosene that could be used to defend the city. After some soldiers threw the rolling logs down, there were immediately painful screams coming from below. When the kerosene poured down the ladders, there were even more screams. The soldiers who were ignited by the kerosene were burned all over. They could only roll on the ground in pain. Of course, there were also people who jumped into the moat to save themselves. However, under normal circumstances, it was very difficult to survive. The moat was very deep. Soldiers who couldn't swim would disappear after jumping in. Even soldiers who could swim would find it difficult to float on the surface of the water. After all, they were wearing armor and their bodies were very heavy. Coupled with the fact that they were injured, it would be very difficult for them to survive. Therefore, as long as they jumped into the moat, they would basically disappear.
When attacking from a distance, the catapults and crossbows on the city walls were the biggest enemies of the attacking troops. When attacking from a distance, kerosene, rolling logs, and stones were the biggest threats. Kerosene was the biggest threat. It was also the most feared defensive weapon of the attacking troops. Many soldiers would rather be crushed to death by stones than be burned to death by kerosene. If they were crushed to death by stones, the pain would be over in an instant. However, if they were burned by kerosene, it wouldn't be over in an instant. It would be a long period of extreme pain and they would die in extreme pain.
A large amount of kerosene was stored in the city. It was specially used to deal with these attacking troops. Now, it finally came in handy. Once it was used, it caused immeasurable losses to the attacking troops.
Not only could the kerosene burn the attacking troops to death, it could also burn down the scaling ladders on the city walls. The scaling ladders would be burned to the point that they could no longer bear the task of attacking the city. It could even injure the soldiers who climbed up the scaling ladders.
When Ziyad was supervising the construction of the siege weapons, he considered the problem of defense. However, he didn't consider these simple scaling ladders. This was because the advantage of these weapons was their dexterity. If they added defense, they would become heavy scaling ladders. It would be another type of weapon. It wouldn't be easy for the soldiers to carry them to attack the city walls.
Because the structure was relatively simple, Ziyad's army was equipped with a large number of simple scaling ladders. Even if a large number were used to build simple bridges, the number of scaling ladders left was still very shocking. It didn't matter if a few were burned down or a few were pushed down. The following scaling ladders continued to be set up on the city walls. The soldiers with shields continued to attack fiercely as if they were completely unafraid of death.
In order to cover the attack, the archers and catapults at the rear also continued to attack, suppressing the defending troops to the point that they couldn't even raise their heads.
With the advantage in numbers, there would always be the bravest soldiers who could climb up the city wall. However, it would take some time for them to climb over the parapet wall. During this period of time, they would be easily attacked by the defending soldiers. All they needed to do was to stab their pikes and kill the enemy soldiers who had just climbed up the city wall before they could gain a firm foothold on the city wall.
The attacking Khorasan cavalry kept climbing up the city walls. At the same time, the defending troops kept stabbing them with their swords and spears. They killed all the soldiers who had just climbed up and pushed them down the city walls.
Of course, there were also some agile soldiers who could quickly jump up the city walls. However, because there were too few of them and they were unable to continue, they were quickly attacked by the defending troops who had the advantage. They died powerlessly on the city walls. Then, the defending troops would throw the bodies out. Before throwing them out, they would leave behind the armor and weapons of the soldiers because they could still be used in the defense.
After a few hours of fierce attacks, both sides suffered great losses. There were corpses of soldiers all over the city walls, especially below the city walls. The corpses almost covered the entire area from the moat to the base of the city walls. The smell of blood was very thick.
The continuous fierce attacks of Ziyad's army put a lot of pressure on the defending troops. It also put a lot of psychological pressure on Altik, who was supervising the battle at the main city gate. He was just a businessman and didn't know much about military affairs. However, at this moment, he had to command such a bloody battle to defend the city. This was definitely a big test for him.
He was very anxious, but he couldn't show it, not even the slightest bit, because he was the main leader. If even he lost confidence or fear, his subordinates would also be afraid, and the city would fall into chaos. Therefore, even if he was completely unsure, he had to pretend that he was, and appear very confident.
However, his slightly pale face betrayed him. Others could see that he was not really confident. However, the young general of the Tang dynasty next to Altik was really relaxed. He was here to help Altik establish a new order. At the same time, he was responsible for supervising Altik's forces and preventing the Altik regime from being hostile to the imperial court of the Tang dynasty.
The young general of the Tang dynasty was an elite selected by Ang Lee. At the same time, he was also a veteran who had fought many tough battles. He had been in the army for more than ten years and was very familiar with the things in the army. Therefore, he could tell from the deployment of the defense that the troops outside the city would not be able to break in within a few days. Therefore, he was very relaxed. Moreover, he knew that Ang Lee wouldn't just watch Ziyad destroy Altik. He would intervene at the critical moment. The reason why he didn't intervene for the time being was that he wanted both sides to consume their strength and then it would be easier for him to control the situation.
After the north gate was under great pressure, urgent reports came from the other city gates. They asked Altik for reinforcements. Otherwise, they might not be able to defend the city.
Altik was in a dilemma. He only had so many elite troops under his command. He didn't expect that he would have to use them in large numbers so soon. If they were all used up, he would have no elite troops left.
However, the most important thing at the moment was to defend the city. Nothing else mattered. Altik didn't want anything but the city.
Soon, Altik transferred 3,000 elite troops from the city and asked them to reinforce the three city gates. So far, half of the most elite troops had been used. There were only 6,000 elite troops left in the city that hadn't been used. In addition, the civilians could conscript 5,000 troops at most, but the quality was worrying. The best and most suitable soldiers had been conscripted. The rest were either over 50 years old or 15 or 16 years old. They were too young. Even if they were conscripted into the army, their combat effectiveness would not be very high.
"My Lord, you don't look very well. You'd better go back and have a rest! Don't worry. The enemy troops outside the city can't break in. At least, they won't be able to enter the city for three days. My Lord, you can rest assured. "
The young general of the Tang Dynasty said.
If it weren't for the large number of weapons provided by the Tang Dynasty, we wouldn't have been able to hold on until now. But looking at the current situation, it's really dangerous. I can only mobilize 6,000 troops. If the city gates continue to be in a state of emergency, I can only use the last troops. If I had known this, I would have prepared more troops. The cities in the east, west, and south are not fighting. Ziyad has put all his troops here. "
Altik complained.
The young general of the Tang Dynasty said, "My Lord, don't be discouraged. Ziyad is attacking the city fiercely regardless of the casualties. The army will be exhausted in a day or two at most. I've sent people to the top of the city wall to check. Ziyad has almost used all his forces. With so many troops taking turns to attack, the whole army will eventually be exhausted. If a new force appears at this moment, they won't be able to deal with it."
"What? We have reinforcements?"
Altik asked in surprise.
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