Zhang Zhao finally understood another reason why Li Shengtian insisted on leaving these people to him. He also had a headache looking at the tall, short, fat and thin people in front of him, with different shapes.
The so-called Buddhist lurkers who came to Pianzhou City (Yingjisha) from Ya'erkan (Yarkand) turned out to be poor people who were eager to escape to Khotan and live a stable life.
They were indeed natives living in these places, but they were oppressed by the Kara Khanate because they refused to convert to Tianfang religion. Originally, they thought of simply escaping to Khotan, but Li Shengtian refused to accept them. .
Because if they leave, when Ya'er sees the distance to Pianzhou City, it will definitely be occupied by the converted Ge Luolu and Uighurs recruited by Kara Khan.
If this happens, the pressure on Khotan will be great. I am afraid that this time it will not be a battle of Shule, but a direct battle of defense.
And these people were not fools. Li Shengtian repeatedly refused to allow them to enter Khotan. He only made the leader a minor official and gave him some salt, food and cloth. Why? They definitely know.
Do you think they can have no resentment in their hearts? Can there not be people who secretly convert but don’t tell them?
If they got into the Khotan army, they might complain or even leak information, so Li Shengtian simply threw them to Zhang Zhao and let him take care of them, keeping out of sight.
So as soon as he learned about this situation, Zhang Zhao decisively changed his strategy. With such a mixed crowd, he probably wouldn't be able to pretend to be an elite for long. He simply set up camp three miles away from Shule City and came to a stronghold to stun him. battle.
He wants to turn himself into a nail under Shule City. Isn’t Ittihad going to be at an angle with Fort Yusuf and Fort Esquesa? Then Zhang Zhao will be stuck outside the south of Shule City. No If this nail is pulled out, Shule City and these two fortresses will no longer be the horns.
Besides, he only needs to persist for a few days. He should be able to build a simple fortification and even scare and beat him.
Therefore, what Ittihad saw at the top of the city was not to fill in trenches and build siege equipment, but to build a stronghold.
A sharp copper whistle sounded, and the flag-bearer quickly shook the flag from side to side.
After seeing the flag swaying left and right, the small phalanxes on both sides of the recognition flag shouted slogans to each other and merged into a large phalanx from the three scattered small phalanxes.
'Dong-dong-dong! The drums at the top of Shule City also sounded. A very inconspicuous door creaked open, and a group of cavalry of about four to five hundred people galloped out one after another.
Don't even think about grabbing the city gates. Such gates are usually located in very remote places, with enemy towers exposed on both sides, and turrets at the corners, filled with archers.
Even if you grab it, there are mostly urns or very narrow and complicated passages inside, and you will most likely die if you go in.
This is different from the siege battle that Zhang Zhao imagined before he traveled through time. The siege battle in his imagination must be the attacking ants attacking the city, and the defenders attacking the city with wood, rolling stones and gold juice, as if they don't want money.
But in fact, this kind of siege is rare. It usually breaks out at a critical moment of life or death, or when the siege party has a huge advantage.
Most of the time, as is actually the case today, the attackers first clear out the enemies outside the city, and then go to a certain place to establish a stronghold.
The defender will send troops to harass at this time. After the harassment fails, they will use strong bows and crossbows on the city head and a small group of cavalry who can go out to fight with the attacker. The satellite fortress outside the city will also cooperate with the city. Combat.
As for closing the four gates tightly and holding the whole city tightly, that is only a last resort. The passive feeling of being isolated and helpless and being threatened at any time is a test of morale.
Many cities in history have reached this point and cannot be conquered. Therefore, only those isolated cities that hold on for a few months will be written down in history, because it is indeed not easy.
Five or six hundred cavalrymen are still very impressive when running. The ground is shaking and the dust is flying. What you see are not the charging horses and knights, but ghosts looming in the dust.
'Boom! Yan Jin shot a long arrow with bright tail feathers. The arrow also made a sharp whistling sound, which immediately attracted everyone's attention.
"Forty steps!" He shouted, which was used to mark the distance. When the enemy rode here, the phalanx would fire thousands of arrows.
Adumu also looked at the opponent's mark, but he didn't take it seriously.
At this time, crossbows had not spread to the West on a large scale. They knew that Peach Blossom Stone had an extremely powerful crossbow, but they had no idea how powerful it was.
"The armored ones are in front and charge forward with their spears. The unarmored ones take out their bows and follow my orders to shoot together. The fifty men behind are dismounted and change their steps to use bows and arrows. If we can't charge away, use heavy arrows to kill them. Life!"
There is no problem with Adumu's arrangement. The charge of five or six hundred cavalry is very powerful. If it is an ordinary team with dozens of infantry fighting hundreds of cavalry, it is likely that there is no need to actually fight. The charging posture alone can defeat them. The infantry were frightened. When the armored cavalry in front rushed forward with their spears, the formation was broken.
When the armored cavalry charges, the light cavalry behind will circle the infantry square in a semicircular running route, constantly shooting arrows to harass and reduce the opponent's morale. If they encounter incomplete armor, it can also cause a lot of damage. Kill.
Generally, by reaching this point, the isolated infantry phalanx is likely to be broken up, and if it is not broken up yet, the time has come for the remaining 50 infantry bows and heavy arrows to come into play.
This kind of heavy arrows that are ejected do not rely on armor-piercing to achieve damage, but rely on weight to hit people. Iron lumps smaller than a baby's fist fall from the sky, swollen hands and heads, and break heads.
However, all of this is based on Adumu's beautiful idea. The template he simulated was also the infantry of the Persian Samanid Dynasty that had begun to decline.
This Persian in his thirties had never seen the heavy infantry of the Tang Dynasty!
'Buzz! ' With a sound, Adumu and his cavalry had just passed over the marked arrow, and the sound was like a swarm of bees leaving their nest.
The few armored knights in front who were wearing large armor fell to the ground. Adumu even saw the bloody arrows shooting out of the chest of the armored knight in the front.
The peach blossom stone crossbow is so powerful? This is not armor-piercing, but it is about to penetrate the body!
In panic, there was another buzzing sound, and the second wave of crossbow arrows arrived again!
At this time, as the four or five armored cavalry in front fell down, the charging cavalry formation became somewhat chaotic. Many light cavalry who were originally supposed to be behind were also exposed, and were suddenly shot to the point of being knocked off their feet.
The injured horses screamed and ran all over the ground, and the cavalry who had been hit by arrows also moaned and screamed loudly. Some people and horses lying on the ground blocked the continued charge behind them, and the formation was completely chaotic.
Taking advantage of this chaos, Ma Yaozi shouted and led the fifteen archers behind him to fire their first salvo.
The ones who were shooting just now were 60-man Divine Arm Archers. They used a two-stage shooting method, with 30 people shooting in one round. Due to the loading problem, the gap in the middle required archers to make up for it.
"Quickly spread out, spread out on both sides, get close and shoot at them!" Seeing that the round of bows and arrows from the opposite side killed more than a dozen people on his side, Adumu shouted with eyes wide open.
There were not many armored cavalry in front of him, but now almost all of them were shot down by the crossbow arrows from the opposite side. They could not charge forward. They could only rely on the large number of people and overwhelm the opponent with the number of arrows.
Moreover, due to the lack of strength of the horse bow, it can only be fired close to each other. If it is fired from a distance, it is almost equivalent to suicide.
If we say that the Kara Khanate is indeed an empire on the rise, it is no wonder that they will be able to occupy all three treasure lands in the Anxi River in the future.
Although the chaos was now like this, they had killed thirty or forty people without firing an arrow, but the remaining people were still relatively calm and obeyed Adumu's orders.
The light cavalry began to disperse to both sides, bypassing the middle road that was already blocked by the corpses of men and horses. They formed a ()-shaped charge route and surrounded the infantry phalanx on the opposite side.
The fifty people at the rear, armed with hard bows and heavy arrows, were also preparing to dismount and line up under the officer's call.
