In just two days, under Zhang Zhao's high pressure, the miners from the coal factory in Donghe Prefecture, his own carpenters, and a large number of Buddhists and monks who followed him, worked at extremely fast speeds that far exceeded the labor rhythm of this era. .
To the south of Shule City, an extremely simple military stronghold was built on a piece of earth that the Karakhanites had not had time to completely flatten.
In front of the military stronghold is a trench more than one meter wide and 70 to 80 centimeters deep. Behind the trench is Jumajiao, which is built with various types of wood. Behind Jumajiao is the military stronghold.
The walls of the military village were made of a very simple wooden frame made of random wooden blocks, then filled with stones, and then a circle of stones was built outside.
And even such an extremely simple village wall only has one side in front of it.
However, Zhang Zhao was very satisfied. Once this thing was completed, Ittihad from Shule City would not dare to come out to confront him unless he brought out three to five thousand people.
Zhang Zhao now has in his hands a hundred soldiers (cavalry) from Hanshandu and Youyi's army, as well as the five hundred palace guards assigned to him by Li Shengtian. He has also selected more than three hundred from the more than two thousand "burdens" to return the combat power. The experts are armed and can gather almost a thousand men and horses to defend the stronghold. Without three or five times the strength, they will definitely not be able to defeat them.
And in just two days, to be precise, after the battle two days ago, more than eighty people defeated four to five hundred Karakhan's cavalry.
Along the way, Ya'er, who was full of resentment, cursed, disobeyed discipline, and occasionally made trouble, looked at the Buddhists and was conquered by Zhang Zhao.
No words are as convincing as this!
A dark golden short-haired horse suddenly appeared outside Shule City. Bai Congxin and the handsome palace guard general immediately rushed over.
Behind the dark golden short-haired horse were two cursing Youyijun knights. Judging from the speed of the horses, the horses of these two were thrown away by the dark golden short-haired horse and could not be seen.
"Pegasus! It's actually a Pegasus!" A bald man stood up and exclaimed loudly beside Zhang Zhao.
This guy was originally a mage from the Kaiyuan Temple in Shule. After the Kaiyuan Temple was burned down by the Tianfang believers supported by Saktu Bograhan, he lived in the Yaerkan area and changed from a mage with considerable experience in preaching to a He became a warrior monk holding a wooden pole.
木楓 (bang has four sounds) is actually a wooden stick, and 楣 is a variant of stick.
This thing is a popular weapon in the pre-Qin period. A big stick has edges on both ends. It is cheap and convenient to use to hit unarmored enemies. It has good lethality. A hit on the head with the stick will basically kill the enemy.
There were a lot of these things in the army of the Tang Dynasty, because the enemies of the Tang army, whether they were Turks or Tibetans, did not have much armor in the early stage.
This kind of thick and barbaric wooden stick has broken many enemies' heads and broken many legs. It was not until the Tang army's enemies began to wear armor that they were used less often in the army.
However, the wooden pole in the hands of this mage should be called "殳棓", because the edges of both ends of it are embedded with iron sheets, which can cause more damage than ordinary wooden poles. Moreover, looking at the rust on the iron sheet, it is estimated that it can also have additional A little tetanus damage.
"General! Please give the Sa family a good horse, and the Sa family will bring that Pegasus horse over for you!"
The bald-headed mage handed the Tao in his hand to the disciple beside him, then raised his hand and took the initiative to ask for it.
"Okay! Duojin, give this master a good horse!" Zhang Zhao immediately called Qiongre Duojin to give the master a good horse.
He was just attracted by the weapon in this man's hand, but he didn't think about a horse breaking into the city.
Pegasus, this is what people at this time called this extremely fine horse that grew up in the Fergana Basin.
In Chinese history, it has a famous name, the Bloody BMW!
It is also called Akhal Tak horse, Alteh Golden horse, etc. abroad. It is a very precious treasure in any era!
'Buzz! 'An arrow hit Shule City, and then the Pegasus, who had already run an unknown distance, was forced into a dead corner by a group of Zhang Zhao's men.
But a sweaty BMW is a sweaty BMW. Even though it has entered a blind spot, under the control of the knight on horseback, it neighed, then jumped, easily jumping over the trench dug by Zhang Zhao and getting rid of the siege!
"The thief will not die yet!" At this time, the mage from Kaiyuan Temple who abandoned scriptures and took up martial arts arrived.
He quickly approached the golden horse on horseback, and while he was drinking loudly, he quickly turned a knotted rope with his right hand. The knotted part of the rope was wrapped with a medium-sized pebble.
'woo woo woo woo! 'The rapidly rotating rope made a strange scream that made people go numb, and the knight who had just controlled the bloody horse to rush out of the encirclement also suddenly tightened his anus.
He pinched the horse's belly and was about to increase his speed, but there was a thud and the pebbles at the end of the rope flew out.
'Snapped! 'A very penetrating impact sound was heard, and the knight was hit on the back of the head.
Zhang Zhao even saw a bloody arrow shooting out. The knight on the horse twitched violently, and his body fell off the horse.
The bloody horse he was riding on was still running forward, while the knight's feet were stuck in the stirrups, his head was stuck on the ground, and a bloody path was extremely visible on the black and yellow ground.
This is a sling! While everyone else was cheering and praising the master of Kaiyuan Temple for his superb skills, who only killed people but did not hurt horses, Zhang Zhao was very interested in this master's craftsmanship.
The sling is played a lot abroad, especially in ancient Greece, where it was very popular.
There is a proverb in ancient Greece that says that what a well-equipped hoplite fears most is not an equally powerful opponent, but a ragged slinger.
China used it in the hands of Qi Jiguang, the god of the Ming Dynasty. He also innovatively added a wooden stick at the handshake end to increase the range and lethality.
The peasant rebels in the late Ming Dynasty often used this cheap and easy-to-use throwing weapon to attack better-equipped officers and soldiers.
What a good thing! He just happens to have a bunch of rabble around him, so they can definitely come in handy! And from this sling, Zhang Zhao suddenly thought of a golden finger that he could open, which was the famous Poxi Army of the Xixia Kingdom more than a hundred years later.
A small stone-throwing machine is mounted on the back of the Bactrian camel. A fist-sized stone is more destructive than any bow, arrow or crossbow. It is also very maneuverable. It is simply a magical weapon when used to smash infantry squares.
Moreover, this golden finger is quite easy to operate. Stone-throwing machines and trebuchets have been very mature in the Tang Dynasty. The only improvement is to make them smaller so that they can be placed on the back of a Bactrian camel.
What’s even more amazing is that no one else has been able to imitate this thing. It’s not because the trebuchet is difficult to make, but because most of the two-humped camels that carry the trebuchet are produced in the five prefectures of Guashasu, Ganliang, and the rest. There is no such place, this is really a perfect golden finger.
"General Zhang! Fortunately, Sajiazhitong has lived up to his command. I have brought this Pegasus to you!" The bald mage laughed and walked to Zhang Zhao while leading the bloody horse.
Zhang Zhao didn't even look at the BMW. What use was the BMW to him now? It's not like he can breed a bunch of bloody horses for him right away, and how dare he ask for such a thing, otherwise Li Shengtian will have to get an advantage.
But this mage is different. It is very likely that he will be able to form a fighting force in his ragtag group right away.
"Although this horse is precious, it is just a mortal thing. I value the master's unique skills even more! May I ask the master, where did you learn this skill?"
Monk Zhitong was suddenly startled, and then his face shone with light.
"Erlangjun also thinks that this skill can be used in battle formations? This is a unique skill of the Tubo herdsmen on the Kunlun Mountains. I also heard from a Nestorian monk that in his hometown of Daqin, there are many people in the army who are good at this skill.
The Sa family combined the strengths of the two and made this thing. They thought it could be put to use, but the poor monk repeatedly sent letters to Amo Zhi who Ya'er read, but he didn't believe it and said that the Sa family was just whimsical! "
That’s it!
In Zhang Zhao's impression, Tibetans and other ethnic groups living in high mountains have this kind of thing.
Nestorianism is the Nestorian sect of Christianity, which happened to be split from the Greek Orthodox Church. Isn’t this the home of Sling!
"He doesn't believe it, but I believe it!" Zhang Zhao patted his chest, "I don't know how many of the Master's disciples can use this thing. Is it cumbersome to teach it?"
"It's nothing complicated. It's just that the thrown stones need to be polished carefully, and there aren't many ropes!" Master Zhitong became excited when he heard that Zhang Zhao was so discerning.
"It's easy. Leave the ropes to me. I'll have people go to the Red River to collect the stones locally and polish them a little!"
