Blood flowed in the gap in the east city, forming dazzling red streams on the chaotic loess.
The jumping soldiers fell to the ground under the spears and pistols, but most of them were Saman Persians.
Because although they are the elite border troops on the Samanid border, since their humiliating defeat to Saktu four years ago, most of their main force has been lost, especially the officers.
The current ones have all been trained and promoted in the past few years, and their strength and morale cannot be compared to those four years ago.
On the contrary, the strength of the Khotan palace guards can be said to be quite good.
They have been engaged in small-scale dogfights with the Kara Khanate over the years, and some of them are poor Tibetans from the plateau. They came from the snowy mountains just to fight for the King of Khotan and live a wealthy life.
What's more, a considerable number of them were elites who followed Zhang Zhao in successive battles in Shule and Polu Prefecture.
Under the leadership of Duke Zhang, these Khotan palace guards, who were no weaker than Zhang Zhao's soldiers from Shandu, received the blessing of the two BUFFs of Lian Sheng and Gu Yong, and their combat effectiveness increased. Even more terrifying.
At the same time, the archers arranged by Ma Jirong also played a big role. They continued to pour heavy arrows on the heads of the Persian army's rear ranks, causing the Persian army's rear ranks to have a higher casualty rate than the front ranks. This made Commander Ma Sudi had no choice.
He would either have the rear group fall back as a whole, or advance in with the beat of drums, allowing both sides to melee together to offset the advantage of the opposing archers.
However, after finally opening the gap, the front is still holding on. If you retreat now and reorganize the team, not to mention whether the army will collapse because of this, even the commander-in-chief Ali Duraf will definitely not tolerate this behavior.
"Drumroll! Let the front row come up! Follow up continuously, deploy thirty archers, and be sure to suppress the opponent! Yusuf, you lead my personal guards and go up in person." Masudi quickly made a choice, The drumming sound sounded.
"Forward! Forward!" The Persian heavy-armored spearmen in the front row had no choice but to move forward. As they moved forward, the Persian soldiers in front of their legs were forced to move forward.
It's a pity that they were already about to collapse, but now they were squeezed forward, and their spirits suddenly dropped. Only a few dared to go up and fight, and most of them were thinking about how to save their lives.
As soon as Ma Jirong saw this situation, he knew he had won, because to stab with a spear, you always have to draw back first, and then thrust out, and in order to strengthen the armor-piercing ability, the arc of the draw is not small.
But tapping is different. You can just swing it and hit it. In this way, you will gain an extra output distance for nothing.
Sure enough, before the Persian spearman could stab the Khotan palace guard in the neck and chest, he was beaten hard.
The three- to four-meter long spear was raised high and slammed down. There was a huge fine iron mass at the end of the spear head. The effect of this beating was no worse than that of a bone.
Under the fierce blows, the heavily armored spearmen in the Persian front row were beaten to pieces, and even suffered a bloody head.
However, they were considered elite, so they still kept on thrusting forward, but the effect was not very good. Even with long spears, when faced with two or three layers of armor, their armor-breaking ability was not as good as expected.
"Stab!" Seeing the enemy approaching, Ma Jirong flexibly adjusted his tactics and disrupted the enemy's front row. Now it was time to kill.
"Wind!" Everyone roared and thrust out together. This was much more lethal than scattered Persian spears. The ten people in the front row stabbed three Persian spearmen in one fell swoop.
"Wind!" There was another roar, and another seven or eight Persian spearmen fell down.
Many people fell this time, not all because they were stabbed by the spears, but because the Persian jumping soldiers collapsed under the spears.
As soon as they ran away, Yutian Tiaodang soldiers could directly take the short knife and stab the Persian spearman's thigh that was not covered by the armor leaves, or insert it specifically into the gap of the armor leaves.
Who can bear this?
Amidst the miserable cries, the four rows of Persian spearmen in the front phalanx collapsed instantly, but then, the Persian spearmen in the second phalanx came forward.
However, they were the most ruthless phalanx targeted by archers just now. When they came up, there were not all the people and their morale was not very high. They only lasted for less than three or four minutes. After eight or nine of the thirty people fell, another It collapsed suddenly.
The drums sounded again, and the Persian spearmen of the third phalanx were ordered by military orders to pour in through the gap. They were behind and did not see clearly what was going on inside. As a result, they were dumbfounded as soon as they entered.
Where's the promised long-range shooter? Why are there so many crossbowmen on the opposite side?
Thirty well-stringed horn crossbows were pointed at these unlucky guys. At such a close distance, no matter what armor you have, you will never be able to withstand the combined fire of the horn bow crossbows, which are close to three stones of force.
The Khotan palace guards put down their spears and took up crossbows. Within two minutes of the third phalanx coming up, they dropped a dozen corpses and retreated.
"Kill!" As soon as the enemy retreated, the Khotan palace guards rushed out immediately.
The fourth wave of Persians in the phalanx were charged by their own people and then by the Khotan palace guards. They collapsed without engaging the enemy, which also caused the collapse of the troops behind them.
Six to seven hundred soldiers were kicked up and beaten by dozens of Khotan palace guards. Their helmets and armor were thrown away all over the ground.
'Ding ding ding! 'The sharp sound of gold and iron sounded, and the red flag indicating danger also wavered desperately.
The various fire chiefs and deputy fire chiefs began to restrain their soldiers and summoned these hot-headed soldiers back.
Because a large number of archers have been mobilized from the opposite side, especially the catapults have been prepared.
A rain of arrows came, and several hot-headed Yutian Tiaodang soldiers were shot into hedgehogs and fell outside the city. Most of them followed the instructions and slowly retreated into the gap.
As soon as they came in, whistling stones were thrown at them. Ma Jirong smiled proudly, and while calling the soldiers to avoid the stones, he asked someone to notify Guo Guangsheng and Guo Dalang.
This is just the Persians venting their anger. When the trebuchets are tired, they can continue to repair the East City!
"Pass my military order! Kill all officers above the captain of the third and fourth phalanx! Let Masudi prepare elite troops again. If we can't attack this time, I will let him attack by himself!"
There was a trace of murderous intent in Ali Duraf's eyes. He blasted open the city wall and couldn't get in, so why attack the city? You might as well retreat!
However, he was also a little confused, where did Balasagon get so many elite soldiers?
Ali Duraf knew very well about this kind of tribal alliance-style city-state. They could not obtain or maintain so many elite soldiers.
Even if the armor was left behind after Saktu retreated last time, what about the people? It can’t be that people are also from Saktu, right?
A soldier cannot be called a soldier just by putting on armor. From ancient times to the present, soldiers have been inherited and need to be taught by words and deeds and trained from an early age.
For example, how to distinguish the sound of horn drum, gold and iron? How to get in line? How to fight the phalanx? How to stand in Yanyue Formation? How to cooperate with multiple people? These need to be taught by someone.
Only those who have mastered these, honed their martial arts, and trained their bodies with unlimited rice and noodles every day and a large amount of meat can be called armored soldiers when they put on armor.
The most elite among them are those who wear several layers of iron armor and can fight intermittently for several hours. They are the elite armored warriors.
This is an extremely precious existence in any country. It can be said to be a strategic weapon, and its status is almost equal to that of today's intercontinental missiles and heavy bombers.
Currently, in the world, except for the Tang Dynasty, which was at its peak, there was no other country that could use martial arts and a large military aristocracy to raise two to three hundred thousand soldiers, equipped with iron armor.
Being able to recruit and fight is a very high standard!
The farmer who was pulled up in the field couldn't tell the difference between left and right. He was in a dilemma. He looked around in panic at the slightest sign of trouble. His breathing was like blowing a bellows after fighting for three to five minutes. Even if you put ten layers of armor on him, he wouldn't be called a soldier.
That's why the peasant rebel armies in history were so miserable when facing professional officers and soldiers.
Only when the elite members of the official army can no longer survive, or join with the idea of gaining wealth and wealth, can the peasant uprising army succeed.
This is also the reason why Goguryeo in those days was worthy of continuous conquest by the monarchs of the Sui and Tang dynasties, and also expressed the emotion that they should not leave their descendants behind.
Just because they have at least thousands of strategic weapons like this, so what if it makes them stronger?
Goguryeo must be uprooted from the state to the nation.
So Ali Duraf should be confused, because behind these soldiers, they must represent a country.
A combined group of religious figures like Balasagon and leaders of large and small tribes simply cannot cultivate such soldiers.
Could it be? Could it be that the defeat of Saktu was false news spread by the Karakhanids? Or was it the Jin Kingdom that he didn't know much about that intervened in this war?
However, Ali Duraf was no longer in the mood to think about this. As soon as the guards who passed the order walked away, thick smoke began to rise from the southwest of the army station, and there were noisy people shouting and horses neighing.
Ali Duraf felt as if he had been punched in the chest. That was where his army was hoarding food and grass. This must not be missed!
Reading with rice balls
"Quickly, raise my banner, Amir, and take my bodyguards and cavalry to come with me and have a look!"
Ali Duraf panicked. The grain route from Asbrai City to here was constantly being harassed. Several grain storage points and transfer points along the way were attacked and burned.
If this largest granary is lost, it will be over and the entire army will starve.
Bai Congxin was laughing wildly. He had never expected that the cavalry of the Saman Persian Kingdom would be so weak.
The equipment looks pretty good, but it's all fake and can't even form a slightly square formation.
The horses are all big-assed horses. They look mighty, but they lose their energy after charging twice.
When he first started shooting against himself, he was quite arrogant, but as soon as he rushed in, he immediately became panicked.
"Captain Li, another cavalry team has arrived. I will lead the Tiger General and two hundred men to hold down the formation for you. You charge at them and scatter them directly so that the Nestorian light cavalry can burn this granary."
Bai Congxin was finally able to command the three hundred Yue cavalry headed by the Hu family, because Zhang Zhao drove away Hu Wei and the thirty or so people who were close to him without mercy.
Huwei managed to get three beauties like flowers and jade, but the others were miserable.
All the property worth more than 20 guan was taken away. It is unclear how Queen Cao will deal with them when they go back. In this way, everyone who is left will be honest.
Hu Guang is more honest, because he knows what his father Hu Jile means.
What my father wanted most was to return to the rebel army with Zhang Erlang, because Hu Cile felt that Zhang Zhao had the ability to revitalize the rebel army. He wanted to follow Zhang Zhao back to be a "hero from the dragon", and later find a place to suppress and even suppress the rebel army. A high-ranking official like the governor of Suzhou should be considered.
As for Hu Guang himself, of course he has no objection. He also wishes that his elder brother would be defeated.
Because they were not born to the same mother, they had fought a lot since they were young. Especially when they were young, their eldest brother Huwei often bullied him.
Being driven away now suited him just fine.
