Han Hai Tang Ergui

Chapter 176

Dark clouds hung low, the cold wind was bitter, and the tragic offensive and defensive battle continued under the city of Balasagun. Although it was also a big city in the Anxi-Hezhong area, the city defense of Balasagun could not be compared with Shule at all.

Shule City is based on strips of stone, and the area below two meters of the city wall is all made of Sanhe soil. In addition, the fortifications such as urn city, moat, and horse face are complete.

It was built during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. It took [-] people from the four kingdoms of Anxi to enlist for three years, and it was expanded on the basis of Shule City in the Han Dynasty.

But Balasagon, this is a city that had to be built after Suiye Town built by Datang was destroyed in many wars. Its predecessor was just a satellite city of Suiye Town.

Neither the Sogdians who presided over the construction of this city nor the first Khan Pang Teqin of Karakhan later had the manpower and material resources of the Anxi Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty.
Therefore, Balasagun is not bad compared to small towns like Talas and Julan, but it is far worse than Shule.

What is even more worrying is that the Persians are not Karakhans. The Karakhans can't even make catapults, and the army is basically cavalry, which is extremely lacking in means of attacking fortifications.

Historically, they could not even move the infantry phalanx of the Khotanese, let alone attack the city.

That's why Balasagun could persist for four months, but the Karakhans would not attack the city, but the Saman Persians would!
Compared with almost purely nomadic countries like the Kara Khanate, the basic base of Saman Persia is actually settled.

Although there are many nomadic peoples in the country, the core areas headed by Bukhara and Samarkand belong to farming civilization.

To a large extent, this country is actually an enlarged version of Khotan.

Cold sweat dripped down Guo Xuanli's head, and he was glad that he followed Zhang Erlang's advice.

Zhang Zhao told him that the Persians knew how to make siege weapons such as trebuchets and rams, and asked him to find someone to cut down all the tall trees within ten miles around Balasagun, and set them on fire before they could be cut down.

Boom, there was a crashing sound. It was three Persian trebuchets bombarding the eastern city of Balasagun.

At this time, Balasagun had a natural moat, the Chu River, but the Chu River only flowed through the west and south sides, and the foundation in the north was very high.

Therefore, the east has become a low-lying area for the entire city defense, and the attacks on Bala Sagon have always been concentrated on the east.

At this time, the trebuchets in the east have been bombarding non-stop for more than an hour since this morning.

Even standing on the south side of the city, Guo Xuanli could feel the weak shaking of the east wall, and it was hard to say when it would be blown down.

"Guo Guangsheng!" Guo Xuanli called his eldest son's name.

"The last general is here!" Guo Guangsheng was wearing a leather armor. He is now the ten generals in charge of the mobile force in the city.

"Someone asked you to tear down the house to collect stones and wood, how are you preparing?"

"It's fully prepared. Madu Yuhou has also personally led the Khotan palace guards to the east city!" The corner of Guo Guangsheng's mouth twitched. He didn't realize that his father was also very cruel!

He directly demolished [-]% of the houses in the city, no matter if they belonged to ordinary residents or Ye Hu and Burke, whoever had more materials would demolish them, but the reputation of the Guo family also became rotten.

Seeing the twitching corner of the eldest son's mouth, Guo Xuanli patted his shoulder.

"On the battlefield, there is room for even the slightest kindness. You will also take two hundred Guo family children to Dongcheng for support in a while. If you can't defend Bala Sagon, everything will be abandoned, and you don't care about your reputation."

Outside the city, Ali Dulav also rode his horse to Dongcheng to command. The news from the Zoroastrians in the river was basically accurate.

For this battle, Ali Dulav recruited approximately 1000 people of God Warrior and 5000 people of Mustafa Army from Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent.

The core force is the [-] El Saliya in his own Tashkent province.

Mustafa is roughly equal to the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty. They are a very well-equipped army composed of small feudal lords and large and medium-sized landlords.

In peacetime, they organize themselves in the countryside to maintain order, and in wartime, they respond to conscripts, and they do not receive military pay, but after the war, some compensation will be given by offsetting the tax amount.

El Saliya is the standing armed force of the Persian Saman, which is equivalent to the recruitment of soldiers in the Ming Dynasty, and it is a regular local army that receives military pay.

These two types of troops, together with the Gulam Guards in important cities such as Bukhara and Samarkand, and the Iqta cavalry who surrendered to the nomadic tribes of the kingdom, formed the military foundation of the Persian Saman Kingdom.

However, because Ali Dulav's expedition to Balasagun and even the support of the Tianfang Cultists in Talas were all his private actions, there was no cooperation between the elite Gulam Guards and the Ikta Cavalry.

However, this also reflects the situation in Saman Persia, which is almost the same as the last years of Datang Tianbao!

The royal family in Bukhara can no longer control the generals at the border.

"Your Excellency Wazir, half of the Pagan East City has collapsed. The archers organized by the God Warriors have blocked the top of the city just now. They cannot send civilians to repair the gap. Soon the warriors will be able to rush in!"

Masudi, the general in command of the Left Army, rode his horse to Duraf and made a loud report.

Wazir is the name given to the prime minister of the Persian Samanid state. It usually consists of one principal, two deputy officers, and three people. However, in the late period of Nasr II's reign, Wazir was often awarded the frontier minister.

But it's just a name, not a real job. It's a bit like the meaning of a certain province and a certain minister in the Tang Dynasty.

Dulav nodded solemnly, and the big stone in his heart finally fell to the ground.

These damn pagans, they cut down and burned all the nearby trees that could be used to make tall equipment. As for the houses with a lot of wood, they have all been destroyed long ago.

This made Duraf's army have to transport timber from more than ten miles away to build trebuchets, which delayed at least ten days.

During the siege, the trebuchet smashed at a place, especially the city wall made of loess, which was easy to collapse, but after the collapse, the defenders would repair it.

However, it is necessary to pour earth and rocks down from the walls on both sides of the subsidence, so that it can be repaired in the fastest time.

Now, the archers of the Warlords have sealed off the top of the city, making it impossible for the pagan civilians to repair the city wall, so they should be able to attack soon.

Ma Jirong took a sip of water and ate a small piece of flax cake. It's not that they couldn't shoot at the archers outside, but there was no need to focus on shooting at them. More should be used wisely.

And the east city that is about to collapse is the blade, because the first to rush in must be the most elite part of the Saman Persian army.

Defeating them will deal a huge blow to the morale and confidence of the enemy army. As for those warriors who don't even have much leather armor, when the main force collapses, they can kill them casually.

"The capital Yuhou, the enemy army is about 700 people, all of whom are wearing armor. The first 100 people are equipped with an integrated bag-and-dun necklace and Persian chain armor, and they have already lined up outside the city!"

The scouts on the city wall who were in charge of spying on the outside situation ran over in a hurry, and Ma Jirong immediately threw the flax cakes under his hands into the rattan basket beside him.

"Put on armor! Put on armor! The spearmen are in front, the archers are on the low wall, and the jumping soldiers are holding round shields and short knives!"

The so-called low wall is a half-meter-high and half-meter-thick earth wall built by Ma Jirong behind the wall that was about to be bombed.

The purpose is to allow the archers behind to climb up, so that they can jump over their own hand-to-hand soldiers and shoot at the enemy's rear that poured in from the gap.

'boom! 'Just when the two sides were about to prepare, the East City Wall collapsed with a bang in the anticipation of everyone. After the dust filled the sky, there was a gap almost two meters wide.

'Hey!hey yo! '

'Hey!hey yo! '

The two sides also shouted similar slogans and began to approach, and every time they walked for a short distance, they had to pay attention to the distance between the left, right, front and back under the scolding of the officer.

It can't be too spread out, and there can't be some front and some rear, so the general officers are on both sides of the formation, which is convenient for controlling the formation.

This kind of battle formation of the regular army is not like the one in the TV series, howling and rushing over together. The way of rushing over is no different from giving away people's heads?

Ha ha!With a spear of four or five meters, you ran over with a single-handed shield, what's wrong?Think of it as a skewer or something?
After the dust, the Persians seemed to appear suddenly. They wore a kind of one-piece helmet that can completely protect the neck. The combination of this helmet and the neck is the ancestor of the later Chichak helmet.

The armor on the body is also a typical Dashi-Persian style, which is obviously different from the Chinese-style chain mail-ring chain armor.

The Khotan palace guards are equipped with a large number of Tang Dynasty armors, but although the craftsmanship is in the same line as the Tang craftsmen, the style is more similar to Tubo.

This is because when Khotan was restored to the country, the most armor obtained was the Tubo armor, which deeply affected Khotan's equipment.

There was a crackling sound, and the spear phalanxes of both sides began to touch, but instead of stabbing directly, they struck.

Both sides raised their three-to-four meter long spears and kept hitting the opponent's spearman's head, shoulders, and even the hand holding the gun. If anyone couldn't hold the spear in pain and the spear fell down, then wait for the end.

When the spears struck each other, jumping soldiers in light armor on both sides sneaked past the spearmen with short knives and round shields.

At this time, the spearmen were busy beating each other, and no one dared to lower their guns to stab the jumping soldiers below.

And constrained by the densely packed gun barrels above the head, the jumping soldiers fighting under the long spear array are even more cruel.

In order to bend over and walk, they can only wear light armor and hold short swords, which leads to a very close fighting distance and poor protection ability.

The shrill howls were mixed with screams. The spearman hadn't suffered any casualties yet, but the jumping soldiers below had already lay down by a dozen in an instant.

In this kind of fighting, it is almost a one-for-one exchange. You just killed the opponent in the previous one, and the next enemy will come up again. If you can kill another enemy, the third enemy will also come oncoming in the crowded situation. .

There is no time to rest, no time to hide until one side cannot bear to retreat.

The bloodiness of the cold weapon battle can be seen!
　Tomorrow the company organizes training, maybe just one update, I will add more codes on Sunday, and update on Monday and Thursday, [-] words will be added.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)