Great Zhou Empire: Kill Zhao Kuangyin at the beginning

Chapter 358: Battle of Bekara (Special thanks to book friend 2022…5448 for 2 monthly tickets!)

Jingsheng and other five corps of the Longxiang Army marched rapidly from Gaochang to the city of Bekara. After resting and replenishing supplies for a day in the two major cities of Talas and Basharagun, they arrived ten miles east of the city of Bekara at 9:00 p.m. on September 28th, the 27th year of Kaixi.

Because the city of Bekara was surrounded on all sides by the Star Cult coalition forces, the 4th and 8th Corps of the Longxiong Army in the city had difficulty transmitting information, and the news Jingsheng and others received was only from a month ago.

Jingsheng passed the order down, and the five major corps set up camp and prepared food, waiting for the Longxiang Guard who was accompanying the army to come back from inquiring about Bekara's military situation.

At noon, when the entire army was having a hearty lunch, dozens of Dragon Guards who had gone out to scout last night came back on horseback.

The leading captain walked quickly into the commander's tent and saluted Jingsheng, saying:
"Report to the commander-in-chief, we have already investigated the situation of the battle in Bekara City:

The Star-Religious coalition forces surrounded the city on all sides and attacked day and night. The Samanid army attacked the west gate, the Black Arabs attacked the east gate, the Ghaznavids attacked the south gate, and Khwarezm and other small countries attacked the north gate.

On the top of the city wall, our brothers from the 4th and 8th Corps of the Great Zhou Longxiang Army are still fighting hard and artillery fire is continuous, but it can be seen that the number of people is sparse, and there are ruins everywhere on the city walls.

From my humble observation, the armies of these Star Religion countries all have "Huihui Cannons", which should be because Ali has already informed the manufacturing technology to these countries.

Among the enemies on all sides, the enemies at the northern gate of Khwarezm and other small countries are the weakest. "

Among all the generals, Jing Sheng, the commander-in-chief of the Third Corps, and Guan Lin, the commander-in-chief of the Seventh Corps, who had led their troops to conquer the Karakhanid Khanate, were naturally the most familiar with the combat style of the army of the Star Religion country.

Jing Sheng pondered for a moment and said:

"The Star Church is good at bewitching people. Their army is different from that of other enemy countries. If their weaker armies are annihilated, they will not be afraid or retreat. Instead, they will be inspired by their doctrine to avenge their fellow believers and fight even harder in battle.

Therefore, this governor decided to first attack the black coat army, which is strong and located near the east gate!

We must concentrate all the "Yansu Artillery" and "Tiger-Dent Artillery" of the five major corps, and take advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness to inflict heavy damage on the Black-clad Arab Army in one fell swoop!"

All the generals responded loudly and prepared to set out as soon as the army finished lunch.

The Longxiong Guards followed the army and advanced all the way. After quietly clearing out the enemy scouts wandering around with the Divine Arm Bow, the army quickly advanced to a place about four miles away from the east gate of Bekara City.

The five thousand artillerymen of the army's one thousand "Yansu Cannons" looked at the position of the Bekara city gate, analyzed the current wind direction, and adjusted the muzzle position and height.

At the same time, under the command of officers at all levels, five corps and 450,000 soldiers had formed attack formations in front of the artillery array.

After the entire army spent half an hour preparing, the commander-in-chief Jing Sheng gave an order, and thousands of "Yansu Cannons" roared almost at the same time, and thousands of shells whizzed towards the black-clad Arab army under the city of Bekara.

Hearing such a huge series of artillery bombardments, Cao Bin, Yang Ye and other soldiers from the 4th and 8th Corps of the Longxiang Army on the top of Bekara City were overjoyed. They knew that after more than three months of bloody battles to defend Bekara City, they finally received reinforcements sent by Emperor Chai Zongxun!

After three months of bloody battles, the Fourth and Eighth Corps had lost more than half of their troops, leaving only 70,000 soldiers, of which more than 3,000 were wounded. The Star Religion coalition led by the Samanids suffered nearly four times the casualties of the Great Zhou, with a total of 410,000 troops.

However, the Xingxing Sect coalition forces are ten times stronger than the Zhou army. If the war continues, it is estimated that the two armies of Cao Bin and Yang Ye can only hold out for two months at most before their forces are exhausted.

In the past, it would take an army more than five months to march quickly from Bian Jing to the Central Asian land of Basharagun. However, the construction of the Great Zhou Straight Road has greatly shortened the entire journey by two months, even though only the section from Bian Jing to Zhangye is currently open to traffic.

After several rounds of fierce bombardment from the thousands of "Yansu Cannons" from the five reinforcement regiments, the unsuspecting black-clad Arab army suffered heavy losses, with tens of thousands of soldiers killed in an instant.

The shell hit the enemy's formation, bouncing all the way, killing several soldiers in a row before its potential energy gradually dissipated.

The commander of the Black Arab army was Amir Kunsalan (the highest commander of the army, equivalent to the Grand Marshal of the Great Zhou Dynasty). Seeing that his side had lost so many soldiers in an instant, without giving it much thought, he immediately led 150,000 main forces to the east to meet the enemy, leaving only 80,000 plate cavalry to continue the siege.

In terms of military system, the Caliphs (kings) Mamun and Mutasim of the Black Caliphate created a slave army in the early 9th century, marking the initial formation of the Mamluk system (military slavery).

The army of the Black Caliphate Dynasty was divided into two parts: the standing army and the volunteer army. The standing army was hired by the government with monthly food and salary payments. Its main components were infantry, cavalry and archers, and the core part was the king's guards.

The Abbasid Caliphate also established a complete intelligence network consisting of post roads, post stations and intelligence personnel. The dynasty attached great importance to the use of carrier pigeons in military affairs.

The distance of more than two miles was passed in a flash, and Kunsalan saw that there were thousands of "Yansu Cannons" deployed on the ground in front of him, and a formation of about 60,000 Great Zhou soldiers were guarding in front of the artillery array.

Kunsalan was furious and said:

"It's these damn Zhou army artillery that attacked our army! The enemy soldiers are only about 60,000. Warriors, charge forward and kill them all!"

The 150,000 black-clad Arab cavalry rushed towards the Zhou army on the opposite side with the sound of thunderous hooves, but the front row of the Zhou army slightly dispersed to both sides, revealing nearly a thousand much smaller tiger squat cannons in the front row of the army.

The two gunners of each tiger squat cannon fired at the black-clad Arab army that had rushed in 5 meters. Suddenly, iron balls, iron nails, iron thorns and other objects flew through the air like a net, filling the air and densely hitting the enemy troops rushing in the front row.

Amid screams, the enemy soldiers, although protected by plate armor, were still hit by iron beads and other serious internal injuries in many parts of their bodies. They vomited blood and fell off their horses.

Amid the noise of troops and horses, hundreds of thousands of Great Zhou troops suddenly emerged from the north, south and west, and surrounded Kunsalan and other 150,000 black-clad Arab troops tightly. Each of the three armies also had hundreds of tiger-crouching cannons, and after the artillery was deployed, it immediately fired fiercely at the black-clad Arab troops.

Being ambushed on all sides, the black-clad Arab army immediately fell into chaos. Seeing that they suffered heavy casualties under the bombardment of the Zhou army's tiger squat cannons, the soldiers no longer listened to their superiors' orders and scattered to attack the Zhou army in various places, trying to escape.

The 3,000 tiger-crouching cannons carried by the five major corps of the Longxiong Army showed their power in this battle, quickly harvesting the lives of enemy soldiers at close range. After almost one round of artillery fire, tens of thousands of enemy soldiers were killed.

More than an hour later, when the Samanid monarch Mansur sent his generals to the east gate for reinforcement, the 150,000 troops led by Kunsalan had been completely wiped out...

(End of this chapter)