Daqin Engineering Corps

The advantage of cavalry over infantry has never been a face-to-face assault, even if the cavalry is as strong as Mongolia.

Of course, Shen Bing would not make this mistake and defend the city without using the mobility of the cavalry to gain the initiative.

If Shen Bing went to guard the Lan clan at this time, then the next situation would return to the previous situation... Qin Jun was sealed in the Lan clan city and could not move.

The strength of the cavalry lies in maneuvering, and the result of maneuvering is a time difference.

It took Akaifus two days to bring the main force of Seleucid to reach Lanshi City, but it only took two days for Shen Bing to bring the cavalry.

At this time, even if Akaifus found out the problem and knew that Shen Bing had rushed back from Huo Musang immediately, it would take ten days.

This left Acaevus with a big problem:

Should we continue to attack the Lan family or rush back to Huo Musang for reinforcements?

If you continue to attack the Lan family, you may be able to capture it.

Because the troops attacking the Lan family consisted of [-] Seleucid troops, [-] Anxi troops, and [-] Dawan troops.

Among them, the main force is still the Seleucid army. Their trebuchets are more advanced than those of Anxi and Dawan.

It should be said that this trebuchet has its own advantages and disadvantages from the original trebuchet in the Central Plains.

The torsion trebuchet is small in size, light in weight because it does not need a counterweight, and requires few people, but its lifespan is not long, and the stone projectile it throws is only 23 to 79 kilograms, and the range does not exceed 150 meters.

Compared with the torsion trebuchet, although the original trebuchet in the Central Plains had the disadvantages of large size and weight and required a large number of people, it could throw a 120 kg stone projectile to a distance of 170 meters.

Once Shen Bing changed it to a counterweight trebuchet, it was much better than a torsion trebuchet.

Under such circumstances, the Lan clan guarded by Guilu had only [-] Lan clan soldiers and less than [-] Yue clan cavalry, so it was very difficult to defend the Lan clan.

The problem is... If Huo Musang is captured by the Qin army, what's the point of Akaifus' capture of Lan's?

The reason why Akaifus wanted to attack the Lan family was to drive the cavalry like Shen Bing to a desperate situation or drive them out of Central Asia.

If Huo Musang is occupied by the Qin army... then the large amount of materials and armaments stored in it for the Eastern Expedition may be enough for the Qin army to use for a year.

More importantly, Seleucid is the empire that dominates this area, and it has always been the only one that beats others and no one else beats it.

Now if the Qin army captures a city, the influence on Seleucid will be too great.

Taking a step back, if Akaifus captured the Lan clan and the Qin army captured Homusang, then the Lan clan defended by Akaifus would actually be an isolated city separated from the territory of Seleucid, surrounded by Anxi and the Great Wall. Like these countries that are vassal states in name but actually have crooked intentions.

If one is not good, Acevus will be wiped out by these "subject countries".

Therefore, it is definitely not worthwhile to exchange one city for another.

As for rushing back to Huo Musang for reinforcements, it doesn't seem like a good idea either.

Because Shen Bing has won ten days, Qin Jun only needs to capture Huo Musang within these ten days... Akaifus has no power to recover.

Shen Bing believes that Huo Musang can be captured within ten days.

This is not only because the Qin army has artillery that can blast the city wall, and it is not only because Shen Bing has transferred the main force of Seleucid away from Homusang, but also because he learned from the Seleucid captives that the Seleucid king Antiochus III In Huomusang.

The king could have boosted the morale of the generals in Hom Sang, but as soon as the king escaped... it would have the opposite effect immediately.

Shen Bing believed that Antioch III would flee.

This is because the king is afraid of death, not to mention that there is such a large group of leaders in Seleucid, and they don't need to live and die with him in Homusang.

The other is because Qin Jun has artillery in his hands.

Antiochus III had never seen the power of artillery, so he would definitely panic when he saw it now.

The last point is that Shen Bing adopted the tactics of "surrounding the three in one".

That is to surround three sides and deliberately let go of one side.

This meant that Antiochus III had a chance to escape.

Under these circumstances, can Antiochus III not escape?

Shen Bing expressed doubts.

The facts were indeed as Shen Bing had guessed.

At the beginning, Antiochus III was very confident in defending Homusang.

Because although Antiochus III was surprised that Si's army could attack Homusang, he always thought that Si was a barbaric country...

Back then, Alexander the Great also thought that other than the Greek civilization, they were all barbarians. It was not until he destroyed Persia and captured the Persian nobles that he had to admit the existence of Persian civilization.

Today's Antiochus III also has this kind of mentality, because he doesn't know, so he takes it for granted that he looks down on the world from the height of civilization.

In fact, it might be good if Antiochus III really maintained this mentality, because only by looking down on him would he not feel afraid and believe that he could guard Homusang, so he would not choose to run away.

Therefore, after Antiochus III learned that Huo Musang was surrounded, he stood on the high platform with confidence and joked to the soldiers and civilians below:

"I heard that barbarian cavalry surrounded Homusang!"

"This is great! We have been looking for them for a long time, and we didn't expect them to be here!"

The soldiers and civilians let out a burst of laughter.

Antiochus III continued:

"Our general, Acaevus, must have taken the lairs of the barbarians and made them homeless."

"So, the barbarians have come to take revenge on us!"

"We shall see the corpses of these savages, strung on spears, and lying in pools of blood!"

"We use their blood to make them understand that this is the land of Seleucid, this is Homusang... this is the city of the rising sun!"

Antiochus III is indeed the king of a country, he is very provocative, and the soldiers and civilians below cheered like chicken blood under his encouragement.

At this moment, there were several "boom boom" explosions outside the city, which instantly suppressed the cheers.

The soldiers and civilians looked in the direction of the sound in panic, some thought it was thunder.

But soon, there was another burst of "boom boom".

Only then did the soldiers and civilians know that it was the Si people who were attacking the city, but no one knew what the explosion was.

Antiochus III didn't know either.

Then a guard came up and whispered something in his ear.

Antiochus III was startled, looked at the guards with disbelief on his face, then said nothing, retreated from the high platform, and walked along the steps towards the city wall under the protection of the guards.

When I came to the city wall and looked down, I saw a few solid shells whistling with the sound of the wind, and then "boom boom" hit the city wall several times.

A large piece of stone on the city wall was shattered and peeled off, and a small hole had already been smashed.

"Why don't we fight back?" asked Antiochus III. "Where are our trebuchets?"

"Your Majesty!" the guard replied, "They are 300 meters away, and we have nothing to hit them!"

Only then did Antiochus III realize that what the captain of the cavalry had said before was correct, that the people of the Silk Kingdom did have firearms that could shoot iron balls.

Chapter 5 and Eight

Antiochus III didn't care about it at the beginning, he thought that the city wall could block the attack of these iron balls.

He even said lightly:

"Look, their iron balls can't get past our walls!"

The guard reminded:

"Your Majesty, the target of these iron balls is probably the city wall!"

"They attack the middle and lower part of the city wall."

"As long as the time is long enough, the city wall will collapse."

It was only then that Antiochus III realized the seriousness of the problem. His previous confident and proud smile had long since disappeared, replaced by panic and unwillingness.

Perhaps in the eyes of the guards, fear is only this kind of firearms and the silk army.

But in the eyes of Antiochus III, he was afraid of another civilization, a civilization that might be higher than Greek civilization...

If silk is just a handmade product, then the firearm in front of me is a technology, and it is also a technology that can be used in the military, a technology that does not exist in all Hellenistic countries.

As the saying goes, "the higher you climb, the harder you fall".

The shock it brought to Antiochus III was unparalleled.

How much Antiochus III looked down on the Silk Kingdom before, how embarrassed he was now.

After thinking about it, Antiochus III pretended to be calm and ordered:

"So, what are you waiting for?"

"Call the troops, we are waiting for them at the gap!"

The guard responded and went to deliver the order.

Soon, groups of ultra-long spearmen formed a phalanx behind the city wall and waited in full force.

But Antiochus III thought about it, and felt that it was wrong to do so.

Because if a gap is opened in the city wall and your own troops are behind the gap... then the Si National Army only needs to continue firing iron balls, will the troops be smashed to death row by row without any resistance?

At this moment a guard rushed to report:

"Your Majesty, many of our troops have escaped from the West Gate!"

This is the effect of Shen Bing's siege and sanjue.

The words of Antiochus III may be able to deceive the people, but they cannot deceive the Seleucid soldiers who are better informed.

They have known for a long time that Acaevus was defeated by the silk army instead of "destroying the barbarian lair" as Antiochus III said...

Akaifusi even sent people to Khomusang for rescue, and a primary phalanx sent from Khomusang was to reinforce Akaifusi.

Then, the soldiers will consider another question:

"Why did the Si Kingdom army appear here to surround Huo Musang?"

"Does that mean that Akaifus and the reinforcements have been completely defeated by the Si Army?"

"Acaevus has [-] troops, and then sent [-] reinforcements."

"In other words, the [-] army was easily defeated by the Si army!"

"So can Huo Musang's [-] troops defend?"

At the beginning, the soldiers were still a little hesitant. After all, they couldn't figure out how the Si National Army defeated Akaifus.

When the Si National Army started shelling, they understood... This kind of long-range and powerful firearm, the iron balls fired can even blow down the city wall, how could the Phalanx be its opponent?

It was also found that there was no siege by the silk army to the west, so several cavalry officers deserted.

The officer ordered the city gate to be opened on the grounds that he was going out of the city to perform a mission, and then fled away on horseback.

Qin Jun neither pursued nor stopped them, allowing these deserters to flee.

Wei Sanjue must let them escape.

Because if an enemy escapes and intercepts or even chases and kills them, then the people in the city will know that this is not a way to survive, so they will stop escaping.

Now the soldiers guarding the city saw that they escaped so easily?

So one by one was ready to move.

Then a few more soldiers followed, and then more and more, and soon even the common people joined the fleeing team, and soon it was out of control.

Antiochus III was shocked, and only then did he realize that the first thing he wanted to plug was not the gap from the outside, but the gap from the inside.

He hurriedly ordered the guards to close the city gate and sent troops to guard it.

However, the morale of the city's defenders suffered as a result, including Antiochus III.

After thinking about it in the palace, he felt that it was not worth dying here, so that night, Antiochus III disguised himself as a soldier and secretly left the city from the west gate under the protection of a team of guards.

As usual, Qin Jun still did not intercept them and let them leave.

It's not that Shen Bing didn't want to catch the king, but they didn't even know that the king was among them.

But having said that, it seems useless to capture the king, Seleuci needs to be replaced by someone else, so Shen Bing is not very interested in it.

Under the cover of blocking news and guards, Huo Musang's army and civilians did not realize that the king had fled first, so they were still sticking to Huo Musang.