Daqin Engineering Corps

The whole battle lasted for more than half an hour, and ended with the Qin army capturing the northern walled city.

Shen Bing directly set the city on fire, and then asked all the soldiers to return to the city... The advantage of owning the city is this, you can go back to the city to rest at any time, and then counterattack again after recharging your energy.

And the next counterattack will not be a small test of skill like now.

Chapter 522 Catapult

After Shen Bing won the battle, he immediately wrote a letter to Lan Shi, asking Fusu to take Princess Ziyang back to the sandbar.

Unexpectedly, Fusu's pedantic Confucianism came up again at this time. He wrote back and said:

"Knowing that the general is deeply encircled by the enemy, how can Fusu ignore the general's danger and return alone?"

"Don't talk too much, general, Fusu will advance and retreat with the general."

"The general can just let go and fight in Huomusang, Lan's own Fusu will take care of it!"

Shen Bing couldn't laugh or cry when he saw these words, Fusu didn't know that he would not be able to help in the Lan family, but would make Shen Bing restrained everywhere.

But Shen Bing knew that if Fusu believed that Huo Musang was in danger, no amount of persuasion would help, so he didn't say anything more.

What Shen Bing didn't expect was that this move was wrong and wrong, otherwise it would really be a bad thing.

Of course, Shen Bing didn't expect Princess Ziyang's bewilderment among them.

At this time, Princess Ziyang is enjoying herself in the Lan family:

"As soon as I arrived at the front line, I received the battle report of the front line's victory, and I won more with less!"

"Shen Bing really deserves his reputation."

"But what is that matchlock gun?"

"Why have you never heard of it before?"

Of course no one can answer this question, because the arquebus is a secret weapon, not everyone knows about Huo Musang, let alone Lan's.

But Princess Ziyang immediately understood:

"It must be something new invented by Shen Bing again, wait for this princess to go and have a look!"

As she said, she was really going to Huo Musang, if Fusu hadn't stopped her, she would have thrown herself into a trap.

Therefore, when Shen Bing sent a letter asking them to return to the sandbar, how could Princess Ziyang agree, and she spoke a bunch of righteous words to Fusu, which only made Fusu stunned for a while, and naturally did not agree in the end.

The Seleucid coalition forces were in chaos.

Although this battle did not shake the foundation of the Seleucid coalition forces, it frightened the generals such as Marcus and Hector.

In this battle, the national army won more with less and killed more than [-] Roman soldiers at a very small cost.

The arquebus victory must have come at a small price, since they did not even make contact with the enemy.

If there is any loss, it is that the javelins thrown by the Roman soldiers injured several people, and the heavy cavalry and light cavalry suffered some losses when chasing down the enemy.

And all these losses add up to no more than a hundred people.

But what really scares them is the fact that a new weapon, the "arquebus", appears on the battlefield and enters their field of vision.

Marcus found Hector immediately:

"I think you already know, General Hector, the Si people are much stronger than we imagined!"

Hector nodded solemnly. His eastern position was right next to the battlefield. After the battle started, Hector took his subordinates to the battlefield to watch the battle, so that he could prepare himself for facing the enemy in the future.

Therefore, he witnessed the whole process and of course knew the terrifying weapon of the Si National Army.

After thinking about it, Hector said:

"We can be fooled, Marcus!"

Marcus froze for a moment, then reacted:

"You mean that Acaves knew this?"

Then Marcus shook his head:

"No, I don't think so."

"If he knew that the Si army had this more terrifying weapon, he wouldn't have thought that we could surround Huo Musang."

Hector frowned and said:

"Perhaps this is exactly his purpose, let us die here, and he went to attack Lan's City to cut off the supplies of the Si people."

"I guess, the equipment of the Si people must be transported, such as those things that emit smoke."

That smoking thing Hector was talking about was gunpowder.

This is the right idea, because iron products are not uncommon in Central Asia and Europe at this time, and can be supplemented on the spot.

But gunpowder is something that is not available here, so the army of the Silk Kingdom should be transported from the Central Plains.

This is related to the supply problem.

So Hector's hypothesis can be established: Akeves knew the danger, but deliberately let the Roman and Macedonian troops consume some gunpowder here, while the Seleucid army did a safer job: The enemy's supplies are finally reaping the rewards.

Marcus hesitated, but he quickly thought of a way:

"We should have Acaevus back, Hector!"

Hector immediately understood the meaning of Marcus's words, he nodded and said:

"Yes, we should let Akaifus come back to face the immediate crisis together!"

So Arcafs received a message.

In fact it was not intelligence, but an indictment:

"You lied to us. People in the Silk Kingdom have more than just firearms that can throw big iron balls 500 meters away. They also have an individual weapon that fires small iron balls that can penetrate shields and kill those behind them. Soldier!"

"If you and your army don't come back to meet the enemy, then Homesang will be handed over to Seleucid!"

Along with the letter came a bloodshot iron bullet.

Acaevus took a look at the iron bullet, and felt that this battle was not as simple as he imagined.

In fact, if the enemy has this kind of weapon in their hands, they should attack the Lan family in two ways to cut off reinforcements and supplies that may come from the Central Plains.

But the current situation made it impossible for Akaifus to do so.

Because they doubted the command and true intentions of Akefs, if they did not return to Homson to join the battle...the Roman and Macedonian armies are likely to withdraw from the battlefield, and then Ptolemy will follow, and the alliance will end collapse.

This was unacceptable to Acaevus, because it meant that Seleucid would face the terrifying Silk Kingdom army alone.

So without any hesitation, Akaifus ordered: "Return to Homusang."

Akaifus joined the ranks of Huo Musang's siege that night, and he personally explained to several generals who came:

"I swear we didn't know the enemy had this kind of equipment before!"

"In fact, we still don't know. The only thing I know about it is this iron ball."

As he spoke, Acaves took out the iron bullet he had received.

"So, what are you going to do?" Hector asked. "I mean how do you solve this problem? The enemy can easily shoot our soldiers from a hundred meters away, but we can't do anything about it."

Acaves thought for a while, and replied:

"Maybe, we could build trebuchets, lots of trebuchets."

This kind of defensive thinking is correct, because if the enemy's arquebus lined up to fight the Seleucid coalition forces, the long-range range of the trebuchet could surpass the infantry and kill the musketeers.

The problem is... Shen Bing's Musketeers are not just infantry, they are also cavalry.

Chapter 523 Slave

The purpose of Shen Bing's previous battle with the Roman Legion was not just a small test of skill, but another purpose was to let the Seleucid Allied Forces treat the arquebus soldiers as infantry, preferably phalanx infantry like the Seleucid Allied Forces.

The next action of the Seleucid coalition forces told Shen Bing that they had been fooled... Shen Bing found that the Seleucid army was concentrating on rafts to build trebuchets.

Needless to say what the purpose of doing this is, of course, I hope to use the trebuchet to deal with the Musketeers.

If the musketeers are infantry, especially phalanxes, trebuchets might be a good idea.

Because the Seleucid allied forces can put the infantry in front, the trebuchet behind, and then use the stone bombs of the trebuchet to cover the infantry's charge.

It is conceivable that as long as there are enough trebuchets, the firepower of the Musketeers will be suppressed, and then the infantry will take advantage of the momentum and rush into the Musketeers to have a good time.

Shen Bing waited in Huo Musang for two days.

These two days were purely waiting for information, for information from the Seleucid Command.

Shen Bing has analyzed the situation of the Seleucid coalition forces.

This is a coalition led by Seleucid, and it is still commanded by Seleucid.

It is very difficult or even impossible to defeat them all, even if Shen Bing has a matchlock gun in his hand.

The reason is that the Seleucid coalition forces have a total of 15 people, and after deducting the 14 cavalry who underestimated the enemy, there are still [-].

And most of these armies are ultra-pikemen and Roman heavy infantry who restrained cavalry.

However, the Qin army only had [-] cavalry troops, and at the same time, the people of Huomusang inside were still eyeing and rebelling.

The people of Homusang are not Greeks... As I said before, they are the Central Asians after Alexander conquered Persia, that is, the modern Iranians.

Moreover, Europe was still in a semi-feudal and semi-slavish state at this time: although there were many free citizens, there were still a large number of slaves and gladiators without personal freedom, and the conquered Central Asians were even more inferior and oppressed by the Greeks.

The first thing Shen Bing did after entering Huomusang was to announce the liberation of all slaves and give them freedom.

At one point, Huo Musang cheered and supported the Qin army.

However, people's hearts are actually very fragile and easy to change.

The reason is that everyone is afraid of death, and will secretly measure the severity.

Before that, it was the Qin army that defeated the Seleucid army. The people of Homusang thought that the Seleucid army was over, and at the same time, the Qin army could give them freedom, so why not do it?Of course support the Qin army.

But now, when more than [-] troops of the Seleucid allied forces surrounded Huo Musang, at least in the eyes of the common people, they thought that the Qin army was in danger at this time. liquidation?

So the anti-Qin forces were mocking and surging again.

In just a few days, two large-scale organizations attempted to break through the city gate to welcome the Seleucid allied forces into the city. Fortunately, Shen Bing discovered it in time and rushed to destroy it in front of it.

The reason why Shen Bing was able to discover it was not accidental, but because Shen Bing firmly grasped or united the slave class of Huo Musang.

What Shen Bing did to them was not just as simple as liberating them.

If you just let them go free, it is not enough to make these slaves or gladiators "dedicated" to the Qin army.

Although the slave class has had enough of Seleucid's oppression, enslavement and even abuse, they also have a problem: they have become accustomed to submitting to the Greeks and obeying their will, and subconsciously believe that as long as they disobey their master's order, they will die , even painful death.

So Shen Bing also said something to these slaves when he set them free:

"I want you to understand that when you break free from the shackles, there is no turning back."

"You can only stand by our side."

"Otherwise, one day the Seleucid army will fight back, and you will be slaves against their will!"

"You know what's going to happen."

"So, you either stay here and wait for the Seleucid army to come back, or you stand by our side with all your heart."

This statement is very convincing.

Because all the slaves know what will happen to the Seleucid army when they come back... Even if they don't die, they are still slaves.

So they had no choice but to stand with the Qin army and hope that the Si people would win the war.

It worked.

Because the total population of Huo Musang is more than 6, and there are more than [-] slaves, which is more than one-ninth.

Moreover, as long as the people in Huomusang have more than some financial resources, that is, people or businessmen who are capable of organizing large-scale operations, there are many slaves under them.

After these slaves regained their freedom, they could get a lot of news based on their connections and the familiarity of their original owners.

Shen Bing's ability to extinguish those two rebellions was the slave's secret.