Tumeng: I am a national advisor in the Golden Family

For three whole months, the Western Expedition Army launched attacks day and night, set up cannons outside the city, and cut down a large number of trees to make catapults.

Hundreds of giant catapults were made, and under the operation of these European Crusaders and some Mongolian and Han troops, they launched a massive bombardment on Baghdad.

The boulder was wrapped in cotton cloth and then poured with kerosene. After it was ignited, its power was actually not much less than that of a bomb, and it was even more lethal.

Zhang Dingxia now understands why the Mongolian army always likes to use catapults in battle. This thing is indeed very useful.

In the absence of heavy artillery and explosive packs, this thing is the best engineering weapon, there is no other!
"Fire, fire harder! Brothers, attack this city, they are out of ammunition and food!"

A Templar commander waved his sword and commanded his subordinates to pull the catapult to attack the distant city of Baghdad.

Boom boom, there were continuous rumbling sounds, and the walls of Baghdad were already in ruins at this time.

Countless walls collapsed, and nearby residents suffered heavy casualties. The entire outer city of Baghdad had fallen twice, and the Crusaders had led their troops in rushing in several times.

But they were all driven out by the tenacious Baghdad defenders, who burst out with very powerful fighting power.

However, during these two sieges, Zhang Dingxia did not order the entire army to launch a general attack. Even some Han army generals and allied generals were puzzled as to why a general attack was not launched.

If a general offensive had been launched, the city would probably have been captured a month and a half ago.

At this time, the Western Expedition Army was in the military camp outside the city of Baghdad, and Zhang Dingxia was holding an internal military meeting. Only some important allied generals and Han army generals attended the meeting.

"Second Prince! Your Majesty, I really can't understand why we have been attacking for so long.

We completely rely on the Crusaders. We can just fire some cannons and send out our flying magic weapon troops to harass them." A Han army general said.

As long as these Han troops and allied forces were dispatched, it would not be difficult to capture the city with the cooperation of the musketeers, Mongolian cavalry and swordsmen.

"Yes, Second Prince, why don't you launch a general attack?
The fighting power of the Crusaders is not very good. Look at how they fight. There is no command system at all. Soldiers just charge at random with swords. There is no rules at all. "A Mongolian general also said.

"Hahaha! I know you're all wondering why I didn't launch a general attack. We could have captured this city a month and a half ago, so why did we wait until now?

Prince Hulagu! Do you understand why I am doing this?" Zhang Dingxia asked with a smile.

"Second Prince, do you want to preserve your strength and weaken the combat effectiveness of these Western Crusaders?" Hulagu said after thinking for a moment.

Hearing this, a group of Han soldiers and Mongolian generals nodded. This is indeed a statement. It is hard to say whether these Western Crusaders will be of the same mind with them in the future!
"If the Second Prince wants to guard against these Western Crusaders, there is no need to do so! If street fighting breaks out in the city, it will be the best opportunity to consume them, and if they dare to rebel.

We just have the chance to deal with them. We have recently seen the fighting power of these guys." A Han army general said.

Isn't it? These Western armies have no fighting power at all. When they fight, they have no rules and regulations, no matching battle formations, and the only ones who can be considered as elite are the knights of the Knights Templar.

But the number of these people is extremely small. They can play a big role in plain battles, but if it is a siege battle like this, then they will not be of much use.

"Hahaha! This is just one point, and it's not the most important one. You should have discovered that the Caliph of Baghdad has sent envoys many times to other countries to seek help. And I have always ordered you to deliberately let them go." Zhang Dingxia said with a smile.

"Second Prince, I understand. You want to gather all the coalition forces of the YSL Sultanate together and then destroy them directly in the wild, right?" Guo Kan asked.

If that's the case, it makes sense! No matter which army it is, no one wants to fight in a city defense battle. After all, a city defense battle is a battle of attrition.

Although the Western Expedition Army carried the most advanced gunpowder weapons in the East, logistics would be very tight as they had to use these gunpowder weapons every time they arrived at a large city.

It has been two and a half years since they set out on the Western Expedition. This year is the third year, and they have only half of the gunpowder they brought with them. You know, the shells used by these heavy artillery are all made in factories in the East, and there is no way to make such weapons on the land of Khwarezm.

The Daqian Empire has taken the best possible confidentiality measures for gunpowder weapons, but even so, some information may still be leaked, so this most important artillery shell casting process will be completely carried out domestically and will never be spread abroad.

Every time a shell is fired, it is consumed, and it takes at least one or two years to transport it to the rear.

"If all the armies of these sultanates can be gathered together, then I will have a chance to wipe them all out at once," said Zhang Dingxia.

"Second Prince, what you mean is that destroying the enemy's vitality is our ultimate goal. This city is now within our grasp. We have surrounded it and turned it into a dead city. We can capture it at any time." Guo Kan said.

"This is just my personal idea. I have been sending out scouts to explore the surrounding areas. I want to see the Ayyubid Dynasty or the Egyptian Dynasty.

Even the Sultanates of Rum and Delhi will not send reinforcements to rescue their suzerain states, but now it seems that things are not as we imagined. "Zhang Dingxia said.

According to some reports from the Assassin Corps, in the court struggle in Egypt, Sultan Al-Akbai of Egypt had an absolute advantage, and Al-Akbai was a staunch supporter of the Caliph.

He had promised many times in the court and even in front of the people that he would lead his soldiers to rescue the great caliph and would not sit idly by.

At that time, Zhang Dingxia judged that the Queen of Egypt would most likely be killed, and the Sultan of Egypt would bring his army to rescue the city of Baghdad.

If we can destroy Egypt's active army, it will be of great benefit to us. It is a sure-win deal.

That's why Zhang Dingxia didn't capture the city of Baghdad. He was waiting, waiting for the Sultan of Egypt to come to the rescue, otherwise he would capture the city himself.

If the Sultan of Egypt were halfway there and found that the city he was trying to rescue was gone, he would definitely turn around and leave.

"Second Prince, in that case, let's let these European Crusaders continue their attack. Catapults and boulders are free anyway, and they are everywhere outside the city." A Han army general nodded and said.

Soon, all the allied generals and the Han generals stopped talking nonsense! Every day, they would occasionally bring out heavy artillery and bombard Baghdad, letting the European Crusaders take the lead.

In this way, the two sides fought a tug-of-war for nearly a month. The soldiers in Baghdad had suffered heavy losses, and even the food in the city had been eaten up. Now, it has been four months since Baghdad was besieged.

The Caliph sat in the palace in great distress, covering his head with his hands. The palace was in chaos at this time, and loud noises were heard from outside the city from time to time.

The Mongols' flying weapons, giant catapults and heavy artillery would occasionally visit the buildings in the city.

Even those flying weapons would bombard his magnificent palace. Such weapons that could fly into the sky were impossible to defend against, and as the Caliph.

His palace was extremely luxurious. It was built in the most central and dazzling location in the entire city. It was like a golden pearl that could be seen from the sky at a glance.

The caliph was finally forced into a corner and had to hide in the basement, thus escaping the disaster.

As for his previous palace, every time the Mongolian army deployed flying artifacts, they would fly over and throw a few explosive packs around.

"What's the latest news? When will the Egyptian Sultan bring reinforcements? We have been holding out for more than four months, and it will be almost half a year." The Caliph asked. Recently, he couldn't sleep at night, worried that the Mongolian heavy artillery and the weapons dropped from the sky would blow him to pieces.

"Caliph, I think the Egyptian army should have set out by now. As long as we hold on for a while, the Egyptian army will arrive. By then, the Mongolian army, which has been attacking the city for several months, will be extremely exhausted.

When the time comes, you will lead our soldiers out of the city and join forces with the Egyptian army, and we will surely inflict heavy damage on the Mongolian army." A prince and minister stood up and spoke.

This is the most ideal opportunity and the only chance. If this plan fails, then they will be really finished.

"These bastards from the Ayyubid dynasty actually refused to offer me help and even asked me to hold out for more than a year. They actually watched me, the great caliph, suffer the siege of the Mongolian army for a year." The caliph said.

It makes me angry just thinking about it, but the Sultan of Egypt is sensible. He knows that his status as the Caliph is extremely noble and is willing to help me.

After the Ayyubid sultan had managed to survive this crisis, he would immediately depose him and then support a local noble, or arrange for a Baghdad noble to become the new sultan.

Saladin, once a great hero in the YSL world who liberated the holy city of Jerusalem, and his descendants have now become corrupt.

"Please hold on a little longer! Great Caliph, it will take some time for your reinforcements to arrive here. During this time, we must defend the city."

"Yes, great Caliph, although the Mongols' attack was fierce, our soldiers were determined and our people were willing to support us. Some even went to the city walls to help us defend the city, build walls, deliver food, and treat the wounded."

"The only problem now is that there is not enough food in the city. I want to know how long our food will be enough to keep our army well fed?" asked the Caliph.

The ministers in the palace had assured him that the food in the city was more than enough to feed the army for two years, so there was no need to worry about food running out. There were also a large number of wells in Baghdad, so there was no need to worry about the water source being cut off by the Mongols.

But now only four months have passed. Yesterday, a minister came to tell him that they were running low on food.

The great Caliph was very puzzled by this, so he immediately ordered his guards to send several special personnel to investigate, but he made a shocking discovery.

That is, the official who prepared food and logistics was actually a corrupt official. He kept saying that he had prepared two years of food, but in fact the food he prepared could not even last for half a year.

Under normal circumstances, the Caliph would turn a blind eye to such corruption. How could there be no corruption in a dynasty that had been established for hundreds of years?

But now is a time of war! Before the Mongols came, he had already ordered his subordinates to prepare food, but he didn't expect that his subordinates and ministers would still dare to cheat.

"Great Caliph, if we supply food to the soldiers according to the previous standards, then our food can only last for fifteen days at most. After fifteen days, our soldiers will lose all their food." The official who was previously responsible for calculating food stood up and said with a sigh.

“But the problem is that according to the original plan, it will take at least two months, or even three months, for Egypt’s reinforcements to arrive.

"Tell me, what are my warriors going to eat in the next two months? Do you want them to eat Mongolian shells and boulders?" the Caliph asked.

“If all else fails, we can slaughter all the cattle and sheep in the city and make them into military rations. We can ask ordinary people to pay for some of these cattle and sheep. After all, our soldiers need to be well fed to defend the city.

At the same time, we should also collect some of the food stored in people's homes, and everything should be mainly supplied to the soldiers defending the city.

Let’s let those women, old people, and children starve for a while!” said an official with a sigh.

There is no other way. This is a special period and we can only resort to this last resort. The news of the Mongols' attack was reported more than a year ago.

So at that time in Baghdad, the residents had already started to store food, and now every household still has some surplus food.

"You can only let the ordinary civilians suffer. You go and tell all the civilians that this is the will of the Caliph, this is the will of Allah, and they must execute and obey it."

The Caliph nodded and said.

Next, an extremely bloody scene occurred in the city of Baghdad. The Caliph's army began to loot some of the people's food, confiscated all their cattle and sheep, and searched out all the remaining food in their homes.

"Please, leave us some food. Without it, my family and I will starve to death." A woman wearing a headscarf and covering her face knelt on the ground and begged the soldier. She hoped that the soldier would leave the only bag of food in her family.

"This is the order of the Caliph!" The soldier sighed helplessly, but finally made up his mind to take away the last bit of food from the family.

Before leaving, they took away all the cattle, sheep and other livestock in the house, including several goats and cows that were so hungry that their bones were visible.

"Ah! Wuuu! Great True God, how can our family survive? How can I raise my two young children and support my mother?" The man knelt on the ground and said in great grief.

“You can join in the defense of the city. As long as you are willing to join, you can receive a ration.

You can eat half of it yourself, and give the remaining half to your wife and children. Although it won’t fill them up, it will keep them from starving to death.” The soldier who was about to leave turned around and said.

The Caliph also had an order, which was to recruit as many middle-aged male laborers as possible. During this period, the Western Expedition Army from the East and the crazy attacks of the Western Crusaders had caused them heavy losses, so they needed some middle-aged laborers to defend the city.

"But my son had already gone to defend the city. He died in battle half a month ago."

"Then it's your turn. Come with me, or you and your family will stay here and starve to death."

Seeing this scene, the male host nodded helplessly, said goodbye to his beloved wife, and left with her.

That day, Zhang Dingxia was in his camp, looking at the city map of Baghdad given to him by his uncle.

The map of Baghdad given by his cheap uncle is still very useful. At least now the Western Expedition Army is well aware of some basic conditions in the city.

At this time, outside the tent, a soldier from the assassin army rushed over at full speed and then knelt on the ground.

"Second Prince! The coup in Egypt is over."

"Really? Mr. Aikebai, has the Sultan sent reinforcements? Have their reinforcements already set out?" Zhang Dingxia asked.

"Second Prince! The Sultan of Egypt, Ekbai, has been killed, and now the one who controls the entire Egypt is Queen Pearl Twig." The assassin leader knelt on the ground and sighed.

"What? Pearl Twig won?"

The Egyptian queen completely ruined her own plan because the other party, like the Sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty, had no intention of supporting the city of Baghdad and would not send Egyptian troops at all.

"But the queen was immediately driven out of Egypt." (End of this chapter)