The battle on the Penchi River front is now twenty-four days.
Malus stood about five hundred meters away from the Pench River, looking at the enemy and the enemy in a bit of a daze.
The fighting there was not fierce, it was the anti-Han axis that had just attacked again, and then the Han army's arrow rain was covered again and again, and more than 5,000 people fell four or five hundred people before they could fight hand-to-hand with the Han army, and the Han army in the rear, as usual, gave them hope, and they rushed up but were killed in batches by the Han army like slaughtering lambs.
When more than 5,000 people died and 7 or 800 people died, they had already collapsed, turned around and fled backwards and were washed by the rain of arrows of the Han army, and pieces of people fell halfway through the rout, and only more than 2,000 people were left alive to get out of the range of the Han army's bows and crossbows.
"The Han army hasn't used gunpowder on a large scale" Malus didn't really care about how many miscellaneous soldiers died, what he cared about was: "We know that the Han army is very strong, but I didn't expect it to be so strong." ” Before the war with the Han Empire, Rome had witnessed more than the victory of the Han army.
From the standpoint of the friendly side, the Romans could see the strength of the Han army, but it was difficult to experience more.
Now that Rome and the Han Empire are at war, and the two sides are on a hostile battlefield, Marus can be regarded as experiencing the helplessness of fighting against the Han army.
"Their bows and crossbows are too powerful" Elbata was just counting the number of troops lost, counting the more than 3,000 people who had just been lost, they had thrown in nearly 40,000 in just twenty-four days.
He recalled: "Hundreds of years ago, in the Xiongnu Empire, more than 100,000 cavalry went to besiege a Han infantry corps with no backup and no supplies, and it took several months to consume the arrows of that Han infantry corps and force the Han generals to surrender conditionally. ” The Persians have not recorded much or nothing about the Han Chinese, but there are basically some important accounts.
El Bata is talking about the old story of Li Ling's army, because Li Ling later became the king of Jiankun of the Xiongnu, and the Huns recorded the battle in its entirety.
The Xiongnu then fled westward, and a lot of information about how the Xiongnu Empire collapsed and how powerful the Western Han army was, was transmitted to those countries in Central and West Asia.
At that time, Parthia was being pressed to the ground by Rome, and it was urgent to find a strong ally, knowing that there was a strong country in the east, and trying to see if it could form an alliance.
The records of the Persians clearly state that the Parthian Empire at that time dispatched 20,000 men with heavy cavalry alone, and the rest of the inferior legions combined with 100,000 in order to welcome the envoys from the Western Han Dynasty.
Using 100,000 troops to greet a country's envoys, in addition to a super-high-standard reception, is nothing more than showing their strength.
The envoys of the Western Han Dynasty were confused about being greeted by the 100,000 troops of the Parthian Empire.
However, at that time, the Han people were in an absolute ascending period, and there was really no sense of panic, but I just felt that the Parthians were really neurotic.
Later, the Han received an alliance intention from the Parthian Empire, and the result of the discussion was that the Parthian Empire mobilized 100,000 troops just to welcome its own envoys, including 20,000 equipped heavy cavalry, and the enemies of the Parthian Empire must be stronger.
At that time, the entire Western Han Empire did not have a scale of 10,000 mounted heavy cavalry, and the mainstream of cavalry was the cavalry, and the number of cavalry was 350,000.
The Han people even believe that the Parthians are absolutely abnormal, the Western Han Empire doesn't even know who the enemy of the Parthian Empire is, and then the enemy of the Parthian Empire will not be weak, if that country provokes the Western Han Empire, it will definitely be scared, but even those people don't know who they are, how can they wade into troubled waters.
The Persians only have records that the Western Han Empire did not respond to the Parthian Empire's alliance, but they do not know that the Han Chinese of the Western Han Dynasty regarded the Parthians as psychopaths.
The Persians described the powerful and wealthy side of the Han people in their own history books, because the Western Han Empire did not wade into troubled waters and left a lot of thoughts, which became an obsession later.
"Our goodwill towards our alliance with the Han Chinese lasted for hundreds of years."
El Bata shook his head as he spoke, "I guess there's nothing more ridiculous in the world than this."
It is said that the Persians have good intentions towards the Han people, but they have encountered the almost undisguised malice of the Han people, which is not only sad from the perspective of the Persians, but also stupid.
Malus blinked, not knowing what expression to use to face a self-pitying Elbata.
The Persians had such "lovely" thoughts purely because of the great enemy that Rome had to face.
It is also because they have never had direct contact with the Han people at all, and after the repeated deepening of their obsessions, they will have wishful thinking because of the obsession.
In the history of the Romans' war with Persia, it is not uncommon for the Romans to do some seemingly beautiful things, but in fact they are extremely stupid, such as the over-reliance on barbarians in a certain period of time, which led to the tragedy of barbarian invasion.
It was difficult for both sides to completely knock their opponents to the ground with their own strength, and they really couldn't support it, so they had to choose foreign aid.
The Persians are okay, hundreds of years of obsession to the back is to find that they are wishful thinking, at least the Han people did not show hypocrisy, not first pretending to be friendly and then suddenly stabbing in the back.
The Romans first experienced the barbarian invasion, and later broke the restriction that the barbarians could not obtain Roman citizenship, and they were already reaping the consequences.
Malus asked with confirmation, "How many Han troops are there?"
"The Han army had almost no losses."
Elbata cleaned up his mood and frowned and said, "I don't see any signs of them increasing their troops, they are still two regular divisions and about 20,000 auxiliaries. ” This side of the pontoon bridge seems to be the main defensive section of the Han army, and the two regular divisions have not changed, but about 20,000 Han auxiliaries have been dispatched to each river section.
In the section of the river that would expose the riverbed in the summer, the Anxi Protectorate placed 20,000 servants from the Western Regions drawn from the rear, with 5,000 Han auxiliaries.
In other sections of the river, there are more than 3,000 people and as few as a few hundred people, all of which are arranged by Han auxiliaries and servants from the Western Regions.
The anti-Han axis came with nearly 300,000 troops, nearly 200,000 troops were stationed on the side of the pontoon bridge, and the rest were scattered to try to swim across the river.
It was some anti-Han Axis forces that managed to cross the east bank of the Pench River, only to be quickly either wiped out or redriven to the west bank, which also made Malus and Elbata discover that the Han army had a mobile cavalry force.
In the past twenty-four days, the Romans and Persians have only played once, not on a small scale, but they have been firmly blocked, and on both occasions the Han army also used firearms.
"The longer it drags on, the harder it will be" Of course, Malus didn't want the Romans to die too much, and he felt that since he had lost his suddenness, there was no need to attack: "We are waiting for the water level to lower, but the Han Empire will not be arrogant enough not to mobilize reinforcements." ” The Penchi River is so long that there is always no shortage of places for hundreds of miles to expose the riverbed after the water level has dropped.
At that time, they will not have to rely on swimming and will be able to wade across the river.
With such a long section of the river, it is not difficult to cross the river in the summer, but even if the river is scattered, the troops always need to be assembled, and the terrain of the western regions will inevitably have to engage the Han army head-on.
"We knew it was going to be a tough war, and there were enough Siri ready to fight a protracted war."
Elbata, or rather the truly sober Persians, were not naïve enough to think that by rallying the so-called anti-Han axis, they could really press the Han Empire to the ground and rub it, and they didn't even dare to think that they could destroy the Han Empire.
To put it in a rational way, they took the lead in forming an alliance with Rome and became one of the giants of the anti-Han axis, with the intention of telling the Han people not to try to take it, and they dared to fight hard.
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If things go in a good direction and the two sides fight in the territory of the Hungite, no matter how much blood is shed and how many people are killed, as long as the Han people can officially make the rest of the country sovereign and no longer want to plunder the whole world so naturally, in fact, the goal of the Persians and Romans will be achieved.
Even if it is a sacrifice of two million people, as long as the Han people can understand that the Persians dare to fight hard, in exchange for the respect they deserve, even if the Persians are victorious, they are even mentally prepared for the worst.
Once the matter reached the point where it was impossible to do anything, they worked hard and sacrificed, and their upper echelons would admit defeat in exchange for retaining some rights and interests, and continue to fight against the Han people in another way of fighting.
Don't think that the upper echelons of the Persians are brainy or naïve, they themselves are suffering from similar torture.
In fact, they are learning from the Arabs, and if they can't fight a regular war, can't they let ordinary people as many as grit destroy and play suicide attacks They don't believe it, the Han people can withstand that kind of endless attacks, willing to occupy a land where people are rebelling all the time, maybe they can use this method to drag down the Han Empire, and those upper echelons will jump out to get back the lost rights when the time comes.
The Romans did not know what kind of mentality the Persian upper echelons were fighting this war.
What they saw was that the Persians were putting on a posture of desperate old age, not only mentally desperate, but also the Sassanid Empire was mobilizing the whole country as it had announced, and it didn't seem to be playing fake at all.
To be reasonable, the Romans were happy to see the Persians desperate and were willing to make the necessary investments to do so.
Constantius squeezed out the already small amount of finances, formed ten new legions, and mobilized twenty Roman legions and nearly 200,000 vassal races, and marched eastward.
This move of Rome is very sincere, that is, the sincerity of the Romans will reach its peak here.
They have their own things to do, except for continuing to build coastal inner lines at any cost, investing the necessary funds in research on a new generation of warships, and there are no longer any scruples about shady things.
"It's already at war."
Malus said as a matter of course: "Of course, you will use whatever means you can use to obtain gunpowder." ” People all over the world are serious about getting gunpowder and are willing to pay any price for it.
In the past, they did not dare to tear their faces, and refrained from using those methods that would pay a lot of money.
Since they are already at war, there will still be so many scruples to talk about, so naturally they will do everything.
The Romans and Persians are different from the Han in terms of appearance, and those who want to play infiltration or something are limited by this aspect, and they really can't play.
They had already bribed some Han Chinese a long time ago, usually as spies, and they had used a batch before, but they did not achieve any decent results.
"Stand back."
"We're afraid we'll not be able to get through until summer comes," said Marus.
With the pride of the Han people, they will not tolerate us being in their sight, and there is a high chance that they will take the initiative to come. ” Although Elbata felt very unwilling, he agreed to Malus's suggestion.
On the side of the Han army, Li Kuangdu was already considering whether to take the initiative to withdraw the division on the other side of the river and let the enemy cross the river.
"Do the aliens know about half-crossing and attacking" Song Ping hesitated a little about Li Kuang's thinking: "They will cross the river" "If you don't try, how will you know" Li Kuang didn't know how many reinforcements there would be in the future, and tended not to exceed three standing armies at most: "The number of enemy troops is too much, once summer comes, we will be more passive." ” The Penchi River can be used as a natural hazard, but it is not the Yangtze River after all.
The Han people should not know as much about the Penchi River as the anti-Han axis, in such a section of the river for hundreds of miles, which is almost full of holes, even if the strength of the Anxi Protectorate is increased to four standing armies, plus 70,000 or 80,000 Han auxiliaries and 200,000 servants of the Western Regions, it is still stretched in the face of hundreds of miles of the river.
On the other hand, the 200,000 Western Regions Servant Army will be a help, and it may also become a threat.
In fact, Li Kuang really understands that the people of the Western Regions have reached the verge of breaking out, and he may not be able to drag the forcibly conscripted people of the Western Regions to the battlefield, but should send them to China, and choose to kill them if they are cruel.
"Duhu, the enemy army is shrinking its forces, and there is a movement to pull out the camp."
The new information made Li Kuang slightly stunned.
He personally went up to the arrow tower and used enough height to look out and find signs of retreat from the enemy.
"We have an advance base on the other side," Song Ping said with a strange expression, "Even if they want to attack halfway, they can't do it."
As long as the Han army on the west bank is not wiped out, it is equivalent to the Han army controlling the pontoon bridge, and there is no possibility of being attacked by Bandu.
During the battle, the enemy used some tricks to destroy the pontoon bridge, but the water flow in this section of the river was too slow, and the speed of the logs that were lowered down the river was not fast, and when it reached the pontoon bridge, it would only form floating objects, and there was no impact force at all.
Even if the enemy drops the ignition of the raft from the upstream, it can be easily intercepted because of the slow speed.
The pontoon bridge was firmly controlled by the Han army, but the enemy army clearly wanted to retreat, which made Li Kuang a little confused for a while
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