Chapter 949: Beigui Attack and Defense
Although Wei Yan suffered a crushing defeat, it was not a big deal for the Han army as a whole.
The loss was certainly painful, but moving Guan Yu to Wangshi City and advancing all the way back had already made the Kushans feel that they were under attack.
We cannot retreat at this time. If we retreat, I'm afraid Fu Jian's defeat will be repeated in an instant.
The two sides began to test each other and fell into a long confrontation.
Neither Zhuge Liang nor Rahul dared to act rashly and could only fight among themselves and wait for the opportunity.
Zhuge Liang was waiting for Guan Yu, and Rahul was waiting for Vasudeva I to mobilize another group of troops from the north to at least restrain Guan Yu.
Otherwise, Rahul was really scared, and while fighting, Guan Yu suddenly attacked from behind and pierced through the army.
He didn't know whether others had this ability, but in his eyes, Guan Yu definitely had this ability.
What made him feel most disgusted was that those Brahmins who took the initiative to join Guan Yu, when they were his teammates, only thought about how to hold Rahul back and how to bully him.
As a result, he went to Guan Yu's side, providing both manpower and money, as if he was ready to help the God Galan fight the Kushans to the death.
The reason is very simple. Those who blaspheme God should be punished.
Rahul was so angry that he wanted to vomit blood, but there was nothing he could do but wait.
Therefore, he needed someone to act as a force-reducing valve to break Guan Yu's momentum. Even if he lost, it didn't matter. He could then have a head-on battle with the Han Dynasty.
But Rahul didn't expect that what he waited for was Vasudeva's helpless reply. The north was also caught in the war. The Han army attacked the north through Parthia. The north could not spare any manpower to help him for the time being, and even had to withdraw Kapil.
But it's not all bad news. Rahul learned that Cecilien would cruise by sea and gave him some support.
This is a blessing in disguise for Rahul.
Rahul is now in a dilemma. He actually has a way to stop Guan Yu, or at least prevent Guan Yu from affecting the battle situation at the critical moment.
But the problem is, his method is to let Dawn go. With the current size and strength of the Dawn Legion, they cannot stop Guan Yu. If they go, they will just be giving away their heads. However, they can definitely stop Guan Yu and prevent him from intervening in the main battlefield.
But if that happened, he would have no more cards in his hand.
He couldn't feel at ease with only one legion talent left. After withdrawing the Dawn and the Imperial Scepter to fight against the Han Dynasty, he only had one obvious card, the Peacock, and one hidden card, the talent.
This was very difficult for a commander like him. He was not naive enough to think that the Han Dynasty really had no way to deal with Peacock.
So he simply kept his troops on hold and waited for first-hand news from Cecilien.
Compared to the painful and confusing Ganges side, the north is much more exciting.
Rome raised an army of over one million to attack Parthia, covering fifteen eagle flags, including the newly formed thirteen roses, fifteen fanatics, sixteen Knights Templar, seventeen angels, and four legions.
The purpose of this battle was to push the front line back to the vicinity of the mountains, at least to prevent the eastern provinces of Rome from being exposed to the Parthian army.
It has to be admitted that on the plains, the Parthian cavalry could indeed defeat the Romans.
The Roman legion, which was mainly composed of heavy infantry, was simply exhausted when facing the Parthian cavalry.
The Second Trajan Legion and the Fourteenth Combined Legion were still able to defend a bit and drive away the harassing rangers.
But the eastern province was so large that the two elite legions could not take care of it all. The two legions did not even dare to explore outside, for fear of being framed by the Parthians and beaten to death.
The eastern provinces were faced with the Parthian army almost every moment, the people were in panic, and the eastern provinces were almost deserted.
Rome endured again and again, and finally, on the basis of defending the northern border of Great Britain, it gathered a million strong army to prepare to retake the eastern provinces. They could no longer tolerate the sluggish situation in the eastern provinces.
That is a real loss, which is heartbreaking to see. The eastern provinces are quite wealthy.
The two sides began to fight over the eastern provinces, but overall Parthia was retreating in an orderly manner and Rome was advancing steadily.
These had little to do with the Han Dynasty. Judging from the speed of advancement of the eastern provinces, the two empires would have to fight for almost a year.
Yue Fei was preparing his troops and waiting for the fighting between the two sides to escalate, and then he would cooperate with Guo Hao and lead a large army to attack Huanglong and divide Parthia into two with Rome.
Before this, the Han Dynasty's focus was still on attacking the northern part of Kushan, which distracted Kushan's attention.
Taking the route through Parthia was indeed a very good strategy, especially after Fuward was severely damaged by an ambush set by Guo Ziyi and his overall defense was contracted, the Han Dynasty began to advance directly.
While the Kushans had no time to react, they won battle after battle, broke through several lines of defense, and began to threaten Peshawar.
Vasudeva I was not panicked, but he still cautiously transferred Kapil from the south and put him under the command of Arvind.
The Han Dynasty has already exposed three military spirits, so to be honest, he has to be cautious.
After all, compared with the vast strategic depth in the south, the north is too close to the front line.
But it was just a precaution. Any ninja who knew the terrain in the north knew that the Kabul Valley was enough to cause trouble, not to mention the mountain pass behind it.
Even though the map of this world has expanded tenfold, most of it has spread outward and inward, and the overall change is actually not that big. The dead ends are still dead ends, and the dangerous places are still dangerous places.
"Our army will be in place soon, and then we will head directly to Herat."
Cao Cao suddenly spoke up and said that the main forces of Cao Wei had basically arrived, including Yu Jin, Xu Huang, Li Dian, Le Jin and others who had been in Pamirs before, and now they had all arrived in the Saistan area.
The rest that had not arrived were actually the regular troops assigned to Cao Cao. After all, in order to catch Beigui off guard, Cao Cao chose to use speed as the priority, killing and killing all the way, relying on Xiahou Yuan's talent to march in various forced marches.
The regular army is much slower, but it won't take long for them to arrive here.
"We haven't established permanent defenses yet. If we advance directly, in case of failure, we will be easily chased and killed by the enemy if we retreat."
Le Jin said hesitantly that Cao Cao hasn't even built a residential area yet.
It is his usual style to plan for defeat before planning for victory.
"In order to blockade Herat," Xun You, who had been loading wood the whole time, suddenly said.
Xun You, the strongest assassin, finally followed Cao Cao into the war. In this kind of war, the more things the opponent can ignore, the greater the significance will be for the Han Dynasty.
"Yes."
Cao Cao nodded. Herat was the entrance to the Kabul Valley, and of course it was also the exit. Cao Cao's previous plan was to gain a foothold outside and then conquer the entire Kabul Valley step by step. But now Cao Cao felt that he might have made a misunderstanding.
"That's fine." Xun Yu nodded silently and said, "Our army must pretend to build a permanent settlement here, and then use our elite troops to attack Herat to have hope."
"It's difficult. Herat is one of the only three places on that road where we can stand firm and fight with all our might. The Kushans have already reacted after suffering a blow. It's impossible for them to be so careless in this regard."
Cheng Yu shook his head and said, "Besides, they are already prepared, and there are more elite troops being transferred over there. It won't be easy to defeat them."
This is actually the biggest problem in attacking Kushan from the north. There is only one road and one cannot move freely. It can be said that as long as the defender is not careless and relies on the terrain, the attacking party can only slowly grind down the enemy.
Theoretically speaking, with the inhumane terrain of Beigui, as long as the defenders are not careless, it will be a one-man-block-out situation for ten thousand. The problem is that for some guys, the moment you meet them, you are destined to ignore certain things.
That’s right, I’m talking about Xun You. Xun You’s spiritual talent can cover up certain things.
The covered things can be people, troops, or even strategic points, which makes people naturally ignore the covered things.
From a certain perspective, it is also an invisible halo of stupidity.
Especially in the first war, the effect was outstanding.
This is also the reason why Cao Cao and his men were so successful. Xun You’s strategic value lies in this. However, like Zhou Yu, he will be defeated except for the first time.
No empire would ever fall directly because of something like this. No one would be so naive.
However, after being exposed here, Xun You would immediately withdraw to the Pamirs to follow Yue Fei and cover up the fact of attacking Parthia.
"How much can it cover?" Cao Cao looked at Xun You and asked.
If a legion can be completely covered, the difficulty of attacking Herat will be rapidly reduced.
After taking Herat, the situation was no longer that the Kushans blocked the Kabul Valley and could attack Cao Wei at any time, but that Cao Cao blocked the entrance to the Kabul Valley, and the Setan area behind him was completely turned into a safe zone.
Even if there is no further achievement later, this move alone is enough to make the Kushans cautious. After all, the natural barrier is two-way to some extent. I can't get in, and it's not so easy for you to get out.
"I have covered a part of the legion. As long as we are careful, the Kushans are unlikely to notice it. But this alone is not enough." Xun You said expressionlessly.
"How about crossing over the Hindu Kush Mountains next to Herat?" Guo Jia said with a faint smile.
"After all, Herat is too far away from Peshawar, and the road is rugged. The logistical pressure is too great for the Northern Gui, so they won't have too many reserve troops. Eighty thousand should be the limit. Although it was claimed to be 200,000 before, even we wouldn't do such a thing." Guo Jia explained with a smile.
"If our army has a corps that can flip over and attack from behind, Herat can be taken in one battle!"
This was the fastest way for them to win that Guo Jia discovered after analyzing the intelligence.
Although the Kushan Empire had no shortage of food, it would collapse if it had to transport food through river valleys for 2,000 kilometers. More importantly, both the Helmand River and the Kabul River retained the unique river characteristics of Central Asia, that is, their carrying capacity was not large.
Under such circumstances, how crazy would the Kushans have to be to choose to deploy 200,000 troops in the outermost Herat to guard against Parthia?
It is simply impossible. Parthia can hardly protect itself if it takes the initiative to invade Kushan.
Then the Kushans would not mind joining forces with Rome. If Parthia had a clear mind, it would never do such a thing.
Just as the Kushans were in no mood to kill Parthia and face the Roman army head-on, everyone had their own concerns.
"The outer Hindu Kush Mountains are not too high. If we cross them directly, the height of 4,000 meters is not too outrageous. It is not too difficult to go around them."
Xun You said this half-estimatedly. In fact, this height was already very exaggerated. After all, what they had to cross was not a mountain, but a mountain range.
"Leave it to us. This height can be easily covered!" Hua Xiong thought for a moment and took the initiative to take over the task.
Fei Xiong, as a cavalryman who ignores terrain, has no feeling at all about crossing a few mountains.
"Flying Bear? That's a good move!" Cao Cao nodded. The method was very simple and the personnel were also suitable.
Although it is a bit easy to be exposed, with Xun You here, there is no need to worry about being exposed. However, blocking tens of thousands of Kushan elites is not such a simple task.
"If the Kushans are not stupid, the troops in Herat are more for testing. The real battlefield should be Kandahar. After all, crossing hundreds of kilometers of desert and then fighting the Kushans who are waiting in the oasis is indeed too dangerous." Guo Jia said rather disappointedly.
He didn't care about the difficulty of conquering the Herat area. Their biggest headaches were actually Kandahar and Kabul.
To be honest, he had a lot of strategies at the beginning, but when he actually arrived at this place and saw the Kushan response, Guo Jia gave up many of his plans.
The time, place and people are all favorable, and the other party has taken advantage of the location to the extreme.
Many things have lost their meaning in the face of such geographical advantages. What remains is a simple competition of national strength. It is basically a pipe dream to want to win. In any case, Guo Jia does not see any hope.
The news of the Han Dynasty's movements in the Settan region was soon received by Barak stationed in Hetra. Yes, Arvind brought all the elite Kushans and Barak stationed at the Khyber Pass to the Hetra region.
Arvind also knew that the battlefield was in Kandahar and Kabul.
However, it was indeed too dangerous for the Han Dynasty to cross hundreds of kilometers of desert and then fight against the Kushans who were well-rested in the oasis.
Arvind was not sure whether the Han Dynasty had the determination to advance. If the other side just took Herat and then started to defend it, it would be a huge disgrace for the Kushans.
It's like being slapped in the face and having to do nothing but watch. How frustrating.
So Arvind simply decided to keep the enemy out. He first transferred Barak to Herat for defense, and then as soon as Kapil arrived, he would send troops directly to fight the Han army.
He wanted to see whether all the people in the Han Dynasty were as fierce as Guan Yu, the God of Galan.
He was almost forced to death by Guan Yu in the past, but now he has regained the vigor and vitality of a commander of a large army, and is ready to weigh the weight of the Han Dynasty .
