The Province of Asia Minor was a place occupied by the Great Qin Empire fifty years ago. The rule of the Great Qin Empire was not very stable there, so Liu Xin chose this as the entry point for attacking the Great Qin Dynasty. But judging from the current situation, the Great Qin Empire had long been prepared and had already deployed heavy troops there.
The Great Qin Empire has always been the top priority of the Foreign Intelligence Service, but after all, they have limited manpower and cannot have Han faces, so they can only concentrate their main forces around Rome, and the situation in other provinces is not very good. .
On the other hand, Caracalla also strengthened the information blockade. The six legions he sent to Asia Minor were all mobilized in secret, and the Foreign Intelligence Service did not know their movements in advance. In this sense, Tuobajun's accidentally hitting Daqin by mistake was not entirely useless, at least it exposed Daqin's deployment.
Tuobajun suffered a disastrous defeat in Asia Minor, and the 40,000 army finally escaped with more than 3,000 people, but Liu Xin was not afraid of a head-on confrontation with the Daqin army, and this battle would come sooner or later. However, Liu Xin didn't plan to confront the Daqin army right now, he needed a perfect victory to defeat Caracalla's arrogance. And the most perfect victory is to completely wipe out the 400,000 Great Qin Emperor ** team concentrated in Asia Minor Province.
Liu Xin immediately issued an order. The 160,000 infantrymen of the First and Second Army were divided into four formations, and with the cooperation of 20,000 heavy cavalry, they began to advance to the territory of Daqin.
After this army of mixed infantry and cavalry entered the Province of Asia Minor, it changed from the previous style of being extremely fast and advancing very slowly. The strategy they adopted step by step, steady and steady. Every time a town is conquered, this army of nearly 200,000 people will stop, first build a defensive position, and then start searching for the nobles, officials at all levels and soldiers of the Daqin army in the town and the surrounding villages.
Naturally, these captured people could not escape the fate of being ransacked and annihilated. They were charged with slaughtering innocent big Han merchants. Killing pays for life is justified, but among them, only a small group of people actually participated in the massacre of Han merchants, and most of them were wronged. The purpose of the Han army, of course, was not to hunt down the real murderers, but to check the property of these people. The Province of Asia Minor was not a very wealthy place in the Great Qin Empire, so the property copied from these people's homes was not worth a few dollars, but the food was extremely precious to the Han army, which could greatly relieve the pressure of logistics transportation. , This is Liu Xin's strategy of fighting to support war.
However, the Han army did not harass ordinary people in Asia Minor.
In Daqin, the people were divided into three classes, nobles, free people and slaves. Later, when Putimius was in power, he put the army into the privileged class. Putimius has a famous saying that allows soldiers to live a good life and leave others alone. It is precisely because of this Xianjun policy that the army of the Great Qin Empire can be so brave and invincible.
However, this also brings a problem. No matter how many privileges the original aristocratic class enjoys, the number is limited after all. Now there is a huge military class with privileges, and the burden of ordinary freedmen and slaves has also increased.
Now that Caracalla and Geta are in power together, the number of troops in the Great Qin Empire has almost increased by half, while the burden of ordinary people has more than doubled. Although the interior of the Great Qin Empire was calm on the surface, Liu Xin believed that there must be conflicts between ordinary people, nobles and the army.
Liu Xin from later generations knows that people’s hearts are terrible, and he also knows the truth that water can carry a boat can also overturn the boat. Of course, he has to make full use of this contradiction in Daqin and express his attitude through practical actions, only targeting Daqin nobles and the army. , Without infringing upon ordinary people. If the Han army really robbed the ordinary people of Daqin together, it would inevitably arouse the common resistance of Daqin people. In that case, no matter how strong the fighting power of the Han army is, it is impossible to use hundreds of thousands of horses against the tens of millions of Daqin soldiers and civilians.
On the other hand, Liu Xin has never considered expanding Dahan's territory to the whole of Europe. After all, the language is different, the race is different, and there are thousands of mountains and rivers apart, even if this land is knocked down, it will be difficult to maintain long-term rule. Liu Xin's purpose of sending troops this time is to avenge the innocent Han merchants who have suffered, the second is to show the might of the Han army, and the third is to weaken the power of the Great Qin Empire.
According to the analysis of later historians, in this historical period, Dahan, Daqin, Parthia and Guishuang were called the four great powers. In fact, among these four countries, only Daqin and Dahan can be called powerful countries, and the strength of the other two countries is far from them. As long as Liu Xin can defeat and severely inflict Da Qin’s main force this time, the Han army will become the most powerful army in the world, and the Han Dynasty will become the most deserved power. Countries including Da Qin will naturally be in awe of Da Han. Heart, without the need for occupation as the purpose.
Of course, all these are just Liu Xin's good wishes. Whether it can be realized or not depends on the outcome of the battle in front of him.
The Han army quickly executed the captured Daqin nobles, officials, and soldiers, but instead of dividing their property and women among the local people as in Parthia, they only released the slaves and divided the land equally.
However, it was just such a news that spread to the Daqin army ahead, which also caused a lot of shock.
Both Karakala and Getta wanted to legally obtain the throne of the Emperor Qin by defeating the Han army, so they expanded their armies so that the army of the Qin Empire grew to 24 legions of 1.2 million people in a short period of time. The formation of such a huge army is of course to prepare for the Eastern Expedition.
Later, both Caracalla and Getta adopted the suggestion of Yu Yi and adopted the strategy of waiting for work. However, such a huge army has been formed, but it cannot be disbanded at will. Moreover, these troops are loyal to Caracalla and Getta respectively, and no one will actively weaken their strength.
And when forming these legions, it also brought a new problem. In the past, the main legions of the Great Qin Empire were organized in provinces, and most of the soldiers in the legions came from the same province. But in the last war to invade Parthia, the Daqin army suffered a head-on attack from the Han army, and several legions were tragically destroyed. Therefore, in the newly formed legion, the geographical boundaries were broken, and the soldiers of the same legion often came from several provinces.
Of the eight legions stationed in Asia Minor, six belong to Caracalla, and two are subordinate to Getta. Almost all of the eight legions were newly formed, and many of the soldiers' homes were in Asia Minor. In the few towns that had just been lost, there were family members of these soldiers. From there, the news came back that their homes were confiscated by the Han army, their property was confiscated, their land was divided, adult men were beheaded, women and children were being used as slaves, and it was said that they would be sold to the far east.
Knowing this situation, the soldiers became confused and asked their respective officers to fight. The soldiers whose hometowns were captured by the Han army naturally wanted to rescue their families, and those soldiers who had not yet been occupied by the army in their hometowns also wanted to take the initiative to prevent their families from encountering the same bad luck. In other words, Liu Xin's policy of differentiated treatment actually caused the soldiers of the Da Qin army to share the same hatred and united feelings, and wanted to drive the Han army out of their territory.
In fact, Liu Xin had guessed the result from the beginning, but he had no choice. The Great Qin Empire implemented the Xianjun policy. Even if he did not take this extreme approach, the army of the Great Qin Empire would still be highly loyal to their leader.
However, what Liu Xin did not expect was that the chaos of these soldiers put a lot of pressure on the frontline commanders. Caracalla acted steadily. His combat policy was to attract the Han army as far as possible, and then take advantage of the local combat location to wipe out the invading Han army in one fell swoop. But it doesn't work anymore. Once the Han army moved forward slowly, it only marched for more than 30 miles a day, and nearly 200,000 people gathered in a group, making it difficult for frontline commanders to find opportunities to rely on geographical advantages. Secondly, the soldiers were very angry, and if they didn't take the initiative to attack, it would be troublesome if a mutiny was triggered.
Caracalla and Getta are both in remote Roman cities. The news here has to pass, and it takes at least ten days to come back and forth. If these generals attacked rashly, they would be suspected of violating Caracalla's orders. But if they continue to hold on to their troops and allow the Han army to erode their territory bit by bit, it will be difficult to persuade the soldiers under them that they will still bear the blame in the event of a mutiny.
The generals of the major legions, and even the generals of the two major legions under Geta gathered together, discussed it overnight, and finally decided to take the initiative to attack.
As dawn broke, the two armies of the Great Qin Empire, the Silesian Army and the Egyptian Army, appeared in front of the defensive positions of the Han army.
The former commander of the Silesian Legion, Noric, was stabbed to death by Ma Chao a few days ago, and the new commander Alani wanted to pass this battle. Although the commander of the Egyptian Army is Kraus who lives in the city of Rome, most of the soldiers come from the three provinces of Arabia, Egypt and Syria, adjacent to the province of Asia Minor. They are very worried that the Han army will continue to advance. Invade their hometown. Therefore, the morale of these two legions is high, and they are advancing very quickly.
When there were five hundred steps away from the Han army’s position, the Silesian Army and the Egyptian Army stopped unanimously, because the opposite Han Army’s position was silent, and there was a weirdness that made Alani and Klaus both Some flustered.
Suddenly, there was a muffled sound in the distance. Accompanied by a sharp howling, several huge boulders flew in the air, one of which hits directly around the phalanx of Silesia, and the others are scattered around the phalanx. .
This is when the trebuchet of the Han army started a test attack. After adjusting the drop point of the stone bullet, more stones will fall. The nightmare that once made Caracalla linger, once again tested the nerves of Daqin soldiers.