When Guan Hai went all out to reach the eastern part of the Caspian Sea, Aldashir had also led the main force to Herat. At this time, Barak had received an order from the city of Herat, which was the dead hand in advance. Barak didn't feel anything special either.
Sooner or later, the city will not be able to be defended, but it must be defended in the early stage to buy time for the deployment of Kandahar. By the way, in the order Barak received, Cao Cao had already described Kandahar and Oswin in detail, so Barak I also know how far I want to go.
From this point of view, Cao Cao still trusts Balak. After all, in terms of ability, Balak has blocked Cao Cao for a long time, and in terms of relationship, the two are son-in-law, so Cao Cao still quite trusts him.
"It will probably take another six or seven days for the reinforcements to arrive. The good thing now is that the vanguard of Ardashir is the cavalry." Barak looked at the military affairs in hand and felt inexplicably a little unskilled. In the past two years, he had handled these It can be said that things are easy, but since we have the princess, who cares about these things? The power is not as important as the princess. This is the original intention of Guishang for hundreds of years!
"This is nothing." Gumara nodded and said, "The city of Herat itself is easy to defend and difficult to attack. If our legion just sticks to it, Aldashir has no good solution. After all, no matter what he does, No matter how powerful the cavalry is, they cannot be used in siege battles. The only possibility is for the opponent to bypass Herat."
For other legions, if they directly bypass the city nodes and attack the rear, they are likely to be caught by the enemy and cut off their food and grass. However, if it is Aldashir, the opponent's maneuverability and combat effectiveness will most likely be guaranteed to launch operations behind enemy lines. Combat.
"Sikong has already informed us about this matter before." Barak nodded, "Xiahou Miaocai's side should also be well prepared, and after all, it is a desert terrain. No matter how powerful the Holy Death Cavalry is, it is actually of no use. .”
San Shao is very powerful, very powerful. His combat power is so strong that he can definitely compete with the Holy Death Cavalry. As a result, if there were not a large number of martyrs who took refuge in San Sha, San Shao might still be playing in the desert with Fulward and others. Woolen cloth.
No matter how powerful the cavalry is, there is a limit. It is too ridiculous to eat the terrain. No matter how strong the Holy Death Cavalry is, Xia Houyuan cannot beat it in the desert terrain. He can just switch to another battle. Besides, Xia Houyuan's normal legion talent can greatly increase the marching speed and distance. However, the Holy Death Cavalry was disgusting enough to kill the enemy, so Barak didn't panic at all as to whether the reinforcements would be beaten.
"Then let's defend now. After all, things are not as good as before." Gumara nodded after hearing this. Before, he might have chosen to fight to see if he could splash Aldashir's blood or something. But now , it is better to be cautious, and no mistakes are merits.
Therefore, when Aldashir arrived in Herat, Barak had already blocked the city gate holes with huge stones, and all kinds of defensive equipment, regardless of whether they were useful or not, were piled on the city wall.
"Where is Barak!" Ardashir is not a fool. The vanguard of his troops are all cavalry, and the infantry will not arrive for several days. If he attacks the city now, he will definitely die, so he will conduct psychological warfare first.
"My general said, if Ardashir comes, let me tell you. He is not on the city wall, and don't talk to him. He is appeasing Princess Qinghe." After Ardashir's roar was transmitted to the city wall, A centurion stuck his head out and answered Ardashir.
After hearing this, Ardashir felt a mouthful of old blood stuck in his chest, unable to spit it out or swallow it.
"As a general, if you don't want to serve your country, how can you be a general when you are so affectionate as a son and daughter when facing a battle!" Aldashir had originally prepared a strategy of alienation, but decisively changed his tone to let others stationed on the city wall. The soldiers felt unhappy with the plan.
"Ah? Is there something wrong with you?" The centurion lying on the city wall looked at Ardashir below with a ghostly expression, "Herat can fall, but nothing will happen to the princess. Ardashir, you This is looking down on our centuries-long cherished wish of Beigui. Stop gossiping and quickly pick up your guns and fight."
Although Balak went to appease Princess Qinghe and no one patrolled the city, the soldiers guarding the city in Beigui were very calm and even thought it was natural. If the city is gone, it can be rebuilt. If the princess is gone, then it will be completely destroyed. No more, who doesn’t know which one is more important?
Ardashir was in trouble and didn't say anything. He had heard before that Bei Gui was crazy and had invested hundreds of thousands of people for a Han Dynasty princess. He had taken it as a joke before, but now, Ardashir I guess this is no longer a joke.
Even the ordinary soldiers at the lower level believed that the princess was the most important. It was normal for these people to vote. Thinking of this, Aldashir had to sigh. Sometimes, some seemingly useless things are really It's quite emotional.
However, these two sentences also prove the fact that, not to mention the people in Herat, the soldiers are definitely united and fighting for the princess in the city. This is definitely a trouble.
"The situation is exactly as we expected." Tavasdes sighed.
"We were prepared for this when we came. Barak, Gumara and others who are in charge of Herat are actually not easy people to deal with. They have jurisdiction over Herat, and those who infiltrated are also not easy to deal with. It is unlikely that they will do anything nefarious." Ardashir said with a calm expression, "So our target was not Herat from the beginning."
Tavasdes nodded. The plan was made by him and Ardashir together. He was not very good at the detailed practical operations of military strategy, but he was still very good in terms of strategy. After all, in the official history, Ardashir Hill's strategy for managing the world was his own operation.
By the way, Tavasdes was not actually inclined to take action against the Han Dynasty, but the situation after the natural change made Aldashir see some possibilities. Tavasdes did it because of the pressure from Aldashir. came up with this plan.
Of course, pressure is pressure. Tavasdes also admitted that this time is indeed very good. The plan is a bit risky, but if the plan succeeds, many situations will change. Kandahar is in hand, and Aldashir is at least cut off. bondage.
As for the only shortcoming, I am afraid that Ardashir cannot be completely self-sufficient in food and grass, and needs to be provided by Kushan. However, a relatively weak force, and both sides need to join forces to keep warm, is comparable to forces such as the Han Dynasty and Rome. It's too much to deal with.
Therefore, from the beginning, Tavasdes's purpose was not to capture Herat. Strategically speaking, this was a very risky plan. If it were Cao Cao, a mature middle-aged man like Liu Bei would never do this. plan.
But for Ardashir, he was in a young and aggressive period, and he didn't believe that Kushan didn't want to give it a try if he was betting on a strong attack from both sides.
Although the plan is very risky, for Ardashir, the most he can lose is to go back and continue to eat Herat. The situation will not be worse, but if it succeeds, a comeback is just around the corner, so he chose to take a gamble. , even if this game will be very thrilling.
Oswin on the Kabul side has already mobilized his troops and mobilized almost all the main force to advance along the Helmand River Valley in the direction of Kandahar. Oswin kept the speculation given by Bankim in mind. This is an opportunity, an opportunity. An opportunity to completely knock Cao Cao out of Kandahar.
Originally, it was not that easy to win Kandahar. Barak's surrender caused the war to deteriorate and the situation was out of control, but now the opportunity came again.
"Kapil, how is your plan going?" Oswin asked Kapil quite seriously before setting off.
"Under normal circumstances, I'm probably quite reliable." Kapil sighed and said, "We are far more familiar with the mountainous area here than the Han Dynasty, so even if the other party has made preparations, we can't do anything in the middle of the Helmand River. Fortresses have been built upstream, but we have carried out blocking construction in the valley streams further upstream. So far, the runoff of the Helmand River has been greatly reduced.”
The main source of water for the Helmand River, an inland plateau river, comes from mountain snowmelt and rainfall. Not to mention the rainfall here, the rainy season will take several months to come. Recently, the Helmand River The main source of water is melted snow from mountains.
After all, the terrain here is mountainous, and the average altitude is very high. The snow cover is no joke. Summer melting snow can be said to be the main source of the Helmand River’s water source, and this source must be from many sources, composed of countless The creek is made of ice springs.
Kapil's previous suggestion was to rely on his family's familiarity with the terrain to build simple dams in the mountain valleys one by one, blocking those small streams and ice springs one by one.
Of course, even if we block it with all our strength, it is impossible to block everything, but we can still block most of it. More importantly, blocking river valleys one by one will lead to a reduction in the runoff of the Helmand River, which will cause Cao Cao's agricultural water use caused considerable trouble.
In fact, many of the conflicts between Afghanistan and Iran in later generations were caused by Afghanistan's construction of embankments to collect water, which led to insufficient agricultural irrigation in Iran and large areas of land abandoned.
In addition, Kapil also has some sinister intentions. For example, during the rainy season in December, although it does not rain here, it does rain in the tributaries. By then, all the simple dams will be dug and the water volume will increase dramatically. Even if Cao Cao is upstream, Being prepared is enough to disgust the other party to death.
In short, Kapil, who is normally without crisis, is quite reliable. He has almost no obvious shortcomings in terms of ability, wisdom and other aspects. His plan is also exquisite and well-executed. More importantly, the links are linked together. The only flaw is probably The more critical the situation, the worse his abilities.
