The changes in the Western Continent have affected Li Jiangyao's heart.
Although they were thousands of miles away and the news could not be transmitted quickly, he still made a very keen judgment: the Turkic coalition led by Hesgatanli was simply unable to resist the comprehensive invasion of the Persian army.
At least in the early stages of the war, the weak Turks had no way or the capital to compete head-on with the Persians, who had been watching from the sidelines for many years and recuperating their strength.
From Li Jiangyao's perspective, the real level of the Persian army, even if it is not as good as the Turkic soldiers and horses in their heyday, should not be much different. Otherwise, they would have been killed by Ashina Zhijin long ago, and they would never have been able to remain neighbors with the Western Continent Overlord for so long.
What's more, during the eight years of counterinsurgency in Western Xinjiang, the Xinjiang Army purchased a large number of weapons and armor from Persia. Li Jiangyao knew very well what grade Persia's military equipment belonged to.
The swords and guns are sharp, the armor is excellent, and the horses are all famous horses. As long as the Persians are not particularly stretched when fighting, they can be regarded as an elite division, comparable to the Turkic Empire and the Holy Tang Dynasty.
Such a power, which has been concealed for many years, is of course silent and becomes a sensation.
Therefore, there are only two ways for the Turks: either to act recklessly and wait for the tragic end of the country and the annihilation of the nation; or to use their strengths and avoid weaknesses, use their most familiar combat methods to deal with the invasion, and delay the situation until a turning point comes.
There is only one so-called most familiar way of fighting, and that is mobile warfare in which the Turkic army comes and goes like the wind.
Give up dependence on the country and don't care about the gains and losses of one city or one place. Even if you sacrifice a large area of land and population, you must give priority to preserving precious combat power, and then use the high mobility of the cavalry to roam and fight with the enemy in the vast territory. They even introduced the flames of war into Persia, burning, killing, looting, and using war to support war, and did everything possible.
Only in this way can there be hope.
Li Jiangyao believed that even if Hesijia couldn't think of this, Tanli, Gema, and Yun Qianxue would definitely be able to think of it. The sudden appearance of a large number of Turkic refugees in the Guimo border area of Western Xinjiang is precisely a proof or precursor of this guerrilla strategy.
Let the people first hide on the territory of the Suppressing Army, so that they can temporarily stay safe and avoid being massacred or plundered by the Persians. In this way, the Turkic troops who stayed in the empire's homeland can completely free their hands and feet while carrying out the task of strengthening the walls and clearing the country. , wandering around to resist and attack from all sides.
However, although the strategy is correct, due to the huge disparity in strength between the two sides, the Turks will inevitably have to pay huge losses to have a chance to stabilize the entire war situation.
This loss includes not only the casualties of the army, but also the loss of land and resources. It also represents that the glory of the Turkic empire will suffer bloodbath and dust.
What worries Li Jiangyao even more is the future safety of Xijiang.
The will of Persia is obviously not just as simple as conquering the Turks. Years of war have also dragged Shengtang into misery. For either party, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Imagine what a great achievement it would be if we could defeat the most powerful countries on the two continents at the same time.
And if they want to attack Shengtang, then Xijiang Ghost Desert will definitely become an important springboard. In other words, as the border security barrier of Shengtang, Xijiang must also shoulder the important task of preventing foreign enemy invasion.
Li Jiangyao repeatedly looked through various materials compiled by the Western Continent Branch of the Intelligence Department, carefully compared the differences between the Persian army and the Turkic army, and tried to analyze the war capabilities and advantages and disadvantages of the other side.
This former ally and partner has now become a potential threat and opponent. That special feeling of being both familiar and unfamiliar is like a thin veil being gradually lifted.
-
Unlike the Turkic Empire, the Persian national political system was closer to the organizational form of the Holy Tang Dynasty. It was also based on professional bureaucratic groups, with clear hierarchies and mature operations.
The cabinet, the Privy Council, and the Senate, the three major institutions surrounding the Persian emperor, were in charge of civil power, military power, and financial power respectively. At the local level, the provincial governor is the pillar, and then the governance levels are spread down to the city and town levels, which corresponds to the states, prefectures, and counties of Shengtang.
In addition, the Persian Empire also had a very special feature, which was the institutional attribute of the integration of politics and religion. The Persian Emperor, Shapur III, was not only the highest imperial monarch in the empire, but also the pope of Zoroastrianism, the Persian state religion.
Shapur's status in Persia will be more stable than that of emperors and kings in other countries, precisely because he is not only a secular ruler, but also a representative of the Persians' spiritual beliefs.
This situation also leads to another special phenomenon: the Persian army usually has two missions. One is to fight for the interests of the country, and the other is to fight for the will of God. There are both unity and certain differences between the two, and they were completely identified by the Persian emperor Shapur. In other words, the final right of interpretation rests only with Shapur III.
Emperor Shapur said that this battle was to protect the country, and that was a battle to protect the country; Pope Shapur said that this battle was to follow God's will, and that was a battle to protect the religion.
After hundreds of years of development and changes, the Persian army gradually formed two relatively independent systems. One is the national army, the standing army, and the other is the religious army, known to the outside world as the religious order or religious army.
To this day, the Persian army still marches in parallel. The size of the standing army is approximately between 300,000 and 350,000, and is commanded by the Privy Council; the strength of the teaching army is relatively small, currently about 100,000. However, compared with the recruitment efficiency of the official standing army, the enthusiasm and speed with which the Persians were recruited by the church were even more powerful.
According to estimates by the Intelligence Department, as long as the Pope delivers the divine decree, two to three hundred thousand men of the right age will join the religious order in the blink of an eye, take up arms and become guardian soldiers. Moreover, they do not need military pay and only need to take care of food.
Calculated in this way, the most basic war mobilization force of the Persian Empire is at least six to seven million people. No wonder the Turks were not willing to push them too hard.
In addition to the numerical conditions of troops, the level of Persian weapons and equipment is also worth mentioning. As we all know, the experience and skills of Persian blacksmiths are second to none in the entire western continent. Armor forging, in particular, once became a must-have for military procurement in surrounding countries.
Even the Turkic cavalry, who are full of martial virtue and arrogant, have to admit that the chain armor made in Persia is both strong and flexible. Although it is a bit heavier, its protective power is really good.
According to Emine's introduction to Li Jiangyao, the economic development of the Persian Empire was also remarkable in the Western Continent.
The Turks are mainly nomadic, and their level of urbanization is not very prominent. Even many tribes are still in a relatively primitive state. The people live scattered among the vast grasslands and mountains and forests. The handicraft industry is single and the scale of trade is small.
In comparison, Persia is another copy of the Holy Tang.
First of all, the agriculture of the Persian Empire was very developed, and farmland irrigation technology was introduced from the East very early. Especially in recent years, the weather has been good and the harvest has been continuous.
Secondly, Persia is located in the central region of the Western Continent, bordering the Western Xinjiang Guimo, Turks, Tianzhu, Semites, and Europa. Therefore, Persia has attached great importance to the commercial exchanges between countries since ancient times. As the core node at the western end of the Silk Road and the largest transfer station for Shengtang products, the Persian Empire has become the trade center of the Western Continent, and has also cultivated influential business tycoons like Emene in both political and business circles.
The prosperous trade has accumulated abundant financial and material resources for the Persian Empire. Once these resources are used in war, they will play a huge role.
It can be said that Persia, who has never attracted much attention from the Holy Tang, is actually a potential military giant. However, under the radiance of the Turks, he did not receive the attention he deserved.
Li Jiangyao stared at the map, thinking silently, and frowned:
According to the current intelligence, the Persian Empire dispatched 300,000 troops, and the Semites had about 150,000 troops to join forces to invade the Turks. Although this force cannot be said to have the ability to destroy the world, it is still very confident in occupying large areas of Turkic territory and suppressing Tanligma's army.
Once the Turks are successfully suppressed, will the war potential of the Persian Empire be further stimulated? Is it possible that hundreds of thousands of troops will continue to approach the Ghost Desert of Western Xinjiang? If this really happens, can Holia and the others withstand the pressure from the other party?
As the saying goes, yesterday's friends may become tomorrow's enemies at any time. A strong enemy never talks about friendship and reason. The only language the other party can understand is strength.
If you are strong, it will be easy for everyone to negotiate and live in peace; if you are weak, they will find many excuses to break in and make decisions for you.
And Western Xinjiang happens to be a bridge zone for economic and cultural exchanges between the East and the West. Whoever controls this place will take the initiative in mainland China's strategy. It can not only advance and retreat, but also gather the huge benefits of East-West trade. Therefore, it would be too naive to say that the Persian Emperor Shapur III had no idea at all about the Ghost Desert in Western Xinjiang.
The 160,000 remaining troops in Xinjiang in the hands of Princess Nanhua have relatively reliable self-protection capabilities in terms of combat power, but their strategic deterrence is slightly insufficient. If there were a few daring generals among the Persians or Semites who were dazzled by victory, they might take advantage of the opportunity before the main force in controlling Xinjiang returned and decide to take action first and launch a brazen attack on the Western Xinjiang ghosts. Desert attack.
The most fundamental solution is that strength is king.
Thinking of this, Li Jiangyao took a deep breath, turned around and ordered: "Go and ask Commander Xu and the military leaders to gather here immediately. I want to make adjustments to the military operations in the Hangzhou area."
