Considering that the Romans didn't know about steam trains, Li Er instantly felt relieved.
If this biggest trump card is not leaked, then the matter is still generally doable.
but……
Although the steam train was not discovered and was still in an "ambush" state at the level of a multi-point linkage campaign, the Romans had after all received threats and warnings from the old beast Cheng Zhijie...
As for the ambition of these Romans, he had already understood this clearly over the years - Li Er even found out an interesting fact that the ancestor of the Romans who rode the horse... was the original version of Rome that existed at the same time as the Han Dynasty.
, its founding emperor is said to have been abandoned by his parents and raised by wolves in the wild...
This can be said to be a wolf's ambition.
Since they are also a bunch of animals, then... having obtained the key military information of the Tang Dynasty - that is, the "prelude" of Cheng Zhijie's military operation and the corresponding military strength, then the Romans have no reason not to tailor a wave of counter-ambush operations for him
.
And if you want to calculate it this way... although there are hundreds of steam cars to help, it may not be enough... or even to put it bluntly, there is a high probability that it will not be enough!
And there is another important key point that I have to take into consideration, that is, in the places north of Mobei that Li Sheng calls "frozen soil", the climate is extremely cold... According to what I learned about this group of people from Lingzhou,
According to the professor, such a wild test... is likely to cause at least half of the steam cars to permanently sink there and cannot be brought out again - this does not mean that half of the steam cars will break down halfway. In fact, the steam cars will be broken down halfway.
The reference opinion of the State College is that this brand-new but complex and sophisticated thing will most likely break down at some point, so we can only send out as many craftsmen as possible and be accompanied by strong professors from Lingzhou.
Repairs along the way, and even with professors following and a large number of skilled and senior craftsmen helping, at least half of the steam cars will not be repairable!
Of course, since we have specially sent people, theoretically... Since all steam cars have the possibility of breaking down, of course, all steam cars can actually be repaired.
But now we want to test extreme conditions... After all, according to Datang's strategic plan, this steam car must be able to cross the Alps, or at least pass through the cold passage in the northern part of the Alps!
This means that violent and brutal tests are inevitable...
And because of this reason, and because another key point of the strategy is farming, the issue of farming time must also be considered - there must be no deviation, otherwise the Romans may still see the clues, so the test must be completed from the wilderness of Mobei, and the
To get to Anbeicheng, the whole time is a bit tight and urgent.
For this reason, some steam vehicles... although it is a pity that they are expensive and still have high-level combat capabilities, they can only obey the grand strategy.
There is this factor here, although in the initial temple calculations, the Romans came to cause trouble with tens of thousands of troops at best - and most of them were not fully armed, but should have come lightly, in time for the Tang Dynasty's reclamation business to remove the grain in the granary.
This kind of robbery has happened, and this means that...at that time, when the steam car suddenly drives out, it will be simply invincible.
But now, this matter is different.
Although the steam vehicle has high-end combat power, one can be as strong as a hundred, but if the Romans were heavily armored and equipped, the effect may not be that ideal... Of course, the steam vehicle is unstoppable, and it can still defeat the Romans.
A person's general will pose a serious threat, and this is undoubtedly a huge threat on the battlefield - as soon as the general dies, most of the army will immediately disperse. But... this number...
If broken in half, it would be effective in tens of thousands of lightly-armed Roman troops.
If they can all arrive, then...even if the Romans came fully armed and came for a decisive battle, these hundreds of steam vehicles would definitely be of great use. It can be speculated that even if the Romans win, it will be a tragic victory at a huge cost!
But fifty steam vehicles faced a heavily armored Roman army that could reach 200,000 people. This...
I'm afraid this is a bit...
What's more, although the Romans did not have the artillery of the Tang Dynasty, they did have something similar - they would build a powerful ballista called the "Bali Si Tao", which could fire stones much heavier than the trebuchets of China.
.
If a steam car can be said to be invincible when faced with crossbows and swords, then... if these things are concentrated and fired in a volley, it is really possible to destroy the steam car's offensive.
These are all trivial matters. The really important issue is still that one. Now the Romans know that the Tang Dynasty is ambushing!
And in this case... If you want to support Cheng Zhijie's Anbei City, in addition to the elite steam vehicle troops that are probably not enough, that is the army led by Li Jing of the Anxi Protectorate... But that's all.
, and here comes the most troublesome part.
——Li Jing's Anxi Protectorate was a difficult job before, but Li Er also gave Li Jing a lot of support without hesitation, providing astronomical amounts of manpower and material support, but... this kind of support will only be used later.
The reason for the gradual reduction is due to the issue of expenditure and cost, which is always the top priority.
The second is... Anxi Protectorate, this place is located in the Western Region, and to be honest, the Western Region has been pacified by the Tang Dynasty, and leaving a large number of troops there is simply a waste of national currency. More importantly...
A large number of Cheng Zhijie's subordinates were originally transferred from the Anxi Protectorate, and later they did not continue to increase troops in the military town of Anxi City. The reason for not increasing troops... except for spending money as mentioned just now.
There are too many, and the Western Region has been leveled. Another reason is that the new threat... comes from the direction further west and north of the Pamir Plateau, and this pressure is mainly resisted by the military town of Anbei City established by Cheng Zhijie.
...To put it more directly, the military town of Anxi City only has 30,000 people...
This means that... the total amount of military power that Anbeicheng can use right now is a hundred thousand troops.
One hundred thousand troops...this is a magic number.
To defeat hundreds of thousands of barbarians with armor is basically the ultimate ambition of all Chinese men, but...
Li Er, who had truly lived with a hundred thousand soldiers for many years, achieved countless victories, and survived to this day to establish a new empire, became the emperor, but he knew that many things were not that simple.
The opponent of Rome was extremely dangerous, and it was fundamentally different from the barbarian forces that the Tang Dynasty faced before. Although the Turks and Goguryeo regimes were also high-end empires, after all...