The province of Asia Minor was a place occupied by the Great Qin Empire fifty years ago. The Great Qin Empire's rule there was not very stable, so Liu Xin chose this place as the entry point to attack the Great Qin. But judging from the current situation, the Great Qin Empire had already
Be prepared and have deployed heavy troops there.
The Qin Empire has always been the top priority of the Foreign Intelligence Service, but after all, they have limited manpower and cannot show Han faces, so they can only concentrate their main forces around Rome, and they don’t know much about the situation in other provinces.
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On the other hand, Caracalla also tightened the information blockade. The six legions he sent to Asia Minor were mobilized secretly, and the Foreign Intelligence Office did not know their movements in advance. In this sense, Tuoba Jun mistakenly
The accidental collision into Da Qin's territory was not a complete mistake, at least it exposed Da Qin's deployment.
Tuoba Jun suffered a disastrous defeat in Asia Minor. In the end, only 3,000 of his 40,000-strong army escaped, but Liu Xin was not afraid of a head-on battle with the Qin army, and this battle would come sooner or later. However, Liu Xin
Xin did not intend to face off against the Qin army now. He needed to defeat Caracalla's arrogance with a perfect victory. And the most perfect victory was to completely annihilate the 400,000 Qin emperors who were concentrated in the province of Asia Minor.
Team.
Liu Xin immediately issued an order. The 160,000 infantrymen of the first and second legions were divided into four military formations. With the cooperation of 20,000 heavy cavalry, they began to advance into the territory of Daqin.[
After this mixed army of infantry and cavalry entered the province of Asia Minor, it changed its past style of moving troops quickly and advanced very slowly. The strategy they adopted was to attack step by step and attack steadily. Whenever a town was conquered, this force of nearly 200,000 people
The army will stop, build defensive positions first, and then start to hunt down the nobles, officials at all levels and soldiers of the Qin army living in the town and surrounding villages.
Naturally, these people who were captured could not escape the consequences of having their homes confiscated and their families exterminated. The crime was to massacre innocent Han merchants. Killing people to pay for their lives is a natural and natural thing. However, only a small number of people actually participated in the massacre of Han merchants, and most of them were unjustly accused.
Of course, the purpose of the Han army was not to hunt down the real culprits, but to seize the properties of these people. The province of Asia Minor was not a very wealthy place in the Qin Empire, so the property taken from these people's homes was not worth much.
Money, but food is extremely precious to the Han army, which can greatly alleviate the pressure on logistics and transportation. This is Liu Xin's strategy of supporting war with war.
However, the Han army did not harass ordinary people in Asia Minor.
In the Qin Dynasty, the citizens were divided into three classes, nobles, free people and slaves. Later, when Putimius came to power, he classified the army into the privileged class. Putimius had a famous saying, so that the soldiers
Live a good life and don't worry about other people. It is precisely because of this army-first policy that the army of the Qin Empire can be so brave and invincible.
However, this also brought about a problem. No matter how many privileges the original aristocracy enjoyed, their number was limited. Now there was a large military class with privileges, and the burden on ordinary freedmen and slaves also increased.
Now that Caracalla and Geta are in power together, the number of troops in the Qin Empire has almost increased by half, while the burden on ordinary people has more than doubled. Although the Qin Empire seems calm on the surface, Liu Xin believes that ordinary people
There must have been many conflicts with the nobles and the army.
Liu Xin, who comes from a later generation, knows that the people's hearts are formidable, and he also knows that water can carry a boat but also overturn it. Of course, he must make full use of this contradiction in the Qin Dynasty and show his attitude through practical actions, only targeting the nobles and the army of the Qin Dynasty.
, and will not invade ordinary people. If the Han army really robs the ordinary people of Da Qin, it will inevitably arouse the common resistance of the people of Da Qin. In that case, no matter how powerful the Han army is, it will not be able to defeat hundreds of thousands of people.
The men and horses faced off against tens of millions of Qin soldiers and civilians.
On the other hand, Liu Xin had never considered expanding the territory of the Han Dynasty to the entire Europe. After all, the languages were different, the races were different, and they were separated by thousands of mountains and rivers. Even if this land was conquered, it would be difficult to maintain long-term rule.
Liu Xin's purpose of sending troops this time was, firstly, to avenge the Han merchants who had been killed, secondly, to demonstrate the military might of the Han Dynasty, and thirdly, to weaken the strength of the Qin Empire.
According to the analysis of later historians, during this historical period, the Han, Qin, Parthia and Kushan were collectively called the four great powers. In fact, among these four countries, only the Qin and the Han could be called powerful countries, and the other two
The strength of each country is far behind them. As long as Liu Xin can defeat and severely damage the main force of Qin this time, the Han army will become the most powerful army in the world, and the Han Dynasty will become the most powerful country, including Qin.
Countries in the country will naturally be in awe of the Han Dynasty and do not need to occupy it for the purpose.
Of course, all of this is just Liu Xin's good wish. Whether it can be realized or not depends on the results of the battle at hand.
The Han army quickly executed the captured Qin nobles, officials and soldiers, but did not distribute their property and women to the local people like in Parthia. Instead, they only freed the slaves and divided the land equally.
However, even when such news reached the Qin army at the front, it also caused quite a shock.
Both Caracalla and Geta wanted to legally seize the throne of the Qin Emperor by defeating the Han army, so they each expanded their armies, so that the Qin Empire's army grew to 24 legions and 1.2 million people in a short period of time.
The formation of such a huge army was of course in preparation for the Eastern Conquest of the Han Dynasty.
Later, both Caracalla and Geta adopted Yi's suggestion and adopted the strategy of waiting for work. However, such a large army had been formed and could not be disbanded at will. Moreover, these armies were loyal to Caracalla and Geta respectively.
No one will take the initiative to weaken their own strength.
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 during the last invasion
During the Parthian War, the Qin army encountered a head-on attack by the Han army, and several legions were brutally destroyed. Therefore, in the newly formed legions, geographical boundaries were broken, and soldiers in the same legion often came from several provinces.
Among the eight legions stationed in Asia Minor, six were affiliated with Caracalla, and the other two were under the command of Geta. Almost all of these eight legions were newly formed, and many soldiers had their homes in Asia Minor. Just now
There were family members of these soldiers in several towns that fell. And the news came back from there that their homes were raided by the Han army, their property was confiscated, their land was divided, adult men were beheaded, and women and children were killed.
As a slave, I heard that he would be sold to the far east.
After learning about this situation, the soldiers got into chaos and asked their respective commanders to fight. The soldiers whose hometowns were captured by the Han army naturally wanted to rescue their families, and those soldiers whose hometowns were not yet occupied by the Han army also wanted to take the initiative.
To prevent his family from suffering the same fate. In other words, Liu Xin's policy of differential treatment actually caused the soldiers of the Qin army to have the same hatred and unanimous sentiment, and wanted to drive the Han army out of their territory.
In fact, Liu Xin had already guessed such an outcome from the beginning, but he had no choice. The Qin Empire implemented an army-first policy. Even if he did not take such an extreme approach, the troops of the 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 deep as possible, and then take advantage of the geographical convenience of the local operations.
, and annihilated the invading Han army in one fell swoop. But that was no longer possible. The Han army advanced slowly, marching more than 30 miles in one day, with nearly 200,000 people huddled together, making it difficult for the frontline commanders.
Find an opportunity to take advantage of the favorable location. Secondly, the soldiers are very angry. If we don't take the initiative to attack, we will be in trouble if a mutiny is triggered.[
Caracalla and Geta are both in distant Roman cities, and it would take at least ten days for the news to be sent back and forth. If these generals attack rashly, they will be suspected of violating Caracalla's orders. But if
They continued to stand still and allowed the Han army to encroach on their territory bit by bit, but it was difficult to convince their soldiers that in the event of a mutiny, they would still bear the responsibility.
The generals of the major legions, including the generals of the two legions under Geta, gathered together and discussed for a whole night before finally deciding to take the initiative.
As soon as dawn broke, the two forward legions of the Qin Empire, the Cilicia legion and the Egyptian legion, appeared in front of the Han army's defensive position.
The former commander of the Cilicia Legion, Norik, was stabbed to death by Ma Chao a few days ago. The new commander Alani wanted to avenge his shame through this battle. Although the commander of the Egyptian Legion was Klaus who lived in Rome.
, but the soldiers mostly came from the three provinces of Arabia, Egypt and Syria, which are adjacent to the province of Asia Minor. They were very worried that the Han army would continue to advance and invade their hometown. Therefore, these two legions had high morale and advanced.
The speed is very fast.
When they were still five hundred steps away from the Han army's position, the Cilicia Army and the Egyptian Army stopped at the same time, because the Han Army's position opposite made no movement, and there was something strange about it, which made both Alani and Klaus a little confused.
Flustered.
Suddenly, there was a muffled "boom" in the distance, accompanied by a sharp whistle, and several boulders flew through the air. One of them smashed directly into the Silesian phalanx, while the other few were scattered around the phalanx.
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This is when the Han army's trebuchets begin to conduct experimental attacks. After adjusting the landing point of the stones, more stones will fall. The nightmare that once made Caracalla lingering once again tested the courage of the Qin soldiers.